Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

Newsweek brings us its rankings for the best high schools in the country. (Via RCP) You can disagree with their methodology in the rankings, but they illustrate a point---the mark of a good teacher is whether they achieve results with any child anywhere. The mark of a good school is creating the environment and incentives to make that possible.

There is much food for thought here, but the underlying premise is to see children as individuals:

If you want to understand what's happening in some of America's most innovative public high schools, think back to your own experiences in that petri dish of adolescent social stratification known as the cafeteria. Were you a jock? A theater geek? A science whiz? Part of the arty crowd? Whatever your inclination, it defined where you sat. Now imagine that each of those tables was a school in itself—with a curriculum based on sports, drama, science or art and a student body with shared interests and common aptitudes. That radical idea is transforming thousands of high schools. A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works for everyone, the new thinking goes; a more individualized experience is better.

Well, I wouldn't go overboard on a one-interest-defines-all curriculum, but you've got to engage kids first and then grab hold and challenge them to do more.

They've got to see the point of what they're doing. It's their future after all.

Flight 93

(Sent to me yesterday, by his mom, and reprinted here with his permission)

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know I just saw the Flight 93 movie tonight...I wasn't really planning on it, as I was initially skeptical as I am sure many of you are about having a two hour film try and encapsulate the biggest tragedy our country has experienced since the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Politics aside, I believe it is wrong to gin up emotion through short, visual propaganda as a means to a political end, and for that reason I went into the movie with such an expectation in mind, not knowing what reaction I would have. I can now say, from the bottom of my heart, that I would recommend this movie urgently to all of you, no matter which side of the political spectrum you reside.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes and are still intent not to watch it, either because you have no interest or because you think it is too soon. But let me tell you, even though I still remember when World Trade Centers were hit like it was yesterday, I am a completely different person now than I was early freshman year in college, as I am sure all of you are as well. It has been almost five years since 9/11, almost half a decade, and I have to admit that the closest feeling to what I felt tonight was when it actually happened, so to say it is too soon I believe is a bit hasty. The feeling that swept over me when the movie ended was like nothing I had felt before--every person in the sold out theatre was utterly silent, many with tears in their eyes (including me), and it seemed like everyone came together for a brief moment in the mourning of those who sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others.

The movie made no attempt to blame anyone, but merely sought to preserve the true events as they occurred, and I can assure you that every one of you will feel proud for those who lost their lives on that plane. The focus of the movie is not on the terrorists, but rather on the fact that 40 or more utter strangers united and overcame what proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for three other ill-fated planes that day. Their heroism transcended any hatred or bias the audience or I might have had towards the hijackers- unfortunately a heroism I had not fully realized or reflected upon until tonight. You can hate Bush, hate how the government failed to act decisively, hate our foreign policy, but I truly believe this movie puts such sentiments aside and reveals the true essence of what those people were standing up for, which is the right to live your life under your own accord. That is the beauty of this country-- if you disagree with an administration or with your representative or with your senator, you vote him or her out of office come next election and elect someone who lets you live your life the way you want it to be lived, as I am sure many of you are planning on doing because you feel that your country has done things that are wrong.

That said, when I watched those aboard Flight 93 stand up against the terrorists, it wasn't a clash of civilizations or a clash of religions or anything of the sort-- it was 40 civilians standing up for what they knew was right. My comments would have been the same had the terrorists been white, black, Christian, Hindu, or Scientologist. Any decent human being will agree that what the terrorists did was completely and utterly wrong, and all that our fellow Americans did in that short moment of time was stand up for what they believed in- the right not to die without a fight- nothing more. All I am trying to say is that as an American, I strongly urge you to see this film, because it really puts in perspective what normal people have the capacity to do when they look inwards and sacrifice themselves to save others, and that alone makes the movie completely worth it.

Jack Sorock, UNC Chapel Hill, 2005

Special Ops Target Zarqawi

At Michelle Malkin:

Thanks to AJ Strata for tipping me off to a Marine Corps Times article that reports our troops are hot on al Qaeda top thug Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's trail:

Just nine days before al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released his latest video, a special operations raid killed five of his men, captured five others and apparently came within a couple of city blocks of nabbing Zarqawi himself.

Then, the day Zarqawi's video debuted, special ops forces killed 12 more of his troops in a second raid in the same town.

There's a lot more detail.

What a Waste

Another column with the standard Democrat-teachers' union line that has failed kids for at least 2 generations "Improving public schools requires investing more funds", with this glimmer of recognition of why our massive investment over the last 40 years hasn't worked:

Admittedly, a small minority are unqualified, dishonest or both. But hey, how many inept, unethical or dishonest folks populate the private sector?

Hey--how many of them get fired or jailed?

Without merit pay, any "investment" is a waste of money. Many public schools waste kids' time and rob them of their chance for a good start in life.

(For more on education, here are two interesting sites:The Education Intelligence Agency (hat tip Extreme Wisdom)

Sox Field Trip to Museum

The Sox had a day off on Thursday between their Mariner and Angels series, so their media relations manager had planned a field trip for them. And the media. To the Playboy Mansion. Reviews were mixed. Sun Times:

He had failed to leave out that his nice, Catholic family wasn't completely elated about the idea, namely his mother, Debbie.

"Well, my mom ... my dad was very proud and may have even teared up when I told him,'' O'Connell said. "My mom was less than thrilled.''

A familiar feeling, as it turned out. Most of the players and personnel who attended had to at least run it by a wife or girlfriend and explain that it was like visiting a museum. Or even like winning a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

And the inmate of the museum, Hef himself:

The 80-year-old came out of the mansion in full silk sleepwear, with a Sox hat tilted to the side. From a distance, he looked like Mr. Burns goes hip-hop.

Hef's feminist daughter Christie, a New Trier High School graduate, runs Playboy Enterprises.

Daytime Doom

Well, I've never had the time or the inclination to watch daytime TV, but you never know, I have a little more time on my hands these days.

On Saturdays the Sun Times doesn't editorialize, so I wandered into the Showcase section by accident.This caught my eye--- Rosie's going to join "The View", as part of the domino effect of perky Katie's move to prime time news. I thought, well, it might be interesting with Rosie on, like reading the NY Times to find out the liberal mantra of the day. I read on, and saw this:

''Guiding Light'' won four Daytime Emmys, including Kim Zimmer as lead actress. Zimmer won her fourth career trophy for a story line in which her character Reva Shayne Lewis went through menopause and eventually fell down an elevator shaft.

