, a near-future novel of the type Tom Clancy writes, about how the red state and blue state political divisions could possibly lead to a second American civil war.Should outsiders try to influence the hiring or tenuring of university faculty?
I beg to differ. Educational institutions may appoint whomever they wish, but they cannot expect immunity from public criticism. Precisely because academe offers unique job security, public evaluation of untenured academics has a potentially vital role. The more pre-tenure scrutiny, the better. Organizations like Campus Watch focus precisely on those areas that tenure committees typically miss.
As for tenured faculty, robust public criticism can keep them in line by embarrassing them and hurting their credibility. Juan Cole characterizes senior professors as "sort of like baseball players" whom other teams look at "from time to time, as recruitment prospects." In response, Martin Kramer of the Shalem Center notes that "We don't put baseball players on pedestals, and a whole section of the newspaper relentlessly criticizes their performance. Academics want to have it both ways: lifetime job security, sports-like celebrity, lots of vacation time, and no accountability."
Not only do you do a wonderful job representing the people of Illinois, in just a few short years you have proven yourself to be an incredibly inspirational national leader. From your memorable and unifying speech at the Democratic National Convention to your new book The Audacity of Hope, you have shown you have the best interests of all Americans at heart.
That is why I want to see you run for President in 2008. I believe that you are the right man to lead our country at a time of such turmoil around the globe, bringing Americans together at a time in our nation's history when we need unity more than ever.
As your memorable speech at the 2004 convention proved, you understand that our country isn't as simply divided between red and blue as political commentators seem to believe. There isn't a monolithic "red state voter" who is different in every way from her blue state counterpart, but rather there are Americans in every corner of our country who have their own hopes, dreams, and communities -- and many more of these overlap than conflict.
With a unifying leader like you in the White House, I know that we can overcome the deep divisions that cause such unnecessary friction to arise between red and blue, both in Washington and in our nation as a whole. That is why I hope you will run for President in 2008.
On Saturday the Sun-Times ran a small item about a man who had set himself on fire during rush hour Friday morning near the Ohio Street exit on the Kennedy. His identity has still not been officially determined, but members of the local jazz and improvised music community say they are certain it was Malachi Ritscher, a longtime supporter of the scene. Bruno Johnson, who owns the free-jazz label Okka Disk, received a package yesterday from Ritscher that included a will, keys to his home, and instructions about what should be done with his belongings. Johnson, a former Chicagoan who now lives in Milwaukee, began making calls. Police are still awaiting the results of dental tests, but Johnson says an officer told one of Ritscher's sisters that all evidence pointed to the body being his; his car was found nearby and he hadn't shown up for work since Thursday.
Buried on Ritscher's web site Chicago Rash Audio Potential, a compendium of invaluable show postings, artwork, and photography, are a suicide note and an obituary. Both indicate that he was deeply troubled by the war in Iraq and pinpoint it as a motive for suicide (no method is specified), though there are indications that he may have had other issues as well. "He had a son, from whom he was estranged (at the son's request), and two grandchildren," reads the obit. "He had many acquaintances, but few friends; and wrote his own obituary, because no one else really knew him." Ritscher was a familiar face at antiwar protests, and he was arrested more than once for his involvement, including this time this past May. A note found at the scene of the immolation reportedly read "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
Although Ritscher, who was in his early 50s, had played music off and on over the years, he was best known for his devotion to documenting other people's shows. Several nights a week for at least the last decade he could be found at places like the Empty Bottle, the Velvet Lounge, and the Hungry Brain; by his own count he recorded more than 2,000 concerts. Over the years he invested more money in equipment and as his skills improved, many of his recordings went to be used on commercial releases--by Paul Rutherford, Gold Sparkle Band, Isotope 217, Irene Schweizer, and Ken Vandermark among others. Ritscher was fiercely modest about these pursuits--I once tried to do a piece on him for the Reader but he declined, saying he didn't want publicity.
Former Sen. John Edwards is to spend an hour at the Manchester Barnes & Noble tonight promoting his new book. We find his choice of venue very interesting.
In Manchester, the local Wal-Mart store sits right behind the Barnes & Noble. It has more floor space, a parking lot several times the size of Barnes & Noble's, and is easier to access by car or public transportation.
But Edwards would not be caught dead inside a Wal-Mart. Saying that the company pays its employees too little, Edwards has embarked on an anti-Wal-Mart crusade. He instructs his staff members and all Americans not to shop at Wal-Mart.
"Wal-Mart makes plenty of money. They need to pay their people well," Edwards said at a Pittsburgh anti-Wal-Mart rally in August.
Democrat Barack Obama has sought the advice of top campaign workers in Iowa and has established a seedling support network in this state as he prepares to decide whether to seek the 2008 presidential nomination.
