The Cotillion is on!
“Telling it like it is, in the nicest way possible.”


Introducing the Cotillion

All too often in the blogosphere the following annoying question comes up: “Where are the female bloggers?” Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Jody of Steal the Bandwagon and I asked the following ladies to join us in the very special project of answering that question. The participants were invited based solely on our enjoyment of their blogs. Traffic and linkage played no role in our decision as to who to include, we simply enjoy their work and we thought that you may too.

Our purpose is to raise the visibility of some great female bloggers in hopes that we never have to deal with a certain annoying question again.

Presenting the Cotillion

and The Debut by Jody

A bookmark!

It it a pleasure and an honor to have been asked to participate.

The new Jacques and Dom show
French President Appoints Villepin as New Prime Minister

President Jacques Chirac of France fired his loyal, long-suffering prime minister today, a direct response to the country's decisive rejection of a referendum on the constitution for Europe that was as much as rejection of his 10-year presidency.
. . .
The choice of Mr. de Villepin, 51, a well-born, high-octane former career diplomat who has never held elected office and writes poetry in his spare time, means that Mr. Chirac has no intention of abandoning his vision of a grand and glorious France with a unique leadership mission in the world.

I like that high-octane phrase. It suggests gas. It also reminds us that Jacques really needs "something" to keep him in office -- and out of the clink. The NYT has a photo of Chirac waving bye-bye to Raffarin, his third PM in as many years. If the name Dominique de Villepin sounds familiar, the answer is yes.

Libération has an article (in French) L'équation impossible de Chirac (Chirac's impossible equation) describing the internal machinations leading to the cabinet changes. Chirac faced intense pressure from members of his party, and from Parliament, who wanted Nicholas Sarkozy as PM. One of the reasons for the oppostion to Villepin is that Villepin has never held an elected office

the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says that as a career diplomat never elected to public office, he of all candidates most typifies the French elite so roundly rejected by the French people on Sunday.

Allow me to point out that Sarko remains France's most popular politician -- in spite of recent marital problems.

Forbes says,

Sources close to the matter told Agence France-Presse that Nicolas Sarkozy, currently the president of Chirac's UMP party, will be the new interior minister, a post Sarkozy has already held under Prime Minister Raffarin.

At The Economist (emphasis mine):

Last but not least, many Frenchmen rejected the constitution simply because they have had enough of Mr Chirac, and of his government’s failure to revive the economy and cut France’s high unemployment—and wanted to slap him in the face. The result is certainly a crushing blow to the president. He said before the vote that he would not resign if the result was non, but the defeat has almost certainly wrecked his chances of running for a third term in 2007. His internal rivals, most notably Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious head of Mr Chirac’s conservative governing party, the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP), are already sharpening their knives.

The Interior Minister is the 2d-ranking post in the government. Interesting that Sarko's back in the Cabinet, since Jacques made Sarko, who had been minister of the interior previously, quit his cabinet post as minister of the economy when Sarko became leader of their political party, UMP. A matter of keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer, Jacques?

Update Sarko's one of the Two men and a woman who can save Europe, according to the UK's Telegraph.

Where oh where is my little Hugo? Oh, where oh where could he be?
As posted yesterday, the weirdest news of the week was that Hugo Chávez went missing over the weekend, spurring rumors that he was dead.

His weekly 6-hr TV show, "Aló Presidente" was pre-empted by a volleyball game on Sunday, the radio broadcast of the same was also cancelled, and he didn't show at a scheduled demonstration.

Before I closed blogging shop for the evening, I posted Venezuelan daily El Nacional's story that Chávez was well and had chaired a meeting of his ministers. He appeared on a TV broadcast and claimed to have gone away for the weekend to visit his 7 yr-old daughter. The interesting thing is, 1,000 people were outside clamoring for him "¡Patria o muerte, por nuestro presidente!" ("Homeland or death, for our president")and he didn't come out. This morning El Nacional added a slide show to the same story, but added nothing to their report. El Universal repeats the same story, which you can also find at El Nuevo Herald and several other papers. However, AP has this photo, released by Venezuelan news agency Miraflores, captioned

President Hugo Chavez gestures to his supporters from a balcony in the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, May 30, 2005, reassuring hundreds of worried supporters massed outside who had demanded proof that he was all right after he disappeared from public view over the weekend.

None of the articles mention his appearing to the crowd.

Venezuela News and Views comments,

What was weirdest was the show of despair of his supporters willing to believe that he was dead or something. I, for one, was relieved that for 48 hours the president was not occupying the news. I was more than willing to enjoy the break, and suspected from the start that it was some strange show set up for some even more stranger reason. After all, the Supremos of history LOVE to check out the love of their flocks....

And who knew Hugo was such a volleyball fan, too!

Update To further contribute to the surreal atmosphere, long-dead Che was at the demonstration. Has Elvis left the building yet?

BREAKING NEWS: Is this a rumor?Is Hugo Chavez dead?

People are gathering in big numbers at Miraflores Palace in Caracas amid rumors Hugo Chavez had a heart attack or something like it. The goons have just shut down Avenida Urdaneta in front of the palace to stop inquiring questions from the adoring masses. Venezuelan government spokesman Andres Izarra says that Chavez cancelled his street rally appearance yesterday and his Alo Presidente weekly Sunday TV show "to spend more time with his family." And all's 'normal,' he says. Kim Il Sung's spokesman could not have said it better.

Nothing from Spanish language versions of BBC or CNN. Nothing at MSN News.
Google News: A story from EITB (Euskarra Basque News and Information Channel) Venezuela is worried about President Hugo Chavez's health
El Herald: Aseguran que salud de Chávez es normal (Chávez's health normal): "There's nothing abnormal going on" even when Chávez's usual TV and radio broadcasts were cancelled, and didn't show at a demonstration organized "in defense of the oil industry, and to protest USA's refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles".
Yahoo news: A story from El Universal Deputy Lara: President Chávez "is at his office".

Hm. At his office.

Paxety Pages links to Venezuela Takes Measures to Thwart President Assassination

Lara said there are intelligence information revealing that some sectors, heartbroken by the defeat of the 2002 coup attempt and the presidential referendum in 2004, are mulling over the idea of assassinate President Chavez.

????

Oh. Maybe Lara meant to say Chávez's at his doctor's office.

El Nacional, however, has him at Chávez pone fin a rumores al presidir sesión de Consejo de Ministros Chávez ends rumors by presiding Ministers' Council session. He hasn't come out yet to greet the crowd waiting expectantly outside the Palacio de Miraflores.

We'll know what to expect if suddenly he decides to fly to a French hospital.

Rumor or not, this qualifies as the week's weirdest news item.

Follow-up post: Where oh where is my little Hugo?

More on the French referendum
Rather than a red and blue map, Libération shows that the "yes" regions are blue, but the rest of the country are in shades of yellow and orange, depending on how emphatically they said "no":

Le Monde's map shows that even in Paris, four districts voted "no".


Cinco razones por las que los franceses dijeron 'No' Five reasons why the French said "no", via Barcepundit (my translation):

High unemployment: voters are unhappy w ith the high (10%) and persistent unemployment rate. They feel the people in power are out of touch with voters and haven't done enough about the country's economic problems.

Free market policies: Critics feel that the Constitution promotes business interests over social policy. They also feel it won't protect workers enough, and would favor Eastern Europeans, with lower costs and salaries, over France.

Declining influence: They fear France's influence within the EU would decline, since the Constitution strips countires of sovereign rights and transfers power to Brussels.

Renegotiation: The principal oponents to the treaty say that a "No" could force the EU to renegotiate the Constitution and include more safeguards for European workers. EU leaders and defenders of the treated have already said this is not possible.

