03/30 -- NM: 4 charged with corruption; Aide contradicts Gonzales in probe
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Thomas Knapp
Mar 30, 2007, 11:18:57 AM3/30/07
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* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
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* Volume V, Issue #1,119
* Friday, March 30th, 2007
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In The News:
1) NM: 4 charged with corruption
2) Aide contradicts Gonzales in probe
3) UN urges resolution of Iran seizure
4) Senate approves war bill containing Iraq timeline
5) 100 killed by multiple car bomb blasts
6) Japan extends air force mission in Iraq
7) Pot-growing takes root in the suburbs
8) US to impose Sudan sanctions soon
9) Saudis on US in Iraq: "Illegitimate foreign occupation"
10) Surveillance detailed in engineer trial
11) Gates calls for bill to help close Gitmo
12) Marijuana not kosher
13) Germans rise in resistance to speed cameras
14) TX: Houstonian barbecues red light camera ticket
15) Swiss man sentenced for defacing pictures of Thai king
16) TN: Residents can now keep guns in emergencies
17) AR: Homeowner claims self defense in shooting
18) OR: Store owner tackles armed teen robbery suspect
19) Chinese homeowner stands her ground
20) CA: Poll says many see bleak future for state
21) Think you know about evolution? Think again
22) TN: Bredesen favors tolls as road-funding option
23) Study explains why we're not all beautiful
24) High-stakes face-off over ending Iraq war
25) Fidelity to end employee pension plan
Everybody Has An Opinion:
26) Getting from here to there
27) The real "existential threat"
28) When the deaths of the innocent do not matter
29) Can the Republican Party survive Bush?
30) "Ought to be" ain't "is"
31) What do we really think about immigration?
32) No thanks, No Impact Man
33) The GOP's therapy candidate
34) You may already be a terrorist
35) The midlife crisis of the EU
36) History's table of context
37) Radioactive money
38) To win at all costs
39) The Great Lakes Compact
40) The world according to Gore
41) What garbage crisis?
42) Five biggest myths about global warming
43) It's not a conspiracy
44) New voices for a new war
45) A citizen's peace lobby
46) Sacco and Vanzetti revisited
47) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses to confessing under torture
48) "Smoke-easies" ignore the tobacco ban
49) Mind how you walk -- it could be a crime
50) Take back our kids
51) The pragmatic ideologue
52) Getting Kareem freed
53) Obama's identity crisis
54) Pop quiz
55) Iraq deadline: An extraordinary political moment
56) Whistling past the graveyard
57) White House for sale
58) How analysts in the Arab world see the Iraq war
59) Democracy haters
60) Boy Scout values for president
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
61) The Rothbardians are coming! The Rothbardians are coming!, 04/03/07
62) Ethics on K's Frame of Mind, 04/01/07
63) Free Talk Live, 03/29/07
64) The libertarian cultural tradition
65) Les Roberts on Antiwar Radio
Weekly Symposium:
66) Open thread
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
67) Today's events
68) Voter Second Amendment Poll
WaYbAcK:
69) Seward's folly
***************
* In The News
***************
1) NM: 4 charged with corruption
Houston Chronicle
"A former state senator and three other people were charged with corruption Thursday in a highly politicized case that a former federal prosecutor told Congress he believes led to his firing. A federal grand jury accused former New Mexico Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon and the others of conspiring to skim $4.2 million in public funds meant for construction of a county courthouse. David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys fired late last year, told Congress this month that he rejected what he believed to be pressure from U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, New Mexico Republicans, to rush the indictments, which would have hurt Democrats in the November elections." (03/30/07)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4674603.html
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2) Aide contradicts Gonzales in probe
USA Today
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales falsely asserted in public statements that he was not involved in discussions about the abrupt removal of eight federal prosecutors, his former chief of staff told a congressional panel Thursday. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kyle Sampson said he repeatedly consulted with the attorney general before the controversial dismissals. He described Gonzales' claims of non-involvement as 'inaccurate.'" (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/398952
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3) UN urges resolution of Iran seizure
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
"The U.N. Security Council expressed 'grave concern' Thursday over Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute, but Iran's chief international negotiator suggested the captives might be put on trial. The council's statement wasn't as tough as Britain had hoped, though, and the divide seemed to deepen." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/34a2yg
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4) Senate approves war bill containing Iraq timeline
Yankton Press & Dakotan
"A defiant, Democratic-controlled Senate approved legislation Thursday calling for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year, propelling Congress closer to an epic, wartime veto confrontation with President Bush. The 51-47 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of a separate, more sweeping challenge to the administration's war policies a week ago, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. It came not long after Bush and House Republicans made a show of unity at the White House." (03/30/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3agp86
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5) 100 killed by multiple car bomb blasts
MSNBC
"A series of car bomb blasts at a Baghdad market and a Shiite town north of the capital killed at least 100 people Thursday, police and hospital sources said. A bomb killed around 60 people in a market in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said, in what appeared to be the latest of a string of attacks on Shiite targets." (03/29/07)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17826030/
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6) Japan extends air force mission in Iraq
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Japan's Cabinet approved a two-year extension of the country's air force mission in Iraq after it expires in July, the foreign minister announced Friday. Tokyo has been airlifting U.N. and coalition personnel and supplies into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities from nearby Kuwait since early last year as part of efforts to support Iraq's reconstruction. The mission had been set to end July 31." (03/30/07)
http://tinyurl.com/225u4p
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7) Pot-growing takes root in the suburbs
Lexington Herald-Leader
"In Coldwater Creek, a middle-class housing development outside Atlanta, the neighbors mind their own business and respect each other's privacy -- ideal conditions, it turns out, for growing marijuana in the suburbs. Police this month raided an utterly ordinary-looking red-brick house on the block and broke up a pot-growing operation with 680 plants arrayed under bright lights." (03/29/07)
http://www.kentucky.com/513/story/29421.html
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8) US to impose Sudan sanctions soon
CNN
"The United States will impose tough new measures against Sudan, likely within days, to try to force it to change course on Darfur and aims to pressure Khartoum militarily by helping rebuild forces in the south, U.S. officials said. State Department, Defense, Treasury and other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the goal was to 'tighten the screws' on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and have him accept an international force in the vast western province." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2tdgrd
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9) Saudis on US in Iraq: "Illegitimate foreign occupation"
CNN
"King Abdullah's harsh -- and unexpected -- attack on the U.S. military presence in Iraq could be a Saudi attempt to signal to Washington its anger over the situation in Iraq and build credibility among fellow Arabs. The White House, in a rare public retort Thursday, rejected the king's characterization of U.S. troops in Iraq as an 'illegitimate foreign occupation,' saying the United States was not in Iraq illegally." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2repez
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10) Surveillance detailed in engineer trial
Elizabeth City Daily Advance
"An engineer accused of conspiring to send information on U.S. naval technology to China had repeated contact with a Chinese government official who was seeking information about the space shuttle from a Boeing engineer, according to FBI testimony Thursday. Agent James Gaylord read translated letters that he said were written by a Chinese aviation official and discovered during the investigation of Chi Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who worked for a California defense contractor and who is now on trial in U.S. District Court." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2uncyw
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11) Gates calls for bill to help close Gitmo
Cambridge Daily-Jeff
"Congress and the Bush administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates said the challenge is figuring out what to do with hard-core detainees who have 'made very clear they will come back and attack this country.'" (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/yrkhbo
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12) Marijuana not kosher
Yahoo! News
"Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, a pro-cannabis advocacy group says, advising Jews who observe the week-long holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed.The Green Leaf Party announced Wednesday that products of the cannabis plant have been grouped by rabbis within a family of foods such as peas, beans and lentils that is off-limits to Jews of European descent during Passover.The Green Leaf Party, which has made several unsuccessful attempts to win election to parliament on a platform urging marijuana's legalisation, said it was issuing its advisory as a service to Jews who don't want to break ritual law." (03/28/07)
http://tinyurl.com/yqm289
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13) Germans rise in resistance to speed cameras
The Newspaper
"A vigilante resistance movement is hindering the German government's efforts to increase revenue through the use of speed cameras. Despite the use of extreme tactics, police have only been able to catch a handful of the motorists responsible for the uprising, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. In Osterode, a motorist disgusted by the underposted 70km/h (43 MPH) speed limit ripped out every speed limit sign on the B243 and tossed them into a ditch. Upset police had to cancel fines worth thousands of euros last month. Another motorist successfully destroyed a Harz speed camera by setting it on fire. In Goettingen, a vigilante took the time to remove and run off with an entire, working speed camera assembly. Another camera in Kassel was stolen. Police have no idea who was responsible for any of these attacks." [editor's note: The sooner this movement spreads to America, the better - TLK] (03/28/07)
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/16/1674.asp
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14) TX: Houstonian barbecues red light camera ticket
KHOU News
"Michael Skadden is burning mad. The Houston attorney was ticketed in February for running a red light at the Southwest Freeway and Fountainview by one of the city of Houston's controversial red light cameras. When he refused to pay the $75 fine the city sent him another notice and then another. Nevertheless, Skadden has no intention of paying. Wednesday he set afire his ticket and offense notices. The former ACLU official claims the citations are unconstitutional and in letters to the city has told authorities as much. He considers the red light tickets little more than a traffic tax and 'Orwellian in character.' Even as he refuses to pay there is not much the city can do criminally since the citations are considered civil fines. The city could seek a judgment against Skadden and others who refuse to pay." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3ags29
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15) Swiss man sentenced for defacing pictures of Thai king
Independent [UK]
"A Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in a Thai prison yesterday for the 'crime' of insulting Thailand's King. In a drunken spree, Oliver Jufer vandalised several portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej with black spraypaint. Mr Jufer, 57, has one month to appeal, but Thai lawyers say he has little hope of success. ... The Swiss man, a long-term Thai resident, is being jailed under the country's archaic lese-majeste laws, which were enforced long before the generals seized power last year. Thailand is one of very few countries in the world that still enforce lese-majeste. Any criticism of the King or royal family is illegal. Many Thais have run foul of the law, but Mr Jufer is thought to be the first foreigner to be jailed under it." (03/30/07)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2405138.ece
