Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review with two new guests

Just as with last week's Pajamas Media podcast, this week's edition has two guest panelists. LaShawn Barber and recent Chicago resident Daniel Drezner join Eric Umansky and moderator Austin Bay.

The controversy over the New York Times writing a story about the (up until the Times spilled the beans on it) US government's secret monitoring of the SWIFT banking information exchange group based in Belgium is the first topic.

Privacy in public places is judged to be an oxymoron by the panelists. With camera and video cell phones pretty much everywhere, what you do can be captured by anyone.

Just ask Hong Kong's under-pressure "Bus Uncle."

On a side note, as you can see a couple of posts down, I carry a camera phone or digital camera almost everywhere I go. Having either--preferably both--on hand to me is necessary equipment as a blogger.

Gaza, Hamas, and Israel, and predictions for upcoming stories round up the podcast, which as always, is produced by Pajamas blogger Ed Driscoll.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Bus Uncle Israel newspapers New York Times Hamas privacy Gaza SWIFT

Jesse Jackson son still interested in buying Chicago Sun-Times

Yusef Jackson, son of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, is co-owner along with his brother Jonathan, of River North Distributorship, the exclusive supplier of Anheuser-Bush products on Chicago's North Side.

Anheuser-Busch, for those with long memories, is a former boycott target of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The ad slogan for its flagship beer, Budweiser, was "This Bud's for You." Jesse quipped, when announcing the boycott, that "This Bud's a Dud."

But a few years later, two of Jesse's sons--with no prior beverage industry experience, end up with that distributorship. Coincidence?

Now, according to the Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal, Yusef may be interested in buying Chicago's # 2 newspaper, the Sun-Times and various suburban newspapers.

From the Tribune (free registration required):

But with Radar (a new magazine), Jackson says he's "now firmly in the media," an appetite only whetted a couple years ago by his rejected high bid, reportedly $850 million, for the Sun-Times and its area sister publications.

"I have been interested in the media business for a long time ... so I went after a big one first," said Jackson, 35, a lawyer who is chief executive of River North Sales & Service, an Anheuser-Busch distributorship. "I learned a lot of lessons. I wish they had elected to sell it.

"I'm still very interested in the Sun-Times property," he said. "The Sun-Times is a great publication, a great paper. It's synonymous with Chicago, and I would love to own it."

Technorati tags: Jesse Jackson Sun-Times Media Budweiser Anheuser-Busch Chicago Illinois

Please notice my blog....

...and notice my band. Saw with during my morning run on Lincoln Avenue in Morton Grove. The blog site is www.myspace.com/bloodloss. Blood Loss is a local heavy metal band, which I wasn't aware of until this morning.

You see, advertising really does work.

Technorati tags: photos Heavy Metal Rock blogging Myspace

Nature abhors a vacuum--with no towers

Okay, here's another photo from the Linne Woods Prairie in Morton Grove, this time without the power-line towers.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos digital cameraswildflowers Morton Grove nature

Northwestern football coach dies suddenly

Wow, this is a shocker. Northwestern head football coach Randy Walker died of a heart attack last night. He was just 52.

Walker did a commendable job as coach; it's difficult to recruit athletes at NU because of the school's stringent academic standards. He inherited a mess--a gambling scandal involving some NU football players--as Gary Barnet sleazily departed for the University of Colorado.

As for Barnett, just like someone else at CU, he finally got his walking papers, but much later than he should have.

As for Walker, he took the Wildcats to three bowl games. RIP.

Technorati tags: Northwestern NCAA Randy Walker Colorado Illinois sports

Sears Tower terror plotters hoped to use tunnels to bring down skyscraper

New details are emerging about the Miami-based jihad group's plans to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Prosecutors talked about a plan to take down the Sears Tower with dynamite. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports on how they planned to gain access to the Chicago landmark.

On Thursday, it was revealed the Sears Tower was the centerpiece of the plot to kick-off a holy war by setting off dynamite in tunnels beneath the 110-story skyscraper.

The alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste, had told an FBI informant that his contacts from a delivery job he once held were going to help his group use tunnels under Chicago to stage an attack, prosecutors said.

Batiste, the former Chicagoan and delivery man, was undoubtedly familiar with the subterranean passages off Lower Wacker Drive leading to the building's lower levels and perhaps the network of tunnels beneath the city -- the ones flooded by the Chicago River years ago.

The network of tunnels below downtown Chicago were built in the 19th century for rail-car coal deliveries. The tunnels are sealed and guarded, so getting the dynamite into the tunnels--presumably more than one trip would be needed, would've been the most difficult part of their plan to bring down America's tallest building.

A side note: One of legendary Chicago columnist Mike Royko's alter-ego characters once suggested that those tunnels be turned into dungeons to house our worst criminals. Imagine if President Bush announced that he's closing down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and replacing it with new accomodations in Chicago.

Technorati tags: Sears Tower War on Terror terrorism Chicago Illinois Miami War on Terror Muslims crime jihad gitmo

Pipes on Gaza and Israel: "Only then will the violence end...."

When Germany agreed to an Armistice to end World War I, it was beaten militarily when the Allied armies began crossed into its borders. But the defeat wasn't cataclysmic enough to prevent the creation of a myth that Germany could've won...should've won....if only....

Enough fanatics believed that nonsense to put Adolf Hitler in power fifteen years later.

After the Second World War ended in Europe, there was no question Germany lost the war as almost the entire Nazi state was overun by Allied forces on the day General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender papers in front of Dwight Eisenhower. With the exception of a few mentally-addled folks who wear their names on their belt-buckles lest they forget it, no "Germany-was-this close'-to-winning" the war myth exists.

And that brings us to this short Daniel Pipes article that was originally was published on National Review Online.

The Bush administration sees the United States at war with Islamic radicalism; has not the time come for it to see other theaters of this same war as Russia's with the Chechen rebels, India's with the Kashmiri insurgents, Israel's with Hamas as as we see our own, and work for the defeat of the Islamists?

Instead, in the Israeli case at least, Washington urges understanding, restraint, compromise, management of the problem, and other half-hearted and doomed remedies. The result is an ever more exhilarated and aggressive Palestinian population that believes victory within reach.

Washington's mistaken approach goes back to the Oslo accords of 1993, when Yasir Arafat seemingly closed the existential conflict in writing to Bill Clinton that "The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security." But Arafat's assurances were fraudulent and the Arab effort to eliminate Israel remains very much in place.

Israel, with U.S. support, must defeat this foul ambition. That implies inflicting a sense of defeat on the Palestinians, and winning their resignation to the permanent existence of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Only then will the violence end.

Technorati tags: israel Hamas ישראל terrorism Daniel Pipes World War II World War I Germany Deutschland Gaza intifada

Nature abhors a vacuum, cont'd again

I got up late this morning and had a wild day at work, so here is my next installment of my Nature Abhors a Vacuum series. The photos were taken Tuesday afternoon at the restored prairie in the Linne Woods Forest Preserve in Morton Grove.

No high-tension towers tomorrow, I promise.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos digital cameraswildflowers canon Morton Grove nature

Gitmo military trials are goners

The US Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in ruling that the government cannot use military trials to prosecute the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

From AP:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion, which said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.

Of course, that does not mean that the Gitmo prison is closing.

Trans fat next to be banned in Chicago?

The fifty aldermen that make up Chicago's City Council have to be the biggest collection of elected goofs ever assembled.

Two months ago, North Side Chicago Alderman broke away from his anti-Wal-Mart jihad to push through a ban on the liver delicacy foie gras. Until the ban, a whopping dozen or so Chicago restaurants served the goose liver appetizer, clearly we had a crisis at hand in the nation's third largest city.

From the other side of town, South Side Chicago Alderman Ed Burke wants to ban artificial trans fatty acids, better known as trans fat, from Chicago eateries.

Trans fat consumption contributes to obesity and heart disease. Since I'm a runner, I don't eat a lot of the stuff. Not to sound preach-ey, but keeping trans fat intake to a minimum is a good idea for any member of the human race.

Mayor Richard M. Daley opposes the proposed ban. From CBS 2 Chicago:

In April, the City Council approved a measure banning foie gras -- pronounced fwah-GRAH and French for "fat liver" -- on the grounds that it is inhumane to force-feed geese to produce the rich, buttery delicacy.

The mayor felt the issue was a waste of time for the City Council and this is no different.

"Is the City Council going to plan our menus?" he said Wednesday.

Rather than have a government body dictate to restaurants what they should serve, I believe, just as I do with foie gras, that the marketplace should decide what is placed on the plates of restaurant patrons. It's the common sense solution.

Of course, common sense is not an abundant commodity among Chicago City Council members.

Related posts: Chicago's foie gras faux crisis

City of Chicago weighs elephant ban

Technorati tags: foie gras Chicago Illinois Restaurants Food ed burke Cuisine

The latest from our Saudi allies: Police accuse maid of driving car

Our dear allies the Saudis--well, they're just different from us, as this Arab News story makes clear:

A Saudi man from Al-Laith was left flabbergasted when passport officials told him that his petite Indonesian maid had not only driven massive four-by-fours in the busy streets of Makkah but had also committed a string of motoring offenses over the past two years. The man had gone to the passport office to get a simple exit and re-entry visa for his maid when he was told to pay various fines totaling SR500 (my note, about $135 USD) on his maid's behalf. The man tried explaining to the official that even Saudi women are not allowed to drive in the Kingdom, let alone an Indonesian maid driving a gigantic four-by-four. The passport official wouldn't listen to any whimpering until the fine was paid, forcing the man to promptly take out his wallet.

Technorati tags: Saudi Arabia Muslim women women/'s rights السعودية

More Wal-blogging: Most Americans have favorable view of Wal-Mart

The last few years of negative campaigning by union-funded groups such as Wal-Mart Watch haven't turned the American public against Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer.

Rasmussen, the respected polling firm released the results of a recent poll asking Americans their opinion of Wal-Mart:

69% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Wal-Mart

79% of current or former Wal-Mart employees a favorable opinion of the company

54% of Americans say that Wal-Mart is good for the community

And the opponents of Wal-Mart of course go beyond negative campaigning. As you'll read in the below post, according to Ald. Bernard Stone of Chicago, bullying elected officials is a tactic that unions will utilize to further their anti-Wal-Mart agenda.

Hat tip to Marshall Manson of Edelman for the Rasmussen information. The Stone stuff below I found on my own.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Chicago Labor Illinois business retail Unions Wal-Mart Watch polling

Chicago alderman accuses unions of strongarming colleagues over "big box" ordinance

Ald. Joe "No Foie Gras For Me" Moore is spearheading the Chicago City Council drive to raise the minimum wage for large "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Moore, whose 49th Ward is not surprisingly lacking in attractive retail outlets, harrumphs that Wal-Mart and the like "can afford" to pay the higher wages.

Perhaps. But that doesn't make it less likely that these chains will open new stores in Chicago? Stores that aren't built here, won't employ Chicagoans.

Moore's neighbor to the west is 50th Ward Alderman Bernie Stone.

Bernie wants to block Moore's bill. And he had some interesting things to say yesterday to the Chicago Sun-Times:

"The unions have backed aldermen against the wall. They've threatened to fund opponents against them and to solicit opponents to run against" those who dare to oppose the big-box ordinance, Stone said

"I'm not stupid. I know certain aldermen have been threatened. That's the type of campaign the unions have run. I think it's despicable what's been done. They figure they've got us by the short hairs."

Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, who has led the charge for the big-box ordinance, emphatically denied strong-arming aldermen.

"I can categorically tell you that the Chicago Federation of Labor has not made any threats to any alderman at any time," Gannon said.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Joe Moore
Chicago Labor Illinois business retail Unions

Attacks on Gaza

Israel of course is doing the right thing in rooting out terrorists in Gaza--terrorists intent on attacking Israel if not destroying it outright.

I like Tony Snow's statement on this subject:

"The hostage taking and the attacks by Hamas last weekend have precipitated the current events in Gaza," Snow said, adding that Hamas should immediately release a kidnapped Israeli soldier.

Israel has the right to defend itself and the lives of its citizens, in any actions the government of Israel may undertake the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed," he said.

Technorati tags: Gaza Hamas Terrorism Israel

Nature abhors a vacuum, cont'd

The first entry in this photo series is a few posts below. As you can see in this photo, the restored prairie in Morton Grove's Linne Woods in flourishing under the high-tension lines.

Photo taken yesterday afternoon with a my Canon PowerShot A20 digital camera.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos digital cameraswildflowers canon Morton Grove nature

Ward Churchill statement regarding his firing is online

Take it from me, this is legit. No one knows Ward Churchill than those Ward Churchill supporters (and Johnny Cash fans) Try Works.

Here are the first few paragraphs of Ward's very long rebuttal statement to the university:

It was quite predictable that Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano would recommend that I be fired from my tenured professorship at the University of Colorado/Boulder. After all, he was effectively ordered to find some "legally-defensible" basis for doing so by Colorado Governor Bill Owens.

In pursuit of this purely political objective, the interim chancellor has at this point expended more than a year and upwards of $250,000 in taxpayer monies.

For all that, he has failed.

Churchill goes on to compare the proceedings against him as a "repitition of the Scopes Monkey Trial."

In short, Ward won't be slipping out of Boulder quietly.

Hat tip for life to Pirate Ballerina.

Technorati tags: Ward Churchill Colorado Bill Owens the Left Education Boulder

Pipes has poop on Pew poll of Muslims

Despite the comical nature of the headline, the article I'm writing about is a serious one. Dr. Daniel Pipes analyzes the distressing results of a recent Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in living in ten countries.

No one should be surprised that conspiracy theories involving non-Arabs actually being behind the 9/11 terror attacks, support for terrorism, and disassociation from non-Muslims are common attitudes among Muslims, according to the opinion polls of Muslims.

Pipes has a brilliant mind, and has been regularly writing about Islamic extremism for more than a decade.

Technorati tags: Daniel Pipes Islam Terrorism 9/11 Conspiracy Muslim

Klocek video available

Thomas Klocek, the fired DePaul professor whose cause I've championed since pretty much the first day of this blog, explains how he was trampled by DePaul's politically-correct hammer in a Quicktime video by Grant Crowell.

Klocek made the mistake of challenging the ossified political beliefs of some Muslim students--who view themselves an a protected class--at a student activities fair in 2004.

There's a Ward Churchill tie-in, as the professor asks Ward to speak up for his free speech rights, too.

But Pirate Ballerina (the site where I found the video), has filed this in his "Don't Hold Your Breath Department."

The video ends with some pretty good Neil Young music.

Technorati tags: Ward Churchill DePaul Free Speech Academic freedom Chicago catholic education Klocek Neil Young Muslims

50th anniversary of the Interstate Highway system

Pajamas Media links to an article mentioning that the 50th anniversary of the nation's Interstate Highway system.

President Eisenhower was the catalyst for the building of the concrete network that along with national broadcasting networks, did much to transform the United States from a collection of regions where citizens didn't think of themselves as one people, to what we are--warts and all--in the early 21st century, a more united United States.

Before the Interstate Highway system, driving from Chicago to the nearest point in the South, Kentucky, would take over 12 hours. Now it can be done in just six hours, making a trip to see and talk with Kentuckians---that is, fellow Americans--an easy weekend trip.

And there is some cross-country celebrating going on. Yesterday in Tiinley Park, Illinois a group of Illinois Department of Transportation officials greeted a convoy consisting of members of the American Association of State Highway Transportation on Interstate 80. That group is commemorating the Army's 1919 across-the-nation trip that young Army officer Dwight Eisenhower was participated in.

The post World War I American roads were in terrible shape, and it was a memory that stuck in Ike's head. Nazi Germany's version of the Interstates, the Autobahn, was an important tool in mobilizing the German Blitzkrieg that shocked the world the early days of World War II.

And in the 1950s, President Eisenhower decided that America needed a better road network than what he suffered through in 1919.

Technorati tags: Eisenhower military illinois travel history I-80 Pajamas Media

New Marathon Pundit photo series: Nature abhors a vacuum

Yes, Kathleen Parker, bloggers can come up with their own material. Although admittedly, this was a lot easier to work on than my Jamaica series.

In Morton Grove, Illinois, international headquarters of the Marathon Pundit empire, there is a restoration project in the Linne Woods Forest Preserve. A couple of hours ago, with my Canon PowerShot A20 digital camera, I took a whole bunch of photos.