Never mind.

UPDATE: Here's the NEW conservative alternative, Hot Air, featuring Michelle Malkin.

Government of the People?

Eminent Domain for profit. The mayor quoting Machiavelli. And a massive complex with a small subsidized housing component, displacing hard-working homeowners. Story here.

What are we to think of this? Is this an American government we recognize? Have we forgotten the principles of governance upon which our country was founded?

.....that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address.

Anthem Angst and More

There is a Spanish-language version of the Star Spangled Banner out just in time for this Monday's immigration rally in Chicago. (Earlier post MayDay)

President Bush had this to say. Sun Times:

President Bush said Friday the national anthem should be sung in English -- not Spanish -- in a blunt rejection of a new Spanish-language version. He also opposed a national work stoppage called for Monday to dramatize the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy.

''I'm not a supporter of boycotts,'' Bush said, while restating his support for a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.

And there are differing views among the Hispanic community as well. Sun Times:

Urban Box Office President and CEO Adam Kidron encouraged radio managers across the country to play the tune simultaneously at 6 p.m., Chicago time, in honor of Monday's immigration rights rally and to show "solidarity in appreciating the generosity of America."

Univision Radio's operations manager Cesar Canales didn't take up Kidron's offer. Canales, who is of Mexican origin, refused to play "Nuestro Himno" on the bilingual station La Kalle and his company's two Spanish-language music stations, WOJO-FM and WPPN-FM.

Translating the anthem for those who don't understand English for "definition purposes" is one thing. But airing the Francis Scott Key-penned tune in Spanish is "wrong," Canales said, adding that many of the stations' on-air personalities support next week's demonstration.

"It's the national anthem. It should be in the language of the nation," he said.

Chicago unions are playing a big role in Monday's demonstrations, though the transit workers are taking a pass. There are threats to "close down" the city. Emma Lozano of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, (which roughly translates to people without borders) was instrumental in organizing the earlier March 10th demonstration in Chicago, which was sparked by a meeting in California she attended, held by the National Alliance for Human Rights, an umbrella group.

According to Business Week, the National Council of La Raza "does not support a boycott across the board, explaining it should be an individual decision".

Omar Lopez, head of the March 10 committee which is now organizing the May Day rally in Chicago, had this additional concern:

Along with national legalized status for all immigrants, the March 10 Committee hopes that talk generated at the rally will lead to better a grasp of state politics.

"We need to help undocumented workers -- how many, for instance, are driving without insurance?" Lopez asked.

Help! Mom! Liberals!

I was very amused to see a story in the Sun Times today that the children's book, "Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!" is beating out "Why Mommy Is a Democrat" in book sales. I blogged about this earlier here and here (scroll back to Mar. 1)

(Can't find the story online now, was in today's print edition:Help Mom has sold 30,000, now in its 3rd printing, and Why Mommy 2,500) There's also another book, "Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper!" (Don't be shocked by the price if it shows used, you can get new for around $10)

Of course the article tries to make excuses for that wimpy Dem book losing, but we know better!

A New Tone from Tony

Tony Snow on offense already, defends the president and gives a nod to the blogosphere. Examiner.com:

Snow decried the “vicious, personal and sometimes unfocused warfare between Democrats and Republicans, or the press corps and the political class.”

“People at home are saying to themselves: ‘This isn’t what I remember when I was looking at the civics book,’ ” he said. “People still have a more exalted view of what government ought to be.”

Snow said he will try to uphold that view.

“I’ve had people blast me because I’m too squishy, I’m too nice, all that sort of stuff,” he said. “Well, yeah, OK, I’ll take that. I think it’s time” for more congeniality.

“And you’ve seen the president take a lot of blows on the chin because he doesn’t want to ball up his fist and knock people’s teeth out,” he added. “There’s an opportunity to make people — even people who disagree with us — feel really good about the whole thing.”

Snow said he is particularly excited about taking the job in today’s media environment.

“My view of the press right now is that we’re living in the Wild West, and it’s pretty exciting,” he said. “Because the old sheriff used to be ABC, NBC, CBS. Now you’ve got networks, you’ve got cable, you’ve got talk radio, you’ve got the blogosphere.

“The blogosphere has never quite gotten its due, and sooner or later it will,” he said. “But you’ve got pouring information in from everywhere. So you grab your surfboard and get on top of the wave rather than underneath it.”

Let 'er rip!

Iran "won't give a damn"

How creepy is this? Does it remind you of something? Check out the pix and keep scrolling for more.

And the Israelis say Iran's missiles can now reach Europe. What will it take for Europe to wake up to the threat?

Tears of Darfur

Democrats are making a big push to save people in Darfur, Sudan, who have been starved and are now being slaughtered by their government.

They are pushing people to send postcards to President Bush and planning a big rally in DC Sunday and in Chicago on Monday. Lynn Sweet here.

While this is an admirable cause, I can't help but think a little quiet diplomacy and some troops on the ground would be more effective.

In fact, President Bush has been working as effectively as he could for some time, putting US pressure on the government of Sudan and trying to herd the UN gaggle of dictators to agree to do something useful there.

And I do hold Democrats responsible for delaying any effective response to the crisis, by their total abdication of responsibility on Iraq. I wrote about it when Jan Schakowsky and Nancy Pelosi got back from their trip to Sudan. Now they're teaming up with Sen. Obama and George Clooney. It seems a continuation of the posturing, useless Clinton photo-op approach to foreign policy.

Meanwhile, children cried, people died. Feel that pain.

To Secure Our Freedom

Bill Baar has a series of must read posts on the war on terror.

The amazing rationalizations of some journalists here.

Zarqawi's latest rant and what it could mean here.

And an eloquent appeal and reminder of what we face here.

Obama's Political Calculation

Democrats keep searching for the face to lead their charge on ethics reform. They already had to dump Congressperson Jan "Tax Cheat" Schakowsky from a leadership position as they were firing the big guns at Republicans back in January. It was pretty embarassing having her issue those sanctimonious press releases, see Schakowsky on Ethics, and everyone noted the lenient treatment of her convicted husband.