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16) TN: Residents can now keep guns in emergencies
WKM News
"Tennesseans will get to keep their weapons to defend themselves in future disasters and emergencies. Tennessee lawmakers shot down a standing law allowing the governor to confiscate guns. Louisiana had the same law and enacted it in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Post-Katrina New Orleans experienced a dramatic rise in violence. To curb the chaos, Louisiana government ordered all citizens to turn in their guns. Wednesday, Tennessee senators assured residents of the Volunteer State they will keep their guns, even in a State of Emergency." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2vzv6c
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17) AR: Homeowner claims self defense in shooting
KATV News
"When police responded to a shots-fired call around 12:30 a.m., they found the body of 22-year-old Erroll Bernard Robinson, Jr. on the front porch of a vacant home on Water Street. A resident around the corner, 43-year-old Myron Doss, told investigators he fired twice in self-defense, and the man ran away. (Officer Carmen Green, North Little Rock Police Dept.) 'The resident heard glass break outside his residence. When he opened the door he saw a black male crouched down behind his vehicle. When he stepped out onto his porch that's when the individual stood up turned towards him and fired one shot. ... and he returned fire." (03/29/07)
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0307/409850.html
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18) OR: Store owner tackles armed teen robbery suspect
KGW News
"A store owner wrestled an armed 15-year-old robbery suspect to the ground Thursday afternoon and held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived, authorities said. The incident happened about 2:20 p.m. at the S-n-K Market located at 4791 SE Thiessen Road. The teen suspect came into the store acting nervous and as he approached the counter with a soda, the store owner noticed a gun, according to Detective Jeffrey Green with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. 'The store owner and suspect got into a wrestling match for the weapon, which the store owner was able to take from the suspect,' Green said. Deputies later found a mask, gloves and a demand note. The weapon, a black powder handgun, was not loaded at the time of the robbery." [editor's note: There have been several stories lately about unarmed folks wrestling with armed burglars and taking their guns. NOT a good idea, IMO - MLS] (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2wtngu
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19) Chinese homeowner stands her ground
International Herald Tribune [France]
"For weeks it has drawn attention from people all across China, as simple homeowners stared down the forces of large-scale redevelopment that is sweeping this country, blocking the preparation of a gigantic construction site by an act of sheer will. Chinese bloggers were the first to spread the news of a house perched atop a tall, thimble-shaped piece of land like the Mont St. Michel, surrounded by a vast excavated ditch. Newspapers dove in next, finally to be followed by national television broadcasts. The story of the 'nail house,' as many here have called it because of the homeowner's tenacity, like a nail that cannot be pulled out, has a universal resonance in a country where developers are seen to be in league with officials and where both enjoy unchallenged sway." (03/26/07)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/26/news/house.php
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20) CA: Poll says many see bleak future for state
San Francisco Chronicle
"Californians see tougher economic times ahead and are losing confidence in the ability of their political leaders to deal with the state and nation's growing problems, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. That loss of confidence may be why only about half of California's voters think the state's decision to move up its presidential primary was a good idea -- and few voters want to tinker with term limits for legislators. The poll found that half of all adults and nearly as many likely voters now believe bad economic times are ahead for California in the next year, up from 39 percent just two months ago. The overall direction of the state is also a growing concern, with 47 percent of Californians now convinced the state is moving in the wrong direction, up from 37 percent in January." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/36dt3e
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21) Think you know about evolution? Think again
Arizona Republic
"Maybe you learned this in school: The big dinosaur die-off 65 million years ago was a liberation for mammals, and they quickly produced a bunch of new species that included ancestors of humans and other modern-day creatures. Remember? Well, a new study says, forget it. Scientists who constructed a massive evolutionary family tree for mammals found no sign of such a burst of new species at that time among the ancestors of present-day animals. Only mammals with no modern-day descendants showed that effect. 'I was flabbergasted,' said study co-author Ross MacPhee, curator of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2s3y6s
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22) TN: Bredesen favors tolls as road-funding option
Tennessean
"Gov. Phil Bredesen is backing a proposal to create a Tennessee toll-road authority that might charge drivers to use some new roads and bridges. Bredesen said charging tolls could avert a need to raise the gasoline tax to pay for new road projects. A previous version of a state toll-road authority was disbanded after years of inaction. 'Having that in our pocket as one of the options of how we meet our road-building needs, I think that's a sound, sensible thing to do,' Bredesen said. Among those hardest hit by tolls would be truck drivers and freight companies, who buy a lot of fuel and pay a lot in fuel taxes. Some don't particularly care for the idea." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/36fn9c
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23) Study explains why we're not all beautiful
Fox News
"A new study explains why we aren't all born with Brad Pitt's perfectly chiseled features or Angelina Jolie's pouty lips. A long-standing thorn in the side of biologists has been the difficulty in accounting for the enormous variation between individuals, when, from an evolutionary standpoint, sexual selection by females for the most attractive mates should quickly spread the 'best' genes through a population. 'It is a major problem for evolutionary biology,' said study team leader Marion Petrie of Newcastle University in England. For some species, females select the most attractive males to mate with. Female peacocks will choose males with the longest tail feathers -- the peacock version of George Clooney. These more attractive features usually indicate some other level of genetic fitness, such as disease resistance, that the female's offspring will then also inherit." (03/28/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262112,00.html
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24) High-stakes face-off over ending Iraq war
Christian Science Monitor
"With both chambers of Congress now on record as backing a pullout date in Iraq, President Bush's fight to buy more time for American combat forces to achieve US aims there falls to him alone. The Senate vote Tuesday to set a target date of March 31, 2008, to end the war -- and to begin redeploying US troops from Iraq within 120 days after the final bill is passed -- surprised Republican leaders, who defeated similar language two weeks ago. They could have blocked the Senate vote but decided it is more important to get a war-funding bill to Mr. Bush's desk, where it is sure to be vetoed. Then the real dealing begins, GOP leaders say, because Democrats will not risk depriving financial support to US troops in wartime. Democrats say the Senate's new resolve changes the endgame for the war-funding bill and are calling on Bush to start, now, to work with the antiwar majority in Congress so that lawmakers can send to the White House a bill that he will sign. If not, they say, it's the president who will be blamed for failing to provide for troops in harm's way." (03/29/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p01s02-woiq.html
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25) Fidelity to end employee pension plan
Boston Globe
"Fidelity Investments is eliminating its traditional pension plan for roughly 32,000 of its employees, an important symbolic move by a company that has been at the forefront of efforts to push more responsibility for retirement onto workers and away from companies. The Boston mutual fund giant will instead offer workers increased benefits in the company's 401(k) plan plus a new health-savings credit to help pay medical expenses when workers retire, and will allow them to roll their existing pension benefits into a Fidelity profit-sharing plan. Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the company is taking the steps after internal surveys showed 71 percent of its employees didn't know how they would pay for healthcare in retirement." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2bh5o9
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 03/30/07
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 60,411 ... Max - 66,280
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 3,245
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/ )
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
26) Getting from here to there
LewRockwell.Com
by Michael S. Rozeff
"Standard political revolutions are not the answer. Perhaps at the end of a transformative process, a revolution will occur or crystallize matters; but a great deal of work has to precede it. The state was built up one law at a time. The false beliefs we held worked like a leaven in bread. They worked on and within very large loopholes in the initial Constitution. We have experienced subsequent changes in that Constitution and new interpretations of it. False beliefs drove those changes. Changing the Constitution does not per se change false beliefs. Changing false beliefs leads to changes in the Constitution." (03/30/07)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff147.html
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27) The real "existential threat"
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"It's amazing that the War Party, after delivering a body blow to our military and American interests throughout the world by invading Iraq, can mobilize its forces to make yet another go of it -- this time on a much larger scale. That they are doing it without much political opposition, is even more astounding -- and that speaks volumes about the corruption and betrayal of our 'democratic' system, which is no reflection of the popular will. In a sane world, anyone who so much as suggested the possibility of starting another war in the Middle East would be taken out and horsewhipped. In the Bizarro World universe we seem to have slipped into post-9/11, however, such madness is the norm." (03/30/07)
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10745
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28) When the deaths of the innocent do not matter
The Power of Narrative
by Arthur Silber
"[T]ry to make those figures real to yourself: remember the five-year-old Iraqi girl. Remember her family, and her friends. Make fully real to yourself all the lives that have been irrevocably shattered, all the bodies that have been ripped apart, all the souls that have been turned to cinder. That is what this Congress has chosen to fund for at least another year. Endless death, endless maiming, endless slaughter, dismemberment, and putrid, rotting flesh, countless lives destroyed and deformed forever. Could you vote to pay for this? If you could, I pray we never meet. And all in a war that we never had any right to begin, and that we have no right to continue for even a single second more." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2zwaas
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29) Can the Republican Party survive Bush?
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"In 18 months the Republican Party seems headed for one of the most disastrous meltdowns in their history. Once trotted out as the party of a 'permanent majority' it now appears headed for long-term minority status. And the question is: Can the Republicans do anything to minimize this disaster? The answer quite simply is yes. Will they do it? Probably not." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3dxwe6
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30) "Ought to be" ain't "is"
Free Market News Network
by Michael Cloud
"Everyone ought to be rational. Everyone ought to be fair. Everyone ought to be honest. But 'ought to be' ain't 'is.' Some people are rational, fair, and honest. Some aren't. People should be open-minded and thoughtful. People should be concerned with the consequences of their actions. People should be considerate and civil toward others. But 'should be' ain't 'is.' Some people are. Some aren't." (03/29/07)
http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/232/7215/cloud.asp?nid=7215&wid=232
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31) What do we really think about immigration?