Much of the prairie, as you see, is located under some high-tension electrical wires, proving, with a little human help, that nature abhors a vacuum.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos digital cameraswildflowers canon Morton Grove

Ditka on White Sox manager: "I like Ozzie"

In Chicago there is no better endorsement to have than that of "Da Coach," Mike Ditka.

Twenty years after he led the Chicago Bears to their only Super Bowl victory, Ditka is still a God-King figure in Chicago.

Ditka spoke to Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lacy J. Banks about White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen:

Mike Ditka and Ozzie Guillen share a bond that stretches from their blue collars to their blue language, endearing them to a working-class city that identifies with their personalities and has celebrated their success.

Guillen seems to be following in the footsteps of Ditka, who parlayed playing and coaching success in Chicago into local icon status. The path also includes the verbal jabs and pitfalls that punctuated Ditka's career.

"I like Ozzie," Ditka said Monday. "I really like the guy. He's real people, he's good for baseball and he's really a nice guy, even though he doesn't always say things that are politically correct. But he says what he thinks. He speaks from the heart. And in this day and age, that can be refreshing when people are honest about what they think and feel."

"But you've got to know what you're getting into when you hire people. And if you can't stand the heat, then maybe it's best to find a job where you won't have to deal with much heat. What people ought to realize -- if they haven't already -- is that Ozzie is going to continue to be himself. That's just the kind of person he is. I don't expect him to change that much. He is who he is."

Last week Ozzie Guillen called Banks' lazy co-worker Jay Mariotti "a (bleeping) fag."

It was wrong for the manager of the World Series champs to say that, he should've said that Mariotti is a hack, who can't even bring his precious ass to teams' clubhouse to meet with players, managers, or coaches. I touched on this theme Sunday night in this post.

Once again, I want to draw upon the talents of Dan Curry of Reverse Spin, who mined these new missives about Mariotti, this time from outside the Chicago area.

Jay Mariotti is an embarrassment to sports journalism. He’s the quintessential weasel nerd who couldn’t play sports and now spews his frustration out in print every day. The Sun-Times should have fired him years ago.

His column Sunday about the Ozzie Guillen incident was too painful to read. (My note: Dan's right) He was moralizing about treating people right after a career of cheap shots.

Here’s what two of the best sports columnists in America have to say about Mariotti’s refusal to face the men he writes about.

Michael Wilbon, Washington Post (from a Washington Post chat board)

I’ve avoided this topic publicly, but no more.

Ozzie shouldn’t have said what he said. He knows better. And I’m glad Kenny Williams, the White Sox GM, has said if he can’t clean up his act he’ll be fired.

But Ozzie owes no apology to Jay, my friend for 16-plus years and someone I like very much. Jay can say all he wants that he’s not welcome in the White Sox clubhouse…Really? He writes hyper-critical pieces and doesn’t go in the clubhouse for years, then thinks he won’t be resented years later?

Anybody who reads my column knows I write critically about athletes and coaches. It’s my job. But I learned from Tony, Dave Kindred, Ken Denlinger, my longtime sports editor George Solomon, and of course, the late Shirley Povich, (My note, Maury Povich's father) that if you’re going to throw punches, you’d better be able to take punches. You show up the next day so that the player/coach/manager can take a shot back at you…even if it means a physical confrontation…And I’ve never had one of those because a player can walk right up to me and say, "I think you’re full of …..!" Or whatever. If you know the player/coach/manager/GM and it’s a local situation, it shouldn’t even be a surprise. I’ve called people I know and said, "Listen, I’ve got to light you up for this in the paper." Sometimes they say nothing. Sometimes they say, "Hold on, let me give you my side." Sometimes they say, "I respect you for telling me."

There are all sorts of ways to deal with this, but not showing up in the clubhouse isn’t one of them. It’s inexcusable.

When you write tough, critical pieces you show up the next day.

And Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (from St. Louis Post chat board):

I do think it is considered honorable to show up soon after writing critical things about a player or a players or a manager. I try to be there the same day the column appears — but at times that isn’t possible, so it may be a day or two later. The point is, the column is still fresh, and as long as you make an appearance, the player or players or the manager have the opportunity to speak to you if they want to.

Columnist who rip and don’t show up are called hit and run drivers in the bizness.

I have been threatened, but never in the Cardinals clubhouse. I’ve been hollered at a little, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

Since Mariotti can't perform his entire job, his editor--assuming he has one--needs to sit him down, point to the White Sox dugout, and say in a fierce Mike Ditka voice, "Get in there and do something."

If Jay says "No," then it should be "buh-bye" for Mariotti.

A final note: In April, a new blog was christened, Jay the Joke, which the Chicago Tribune (free registration required) wrote today:

Lakeview resident and Cubs fan Matt Lynch had two goals in mind when he co-founded the blog.

"We wanted to have an intelligent voice out there to dispute some of the laughable things Jay writes in his columns," Lynch said.

And the second: Find something on which Cubs and Sox fans can agree.

Technorati tags: Ozzie Guillen Baseball MLB GLBT Sun-TimesWhite Sox Chicago White Sox Media Ditka Jay Mariotti

New marathon training group began last weekend

I'm on the board of directors of Illinois Runs, a new training and running education group founded by Beth Onines, longtime fixture in the Chicago area running community. Illinois Runs has a several sites for weekly marathon training, I'm the site coordinator for Sunday's at Lincoln Park on Chicago's lakefront.

It's not too late to sign up, click on the link above to do just that.

We had a first run Sunday--in the rain. With the exception of lightening, we run in all weather conditions.

Governor Rod Blagojevich, someone I don't always agree with, sent Beth a letter of congratulations, which I've posted here.

Technorati tags: Illinois Runs Chicago metroblogging running Training marathon training Marathon half marathon training run Illinois Runs Chicago Marathon Blagojevich Illinois

Russia seeking more Russians

Seeking to defuse a demographic time bomb, Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling for Russians not living in Russia to come home.

Putin probably has Russians living in former Soviet republics such as Latvia, Kazakhstan, Estonia in mind for this reverse migration. It's unlikely Russians who've settled in Western countries will want to go back to the lower standard of living they left behind.

Even if successful, bringing Russians living abroad back home can only be viewed as a temporary solution to the nation's population problems. What Putin and Russia need to do is to improve the Russian economy and make the country a pleasant place to live--so people don't want to leave.

Technorati tags: Russia Putin population Immigration News Россия

Ward Churchill to be fired

Less than a year after DePaul University (see previous post) paid Ward Churchill about $5,000 dollars to speak at the DePaul Student Activities Center (pictured), his employer, the University of Colorado, will fire the F-Troop Indian professor.

As always, Pirate Ballerina has more. This CU statement from CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano comes from that site.

I have carefully reviewed the Report of the Investigative Committee, Professor Churchill's responses to the Committee, and the Recommendations of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct. I have met with and obtained the separate input of Provost Susan Avery and Todd Gleeson, the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. I met with Professor Churchill and his attorney, David Lane. After conducting the due diligence I felt was necessary, I have come to a decision regarding the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct pertaining to Professor Ward Churchill. Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Drunkablog has excerpts from KHOW Radio's Caplis & Silverman show discussing the upcoming Churchill firing. Nick Hahn, treasurer of the DePaul Conservative Alliance, was interviewed by the pair in October shortly before Churchill spoke at DePaul. Caplis is a DePaul alum and his father was a DePaul basketball player who was coached by legendary Blue Demon coach Ray Meyer.

Caplis and Silverman have been among Churchill's most vocal opponents.

Of course, Churchill has made it known he will sue to keep his job, so the story will continue.

And this is the third time I'm going to bring this up, but my point is--in my opinion--so valid that I have to press it one more time.

When is DePaul University going to apologize to the DePaul Conservative Alliance for the mistreatment it foisted upon this decent group of students when they tried to protest Churchill's paid appearance at the Chicago Catholic school?

Related posts: DePaul student's Denver radio interview follow up: A rat is smelled, and does Ward have a Weather Underground link?

DePaul student's Denver radio interview follow up: A rat is smelled, and does Ward have a Weather Underground link?

The Weather Underground and Ward Churchill-UPDATED!

Technorati tags: Ward Churchill DePaul Free Speech Academic freedom Chicago Colorado fraud Denver

Reinstate Prof. Klocek at DePaul petition has over 1,000 signatures

The goal of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East is to reach 2,000 signatures. As of this posting, they need 899 to reach that number.

From the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East website:

The SPME petition to reinstate Thomas Klocek, the Roman Catholic faculty member who was fired by DePaul University without due process for challenging Muslim students' assertions of Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi's treatment of Jews, has already amassed nearly 1000 signatures in three days. The petition, which can be viewed and signed at http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=3 calls for his complete reinstatement without prejudice or penalty.

Morry Fiddler, a professor at DePaul University, writes, " If I'm not there for a colleague, then who will be there for me?" Other DePaul professors signing the petition to date are Allan Berele, Gary Siegel, Jonathan Cohen and Jerold Friedland.

Bernard Arfin of Stanford University asks, " What has happened to freedom of speech?"

Simon Levy at Boston University calls the incident, " A clear violation of academic standards," while his colleague, Susan Biener Bergman, also at BU, states, " It seems that at DePaul University, there is a climate of intimidation of anyone having pro-Israel views. What a shame. I thought that academic freedom meant just that."

Nicholas G. Hahn III, Treasurer of the DePaul Conservative Alliance writes, "...Klocek, as a devout Catholic, deserves the same amount of respect as the Middle Eastern students, especially at a University that claims to be the largest Catholic University in America." Mark Mason, a student at DePaul states, " I am a liberal Democrat, and believe that Thomas Klocek had the right to say what he said and should not be penalized for exercising his free speech outside of the classroom...." Richard Kinkead, a 1977 graduate of DePaul goes on to say, " You pay Ward Churchill to come, but you fire this honest professor. And you wonder why I don't send you a check every year...." And Karen Hunstad says, " As I look at colleges for my son, DePaul will not be one of them. What happened to free and open discussion of ideas and thoughts?

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek Israel Middle East Catholic Ward Churchill

Pajamas media Blog Week in Review podcast with two guests

I'm a little behind in my posting, but I wanted to write about the latest Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review. Joining moderator Austin Bay and regular Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit are Neo-neocon and Marc Cooper. Ed Driscoll produces.

North Korea is discussed, as is one of the most idiotic proposals out there, free wi-fi provided by municipalities. On the latter, I can speak with authority since I work in the telecommunications field. Will cities build their own cell towers, or have hundreds--or thousands--of micro-cells or repeaters?

The NIMBY crowd already feels there are too many cell towers out there. Micro-cells and repeaters aren't nearly as intrusive, but they don't cover as much ground.

Since free wi-fi is an expensive proposal, is it needed? Not everyone is hooked into the Internet yet, particularly seniors, and laptop computers greatly trail traditional desktops in usage.

The panelists decry what that the blogosphere is becoming, in Marc Cooper's words, " right wing noise machine versus a left wing noise machine," marked by "pointless flame wars."

Glenn mentions there was more cross political civility on the Internet a few years ago. I guess my crossposting with Try Works (see my Little Big Horn post from Sunday) is a step in the right direction.

Neo-neocon is an analyst and it makes this podcast, well, analytical.

As for predictions of news for the upcoming days, Marc Cooper zeroes in on the "impending chaos within the Tribune Company" is about to "bust wide open."

The Tribune Company owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Cubs, and quite a few television stations. The Tribune Company scored a minor victory today (free reg. required) in its battle with the former owners of the LA Times, but this is definitely a story to watch.

If the Tribune Company is sold off for parts, it will be a media earthquake, and the epicenter will be here in the Chicago area.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog North Korea Tribune business wi fi media

Butterfly Weed in Michigan

While running yesterday on Hoffman Road near Three Rivers, Michigan, I took this photo with my Motorola V3 RAZR of a Butterfly Weed. According to my source, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers : Eastern Region, the seeds from the plant were used to treat the respiratory ailment pleurisy by Native Americans.

Technorati tags: Michigan American Indian photos Motorola Mobile Phones wildflowers

Mr. Right's latest photo caption contest features Bill Clinton

Fellow Chicago White Sox fan Mr. Right has another photo caption contest, featuring an old reliable object of humor, intended or not: Bill Clinton.

Technorati tags: Bill Clinton Clinton humor Humour Funny

Ozzie Guillen, a lazy columnist, and the "F" word

I'm watching the White Sox-Astros game on ESPN. Despite a nine game winning streak, the Sox are in the news because manager Ozzie Guillen called jerk columnist Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times "a fag." It was a stupid thing for him to say.

He may not be that, but he is an a-hole. Mariotti doesn't write well, so he picks fights with local sports personalities to draw attention to himself and his column.

Dan Curry of Reverse Spin has an interesting post on this saga, which has so far dominated Jon Miller and Joe Morgan's coverage of tonight's game.

The most interesting commentary about the Ozzie Guillen-Jay Mariotti saga was made by Tribune sports columnist Rick Morrissey, who said columnists who rip athletes should face them afterwards in person. I agree.

If you’re a sports columnist, you show up in the clubhouse to face the music. It’s a matter of fairness.

Let’s say I criticize Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski for something he did in a game. And let’s say I do it in the Sunday Tribune, which has a circulation of about 960,000.

Isn’t it reasonable for Pierzynski to have an opportunity to lash out at me in front of media and teammates in the clubhouse if I’ve treated him similarly in print? It seems pretty straightforward to me. It’s what I was taught to do. It’s what nearly all of the columnists in the country do. The honorable thing.

Look, it’s not always fun walking into a locker room. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. But it comes with the territory of being a columnist.

Jay Mariotti travels to games, but doesn't interview the athletes. The Tribune's Morrissey compares him to bloggers, who write whatever they want without interacting with the jocks. There's a big difference though, between Jay and the blogosphere. Most bloggers aren't paid to write, or they receive very little compensation for their efforts. Mariotti is presumably well-paid to do half of his job, and as an additional perk, he has an expense account to draw upon.

Also, few bloggers have the impeccable press credentials that a reporter for a major metropolitan enjoys.

I have another "F" word for Mariotti: Fraud.

Kenny Williams, the White Sox general manager, told ESPN yesterday that if Guillen keeps mouthing off, Ozzie could be fired.

That's another "F" word that Mariotti should hear.

Technorati tags: Ozzie Guillen Baseball MLB GLBT Sun-TimesWhite Sox Chicago White Sox ESPN Media Blogging

Eric Zorn's Change of Subject goes to print

Longtime Chicago Tribune columnist, blogger, and friend-of-this-blog Eric Zorn's Change of Subject blog has a print edition available inside Sunday's Tribune Metro section.

The online version is here, his post announcing the new venue is here.

Sometime later tonight or early tomorrow, I'll have a post on speculation that the Tribune Company, parent company of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, WGN-TV and a whole bunch of others, may be carved up soon--As I summarize that latest Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review podcast.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Eric Zorn Tribune business

Back from Michigan

The Treo blogging from Three Rivers, Michigan didn't work out too well. Although the cell phone portion of my smartphone worked, I couldn't access the Internet from the device.

As I noted last week, I traveled to Michigan for the Latvian mid-summer festival known as Ligo. June 23, Ligo day, is a national holiday in Latvia. June 24 is St. John's Day in much of the world, Latvians shorten that to "Jani," or John.

In Latvian folklore, Jani is shown wearing an oak-leaf laurel, such as the one I'm wearing in a photograph taken yesterday afternoon, on Jani.

Photo taken by Latvian-born Mrs. Marathon Pundit.

Related posts: More Michigan blogging...Constantine, MI

Three Rivers, Michigan and Andrew Carnegie

Technorati tags: Latvia Latvija Michigan Photos Jani

June 25, 1876: The Battle of Little Big Horn

George Armstrong Custer's daring success--some say luck--as a cavalry officer--ended abruptly on a 100 degree day 130 years ago on the plains of eastern Montana near the Little Big Horn River.

About 6,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors killed 263 soldiers from Custer's 7th Cavalry, including Custer.

I visited the battlefield site in 2001, the photograph is from my personal collection. The inscription on the marker reads "U.S. Soldier 7th Cavalry Fell Here, June 25, 1876."

The Little Big Horn National Monument and Cemetery is located just a mile or so off of Interstate 90. If you're driving from the Midwest to Seattle, it's a must-see.

Related post: Summer road trip not to be missed

UPDATE 4:20 PM CDT: Michelle Malkin reminds her readers that today is the 10th anniversary of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen.