Over the last few months, the congressional pay to play seems to have been equal opportunity, as more Democrat dirty linen airs. Congressman Bobby Rush comes to mind.

The Democrats have turned to their shining star, Sen. Barack Obama to carry their message. Tribune:

Obama is the Democrats' point man on his party's ethics proposals in Congress. In mid-January, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid asked Obama to be "the face of this reform package."

But the good Senator has issues of his own that have arisen from his support of the Democrat candidate for state treasurer, Alexi Giannoulious. Tribune editorial here. See earlier post Obama on the Spot too. Also Tribune story here.

And now the Tribune has suggested some lack of character and political calculation on the part of Sen. Obama in this last primary:

Imagine you're Barack Obama, with enough charisma and political capital to make kings or queens of mere mortal Democratic candidates. Imagine the March 21 Illinois primary is approaching. Whom should you choose to endorse? Who should receive your coveted blessing?

Forrest Claypool ran as a reformer of the Cook County Board in Obama's back yard.

Or you could endorse Alexi Giannoulias, a candidate for state treasurer. He was one of your financial backers in 2004.

Sure, it seems odd that you, a U.S. senator, would care more about a state treasurer's race than about who runs county government in your home county. But your endorsement might well win the race for Giannoulias.

Faced with just this political calculation, Obama's first crucial decision in home-state endorsements was to stick his neck out for Giannoulias, but not for Claypool.

Yes, Obama said some nice things about Claypool in the final hours of the campaign. But those comments came too late and were too cautiously worded to do Claypool any good.

Giannoulias? No one could have missed the ubiquitous TV ad where Obama not only endorsed him, but said he was "one of the most outstanding young men that I could ever hope to meet." Giannoulias won nomination as the Democratic candidate for treasurer, largely on the strength of Obama's endorsement.

Claypool? He narrowly lost.

Obama is free to endorse anyone he wishes or no one at all. But the Obama seal of approval means something. In this case it means Obama tied his tin can to what has become a very troubled candidacy.

Today Obama seems troubled only by his candidate's style. He sternly urged Giannoulias to hold "a very thorough press conference" about questionable bank loans. Whew.

This comports with Sen. McCain's public scolding of the freshman Senator.

But hey, George Clooney wants Obama for president, he's got another book coming out (it's called "The Audacity of Hope") and will probably have the presidential library built before you know it.

Being a clean, reform politician in Illinois is a difficult task. But unless you clean up your own backyard when you have the chance, voters around the country will not be impressed. Nor will some of us here.

One of the refreshing things about Obama was that he was not one of the family in the family business of politics in Chicago. But it looks like he just found a new family....with the same old business as usual.

Rare Rape in Zion

Tribune:

Zion residents expressed shock and fear Thursday as police investigated the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl who said seven teenagers attacked her last week in the basement laundry room of an apartment complex.

"It's a very scary thing," said Richard Brumsey, 45, who lives in the complex with his two young daughters. "I don't even want to think about something like that happening to one of my girls."

Police publicly released details for the first time Thursday as word about the case spread among neighbors, some of whom questioned why officials did not disclose the allegations earlier, especially because the apartments are across the street from an elementary school.

They allegedly grabbed her cell phone outside the library and she went after them to get it back.

Ted Kennedy, Tool of Big Oil

Some of you may recall the profile (not of courage) of Ted Kennedy in Jacob Schweizer's book, Do As I Say, (Not as I Do): Profiles of Liberal Hypocrisy. Kennedy's family has significant oil company holdings. Not with the biggies, but significant nonetheless.

We somehow never hear about that in the MSM. And then there's this wind farm bill for Cape Cod pending in the US Senate....

Instapundit here.

Sen. "don't get between me and a microphone" Schumer might want to talk to Ted about some plans for alternative energy.

UPDATE: Marathon Pundit has a good post on this as well.

The Schoenberg Shift

Governor Blagojevich got his embryonic stem cell funding for this year by doing an end run around the normal legislative process, slipping it in under "scientific research". See earlier post, Playing Politics With Life and Death.

He's running into some interference with the coming year's budget, though, on the issue. The Sun Times:

The governor's bid to launch a five-year, $100 million stem cell research grant program that he outlined in his budget address may fall by the wayside, however, amid opposition from Republicans and some conservative Downstate Democrats.

But advocates of this unproven, immoral research to be conducted on the taxpayer's dime are still hopeful, because Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, one of the prime sponsors, is planning an end run around the voters. Daily Herald:

The governor tucked the $10 million into this year’s budget without lawmakers’ knowledge, drawing stern criticism from conservative Republicans and downstate Democrats who voted for it but are philosophically opposed to the use of stem cells in medical research as an abortion-related issue.

Political leaders have said a separate vote would be held this year on Blagojevich’s $100 million plan. State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat, hinted Monday that vote could be delayed until after the November election, when lame-duck lawmakers could cast a vote in favor without any repercussions. But an effort last year to spend tax dollars on stem-cell research failed by a wide margin, so it’s questionable whether even a post-election vote would succeed.

Doubtless Sen. Schoenberg hopes some legislative seats will shift in his favor. Or maybe they already have, but we just don't know about it. So ask your legislator his or her position.

And whether they are familiar with that smooth move of his, the Schoenberg Shift.

DDT Saves Children

DDT has been banned in the US for years, but it is the cheapest way to kill mosquitoes which bring deadly malaria to millions in Africa. Here is information you should care about. Powerline:

While the world speculates about the prospect of an avian flu pandemic, in Africa someone-- normally a child -- dies every 30 seconds from malaria. Richard Tren and Philip Coticelli of the health advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria, show how a combination of environmentalists, United Nations agencies, and big business interests has prevented the use of the chemical that helped eradicate malaria in the U.S. and Europe, and could do so in Africa -- DDT. Tren and Coticelli argue that the adverse environmental effects of spraying DDT over crops have been exaggerated and, in any case, are irrelevant to its use in fighting malaria. Why? Because when used in malaria control DDT is sprayed in tiny quantities on the inside walls of houses. This usage produces no environmental degradation at all.

Powerline has an update here.

