Craig: GOP's hot potato

Sometimes it's not a lot, but most of what gets done in Congress is accomplished in committee meetings, not on the Senate or House floors. Yesterday afternoon, Sen. Larry "I am not gay" Craig (R-ID) resigned, presumably under pressure, from four committee posts.

One can now argue that Craig isn't a full-time senator since he was purged from the committees, and that the people of the Gem State aren't getting proper representation in Congress.

Meanwhile, several top Repubicans are urging Craig to resign.

It's a holiday weekend, Larry. The perfect time to dump bad news.

Technorati tags: republicans Idaho gaycurrent events politics Washington

Massachusetts Green Party: Enough to make you puke

If you think that the Green Party is a bunch of Al Gore wannabes lugging bundled newspapers to the recycling center on their way to a solar energy symposium, then you need to take a look at the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party, the Bay State's incarnation of the Greens.

Solomonia has a great post up about Islamist infiltration of the Green Party there. CAIR's Ibrahim "Dougie" Hooper, genocide denial in Darfur, David Duke's web site, Cynthia McKinney (who is considering running for Congress under the Green banner) all figure into this vile stew, as well as something else....now what was it? Think...think....

Oh, yes, huge helpings of anti-semitism...how could I ever forget!

It makes me want to puke.

Technorati tags: Green Party politics CAIR islamists Massachusetts Cynthia McKinney Darfur anti-semitism

Buh-bye: 55 gang members face deportation

Waukegan, the alter ego of Ray Bradbury's bucolic but fictional Greenville, Illinois, isn't a very nice place decades after the author moved with his family to Los Angeles.

But Waukegan, a lakefront town 50 miles north of Chicago, may get a little less dangerous. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

"So far we've picked up 55 across Lake County and about 21 in Waukegan alone," said (Waukegan Police Chief Bill) Biang, who emphasized that the criminals are not exclusively illegal immigrants. "We're using ICE's assistance and authority to remove these gang members. Whether they are here legally or not, they are eligible for deportation."

ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro confirmed the initiative and said several similar operations, to arrest sex offenders or fugitives, for instance, have routinely been undertaken in Lake County.

But their countries of origin won't be glad to get these guys back.

One illegal immigrant, one with no street gang ties, is Elvira Arellano, the former West Side Chicago church denizen who was deported to Mexico after she used her Quasimodo sanctuary stunt to draw attention to the cause of open borders. Rather than performing the logical, but admittedly harder task of improving the robber-baron sociey of Mexico so fewer people feel compelled to illegally enter the United States from her homeland, Arellano wants to be appointed to the Mexican president to appoint her to the ambassadorship of the United States.

H/T to the Bullwinkle Blog for the Arellano story.

Technorati tags: Waukegan Illinois illegal immigration immigration Crime law Arellano Chicago Mexico méxico

"Not Gay" Senator Craig trots wife out for press conference

I'm not surprised Sen Larry Craig (R-ID) didn't take my advice by going away quietly, but yesterday, he did the predictable thing, and held a press conference with his wife, and told the world from Boise, "Let me be clear: I am not gay and never have been gay."

Since he was obviously determined fight, if he asked me what to say, I would've advised him to state, "Let me be straight..."

And yesterday, the Idaho Statesman came up with another possible bathroom sexual incident, in 2004 in Washington. Here's what the man, whom the paper described as someone with "close ties to Republican officials," said.

Upon walking into Union Station one day, I made eye contact with a well-dressed older gentleman whom I recognized as Sen. Craig. We, after having made eye contact for 30 seconds or so, we began walking towards one of the restrooms in Union Station.

I followed him in there. We went to the urinals, where we both unzipped ...

The rest isn't safe for work.

More from the Statesman:

I’ve always been interested in politics and probably if you showed me pictures of the hundred senators I could probably name 75 or 80 of them. And that would be true over the last probably 20 years. So, I don’t think it’s unusual that I did recognize him. There’s no doubt in my mind that that’s who it was.

Craig: Quit now.

Rumors of Craig's homosexuality have followed him since the 1980s.

Technorati tags: republicans Idaho gaycurrent events politics Washington

DePaul University fumbles again

I remember a Hogan's Heroes episode where wisecrasking POW and underground saboteur Colonel Hogan, played by Bob Crane, is put into a situation where he has to defuse an American bomb that's landed in the prison camp he is incarcerated in. At the fateful moment--which wire to cut, the black one or the white one?--Hogan turns to the camp's inept commandant, Colonel Klink, and asks the Luftwaffe officer which one to snip.