UPDATE 6:30pm CST: Try Works, the Ward Churchill supporting blog that's had a few unkind words for me in the last six months, has an MP3 of the Johnny Cash song, Custer, available. It's a pretty good song, although the "Boy General" wouldn't like it.

Try Works has their purpose.

In that light I purchased the first posthumous Johnny Cash CD on previously unreleased material, Personal File, which I will review soon.

Technorati tags: Military History Montana Native American On this day vacation travel

Treo blogging from Michigan

My next few posts will be "on the road" entries from my Treo 650. I'm heading to the Latvian cultural center called Garezers near Three Rivers, Michigan for their annual Mid-summer festival known as "Ligo."

Technorati tags: Michigan Treo 650 Ligo Latvia Latvija

Nodding thistle

I took this picture early this afternoon in the Linne Woods restored prairie in Morton Grove during my daily run. It's a Nodding Thistle, a European introduction.

Once again, taken with my Motorola RAZR V3.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos Motorola Mobile Phones wildflowers

Sears Tower: Always attracting attention

As you've probably heard, a Miami-based alleged terror cell was interested in destroying Chicago's Sears Tower.

As any tall junior high school kid will tell you, standing above the others will bring all kinds of attention, not all of it wanted.

The Chicago Tribune, free registration may be required, has more.

On (Sept. 11, 2001), police charged Roger Ryan of Chicago, a former Boeing Co. security guard, with telling a 911 dispatcher that an airplane was set to crash into the Sears Tower. Ryan pleaded guilty in August 2002 to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 30 months' probation.

In July 2002, The New York Times reported that Spanish police arrested three men--and later a fourth--suspected of being Al Qaeda operatives. One was accused of having 5-year-old videotapes containing hours of surveillance images of several U.S. landmarks, including the Sears Tower.

The Times also reported in March 2003 that a classified government document said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a captured Al Qaeda leader, told interrogators that Osama bin Laden gave Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, a list of targets that included the Sears Tower.

In August 2005, a Chicago man pleaded guilty to falsely leading federal and state authorities to think terrorists linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad were plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and other Chicago landmarks.

Unrelated to the Sept. 11 phone call hoax, the Sears Tower was evacuated after the second jet hit the World Trade Center on that horrible morning.

On October 8, 2001, the crew and passengers of a Chicago-bound flight subdued a man who tried to storm the cockpit of the plane, while screaming, "Save the Sears Tower."

On a lighter note, a Frenchman in a Spiderman outfit scaled the tower in 1999.

Technorati tags: Sears Tower Chicago Illinois War on Terror Terrorism 9/11

More on the Sears Tower terror plot

Some more details are creeping in on the group that planned to destroy the Sears Tower, America's tallest building.

As I posted late Thursday night, the jihadists are based in the Liberty City section of Miami, a predominately African-American neighborhood on the city's northern edge.

AP has more:

Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group had young children with them sometimes. Sometimes, he added, the men "would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans."

Xavier Smith, who attends the nearby United Christian Outreach, said the men would often come by the church and ask for water.

"They were very private," said Smith, 33. "The spoke with like an accent, sort of a Jamaican accent."

AP quotes Miamian Tashawn Rose, who said of the group, "They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah."

Technorati tags: Sears Tower War on Terror terrorism Chicago Illinois Miami Florida War on Terror Muslims

Anti "big-box" bill fails in New York state legislature

Last year Maryland enacted into law "Fair Share Health Care" legislation that essentially taxed "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart to spend a state-sanctioned amount on worker health-care benefits per employee, or pay a specified amount per head into a state insurance fund.

Emboldened by that victory, the unions and union-funded organization such as Wal-Mart Watch hit the road to lobby for passage of similar legislation in 30 other states.

Today in New York state, a similar bill died in the state legislature.

From the Albany Times-Union:

Known as the Wal-Mart bill because it would affect the giant retailer and other similar companies, Fair Share for Health Care would have forced companies with 100 employees or more to provide health insurance for workers or pay a $3 hourly tax per employee. Supporters such as labor unions and the Working Families Party said it would help ease the state's costs for Medicaid and other publicly funded programs for poor and low-wage workers.

And they said it was only fair that employers take responsibility for their people.

The push also was an effective tool around which labor unions, struggling to gain new members, could rally.

The business community, though, bemoaned the Wal-Mart bill as precisely the kind of costly big government program that drives companies out of New York. While it would provide coverage for an estimated 466,000 people, that's still less than one-third of the state's uninsured. It also could cost businesses up to $9.2 billion and kill up to 100,000 jobs, according to research by the Employment Policies Institute, a nonpartisan group that sides with business on key financial issues.

Since the Maryland bill was passed, the unions and the anti Wal-Mart crowd have so far failed to pass Fair Share for Health care bills in any other state.

Hat tip to Marshall Manson of Edelman PR for the story.

Technorati tags: New York Albany
Politics Maryland Wal-Mart retail Business

Chicago's Sears Tower: War on Terror target

It's news likes this that reminds us that we're at war. A lot more will come out on this story tomorrow.

On 9/11, the Sears Tower was evacuated shortly after the second plane hit the World Trade Center. The security people at the Sears Tower knows the building is a target.

From AP:

Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.

As part of the raids related to the arrests, FBI agents swarmed a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City area, using a blowtorch to take off a metal door.

The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.

More...

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Mulims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group, which seemed militaristic.

Technorati tags: Sears Tower War on Terror terrorism Chicago Illinois

Kerry's cut-and-run for Iraq cut-and-run off in the Senate

John Kerry's proposal to announce to our enemies that US forces will leave Iraq on July 1, 2007 (not sure of the time that day it would happen) was overwhelmingly rejected by the Senate this morning, 86-13.

A vaguer Democratic proposal regarding leaving Iraq did a little better, but still was voted down, 60-39.

Technorati tags: John Kerry Democrats Iraq News Politics

WMDs found in Iraq not getting much play

Pajamas Media has a pretty good round up of posts on Senator Rick Santorum and Representative Peter Hoekstra's announcement that 500 chemical weapons shells were discovered by our troops in 2003.

Yes, the weapons date from the Iran-Iraq war, but they could have been given to terrorists by Saddam's regime.

Recently it was reported that al-Qaeda called off a chemical weapons attack in New York City's subways.

The Washington Post covered the news, but it's been ignored pretty much by the mainstream media. MTV News has a story here, one that you won't find on linked on either congressman's web site.

Technorati tags: WMDs Iraq media media bias Santorum Peter Hoekstra al-qaeda MTV

Media bias in action

Here is the actual headline as of 1:15 AM CDT:

GOP-run Senate kills minimum wage increase

And these are the first three paragraphs of AP reporter David Espo's article, which was not posted at "News Analyis."

The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.

The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.

The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed — and Republicans have blocked — a stand-alone increase in the minimum wage. The debate fell along predictable lines.

Republicans have controlled the Senate since 2003, so it's hardly "news" to most intelligent readers.

It looks like an AP headline writer has an axe to grind, as well as the article's author, David Espo.

And the mainstream media remains dumbfounded on why it keeps losing its audience.

Technorati tags: bias senate MSM Current Affairs media bias minimum wage Republicans Democrats AP

Support Thomas Klocek petition online

Richard Baehr of the American Thinker tipped me off to a petition from the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East in support of fired DePaul University Professor Thomas Klocek.

It reads as follows:

To: Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Ed.D., President and Susanne M. Dumbleton, Ph.D., Dean of the School for New Learning, DePaul University

We, the undersigned faculty members from around the world, stand solidly with Professor Thomas Klocek, a Roman Catholic, who was dismissed by DePaul University for allegedly offending Muslim students when discussing Christian interests in Israel, disputing that Israeli treatment of Palestinians was akin to the Nazi treatment of the Jewsand then terminating the discussion when it appeared that the students were more interested in Israel-bashing than discussing the issues.

We believe this case sheds serious questions on the commitment to academic freedom and civility in academic discussion with this egregious termination. We further believe that this action by administration has separated DePaul from the academic community.

It is our understanding that Prof. Klocek alleges:

1) He was never allowed to meet with his accusers.

2) He was never presented with a written list of the complaints or charges against him.

3) He was suspended by the Dean of the School for New Learning in clear violation of the University's own stated Faculty Handbook procedures.

4) He was never given a hearing.

5) A vote by the DePaul Faculty Council affirmed that the same rules that apply for a formal academic hearing apply to all professors, full-time and adjuncts alike.

As a result, we believe that Professor Klocek, a faculty member with a 15-year history of excellent evaluations and no prior complaints, was dismissed without due process and should be reinstated without penalty or prejudice and with back pay, restitution of benefits and compensation for his legal and other expenses incurred as a result of his being improperly terminated.

Click here to sign the petition.

Also, letting the two co-chairs of the DePaul Board of Trustees about the petition probably isn't a bad idea.

John B. Simon, jsimon@jenner.com

Mary Dempsey, mdempsey@chicagopubliclibrary.org

(Thanks to a tipster who would like to remain anonymous for Dempsey's e-mail address.)

In National Review's Phi Beta Cons blog, the petion is noted in a post by John J. Miller, who wrote this superb article about the squelching of free speech on college campuses last year, Miller focused on the Klocek case.

Previous posts:

One year anniversary of the Thomas Klocek press conference at DePaul

Thomas Klocek free speech case going to trial: Very bad news for DePaul University

Yale, DePaul win "Polly Awards" for squashing free speech

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek Israel Middle East National Review Catholic

The missiles of June

North Korea is doing its best to make the America--and the world--a more dangerous place.

Of course, Jimmy Carter has negotiated with North Korea on various issues. With the involvement of the worst president of the 20th century, no one should be surprised that there is a missile there on a launch pad that could land in Seattle within minutes.

Technorati tags: Jimmy Carter North Korea politics Current Affairs military

More Technorati problems

Hmmm...None of my posts from the last 18 hours were picked up by Technorati. The blog search engine had a lot of problems over the weekend as well.

Technorati tags: Technorati tech search engine blogging Internet

Islamophobia critics: They just don't get it

Criticize Islam and Muslims label you an "Islamophobic."

The Organization of the Islamic Conference is meeting in Azerbaijan this week. And the herd Islamophobia was a lot a the gathering.

From the Tehran Times:

The OIC chief described a "pathological fear" of Islam caused by "cases of total ignorance of Islam and its teachings" in Western public opinion stemming from rivalries between Christians and Muslims that have existed since the Crusades.

(The Crusades just had to be brought up.)

More...

He urged Muslim countries to enact a "new media strategy" to highlight the "true image of Islam" and said pro-Islamic television programs should target a Western audience. Ihsanoglu (my note, the OIC chief) also blamed Western media as a "major factor in the formation of collective misperceptions about Islam and Muslims in Europe."

CAIR is doing just that in America. Scroll down a couple of posts.

And finally...

"In some countries, the media have made attempts to compare Islam with terror. We cannot accept that. We can't equate Islam with terror," Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said in remarks to the assembled officials at the start of the conference on Monday.

Several OIC members called for an agreed definition of the word "terrorist," saying that little distinction was being made between "freedom fighters" and "terrorists" by Western governments since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

That's right: Those beheaders are freedom fighters.

Technorati tags: OIC Islam Terrorism AzerbaijanIslamophobia Muslims

Wal-Mart helping small businesses

Last month I had a post based on a New York Times article that about several small businesses benefiting from Wal-Mart.

Marshall Manson of Edelman sent me this article from the Detroit News that tells a similar story:

Independent specialty stores, boutiques and cafes are surviving -- and even thriving -- in the shadow of the retail giants through a mix of personal service, specialized skills and unique products. They fend off the mega-stores by catering to a specific clientele or carving out a niche that's small enough to keep the big retailers out.

A 2005 survey of small-business owners found that 52 percent of those already in business changed their tactics and either retained their market share or actually increased business when a Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's or other "big box" retailer opened nearby, according to DollarDays International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., an Internet-based wholesaler to small businesses.

Here's hoping "big box" opponent Joe Moore, a Chicago Alderman and recent Wal-Mart Watch Person of the Week, hears about Wal-Mart helping small businesses.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Joe Moore Detroit retail Business

Nutty former congressman teams up with CAIR to improve Islam's image

Paul Findlay was a central Illinois congressman until from 1961-1982, until future Senator Dick Durbin knocked him off. 1982 was a very bad year for the Republican Party because the country was in the midst of a painful recession--the benefits of Reagan's reforms had yet to bear fruit.

But it wasn't just a poor economy that hurt Findlay in the ballot box. He hopped on the anti-Israel bandwagon a few years earlier, and outside money and volunteers pushed the tide in Durbin's favor and ended Findlay's career as an elected official.

Often trotted out as an anti-Bush Republican voice by Bush haters, Findlay has been off-the reservation for years.

From the Arab News:

A survey conducted by Cornell University recently found that around half of Americans have a negative view of Islam and would like the US government to curtail the political activity of Muslims in the US.

Addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Paul Findley, a former US Congressman, said that the cancer of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiments was spreading in American society and requires corrective measures to stamp out this malaise.

It was also announced that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would be launching a massive $50 million media campaign involving television, radio and newspapers as part of its five-year program to create a better understanding of Islam and Muslims in the US.

Referring to the anti-Islamic sentiments in the US, Findley said that the campaign was being spearheaded by a tiny but influential section of society, including some politicians, academics and opinion-makers.

I'm very pleased that American media outlets will get a $50 million dollar windfall from CAIR. But the media effort will be as successful as the Saudi Arabian post-9/11 campaign that bragged about "The People of Saudi Arabia: Allies For Peace." Four years later, the image of Saudi Arabia in the United States is a bad as it was then.

There is too much violence, cruelty, and barbarity brought upon the world by some Muslims to be countered in the arena of public opinion by CAIR's $50 million public relations campaign. First, Islam needs a reformation.

And $50 million can't even resuscitate Paul Findlay's reputation.

Technorati tags: CAIR Terrorism Islam Paul Findlay Illinois IsraelWAMY Durbin

Lots of 20s as White Sox clobber St. Louis Cardinals 20-6

The World Series Champion Chicago White Sox scored 20 runs this evening as they pummelled the defending National League Central Division Champion St. Louis Cardinals 20-6 on Chicago's South Side.

The rout was on when the Sox scored 11 runs in the third inning.

The White Sox are now 20 games over .500.

It was a bizarre night for Cards manager Tony LaRussa, whose first managerial position in the big leagues was with the South Siders. Today marked the 20th anniversary of his firing from the White Sox.

Technorati tags: baseball MLB numerology White Sox St. Louis Cardinals Chicago White Sox Tony LaRussa

Purple flower of Illinois

I'm pretty sure this is a purple coneflower, I'm in haste right now, but I like the photo--taken in the Linne Woods Prairie in Morton Grove--enough to put it up immediately. Taken with a Motorola V3 camera phone.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos Motorola Mobile Phones wildflowers

Egyptian blogger Alaa to be free man tomorrow

Good news from Egypt and the blogosphere. Imprisoned blogger Alaa will be freed tomorrow, Rantings of a Sand Monkey and Big Pharoah are reporting.

Great work by bloggers in building this story. The MSM? Failed again.

Technorati tags: Egypt Alaa Free Speech human-rights blog Middle East مصر

Referendum to end affirmative action in Michigan to be on Nov. ballot

I saw a story about the proposal to end affirmative action in Michigan on Fox News this morning. Similar bans are now law in California and Washington state.

The Detroit News has more.

I'll be watching this story very closely. Illinois and Michigan have a lot in common, similar economies, demographics, and political affiliations.

Socialized medicine nightmare in Scotland

This sickening story shows that socialized medicine is not a forward-step for a nation.

From The Scotsman:

A 36 year-old Scots mother elected to have her breasts removed and a hysterectomy after being told she would have to wait at least two years for the results of genetic tests to discover if she had an increased risk of cancer.

Oonagh Wilson, who has been waiting now for almost four years to find out if her family faces a greater risk of breast cancer, yesterday spoke of her anger and frustration at the delays.

A backlog of women waiting for results has been blamed on lack of funding and trained staff, changes to the way services are delivered and delays in getting licences to carry out the tests, which have to be obtained from genetics watchdogs.

Politicians yesterday described the situation as "inhuman" and "shocking". Mrs Wilson said she has been left in limbo, not knowing whether her two children and other family members were carrying a cancer "timebomb."

After my last physical, I had a test done because of a slightly irregular reading regarding my liver. I got my results back (I was fine) one week later, paid for in full by my "greedy" insurance company.

Of course, if Scotland had someone like Hillary Clinton in charge of health care, things would be much better in Caledonia.