Turkey: Some voters fear the the Constitution would clear the way for Turkey's admission into the EU and that the Referendum was the only way to oppose this.

The Dutch are expected to reject the Constitution. Will there be a Referendum in the UK?

From the Hindustan Times:Blair should feel relieved at French Non

Blair had previously said the referendum would go ahead, so long as there was a treaty to vote on. But, in practice, the French result could be a fatal blow to the constitution. A final decision on Britain's planned referendum is unlikely before the middle of next month, but a Downing Street aide conceded: "A double 'no' would be a very big blow."

A double rejection will have serious ramifications for the Government. Whatever its outcome, a UK referendum was viewed by Labour figures as a natural moment for Blair to step down, with Gordon Brown replacing him. That would have enabled a contest in the summer, followed by Brown's coronation at Labour's conference in autumn 2006.

The French result also means Britain's presidency of the European Union, which begins in July, will be dominated by the constitution. Blair and Brown had wanted economic reform to be the key issue of the presidency. Instead they will be in charge of picking up the wreckage from the French and Dutch votes.

Ministers are also braced for a backlash from the French government, with Paris likely to resist what it sees as "Anglo-Saxon" reforms to the EU. It may also block British plans for Turkey's admission. Crucial discussion will take place at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on June 16. A substantive announcement on the implications for Britain are likely to be delayed until then.

The Scotsman urges, Blair should grasp opportunity with both hands

The fact is that once the French voted against the constitution, its chances of survival were nil. Mr Blair should underline this by holding a swift British referendum to make sure it is not just dead but buried.

Stephen Pollard sees Blair as politically brilliant, while Samizdata's Perry de Havilland says The game's afoot!

So what happens next? The obvious move by Tony Blair is to cancel the UK's promised referendum as being moot now that the process has been derailed. Yet there are already frantic attempts going on by the integrationists to prevent that from happening, on the basis that it would be an admission that the process really is over.

Now this attempt to get the UK to vote anyway is really splendid news and I hope that other people who share my views that the EU is an abomination will remember Napoleon's dictum "never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake" as any UK vote will almost certainly be a vote against the EU which will just widen the rift in political cultures between France and the UK.

The question remains,

Politically, the issue will be--in light of the "no" vote--whether the most committed European federalists should press on with tighter European integration embodied by the draft constitution, without the rejectionists, and allow member states to join that so-called hard core if they so chose.

Or should the constitution be quietly forgotten, and France and Germany revert to the old model of leading European integration through executive and judicial institutions, and leave elected legislators and their conception out of the picture as much as possible?

One of the questions of our times.

Follow-up post: The new Jacques and Dom show

Memorial Day
was originally known as Decoration Day (for decorating the graves of the Civil War dead, which decimated over 600,000 Americans, nearly 2% of the total population of the Union and Confederacy), but at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. The first observance took place on May 30, 1868. In 1971 its observance was extended to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. At Arlington National Cemetery a wreath is placed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and each grave is decorated with a small American flag.

Other bloggers posting on Memorial Day: Hans Bricks, Enlighten NJ, Chrenkoff, Blackfive, and Mudville Gazzette.
Update Don't miss Roger's photos.
My Newz 'n Ideas blogs about Memorial Day, too.

Emphatically, "Non"
With 70% of all eligible French voters participating, 56% said NO to the European Constitution:
Le Figaro: Les gagnants et les perdants du non (The No's winners and losers)
France2 News" Référendum: un non franc et massif (Referendum: A massive, frank, No).
BBC News: French voters reject EU charter. The "No" camp on both the right and the left is jubilant. French voters have overwhelmingly rejected the European Union's proposed constitution in a key referendum
Libération: Le triomphe du non
Le Monde: La France rejette nettement le traité constitutionnel (France clearly rejects the constitutional treaty)
VOA News: French Voters Reject EU Constitution
Forbes: FRENCH EU VOTE: Schroeder says 'no' vote a setback, but not end for constitution
Financial Times: EU dreams collide with French antipathy
The Guardian: Raffarin in line to be victim of political disarray. Weakened Chirac promises to act within days

Will Chirac choose pompous Villepin, or will he go with Sarkozy? The Guardian:

Commentators agree that Mr Chirac is naturally reluctant to give Mr Sarkozy the job, despite that fact that it could well prove a poisoned chalice for a bitter rival, since he believes it is essential for president and prime minister to get on, and the two loathe each other.

Mr Sarkozy's campaign for the yes camp in the referendum, moreover, consistently stressed his differences with Mr Chirac; for example, his belief that France urgently needs deeper, structural freemarket reforms, particularly to its rigid labour market, if it is to compete. Mr Sarkozy was the only French politician to say the French should vote yes to the treaty "to change France", and to dare suggest that the French social model was "no longer the best".

But if Mr Chirac feels that the scale of the no victory demands radical action, government officials have suggested he may overcome his scruples in order to salvage at least something from his presidency - even if that means allowing Mr Sarkozy a free hand to be "prime minister of France, and not prime minister of Jacques Chirac".

I hope he goes with Sarkozy.

Bloggers' analysis and commentary round-up:
Stephen Pollard: Hurrah!
Samizdata: Wrong reasons, right result,
WebCommentary: France Speaks: Sovereignty Oui, EU Constitution Non
Belgravia Dispatch: This massive no resonates like a thunderclap across the French political landscape
More at EU Referendum, ¡No Pasarán!, QandO Blog, and Roger L. Simon.

Update: Instapundit reader Jonathan Smith says "I have yet to see an american blogger that has recognized that a lot of people that voted Non want France to be a MORE socialist state. It's a fear that the EU will be more capitalist."
Read on, Jonathan. Read on (and see link to Economist article in that post).

Sunday blogging: "The Opera ghost really existed"
Yesterday while I waited for the Memorial Day parade to start I went browsing at Micawber’s and came out with a used copy of The Phantom of the Opera novel, written by Gaston Leroux in 1911. The novel starts with an introduction and the first line states, "The Opera ghost really existed". This edition has the complete translated text, even when the Independent Publisher (according to the Amazon site) considers it a "children's version". The Barnes and Noble Classics edition I purchased also has a very entertaining foreword by Peter Haining, who peppers his essay with lots of exclamation points but gives a lot of background information in just a few pages on the Opera building, Gaston Leroux, and the various film productions of the novel. The Paris Opera itself is now housed in a different location, but the original building still stands.

The Phantom of the Opera story, while originally a horror tale, is in a sense a retelling of the French folk tale of Beauty and the Beast, and of course of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the book written by Victor Hugo in 1831, not the Disney movie). Disney has made Beauty and the Beast into an animated cartoon feature film and worked The Hunchback into a retelling of sorts of Beauty and the Beast. While the Disney Hunchback is still only a cartoon feature film, I wouldn't be surprised if they'll stage it, too, but I'm glad they didn't do The Phantom into a cartoon. Just as the Notre Dame cathedral building is a central figure in The Hunchback (which in French is titled Notre Dame de Paris), the Opera building is a central figure in The Phantom of the Opera.

My favorite Phantom of the Opera film version is the first, from 1925, originally a silent movie that was later re-released as a talkie in 1929. The film, in black and white with some colored sections, stars Lon Chaney, one of the greatest film actors of all time, in what many consider his most memorable part (a quick Google search shows there even are Lon Chaney Phantom action figures). The Leroux novel was intended to be a horror novel, and this version qualifies. Over the years, the story of the Phantom has been reinvented and reissued in various forms, and while none of the films I've come across was anywhere as good as the original (and some really are awful), the 1945 version with Claude Rains was entertaining enough.