The American Spectator
by Lawrence Henry
"At first blush, that question seems ridiculous. Each of us, it seems, knows exactly how we feel about immigration, legal and illegal. What is more, each of us seems very sure that we hold a majority view. And each of us -- from immigration doves like the editorial page writers for the Wall Street Journal to immigration hawks like Tom Tancredo -- tends to hold his view with some vehemence. Dozens, if not hundreds, of polls have been taken on the subject. Polls, of course, often produce tendentious results -- it depends on how you ask questions. And there are now polls of polls and roundups of polls galore on the subject." (03/30/07)
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11226
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32) No thanks, No Impact Man
TCS Daily
by Gregory Scoblete
"On June 11, 1963 Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at an intersection in downtown Saigon. The Buddhist monk hoped his self-immolation would serve as a dramatic protest to the Vietnamese government's anti-Buddhist policies. Colin Beavan would never dream of such a display. After all, it consumes fossil fuels. By now, you've probably heard of 'No Impact Man.' New York writer Colin Beavan has decided to live an 'eco-efficient' life-style with his wife, 2-year-old daughter and dog in the heart of one of the world's largest metropolises." (03/30/07)
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=032907D
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33) The GOP's therapy candidate
Slate
by John Dickerson
"The myth behind the Thompson quasi-candidacy is a dangerous one that bedevils both parties: If we just get a better communicator, people will love our policies. But once Thompson enters the race, he will have to either embrace or distance himself from GOP policies, which will either ruin his chances in the general election or hurt him with his conservative supporters. In short, he'll become just like any other candidate -- something he might not like after such a big buildup. Thompson also has a reputation for not enjoying the grind of campaigning. The blows are already coming." (03/28/07)
http://www.slate.com/id/2162844/
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34) You may already be a terrorist
Disloyal Opposition
by J.D. Tuccille
"If your name -- or any monicker close to your name -- appears on a lengthy list of 'specially designated nationals' maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, you may be unable to get a mortgage, buy insurance or purchase a car. That's because the federal government makes it illegal for businesses, under threat of both civil and criminal penalties, to have anything to do with individuals and organizations whose names appear on the list. ... Not surprisingly, many businesses choose to err on the side of caution rather than risk fines and jail time -- with civil penalties accruing for even inadvertent transgressions." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2l3wax
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35) The midlife crisis of the EU
Human Events
by Pat Buchanan
"The 50th birthday of the European Union, born in Rome in March 1957 as the European Economic Community or Common Market -- of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg -- was a pallid affair. Understandably so. For though the EU has expanded to embrace 27 nations and boasts an economy equal to that of the United States, it is like a man well into middle-age whose career accomplishments are behind him. The EU birthday party was further proof, were any needed, that no transnational institution can elicit the love and loyalty of a country. World Government is a vision of elites no patriot will ever embrace. Men have died in the millions for Poland, France, Italy, England and Germany. Who would walk through fire for the European Union?" (03/30/07)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20057
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36) History's table of context
Liberty For All
by Lady Liberty
"As all of you doubtless know, a movie entitled 300 recently opened to huge box office success and reasonable critical reviews. Most of the raves are coming courtesy of some truly phenomenal Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) which, with '300,' has reached a pinnacle many of us couldn't have imagined even a few years ago. But some heavy promotion of the film is also coming from those of us who are fans of freedom." (03/29/07)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=586
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37) Radioactive money
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Clifford F. Thies
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has just issued a new 50,000 rial banknote. An eye-catching feature of the banknote is the atomic symbol on its reverse side, an orange-hued representation of six electrons in orbit. Money has been 'backed' by a wide range of things, from silver and gold, to central banks, to assertions of raw power. This atomic symbol represents quite an escalation in this regard." (03/29/07)
http://www.mises.org/story/2521
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38) To win at all costs
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
by Terry Nelson
"The war on drugs is a lost cause and to continue it is irresponsible and shows that some of our government officials are out of touch with reality. The reality is that drugs are cheaper, more assessable and of higher quality than they were at the beginning of this failed public policy. So, after more than three decades there is no progress then we should change the policy that is not working and try to find a solution which will work." (03/29/07)
http://blog.leap.cc/?p=76
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39) The Great Lakes Compact
Heartland Institute
by staff
"Some environmental groups champion the Great Lakes Compact as an important way to protect water resources in the region. However, they overlook the compact's profound negative impact on business and residents. Inside this Research & Commentary package, you will learn: The Great Lakes Compact unconstitutionally trumps state law; The agreement allows single-entity control regarding quantity and methods of water usage, placing a stranglehold on state resources; and ..." (03/29/07)
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20851
-----
40) The world according to Gore
Frontiers of Freedom
by Nathan Tabor
"Hollywood praises Al Gore for revealing what the media elite consider to be inconvenient truths. But the fact is, at some point, Mr. Gore needs to face a few inconvenient truths of his own. ... Among environmental activists -- those who wear their allegiance to green on their sleeves -- Gore has achieved superhero status. And yet his own household habits indicate he is not an energy-saver." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2bhm6a
-----
41) What garbage crisis?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Charles W. Baird
"Last November, several state-wide environmental initiatives -- most notably California's $12 billion 'Big Green' and a $2 billion New York bond issue for land acquisition, dump closures, and recycling subsidies -- failed to pass. Big Green was defeated by a 2-to-1 margin. The then-emerging economic recession has been given most of the credit, or blame, for these outcomes, but there is more to it than that. The general public is, at long last, beginning to take a more cautious, critical attitude toward the claims of the environmental establishment." (written 06/91; posted 03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2a8oyn
-----
42) Five biggest myths about global warming
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Iain Murray
"With Al Gore getting so much mileage from his fame as both a former vice president and now Oscar winner to advance his ideological (if not personal) agenda of getting people to use less energy, it's worth reviewing the global warming debate to clarify a few misconceptions. First, we are not in imminent danger of massive sea-level rises." (03/29/07)
http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05845.cfm
-----
43) It's not a conspiracy
Wolfesblog
by Debra
"In my time in the freedom movement (a time that is rapidly coming to an end), I've alienated quite a few people, including close friends, over my refusal to believe in conspiracy theories. ... What started me on this particular rant this particular morning was an email I received in regard to my recent post on the lack of user-friendliness of Linux. After excoriating me for not knowing the 'simple' way to do it (which I'm still not sure I understand), the writer ended with, 'Unless Microsoft is PAYING you to spread FUD?' I'm not sure what FUD is, but I'm pretty sure it's not complimentary. I'm also very sure that Bill G. hasn't written me a check. The question is, why would anyone even think that? The obvious explanation for my post is that I'm an idiot when it comes to Linux. Hell, I freely admitted that. Can anyone honestly think that Microsoft would care what one lone very-erratic blogger says about Linux or Microsoft? I could see them bribing some big-name tech guru to say nice things, but I'm freakin' nobody! One could just as easily -- and just as ridiculously -- accuse anti-MS folks of having Apple or Sun or Novell paying them to write screeds against MS." [editor's note: Heh. I guess I must be in the conspiracy too, and I haven't gotten my check either ... but please don't 'leave the movement' Debra. Just ignore the idiots :-) - MLS] (03/29/07)
http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002529.html
-----
44) New voices for a new war
Seattle Times
by Katherine Pryor
"The war in Iraq is four years old, and I finally live in a city as outraged as I am. I sent out a mass e-mail asking friends to join me at the anti-war demonstration in downtown Seattle. When no one responded, I walked the halls of Antioch University here -- the 'liberal's liberal arts school' -- asking if anyone wanted to go. No one did. I walked alone to the Federal Courthouse, and joined a small, motley group of protesters in rain gear. It was wet; it was cold. I started to worry that no one would show up. What if you held a rally and no one came? One benefit of being alone, I've found in my travels, is that strangers are much more likely to approach you and begin a conversation. I ended up talking with Michael, a 50ish Vietnam vet in a bright yellow rain slicker. He commented on the 'Declare Peace' sign I wore on my back, and said he was glad to see me there. When I asked why, he said, 'Look around you -- it's all old people. Where is your generation?' I didn't have a good answer." (03/29/07)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003640347_pryor29.html
-----
45) A citizen's peace lobby
CounterPunch
by Michael Foley
"Tina Richards has an idea. Tina is the mother of a Marine scheduled for his third tour of duty in Iraq who took on Rep. David Obey (Dem., Wisconsin) and the Democratic leadership over funding for the war. Though her home is Missouri, she's in the process of moving to the Washington, D.C. area to keep up the fight to end the war. Her idea is simple. Bring 10,000 concerned citizens to Washington this summer to lobby their Congressional representatives and counter the ten thousand paid lobbyists who ensure that ours is the most lavishly financed and most seriously immune to change legislature in the world." (03/29/07)
http://www.counterpunch.org/foley03292007.html
-----
46) Sacco and Vanzetti revisited
CounterPunch
by Marlene Martin
"The execution of the Italian immigrants and revolutionaries Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti took place 80 years ago in August. A new documentary, Sacco and Vanzetti, provides an insightful portrayal of a case that still resonates with people fighting for justice today. ... And lest we think it's merely a dark chapter in our history books, the film ends with clips of Guantanamo Bay detainees shackled and led around the prison camp. Point made." (03/29/07)
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin03292007.html
-----
47) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses to confessing under torture
The Onion
by staff
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind who recently admitted to murdering journalist Daniel Pearl and planning more than 30 other terrorist acts, confessed on tape Monday that he had made his recent confessions under extreme physical and mental duress. 'I deeply regret any inaccuracies or exaggerations I may have uttered in my agitated mental state,' a bloodied, visibly exhausted Mohammed said in a videotaped statement. 'But the men with whom I was cooperating said the pain would only stop if I had in fact beheaded Pearl with my own hands, planned the September 11th attacks, and was actually Osama bin Laden after extensive plastic surgery. Again, I apologize for any difficulties that may arise from any misinformation I may have provided.' CIA and military intelligence officers said they were willing to intensify their interrogation of Mohammed if his torture claims prove inaccurate." [satire] (03/28/07)
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/khalid_sheikh_mohammed
-----
48) "Smoke-easies" ignore the tobacco ban
Philadelphia Daily News
by Stu Bykofsky
"I'm sipping a Blue Moon ale in a Philadelphia bar, Janis Joplin is wailing about Bobby McGee and I'm thinking a smoke would go great about now. I take out one of Baby Cakes' Parliament Lights and fire it up. I'm smoking in a bar in Philadelphia and nobody says, 'Boo!' ... Despite the smoking ban -- because of it, actually -- Philadelphia now has 'smoke-easies,' a play on 'speakeasies' that came to us with the Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was enacted in 1920, repealed in 1933 and largely ignored in between. I'm surprised at how many Americans meekly obey smoking bans.This is about Philadelphians who don't." (03/26/07)