Chavez to visit Russia next month

Venezuela's megalomaniacal president Hugo Chavez will be traveling to Russia next month. He may not come home empty handed--according to AFP he hopes to purchase some civilian and military aircraft from the Russian firm Sukhoi.

Saudis offered scholarships for aviation courses in US

Yes, that's the actual headline from the Arab News.

Qur'an memorization with a score of 90 percent or more is one of the prerequisites for receiving a scholarship.

Saudis coming to America to take aviation courses. I hate to say it, but that brings back bad memories for me.

Light blogging, busy day at work

Just got home from a relaxing 13 1/2 hour day of work. Lots of catching up to do...

Illinois politicians: Illegal immigration yes, Ill. Freedom Run no

In Marseilles, Illinois, the annual Illinois Freedom Run took place. The Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial is in tiny Marseilles, on Saturday, motorcyclists from across the state converged on the town for the annual memorial ceremony.

Jake and the Bald Chick from Freedom Folks were there, and noticed only one Illinois public officeholder, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, was in attendance. This contrasts greatly with the huge turnout of Illinois politicians at various pro-illegal immigrant events held here in the last year.

Technorati tags: Military Freedom Run War Illinois Democrats

Pajamas Media podcast from Afghanistan

Well, here's another Pajamas Media podcast with Richard Fernandez from the The Belmont Club.

Richard once again interviews Bill Roggio of the Counterterrorism Blog. From his vantage point in Kandahar in southeastern Afghanistan, Bill talks about Operation Mountain Thrust, the coalition offensive to neutralize the Taliban in that part of the country.

The Taliban, Bill reports, are no match for the coalition forces militarily. So naturally one of the goals of the Taliban is do drive up casualties as much as they can--so public opinion, particularly in the Netherlands, Canada, and Great Britain-- turns against the troops' mission.

The Taliban can't win on the battlefield, but they have hopes they can win on the PR front.

The podcast is available here.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod Afghanistan Operation Mountain Thrust UK Canada Netherlands Nederland Taliban War on Terror

News you probably missed: Colorado Rockies visit wounded vets at Walter Reed

Phil Rogers covers baseball for the Chicago Tribune, and this snippet (free registration may be required) comes from his Sunday column:

Some socially conscious teams take time to visit veterans at Walter Reed Hospital when they visit the Nationals in Washington. The Rockies were the latest, going Tuesday. The visit was voluntary, but the entire Colorado roster turned out to spend time with wounded soldiers. (Emphasis mine)

"For someone who has never spent a day in the service, to see what they have gone through, you feel so inadequate when they say, 'Thank you,"' Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "They have given so much for their country and are so proud of their country. There's a guy with no legs who says it's not bad. He can get a set of legs. He tells you it's the guys with no arms that have the tough deal."

Nice work, fellows.

MLB.com has more, and visitors don't have to register.

I did a Google news search, and discovered that few news outlets bothered to cover the Rockies visit to Walter Reed.

Technorati tags: Colorado Colorado Rockies Military Iraq Walter Reed Veterans Baseball MLB MSM

USA Today: Oops! Nasty crime, wrong state

Very good friend-of-the-blog and Illinois native Third Wave Dave sent me a USA Today story about an angry woman who clobbered a dog breeder over the head with a dead Chihuahua.

Dave knows I'm a chronicler of the decline and fall of Illinois.

However, the towns listed in the story, Wentzville and St. Peters, didn't sound familiar to me.

There's a reason for that. Those burgs are in Missouri.

Here's the headline of the USA Today story:

Ill. woman charged in alleged dead puppy attack

No one is perfect. Just yesterday I got the date wrong for Grandma's Marathon in Duluth.

Technorati tags: Missouri Illinois St. Louis Pets USA Today MSM Chihuahua

More on Truthout's Jason Leopold from the Washingon Post

Yesterday I had a post that briefly went in to Leftist writer Jason Leopold of Truthout's "scoop" that Karl Rove had been indicted for his "role" in Plamegate.

Via Pajamas Media comes this Joe Lauria article from the Washington Post.

In his nine-year reporting career, Leopold has managed, despite his drug abuse and a run-in with the law, to work with such big-time news organizations as the Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones Newswire and Salon. He broke some bona fide stories on the Enron scandal and the CIA leak investigation. But in every job, something always went wrong, and he got the sack. Finally, he landed at Truthout, a left-leaning Web site.

I met Leopold once, three days before his Rove story ran, to discuss his recently published memoir, "News Junkie." It seems to be an honest record of neglect and abuse by his parents, felony conviction, cocaine addiction -- and deception in the practice of journalism.

Leopold says he gets the same rush from breaking a news story that he did from snorting cocaine. To get coke, he lied, cheated and stole. To get his scoops, he has done much the same. As long as it isn't illegal, he told me, he'll do whatever it takes to get a story, especially to nail a corrupt politician or businessman. "A scoop is a scoop," he trumpets in his memoir. "Other journalists all whine about ethics, but that's a load of crap."

Leopold is a deeply troubled man who needs help. And, at least for now, he needs to stay away from blogging.

Oh, from Amazon.com, this is what Publisher's Weekly said about News Junkie last month:

Leopold, one of the reporters who broke the Enron story, is now breaking his own story: how he got addicted to cocaine, committed grand theft, cleaned himself up and found happiness as a "news junkie." While residential rehab programs and an incredibly committed wife were key to his turnaround, what saved his life was his discovery of the adrenaline high of news scooping. After a few small successes, Leopold got lucky when he began investigating insider trading by aides to California's Gov. Grey Davis and stumbled onto the extraordinary scandal of Enron's manipulation of utility deregulation in California. By the time Leopold was pressured into resigning from Dow Jones in 2002, he was one of the few reporters who'd actually interviewed Enron president Jeff Skilling. He then rushed to publish a flawed exposé of the secretary of the army's Enron connections, seriously damaging his journalistic credibility. Disillusioned by the institutional biases of mainstream media, Leopold finally decided to freelance with independent, Internet-based news services. While there's a lot of lying admitted to in this scrappy memoir, from Leopold's hiding of his criminal past to his playing of sources to get his scoops, it's (probably) not an untruthful memoir—indeed, it might become required reading for aspiring journalists.

Required reading, on how not to be a journalist.

Technorati tags: Jason Leopold PlameGate Karl Rove Truthout Journalism Enron Jeffrey Skilling

Technorati problems

For the past few days Technorati has been missing a lot of my tags, and those from other blogs.

When I tried to "ping" Technorati earlier this morning, I received an error message that the task couldn't be completed, because too many people were pinging. This doesn't make sense on a Sunday, as Martey Dodoo noticed.

Technorati tags: Technorati Blogging Internet search engine

Michelle Malkin joins Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review podcast

One thing I like about Pajamas Media's Blog Week in Review is that I always learn something new. Usually more than one thing.

Pajamas blogger Michelle Malkin is a guest panelist this week. I visit (and link) to her blog regularly, but I had no idea that she has a video blog site up called Hot Air.

The agreed-upon-among-the-panelists good news from Iraq is discussed, but the banter turns a bit nasty as Eric Umansky and Tammy Bruce bicker on whether Turkey is a democracy. I agree with Tammy, Turkey has elections, but it isn't a democracy.

The non-indictment of Karl Rove is now an Internet legend is the unanimous opinion among the panelists. Jason Leopold's Truthout blog is still operating, but what little credibility he had is gone. Truthout reported that Rove would be indicted, but in a weasely retraction by Truthout's March Ash posted the following week, that Leopold erred in "getting too far out in front of the news-cycle."

That statement will be used as a punchline on countless FreeRepublic threads.

Another Blog Week in Review topic is the trial of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci for defaming Islam. The trial is not taking place in Saudi Arabia but in Italy.

Moderator Austin Bay recommends this Opinion Journal article from last year about Fallaci, and I guess, the decline of Western civilization in Europe.

As always, Ed Driscoll does a superb job producing the podcast.

Technorati tags: Pajamas Media Italy Italia Fallaci Islam Karl Rove Turkey Türkiye Iraq podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Truthout

Pakistani man accused of blaspheming Islam murdered outside courtroom

Here we go again....freedom of speech is not alive and well in the Muslim world.

Pakistani contractor Abdul Sattar Gopang, who was accused of insulting Islam by civil authorities, was murdered Friday outside a courtroom.


From the Arab News:

Police described the attackers as "religious fanatics." The two were arrested on murder charges, policemen Rai Tahir said. Two policemen were wounded while trying to arrest the attackers.

"They have no regrets, they're smiling," Tahir said.

More...

In Pakistan insulting Islam, the Holy Qur'an or the Prophet is considered blasphemous and can be punished by death.

While death sentences have not been carried out, there are occasionally instances of enraged mobs attacking and killing people accused of blasphemy, including desecration of the holy book.

One of the accused murderers is a madrassa student.

Technorati tags: Islam Pakistan crime الإسلام blasphemy Muslim

University of Colorado's ethnic studies department feels it's under attack

Drunkablog is reporting that Ward Churchill's successor as chairman of the school's ethnic studies is whining that the board of regents at the University of Colorado isn't supportive of his department.

I'm pretty sure the department in this PC age is safe and will carry on and on.

But Drunkablog's post got me thinking: Merging that ethnic studies department and others like it (women's studies?) into the history or sociology departments isn't a bad idea. College tuition costs are out of control, an easy way to cut costs is to eliminate departments and slice into the bureaucracy.

It's a brilliant idea, which is its doom.

Technorati tags: Ward Churchill Colorado Academia Education tuition political correctness

Mr. Right has a Bush-Rove photo caption contest

Go to Mr. Right's blog, he's got a photo caption that both the Left and the Right can have fun with this Father's Day weekend.

Technorati tags: humor Humour Jokes Bush caption Karl Rove Fitzmas

Grandma's Marathon in Duluth is Saturday: UPDATED

It's surprising for non-runners to learn that one of the most coveted marathon race entries is Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota.

The race always sells out, and hoteliers in Duluth and neighboring Superior, Wisconsin have given the event their ultimate seal of approval: rate gouging and 3-night minimum stay requirements.

On the positive side, runners who participate love the race, and downtown Duluth is turned into a Mardi Gras for sweaty runners.

I haven't run it, but Grandma's is on my to-do list.

The race name? It comes from a popular Duluth eatery.

UPDATE 8:30PM CDT: Actually the race was today, not Sunday. And we have the winners here!

Technorati tags: Marathon running Minnesota Duluth

Iraq the Model Pajamas podcast Live from Baghdad I and II

Shortly after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Belmont Club's Richard Fernandez interviewed Omar of Iraq the Model in a Pajamas Media podcast, Live from Baghdad I.

Omar comments on Zarqawi's death, calling it "the happiest news we've got in a long time."

In Live from Baghdad II, Omar talks about the security crackdown in post-Zarqawi Baghdad, and mentions that the mosque where Friday's suicide shoe-bombing took place is no stranger to violent attacks.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Iraq العراق Baghdad War on Terror Zarqawi Pajamas Media

Cops bust up Belarus protest

Here is the latest repression report from Europe's last dictatorship, Belarus.

From News.com Australia:

Belarus police dispersed a rally and detained some 50 young opposition activists who came to the Russian embassy in Minsk to protest Moscow's support of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, a rights group said overnight.

Police began detaining protesters as they were on their way to the embassy, said one of the protesters Kristina Shatikova who was also detained but then set free as she has two small children.
A total of 49 people were detained "for identification," some of them beaten and their clothes torn, rights group Khartiya-97 said.

The Belarus opposition marks the 16th day of each month with rallies and protests to show support for political prisoners and disappeared Lukashenko opponents.

Lukashenko: You won this time, you may win the next time, but one day you'll lose control of your nation.

Technorati tags: Lukashenko Belarus Russia roundups Беларусь Россия Khartiya-97

Interleague baseball weekend brings up bad memories in Chicago

Major League Baseball interleague play is back this weekend. I'm home watching TV coverage of the visiting Chicago White Sox clobbering the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds playing the Sox brings back some bad memories for followers of the South Siders, in 1919, the heavily favored White Sox lost to Cincinnati--eight Sox players, the "Black Sox," took bribes from gamblers and threw the series.

Since 1919, the White Sox have only appeared in two World Series, the most recent of which was last year; the Sox spanked the Houston Astros in an historic sweep.

Bad memories are being stirred among Cub fans as well.

On the North Side of Chicago this afternoon, the Cubs hosted the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs last appeared in the Fall Classic in 1945, the Tigers military rejects defeated the Cubs armed forces leftovers four games to three.

During World War II, almost all of the good big leaguers served in the military.

The Cubs lost today, too.

Technorati tags: White Sox Chicago White Sox Baseball MLB World Series Chicago Cubs Detroit Tigers Cincinnati Reds Chicago

Nation of Islam appointee controversy not going away in Illinois

Last summer, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Sister Claudette Mohammed to Illinois' Hate Crime panel. Sister Muhammad is the minister of protocol for Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. Several Jewish members of the panel quit in protest. Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat, refuses to fire her, and Muhammad won't resign.

From Jewish Political Alliance of Illinois press release. Hat tip, Capitol Fax.

The Jewish Political Alliance of Illinois (JPAI) today submitted 4700 signatures to Governor Rod. R. Blagojevich imploring the Governor to remove Claudette Marie Mohammed from the state Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. All the signatures were gathered this past Sunday at the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival.

Mohammed refuses to repudiate vile comments that Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan spews regarding Jews, homosexuals, Arabs, Asians and many other segments of society. Mohammed says she "respects those who practice the true tenets of their faith" which is coded, hateful language toward so-called "false" Jews who Farrakhan, and Mohammed implicitly, believe, among other things, "are a synagogue of Satan." Furthermore, Mohammed refers to Farrakhan’s comments as "alleged: anti-semitism.

"We collected the signatures to remind Governor Blagojevich that he will not get a free pass on this issue," says Howard Handler, chairman of the Jewish Political Alliance of Illinois. "Governor Blagojevich appointed a hateful, anti-semite to a commission designed to eradicate hate; this is analogous to appointing a member of the Ku Klux Klan." Handler concluded, “a significant portion of the Jewish community is disgusted with Blagojevich and is clear he will suffer politically in November."

The petitions were dropped off this morning at Governor Blagojevich’s Chicago campaign office at 1200 North Ashland, Suite 500. The Jewish Political Alliance of Illinois is a registered political organization which aims to further empower the Illinois Jewish community by participation in the political process; further information can be found at www.jpai.us. Further information on the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival can be found at www.jewishfestival.org; JPAI is not affiliated with the festival.

The festival was in Morton Grove, which I attended. I had the pleasure of meeting Pauline Dubkin Yearwood, author of this superb article about the Thomas Klocek-DePaul free speech case from the Chicago Jewish News. I gave her an update on his case, and thanked her for her efforts.

Illinois Chicago Jewish Politics DePaul Thomas Klocek Blagojevich Nation of Islam louis farrakhan anti-semitism

Pajamas media Mary Cheney podcast here

I uploaded the Mary Cheney Pajamas Media podcast onto my iPod last week, I finally got a chance to listen to it this evening.

Gerard Vanderleun of Pajamas interviews Mary, the daughter of Vice President Cheney and author Lynne Cheney. (Lynn is a senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, the group figures prominently in the next post.)

The younger Cheney just authored her first book, Now It's My Turn : A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life.

Vanderleun brings out some interesting antidotes out of Mary, among them the need for political candidates to was their hands constantly while on the campaign trail. Why? Candidates shake hundreds of hands on some days, the odds of picking up a bug that can knock a person down are pretty high.

Mary mentions that early on in his brief presidential run, General Wesley Clark skipped this essential part of running for office. Guess what? Clark got sick and missed a week of campaigning.

And yes, her longtime relationship with Heather Poe is discussed. But politics and campaigning is what the podcast--and the book--is mostly about.

Technorati tags: podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Mary Cheney Gay GLBT Politics Republican books Cheney

More on the Democrats jihad against Wal-Mart

Besides Real Clear Politics, American Enterprise Online is looking at the Democrats unfriendly obsession with retailing giant Wal-Mart.

The cover story of the print edition of the magazine is "Attack of the Snobs."

Does anyone really think Ted Kennedy or John Kerry shops at Wal-Mart?

I shop there.