Guantanamo Detainee Caught at Border

A very thoughtful and disturbing post from Powerline's blogger of the week, Thomas Joscelyn, a terrorism researcher, writer and economist:

As the nation continues to debate what to do about our southern border, I thought I would point out a piece of informaton I found in a cache of documents released by the Pentagon in early March. In connection with a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press, the Pentagon released thousands of pages of documents transcribed during tribunal hearings for the hundreds of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There is a lot of interesting information in those documents, including the allegations against one detainee who was caught while trying to sneak across the Mexican border.

Joscelyn goes through the available information carefully and turns up ties to terror in this hemisphere, one being Venezuela. This is what we are all worried about the most.

Effective Strategery

Good column by Steve Chapman in the Tribune, "Pandering won't solve the gas crisis".

At least one good thing has come from the president kowtowing to those who simplistically blame "Big Oil" in BIG PRINT---some who know better but don't often say so are actually stepping up and defending the oil companies. Sun Times editorial here.

So maybe it was an effective bit of "strategery" by our president, who knew he couldn't win for trying on this one.

French Giggle

French President Jacques Chirac, most recently heard from here, and before that here, with his latest attempt to assert the vision of a French world, challenging the US " hyperpower" and its Google. At No Paseran.

Godzilla on Green Bay

Article from the Wilmette Life on the development of the old Ford dealership, good reviews here from former open space advocates:

Rosen said he and his wife, Rhea, circulated petitions years ago to protect Centennial Park from developers, but this time, they like the planned development.

Rhea Rosen said she and her husband like the idea so much, they might buy one of the 61 planned condominiums.

A member of the plan commission on the proposed 5-story building, nestled between 2-story buildings on either side:

Vern Voigt, one of the plan commissioners who'll have to make recommendations to village trustees on the project, said the height by itself doesn't worry him.

"We need people in the Village Center," he said. "As long as it blends in, I personally don't have a problem with it."

And from a village trustee, who apparently doesn't notice the privately-owned buildings housing longtime Wilmette small businesses on either side:

Trustee Alan Swanson said the project "seems like a good starting point, but I think we need a plan for the whole block, which would include usable public space."

Hey, why stop there?

Here's my quote:

The love-fest was abbreviated by a sprinkling of angst about the project.

"I think that the scale of a five-story building is not appropriate for downtown Wilmette," resident Ann Leary said. "It's huge, massive and dwarfs all the surrounding buildings, including Village Hall."

Previous post here. Post from another Wilmette blogger here and here.

No mention in the traffic study proffered at the open house of how this 61-unit building would affect Park, which parallels Green Bay on the other side of the block. Nor any mention of how it would affect the schools.

And will this set a precedent for the rest of the narrow commercial strip along Green Bay, which shares an alley with single-family homes? A Shadow Across the Alley.

Bambi meets Godzilla?

What War?

Many critics of the Bush administration, from the left and from the right, believe we can take our marbles and go home from Iraq, and we and the world will be fine. But can we?

I remember a 10th district Democrat candidate for Congress, who lost to Mark Kirk(R-Il) in his first race, claiming that America essentially did not need a foreign policy, our oceans would protect us. Even pre-Sept. 11th this was a ludicrous assertion. Via RCP, David Warren:

For about five-and-a-half years now, I've been trying to make sense of the strange war going on between the West and "Islamism", for the readers of this newspaper. It is a war to which none of the rules of Western warfare, or international law, can be applied. When we try to apply such rules, we can do so only for ourselves.

This column is an attempt to state the obvious. As usual, I make no apologies for trying to comprehend things at the broadest level of generality, and in the simplest terms. Some writers pursue the subtle; I am usually looking for the plain. I believe a general failure to grasp the obvious permits much false subtlety. To my mind, people who do not grasp there is a war on, and that it is a war that will determine how our children will live, and their children's children, lack an elementary purchase on reality.....

Though on one level, this strange war is as old as the 14-century clash between Islam and Christendom, it has taken a form that is a new thing under the sun. This "new thing" didn't begin on Sept. 11th, 2001, but well before that; it only became visible to many on that day. There had been about 8,000 terrorist hits on Western, or Western-associated targets in the 20 years before the World Trade Centre went down. There are now more than 10,000 hits per year. Seemingly permanent battlefields have emerged in several locations, including Iraq and Afghanistan, but also Sudan, the southern Philippines, and quite arguably, urban France. Many still argue that the war is a figment of the Bush administration's imagination. How I wish they were right.....

And if Muslim fanatics succeed, as they appear to be doing, in defining Islam as what they profess, the moderate Muslim is left with an ugly choice between supporting them, and apostasy.

How do we measure progress or regress in this war?

The only plausible answer I can think of is, by our success in establishing secular, nominally democratic, political and economic regimes throughout the Muslim East, which rule in defiance of fanatic claims. But awkward as this answer sounds, it becomes meaningless if we in the West do not begin to recover a robust sense of what we are about.

That is why we in America must support the war.

It not only concerns us, but the future of our children and those growing up in the rest of the world. And let's hope the Washington Post, hardly a cheerleader for President Bush, is right in suggesting in their editorial, "A Dagger in the Heart of Al Qaeda", that the latest Al-Zarqawi tape is an admission of defeat and that Iraq has turned the corner.

Hatred Unveiled

Governor Blagojevich is attempting to mend fences with the Jewish community "Strained ties linger for Jews, governor" over his hypocritical "Hate Crime Commission", without doing anything substantive to remedy the situation. Sun Times:

"I think it's working well,'' Blagojevich said. "It's been sort of below the radar screen, and I think, frankly, that's probably the right way to do it, as some of the wounds from what happened before heal."

The gov would like this issue to stay below the radar, but it's an election year and the governor is taking the Jewish community for granted:

Blagojevich also said he is not worried that his decision to stick by her may create lasting damage with Jewish voters, an important Democratic constituency.

"Those things don't enter my mind," he said.

Really.

But with our governor, it's always a possibility.

He has yet to call for the resignation of commission member Claudette Marie Muhammad, a top aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Sister Muhammed refused to repudiate anti-Semitic remarks made by Farrakhan. Earlier posts here and here.