In the 1980s Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote the stage musical and Phantom fever struck the masses. I've seen a lot of ALW musicals, and the one thing I don't like is that the music tends to stay with you for a day or two after, whether you'd liked the music or not. This usually puts me in an ornery mood. Andrew Lloyd Weber's version changed the story's slant from horror to that of a gothic romance, which is more appealing to the general public, and the show is still playing on Broadway at the Majestic Theater. The stage design, however, remained true to the Lon Chaney film and is quite lovely, especially when the Phantom carries Christine to his lair and the chandeliers come up from the stage floor. The ALW musical was a hit in London, in New York, across the USA, and toured the world.

I saw the original Broadway cast in the late 1980s and was not impressed at all. The singers were just not up to it on the day I went, the singing was not what one would pay for in a Broadway show, the acting was pretty awful, and the general effect was rather cheesy, in spite of the nice special effects. I came out with the definite impression that Christine's part was there simply to showcase Mr. Lloyd Weber's then-wife, and everybody else was just playing along.

In August of 2001 I went back with my family, who hadn't seen it, and what a difference a good actor makes! One of the challenges of playing the Phantom is that it is a "designed" character: the hairdo, make-up and clothes remain the same no matter which actor's doing the part, and then there's that mask hiding half of the actor's face. The evening we saw it Howard McGillin was the Phantom, and he was phenomenal. His voice was definitely up to the demands of the part, and gave the Phantom a rich sound while conveying a tormented soul, but without overacting. Mr. McMillan’s Phantom dominated the production even when the character itself is not on stage for many scenes. He transcended the "designed" constraints. In a word, he was good. Really good.

Considering how the ALW version has generated box office revenues of nearly $1 billion, it was only a matter of time that it would make it into film, which it did last year, and now it's out on DVD. Gerard Butler plays the Phantom, and also does his own singing. Mr. Butler cuts a handsome dashing figure in Phantom cape and ruffled shirt, so much so that a slightly more sophisticated Christine probably wouldn't have minded his disfigurement (I could almost hear her say, "No problem, honey. Let's just blow out a few candles and don't fuss too much with that mask. Just relaaax"), if only the Phantom hadn't turned out to be a murderous psychopath. Mr. Butler does have a rocker's voice, which apparently is what Mr. Lloyd Weber wanted, but Mr. McGillin's sound was a lot more pleasing to me. Emmy Rossum played Christine and looked suitably pale and lovely. The movie extends the musical in several ways, including many shots of the labyrinths of the Opera house, but all that doesn't really add much to the story. I actually prefer the stage version of "Masquerade" to this film's, in part because the stage Phantom wears a fascimile of the Chaney "Mask of the Red Death" costume. All the same, if I had a choice of the stage version with Howard McGillin or this film, I'd certainly pick Mr. McGillin's (I would have also cast him as the film's Phantom). However, viewers who haven't seen it on stage will probably enjoy the film.

One nice thing about DVDs is that one can watch musicals with English subtitles and sing along, just as people used to do in the olden days at midnight shows of the Rocky Horror Show. You too, could enjoy a Phantom of the Opera sing-along, and maybe even host a Phantom-theme party in the comfort of your own home. Think of it as the interactive Phantom.

However, if you want the full-impact Phantom, drop by Princeton University Chapel on Halloween and watch the Lon Chaney version on screen while the Chapel organist plays the original score of the silent film. No matter how many times you've seen the original, you'll still gasp when Lon Chaney's Phantom removes his mask. You, too, will believe that the Opera ghost really existed.

Now, that's what I call one Phantom-theme party!

Also posted at Blogger News Network

The McCain mutiny,
analyzed by Dr. Sowell,

Is Senator Frist a weak Majority Leader or does he just not have the troops required to get the job done? Senator Frist is a surgeon but he can't transplant backbone to Senate Republicans who don't have any.

Dr. Krauthammer calls it The flinch heard 'round the world

First, the compromise legitimized the principle of the judicial filibuster. Until 2001, not once in more than 200 years had a judicial nominee been denied appointment to the court by Senate filibuster.
. . .
The second sure thing is that the seven Republicans who went against their party are the toast of the Washington establishment.

Today's Day By Day says, "maybe the GOP's trying to build a bridge to the other side", which of course didn't work. I was saying as much last November 4, the Thursday after the elections

Yesterday there was much yabber on Dem blogs about hoping that Pres. Bush would “reach out to the other side of the aisle”. Allow me to point out the obvious: it's all window dressing.

First of all, “the other side of the aisle” lost big. As I said yesterday, Pres. Bush won the national vote by 3,700,000 votes, an absolute majority (the first absolute majority in the past four elections), the Senate's 53:44 Republican, the house is 212:193, and there are 27:21 Republican governors now elected. In other words, Bush won a mandate.

Second: tactically, ”the other side of the aisle” is better served by spending its energy retrenching, reorganizing, and making a token effort not too look too sore, while having the Republicans take the blame for whatever goes wrong, and then coming back and taking credit for whatever goes well.

I rest my case.

The question is, have the republicans learned anything from this latest episode?

Venezuela news round-up and Aleida's book selling tour
From the Financial Times, Chávez faces claims of oil revenue cover-up

José Guerra, economic research chief at the Central Bank of Venezuela until earlier this year, says that if the official oil output figures are correct, given that oil prices are known, Pdvsa is depositing only about 53 per cent of its revenue in the central bank.

In nominal terms, the figure is more dramatic.

Mr Guerra calculates that during all of 2004 and the first quarter of this year, data for which was released this week, Pdvsa has failed to hand over to the central bank $6.8bn from oil exports. Pdvsa is required by law to convert its hard currency earnings into bolivars, the local currency.

"If you look at the evolution of the country's balance of payments, of course you have to ask where is the money?" said Mr Guerra. "It's clearly not going to pay off debt or to pay for imports and it's not being converted into bolivars. There is something very irregular going on."

This month, Domingo Maza Zavala, a central bank director, said that $20m per day in oil export revenue was not being deposited.

While lower oil production levels explain in part why the central bank's cash flow figures challenge the official version, economists say there is also a financial shortfall because some money is being diverted elsewhere

Some of the money might be going towards training Hugo's 2 million reservists, propping up the Cuban economy, buying off Argentina's debt, possibly bankrolling sympathetic Bolivarians in other countries, and then there's Hugo's nuclear dreams. About those nuclear dreams, Aleksander Boyd has this to say,

The developing of a nuclear programme requires a high degree of continuity that Chavez and his utterly inefficient minions most certainly do not possess. Ergo I consider fitting to tranquilize some by saying that before Venezuela develops any nukes Ratzinger will convert to Islamism.

In all, those things come at a very high price. Nonetheless, at the rate of $20 million a day, there might even be enough left over for a nest-egg.

Meanwhile, U.S. rejects Venezuela's move to extradite terrorism suspect

The Bush administration told Venezuela its request that Luis Posada Carriles be arrested with a view to extradition was "clearly inadequate," because it lacked supporting evidence

Venezuela News and Views has a few observations on both PDVSA and the Posada Carriles case.

On other overseas news, Aleida Guevara, Che's oldest daughter who last year managed to get an op-ed article published in the NY Times where she said, ""What I remember most is my father's great capacity for love" (a capacity this blog has duly noted), is visiting capitalist Australia to flog her book, Chavez: Venezuela and the New Latin America and put down capitalism. Her enlightened comments include (emphasis mine):

Speaking at a packed book launch in Sydney on Friday night, Ms Guevara said the Alba oil treaty - signed between Cuba and Venezuela in March - had had a marked impact in both countries. "This is very important because for the first time in Latin America two countries can exchange the things they need, can trade," she said, through a translator.
. . .
"There's thousands of other little things that we are doing to act together to strengthen that relationship ... imagine if these same projects were to extend and work in other parts of Latin America," she said.
"It would be very, very important for our people, but also for the so-called first world."
With a twinkle in her eye, she continued: "Because if they can't continue to steal from us then things would be very, very different."