Here's is an excerpt from American Enterprise Online:

A prime example of what we are calling The Attack of the Snobs is today's effort to paint Wal-Mart as a diabolical plague. This is not some spontaneous popular wildfire (for the views of ordinary Americans toward Wal-Mart see pages 54-55), but rather a coordinated agitation ginned up in war rooms by professional partisans. It is the most expensive campaign ever waged against a corporation, with more than $25 million having been sunk so far (mostly by unions) to turn public opinion against multiple aspects of the formula that created the world's most efficient retailer.

I quickly count more than a dozen Web sites that beat on Wal-Mart full time. It's a regular terrarium of screamers: hel-mart.com, walmartvswomen.com, sprawl-busters.com, wakeupwalmart.com. The heaviest is Wal-Mart Watch--with 36 employees in Washington, D.C. and a fat budget--a prize project of the Service Employees International Union. It's run by a clutch of political hacks, including John Kerry's 2004 campaign manager and other Kerry and Democratic National Committee strategists. And the other biggest attack squad, WakeUpWalMart, is steered by the political adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. So give Wal-Mart credit for creating lots of high-paying jobs for otherwise unemployable individuals.

Hillary Clinton knows which way the wind blows. She served proudly and profitably on Wal-Mart's board for seven years, without any recorded objection or complaint. But as soon as the unions and anti-sprawlers went after the firm she flipped, returning a $5,000 contribution from Wal-Mart's political action committee "because of serious differences" with company practices. As is now de rigueur in any culture skirmish, a Michael Moore-style film has been produced, accusing Wal-Mart of every sin imaginable (except profligacy). Its Washington, D.C. premiere was hosted by the honorable pot stirrers George Miller (D-CA) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA).

We've seen this pattern before. Attack a high-flying corporation (preferably one a little naive about politics) and paint it as an agent of dangerous capitalism (or social harm, or toxic cultural or political views). Before Wal-Mart it was Microsoft, the drug companies, Halliburton; now it's Exxon.

As I've commented before, the Left doesn't like Wal-Mart for another reason. Like most of the companies listed above, Wal-Mart became successful with little or no government help--the ultimate sin against their central creed: Government is good, more government is better.

Hat tip to Marshall Manson for the AE article.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Politics business Democrats Labor SEIU John Kerry Howard Dean Ted Kennedy George Miller

Breaking: Wisconsin Hitler shrine will not open to the public

A Wisconsin Hitler shrine will not have its June 25 grand opening after all.

Millard, Wisconsin dairy farmer and former Waffen SS soldier Theo Junker's (pictured above) plans for a fuehrer memorial have been junked by Walworth County bureaucrats.

Junker got his shrine built, but they won't come. He didn't think about obtaining the necessary permits to operate as either an assembly hall or a museum.

From AP via CBS 2 Chicago:

But Walworth County officials met with Junker on Thursday morning and persuaded him to keep the shrine closed, said Mike Cotter, county deputy corporation counsel. No one answered the phone at Junker's farm when The Associated Press called Thursday.

More...

(Cotter) warned Junker his farm couldn't accommodate the hundreds of visitors that could show up thanks to the media coverage. The place doesn't have parking for even 10 vehicles, Cotter said.

He also warned Junker the shrine could provoke retaliation.

"He understood that this had blossomed into something he was never expecting," Cotter said. "When he saw us today, he made the comment again about how famous he'd become. You could hear the phone ringing constantly. Constantly."

Technorati tags: holocaust denial holocaust Wisconsin Hitler anti-semitism Nazis Germany Deutschland World War II WWII

The League of Villains and China: the Left's great red hope against the USA

Although when confronted with the direct question, American Leftists will respond "No" when asked if they hate America.

But wise people know better. William R. Hawkins, writing in FrontPage Magazine, is a wise man:

Daniel Singer, the late European correspondent for The Nation, was among those on the Left who look to foreign powers for help in thwarting policies of their countries of which they disapprove. In the October 14, 1991 issue of The Nation, Singer lamented the fall of the Soviet Union, "The tanks that brought the Stalinist regime up to the Elbe were the same tanks that had liberated that part of Europe from the Nazis. Even more recently, while infecting all countries that entered its orbit with bureaucratic inefficiency, the Soviet Union was also the only potential external obstacle to the expansion of American imperialism."

Today, the Left is looking for a new champion to "contain" the United States, and, if possible, impose such a major defeat on America that a crisis of legitimacy will pave the way for revolution. It was, after all, Russia’s debacle in World War I that brought down the Romanov dynasty. And aging New Leftists still revel in how much the anti-war movement during Vietnam changed America, even if the desire to “turn the guns around” and "bring the war home" did not pan out. The attempt to recreate the 1970s mood of national decline by reviving a mass post-9/11 anti-war movement has fallen flat because Islamic fanaticism is a tough sell, even when dressed up in the rhetoric about Third World resistance to Western aggression. Islam has some charm, in that it has long been the main enemy of Christendom, but leftists are rooted in the atheistic materialism of Marx which rejects all religions.

Terrorism, of course, appeals to the romantic nature of the Left. But even they know that al-Qaeda is far too weak to pose a real global threat to U.S. hegemony. What they want is the rise of a new superpower to replace the USSR, and many seem to have found it in the People’s Republic of China. Beijing may not be as attractive as it was during the reign of Chairman Mao, when his "little red book" was all the rage, but China is still ruled by a Communist dictatorship and its "market socialism" and five year plans can still offer the "alternative model of development" that Singer called for in 1989 as the Soviet model disappeared in Europe.

With that in mind, although it appears not to be an official visit, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is in Shanghai today.

As I've noted before, Iran appears to be cozying up to enemies of the United States, forming a group I've called, in a tip-of-the-hat to kids show Jimmy Neutron, The League of Villains.

Related posts: This can't be good...Sudanese president in Iran

League of Villains update: Senior Iranian and Cuban meet

Technorati tags: Iran خبر زنان China PRC Leftists Ahmadinejad

Union members protest outside Milwaukee Springsteen concert

Folk singer Pete Seeger is a Leftist icon and a hero to the labor movement. The 87 year-old is a committed socialist and a former communist.

Earlier this year, Bruce Springsteen released a CD of Seeger covers, and he's on tour in support of the album.

The tour brought him to Milwaukee's Bradley Center, a non-union venue. Uh oh.

That got the attention of local union leaders, who protested last nights concert.

From AP:

Seeger's reputation for singing in support of the working classes made the location of Wednesday's concert "bafflingly ironic and somewhat infuriating," said Paul Friday, who coordinates the Milwaukee chapter of a union of musicians, actors and stage hands.

"We're not really protesting," he said. "We just want people to know Springsteen's taking the music of a very pro-union campaign into a venue like that."

More...

About 15 to 20 local union members held a folk sing-along and distributed leaflets with union messages and the lyrics to "We Shall Overcome" outside the arena before the concert.

"You can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union," they sang as they did a Woody Guthrie song, "The Union Maid," that Seeger often has performed.

Technorati tags: Springsteen Unions Milwaukee Wisconsin music Pete Seeger

Chimney Rock and Nebraska's commemorative quarter

Back to the theme of summer road trips out west, blogged about here on Monday.

The Devil's Tower and beyond trip took place in 2001, a year later we headed out west again to Yellowstone National Park. In Nebraska, we veered off Interstate 80 at Ogallala, taking US Route 26, which parallels the old Oregon, Mormon, and California trails.

For the most part, the pioneers who set their eyes on Chimney Rock came to this conclusion--we've finally reached the West.

The legacy of the pioneer trails is important in Nebraska, which is why Chimney Rock was chosen as the focal point for Nebraska's commemorative quarter.

Chimney Rock is located in Nebraska's Panhandle. There's an excellent visitor's center that chronicles the pioneer trail era of the West.

Photo credit to Mrs. Marathon Pundit.

Technorati tags: Nebraska Coins History Byways Photos Travel Chimney Rock

Wisconsin farmer builds Hitler shrine

Just outside the Chicago sprawl, Walworth County, Wisconsin is best known for its Lake Geneva Resort area and as the place where blues-rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash.

Unwanted attention is being brought to Walworth County, as retired farmer and former Waffen SS paratrooper Theo Junker is readying his Adolf Hitler shrine for its June 25 grand opening.

(Note, June 15: CBS 2 Chicago pullued the original story, replacing it with a new one reporting the shrine won't open to the public.)

From CBS 2 Chicago:

"Adolf Hitler is the greatest guy, so you don't know the other side," Junker said.

Junker spent $200,000 and five years building this shrine to the fuehrer and in a sense, to himself.

"They told everybody like we was (sic) monsters. They thought, 'The SS, they are bad guys,'" Junker said.

An inscribed plaque accuses the Allies of atrocities during the war.

In the same article, Junker makes the claim that not one person was gassed during Hitler's rule.

This cheesehead farmer has bratwursts for brains.

Photo courtesy of CBS 2 Chicago.

Technorati tags: holocaust denial holocaust Wisconsin Lake Geneva cheesehead Hitler anti-semitism Nazis Germany Deutschland

Four Britons lose right to sue Saudis in UK courts over torture

Here is the latest from our Saudi allies. Of course it's important remember that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been very upset that many of its subjects are currently residing in the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.

From London's Times newspaper:

Four Britons who claim that they were tortured by officials in Saudi Arabia into confessing to a bombing campaign have lost their right to sue through the British courts.

The men, who say that their interrogators used rape, beatings, and suspended them from iron bars in order to force false statements, cannot seek compensation after a House of Lords ruling yesterday.

Sandy Mitchell, Les Walker and William Sampson were arrested after a series of terrorist bombings in the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Khobar in 2000 and 2001. A fourth Briton, Ron Jones, was seized after being injured in a bomb blast outside a bookshop.

Speaking after the ruling by the law lords, Mr Jones said that the Government had backed another nation’s right to torture British citizens.

Technorati tags: UK saudi arabia House of Lords Torture Law

Iraqi police crackdown underway in Baghdad

If this is what President Bush and the Iraqi PM met about, then Bush's trip to Baghdad wasn't a waste of time.

From AP:

Government forces fanned out across Baghdad on Wednesday, setting up checkpoints, frisking motorists and causing huge traffic jams on the first day of the largest security operation in Iraq's capital since Saddam Hussein's ouster three years ago.

President Bush, back in Washington after a surprise visit to Iraq, said the crackdown offered the promise of reducing the violence that has plagued the capital.

The only reported clash between army troops and gunmen in Baghdad occurred just before noon in the Azamiyah neighborhood, when heavy exchanges of gunfire shattered the late morning quiet and sent residents, including women and children, scurrying for cover.

Overall, violence dipped slightly in the capital Wednesday, with just one car bombing killing four and wounding six. Another four people died in separate shooting incidents around Iraq.

Technorati tags: Bush Iraq العراق Baghdad War on Terror

Extremist Muslim cleric calls for Aussie PM to convert to Islam

Abu Bakar Bashir, alt. spelling of his last name is Ba'asyir, is a Muslim imam who is the "Where's Waldo" of Indonesian terrorism.

Earlier today, Bashir was released from prison after serving a two-year sentence for giving blessings to the 2002 Bali terror bombers.

From News.com Australia:

Firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was greeted by a sea of supporters punching fists in the air and screaming "Allah hu Akbar," or God is Great, as he arrived home to his Java boarding school overnight.

After a brief stop to bathe his feet and pray, Bashir immediately launched into a brief sermon, telling thousands of students and onlookers seated in a dusty courtyard before him that Australian Prime Minister John Howard should "convert to Islam."

More...

"The fight between right and wrong will never end until the end of days," he said. "Islam is the absolute truth."

"I say to all infidels, it is useless to fight Islam for you will be destroyed and Islam will win absolutely." Onlookers roared approval as Bashir urged them to "fight fanatically" for their religion.

Meanwhile, Bashir calls himself, according to the BBC, "he is just a simple preacher."

Probably not.

Technorati tags: Australia Indonesia John Howard Terrorism Bali Abu Bakar Bashir

Colorado committee calls for the firing of Ward Churchill

Well, now lets look at the justice of roosting chickens and how it pertains to America's favorite F-Troop Indian, Ward Churchill.

Well, Ward's chickens are finally coming home to roost. After three decades as a Native American poseur, America-hater, and academic fraud, the end of Churchill's undeserved career is in sight.

The Elmwood, Illinois native (but not Native American) is preparing for his last stand as a professor at the University of Colorado.

From AP:

The 17-month investigation of the professor who called some Sept. 11 victims "little Eichmanns" moved another step closer to conclusion Tuesday when a university committee said he should be fired for plagiarism and other research infractions.

But it could be days or weeks before University of Colorado officials decide whether to fire Ward Churchill, and appeals and lawsuits could drag the process out further.

The university's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct said Churchill "committed serious, repeated, and deliberate research misconduct" and on a 6-3 vote recommended he be dismissed. The recommendation goes to university officials for a final decision. The school set no timeline for its decision.

CBS 2 Chicago has a video from CBS 4 Denver (which I couldn't find on their site), right here.

Jim of Pirate Ballerina as always is right on top of things on the Ward Churchill front. PW should be remembered when the 2005 Weblog Awards are handed out.

Courtesy of that blog, you can find the complete University of Colorado Standing Committee Report.

An excerpt:

The Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder has accepted the conclusions of the Investigative Committee that Professor Ward Churchill has committed serious, repeated, and deliberate research misconduct. After reviewing the Investigative Committee's report and Professor Churchill's response, the Standing Committee is recommending to the University's Provost and Dean of Arts and Sciences a set of corrective, disciplinary, and policy changes.

With regard to corrective actions, the Standing Committee is recommending that publishers of the articles, chapters, and books in which falsification, fabrication, or plagiarism were found be informed of the Investigative Committee report. Although there may be no opportunity to publish errata or corrections in most cases, the Standing Committee hopes that the publishers takes appropriate steps to respond to the Investigative Committee's findings.

The Standing Committee did not reach, or seek, consensus with regard to disciplinary actions. Six of the voting members recommended dismissal from the University. Three members recommended suspension without pay; two of these recommended suspension for five years and one recommended suspension for two years.

Churchill's one word response to this report was "Baloney."

Read here for Drunkablog's take.

All in all, a great day for truth, justice, and the American way.

Once again, I have to wonder if the administration of Chicago's DePaul University is going to apologize to the members of the DePaul Conservative Alliance. In their attempts to protest the paid appearance of the fraud at DePaul, the DCA guys felt the heavy hand of censorship from school officials.

It turns out the students were right on the money about Ward. The administration of DePaul looks even more foolish (not an easy task) months after the fact for first, inviting Churchill to speak at DePaul--for a rumored $5,000--and then stomping on the free speech rights of some courageous DePaul students who tried to blow the whistle on the phony Indian, plagiarist, fabricator, and all around liar.

Technorati tags: Ward Churchill DePaul Free Speech Academic freedom Chicago Colorado fraud

Rove not indicted

Last month liberal web site Truthout.org reported the indictment of Karl Rove, as Pajamas blogger Eric Umansky informed his readers.

Here is the partial apology from Truthout that Eric posted on his blog:

While we paid very careful attention to the sourcing on this story, we erred in getting too far out in front of the news-cycle. In moving as quickly as we did, we caused more confusion than clarity.

Last night Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told Rove's attorney that Bush's key advisor won't be indicted in regards to the CIA leak case.

Truthout needs to change its name to "Untruthout," I guess.

Technorati tags: Karl Rove Pajamas Media Eric Umansky Truthout Patrick Fitzgerald

Bush in Baghdad for another surprise visit

President Bush flew to Baghdad earlier today for a surprise visit.

His next trip, if he hopes to gain political points for the effort, shouldn't be a surprise. His unannounced visits just underlie the overriding issue in central Iraq: It's not a safe place.

Technorati tags: Bush Iraq العراق Baghdad

Democrats on fool's errand with Wal-Mart issue: UPDATED!

In regards to the subject of Wal-Mart, it's always been obvious to me that Democratic politicians are listening the their funders from big labor rather than its working-class base it claims to represent.

Marshall Manson tipped me to this Real Clear Politics article that puts some hard numbers on my beliefs:

· Democratic candidates face different constituencies in different geographic areas, but it is hard to imagine any Democratic candidates in diverse districts winning with the defection of 3-in-10 African-Americans and Hispanics.

· Overall, 40% of registered voters would vote against an anti- Wal-Mart Democratic candidate, while just 18% would vote for such a candidate--a 2-to-1 margin that would be hard to overcome among the balance who say the candidate's anti- Wal-Mart stance would make no difference.