And now we have evidence of the real-world implications of such a see-no-evil attitude. A recent paper co-written by a University of Chicago professor has created a firestorm, charging there is a Jewish conspiracy conducting our foreign policy. It reminds me of bigoted anti-Catholic remarks made during JFK's run for the presidency, about taking marching orders from the pope. Perhaps this paper will be quoted in bin Laden or Zarqawi's next media releases, which already echo Democrat talking points. Here is Scott at Powerline with an update on this issue, quoting Columbia University professor Samuel Freedman:

In my take on the paper, I observed that unlike the fictitious conspiracy portrayed in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the "Israel Lobby" conspiracy depicted by Mearsheimer and Walt has done serious damage to the United States. Professor Freedman makes a shrewder point:

You have to wonder why the professors would have thought it necessary to protect themselves against such a comparison. In fact, the Protocols doesn't even offer the right parallel, though for reasons Walt and Mearsheimer cannot or choose not to grasp.

The best analog to their paper on the Israel Lobby is a 1991 publication by the Nation of Islam entitled The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. Like the professors' paper, the Black Muslim tract is not a forgery or fabrication akin to the Protocols. It is, rather, an adroit exercise in cherry-picking, a document that takes painstaking care to employ Jewish sources in prosecuting a case of Jewish skullduggery.

The Secret Relationship draws on Jewish scholarship on such topics as Jewish prominence in Hollywood, Jewish involvement in slave-trading, and Jewish business stakes in black slums. Taken individually, the citations from such respected figures as Neal Gabler and Jacob Rader Marcus appear to be accurately quoted or paraphrased. The bigoted fiction comes in weaving together these strands into a whole cloth of irremediable, almost primordial Jewish hatred of blacks.

Walt and Mearsheimer, as I first realized pondering my own footnote, have done very much the same thing...

And perhaps Walt and Mearsheimer's paper is what passes for scholarship in the liberal-dominated bubble of academia, but in the real world we can recognize anti-Semitism when we see it.

At least most of us can.

Outsourcing Elections

More about the voting machine company headquartered in Venezuela, the gangster state led by Hugo Chavez, and our illustrious county government.....

Cook County spends money on a consultant to tell them this. Tribune:

Chicago and Cook County election officials, meanwhile, were aware of the international controversy surrounding Sequoia well before they awarded the company contracts. A county consultant pitched Smartmatic's foreign ties as an advantage.

Does this make sense? Well maybe only in the sense that outsourcing election management from Cook County would be an improvement.

A Bold Move

Russia's national car, Lada, is in the news. Reuters:

This year, Lada will make its debut in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) -- a sister competition to the Formula One series that features souped-up versions of ordinary cars.

It is a bold move that sums up Russia's new national mood.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and years of economic chaos, Russia is booming mainly thanks to high prices for its oil exports and it wants to project its new-found confidence on the world stage.....

"It is probably not worth kidding ourselves that we will win immediately. But nonetheless, we have a realistic chance, even a very good chance (of winning)," Nikonenko told Reuters.

No kidding.

Well, here is a pix of the Lada....












And here's a BMW.





Ladas have their own category of jokes. Who knew?

But who knows, there may be hope. Perhaps eventually Russia may develop a NASCAR of its own with the right political stuff to go along. That would be a bold move.

Realistic Energy Independence

On the twenty year anniversary of the nuclear plant disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine, at the time part of the old Soviet Union, here is some important information. William Sweet (author of a book worrying about global warming) in the NY Times:

And yet, though it went unnoticed at the time and has been inadequately appreciated since, Chernobyl also cast into relief the positive features of the reactors used in the United States and most other advanced industrial countries.

The reactor at Chernobyl belonged to a class that was especially vulnerable to runaway reactions. When operating at low power, if such reactors lost water, their reactivity could suddenly take off and very rapidly reach a threshold beyond which they could only explode. Making matters worse, surprisingly little more pressure than normal in the machine's water channels would lift its lid, snapping the vital control rods and fuel channels that entered the reactor's core.

On the night of April 25, 1986, poorly trained and supervised plant operators conducted an ill-conceived experiment, putting the machine into the very state in which reactivity was most likely to spike. Within a fraction of a second, the reactor went from being barely on to power levels many times higher than the maximum intended.

This kind of accident cannot happen in the so-called light water reactors used in the United States and most of Western Europe and Asia. In these reactors, the water functions not only as a coolant but as a "moderator": self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions cannot take place in its absence. This is a very useful passive safety feature. If coolant runs low, there is still a danger of a core meltdown, because the fuel retains heat; but the reactor will have automatically and immediately turned itself off.

Sweet goes on to say that since that time, incentives, technology and management have improved:

The utility industry has responded to deregulation by reorganizing itself. And as it happens, companies have emerged that specialize in managing nuclear power plants. Although their record is somewhat mixed (Exelon, for example, stands accused of having carelessly let tritium, a radioactive isotope, leak from three Illinois reactors), on the whole the performance of nuclear power plants has improved substantially.

In 1986, the average American nuclear plant produced electricity barely 57 percent of the time. In 2004, the average plant was running productively more than 90 percent of the time.

(Update on the Exelon story here, but this is also important to note:"None of the spills, according to government oversight agencies, poses a health threat. But by all accounts, they did damage Exelon's credibility." Tritium until now had not rated much attention from the NRC.)
Earlier posts here and here.

Any realistic discussion of energy independence must include nuclear power.

And in the meantime, the market is working to increase supply as high oil prices are fueling interest in looking for oil in Illinois!

Some Votes Count More, Some Less

This is one for the books. Unbelievable! Here's Diane from Respublica again with another East St. Louis election fraud story, this one involving the chairman of the election board. This even tops Chicago!

And the follow-up on other election dirty tricks. AP:

A congresswoman's son and three Democratic campaign workers were sentenced Wednesday to four to six months in jail for slashing tires outside a Bush-Cheney campaign office on Election Day 2004.

The men pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty.

"This case had to be a public example of what can happen when you interfere with voters' rights," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan, who rejected prosecutors' recommendation of probation for the four men.

The state Republican Party had rented more than 100 vehicles to give rides to voters and poll monitors on Nov. 2, 2004. The cars were parked outside a GOP campaign office when the tires were punctured. The vandalism left the drivers scrambling for new vehicles.