And then there's this:

We (Cubans) have fought very strongly against drugs and violence. My daughters can go out to parties until late at night and I'm not worried about them."

Of course her daughters would enjoy all the privilege the Cuban government can offer. When it comes to the safety of other Cuban children, unfortunately for Ms Guevara, she appears ignorant of the U.S. State Department's chief envoy on trafficking in persons's report,

He said he thinks most countries try to respond to criticisms in the trafficking report. But he said some governments, those with few or no official dealings with the United States, have refused to cooperate - citing Cuba, where he said children have been caught up in the sex trade.

"The major problem in Cuba is that there is a government-affiliated, supported sex-tourism industry that includes many, many children,” he added. “And not just by U.S. law, but by international protocol. When you have children in prostitution, you have trafficking. So this is the challenge in Cuba. We hope the Cuban government will take action to meet that challenge."

Maybe she's too busy travelling and selling her book.

Is Zarqawi dead?
Via Hans Bricks, Flopping Aces says yes. Chrenkoff is keeping an eye on things, too.

It would be easy to pull a Yasser on this one, too.

Show him the way to Amarillo!
Via ¡No Pasarán!: Cute guys make a music video.
Go watch. They'll brighten your day.

Signs of desperation #4, 5, 6, and 7
While Germany ratifies EU constitution, things aren't as smooth in France:

Sign of desperation #4: Jacques Chirac goes on state-funded France2 news and tells the French in solemn tones that approving the EU Constitution will lead to full employment, avoiding epidemics, and "not having to give up our social model". He even promised to take into account the "concerns and hopes" of the French after the referendum, a much less likely outcome than the prior three promises (see Sign of desperation #6: below).

Sign of desperation #5: The same broadcast that featured Chirac's speech opened with a headline pondering the possibility of the insufferable Villepin becoming Prime Minister -- it's expected that, if the "non" vote wins, Raffarin's out of a job. Sarkozy, who wants the PM job, is rallying his own supporters.

Sign of desperation #6: Maybe not so much as desperation, but more like a lot of black clouds, are all those headlines: Preparing to say non and nee (no, not Ni), France May Reject EU Treaty, Threatening Integration, Chirac battles Treaty scepticism: For once, the French people are in the deeply satisfying position of holding their unpopular government to ransom - and keeping President Jacques Chirac on a knife-edge of suspense in the run-up to Sunday's referendum, France's farmers set for protest vote.
But then, Jacques's not going to take this lying down: France's Chirac To Disregard 'No' Vote.
Even if they vote 'no', they will just have to vote again, until they get it right?

Sign of desperation #7: Schroder and Zapatero are going to France to rally the "oui" vote.

The NY Sun explores the possiblity of An Atlanticist Moment

Prior signs of desperation listed here

Also posted at Blogger News Network

Update W has the front page from The Economist's op-ed: No would be the right answer in next week's French and Dutch referendums—and a good one for Europe

Embryonic stem cell dreams
Last evening I was reading Hans Bricks's post, and came across Michael Cook's article (a must-read) Eggs Over Easy? False Dawn for Stem Cell Cures. Cook lists four reasons why some scientists are predicting that therapeutic cloning will be obsolete:

The cost of the cures

Clinical ethics

The safety and efficacy of the new products

The specter of human reproductive cloning

I'd like to add another one:
When one expects that cloned embryonic stem cells would create viable cures, one expects this to not be a pie-in-the-sky premise in the first place. Up to now the Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs), present in the bone marrow and precursors to all blood cells, are currently the only type of stem cells commonly used for therapy. Other sources of stem cells are umbilical cord, placenta, bone marrow, adult and animal tissues. As you can read here it is not clear whether stem cells from adult tissues or umbilical cord blood are pluripotent, and there is no evidence that embryonic stem cells could lead to any cures.

In practical terms, when you look at the existing results so far, asking for billions of your tax dollars to be committed towards embryonic stem cell research as a way of creating cures is like asking for the goverment to commit billions of dollars towards researching time travel as a way to cure the aging process.

It all reminds me of Disneyworld’s TomorrowLand in the 1960s projecting what they thought the year 2000 would look like – flying cars and all. The year 2000 rolled in, and the cars aren’t flying (and thank G-d they aren’t!).

Che, staged
Yesterday I was going through the junk mail and found a flier for The Public Theater's 50th Anniversary Season, which includes the world premiere of

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

Written JOSÉ RIVERA

A CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN LABYRINTH THEATER COMPANY AND THE PUBLIC THEATER

In a school house in Bolivia, Che Guevara, wounded and imprisoned, waits to learn whether his destiny lies with the CIA or the murderous Bolivian dictator. He spends his last days comforted by conversations with the local school teacher, a woman awakened politically and emotionally by the revolutionary leader. By the Academy Award-nominated writer of The Motorcycle Diaries and the play References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.

Maybe Mr. Rivera should awaken "politically and emotionally" to a few facts about Che, who personally executed his followers for disloyalty and created the Cuban gulags, into which he sent the gays he persecuted.

Here's a list of the names of people executed by Che at the Sierra Maestra mountains, Santa Clara city, and La Cabaña prison.

Last October I said,

It is estimated that Che Guevara sent to the firing squads some 15,000 Cubans. Untold number of people died in Cuba, Central America, Bolivia and Congo from his guerrila wars. The real number might never be known.

No movie will be made from their stories.

Mr. Rivera won't be writing any plays about them.

As Paul Berman said, The modern-day cult of Che blinds us not just to the past but also to the present. Mr. Rivera chooses to remain blind.

Also posted at Blogger News Network

While the media continue pounding out Koran abuse stories,
let's have them publish a list of all the people who have been persecuted in Muslim countries for being Christian. They can start with Sudan.

56-42
The Borking of Bolton, II

The Minutemen and illegal immigrants in Arizona at France2 news
Last evening's France2 news had a report, Arizona: Desert of Death (17 minutes into the broadcast. See for yourself). The report started by mentioning that over 100,000 people cross the border in the area beween Nogales and Douglas, Arizona, and that over 100,000 are arrested and returned, while the camera showed a few men being loaded into a Border Patrol van. The reporter interviewed two older women, and showed them, along with men, in campers, trucks, and SUVs watching the borders. There was a close-up of one gun in a holster, "even when they claim they are non-violent".

Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project stated that their job is to notify the (American) Border Patrol, and that the Patrol are the ones apprehending and returning the illegals. Mr Gilchrist pointed out in a map that, now that the Minutemen are watching that area, the illegals are trying to cross from areas west of the location being watched.

Then the interesting (for me) part: Officer Hilario Olmos in charge of Grupo Beta in Mexico, was interviewed as a counterpart to the Minutemen. Officer Olmos who also patrols the border, only on the Mexican side, wears an orange shirt with the words "Protección a Imigrantes" (Protection to Immigrants) emblazoned on its back. His job is basically to make sure that the people who are waiting to cross realize it won't take them three hours to cross the desert, but three days, and that they carry water and are prepared for a trip that long. He also checks on those who are ill or injured, who were sheltered in a shed. The coyotes openly (but not in the presence of Officer Olmos) loaded vans in the area, undeterred. The France2 reporter stated that the coyotes charge $3,000 per person -- while the camera showed a fully-loaded van just taking off with at least a dozen men that would be transported to the border.

