Trillium flowers seen during my run

This afternoon I ran through Harms Woods in Skokie, Illinois. The wildflowers are starting to come forth, and I saw these Trilliums near Old Orchard Road along the North Branch running path.

Technorati tags: wildflowers flowers Skokie nature trillium photos photography

Moore news on Chicago's 49th Ward

I have a copy of Don Gordon's lawsuit against Alderman Joe Moore and the Illinois State Board of Elections Commissioners. Chicago's 49th Ward has 42 precincts, and Gordon, Moore's opponent in the April 17th run-off election, is challenging the results in 22 of those precincts. In those precincts, according to the lawsuit, there were anywhere from (more than) 3 to 42 "unqualified and fraudulent votes cast."

One such vote is of course one too many. The Illinois Constitution, in Article III, Section 3, states, "All elections shall be free and equal."

If Gordon's charges prove to be true, then the April 17 election failed to meet the standard set by the state constitution.

Since it's impossible to sort out any alleged "unqualified and fraudulent votes" from legal ones, Gordon seeks to toss out the votes in those 22 precincts. If Gordon's suit prevails, then he ends up winning the election by 547 votes. The unoffical results posted on the Chicago Board of Elections site has Moore defeating by 247 votes--out of 7,802 cast.

Moore and his minions have been oddly quiet about Don Gordon's lawsuit. But over the last few years, the longtime alderman has been quiet noisy about Wal-Mart, foie gras, and the Iraq War.

But on the streets of Rogers Park, the borders of which closely match those of the 49th Ward, there's a lot of work to be done by an alderman who focused on local issues. For an idea of what I'm talking about, visit this blog, this one, this one, or well, this one.

Technorati tags: Rogers Park Joe Moore elections politics vote fraud election fraud Chicago illinois law foie gras Wal-Mart Business

Turks protest Islamic government

There's some interesting news this afternoon from Turkey, which at one time was viewed as the model for Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations trying to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy. But an Islamic party has been recently successful--it's the ruling party in parliament. Not only is Turkey stategically located--Syria, Iran, Iraq, Georgia and Greece are among the nations it shares a border with--it is a member of NATO.

From AP:

At least 300,000 Turks waving the red national flag flooded central Istanbul on Sunday to demand the resignation of the government, saying the Islamic roots of Turkey's leaders threatened to destroy the country's modern foundations.

Like the protesters — who gathered for the second large anti-government demonstration in two weeks — Turkey's powerful secular military has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of tolerating radical Islamic circles.

"They want to drag Turkey to the dark ages," said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired government employee who attended the protest.

Technorati tags: Turkey istanbul Türkiye Erdogan Erdogan muslim

Iowa Republican straw poll August 11

For reasons I can't fathom, August is a vacation "black-out" period at my work place, but I'm going to try my darndest to make the Iowa Republican Party straw poll. It's taking place on Saturday, August 11 in Ames--on the campus of Iowa State University.

Failing that, I'll catch the caucuses in January--Dubuque is lovely that time of year.

Technorati tags: Iowa Iowa State Republican elections 2008 politics

Another Iranian interview done under duress

It's not just British sailors who are forced to make statements under duress in Iran. Armenian Orthodox bishops have to play nice with the mullahs, as the Tehran Times reports:

In an interview with the Mehr News Agency here on Saturday, the Armenian bishop in Tehran pointed out the deep ties between various denominations of Christianity in Iran as well as supports of the Tehran government.

Bishop Sebuh Sarkisian added that this is an indication of a perfect mutual respect between two great religions of the country, Islam and Christianity.

This is nonsense, as the bishop surely knows. Sarkisian not only has to worry about his own personal safety, but also that of his fellow Christians, so he is unable to tell the truth about religious "tolerance" in Iran. Iranian law allows the death sentence as punishment for apostasy from Islam. A Shi'ite converting to Christianity is illegal in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Technorati tags: iran خبر حقوق بشر محمود Religion christianity christian orthodox

An Egyptian blogger calls it quits

The April 2 edition of the National Reivew had an interesting observation on the unfortunate state of Egyptian blogging:

If you're thrown in jail for calling the leader of your country a dictator, at least no one can call you a liar. Kareem Solimann, a 22 year-old Egyptian, has been sentenced to four years in prison for insulting the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, and Islam as well. He wrote his "insults"--known as "criticisms" in free countries--on his blog, where he spoke in defense of women's rights, criticized his university, and so on.

The Sandmonkey, another Egyptian blogger, wrote of Solimann's plot, which only has made his life more complicates. So Sandmonkey is bagging his blog.

He writes:

Today is going to be the day that I've been dreading for quite sometime now. Today is the day I walk away from this blog. Done. Finished.

There are many reasons, each would take a post to list, and I just do not have the energy to list them. As anyone who has been reading this blog for the past month, I think it is apparent that things are not the same with me. There are reasons for that:

One of the chief reasons is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately. I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Security agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious. It took me a while to take note of the fear that has been gripping our little blogsphere and comprehend what it really means. The prospects for improvement, to put it slightly, look pretty grim. I was the model of caution, and believing in my invincibility by managing not to get arrested for the past 2 and a half years, I've grown reckless. Stupid Monkey. Stupid!

Another legacy of the disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter is the $2 billion in aid we send to the rat hole known as Egypt. The only reasonable defense of the aid, and that's being generous, is that the regime of Hosni Mubarak, who has been ruling by emergency decree since 1981, protects its citizens--and the Middle East--from something worse--the Muslim Brotherhood. Maybe. I think it's time we tighten the screws on Egypt.

Mubarak won't live for ever, but there's already a new one waiting in the wings, Syria style. Gamal Mubarak, Hosni's son, is Egypt's heir apparent.

Western bloggers have it pretty easy. A blogging "crisis" for us is a crashed hard-drive, a bad DSL connection, or writer's block.

Related post: Egypt, King Tut, and blogger Alaa

Technorati tags: Egypt islam مصر عربي blogging Mubarak Jimmy Carter محمد