So the judge was tougher than the prosecutors. Good for him. They'll probably be out before the next election, so maybe they'll think twice about pulling anything again.

What Kind of Trade?

Chinese tourism up significantly in Europe. But what kind of trade is financing their trips?
No Paseran here.

Women Making Choices

Apparently Tuesday was another phony holiday, the feminist "Equal Pay Day", when they make their perennial complaint about the supposed wage gap between men and women.

Here's this nugget, which again presents the underreported stats I first remember hearing about in my business school stats class in the early 80's. Carrie Lukas of IWF on Townhall.com:

Feminists may not like it, but the evidence shows that women’s choices—not discrimination—cause wage gap. Warren Farrell — a former board member of the National Organization for Women’s New York chapter — identifies 25 decisions that individuals make when choosing jobs in his book, Why Men Earn More. Women, he finds, are much more likely to make decisions that increase their quality of life, but decrease their pay.

And more women have a choice about this because of the men in their lives.

Meeks' Leverage

Rev. and state Representative James Meeks, a possible 3rd party candidate for Illinois governor is blunt about his conversation with Democrat Governor Blagojevich. Sun Times:

"One of the things, with the leverage I've created, is that he has to decide if we're going to fix the flawed [school funding] formula once and for all," Meeks said of Blagojevich.

The governor has tossed out the idea of privatizing the tollway system to raise funds for the state. Meeks does have leverage, but if he thinks money is the main answer that is very disappointing. Without merit pay for teachers and real school choice, or at least full implementation of NCLB to provide alternative schools and tutoring to kids now trapped in failing schools, the money will be wasted.

And Illinois is already an economic basket case without wasting one of its few marketable assets for short-term political expediency, to boost the careers of two politicians.

Don't waste your leverage, Rev. Meeks.

What is the New Normal on Privacy?

The Ryan trial continues to generate fallout as other Chicago cases come up. Tribune:

A federal judge barred prosecutors Wednesday from making criminal background checks of prospective jurors in the upcoming trial of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's onetime patronage chief and three other former city officials.

"I will order that no criminal background checks be run absent an order of the court," U.S. District Judge David H. Coar said in response to notification from prosecutors that they planned to make such checks before jury selection scheduled to start May 10 gets under way.

The judge said such actions could have a "coercive effect" and alluded to the Chicago Tribune's role in digging into the background of jurors in the Ryan trial:

"Absent some showing that it would be appropriate or necessary, I don't think as a matter of policy any party ought to be allowed to conduct criminal background checks of the jurors," he said. He said the issue could be revisited if prosecutors had more information to present.....

Coar acknowledged that the news media might conduct such background checks but said that wasn't enough to persuade him to authorize them.

"I'm not going to lecture the press on what their responsibilities are -- although they have responsibilities," he said.

Earlier post here. What a mess. I guess the judge is suggesting the honor system should be upheld. And the media shouldn't go on fishing expeditions of jurors' lives.

The Ryan judge, Tribune here, is also not letting his lawyers question jurors on that case, in preparation for an appeal. One juror claimed publicly that she had been set up by other jurors for dismissal.

Maybe the Ryan jurors have watched too many episodes of Survivor.

Meanwhile, Democrat candidate for Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulious, a banker whose family bank made a loan to a mob figure, talked to reporters today to "clear up any confusion about the loans because he may have been too cavalier in answering some questions from the media."

He said he took responsibility for the loans, but that "my qualifications for state treasure are not as a seasoned politician; they're as someone with financial background," and brought forth a veteran bank auditor to give a positive testimonial. The auditor said in 30 years he has never seen criminal background checks as part of a bank's loan policy.

In the case of Michael "Jaws" Giorango, all you would have to do is a Google search.

It kind of makes you wonder about Illinois though. Are these people a representative sample?

UPDATE: This story has more details about other questionable loans, including millions to a company later indicted for money laundering. Sen. Obama should return his campaign contributions.

It's Tony!

Great news! Tony Snow will be taking on the White House press corps with wit, wisdom and good humor. Story confirmed here by FoxNews.

Pear Trees

The pear trees by the garage have finally bloomed.

CAIR in Chicago

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently sent out mass emails to its members demanding that charges be dropped against a Muslim woman who was arrested in October in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The mayor received phone calls and passed them on to the Cook County state's attorney's office. Tribune:

The protester, Rehana Khan of Chicago, was arrested Oct. 15 with four other people while demonstrating in Arlington Heights in support of immigrant rights and against the Minutemen, a group that opposes illegal immigration. Khan is to appear in court Tuesday.

Khan is charged with battery and resisting arrest. She is accused of hitting a female officer and trying to break free while being arrested, authorities said.

Khan alleges that police handcuffed her and then ripped off her headscarf, or hajib, which observant Muslim women believe Allah commanded them to wear, according to Christina Abraham of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Police allowed her to put on the headscarf during the ride to jail but then forced her to remove it again while she was being charged with resisting arrest, Abraham said.

"It's analogous to having a blouse ripped off," said council spokesman Ahmed Rehab. "It's a state of forced nudity."

Village prosecutor Ernest Blomquist III said the charges against Khan would not be dropped. He disputed the allegations of police misconduct.

"If it was a priest wearing a cross around his neck, we'd take that," Blomquist said. "The police followed standard Police 101: how to protect yourself and others. It makes no difference what religion she is. She was singled out because she struck an officer."

Assistant State's Atty. Rich Karwaczka said Khan's headscarf was "shifted" during the course of the arrest but was never pulled off. She was required to remove it during processing at the police station, which Karwaczka said is normal practice. "For safety reasons it always is [removed]," Karwaczka said.

I remember a case in Florida of a woman who wanted to remain veiled for her driver's license picture. The courts ruled against her.

In any event, adding immigration to its list of gripes seems a new development for CAIR, which, according the Tribune, has protested the Patriot Act and the appointment of respected scholar Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute of Peace. Here is an article by Prof. Pipes on CAIR. The Tribune describes Pipes simply as a "controversial academic". The son of my old Russian history professor at Harvard, Pipes is well known for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which translates Mid-East media. If that is controversial, it is in the content of the original text. Current translations here.