The report went on to contrast that with the Border Patrol office, with TV monitors.

At the end of the report American Border Patrol officer Jose Maheda stated that this is a violent border, and he felt the Minutemen were taking great risks to make a political point.

On a separate subject, but still on the same newscast, the pro-EU Constitution campaign's casting an ever-widening net. The same France2 broadcast reported from Martinique -- looks like they're working their way north from French Guiana. This morning Drudge links to French in disarray as they admit EU treaty vote is lost

Good news from Cuba
Via Hans,

Only 10 days ago, in the province of Holguín, Cuban human-rights activists reported that the locals came to the aid of dissidents being beaten by police. “The town of Antilla poured out by the hundreds in protest to the abuse and they took us to the hospital,” according to one of the victims cited by the well- connected Cuban exile group Directorio. One witness reported that the protesters outnumbered the Castro loyalists.

Good news indeed.

On stem cell research
When it comes to embryonic stem cell research, I fully agree with Melanie Phillips's position,

But instrumentalising life in this way, bringing an individual into being solely to benefit other individuals, is utterly inimical to the deepest belief of our civilisation that every human life deserves equal dignity and respect.

I have made my position clear in the past: I don't want it to be funded by the goverment.

Last year the WSJ asked, What Funding Ban?.

There continues to be an overwhelming amount of misinformation and propaganda on the subject. Today's WSJ explains:

So what's happened, research-wise, since 2001? Given the rhetoric of some of the President's critics, you might think the answer is nothing. In fact, federal funding for all forms of stem-cell research (including adult and umbilical stem cells) has nearly doubled, to $566 million from $306 million. The federal government has also made 22 fully developed embryonic stem-cell lines available to researchers, although researchers complain of bureaucratic bottlenecks at the National Institutes of Health.
At the state level, Californians passed Proposition 71, which commits $3 billion over 10 years for stem-cell research. New Jersey is building a $380 million Stem Cell Institute. The Massachusetts Legislature has passed a bill authorizing stem-cell research by a veto-proof margin, and similar legislation is in the works in Connecticut and Wisconsin.

Then there's the private sector. According to Navigant Consulting, the U.S. stem-cell therapeutics market will generate revenues of $3.6 billion by 2015. Some 70 companies are now doing stem-cell research, with Geron, ES Cell International and Advanced Cell Technologies being leaders in embryonic research. Clinical trials using embryonic stem-cell technologies for spinal cord injuries are due to begin sometime next year.
. . .
All of which is to say that if embryonic stem-cell researchers can get this far within the regime Mr. Bush imposed in 2001, then surely they can go further without additional federal help. The same goes for the $79 million the President and his allies in Congress are proposing to spend on umbilical cord stem-cell research. Here, too, the government is spending tax dollars to subsidize a private sector that already has every incentive to invest.

To me and to many, embryonic stem cell research is a moral issue. I'm glad the WSJ is discussing it in light of the facts.

Update Via Baldilocks, Francis W. Porretto blogs on the morality of "discarded" embryos:

The notion that these embryos are "discarded" or "surplus" arises from another of the developments of recent years, fertilization outside the womb. Once the mother-in-intent is satisfied that the baby in her belly will grow to term, what use has she for the "extra" embryos that were created to assure her of at least one viable one? Are they nothing but refuse? Can't we "get some use out of them?"

Time was, the answer would have been obvious and universally understood: This is wrong. It's as wrong as cannibalism, or kidnapping, or tearing the organs out of one living, breathing man to save the life of another. It requires that Smith's life be demoted beneath Jones's in importance, deeming it a means instead of an end in itself, without Smith having committed a crime. This cannot be justified without either declassifying Smith as human, or stripping humans categorically of the right to life.

A must-read.

Update Andrew Sullivan concurs.

Straight from the soundtrack of Team America: World Police
I'm so ronery

Many thanks to Ken
for his kind words

Writing about NJ taxes won't get me an installanche or a TV guest appearance
but write I do, along with others.

Enlighten NJ has a post on how a NJ Democrat Discovers 'Soak The Rich' Tax Policy Is Bad For New Jersey. Enlighten also has several posts on Corzine's ‘Fundamental Reorganization of Health Care’ For New Jersey. New Jersey Thorugh A Pinhole has a list of posts on Corzine.

Along with Enlighten, SmadaNek's Ken Adams did some simple arithmetic and realizes that Corzine Care comes at a price -- a huge price. In the billions. In the comments section, Enlighten NJ asks, "Do you ever get the idea we're the only ones that care?". Trust me, I do.

NJ property taxes are a national scandal. Take a look at this graph from the NY Times:

The local newspaper tells us more increases are in the works: Princeton Township Committee OKs budgetSpending reduced; tax rate increased about 10 percent. In addtion to its $29.8 million budget, the Township continues to approve bond issues for what would otherwise be routine infrastructure maintenance, such as $1 million bond for rebuilding 1.5 miles of road on Snowden Lane. Now here comes the punch line:

Debt service consumes 22 percent of the total budget

Expect that number to increase: The Town Topics says the tax hike is 6.5 cents over last year's total. Debt service itself may be 22% of the total budget for now, but it's increasing at a much larger rate:

Ms. Shaddow said one of the largest increases in this year's budget is debt service, which contributed about three cents to the increase.

3 divided by 6.5 = 46%, folks.

If you want to fool yourself into believing that the Township is the exception, I refer you to one sentence in both the Packet's and Town Topic's articles: The six-and-a-half-cent hike is commensurate with increases in other Mercer County municipalities.

Leave it to Arthur to come up with profound thoughts on the Sith

It's true that the price of liberty is the eternal vigilance, but for the left the price of the eternal vigilance, in turn, has been the eternal paranoia, and the eternal tendency to see its own government as a greater threat to America and the world than any of the actual, existing, reality-based totalitarian tyrants that have ever roamed the earth. One can have reasonable discussion about the growth in size and reach of the government over the past two centuries, but the left's role in this debate has always been a boy who cried empire. Thus (to is critics) the United States seems to be perpetually on the verge of tumbling into tyranny (the Civil War, the Gilded Age corporatization, World War One, News Deal, World War Two, Vietnam, the war on terror, or generally whenever the Republicans are in the White House), but somehow it never does (except to some of these critics, for whom it already had).

Lucas might feel he's quite cool to have dreamed up the concept of "Star Wars" around the time of the Vietnam War as a cutting-edge commentary on the political trajectory of the United States; he might feel he's even cooler to have dreamed out a concept that still resonates (at least with him and the left) decades later. To everyone else, the never-ending carping about the slide into tyranny might sound dated, silly and self-absorbed, while the world outside of Hollywood witnesses the procession of real-life Evil Empires and their minor clones.

The Sith - the verdict

Melanie Phillips on embryonic stem-cell research
The post-human future

There is a strong sense of unreality about all this. Earlier this year, the United Nations voted in favour of banning all forms of human cloning because of the insuperable ethical problems that it poses.

The British government is simply ignoring this unhelpful ruling. For it has passed a law permitting what is euphemistically called ‘therapeutic’ cloning, which is said to be quite different from ‘reproductive’ cloning which it has banned.

This is because ‘therapeutic’ cloning involves using cells from a cloned embryo to grow tissue which can be implanted into a patient, rather than allowing the cloned embryo to develop into a baby.

This is a highly disingenuous and meaningless distinction, since ’therapeutic’ cloning still involves the creation of a human embryo which, if it were left alone — all other things being scientifically equal — would grow into a baby.