The temptation to "stand up to Wal-Mart" as a campaign ploy reflects the sometimes cocooning and self-deceptive nature of Democratic Party activists. Indeed, in RT Strategies polls we consistently find that the most vociferously anti- Wal-Mart groups are Northeast and West Coast liberals who themselves rarely or never shop at Wal-Mart, shunning the retailer as not worthy of their patronage. They cannot understand how others fail to reach the same conclusion. At the extreme, such a person as a Democratic candidate for office might even want to suggest a few new laws or regulatory interpretations to help those who cannot help but dally in the devil's workshop.

The author of the article is Thomas Riehle, a long-time Democratic pollster.

Ald. Joe "No foie gras for me" Moore is the champion of the anti-Wal Mart forces in Chicago.

I used to live in his ward, there is just one decent retail plaza in his 49th Ward, and it's on the Evanston border. It's not a well-to-do area, in short, it's filled with people who are target customers for Wal-Mart, and these residents probably hop in their cars or a CTA bus and take Touhy Avenue down to the Niles Wal-Mart, contributing to the sales tax revenue of that suburb.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune--free registration required---took Moore to task in an editorial.

Yet some Chicago aldermen want to welcome Wal-Mart with a slap to the head. They're pushing an ordinance that would require all so-called big-box retailers in the city to pay their workers at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits. The $13 minimum would apply to anyone who works more than five hours a week in a store larger than 75,000 square feet. A University of Illinois at Chicago study last year estimated that, as of 2003, this would have applied to about 35 stores in Chicago.

So why Wal-Mart workers and not, say, Radio Shack workers?

Ald. Joe Moore (49th), sponsor of one of several versions of the wage ordinance, argues that the largest retailers "can absorb the higher wage costs." And, he said, "they have nowhere else to go."

Now, as far as we know, Ald. Moore does not have a background in retailing. He worked for the city's Law Department before he joined the City Council. But even if he were Ald. Sam Walton, we'd argue that a City Council member has no grounds for telling a private business what wage scale it can or can't "absorb."

The Trib goes on to point out that yes, Wal-Mart does have other places to go. There are 18 Wal-Marts in Chicago's suburbs, the first Wal-Mart will open on Chicago's West Side this summer, bringing 400 much-needed jobs to an impoverished neighborhood.

My advice to Moore is to walk around his ward and talk to his Rogers Park constituents and ask them what they think about a Wal-Mart opening up on the North Side of Chicago.

My guess is that there answers will surprise him.

And as far as I know, Wal-Mart does not serve foie gras in their cafeterias.

Go for it, Joe.

From a comment of my crosspost on the Illinoize blog:

There are quite a few of us up here in Joe Moore's ward who think that he's wildly off track. When you're looking at foie gras and Wal-Mart, it's a question of emphasis. JoMo's been deeply concerned about goose livers (but not veal) and national policy on Wal-Mart. Good for him and the national Democrats who are using him as a test proxy for these issues.

The other side of that equation, though, is that he's been ignoring things that people around here really care about. He completely bungled a threatened landfill on our lakefront, and we really just lucked into finding out about it in time to kill it off. He screwed over a small grassroots group that was trying to get local job training. And although he's on the City's Health Committee, this ward is one of the least served areas in the City, and has been recognized federally as medically underserved.

I don't think people would have any trouble forgiving these flights of fancy on luxury food and national policy, if he were tending to business at home. But he's not.

It'll be a very interesting election up here next February.

Note: Joe Moore is up for re-election early next year.

2nd update, June 15: Betsy's Page (a big deal blog) adds more, and links back here.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Joe Moore
Chicago Labor Illinois business retail foie gras

Al Gore to train 1,000 Al Gore messengers

I don't know if this appears to be a bad science-fiction movie, or a demented multi-level marketing scheme, but Al Gore is looking for 1,000 Al Gores. Well, really he's looking for 1,000 messengers to spread the word about global warming.

Gore has a new movie and book, An Inconvenient Truth out.

By the way, how many people, even semi-literate ones, haven't at least heard about the concept of global warming?

From Reuters:

The former vice president, a Democrat, said on Monday that by the end of the summer he would start a bipartisan education campaign to train 1,000 people to give a version of his slide show on global warming featured in the film "An Inconvenient Truth" and book of the same name.

"This moment cannot be allowed to pass," Gore told reporters in New York. "I have seen and heard times before when the awareness of the climate crisis has peaked and then a few months later it's gone. I think this time is different, but I have to say I'm not certain of that."

The book is an expanded version of the film. Both are based on a slide show he has given more than 1,000 times over the past 30 years on the dangers of global warming. He says climate change is a crisis that has become a moral issue.

One thing comes to mind when I hear "Al Gore" and "slide show."

Sleep.

Oh, not everyone agrees about human-induced global warming of the planet. Joe Six Pack puts some chill on Al Gore's beliefs in his Geosciblog.

Technorati tags: Al Gore Global Warming An Inconvenient Truth Books Movies Democrats

Free Alaa by Googlebombing Egypt

I usually only take part in this kind of mischief if I know the blogger or I strongly believe in the cause. Mark at Windypundit is a friend-of-the-blog, and I've blogged about the jailing of Egytpian blogger Alaa a few times.

So both conditions have strongly been met.

The indented text is lifted completely from Mark's blog. I'm sure he won't mind

On May 7, Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah (علاء أحمد سيف الإسلام عبدالفتاح) was arrested there during a protest. As part of the world-wide response, several other bloggers have have created the Free Alaa blog to chronicle his ongoing detention and legal troubles.

You may have noticed that I didn't link to the Free Alaa blog through its name. That's because I'm joining with a lot of other bloggers to try to Googlebomb Egypt. That is, we're all trying to game the Google search engine so that the Free Alaa blog appears as one of the top hits for the word "Egypt".

You can join in simply by linking to the Free Alaa blog using "Egypt" as the link text.
I was doing it throughout the last couple of paragraphs, but you can also do a standalone link like this:

Egypt.

It's really easy.

Egypt.

Please join in if you are so inclined. It only takes one link from a page to help a lot.

Egypt.

Of course, if you want to make more than one link, that's okay too.

Egypt Egypt Egypt.

In fact, go wild.

Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt.

So there.

Alaa's blog is here.

And for those people living in the Chicago area, or thinking of traveling here to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, keep in mind, about half of the admission to the special exhibit goes straight to the Egyptian government--the same government, that locked up Alaa for participating in a peaceful protest.

Think about that before you buy those high-priced tickets.

From Pajamas Media: "What if Hosni Dies While I'm in Jail?"

Previously on Marathon Pundit:

Alaa in prison: Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review #4 follow-up

Dozens of Coptic Christians protest outside Chicago King Tut exhibit: UPDATED!

Technorati tags: Egypt Chicago Illinois King Tut Field Museum Museums Alaa Free Speech human-rights blog Middle East مصر Google

Zarqawi successor named

Let's hope that like his predecessor, and the many drummers for Spinal Tap, his reign comes to an explosive end.

AP has the news.

"Al-Qaida in Iraq's council has agreed on Sheik Abu Hamza al-Muhajer to be the successor for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the leadership of the organization," said a statement signed by the group on an Islamic militant Web forum where it often posts messages.

It said al-Muhajer was "a beloved brother with jihadi (holy war) experience and a strong footing in knowledge."

Technorati tags: al-qaida War on Terror Bush Iraq Zarqawi Muhajer

Summer road trip not to be missed

In 2001 my family and I took this same Black Hills into Montana trip detailed in a New York Times article last week. Devil's Tower, the Little Bighorn battlefield, but we went beyond the New York Times suggestion, driving all the way to Glacier National Park.

Photo credit to Mrs. Marathon Pundit.

Hat tip to Bill Hobbs for the New York Times article.

Technorati tags: Montana Wyoming South Dakota Black Hills vacation travel

Medary blogging from paradise

Blogger Medary took a Polynesian cruise, Hawaii to Tahiti, and he's blogging about from the various ports of calls on that odyssey.

He has some excellent photos posted on his blog.

Technorati tags: Hawaii Tahiti Polynesia Cruise ship photos

Paris Hilton breaks promise to Australian kids' charity

Like many Hollywood celebrities, Paris Hilton talks a good game when the cameras are focused on her, but her follow-through stinks.

For evidence, there's the sad story of Queensland Australia's Paradise Kids.

The skinny blonde was in Australia in 2004 for the filming of the motion picture House of Wax. During that trip, she visited the sick children at Paradise Kids.

From News.com Australia:

"I'll get a few friends together. I know the Backstreet Boys will help out for sure and I talked to Blu Cantrell last night," Hilton claimed at the time. Missy Elliott was another big-name act mentioned.

"I definitely want to do this," Hilton told gathered media. "My grandmother died of cancer and I almost lost my cousin to leukemia. It's just something very important to me.

I love kids and I just feel it's the right thing to do. It makes me feel good about myself and it helps other people."

To date, no benefit concert has taken place and efforts by Paradise Kids to contact Hilton have been unsuccessful.

It gets worse. Paradise Kids co-founder Reverend Dr. Ian Mavor called Hilton "a lovely person and I think she was well-intentioned at the time," but added, "The promise hasn't amounted to anything – nothing, not a penny," Rev Mavor said. "We really needed the funds."

Three months after the Hilton's pledge, an Australian newspaper reported that the attention given to Paradise Kids resulting from her visit led to $500,000 in donations to the charity.

Mavor told News.com Australia that not only is that report false, but it has hurt the group's fundraising efforts, giving Australians the impression that Paradise Kids doesn't need the money.

But I'm sure that promise made Paris feel good about herself.

Technorati tags: Paris Hilton Hilton Celebrities movies Australia Queensland Charity

Viva Mexico! Mexicans beat Iran in World Cup

And to think the game took place in Nuremburg....Mexico defeated Iran 3-1, which in the low scoring world of soccer, qualifies as a blow-out. Before the match, there was a large anti-Iranian government protest.

From AP:

Iran coach Branko Ivankovic was left to explain how his team fell apart late in the second half -- and whether politics had cast a shadow on the field.

"Nobody is allowed to discuss politics," Ivankovic said at the postgame news conference. "We are allowed to discuss the opponent, to discuss football, and in this case, to discuss Mexico."

There was plenty to discuss about that, too -- namely, how Iran's late-game lapses turned the Mexican fans' bored whistles into cheers.

Technorati tags: World Cup soccer Mexico México خبر ايران politics

News you probably missed: Latvian president addressed joint session of Congress

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga visited Washington last week. The former World War II displaced person, resident of Morocco, and Canadian university professor addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, and met with President Bush and Vice President Cheney the following day.

Say what? You didn't hear about it? The MSM, and yes, even the blogs ignored this story.

Vike-Freiberga is a fascinating woman. She is a fluent speaker of Latvian, German, French, English, and Spanish.

The five teenage years she spent living in Morocco probably left a strong effect on the psyche of the future psychology professor. Her family left Morocco for Canada for safety reasons: Moroccan pro-independence terrorists were killing Europeans in a random fashion.

Vike-Freiberga began her improbable rise to the presidency of the Latvian Republic when she was chosen to head the Latvian Institute, a Latvian version of the now-defunct US Information Agency.

A year later, she was elected president. Although Latvia is a parliamentary democracy, the president is not a figurehead. Vike-Freiberga's powers are roughly on par with those of French President Jacques Chirac.

She is adamantly pro-American and pro-defense. This fall, Latvia will host the annual NATO summit.

In the Name of Freedom is Ausma Cimdina's biography of President Vike-Frieberga.

Cimdina included this Vike-Freiberga response--before she was elected president--to a newspaper reporter's question to her on what she would do if Latvia's national security was threatened.

Freedom is the highest value, because it includes all other values within itself. Freedom must be defended to the very last. One must sacrifice one's life for freedom if necessary, because that means defending one's own rights and those of one's nation, defending one's own values and those of one's nation. Anyone who cannot defend his own values must live under someone else's values. (Emphasis mine.) Someone who cannot defend his own rights loses all rights and becomes someone else's servant. Anyone who wants to live as a free individual with full rights must be prepared to defend what he believes, armed if necessary, sacrificing his life if necessary. Nothing of value in life comes without cost. One has to be ready to fight, and that requires courage. As the folk song would have it, "The coward had five sons, none wanted to go to war." If there were no alternative, I would be prepared to order an attack. I would be ready to go to battle myself, just like the sister of the cowards in the same folk song: "The daughter went to off to war, her shawl streaming behind her."

This remarkable woman spoke in front of Congress on Thursday, and it seems no one bothered to report on it.

Technorati tags: Latvia Latvija Vike-Freiberga politics MSM media congress canada morocco terrorism

Mark Steyn on beheadings

It turns out that a wiser person than myself has isn't afraid to write about beheadings in the Islamic world.

From Mark Steyn:

Take the subject of, say, decapitation. There's a lot of it about in the Muslim world. These Somali Islamists, in the course of their seizure of Mogadishu, captured troops from the warlords' side and beheaded them. Zarqawi made beheading his signature act, cutting the throats of the American hostage Nick Berg and the British hostage Ken Bigley and then releasing the footage as boffo snuff videos over the Internet.

But it's not just guerrillas and insurgents who are hot for decapitation. The Saudis, who are famously "our friends," behead folks on a daily basis. Last year, the kingdom beheaded six Somalis for auto theft. They'd been convicted and served five-year sentences but at the end thereof the Saudi courts decided to upgrade their crime to a capital offense. Some two-thirds of those beheaded in Saudi Arabia are foreign nationals, which would be an unlikely criminal profile in any civilized state and suggests that the justice "system" is driven by the Saudis' contempt for non-Saudis as much as anything else.

Which brings us to Toronto. In court last week, it was alleged that the conspirators planned to storm the Canadian Parliament and behead the prime minister. On the face of it, that sounds ridiculous. As ridiculous as it must have seemed to Ken Bigley, a British contractor in Iraq with no illusions about the world: He'd spent most of his adult life grubbing around the seedier outposts of empire and thought he knew the way the native chappies did things. He never imagined the last sounds he'd ever hear were delirious cries of "Allahu Akhbar" and the man behind him reaching for his blade. And he never imagined that back in his native land his fellow British subjects -- young Muslim men -- would boast to the London Times about downloading the video of his execution and watching it on their cellphones.

Once again, I'm waiting for those "moderate" Muslim groups such as CAIR and the Muslim Council of Britain to denounce this evil trend in specific terms. And that includes nameing names.

Technorati tags: Zarqawi Terrorism Iraq beheadings al-Qaeda CAIR Muslim Council Islam saudi arabia السعودية

More Iraqi beheadings

Not that anyone should be surprised, but the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has not altered the viciousness of the Iraqi terror insurgency.

The barbarians are still beheading people. From AP:

Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis.

The video as grisly as any the al-Qaida in Iraq leader issued was clearly designed to quash hopes that the Sunni-dominated insurgency might change tactics by ending attacks on Shiite civilians and institutions, especially the police.

One way to end the beheadings is to capture or kill the heheaders, such as was done to al-Zarqawi.

Related post: Islam's beheading problem

Technorati tags: Zarqawi Terrorism Iraq beheadings al-Qaeda

Buttercup blogging

I took this photo in the Glenview Woods Forest Preserve near my home during my morning run today. The flowers are common buttercups, a European introduction. Once again taken with my reliable Motorola V3 RAZR.

Technorati tags: wildflowers Photography nature buttercup Motorola

Son also rises...Mr. Right's latest photo caption contest is up

President Bush is the topic of Mr. Right's latest photo caption contest. My entry involves breakfast cereals.

Technorati tags: humor Humour Jokes Bush caption

Daschle in New Hampshire

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle visited New Hampshire a couple of days ago.

Certainly the former South Dakota senator is considering a 2008 run for president, as AP reports:

Daschle criticized Bush for launching the war in Iraq, secret domestic wiretapping and a national debt that he argued will be passed on to future generations. He complained that the administration is too cozy with oil companies and has ignored the threat of global warming.

No longer constrained by the politics of his heavily Republican state, the former South Dakota senator has been free to rail against the administration since he lost his Senate seat to Republican John Thune in 2004.

Daschle denied that he has moved to the left since leaving office, arguing that his former constituents would agree with him. "I think South Dakotans are far more aware of many of the problems created by this administration than they were two years ago," he said.

The former Senate Minority leader spoke to a crowd of more than 100 Democrats, many state legislators and city officials, and received several standing ovations, hoots and hollers.

As a private citizen, Candidate Daschle won't be able to bully the National Park Service into letting him have access to the top of Mount Rushmore for a political fundraiser, as he did in 2001.