One of them is by a Yemeni woman reformer urging her sisters to exercise freedom of thought and take off the veil.

Porkbusters Watch

We have some local consumers of pork, all in the family, with ethical challenges as noted on the front page of the Sun Times this morning featuring one Congressman Bobby Rush. Rush's foundation employs his son and was funded by a $1 million dollar grant from SBC/AT&T, who has legislation pending in his congressional committee. It may be good legislation, but that is beside the point. Sun Times:

Using charitable giving as a backdoor way to curry favor with lawmakers is coming under increasing scrutiny, figuring in controversies associated with former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), who was forced to temporarily step aside as the ranking Democrat on the Ethics panel.

(See earlier post on Mollohan here.) Tom Bevan comments on Rush in the RCP blog here and Instapundit does a roundup on Porkbusters here.

UPDATE: The White House is engaging on the issue, even making veto noises!!!!! Instapundit here.

Have a Nice Day

Diane from Respublica has an excellent post on efforts downstate to clean up election fraud:The Belleville News-Democrat reports that 900 voters were registered in both East St. Louis and other parts of St. Clair County or in more than one precinct in East St. Louis. The St. Clair County board approved an election reform resolution which calls for:

• procedures which would cross reference voter lists in East St Louis and the county.
• requiring the St. Clair County Clerk and the East St. Louis election board to perform audits of voter rolls to ensure precincts comply with the law as to number of voters per precinct. This could well eliminate 14 of East St. Louis' 44 precincts.
• Ask political parties to submit an audit for publication of their financial records after each election
• Better training of election judges

It would be nice to see Cook County adopt this kind of reform but I won't hold my breath. Mark Brown has a column today in the Sun Times on the mayor's brother complaining to the State Board of Elections about dirty tricks in his ward. Brown ends with this:

Talk about precedent. I wonder how many of those other old school Democratic operatives are ready to establish the State Board of Elections as the arbiter of fair campaign tactics.

Meanwhile, over at Rich Miller's Capital Fax blog, readers are weighing in on whether Illinois is the most corrupt state in the country, and what, if anything, can be done about it.

Have a nice day.

Mary McCarthy's Betrayal

The RCP Blog has a must-read concise summary of the distinction between her damaging leak and the administration declassifying information to set the record straight. McCarthy had other avenues to reponsibly air her concerns, including Congress:

If an intelligence official is concerned about conduct they consider to be inappropriate/illegal, measures exist to make competent authority aware of the situation. An agency's Inspector General is a good option. Failing that avenue, an intelligence official can always turn to appropriately cleared congressional oversight committees such as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence or the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Resigning in protest is also an option; running to the press isn't.

Gee, why didn't she just leak it to Sen. Durbin? I suppose she didn't want to get him into any more trouble.

UPDATE: There is clarification from the CIA that she was not a key figure in the leak on the secret prison story, but they do say this. Washington Post:

In a statement last Friday, the agency said it had fired one of its officers for having unauthorized conversations with journalists in which the person "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence." Intelligence officials subsequently acknowledged that the official was McCarthy and said that Priest is among the journalists with whom she acknowledged sharing information.Priest won the Pulitzer Prize this month for a series of articles she wrote last year about the intelligence community, including the revelation of the existence of CIA-run prisons in East European countries.

McCarthy's lawyer claims she did not leak classified information. Other fascinating conjectures here.

The New York Times and the Washington Post believe they are protecting the world from the evil Bush administration by gathering their own intelligence. Guess they forgot where that hole in NY and that hit on the Pentagon came from. We'll know who to call on to protect us if it happens again. The MSM--"Fighting for You"! Not.

The Superstate Next Door

Wisconsin elects its governor this fall. Last time round it was a quirky 3-way race which allowed trial lawyer and Democrat Jim Doyle to eke out a victory. This time the race is up for grabs. The American Spectator outlines a few fundraising glitches Governor Doyle has had. Sounds like Illinois.

Doyle's Republican opponent, Rep. Mark Green, has had some indirect Abramoff donations, which he intends to give to charity.

In any event, a Republican win in November could help pull the state into the Red column for the 2008 presidential election, absent Democrat vote fraud in Milwaukee.

In 2004 I remember hoping we'd win Iowa this time and it came through. Now Minnesota may be in play as well. The midterm elections will be a leading indicator of 2008, depending on how these states go. Will all politics be local, or will the president's lame duck difficulties drag down Republicans? But there's more than one incumbent to draw voters' ire. Here's a Washington Post interactive map for the key fall elections. Weekly Standard, via RCP:

MINNESOTA IS AT THE CENTER of a political superstate I call "Minnewisowa"(Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa), which could be a vital battleground for the presidential elections of 2008, as it was in 2004. Minnewisowa has 27 electoral votes (more than Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, or Michigan), and its component states not only vote similarly, but, since 2000, are also among the most competitive "swing" states in the nation.

In this year's midterm elections, all three states have competitive contests for governor. The GOP could pick up the executive posts in Wisconsin and Iowa, with two sitting congressmen as candidates--Mark Green (if he wins the Wisconsin GOP nomination) and Jim Nussle in Iowa. That's the good news for Republicans. The bad news is that both these House seats, now vacated, could be won by Democrats.

The incumbent Republican governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, is favored to win reelection....

The major battle in Minnesota and the region will be for the Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat Mark Dayton. Congressman Mark Kennedy successfully warded off an intraparty fight for the GOP nomination, and this seat is probably the best opportunity for a GOP pick-up in 2006.

Remember Dayton was the guy who fled Washington as being too dangerous. Powerline has more in "Profiles in Disgrace". Thankfully he chose to only serve one term.

I don't think the superstate name will catch on. Minnehaha is about as complicated as most people want to get. And it's a long time until November, and further until 2008. But for those who like to bet on the political horse race, here's an opportunity. Throw the Illinois' governor race into the mix too. Rasmussen here.

The Midwest trifecta plus.

A New Menu

A U.S. based company has been certified now to sell its packaged food pre-mix in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its Danish plant has received the stamp of approval as halal-compliant from the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, based in Chicago. The Business Review:

To earn the certification the company had to meet Islamic guidelines on hygiene, dietary regulations, raw material processing and packaging.