The cloners and their Whitehall patrons, however, claim that this isn’t reproductive cloning because the cloned embryo will be killed before it gets anywhere near becoming a baby. Look, they say, it will be no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence: not an unborn baby, but a bundle of cells which can only be seen under a microscope.

In making such a claim, however, they give their essentially dehumanising game away. For they are redefining human reproduction as only a process which produces a breathing baby at the end of it.
. . .
But instrumentalising life in this way, bringing an individual into being solely to benefit other individuals, is utterly inimical to the deepest belief of our civilisation that every human life deserves equal dignity and respect.

Yes, we have greatly eroded that belief over the years, particularly by our promiscuous use of abortion. But ‘therapeutic’ cloning is worse than abortion, and even worse than the destruction of ‘spare’ embryos created through in-vitro fertilisation. For it means deliberately creating a life solely in order to destroy it.

In addition, who can doubt that ‘therapeutic’ cloning is a step on an already lethal slippery slope? How many times have we heard the government or the medical experimentation lobby swear with hands on their hearts that this or that ‘essential’ development — abortion, artificial insemination by donor, experimentation on embryos — is hemmed in by an iron legislative wall to prevent us from slithering into an ethical nightmare?

Yet every single such development has opened the door to increasingly indefensible practices that have degraded and coarsened our society. Once human embryos are created, the pressure to do more with them at later stages of gestation will inevitably increase, and eventually the pressure to allow some of them to develop into babies will become irresistible.

Read it all.

Following up on the McCartney sisters
Last March Paula, Catherine, Donna, Claire and Gemma McCartney, and Bridgeen Hagans came to the USA and attended the St. Patrick's Day Parade in NYC, and visited with Pres. Bush. As Open Democracy explains,

The sisters seek truth and justice for their brother, and have become front figures in what has developed into a campaign to put an end to the IRA.

The women are risking everything,

Earlier this month the family blamed republicans for a threat to burn them out of their homes and businesses.

which Sinn Fein's denying. However, Ireland On Line states the police had confirmed that the latest threat was from republican sectors. The Chicago Tribune has an up-to-date report.

The women's relentless campaign has attracted a nomination for the annual Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.

Oil-For-News
M. emailed me this story from LGF, which is also at ¡No Pasarán!: Uday’s Oil-for-News program

Uday goes on in his videotaped conversation with al-Ali to mention that some people have relayed to him al-Ali’s comment that Al Jazeera is the station of Iraq’s Baathist regime “both literally and figuratively.” Thus, Uday says, “It is important that I share with you my observations about the station.”

In response, al-Ali never denies saying that Al Jazeera was Saddam’s station. Instead, his cloying remarks provide Uday every reason to believe that this is so. Al-Ali gives Uday his “unequivocal thanks for the precious trust that you put in me so that I was able to play a role at Al Jazeera; indeed I can even say that without your kind cooperation with us and your support my mission would have failed.” Al-Ali also tells Uday that, in his mission at Al Jazeera to serve Iraq, “the lion's share of the credit goes to you personally sir, yet we would be remiss not to mention our colleagues here who constantly strive to implement your directive.”

On April 24 I reported on the lecture Abderrahim Foukara, Al Jazeera's New York Bureau Chief gave at Princeton University's Wilson School. In Mr. Foukara's own words,

The scourge of the media, be it AJ or CNN, too, is the attempt to merchandise sentiments -- the Arab world is anti-American -- because being 'anti-something' sells."

And A-J can be bought, too. It's all about merchandising.

Thank you Mr. McFarlan
Venezuela News and Views reports that second-in-command at the American Embassy in Venezuela, Stephen McFarlan, put a damper in last Sunday's demonstration:

The second in command of the embassy surprised every one by coming out real quick and defuse very amiably the situation. Actually, I am not sure that Chavez is going to be very pleased at how easy Mr. McFarlan got in good terms with the protest delegation he sent over...

Mr. McFarlan not only met amiably with the demonstrators, he also politely stated, "we offer all the peoples, and all countries, friendly relations, based on mutual respect, but we won't go begging, either".
I applaud his actions.

Naked Shakespeare
First we got flashed during Julius Caesar. Now it's Hamlet's turn:

Or when Hamlet, sitting on the toilet reading the "Escapes" section of The New York Times, taunts the meddling Polonius? Or when the bespectacled, cigar-smoking ghost sits Hamlet down in the den for a serious father-son talk? Or when the melancholy Dane (to threaten his uncle? to shock the audience?) strips down entirely?

I haven't had the opportunity to see the current production, but I so wish the directors of Shakespeare's plays would resist the temptation of having their actors drop trou.

Phil's 'fro
Here at The Bad Hair Blog I believe that NJ taxes are enough to make your hair stand on end, but TBHB is not indifferent to other bad hair news. Behold, Phil Spector's attorneys might be starting a new trend in criminal defense -- the bad hair strategy:

Update The Manolo says it best!

Hugo goes nuclear?
Forbes: Venezuela interested in developing nuclear energy for civil use - Chavez

Chavez said Venezuela would cooperate with other Latin American countries and seek support from countries such as Iran.

Venezuela is an OPEC member and is currently the world's fifth largest exporter of crude oil.

The Scotsman: Chavez: Venezuela May Hold Nuclear Power Talks with Iran

Chavez and Khatami – both critics of Washington’s foreign policy – have argued that wealthy nations like the United States cannot keep today’s energy-related technologies for themselves while developing countries struggle to produce enough energy to satisfy domestic needs.

The Venezuelan government official news website says it's all wind, though: Chavez Frias wants new solar and wing [sic] energy agreements with Iran. Hans is concerned. Venezuela News And Views puts it all in perspective:

to develop nuclear weapons, even less to develop nuclear energy. Buying a nuclear weapon is always a possibility, but even that I wonder if chavismo is able to manage without it exploding in their own hands. Yes, that Chavez mentions "nuclear" is to be of concern, but for us Venezuelans first. Can anyone imagine Chavez having a secret nuclear weapon? He could not resist bragging about it! All would know where to look for it and place a quick missile to neuter it!!!!!!!

By now, there's one undeniable fact: Cae producción de Pdvsa por falta de mantenimiento PDVSA's oil production drop due to lack of maintenance (article in Spanish).

Investor's Daily's rather harsh with Hugo: Hugo Chavez: Pirate Of The Caribbean

He's so afraid of potential rebellions that some observers believe his real game is to set up a safe place in Havana for Venezuela's biggest money centers — oil and banking. That in turn would keep cash within his access. No people-power revolution can reach this money in Havana.

So, if there's a revolt in the restive oil fields of western Venezuela or in Caracas, money will still be accessible to Chavez's political machine, far from the hands of his democratic opponents.

Venezuelan cash in Havana also props up Castro. Ironically, this oil alliance will likely serve to entrench both leaders. That in turn will free them to take up more predatory practices around the region. A long shadow of tyranny over the Americas looks to be lengthening.

All the same, Chávez continues to be his usual tactful self, with Chavez threatens formal ties to U.S, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called former Spanish Premier "fascist, so Venezuelan comedians target Chavez, and Mariano Rahoy, leader of Spain's largest opposition political, party went right ahead and said that Hugo's nuts (article in Spanish), and asked

``Where is it written that the Spanish prime minister must make himself popular with a tyrant as he yet again proved yesterday, like Fidel Castro, or with someone who's unbalanced, like the president of Venezuela?''

Publius Pundit ponders the Europeans.