The first-term Illinois senator has surrounded himself with advisers rich in experience in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state.
Obama has vaulted to the top tier among prospective candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination, even as the new star in the party says he has not made up his mind about running.
The Iowa connections of Obama's campaign advisers and the senator's behind-the-scenes inquiry into the Iowa caucuses are hardly an announcement that he is running for president. But they show he is visualizing the presidential campaign process, in the event he decides to run.
He has been a successful venture capitalist and management consultant, and he saved the tainted 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics from scandal. But it is his single term as Massachusetts governor that is Mitt Romney's chief credential in his bid for the Republican nomination for president.
He began his term four years ago on a high note, rescuing the state from an inherited budget deficit. But now, as he prepares to leave office and focus full time on his White House aspirations, his tenure is being viewed in a more mixed fashion.
While he can point to a major policy success in health care, his relationship with the Democratic-controlled legislature that made it possible is in tatters. His efforts to challenge the Democrats and promote Republican candidates for the legislature failed. His partner in the statehouse, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, lost a bid to succeed him. And Romney is leaving office with the state GOP weaker than when he arrived.
The result has been a series of fights that have left the state politically polarized, and that reality has shaped -- and limited -- Romney's actions in the past two years. Where the Democrats have been motivated to act, he has had notable successes. His plan for health care treats it much like car insurance, requiring people to buy it or face a fine. It was tweaked and substantially expanded by the legislature, and in the final analysis, the negotiations that led to success were managed more by the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate than by the governor.
It is the question the entire nation wanted to ask and on Sunday morning the Jackson got to ask it. "Do you consider yourself a racist?"
"No," Richards replied.
The comedian appeared on Jackson's Sunday morning show, airing on WVON radio, and he again apologized for his racist meltdown.
"I can say now to them that I'm very, very sorry and hope to meet with them and get started with a bit of healing," Richards said.
The United Kingdom should be broken up and Scotland and England set free as independent nations, according to a huge number of voters on both sides of the border.
A clear majority of people in both England and Scotland are in favor of full independence for Scotland, an ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph has found. Independence is backed by 52 per cent of Scots while an astonishing 59 per cent of English voters want Scotland to go it alone.
There is also further evidence of rising English nationalism with support for the establishment of an English parliament hitting an historic high of 68 per cent amongst English voters. Almost half – 48 per cent – also want complete independence for England, divorcing itself from Wales and Northern Ireland as well. Scottish voters also back an English breakaway with 58 per cent supporting an English parliament with similar powers to the Scottish one.
The poll comes only months before the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between England and Scotland and will worry all three main political parties. None of them favors Scottish independence, but all have begun internal debates on the future of the constitution.
A marine from suburban Chicago who's stationed in Okinawa, Japan got a surprise Thanksgiving treat today -- a call from the president.
White House officials say Corporal Steve Lanham Junior, who goes by the name Mike, received a call from President Bush around 7:00am.
The Marine was one of ten members of the military to receive today's Thanksgiving calls.
The president thanked Lanham for his service. He also told the marine from Arlington Heights to say hello to his mom and dad.
Emanuel is the political operative being credited these days with the Democratic takeover of Congress. He's ruthless and hardworking and, in victory, deserving of post-election applause.
But if City Hall had not sent Don Tomczak, the corrupt city water department boss, to Emanuel's congressional campaign in 2002--and Tomczak's political army of hundreds of city workers who stumped the precincts with the promise of overtime--then Emanuel wouldn't have narrowly defeated a local grass-roots Democrat.
And Emanuel wouldn't have been in a position to bask in all the national media love.
For the second time in 97 days, Sen. Barack Obama -- who is mulling a 2008 presidential run and giving a big speech on Iraq today -- will take another public HIV/AIDS test.
Given his marriage to his wife, Michelle, and the certainty he is not shooting up anything, Obama's test results will again be negative.
They compared the runners’ skin cancer risks with those of 210 men and women matched for age and gender who were not long-distance runners. All participants underwent a skin cancer exam and answered questions about personal and family skin cancer history, as well as changes in skin lesions, sunburn history, sun sensitivity, and physical characteristics such as skin and eye color.
Even though more of the nonrunners had higher sun sensitivity, reflected by their light eyes and sensitive skin types, the runners had more atypical moles and more lesions called solar lentigines -- often called "liver spots" -- which are associated with a higher risk of malignant melanoma.
Not surprisingly, the more intense the training regimen, the more likely a marathon runner was to have the lesions and moles, Ambros-Rudolph found. While some runners logged about 25 miles a week, others put in more than 44 miles a week.
Kiss my ass!