The Sun Times has a story on the growing number of restaurants, now including fast food franchises, which offer this specially-prepared food:

Until recently, the restaurants where they could be assured of this were mostly mom-and-pop operations serving their native dishes.

But increasingly, fast-food restaurants are meeting the needs of Muslim diners with Western tastes by offering menu items that are halal-certified.

The melting pot is on the new menu.

And for a little Danish-American solidarity, view Chicago Hitchens-inspired Rally Pix here and here.

The Cost of Inaction

David Warren, our clear-sighted Canadian friend, via RCP, on the necessity of confronting Iran:

Might the ayatollahs get nuclear weapons but not use them? President Bush and other Western leaders should begin alerting their publics, to the possibility that this could be worse than if they did use them. For if the ayatollahs launched a surprise nuclear attack, on anyone, the West would respond robustly. At that point it would cost a few million lives, mostly Iranian; or at most, a few tens of millions.

But if Iran can continue to exploit American diplomatic weaknesses, by keeping the confrontation in the diplomatic arena, the ayatollahs can raise the stakes much higher. They could, in an easily foreseeable future, use nuclear blackmail in combination with an oil embargo -- and with the cooperation, subtle or overt, of Russia, China, a post-Saudi Arabia, perhaps a client Iraq, and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Such a challenge could bring about the sort of "new world order", compared to which a few million casualties might seem a lucky break. It would create an order in which North America, Western Europe, and Japan, were deprived of the use of high technology, by the loss of the fuel to move goods around; and likewise deprived of the food supplies that require oil at every stage of production and distribution. All the cards of power would be suddenly transferred from the bourgeois democracies to the planet's most ruthless dictatorships.

Look into the eyes of an Ahmadinejad, or a President Hu Jintao (currently tightening controls at all levels of Chinese society, in direct response to the perceived weakness of the West), and ask yourself whether you wouldn't prefer to be ruled by men like Bush, Blair, Harper. The reader who is tempted to answer, "What's the difference?" may live to find out.

Playing Politics With Life and Death

It's disgusting and manipulative. Democrats are using government funding of embryonic stem-cell research as a wedge issue in this year's campaigns, parading around terminally ill people and hoping to tar pro-lifers as "anti-science". Story in the New York Times today, "Democrats Hope to Divide G.O.P. over stem cells". The Democrat candidate for Senate in Missouri, Claire McCaskill, portrays herself as enlightened, and her opponent as playing politics:

"There are people of principle who disagree with this form of research," Ms. McCaskill told her audience. "I respect their principles. But what I don't respect is someone dancing around science for political cover."

Already Governor Blagojevich has been issuing press releases about this issue, and in tandem with the pro-abortion feminists, enlisted the willing support of the Sun Times editorial board.

But who is really politicizing science? Have embryonic stem cells saved one single life? Who is really ignoring the scientific research and real medical advances that have arisen from other kinds of stem cells, the kind of research that does not involve destroying life? Who is acting in an ignorant and duplicitous manner?

Here's my earlier post, Hucksters of Human Life.

The Democrats are morally bankrupt. They join the Nazis and today's Chinese government in human cruelty, brutalizing the most innocent and most vulnerable. For them it's just another campaign issue, just some human raw material.

UPDATE: Tribune: "Governor slips funds to stem-cell studies", yesterday handing out $10 million in grants. Blagojevich disingenuously evaded legislative debate and approval, having put it in the budget last year under "scientific research". Sun Times story here. Apparently some grant recipients say they will "obtain stem cells from noncontroversial sources, such as blood, bone marrow and umbilical cord blood," underscoring that there are viable alternatives.

Berghoff's is Back

(Later posts than usual today, as blogger was down)
AP:

The 107-year-old Berghoff Restaurant, which lured crowds for one last taste of sauerbraten and strudel before closing in February, quietly reopened this week as the Berghoff Cafe.

The landmark restaurant's successor sports the same menu, the same decor and at least a few of the same staffers.

Sox Sizzle

A sunny Sunday afternoon, a beautiful day for baseball. The Sox swept the Twins and stacked up 8 straight wins. Jim Thome broke his streak of scoring a run in the 17 straight games since opening day, but the team stepped up and scored two sets of back to back home runs. Six Sox hitters are batting over .300 and after a slow start, the Sox now lead the division. And of course the pitching is the best.

Special guests from Great Lakes Naval Air Station.


A few brave and determined Twins fans.
Buehrle signed autographs and hi-fived the little kids. It was family day and they got to run the bases after the game.

A sweet victory.

Has Iraq Turned the Corner?

The Iraqi leadership deadlock has been broken. The Shiite Dawa party finally shifted to a candidate acceptable to the other factions, Jawad al-Maliki. Financial Times:

Perhaps the biggest challenge in forming the government will be the allocation of the defence and interior ministries, which control Iraq’s security forces. The latter in particular is accused of being a haven for Shia militiamen, some of whom are alleged to have participated in the recent wave of sectarian killings. US diplomats have been adamant Iraq’s next interior minister not have any militia associations. Mr Maliki made militias one of the key points of Saturday’s acceptance speech, declaring that “arms should be in the hand of the government”, and said he would try to implement a law to accelerate “the merging of militias with the armed forces.”

And Condi says we can work with him:

I think the most telling point is that Mr. Maliki was immediately supported by other members of the new government, by the Sunnis and by the Kurds as well as by other members of the Shia coalition, so he obviously has broad support. And while I know that there are going to be questions about what has transpired in the past, clearly the Iraqis are now looking to the future. He did play a role in the constitutional process. I believe we think that he was a useful interlocutor, a constructive interlocutor, and we'll look forward to working with him...

Let me be very clear. We probably won't always agree. We didn't always agree with Prime Minister Jafari. We didn't always agree with Interim Prime Minister Allawi. But this is somebody with whom we can work and we're looking forward to working with him because we think he has the best interests of the Iraqis at heart. He's a hard-working person who wants to see Iraq stable and democratic and he clearly worked hard to convince people in the broad coalition that he is going to take seriously the concept of a government of national unity and not a government that would be sectarian but one that will be a government of national unity.

So I think all of those attributes really do serve him well and he's obviously somebody who is very courageous and brave because he also, like many of these people, he stood up to Saddam Hussein at considerable cost to himself.