http://tinyurl.com/38bfyu
-----
49) Mind how you walk -- it could be a crime
Telegraph [UK]
by Philip Johnston
"My favourite is automatic gait recognition. This identifies people by the way they walk and the Government has asked Ministry of Defence scientists to develop it for widespread use. Cameras are programmed to pick up on a particular gait, thereby making it impossible for a suspect to escape by covering his face. Even Orwell did not come up with 'gaitcrime.'" (03/26/07)
http://tinyurl.com/279tky
-----
50) Take back our kids
Strike the Root
by Jim Lesczynski
"The parental instinct is to protect your offspring -- especially newborns -- from all threats, so it was with more than a little dismay that I stood by helplessly and watched Leviathan sink its hooks into another one of my children literally moments after he left the womb." (03/29/07)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/71/lesczynski/lesczynski1.html
-----
51) The pragmatic ideologue
Reason
by Michael Young
"In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the American University of Beirut was not the likeliest place to find a budding neoconservative -- less so a budding neoconservative and his future wife. Yet that's where Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Iraq who will soon take up as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, did his undergraduate work, and where he met his wife, Cheryl Benard. In those years the A.U.B. was in the throes of Third World fervor and enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause. A university yearbook from the early 1970s had a drawing of a Palestinian militant on its cover, his head covered with a keffiyeh. Describing Khalilzad as a 'neoconservative' may be simplistic." (03/29/07)
http://www.reason.com/news/show/119364.html
-----
52) Getting Kareem freed
Cato Institute
by Tom G. Palmer
"Four years in prison for blogging: three of them for inciting 'hatred of Islam' and one for 'insulting the president.' That's the sentence handed down by an Egyptian judge to a young Egyptian blogger, Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, generally known in the blogosphere as 'Kareem.' On his website, he had criticized his university, Al Azhar, for being close minded and for suppressing thought -- for which he was expelled. He called Egypt's president Mubarak a dictator -- for which he was arrested and imprisoned. As he noted, 'I broke the widespread traditions in the Great Jail of the Arab Republic of Egypt!' For that he was sent to jail." (03/29/07)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8163
-----
53) Obama's identity crisis
The American Conservative
by Steve Sailer
"Obama has molded himself into the male Oprah Winfrey, the crown prince of niceness, bravely denouncing divisiveness, condemning controversy, eulogizing unity, and retelling his feel-good life story about how he, the child of a black scholar from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, grew up to be editor of the Harvard Law Review. ... Beneath this bland Good Obama lies a more interesting character, one that I like far better -- the Bad Obama, a close student of other people's weaknesses, a literary artist of considerable power in plumbing his deep reservoirs of self-pity and resentment, an unfunny Evelyn Waugh consumed by indignation toward his own mother's people." (03/26/07)
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_26/feature.html
-----
54) Pop quiz
Mother Jones
by staff
"How much do you know about the war in Iraq? Take our 15-question quiz to find out. Keep track of how many you answered correctly -- you can score yourself once you've reached the end of the quiz." [editor's note: Wow ... I only got 10 of 15 right! - TLK] (03/29/07)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_quiz.html
-----
55) Iraq deadline: An extraordinary political moment
The Nation
by William Greider
"Take a deep breath. The nation has arrived at an extraordinary political moment. The Congress is about to instruct the President he should withdraw from the ongoing war. Yes, I know the fine print in the House and Senate versions has lots of wiggle room. But the congressional action is still breathtaking when you think about it, possibly without historic precedent. I assumed it would take many months and numerous failed efforts for the new Democratic majority to reach this juncture. When House leaders kept softening their terms, I even thought it might be a good thing for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lose the first time around. She would then be assailed by outraged Americans and get the message: stiffen up, this is not business as usual. I was mistaken. Many of the final details are disappointing, but the message has been delivered and received -- get out of Iraq. It will rule politics until the American exit actually occurs." (03/28/07)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=180016
-----
56) Whistling past the graveyard
The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
"The truly astonishing thing about the latest scandals besetting the Bush administration is that they stem from actions the administration took after the November elections, when Democratic control of Congress was a fait accompli. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hour-long meeting on sacking federal prosecutors took place after the election. The subsequent sacking took place after the election. The videoconference between leaders of the General Services Administration and Karl Rove's deputy about how to help Republican candidates in 2008, according to people who attended the meeting, took place Jan. 26 this year. During last year's congressional campaigns, Republicans spent a good deal of time and money predicting that if the Democrats won, Congress would become one big partisan fishing expedition led by zealots such as Henry Waxman. The Republicans' message didn't really impress the public, and apparently it didn't reach the president and his underlings, either." (03/29/07)
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12605
-----
57) White House for sale
Tom Paine
by David Corn
"It's a cliche: what a difference a Democratic congressional majority makes. The U.S. attorney scandal, Walter Reed, the suppression of global warming data, the FBI's misuse of national security letters -- Democratic legislators have been demanding documents, testimony and answers. Given that they now hold the purse strings and can shoot out subpoenas, the Democrats can no longer be ignored by the White House, executive agencies and the media. Representative Henry Waxman, the relentless Democratic chairman of the government oversight and reform committee, has been leading the pack in investigating allegations of administration wrongdoing. There's a lot for Waxman to cover, and he's being thorough. Consider the letter he sent the White House on March 27. In that note to Joshua Bolten, President Bush's chief of staff, Waxman requested information about a $140,000 contract the White House awarded in July 2002 to MZM, Inc. This was Mitchell Wade's company. He's the (now former) military contractor who paid more than $1 million in bribes to Republican Representative Randy 'Duke' Cunningham." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2cgmks
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58) How analysts in the Arab world see the Iraq war
Christian Science Monitor
by Helena Cobban
"Policymakers and strategic analysts in the Arab world have little confidence that [the] current US troop surge in Iraq will do much more than -- at best -- postpone a complete political-security breakdown in Iraq, which, they fear, could then spread across the Middle East. During my lengthy recent discussions with experts in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and with some well-connected Iraqis in Jordan, I heard a lot about how Iraq's collapse has been affecting these Arab societies. The news from my Iraqi friends -- leaders in quasi-governmental and nongovernmental organizations -- was grim. These were people who (on human rights grounds) had supported the US invasion in 2003, and who then worked hard to build an effective, democratic order in their country. Now, I found them downhearted -- but thoughtful, as they tried to pinpoint the worst of many US mistakes in Iraq. They told piercingly tragic stories about the violence and sectarianism that affects everyone there. I asked one of these friends what he thought would happen if US forces leave Iraq in the near future. He said there's a possibility this would concentrate the minds of his countrymen on the need to find a workable reconciliation. 'But if the Americans stay, we can expect the situation to remain bad,' he said." (03/29/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p09s02-coop.html
-----
59) Democracy haters
In These Times
by David Sirota
"How much opposition to the Iraq War must be expressed in America before Congress takes note and does something? This simple question tears away the veneer of antiwar platitudes and pro-democracy rhetoric that spews from the nation's capital. It has been four months since voters delivered an antiwar mandate, and the Washington establishment no longer pretends to care about the public will. As opposition to the war has increased and as the progressive movement has demanded action from Congress, Beltway voices have expressed their disgust with democracy. In November, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on national television to say that the war 'may not be popular with the public -- it doesn't matter.' In March, Rep. Stephanie Herseth ( D-S.D.) attacked Democratic proposals to end the war: 'I don't think we should be overreacting to public opinion polls.' The same disdain for voters is expressed by the corporate media." (03/27/07)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3080/democracy_haters/
-----
60) Boy Scout values for president
Boston Globe
by Derrick Z. Jackson
"Being an assistant Scoutmaster, I cringed when I heard that a former Boy Scout leader from Norton was arrested in a child porn sting. The assumption that Scouts are trustworthy still holds such power that if one does wrong, you can guarantee what the story line will be: 'A former Boy Scout leader and coach already serving a 14-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography ... ' in Texas. 'Federal authorities have accused a Portland-area [Ore.] Boy Scout leader' ... 'A Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader were among 125 people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case ... And these were just some stories along those lines that have appeared in the last year, from Tallahassee to Buffalo. While such stories are sad in themselves, a little juxtaposition makes them more sobering. By primarily identifying someone as a Scout or a priest or a teacher, we assume a level of honesty in millions of people. Most of their names will never be known outside their communities -- unless they do wrong. ... But what about leaders who are household names? This latest alleged betrayal of a Scout's trust comes as the buzzards swirl around the rotting credibility of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the lawyer-firing scandal." (03/28/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2r6aqt
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* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
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61) The Rothbardians are coming! The Rothbardians are coming!, 04/03/07
The Liberated Space
The Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, with host Angela Keaton. 2:30pm Pacific Time on Blog Talk Radio. [various formats] (04/03/07)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=18410
-----
62) Ethics on K's Frame of Mind, 04/01/07
K's Frame of Mind
"Ethical answers to unethical actions: Anything can be justified if you have no moral compass." 9pm Central time on Blog Talk Radio. [various formats] (04/01/07)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=17468
-----
63) Free Talk Live, 03/29/07
Free Talk Live
"Local Radio / Americans Distrust Govt / UK Olympic Boondoggle / The Jesus, Politics, Supreme Beings, and Revelations / Govt and Property Ownership / Govt is Chaos / Presidential Training? / Small Govt in Iceland / Smokeeasies / FBI Hemmoraging Laptops and Guns / Purity Balls." [MP3] (03/29/07)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2007-03-29.mp3
-----
64) The libertarian cultural tradition
Cato Institute
Cato daily podcast, featuring Virginia Postrel. [MP3] (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/22n4zj
-----
65) Les Roberts on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"Dr. Les Roberts from Columbia University discusses the famous Johns Hopkins/Lancet studies of 'excess civilian deaths' in Iraq since 2003, the UK government scientists who told Tony Blair that Lancet had, if anything, underestimated the dead at 655,000 (more than the Rwandan genocide of 1994), the deliberate efforts of the U.S. government to suppress numbers of the dead." [Flash audio or MP3] (03/29/07)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/03/29/les-roberts/
********************
* Weekly Symposium
********************
66) Open thread
Okay ... most readers don't seem especially interested in the topics I'm choosing. So, just choose something YOU want to talk about, and let'er rip.
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/26758
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
67) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events. Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com .