On the flipside, I'm sure his airline-lobbyist wife will come up with a few unique ploys to work around the system.

Related: Feingold will run in 2008

Technorati tags: New Hampshire Politics Daschle South Dakota 2008 Democrats Mount Rushmore

Luddites in the news: Saudi Arabia

Yes Luddism in its modern form is prospering in Saudi Arabia.

From the Arab News:

Yet another incident erupted when a camera phone went "click" at a wedding ceremony here, the Al-Madinah daily reported. An attendee of the wedding took a picture of the bride and groom. A relative of the bride got upset and began arguing with the unwary photographer. The argument fell apart into fisticuffs among female relatives of both groom and bride. The men got involved quickly thereafter, leaving the newlyweds with such "pleasant" memories of their first day as husband and wife. The relatives must be so proud.

I've been to shotgun weddings that were much classier.

Technorati tags: camera phone saudi arabia السعودية cell phone

Streisand concert tour to be a fundraiser for her causes and probably herself

Liberal activist and occasional performer Barbra Streisand will tour this fall, hitting twenty cities, as AP reports.

She's giving some of the money from her shows to several causes, including the environment, education and women's health.

Streisand said "the prime reason" she decided to tour again was "the increasingly urgent need for private citizen support to combat dangerous climate change, along with education and health issues" -- and she'll be giving some of the money from her shows to benefit those causes

The money will be distributed through the Streisand Foundation.

Babs' last tour was in 1994.

About that tour. Here's an excerpt from Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy:

"Greed" is a label that Streisand likes to attach to the American business community and capitalists in general. But when Streisand herself needs money to support her extravagant lifestyle, avarice is suddenly acceptable. In 1993, after years of lavish spending and little work, she discovered she was almost broke. As she admitted to the Washington Post, she started "running out of money because I don't work very often, and I bought all this land and I can't sell my other land and I'm going to have to sing just to pay for my house.

During that tour, Schweizer wrote, Streisand "was projected to make $10 million a night."

Of course the AP story has it that "proceeds" from the tour will go some of Barbra's pet concerns such as the environment. What percentage?

One final question: During the tour, will be Streisand be taking a six hour tour bus ride from say, St. Louis to Chicago, or will she take a 45-minute private jet jaunt--damn the environment!--leaving her underlings behind on Interstate 55 looking at corn stalk stubble.

Technorati tags: Barbra Streisand Music liberals environment books Hypocrisy Peter Schweizer

Zarqawi was still alive when Iraqi police found him

Well, it looks like the terrorist suffered after his world caved in on him Wednesday.

From AP:

A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling on a gurney when Iraqi police arrived at the site bombed by U.S. forces there, a top American military spokesman said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, briefing military reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned that al-Zarqawi was alive after getting briefings on the military operation that netted al-Zarqawi and several others.

"He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell said.

Nick Berg probably a lot more when Zarqawi himself was beheading the young American.

Technorati tags: Iraq Terrorism Zarqawi Al Qaeda War on Terror beheadings

First World Cup Soccer hooligans arrested in Germany

And no one should be surprised about the nationality of the arrested hooligans: They're English.

From the Times of London:

Three Englishmen who vandalised an airport taxi within minutes of arriving in Germany for the World Cup are believed to be the first hooligans of any nationality to be arrested.

The men, from the Midlands, were held in the huge German police operation aimed at minimising trouble during the month-long tournament. They were detained overnight in Cologne and appeared in court yesterday morning where they pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly.

The three verbally abused a taxi driver and attacked his vehicle when he refused to take them to the city centre because they were so drunk. The court fined the men and banned them from Cologne for the duration of the tournament, but they were allowed to go free and are believed to be still in Germany.

The article gives details on German precautions to prevent widespread hooliganism, but leaves out any mention of awards the English rowdies may have won for being the first of many hooligans to be arrested during the month long World Cup finals.

Technorati tags: England World Cup soccer Köln Deutschland Hooligans germany

Juan Cole gets a lump of coal in his Yale stocking

Well, there is finally at least a little bit of common sense emanating from academia, and from Yale University, of all places.

Yale of course edged out DePaul University to win first prize in the Collegiate Network's Campus Outrage awards. Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is the former Deputy Foreign Secretary of the Taliban, who brought his credentials of a fourth-grade education to the exclusive college to participate in a non-degree program.

Visit Clint Taylor's Nail Yale blog to learn more about the Jethro Bodine of the Ivy League.

But the pendulum may be swinging back the other way there. University of Michigan Middle Eastern Studies Professor and Jew-baiter Juan Cole apparently will not be joining the faculty at Yale, as The Jewish Week reports.

A tenured professor at the University of Michigan, Cole was tapped earlier this year by a Yale University search committee to teach about the modern Middle East. In two separate votes in May, Cole was approved by both the sociology and history departments, the latter the university’s largest.

The only remaining hurdle was the senior appointments committee, also known as the tenure committee, a group consisting of about a half-dozen professors from various disciplines across the university.

Last week, however, in what is shaping up as the latest in a series of heated battles over the political affiliations of Middle Eastern studies professors, the tenure committee voted down Cole’s nomination. Several Yale faculty members described the decision to overrule the votes of the individual departments as "highly unusual."

Highly unusual because an Israel-hating professor has been rebuffed.

Hat tip once again to Dr. Steven Plaut.

Technorati tags: Juan Cole Yale Michigan Israel Academia DePaul Taliban

Another slow blogging day

Well, even though I just got home from work, Blogger was down much of the day. More posts coming.

Zarqawi killed by bomb

A huge victory in the War on Terror today. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and one of the thugs behind the many beheadings (scroll down a few posts) in the Middle East, is dead.

I'm watching Tony Snow's press conference on Fox, and ironically, there's a picture of Zarqawi's dead head--presumably attached to whatever is left of the rest of his body, on the right hand corner of the screen.

Technorati tags: Zarqawi Al Qaeda Terrorism Iraq العراق military beheadings

Illinois Runs: New Chicago area running program

I am on the board of directors of Illinois Runs, a new running and marathon training program organized by longtime runner and running program coordinator Beth Onines.

Unlike other running groups, Illinois Runs is focused upon training and performance improvement.

And starting in a couple of weeks, not only does the fall marathon training program for Illinois Runs begins, you can find me on Chicago's Lakefront on most Sunday mornings with the group.

Click here for the various bio pages, including mine.

Click here to sign up for the Chicago Marathon and fall marathon training program.

Technorati tags: Illinois Runs Chicago metroblogging running Training marathon training Marathon half marathon training run Illinois Runs Chicago Marathon

Mob turncoat and "hit" survivor Ken Eto's death revealed

This was a huge story in the early 1980s in Chicago. Ken Eto was a mob gambling boss who survived three gunshots to the head--the bullets bounced off his skull--then walked into a pharmacy where he had the druggist call an ambulance.

"The Outfit," as the mob in Chicago is known, wanted Eto dead because they feared he would testify against them. With little to lose after his brush with death, he did just that, and lived in protective custody until two years ago. His death was revealed earlier today.

As I recall, the men sent to kill Eto used a .22 caliber gun. A more powerful weapon would've succeeded in killing Eto, which the two hitmen thought about with regret for a few days, before they ended up stuffed into the trunk of a car.

Their hitmen finished the job.

Technorati tags: mob Chicago crime guns

Blogging on the run

I'm on my way home from a meeting for Illinois Runs. I'm a member of its board of directors. Blogging on my Treo 650, riding on an "el" train on Chicago's North Side.

Technorati tags: Treo 650 Chicago running run marathon I-Run Illinois Runs

Islam's beheading problem

The news from Canada just keeps getting worse. The good news the creeps in the alleged terror cell have been caught. But recent revelations tell of an even more sinister plot.

From Reuters:

One member of an alleged al Qaeda-inspired terror ring arrested in Canada last weekend faces the accusation that he sought to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

The man, Steven Chand, 25, was among 15 members of the alleged ring who appeared in a heavily guarded courtroom northwest of Toronto on Tuesday to set dates for bail hearings.

"There's an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada," Chand's lawyer, Gary Batasar, told reporters.

There is a problem withinn Islam, as Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of al-Arabiya television noted in 2004:

It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.

Legendary Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko had an alter ego named Slats Grobnik. Slats was a "forgotten genaration,"--too young to fight in World War II, but born before the baby-boomers--working class Chicagoan. Kind of an older version of one of Saturday Night Live's Superfans.
If he was still alive, I could see Royko using the Slats character to say, "What's with Islam and all these beheadings."

Examples to be cited of course include Nick Berg, Georgi Lazov, Daniel Pearl, Kim Sun-il, Paul M. Johnson, Kenneth Bigley, Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong, Durmus Kumdereli, Oriana Fallaci, Fabrizio Quatrocchi, Guillermo Sobero, Surin Somjit, and certainly many more.

This verse from the Qu'ran is cited as justification by groups such as al-Qaeda as justifcation for the carrying out of this brutal death sentance:

Sura [47:4]

If you encounter (in war) those who disbelieve, you may strike the necks. If you take them as captives you may set them free or ransom them, until the war ends.

So Slats, that's what's going on with Islam and beheadings. There's a very serious problem within that faith, and "moderate" groups such as CAIR and the Muslim Council of Britain need to acknowledge it in a specific and public manner.

Technorati tags: al qaeda Terrorism Qur/'an CAIR Canada Islam Muslims Muslim Council beheadings

Vandals tag churches on "666 Day"

Some goofs with nothing better to do decided to vandalize some churches and church property in Evanston yesterday on June 6, 2006. Yeah, "666 Day."

To "celebrate," couldn't they have just bought tickets to The Omen remake?

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Vandals took advantage of the so-called evil date – 06.06.06 – to scrawl some sinister graffiti on churches in Evanston.

Overnight, they spray-painted satanic symbols on three separate churches. The doors of one sanctuary were vandalized, as was a church van.

A Catholic church, a Methodist church and a Church of God were all hit.

Evanston police have no suspects.

Okay, the day is over, fellas. Please get on with your miserable and meaningless lives.

Technorati tags: 666 Evanston Illinois The Omen Religion crime

Canadian terror bust analysis

I found this op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor by Canadian journalist Rondi Anderson:

Canada is not France. Canada's Muslim population is not marginalized out of fear and contempt, not left alone to manage its own affairs. Even though a Toronto mosque had its windows smashed following the arrests, that sort of thuggery and stupidity is not systemic or common. Canada's Muslims are not prevented from attending good schools or holding high-powered jobs. Nor are they, for the most part, unwilling or unable to fit in peacefully and productively. So the mayor's concern was misplaced. His comment should have been something along the lines of, "I wonder what Canada's Muslim leaders/moderate Muslim citizens can do to prevent this kind of thing in future?"

In countries like Canada, or England, or Spain, where citizens have been shocked by the news of home-grown cells, I believe more needs to be asked of Muslim religious and community leaders. Western Muslims are a powerful potential ally in the broader "war on terror." It is true that most Muslims are not terrorists. But we need Muslims themselves to admit that most of the terrorists who threaten us are Muslim.

And I'd like to add that groups like CAIR have to stop whining "Islamophobia" every time someone comes to a similar conclusion about Islam and terror.

Technorati tags: Canada Terrorism Islam Toronto الإسلام CAIR

Prairie flower in Illinois

I took a picture of this coreopsis this morning on my RAZR phone this morning in the Linne Prairie, a restored long-grass prairie in Morton Grove, IL

Technorati tags: Illinois photos Motorola Mobile Phones wildflowers

The American Thinker on the D-Day "quagmire"

From Thomas Lifson on June 6, 2006 in the American Thinker:

Some people are having fun with the alleged significance of today’s date combing three sixes (though you have to omit 2, which kind of spoils the game). But we should not forget that on June 6, 1944 incredibly brave Allied forces landed at Normandy and began the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. The operation remains one of the great military offensives of all time, and the planning, stealth, and execution are of an order that boggles the mind.

Imagine how today’s media would have handled the operation. For all its success, there were errors, and casualties were horrendous. Once the landing was complete, the bocage hedgerows made progress of our tanks very slow, at least until GI ingenuity improvised welded-on rakes to uproot them. The omniscient journalists would have had a field day (pardon the pun) denouncing the incompetence of Ike and calling on FDR to fire him.

Technorati tags: D-Day History

Democratic nutjobs hop on anti-Lieberman bandwagon

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is one Democrat I like, so I shouldn't be shocked that he's facing a tough primary challenge this year.

Being a strong supporter of President Bush's Iraq war policy isn't a perfect fit for Connecticut, something Lieberman acknowledges.

From Reuters:

Challenger Ned Lamont's underdog bid to unseat Lieberman in Democratic-leaning Connecticut could offer an early gauge of the intensity of anti-war sentiment ahead of November's midterm elections, along with a measure of the influence of the Internet activists and bloggers who have flocked to his cause.

"Senator Lieberman has cheered on the president every step of the way when it comes to the invasion of Iraq, and he is too quick to compromise on core Democratic principles," Lamont, a businessman and former Greenwich town selectman, told Reuters.

Let's see what's going on among the "Internet activists" in regards to the Lamont-Lieberman race. From the comments page on this story from Huffington Post:

On the war, I've done what I thought was right for my country. I obviously haven't done it for political reasons," Lieberman told Reuters
No you did it for Israel you lying sack of crap! Commenter Hacksaw

LIEBERMAN IS A WIMP,AND A TRAITOR.he is the kind of democrat WE DON'T NEED.he is the "anti-kennedy",a total kiss ass to whoever is in power. liberman helped gore lose bigtime,a giant worm without a soul. Commenter gopnot

If Lieberman loses who can devote all of his time to sucking Bushpig balls. Right now he's only able to do it 75% of the time. That seems to pain him. Commenter MoeLarryandJesus.

Fucking Zionist bastard, this scumbag should have been out of there five years ago! Commenter ourdaughterswedding.

Lieberman is another fifth columnist (Jewish) Israel firster Senator who was all for the attack on Iran for Israel as well (Lieberman receives the most funding from the pro-Israel lobby -AIPAC and similar. Commenter NOBOMBSONIRANFORISRAEL

Now here's a level headed observation:

Looking at these comments, it's hard to believe that just five and a half years ago, this was your nominee for the second highest office in the land. Now he is an outcast?

Is this further proof of Al Gore's bad judgment? Maybe it's convincing evidence of how pervasive Bush Derangement Syndrome has become among Democrats. Commenter BJClinton

It's emotions expressed in this Huffington Post thread that give me pause when someone like Dick Morris says the Democrats are going to win back Congress this fall. The looney segment of the Democrats will torpedo their hopes. There is no holding these nuts back; they'll sink their own ship, and as they go down, their last words will be "Bush is Hitler."

But the Democrats are the party of diversity.

Technorati tags: Lieberman Connecticut 2006 BDS Democrats Israel anti-semitism יהודים Ned Lamont

Holocaust denying Iranian president may be headed to the land of the holocaust

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the President of Iran and a holocaust denier. Iran may the World Cup Soccer finals, and Mad Mahmoud says he'll travel to Germany, where the holocaust was drawn up, to cheer on his team.

If by some miracle he visits the site of the Dachau concentration camp, I'm sure he'll claim it's nothing but a Hollywood movie set.

The motto for the 2006 World Cup Soccer Finals is "A Time to Make Friends".

Technorati tags: Germany Deutschland World Cup soccer Football FIFA Iran خبر ايران holocaust denial

Woman suing dating service because it couldn't find a man for her

Chuck Shepard has a column in many alternative free weeklies called News of the Weird.

In that column, he has a semi-regular features called Our Litigious Society.

Here's another contribution to that society. From NBC 5 Chicago:

A suburban woman is suing a Schaumburg dating service, called Soulmates, Inc., because she claims the company didn't find her a suitable mate.

Galina Safir said she specified she wanted a man who, like her, was Russian, Jewish and no older than 52.

Officials from Soulmates disputed Safir's claim, saying she didn't list her preferences until a month into the contract.

They call the suit "ridiculous, but Safir said she wants her $4,000 back.

I don't know where Ms. Safir lives, but I can assure her that in the area I live, there are plenty of men who fit that profile.

Next. I've never used a dating service, and since I'm married, I have no plans to hook up with one. I may appear naïve, but is $5 grand a normal fee to use such a service?