And then, there's Ecuador Gets Chavez'd ... Bush has someone new to hate. Argentinean president Kirchner, grateful for that $150 Million of Argentine Bonds that Hugo paid for, praises Hugo (my translation),

"Estoy muy agradecido a Chávez. Nos ha ayudado mucho en la crisis energética, ha comprado bonos de la Argentina, ha mandado barcos a arreglar a astilleros argentinos, le hemos vendido productos argentinos", dijo Kirchner.
"I’m very grateful to Chávez. He's helped us a lot in the energy crisis, has purchased Argentinean bonds, has sent ships to repair the Argentinean shipyards, we've sold him Argentinean products"

Well, you win some, you lose some, (via VCrisis),Maverick Antillean minister removed

MPs in the Netherlands Antilles parliament have passed a vote of no confidence vote in deputy prime minister Errol Cova and another of member of his PLKP party, after a bitter feud with Prime minister Ettiene Ys. It means the two have been expelled from the government.
The problems in the government stem from controversial comments made by Mr Cova during a visit to Venezuela two weeks ago.

He is reported to have heaped praise on president Hugo Chavez. This did not go down well with prime minister Ys and the government of the Netherlands, which is responsible for the international relations of the Antilles.

In Eastern Venezuela, a government helicopter was stolen, and another helicopter had been stolen in the past twelve months.

Let's hope Hugo's better at keeping track of nuclear materials than he is at keeping track of helicopters, or at maintaining oil wells.

Via Hispalibertas, Is Venezuela going nuclear?

Also posted at Blogger News Network.

Here's a list of prior posts on Venezuela's oil:
The collapsing Venezuelan oil industry
Chávez says oil production's not down by 800,000 barrels per day
Connecting the dots
Hugo Chávez, at the Latin-Arab Summit, annoying many, but with many more to annoy
Associated Press, public relations organ for Hugo Chávez
The Bolivarian revolution will be televised
Earlier posts are listed here.

Mark Steyn
says Cricket star knows how to fire up fanatics:

It's not the mobs, so much as the determination of the elites to keep their peoples in a state of ignorance. The most educationally repressive form of Islam, for example, is funded and promoted by Saudi princes who, though not as handsome as Imran, also spend a lot of time in the West -- gambling, drinking, womanizing and indulging other tastes that even the wildest night on the tiles in Riyadh just can't sate. Whereas most advanced societies believe that an educated population is vital to the national interest, many Muslim elites seem to have concluded than an uneducated population is actually far more useful. And, when you look at Saudi funding of radical madrassahs in hitherto moderate Muslim regions from the Balkans to Indonesia, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that they're having great success de-educating hitherto relatively savvy parts of the world.

This disaster took a combination of factors. We can't do much about Muslim fanatics; we probably can't do much about our self-worshipping vanity media whose reflexive counter-tribalism has robbed it of all sense of perspective or proportion. But we ought to apply pressure on the link between the two worlds: the self-serving elites who enjoy the privileges of the West even as they exploit their co-religionists' ignorance of it. That's just not cricket, is it?

Speaking of the self-worshipping vanity media whose reflexive counter-tribalism has robbed it of all sense of perspective or proportion. . . Aaron has the photoshop!

It's Monday, so it's time for Arthur's
Good news from Iraq, part 28

The Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education is currently engaged in 297 different projects throughout Iraq, valued at 37 billion dinars [$22.2 million], and expected to be completed by the end of 2007. The projects include "building study halls in Iraqi colleges, scientific laboratories, centers for information service, a conferences hall, creating new colleges in various universities, establishing libraries and buildings for boarding departments, in addition to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Iraqi universities’ buildings and establishing a building for the Iraqi council for medical specializations."

And German representatives have announced more scholarships for Iraqi students, in addition to 150 since the beginning of 2004.

Excellent work, Arthur!

Don't miss Enlighten NJ's Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers
To answer their question,

when does Fausta the author of Bad Hair Blog ever have time to sleep?

I type fast, and read even faster, leaving me time to sleep.

Addicted to "24"
This evening, 8PM, you know where to find me. I'm sure Patrick will be watching Fox, too.

On a dissonant note, last evening the cable tv schedule channel showed the director of tonight's "24" wearing a Che t-shirt. Brown shirt, black photo of Che, yellow halo.

Sign of desperation, #2
First, the Germans, now the Wayampi Indians. Who, you may ask, are the Wayampi Indians? Richard explains

. . . the Wayampi Indians, who inhabit an alligator-infested corner of French Guiana in South America. They are one of the many tribes in the French portfolio of dominions around the globe from the Pacific to the Amazon jungle. Their 1.4m voters, Campbell writes, could swing the result in the French referendum and determine the future of Europe.

Oh! Those Wayampi Indians!

Will the Dutch be nay-sayers?

60% planned to vote against the EU constitution, while 40% said they would vote in favour, according to the Maurice de Hond institute which interviewed 2,500 people.
Another poll by the NSS-Interview institute released on Friday found 63% of those surveyed were against the treaty, while 37% were in the “yes” camp.

Which brings us to Sign of desperation, #3: EU leaders dream up secret 'plan B' to rescue treaty if French say Non

Thank you, George Lucas!

Acts of courage
From Free Thoughts (emphasis mine),

A Cuban dissident shows his right arm tattooed with North American landmarks, 'The Statue of Liberty' and Twin Towers, outside a fruit orchard on the outskirts of Havana where an unprecedented meeting to push for democratic changes takes place, May 20, 2005. Some 200 opponents of President Fidel Castro gathered on the outskirts of Havana and demanded the release of Cuba's political prisioners. Cuba's Communist government expelled a Czech senator and a German legislator and detained an Italian and three Polish journalists sent to report the event.

Hans is posting on the photo. Roger L. Simon asks, Wouldn't it be amazing if Cuba turned democratic before Castro died?. That's a long ways away, as Castro's secret police crack down on democracy campaign, and not only on the Cubans:

Five European legislators, with several journalists and human rights activists from the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, were seized. At least six Poles were believed to be in Cuban jails.

Val Prieto's liveblogging the Cuba Nostalgia Convention from Miami. Don't miss it.

Huffin' and puffin'
¡Gringo Unleashed!, whose motto is "no hay problemas, solo soluciones" (there are no problems, only solutions), posts on the annoyance that is the Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington's "blog" has been getting a lot of attention lately, since Arianna's well-sponsored and has been able to do her Zsa-Zsa imitation on TV and radio.

Catherine Seipp, however, recommends Huffington's Toast, the new blog parody by the brilliant Steve Graham (who's also the author of Eat What You Like and Die Like a Man, a cookbook I highly recommend). Seipp noticed that

the maniacally energetic Huffington’s Toast is filled with entries like this one, “not really by Arianna Huffington,” illustrated by a tiny mug shot of the Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado as Arianna

Walter Mercado, who started his showbiz career as male romantic lead in Puerto Rican TV soap operas, a case of miscasting if there ever was one, has made a huge success of himself as TV astrologer and wearer of capes worthy of Queen Amidala. Go see what I mean. Walter's prose is worthy of Arianna. Here's what he got for Aries,

Si no cambias de actitud, si no modificas radicalmente tu comportamiento, tu situación se volverá difícil. Intenta abrigar grandes esperanzas para el futuro y siempre mira hacia adelante. Mantente al corriente y al día y responde a las tendencias del momento, tanto en cuestiones de estilo personal como en las ideas. Número de suerte: 02-08
If you don't change your attitude, if you don't radically modify your behavior, your situation will turn difficult. Try to shelter great hopes for the future and always look forward. Stay up to date and respond to current trends, both in matters of personal style as in ideas. Lucky number: 02-08

I can't wait for Arianna to hire Walter to do the Post's horoscopes.

That is, if Steve doesn't hire him first.