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com
-----
68) Voter Second Amendment Poll
JPFO
"How important do you consider your Second Amendment rights? We want to find out! Visit here to take part in our Second Amendment voter poll. You can only vote once, so make sure you answer all of the questions before submitting your response. And make sure to tell others to vote in this critically important poll!" (03/27/07)
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20070327.htm
***********
* WaYbAcK
***********
69) Seward's folly
Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at:
http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
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* Volume V, Issue #1,119
* Friday, March 30th, 2007
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In The News:
1) NM: 4 charged with corruption
2) Aide contradicts Gonzales in probe
3) UN urges resolution of Iran seizure
4) Senate approves war bill containing Iraq timeline
5) 100 killed by multiple car bomb blasts
6) Japan extends air force mission in Iraq
7) Pot-growing takes root in the suburbs
8) US to impose Sudan sanctions soon
9) Saudis on US in Iraq: "Illegitimate foreign occupation"
10) Surveillance detailed in engineer trial
11) Gates calls for bill to help close Gitmo
12) Marijuana not kosher
13) Germans rise in resistance to speed cameras
14) TX: Houstonian barbecues red light camera ticket
15) Swiss man sentenced for defacing pictures of Thai king
16) TN: Residents can now keep guns in emergencies
17) AR: Homeowner claims self defense in shooting
18) OR: Store owner tackles armed teen robbery suspect
19) Chinese homeowner stands her ground
20) CA: Poll says many see bleak future for state
21) Think you know about evolution? Think again
22) TN: Bredesen favors tolls as road-funding option
23) Study explains why we're not all beautiful
24) High-stakes face-off over ending Iraq war
25) Fidelity to end employee pension plan
Everybody Has An Opinion:
26) Getting from here to there
27) The real "existential threat"
28) When the deaths of the innocent do not matter
29) Can the Republican Party survive Bush?
30) "Ought to be" ain't "is"
31) What do we really think about immigration?
32) No thanks, No Impact Man
33) The GOP's therapy candidate
34) You may already be a terrorist
35) The midlife crisis of the EU
36) History's table of context
37) Radioactive money
38) To win at all costs
39) The Great Lakes Compact
40) The world according to Gore
41) What garbage crisis?
42) Five biggest myths about global warming
43) It's not a conspiracy
44) New voices for a new war
45) A citizen's peace lobby
46) Sacco and Vanzetti revisited
47) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses to confessing under torture
48) "Smoke-easies" ignore the tobacco ban
49) Mind how you walk -- it could be a crime
50) Take back our kids
51) The pragmatic ideologue
52) Getting Kareem freed
53) Obama's identity crisis
54) Pop quiz
55) Iraq deadline: An extraordinary political moment
56) Whistling past the graveyard
57) White House for sale
58) How analysts in the Arab world see the Iraq war
59) Democracy haters
60) Boy Scout values for president
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
61) The Rothbardians are coming! The Rothbardians are coming!, 04/03/07
62) Ethics on K's Frame of Mind, 04/01/07
63) Free Talk Live, 03/29/07
64) The libertarian cultural tradition
65) Les Roberts on Antiwar Radio
Weekly Symposium:
66) Open thread
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
67) Today's events
68) Voter Second Amendment Poll
WaYbAcK:
69) Seward's folly
***************
* In The News
***************
1) NM: 4 charged with corruption
Houston Chronicle
"A former state senator and three other people were charged with corruption Thursday in a highly politicized case that a former federal prosecutor told Congress he believes led to his firing. A federal grand jury accused former New Mexico Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon and the others of conspiring to skim $4.2 million in public funds meant for construction of a county courthouse. David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys fired late last year, told Congress this month that he rejected what he believed to be pressure from U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, New Mexico Republicans, to rush the indictments, which would have hurt Democrats in the November elections." (03/30/07)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4674603.html
-----
2) Aide contradicts Gonzales in probe
USA Today
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales falsely asserted in public statements that he was not involved in discussions about the abrupt removal of eight federal prosecutors, his former chief of staff told a congressional panel Thursday. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kyle Sampson said he repeatedly consulted with the attorney general before the controversial dismissals. He described Gonzales' claims of non-involvement as 'inaccurate.'" (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/398952
-----
3) UN urges resolution of Iran seizure
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
"The U.N. Security Council expressed 'grave concern' Thursday over Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute, but Iran's chief international negotiator suggested the captives might be put on trial. The council's statement wasn't as tough as Britain had hoped, though, and the divide seemed to deepen." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/34a2yg
-----
4) Senate approves war bill containing Iraq timeline
Yankton Press & Dakotan
"A defiant, Democratic-controlled Senate approved legislation Thursday calling for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year, propelling Congress closer to an epic, wartime veto confrontation with President Bush. The 51-47 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of a separate, more sweeping challenge to the administration's war policies a week ago, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. It came not long after Bush and House Republicans made a show of unity at the White House." (03/30/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3agp86
-----
5) 100 killed by multiple car bomb blasts
MSNBC
"A series of car bomb blasts at a Baghdad market and a Shiite town north of the capital killed at least 100 people Thursday, police and hospital sources said. A bomb killed around 60 people in a market in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said, in what appeared to be the latest of a string of attacks on Shiite targets." (03/29/07)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17826030/
-----
6) Japan extends air force mission in Iraq
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Japan's Cabinet approved a two-year extension of the country's air force mission in Iraq after it expires in July, the foreign minister announced Friday. Tokyo has been airlifting U.N. and coalition personnel and supplies into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities from nearby Kuwait since early last year as part of efforts to support Iraq's reconstruction. The mission had been set to end July 31." (03/30/07)
http://tinyurl.com/225u4p
-----
7) Pot-growing takes root in the suburbs
Lexington Herald-Leader
"In Coldwater Creek, a middle-class housing development outside Atlanta, the neighbors mind their own business and respect each other's privacy -- ideal conditions, it turns out, for growing marijuana in the suburbs. Police this month raided an utterly ordinary-looking red-brick house on the block and broke up a pot-growing operation with 680 plants arrayed under bright lights." (03/29/07)
http://www.kentucky.com/513/story/29421.html
-----
8) US to impose Sudan sanctions soon
CNN
"The United States will impose tough new measures against Sudan, likely within days, to try to force it to change course on Darfur and aims to pressure Khartoum militarily by helping rebuild forces in the south, U.S. officials said. State Department, Defense, Treasury and other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the goal was to 'tighten the screws' on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and have him accept an international force in the vast western province." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2tdgrd
-----
9) Saudis on US in Iraq: "Illegitimate foreign occupation"
CNN
"King Abdullah's harsh -- and unexpected -- attack on the U.S. military presence in Iraq could be a Saudi attempt to signal to Washington its anger over the situation in Iraq and build credibility among fellow Arabs. The White House, in a rare public retort Thursday, rejected the king's characterization of U.S. troops in Iraq as an 'illegitimate foreign occupation,' saying the United States was not in Iraq illegally." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2repez
-----
10) Surveillance detailed in engineer trial
Elizabeth City Daily Advance
"An engineer accused of conspiring to send information on U.S. naval technology to China had repeated contact with a Chinese government official who was seeking information about the space shuttle from a Boeing engineer, according to FBI testimony Thursday. Agent James Gaylord read translated letters that he said were written by a Chinese aviation official and discovered during the investigation of Chi Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who worked for a California defense contractor and who is now on trial in U.S. District Court." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2uncyw
-----
11) Gates calls for bill to help close Gitmo
Cambridge Daily-Jeff
"Congress and the Bush administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates said the challenge is figuring out what to do with hard-core detainees who have 'made very clear they will come back and attack this country.'" (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/yrkhbo
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12) Marijuana not kosher
Yahoo! News
"Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, a pro-cannabis advocacy group says, advising Jews who observe the week-long holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed.The Green Leaf Party announced Wednesday that products of the cannabis plant have been grouped by rabbis within a family of foods such as peas, beans and lentils that is off-limits to Jews of European descent during Passover.The Green Leaf Party, which has made several unsuccessful attempts to win election to parliament on a platform urging marijuana's legalisation, said it was issuing its advisory as a service to Jews who don't want to break ritual law." (03/28/07)
http://tinyurl.com/yqm289
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13) Germans rise in resistance to speed cameras
The Newspaper
"A vigilante resistance movement is hindering the German government's efforts to increase revenue through the use of speed cameras. Despite the use of extreme tactics, police have only been able to catch a handful of the motorists responsible for the uprising, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. In Osterode, a motorist disgusted by the underposted 70km/h (43 MPH) speed limit ripped out every speed limit sign on the B243 and tossed them into a ditch. Upset police had to cancel fines worth thousands of euros last month. Another motorist successfully destroyed a Harz speed camera by setting it on fire. In Goettingen, a vigilante took the time to remove and run off with an entire, working speed camera assembly. Another camera in Kassel was stolen. Police have no idea who was responsible for any of these attacks." [editor's note: The sooner this movement spreads to America, the better - TLK] (03/28/07)
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/16/1674.asp
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14) TX: Houstonian barbecues red light camera ticket
KHOU News
"Michael Skadden is burning mad. The Houston attorney was ticketed in February for running a red light at the Southwest Freeway and Fountainview by one of the city of Houston's controversial red light cameras. When he refused to pay the $75 fine the city sent him another notice and then another. Nevertheless, Skadden has no intention of paying. Wednesday he set afire his ticket and offense notices. The former ACLU official claims the citations are unconstitutional and in letters to the city has told authorities as much. He considers the red light tickets little more than a traffic tax and 'Orwellian in character.' Even as he refuses to pay there is not much the city can do criminally since the citations are considered civil fines. The city could seek a judgment against Skadden and others who refuse to pay." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3ags29
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15) Swiss man sentenced for defacing pictures of Thai king
Independent [UK]
"A Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in a Thai prison yesterday for the 'crime' of insulting Thailand's King. In a drunken spree, Oliver Jufer vandalised several portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej with black spraypaint. Mr Jufer, 57, has one month to appeal, but Thai lawyers say he has little hope of success. ... The Swiss man, a long-term Thai resident, is being jailed under the country's archaic lese-majeste laws, which were enforced long before the generals seized power last year. Thailand is one of very few countries in the world that still enforce lese-majeste. Any criticism of the King or royal family is illegal. Many Thais have run foul of the law, but Mr Jufer is thought to be the first foreigner to be jailed under it." (03/30/07)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2405138.ece