Klink makes his choice, but Hogan cuts the other wire--the correct one.

The German then asks Hogan, "If you knew which wire it was, why did you ask me?"

Hogan responds, "Well, I figured whatever wire you picked, it'd be the wrong one."

And that's Chicago's DePaul University, whatever decision its top brass makes, it seems to be always the wrong one.

It's my belief that by not granting controvesial Professor Norman G. Finkelstein, it's president, Father Dennis Holtschneider made the right decision. Oh, I've been fired from jobs, I know the hurt that follows.

Typically, professors who are denied tenure, which essentially amounts to lifetime employment, are given one more year to teach. Finding a job at another university is a difficult task, especially after being told by their present employer that they are no longer wanted. So a year with pay and essentially part-time employment makes the pain a little bit easier to contend with.

It's hard to figure out exactly what's going on at DePaul, which is nothing new.

From the DePaul web site, here is Finkelstein's page, which was last updated four days ago:

Courses Taught:

PSC 230 Classic Political Thought
PSC 231 Modern Political Thought
PSC 233 Political Ideas and Ideologies
PSC 234 Freedom and Empowerment
PSC 235 Equality and Social Justice
PSC 339 Topics in Political Thought: Utopia and Its Critics
PSC 349 Topics in World Politics: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
PSC 390 Capstone
HON 201 States, Markets, and Societies
ISP 101 Focal Point Seminar: Palestine

Updated on August 24, 2007 (Emphasis mine)

But DePaul's Denise Mattson offers a different tale.

From AP:

DePaul officials declined Monday to comment on the case. Denise Mattson, associate vice president for public affairs, released a statement saying: "Finkelstein has been assigned to an administrative leave with full pay and benefits for the 2007-08 academic year. Administrative leave relieves professors from their teaching responsibilities. He was informed of the reasons that precipitated this leave last spring."

For certain, one Finkelstein class was being offered by DePaul for the fall quarter until last week, Political Science 235, "Equality in Social Justice." Ron Grossman of the Chicago Tribune this morning described that Finkelstein swan song as "standing room only." Click on the above link. Guess who's listed as the instructor? That PDF file is dated June 28, almost three weeks after Finkelstein's denial of tenure.

DePaul needs to explain what the hell is going on at DePaul. If Finkelstein was given the heave-ho right after he his tenure request was denied, how did one of his classes--or more--end up in the school's course catalog. An e-mail to Finkelstein from DePaul's provost obtained by Peter Kirstein, appears to contradict Mattson's statement. If circumstances have changed since early June, then say so--and Mattson or "Holt" needn't go into specifics, after all it is in the end a human resources matter.

Will DePaul do the right thing? Or will they choose the wrong wire--just as Colonel Klink did? My money is on the Klink option, based on the Thomas Klocek affair. Or the Ward Churchill fiasco. Or the "affirmative action bake sale."

Related posts:

More DePaul: Finkelstein to teach? Go to jail? Hunger strike?

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

DePaul President Fr. Holtschneider: "Academic freedom is alive and well at DePaul"

Fisk on Fink: Robert Fisk joins the Norman Finkelstein tenure debate as DePaul's "perfect storm" gathers strength

Extra credit reading assigment: A DePaul Guide to Managing Print and Electronic Media

Thanks for the link:

Pirate Ballerina

Technorati tags: Chicago illinois college education news DePaul Norman Finkelstein Hogan's Heroes Ward Churchill tenured Thomas Klocek

My Kansas Kronikles: The Texas panhandle

Since I found my myself at the epicenter of the panhandle universe, and since the Oklahoma panhandle is just 34 miles wide, why not drive to Texas, and visit its panhandle?

On US Route 54 Oklahoma ends, and Texas begins, at the town of Texhoma. It's a Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas thing, but the Texhomas are much smaller.


As you can see in the picture on the right, Texas is the second most populous state in the union.

Why is the man below happy? Probably becaue he just left the Happy State Bank in Stratford, Texas.

Throughout the Great Plains, the yucca plant is a common site, and the Texas panhandle is no exception.


Next: My return to western Kansas.


Technorati tags: Kansas travel byways photography photos Americana Great Plains Oklahoma Texas Yucca nature