It is just just astonishing...it is astonishing that the moral eunuchs of the Left have found a home in the Democratic Party. Because you have to be completely emasculated...you have to be completely morally and ethically emasculated to reject any and all attempts to bring freedom and democracy to people that are under the boot of tyranny. I mean these are the same people who--no doubts--in six months time, 'Well you know Hitler wasn't so bad and maybe we shouldn't have bombed Germany the way we did.'
Gov. Mike Huckabee, considering a presidential bid in 2008, said Thursday he is putting himself in position to take the plunge into the race and other Republicans' plans won't affect his timetable.
While U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona already kicked off a campaign with the creation of an exploratory committee, Huckabee told reporters he won't announce any plans until he leaves the Governor's Mansion on Jan. 9.
"What I'm doing now is taking steps that get me into the position to make the plunge," Huckabee said. "There's no real advantages to me to declare a candidacy this early. There are a lot of disadvantages," including fundraising restrictions.
Gov. Blagojevich's wife got nearly $50,000 from a real estate deal in late 2002 involving Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer and former top Blagojevich political fund-raiser now under federal indictment.
In the following two months, the governor began giving friends of Rezko seats on influential state boards and began hiring former Rezko employees to upper-level state jobs.
The chain of events in December 2002 and January 2003 is detailed in records obtained by the Sun-Times. It's the first record of Patti Blagojevich making money off a Rezko deal around the time Rezko began seeking favors from the governor.
The governor's office vehemently denied that the first lady's business dealings with Rezko had anything to do with his influence in her husband's administration.
The band wishes to say, "We are crushed to learn of the death of Bo Schembechler, OSU's most valiant foe."
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday that a staff member for former Sen. John Edwards -- a vocal critic of the retailer -- asked his local Wal-Mart store for help in getting the potential 2008 presidential candidate a Sony PlayStation3. Edwards said a volunteer did so by mistake.
Edwards told The Associated Press that the volunteer "feels terrible" about seeking the game unit at Wal-Mart a day after his boss criticized the company, saying it doesn't treat its employees fairly.
"My wife, Elizabeth, wanted to get a Playstation3 for my young children. She mentioned it in front of one of my staff people," Edwards said. "That staff person mentioned it in front of a volunteer who said he would make an effort to get one. He was making an effort to go get one for himself.
"Elizabeth and I knew nothing about this. He feels terrible about this. He made a mistake, and he knows he should not have used my name," Edwards said.
Governor Mitt Romney, who continues to sign up big-name political consultants for a probable presidential run, has hired bare-knuckles GOP ad man Alex Castellanos, a veteran of presidential campaigns known for his tough ads against Democratic candidates.
Widely considered one of the country's more influential Republican image-makers, Castellanos has produced television spots for President Bush, presidential candidate Bob Dole, and former senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Romney's move to recruit him sends a strong signal that the governor plans to mount a serious national campaign for 2008, political observers say.
"Alex is one of two or three people in the country who you don't run a presidential campaign without," said Dan Schnur, who was communication director for Senator John McCain of Arizona during McCain's run for president in 2000. Schnur added, "You don't hire Alex Castellanos unless you're committed to this."
Murtha, a former Marine who generally has supported U.S. military efforts, has gained considerable attention this year for his criticism of the administration's Iraq war policies. He steered Pelosi's winning campaign in 2001 against Hoyer for the No. 2 Democratic leadership post, and his supporters say Pelosi deserves a more loyal wingman.
But Murtha is also a controversial figure. He was investigated in 1980 as part of the Abscam bribery sting, but was the only lawmaker involved who wasn't charged criminally.
FBI agents pretending to represent an Arab sheik wanting to reside in the United States and seeking investment opportunities approached Murtha and several other lawmakers with offers of bribes.
When offered $50,000, Murtha is recorded as saying, "I'm not interested ... at this point." A grand jury declined to prosecute Murtha, and the House ethics committee issued no findings against him. On MSNBC Wednesday, Murtha said, "I told them I wanted investment in my district. They put $50,000 on the table and I said, 'I'm not interested.'"
Huckabee has tangled with the ethics panel previously over gifts. The commission has five times found that he violated state ethics guidelines.
Huckabee was issued letters of warning and reprimand and drew a pair of $500 fines after the commission found that he failed to report a $43,150 payment he received from his 1994 lieutenant governor's campaign for the use of his personal airplane, and for failing to report that he was paid about $14,000 from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign.
Huckabee was issued a letter of caution by the panel in 1997 for failing to report that he received $23,500 from Action America, a tax-exempt organization he incorporated with three associates in 1994 to coordinate parts of his private-sector speaking schedule while he was lieutenant governor.
And in January 2003, the commission ruled that Huckabee violated two state ethics laws on accepting and reporting gifts in 2001. The commission fined the governor $250 and issued him a letter of warning for accepting a $500 canoe from Coca-Cola in 2001.