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16) TN: Residents can now keep guns in emergencies
WKM News
"Tennesseans will get to keep their weapons to defend themselves in future disasters and emergencies. Tennessee lawmakers shot down a standing law allowing the governor to confiscate guns. Louisiana had the same law and enacted it in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Post-Katrina New Orleans experienced a dramatic rise in violence. To curb the chaos, Louisiana government ordered all citizens to turn in their guns. Wednesday, Tennessee senators assured residents of the Volunteer State they will keep their guns, even in a State of Emergency." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2vzv6c
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17) AR: Homeowner claims self defense in shooting
KATV News
"When police responded to a shots-fired call around 12:30 a.m., they found the body of 22-year-old Erroll Bernard Robinson, Jr. on the front porch of a vacant home on Water Street. A resident around the corner, 43-year-old Myron Doss, told investigators he fired twice in self-defense, and the man ran away. (Officer Carmen Green, North Little Rock Police Dept.) 'The resident heard glass break outside his residence. When he opened the door he saw a black male crouched down behind his vehicle. When he stepped out onto his porch that's when the individual stood up turned towards him and fired one shot. ... and he returned fire." (03/29/07)
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0307/409850.html
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18) OR: Store owner tackles armed teen robbery suspect
KGW News
"A store owner wrestled an armed 15-year-old robbery suspect to the ground Thursday afternoon and held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived, authorities said. The incident happened about 2:20 p.m. at the S-n-K Market located at 4791 SE Thiessen Road. The teen suspect came into the store acting nervous and as he approached the counter with a soda, the store owner noticed a gun, according to Detective Jeffrey Green with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. 'The store owner and suspect got into a wrestling match for the weapon, which the store owner was able to take from the suspect,' Green said. Deputies later found a mask, gloves and a demand note. The weapon, a black powder handgun, was not loaded at the time of the robbery." [editor's note: There have been several stories lately about unarmed folks wrestling with armed burglars and taking their guns. NOT a good idea, IMO - MLS] (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2wtngu
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19) Chinese homeowner stands her ground
International Herald Tribune [France]
"For weeks it has drawn attention from people all across China, as simple homeowners stared down the forces of large-scale redevelopment that is sweeping this country, blocking the preparation of a gigantic construction site by an act of sheer will. Chinese bloggers were the first to spread the news of a house perched atop a tall, thimble-shaped piece of land like the Mont St. Michel, surrounded by a vast excavated ditch. Newspapers dove in next, finally to be followed by national television broadcasts. The story of the 'nail house,' as many here have called it because of the homeowner's tenacity, like a nail that cannot be pulled out, has a universal resonance in a country where developers are seen to be in league with officials and where both enjoy unchallenged sway." (03/26/07)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/26/news/house.php
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20) CA: Poll says many see bleak future for state
San Francisco Chronicle
"Californians see tougher economic times ahead and are losing confidence in the ability of their political leaders to deal with the state and nation's growing problems, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. That loss of confidence may be why only about half of California's voters think the state's decision to move up its presidential primary was a good idea -- and few voters want to tinker with term limits for legislators. The poll found that half of all adults and nearly as many likely voters now believe bad economic times are ahead for California in the next year, up from 39 percent just two months ago. The overall direction of the state is also a growing concern, with 47 percent of Californians now convinced the state is moving in the wrong direction, up from 37 percent in January." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/36dt3e
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21) Think you know about evolution? Think again
Arizona Republic
"Maybe you learned this in school: The big dinosaur die-off 65 million years ago was a liberation for mammals, and they quickly produced a bunch of new species that included ancestors of humans and other modern-day creatures. Remember? Well, a new study says, forget it. Scientists who constructed a massive evolutionary family tree for mammals found no sign of such a burst of new species at that time among the ancestors of present-day animals. Only mammals with no modern-day descendants showed that effect. 'I was flabbergasted,' said study co-author Ross MacPhee, curator of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2s3y6s
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22) TN: Bredesen favors tolls as road-funding option
Tennessean
"Gov. Phil Bredesen is backing a proposal to create a Tennessee toll-road authority that might charge drivers to use some new roads and bridges. Bredesen said charging tolls could avert a need to raise the gasoline tax to pay for new road projects. A previous version of a state toll-road authority was disbanded after years of inaction. 'Having that in our pocket as one of the options of how we meet our road-building needs, I think that's a sound, sensible thing to do,' Bredesen said. Among those hardest hit by tolls would be truck drivers and freight companies, who buy a lot of fuel and pay a lot in fuel taxes. Some don't particularly care for the idea." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/36fn9c
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23) Study explains why we're not all beautiful
Fox News
"A new study explains why we aren't all born with Brad Pitt's perfectly chiseled features or Angelina Jolie's pouty lips. A long-standing thorn in the side of biologists has been the difficulty in accounting for the enormous variation between individuals, when, from an evolutionary standpoint, sexual selection by females for the most attractive mates should quickly spread the 'best' genes through a population. 'It is a major problem for evolutionary biology,' said study team leader Marion Petrie of Newcastle University in England. For some species, females select the most attractive males to mate with. Female peacocks will choose males with the longest tail feathers -- the peacock version of George Clooney. These more attractive features usually indicate some other level of genetic fitness, such as disease resistance, that the female's offspring will then also inherit." (03/28/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262112,00.html
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24) High-stakes face-off over ending Iraq war
Christian Science Monitor
"With both chambers of Congress now on record as backing a pullout date in Iraq, President Bush's fight to buy more time for American combat forces to achieve US aims there falls to him alone. The Senate vote Tuesday to set a target date of March 31, 2008, to end the war -- and to begin redeploying US troops from Iraq within 120 days after the final bill is passed -- surprised Republican leaders, who defeated similar language two weeks ago. They could have blocked the Senate vote but decided it is more important to get a war-funding bill to Mr. Bush's desk, where it is sure to be vetoed. Then the real dealing begins, GOP leaders say, because Democrats will not risk depriving financial support to US troops in wartime. Democrats say the Senate's new resolve changes the endgame for the war-funding bill and are calling on Bush to start, now, to work with the antiwar majority in Congress so that lawmakers can send to the White House a bill that he will sign. If not, they say, it's the president who will be blamed for failing to provide for troops in harm's way." (03/29/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p01s02-woiq.html
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25) Fidelity to end employee pension plan
Boston Globe
"Fidelity Investments is eliminating its traditional pension plan for roughly 32,000 of its employees, an important symbolic move by a company that has been at the forefront of efforts to push more responsibility for retirement onto workers and away from companies. The Boston mutual fund giant will instead offer workers increased benefits in the company's 401(k) plan plus a new health-savings credit to help pay medical expenses when workers retire, and will allow them to roll their existing pension benefits into a Fidelity profit-sharing plan. Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the company is taking the steps after internal surveys showed 71 percent of its employees didn't know how they would pay for healthcare in retirement." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2bh5o9
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 03/30/07
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 60,411 ... Max - 66,280
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 3,245
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/ )
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
26) Getting from here to there
LewRockwell.Com
by Michael S. Rozeff
"Standard political revolutions are not the answer. Perhaps at the end of a transformative process, a revolution will occur or crystallize matters; but a great deal of work has to precede it. The state was built up one law at a time. The false beliefs we held worked like a leaven in bread. They worked on and within very large loopholes in the initial Constitution. We have experienced subsequent changes in that Constitution and new interpretations of it. False beliefs drove those changes. Changing the Constitution does not per se change false beliefs. Changing false beliefs leads to changes in the Constitution." (03/30/07)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff147.html
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27) The real "existential threat"
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"It's amazing that the War Party, after delivering a body blow to our military and American interests throughout the world by invading Iraq, can mobilize its forces to make yet another go of it -- this time on a much larger scale. That they are doing it without much political opposition, is even more astounding -- and that speaks volumes about the corruption and betrayal of our 'democratic' system, which is no reflection of the popular will. In a sane world, anyone who so much as suggested the possibility of starting another war in the Middle East would be taken out and horsewhipped. In the Bizarro World universe we seem to have slipped into post-9/11, however, such madness is the norm." (03/30/07)
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10745
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28) When the deaths of the innocent do not matter
The Power of Narrative
by Arthur Silber
"[T]ry to make those figures real to yourself: remember the five-year-old Iraqi girl. Remember her family, and her friends. Make fully real to yourself all the lives that have been irrevocably shattered, all the bodies that have been ripped apart, all the souls that have been turned to cinder. That is what this Congress has chosen to fund for at least another year. Endless death, endless maiming, endless slaughter, dismemberment, and putrid, rotting flesh, countless lives destroyed and deformed forever. Could you vote to pay for this? If you could, I pray we never meet. And all in a war that we never had any right to begin, and that we have no right to continue for even a single second more." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2zwaas
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29) Can the Republican Party survive Bush?
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"In 18 months the Republican Party seems headed for one of the most disastrous meltdowns in their history. Once trotted out as the party of a 'permanent majority' it now appears headed for long-term minority status. And the question is: Can the Republicans do anything to minimize this disaster? The answer quite simply is yes. Will they do it? Probably not." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/3dxwe6
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30) "Ought to be" ain't "is"
Free Market News Network
by Michael Cloud
"Everyone ought to be rational. Everyone ought to be fair. Everyone ought to be honest. But 'ought to be' ain't 'is.' Some people are rational, fair, and honest. Some aren't. People should be open-minded and thoughtful. People should be concerned with the consequences of their actions. People should be considerate and civil toward others. But 'should be' ain't 'is.' Some people are. Some aren't." (03/29/07)
http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/232/7215/cloud.asp?nid=7215&wid=232
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31) What do we really think about immigration?