Sign of desperation
From Richard at EU Referendum

This paper reports how French citizens who thought they would spend a quiet day at the Louvre this week have found themselves assaulted by German youths, dozens of them, intent on plying them with blue-and-yellow flags, heaps of literature and long, impassioned arguments.
. . .
Mr. Stemmer, it seems, and hundreds of his comrades are part of a desperate last-ditch effort this week by leaders across Europe to persuade the French to vote in favour of adopting the constitution.

Since nothing seems to have worked, it was time to bring in the Germans. The students have been bussed from across Germany to beg and plead on French streets for people to cast a "oui" vote, in the belief that French citizens, suddenly disillusioned with their media and politicians, are more likely to listen to rank outsiders.

The last thing I'd want, if I were French, is a hoard of Germans telling me what to do.

But then, that's just me.

A few observations on Revenge of the Sith ( a.k.a. ROTS)
Today I indulge my inner geek:

(SPOILER ALERT)
Too much stuff on screen flying around during battles and chase scenes. The teens will be coming back for repeated viewings just for that alone.

The droids look like the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, and get mowed down as fast.

What's with the cute names, George?

All that elevator needs is Bruce Willis.

Christiansen's not as tall as I thought. He's shorter than Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits, so Ewan's short and Padme must be and inch or two taller than Yoda.

I like the videoconferencing with hollograms. Nice to have them occupying their chairs even when they're away.

Padme got to wear Princess Leia's bagel hairdo.

ROTS wasn't as bad as Podhoretz made it out to be. It does have its moments.

Just how long does it take Padme to get ready in the morning?

What's with that negligée trimmed with strings of pearls? You mean she actually sleeps in that?

Leapin'lizards, Obi Wan!

Too bad Christopher Lee gets mowed down faster than the droid big honcho.

Not a movie for young kids.

Palpatine's behaving as if he were Putin.

Two words, Padme: classic simplicity.

Was there ever a Mrs. Yoda?

Lost count of amputations.

Did Samuel L. Jackson's character survive that fall? After all, Yoda got fried, and kept on going.

Hey! Chewy's back! But, in the Planet of the Apes?

At least seven people are taking pictures with their cell phones.

"Younglings", yinglings, whatever.

Lucas must have been watching/reading Lord of the Rings, with that volcanic fight. All very Medieval-knight-like

Jimmy Smits picks up Yoda in what reminded me of a 1960s Mustang convertible. Very cool.

Obi-Wan and Annakin are not prone to dehydration. Maybe the Jedi go for "never let them see you sweat".

Their clothes and shoes must be fire-proof.

Even with all the pathos, couldn't help but think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when pre-armor Darth is lying on the lava with his legs cut off:

Black Knight: Right, I'll do you for that!
King Arthur: You'll what?
Black Knight: Come here!
King Arthur: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?
Black Knight: I'm invincible!
King Arthur: ...You're a loony

I've watched too much Monty Python.

Jedi ethics leave much to be desired. 2:1 against an old guy (Christopher Lee) is not what one would expect from the lofty-minded.
Note to Obi-Wan: The Samurai and the Klingons woudln't turn their backs and leave their (former) fellow Jedi to die after the injuries Annakin suffered. From that alone the pre-armor Darth had a good case against the Jedi.

All that flying transport and Darth couldn't get some anesthetic. (Or, they could put a clone on the moon, but they couldn't get Darth some analgesia.)

The score, while predictably obtrusive, was good. I particularly liked the chorus singing "Darth Vader" during the vestments scene. Just the thing to bring it waay-over-the-top.

The characters played by Jimmy, Samuel, or Ewan would have been a more interesting Vader. ROTS's Vader was a dissatisfied punk with delusions of grandeur, instead of a Jedi-gone-bad.
As we left, one in our group said, "if that's the reason Annikin got suckered into the dark side, he really wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer".
Lucas had 30 years to work on this, and that's the best he could come up with??

I hope James Earl Jones got paid enough from saying those few words to pay off the mortgage and the kids' med-school tuitions.

The best visual was the simple, classically composed shot of Darth Vader's mask closing shut: An essay in finality, simply expressed.

Yoda and C3PO the best lines got. Lucas a writer hired should have.

Bad hair instance number eleventy-hundredth
In NJ, the law does not require grandparents to pay support and yet somehow a judge could find otherwise. Read the details at Enlighten NJ.

Encouraging news from Brazil
Lula wants to open the reinsurance business to the private sector. The country's also developing ethanol production from sugar cane.

Not so encouraging, is this headline, Brazil poses growing threat to U.S. farmers. The threat supposedly comes from soybean production. To me, farm subsidies are much more of a threat than any farming done by other countries. Farm subsidies are inefficient, are a burden to us taxpayers, and deny foreign countries the opportunity to freely compete. Abolishing farm subsidies would be a great thing.

You need not fear much about the rain forest, though. Scott accurately calculates that, at current rates of deforestation, the rain forest has at least 156.90776884806735553004209720628 years left.

More baffling details on the March 11 investigation
Via Hispalibertas, it now appears that former Al Fatah member and Soviet-trained spy Maussili Kalaji, one of the policemen in charge of the 3/11 investigation, also sold some real estate to the terrorists allegedly involved. Here's my translation of the El Mundo article (please credit me if you quote from it. Thank you.)

The police found a document belonging to agent Kalaji at a locale used as “nerve center” for the 3/11 attackMADRID. The police found during April last year a document belonging to policeman Maussili Kalaji at a residence that was used as “nerve center”, or center of operations, by the 3/11 attackers. The document is a “notification by the Deacon of the Madrid Courts of Law”, issued to Kalaji, and found at 11 Virgen del Coro Street in Madrid.

Maussili Kalaji’s the proprietor of the telephone shop where the cell phones used in the bomb knapsacks on March 11 were “liberated” [see prior posts]. Kalaji’s one of the most knowledgeable Spanish agents on Islamist cells operating in Europe, and had placed informants within the Islamist cells operating in Spain.

According to today’s story in El Mundo [available by subscription only], the apartment belongs to Syrian brothers Mouhannad and Moutaz Almallah, jailed for the Madrid attacks. In Moutaz’s case, the police considers him a very important operative within Al Qaeda, and speculates that he might have worked as liaison between the terrorist organization and the actual terrorists in the attacks. The police agent who “liberated” the 3/11 cell phones [i.e., Kajali] has explained that the document originates from the 1998 sale of a different apartment to Moutaz.

The Virgen del Coro location also housed two of the other accused, currently in prison for the 3/11 attacks, and one of the men who committed suicide in Leganés. According to a police report, the apartment “has been a center of operations for the groups and the people who took part [in the attacks]”.

Last March 21, Judge Juan del Olmo of the Audiencia Nacional [judicial chamber] had Mouhannad jailed under a charge of belonging to an armed gang. The Syrian had already been detained after the [3/11] attacks and released. Shortly after he joined the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol, [the party currently in power]), which expelled him as soon as they found out he had been jailed. Moutaz had been arrested in London three days before his brother’s arrest.

Agent Maussili Kalaji acknowledges being in closer contact with Moutaz, which was corroborated by the finding of the document, which in turn was initially reported by the City FM radio station of Las Rozas, Madrid.

The “notification by the Deacon of the Madrid Courts of Law in the name of Maussili Kalaji" was found on April 27, 2004 in a blue folder that also contained documents regarding an apartment in del Mirto Street in Madrid that agent Kalaji sold Moutaz in 1998.

This just gets curioser and curioser.

UPDATE Don't miss Chester's diagram of the Strange Coincidences in Madrid (via Chrenkoff).