Here's another problem I see with Soulmates that would've scared me away: The lead testimonial on Asoulmate.com reads:

Michael and I were married in "The Windy City", which seems very appropriate for our "whirl-wind" lives and romance. I am a successful entrepreneur with a huge zest for life. Mike is a physician with a schedule that allows very little time for socializing. We feel our paths would have never crossed if we had not taken the time to become members at Soulmates. Five years later, we have two beautiful children together.

This "testimonial" was either a coached write-up, or ghostwritten by an out-of-town ad agency. I'm a fourth-generation Chicagoan. No one, and I mean no one who lives here calls Chicago "The Windy City" in normal conversation, and atestimoniall is supposed to be normal. Yeah, local newspaper writes use "Windy City" once in a while, but only to give a little variety in theirverbiagee.

For the most part, we call it "Chicago." Or "the City."

Galina Safir made a bad business decision in the Windy City, uh, I mean, Chicago. Next time, Galina, try Craig's List. True, they don't screen out married people or psychos, but the price is much more reasonable.

Technorati tags: Craig/'s List Dating Chicago Windy City Россия Russia

Ringo-rama spam-o-rama

I'm expecting a call from the FBI any minute now. Yes, I accidentally sent out an invite that was supposed to go just 5ppl, only one of them had anything to to with this blog.

Guilty as charged, m'lord. All I can say is, the stress level in my life is pretty high, as I noted here on May 30:

Light blogging day...
Yes, the blogging has been a little lighter of late. And there's a reason, but I can't really get into why. It's got nothing to do with my homelife. I haven't been arrested and no one is suing me. When the all clear has been sounded, I'll let you know.

On the plus side, while the all clear celebration isn't here yet, things are a little less worse than they were late last month.

Sorry for the spam!

Technorati tags: Spam Email ringo Stupid moron I/'m an idiot

Canada terror group: Fitting right in

Although I don't agree with the statement reported on Michelle Malkin's blog--the arrestees come from a "broad strata" of society, but within Canada's Muslim population, the group of males accused in the plot do come from a broad strata.

From FrontPage Magazine:

"Turns out they don’t have to find us. They are us."

This statement by Toronto journalist Joe Warmington sums up perfectly the arrests last Friday of 17 suspected Islamist terrorists, mostly in the Toronto area, who were planning multiple attacks on targets in southern Ontario. Shockingly for Canadians, almost all the suspects, who range in age from 17 to 43 years, were either born in Canada or had arrived here at an early age and possess Canadian citizenship. Five are under the age of 18 and thus will be tried as young offenders under Canadian law; most of the others are in their early twenties.

Fitting right in is part of the al-Qaeda game plan.

Feingold will run in 2008

Although he won't make an announcement for a year or so, it's apparent to Pat at Brainster that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) wants to elected the big cheese in the White House in 2008. And I agree with Pat.

The Washington Times reported on Russ's recent speech in New Hampshire:

Sen. Russ Feingold told party faithful here yesterday that Democrats must shake their "timid" image and could best demonstrate they have a backbone by joining his call to censure President Bush.

If Democrats fail to stand up for what they believe in, it won't matter if they win back control of Congress, Mr. Feingold said, noting that the party held the majority when the Senate approved the Iraq war and passed the USA Patriot Act.

"It's not enough to just be in the majority. You have to stand for something," said the Wisconsin Democrat, who opposed both votes. "You have to do the right thing."

Much has been made about Feingold's two divorces being a political liability for him. However, the real issue: Is America ready for a president named Russ?

Technorati tags: Wisconsin Feingold Politics 2008 Democrats New Hampshire

Latest Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review podcast is available

My wife drove us home from Lincolnshire (see previous post), so I was able to listen to the first June edition of Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review.

Wouldn't you know, but once again Iran is one of the topics of discussion again. The panelists aren't able to reach a consensus on what to make of six-nation proposal for negotiations with Iran.

Eric Umansky expresses some hope in the youth of Iran, calling them Western-oriented, and mentioning that Farsi, the native language of most Iranians, "is the third most common language on the Internet."

Online polls are another topic of talk. Guest panelist Amy Alkon calls them "nearly worthless." I'd like to add that a commenter on Free Republic said it best, "Internet polls aren't worth the paper they're printed on." But they do drive traffic to blogs, the panelists agree, so I'm considering adding some online polls here.

Late May and early June are time for college graduations, and law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit takes the lead on what recent grads can expect in the real world.

The death threat to Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson (who once again did a post on Klocek and DePaul, thanks), is talked about.

From LGF:

At 3:23 am, this creature used our contact form to send the following message with the obviously phony Hotmail address "zionistpig@hotmail.com" and the subject line, "You bunch of wankers."

I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut...

The IP address from where that comment was sent was traced by Johnson to an East London Reuters office, where Muslim Council of Britain media secretary Inayat Bunglawala works as a systems engineer. MCB is the British equivalent of CAIR--and to a lot of people, including me, that isn't good.

Reuters confirms an employee was suspended in regards to that message, but won't say who it was.

Austin Bay moderates the podcast, and Ed Driscoll produces.

Technorati tags: UK graduation Muslim Council فلسطين حركة حماس News Blogging podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod blog Iran خبر ايران

Losing control of song selection

I'm wirelessly blogging on my Treo 650 from Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. Little Marathon Pundit's play just ended, hers was just one of 38 performances this afternoon.

One of the acts was a hip-hop dance--the pre-teens were moving to the Missy Elliott tune Lose Control.

The event was organized not by a school, but a private company.

Still, the use of a song with the "MF" word in it is pretty irresponsible. As for the kids dancing to Lose Control, how many dozens of times did they rehearse that "MF" song?

Technorati tags: Missy Elliott hip hop kids music

Che goodbye now

Last October I drove past Joan F. Arai Middle School which led to this post, Chicago Che chic: Murderous Communist thug honored by mural at public school I took the above photo earlier that morning.

Today I drove past the same school, and take a look at the second picture. Che is gone.




So there is at least some common sense within Chicago's public schools.

Technorati tags: Che Guevara Chicago Illinois Education Cuba

Stephen Colbert gives commencement address at Knox College

Little Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois has a knack for picking up big-name speakers for its annual commencement address. Last year, Senator Barack Obama had the honor; this year Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert had the honor.

In yesterday's speech, Colbert said, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, perhaps not:

"'Steve, Steve, immigrants built America.' But here's the thing, it's built now,"

John Podesta, longtime presidential chief-of-staff for Bill Clinton, is a Knox alumnus, and he put in a good word for Knox to Obama and Colbert, according to AP.

Technorati tags: Stephen Colbert Comedy Comedy Central Knox College Illinois immigration

Thomas Klocek free speech case going to trial: Very bad news for DePaul University

As regular visitors to Marathon Pundit are aware, I've been covering the Thomas Klocek free speech story since March, 2005.

Klocek of course is the former DePaul University professor who was fired by the Chicago Catholic school after engaging some Muslim students there in a heated conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict two years ago.

Despite the enormous embarrassment the Klocek case brought upon DePaul--actually DePaul brought it upon itself--DePaul's image in Chicago has not taken much of a hit. Most of DePaul's students come from the Chicago area, and most of its alumni live in the metropolitan region.

The Klocek story, with some encoragement by the DePaul media relations department, has not been reported on much by the local media. At the March 1, 2005 Klocek press conference to draw attention to the longtime professor's plight, DePaul staffers were creeping around the event--according to several accounts--dropping broad hints that the real problem was that Klocek "wasn't well."

I sent some of my Klocek posts to a big name Chicago newspaper columnist--whose identity I promised not to reveal--and told me something along the lines that I'd completely misjudged the story because Klocek wasn't well.

(And no, the reporter wasn't Eric Zorn.)

Writing in FrontPage Magazine on March 11, 2005, Joel Mowbray, who probably was not at the press conference ten days earlier, tells of being fed the "health spin" by Denise Mattson, Assistant Vice President for Public Relations at DePaul.

The school adamantly maintains that it's about the behavior--even Klocek admits he raised his voice, though not to the point of yelling--and claims that it indicates his health problems are hindering his performance, particularly his judgment. When asked to name any other questionable behavior by Klocek, though, Mattson hid behind medical privacy--which has nothing to do with disclosing his classroom actions that also supposedly contributed to the decision to suspend him.

The first time I spoke with Klocek, I asked him if he had any health problems. He firmly answered back, "No."

Right before Christmas last year, the Chicago Tribune's Ron Grossman wrote a feature piece about Klocek and DePaul, but besides ABC 7 Chicago's coverage, that's about all there has been in the local news about this story.

It appears the Klocek case is heading to trial in Chicago. That'll be news, and the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, The Daily Southtown, The Daily Herald, and all the TV stations will be following the proceedings.

Which will give DePaul an unhealthy feeling.

UPDATE June 4: I don't know how I missed it, but the Chicago Tribune, free registration required, had a small article about the Klocek case in its Friday edition.

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek Media MSM

Mr. Right has an Al Gore photo caption contest up...

Al Gore is the gift that keeps on giving for the Democrats. Giving us laughs. Mr. Right proves that point with his latest photo caption contest.

Enter here.

Technorati tags: Al Gore Global WarmingGlobal Warming Humor Funny Politics

A little Adlai Stevenson blogging....

It's been a while since I did some Adlai E. Stevenson blogging....

Whoah....actually, I've never blogged about the former Illinois governor, two time-Democratic nominee for president, (lost to Eisenhower both times), and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Little Marathon Pundit had her dress rehearsal for her first play, and it took place at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. Adlai owned a farm in nearby Libertyville--an excellent town to say you're from if you're a politician.

With my reliable Motorola V3 RAZR, I took a picture of the Stevenson display just inside the main entrance of the school.

Oh, some guy named Sufjan Stevens recently released a song titled Adlai Stevenson, apparently it's a leftover track from his Illinois CD.

Technorati tags: Adlai Stevenson Sufjan Stevens Illinois History Politics Motorola

Counterterrorism blog's Bill Roggio podcast from Kabul

Richard Fernandez of The Belmont Club has a podcast up on the Pajamas site of his interview with the Counterterrorism blog's Bill Roggio.

Bill's been in Kabul for a few days. A couple of days before he arrived, a US military vehicle with bad brakes killed five Afghans and damaged about a dozen vehicles. Riots broke out afterward, in which about a dozen more Afghan civilians were killed.

Roggio interviewed residents of the neighborhood where the accident took place. He said he was told that the post-crash riots "were organized and staged by a group known as the Hazzari (not sure of the spelling)."

The Hazzari were, according to Roggio, "basically marginalized by the Karzai administration."

So the riots, believes Bill, were more of anti-Karzai as opposed to anti-American.

Technorati tags: News Blogging podcasts Podcast Podcasting iPod Karzai Afghanistan Kabul Military افغانستان

Daisies in June

There's a little clearing in the Linne Woods Forest Preserve where I took this photo about an hour ago of a field full of daisies. I was at the tail end of a ten-mile run.

Once again, I used my Motorola V3 RAZR phone.

Technorati tags: Illinois photos Motorola Mobile Phones wildflowers

Live from Bentonville, Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting

I'm watching live coverage of Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting here.

American Idol's Taylor Hicks as well as Beyonce are slated to perform at the meeting. However, as you can see in my prior post, I was up late last night--I just woke up. So I might've missed them.

But their performances will be available here around 1pm EDT.

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is speaking now. He mentioned Chicago's soon-to-be-opened West Side store, something I blogged about here, as well as what I found out was one of Wal-Mart's "experimental stores," in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park.

I blogged about that as well, and Scott mentioned the 24,000 people who applied for the 300 jobs at that location.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Business American Idol Beyonce Taylor Hicks Webcast Music
Chicago Illinois

Another Marathon Pundit exclusive: Eyewitness backs Klocek's charges against DePaul

After a long silence, there is a lot of activity again regarding the Thomas Klocek free speech case against DePaul University. Yesterday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stuart Nudelman agreed with the merits of Klocek's case; the former DePaul University professor will have a jury trial hear his case against the Chicago Catholic university.

Thomas Lifson and Richard Baehr have an excellent summary on the American Thinker.

Meanwhile, news of Wesley Thompson's deposition has come my way. Wes is the former DePaul Student Government Association president who was a eyewitness to the September 15, 2004 heated discussion between former Professor Thomas Klocek and some Muslim students. The students didn't like what Klocek said, their complaints led to the professor's dismissal from DePaul after 15 years as an adjunct faculty member there.

On a personal note, I met Wes at the Ward Churchill dust-up at DePaul's Lincoln Park campus last October. Even though he knew I was a regular critic of DePaul, he couldn't have been nicer to me.

(And no, we did not talk about the Klocek case.)

Press release comes to the blog via TC Public Relations.

(June 1, 2006, Chicago ) Yesterday, the deposition of Wesley Thompson, DePaul University student and former student body president, was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Law Division. Statements made by Thompson, an eyewitness to the events, support Professor Thomas Klocek's position, that his debate with students over conflicts in the Middle East did not justify DePaul's suspension of him based on bad conduct. ThompsonÂ’s deposition contradicts public statements made by DePaul University officials.

According to DePaul's president the Rev. DennisHoltschneiderider in his letter published in the Rocky Mountain News (April 9, 2005):

"The incident involving Klocek is about inappropriate behavior directed at our students--we cannot maintain an academically free environment when students feel threatened...

"He (Klocek) raised his voice, threw pamphlets at students...

"As an adjunct professor who is hired on an as-needed basis each term, Klocek does not receive the same privileges as full-time tenured professors."

In contrast, Thompson's deposition that records his eyewitness account of what happened between Klocek and the Students for Justice in Palestine states:

Excerpts from Deposition:

Question to Thompson: It was not what you would call a threat to hit anyone?

Thompson's Response: "I didn't feel that there was a threat of physical violence..."

Question to Thompson: Did you hear a conversation at a noise level that would be above what we would call normal conversational level?

Thompson's Response: "...I can remember Salma (member of Students for Justice in Palestine) responding to something in sort of... not a loud voice, but when you get mad and you respond snappy, well, you know, something like that."

Question to Thompson: So she raised her voice somewhat?

Thompson's Response: But it wasn't yelling or anything, but then I believe I remember Professor Klocek responded in kind."

Question to Thompson: And he raised his voice to the same level?

Thompson's Response: "Yes, He wasn't yelling or anything."

Question to Thompson: Did you observe anybody throw anything?

Thompson's Response: "I did not."

"It's encouraging to see that what transpired between Professor Klocek and the students at the student activities fair outside the classroom was simply a heated debate. A common, non-threatening activity expected on most university campuses," said Andy Norman, Klocek's attorney with Mauck & Baker.

Background of Case:

A defamation suit was filed in Illinois' Cook County Court in June 2005 charging that DePaul University and its leadership defamed Professor Thomas Klocek when DePaul publicly characterized arguments he presented to members of Palestinian and Muslim student groups as racist and bigoted. DePaul also accused Klocek of abusing his position as a professor to demean students. The suit seeks damages against DePaul for maligning Klocek's integrity and professional competence. The defendants named include: DePaul University; Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul; and Susanne Dumbleton, Dean of DePaul's School for New Learning.

Technorati tags: DePaul Chicago Illinois Free Speech Academic freedom Thomas Klocek Law AcademiaIsrael politics Ward Churchill Slander Muslimsمسلم

Dad in father-son terror case pleads guilty to minor charge

Out in lettuce country, Lodi, California, there is news again about the father-son terror duo.

From AP:

A Lodi ice cream vendor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of trying to smuggle cash to Pakistan rather than be retried on allegations that he lied to the FBI about his son’s attendance at a terrorist training camp.

Umer Hayat, 48, was convicted of lying to customs agents about more than $28,000 he and family members were trying to carry on a flight out of the country three years ago. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop charges that he lied to the FBI and to recommend he serve no more jail time after spending nearly a year in custody.

There was speculation that the cash was going to terror groups in Pakistan.

Hayat’s son, Hamid Hayat, 23, faces at least 30 years in prison for supporting terrorism by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and lying to the FBI. His sentencing was postponed indefinitely.

Umer Hayat’s first trial ended in April in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in his case. He had been scheduled to be retried Monday and would likely have faced only a few additional months behind bars if convicted of the two lying charges, Scott said. He remains under house arrest until his Aug. 18 sentencing.

So it appears that the old man won't be going to prison. And a golden opportunity is missed: a Hollywood update of that great father-son prison movie, In The Name Of The Father. Daniel Day-Lewis could've appeared in this one too.

Third Wave Dave had a post on this story many hours ago, and he's not very happy with the plea deal.

Technorati tags: Daniel Day-Lewis Lodi Hayat California Paki