The American Spectator
by Lawrence Henry
"At first blush, that question seems ridiculous. Each of us, it seems, knows exactly how we feel about immigration, legal and illegal. What is more, each of us seems very sure that we hold a majority view. And each of us -- from immigration doves like the editorial page writers for the Wall Street Journal to immigration hawks like Tom Tancredo -- tends to hold his view with some vehemence. Dozens, if not hundreds, of polls have been taken on the subject. Polls, of course, often produce tendentious results -- it depends on how you ask questions. And there are now polls of polls and roundups of polls galore on the subject." (03/30/07)
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11226
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32) No thanks, No Impact Man
TCS Daily
by Gregory Scoblete
"On June 11, 1963 Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at an intersection in downtown Saigon. The Buddhist monk hoped his self-immolation would serve as a dramatic protest to the Vietnamese government's anti-Buddhist policies. Colin Beavan would never dream of such a display. After all, it consumes fossil fuels. By now, you've probably heard of 'No Impact Man.' New York writer Colin Beavan has decided to live an 'eco-efficient' life-style with his wife, 2-year-old daughter and dog in the heart of one of the world's largest metropolises." (03/30/07)
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=032907D
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33) The GOP's therapy candidate
Slate
by John Dickerson
"The myth behind the Thompson quasi-candidacy is a dangerous one that bedevils both parties: If we just get a better communicator, people will love our policies. But once Thompson enters the race, he will have to either embrace or distance himself from GOP policies, which will either ruin his chances in the general election or hurt him with his conservative supporters. In short, he'll become just like any other candidate -- something he might not like after such a big buildup. Thompson also has a reputation for not enjoying the grind of campaigning. The blows are already coming." (03/28/07)
http://www.slate.com/id/2162844/
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34) You may already be a terrorist
Disloyal Opposition
by J.D. Tuccille
"If your name -- or any monicker close to your name -- appears on a lengthy list of 'specially designated nationals' maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, you may be unable to get a mortgage, buy insurance or purchase a car. That's because the federal government makes it illegal for businesses, under threat of both civil and criminal penalties, to have anything to do with individuals and organizations whose names appear on the list. ... Not surprisingly, many businesses choose to err on the side of caution rather than risk fines and jail time -- with civil penalties accruing for even inadvertent transgressions." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2l3wax
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35) The midlife crisis of the EU
Human Events
by Pat Buchanan
"The 50th birthday of the European Union, born in Rome in March 1957 as the European Economic Community or Common Market -- of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg -- was a pallid affair. Understandably so. For though the EU has expanded to embrace 27 nations and boasts an economy equal to that of the United States, it is like a man well into middle-age whose career accomplishments are behind him. The EU birthday party was further proof, were any needed, that no transnational institution can elicit the love and loyalty of a country. World Government is a vision of elites no patriot will ever embrace. Men have died in the millions for Poland, France, Italy, England and Germany. Who would walk through fire for the European Union?" (03/30/07)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20057
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36) History's table of context
Liberty For All
by Lady Liberty
"As all of you doubtless know, a movie entitled 300 recently opened to huge box office success and reasonable critical reviews. Most of the raves are coming courtesy of some truly phenomenal Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) which, with '300,' has reached a pinnacle many of us couldn't have imagined even a few years ago. But some heavy promotion of the film is also coming from those of us who are fans of freedom." (03/29/07)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=586
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37) Radioactive money
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Clifford F. Thies
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has just issued a new 50,000 rial banknote. An eye-catching feature of the banknote is the atomic symbol on its reverse side, an orange-hued representation of six electrons in orbit. Money has been 'backed' by a wide range of things, from silver and gold, to central banks, to assertions of raw power. This atomic symbol represents quite an escalation in this regard." (03/29/07)
http://www.mises.org/story/2521
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38) To win at all costs
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
by Terry Nelson
"The war on drugs is a lost cause and to continue it is irresponsible and shows that some of our government officials are out of touch with reality. The reality is that drugs are cheaper, more assessable and of higher quality than they were at the beginning of this failed public policy. So, after more than three decades there is no progress then we should change the policy that is not working and try to find a solution which will work." (03/29/07)
http://blog.leap.cc/?p=76
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39) The Great Lakes Compact
Heartland Institute
by staff
"Some environmental groups champion the Great Lakes Compact as an important way to protect water resources in the region. However, they overlook the compact's profound negative impact on business and residents. Inside this Research & Commentary package, you will learn: The Great Lakes Compact unconstitutionally trumps state law; The agreement allows single-entity control regarding quantity and methods of water usage, placing a stranglehold on state resources; and ..." (03/29/07)
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20851
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40) The world according to Gore
Frontiers of Freedom
by Nathan Tabor
"Hollywood praises Al Gore for revealing what the media elite consider to be inconvenient truths. But the fact is, at some point, Mr. Gore needs to face a few inconvenient truths of his own. ... Among environmental activists -- those who wear their allegiance to green on their sleeves -- Gore has achieved superhero status. And yet his own household habits indicate he is not an energy-saver." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2bhm6a
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41) What garbage crisis?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Charles W. Baird
"Last November, several state-wide environmental initiatives -- most notably California's $12 billion 'Big Green' and a $2 billion New York bond issue for land acquisition, dump closures, and recycling subsidies -- failed to pass. Big Green was defeated by a 2-to-1 margin. The then-emerging economic recession has been given most of the credit, or blame, for these outcomes, but there is more to it than that. The general public is, at long last, beginning to take a more cautious, critical attitude toward the claims of the environmental establishment." (written 06/91; posted 03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2a8oyn
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42) Five biggest myths about global warming
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Iain Murray
"With Al Gore getting so much mileage from his fame as both a former vice president and now Oscar winner to advance his ideological (if not personal) agenda of getting people to use less energy, it's worth reviewing the global warming debate to clarify a few misconceptions. First, we are not in imminent danger of massive sea-level rises." (03/29/07)
http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05845.cfm
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43) It's not a conspiracy
Wolfesblog
by Debra
"In my time in the freedom movement (a time that is rapidly coming to an end), I've alienated quite a few people, including close friends, over my refusal to believe in conspiracy theories. ... What started me on this particular rant this particular morning was an email I received in regard to my recent post on the lack of user-friendliness of Linux. After excoriating me for not knowing the 'simple' way to do it (which I'm still not sure I understand), the writer ended with, 'Unless Microsoft is PAYING you to spread FUD?' I'm not sure what FUD is, but I'm pretty sure it's not complimentary. I'm also very sure that Bill G. hasn't written me a check. The question is, why would anyone even think that? The obvious explanation for my post is that I'm an idiot when it comes to Linux. Hell, I freely admitted that. Can anyone honestly think that Microsoft would care what one lone very-erratic blogger says about Linux or Microsoft? I could see them bribing some big-name tech guru to say nice things, but I'm freakin' nobody! One could just as easily -- and just as ridiculously -- accuse anti-MS folks of having Apple or Sun or Novell paying them to write screeds against MS." [editor's note: Heh. I guess I must be in the conspiracy too, and I haven't gotten my check either ... but please don't 'leave the movement' Debra. Just ignore the idiots :-) - MLS] (03/29/07)
http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002529.html
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44) New voices for a new war
Seattle Times
by Katherine Pryor
"The war in Iraq is four years old, and I finally live in a city as outraged as I am. I sent out a mass e-mail asking friends to join me at the anti-war demonstration in downtown Seattle. When no one responded, I walked the halls of Antioch University here -- the 'liberal's liberal arts school' -- asking if anyone wanted to go. No one did. I walked alone to the Federal Courthouse, and joined a small, motley group of protesters in rain gear. It was wet; it was cold. I started to worry that no one would show up. What if you held a rally and no one came? One benefit of being alone, I've found in my travels, is that strangers are much more likely to approach you and begin a conversation. I ended up talking with Michael, a 50ish Vietnam vet in a bright yellow rain slicker. He commented on the 'Declare Peace' sign I wore on my back, and said he was glad to see me there. When I asked why, he said, 'Look around you -- it's all old people. Where is your generation?' I didn't have a good answer." (03/29/07)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003640347_pryor29.html
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45) A citizen's peace lobby
CounterPunch
by Michael Foley
"Tina Richards has an idea. Tina is the mother of a Marine scheduled for his third tour of duty in Iraq who took on Rep. David Obey (Dem., Wisconsin) and the Democratic leadership over funding for the war. Though her home is Missouri, she's in the process of moving to the Washington, D.C. area to keep up the fight to end the war. Her idea is simple. Bring 10,000 concerned citizens to Washington this summer to lobby their Congressional representatives and counter the ten thousand paid lobbyists who ensure that ours is the most lavishly financed and most seriously immune to change legislature in the world." (03/29/07)
http://www.counterpunch.org/foley03292007.html
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46) Sacco and Vanzetti revisited
CounterPunch
by Marlene Martin
"The execution of the Italian immigrants and revolutionaries Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti took place 80 years ago in August. A new documentary, Sacco and Vanzetti, provides an insightful portrayal of a case that still resonates with people fighting for justice today. ... And lest we think it's merely a dark chapter in our history books, the film ends with clips of Guantanamo Bay detainees shackled and led around the prison camp. Point made." (03/29/07)
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin03292007.html
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47) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses to confessing under torture
The Onion
by staff
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind who recently admitted to murdering journalist Daniel Pearl and planning more than 30 other terrorist acts, confessed on tape Monday that he had made his recent confessions under extreme physical and mental duress. 'I deeply regret any inaccuracies or exaggerations I may have uttered in my agitated mental state,' a bloodied, visibly exhausted Mohammed said in a videotaped statement. 'But the men with whom I was cooperating said the pain would only stop if I had in fact beheaded Pearl with my own hands, planned the September 11th attacks, and was actually Osama bin Laden after extensive plastic surgery. Again, I apologize for any difficulties that may arise from any misinformation I may have provided.' CIA and military intelligence officers said they were willing to intensify their interrogation of Mohammed if his torture claims prove inaccurate." [satire] (03/28/07)
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/khalid_sheikh_mohammed
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48) "Smoke-easies" ignore the tobacco ban
Philadelphia Daily News
by Stu Bykofsky
"I'm sipping a Blue Moon ale in a Philadelphia bar, Janis Joplin is wailing about Bobby McGee and I'm thinking a smoke would go great about now. I take out one of Baby Cakes' Parliament Lights and fire it up. I'm smoking in a bar in Philadelphia and nobody says, 'Boo!' ... Despite the smoking ban -- because of it, actually -- Philadelphia now has 'smoke-easies,' a play on 'speakeasies' that came to us with the Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was enacted in 1920, repealed in 1933 and largely ignored in between. I'm surprised at how many Americans meekly obey smoking bans.This is about Philadelphians who don't." (03/26/07)
http://tinyurl.com/38bfyu
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49) Mind how you walk -- it could be a crime
Telegraph [UK]
by Philip Johnston
"My favourite is automatic gait recognition. This identifies people by the way they walk and the Government has asked Ministry of Defence scientists to develop it for widespread use. Cameras are programmed to pick up on a particular gait, thereby making it impossible for a suspect to escape by covering his face. Even Orwell did not come up with 'gaitcrime.'" (03/26/07)
http://tinyurl.com/279tky
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50) Take back our kids
Strike the Root
by Jim Lesczynski
"The parental instinct is to protect your offspring -- especially newborns -- from all threats, so it was with more than a little dismay that I stood by helplessly and watched Leviathan sink its hooks into another one of my children literally moments after he left the womb." (03/29/07)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/71/lesczynski/lesczynski1.html
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51) The pragmatic ideologue
Reason
by Michael Young
"In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the American University of Beirut was not the likeliest place to find a budding neoconservative -- less so a budding neoconservative and his future wife. Yet that's where Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Iraq who will soon take up as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, did his undergraduate work, and where he met his wife, Cheryl Benard. In those years the A.U.B. was in the throes of Third World fervor and enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause. A university yearbook from the early 1970s had a drawing of a Palestinian militant on its cover, his head covered with a keffiyeh. Describing Khalilzad as a 'neoconservative' may be simplistic." (03/29/07)
http://www.reason.com/news/show/119364.html
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52) Getting Kareem freed
Cato Institute
by Tom G. Palmer
"Four years in prison for blogging: three of them for inciting 'hatred of Islam' and one for 'insulting the president.' That's the sentence handed down by an Egyptian judge to a young Egyptian blogger, Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, generally known in the blogosphere as 'Kareem.' On his website, he had criticized his university, Al Azhar, for being close minded and for suppressing thought -- for which he was expelled. He called Egypt's president Mubarak a dictator -- for which he was arrested and imprisoned. As he noted, 'I broke the widespread traditions in the Great Jail of the Arab Republic of Egypt!' For that he was sent to jail." (03/29/07)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8163
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53) Obama's identity crisis
The American Conservative
by Steve Sailer
"Obama has molded himself into the male Oprah Winfrey, the crown prince of niceness, bravely denouncing divisiveness, condemning controversy, eulogizing unity, and retelling his feel-good life story about how he, the child of a black scholar from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, grew up to be editor of the Harvard Law Review. ... Beneath this bland Good Obama lies a more interesting character, one that I like far better -- the Bad Obama, a close student of other people's weaknesses, a literary artist of considerable power in plumbing his deep reservoirs of self-pity and resentment, an unfunny Evelyn Waugh consumed by indignation toward his own mother's people." (03/26/07)
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_26/feature.html
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54) Pop quiz
Mother Jones
by staff
"How much do you know about the war in Iraq? Take our 15-question quiz to find out. Keep track of how many you answered correctly -- you can score yourself once you've reached the end of the quiz." [editor's note: Wow ... I only got 10 of 15 right! - TLK] (03/29/07)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_quiz.html
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55) Iraq deadline: An extraordinary political moment
The Nation
by William Greider
"Take a deep breath. The nation has arrived at an extraordinary political moment. The Congress is about to instruct the President he should withdraw from the ongoing war. Yes, I know the fine print in the House and Senate versions has lots of wiggle room. But the congressional action is still breathtaking when you think about it, possibly without historic precedent. I assumed it would take many months and numerous failed efforts for the new Democratic majority to reach this juncture. When House leaders kept softening their terms, I even thought it might be a good thing for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lose the first time around. She would then be assailed by outraged Americans and get the message: stiffen up, this is not business as usual. I was mistaken. Many of the final details are disappointing, but the message has been delivered and received -- get out of Iraq. It will rule politics until the American exit actually occurs." (03/28/07)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=180016
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56) Whistling past the graveyard
The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
"The truly astonishing thing about the latest scandals besetting the Bush administration is that they stem from actions the administration took after the November elections, when Democratic control of Congress was a fait accompli. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hour-long meeting on sacking federal prosecutors took place after the election. The subsequent sacking took place after the election. The videoconference between leaders of the General Services Administration and Karl Rove's deputy about how to help Republican candidates in 2008, according to people who attended the meeting, took place Jan. 26 this year. During last year's congressional campaigns, Republicans spent a good deal of time and money predicting that if the Democrats won, Congress would become one big partisan fishing expedition led by zealots such as Henry Waxman. The Republicans' message didn't really impress the public, and apparently it didn't reach the president and his underlings, either." (03/29/07)
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12605
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57) White House for sale
Tom Paine
by David Corn
"It's a cliche: what a difference a Democratic congressional majority makes. The U.S. attorney scandal, Walter Reed, the suppression of global warming data, the FBI's misuse of national security letters -- Democratic legislators have been demanding documents, testimony and answers. Given that they now hold the purse strings and can shoot out subpoenas, the Democrats can no longer be ignored by the White House, executive agencies and the media. Representative Henry Waxman, the relentless Democratic chairman of the government oversight and reform committee, has been leading the pack in investigating allegations of administration wrongdoing. There's a lot for Waxman to cover, and he's being thorough. Consider the letter he sent the White House on March 27. In that note to Joshua Bolten, President Bush's chief of staff, Waxman requested information about a $140,000 contract the White House awarded in July 2002 to MZM, Inc. This was Mitchell Wade's company. He's the (now former) military contractor who paid more than $1 million in bribes to Republican Representative Randy 'Duke' Cunningham." (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2cgmks
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58) How analysts in the Arab world see the Iraq war
Christian Science Monitor
by Helena Cobban
"Policymakers and strategic analysts in the Arab world have little confidence that [the] current US troop surge in Iraq will do much more than -- at best -- postpone a complete political-security breakdown in Iraq, which, they fear, could then spread across the Middle East. During my lengthy recent discussions with experts in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and with some well-connected Iraqis in Jordan, I heard a lot about how Iraq's collapse has been affecting these Arab societies. The news from my Iraqi friends -- leaders in quasi-governmental and nongovernmental organizations -- was grim. These were people who (on human rights grounds) had supported the US invasion in 2003, and who then worked hard to build an effective, democratic order in their country. Now, I found them downhearted -- but thoughtful, as they tried to pinpoint the worst of many US mistakes in Iraq. They told piercingly tragic stories about the violence and sectarianism that affects everyone there. I asked one of these friends what he thought would happen if US forces leave Iraq in the near future. He said there's a possibility this would concentrate the minds of his countrymen on the need to find a workable reconciliation. 'But if the Americans stay, we can expect the situation to remain bad,' he said." (03/29/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p09s02-coop.html
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59) Democracy haters
In These Times
by David Sirota
"How much opposition to the Iraq War must be expressed in America before Congress takes note and does something? This simple question tears away the veneer of antiwar platitudes and pro-democracy rhetoric that spews from the nation's capital. It has been four months since voters delivered an antiwar mandate, and the Washington establishment no longer pretends to care about the public will. As opposition to the war has increased and as the progressive movement has demanded action from Congress, Beltway voices have expressed their disgust with democracy. In November, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on national television to say that the war 'may not be popular with the public -- it doesn't matter.' In March, Rep. Stephanie Herseth ( D-S.D.) attacked Democratic proposals to end the war: 'I don't think we should be overreacting to public opinion polls.' The same disdain for voters is expressed by the corporate media." (03/27/07)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3080/democracy_haters/
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60) Boy Scout values for president
Boston Globe
by Derrick Z. Jackson
"Being an assistant Scoutmaster, I cringed when I heard that a former Boy Scout leader from Norton was arrested in a child porn sting. The assumption that Scouts are trustworthy still holds such power that if one does wrong, you can guarantee what the story line will be: 'A former Boy Scout leader and coach already serving a 14-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography ... ' in Texas. 'Federal authorities have accused a Portland-area [Ore.] Boy Scout leader' ... 'A Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader were among 125 people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case ... And these were just some stories along those lines that have appeared in the last year, from Tallahassee to Buffalo. While such stories are sad in themselves, a little juxtaposition makes them more sobering. By primarily identifying someone as a Scout or a priest or a teacher, we assume a level of honesty in millions of people. Most of their names will never be known outside their communities -- unless they do wrong. ... But what about leaders who are household names? This latest alleged betrayal of a Scout's trust comes as the buzzards swirl around the rotting credibility of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the lawyer-firing scandal." (03/28/07)
http://tinyurl.com/2r6aqt
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* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
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61) The Rothbardians are coming! The Rothbardians are coming!, 04/03/07
The Liberated Space
The Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, with host Angela Keaton. 2:30pm Pacific Time on Blog Talk Radio. [various formats] (04/03/07)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=18410
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62) Ethics on K's Frame of Mind, 04/01/07
K's Frame of Mind
"Ethical answers to unethical actions: Anything can be justified if you have no moral compass." 9pm Central time on Blog Talk Radio. [various formats] (04/01/07)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=17468
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63) Free Talk Live, 03/29/07
Free Talk Live
"Local Radio / Americans Distrust Govt / UK Olympic Boondoggle / The Jesus, Politics, Supreme Beings, and Revelations / Govt and Property Ownership / Govt is Chaos / Presidential Training? / Small Govt in Iceland / Smokeeasies / FBI Hemmoraging Laptops and Guns / Purity Balls." [MP3] (03/29/07)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2007-03-29.mp3
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64) The libertarian cultural tradition
Cato Institute
Cato daily podcast, featuring Virginia Postrel. [MP3] (03/29/07)
http://tinyurl.com/22n4zj
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65) Les Roberts on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"Dr. Les Roberts from Columbia University discusses the famous Johns Hopkins/Lancet studies of 'excess civilian deaths' in Iraq since 2003, the UK government scientists who told Tony Blair that Lancet had, if anything, underestimated the dead at 655,000 (more than the Rwandan genocide of 1994), the deliberate efforts of the U.S. government to suppress numbers of the dead." [Flash audio or MP3] (03/29/07)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/03/29/les-roberts/
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* Weekly Symposium
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66) Open thread
Okay ... most readers don't seem especially interested in the topics I'm choosing. So, just choose something YOU want to talk about, and let'er rip.
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/26758
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* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
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67) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events. Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com .
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com
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68) Voter Second Amendment Poll
JPFO
"How important do you consider your Second Amendment rights? We want to find out! Visit here to take part in our Second Amendment voter poll. You can only vote once, so make sure you answer all of the questions before submitting your response. And make sure to tell others to vote in this critically important poll!" (03/27/07)
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20070327.htm
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* WaYbAcK
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69) Seward's folly
Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at:
http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi
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