How José Latour got out of Cuba
It took decades, but he made it: He Wrote His Way to Freedom

"According to U.S. Treasury regulations, Cubans living in Cuba couldn't have bank accounts in the States. So I flew from Washington to Toronto, and opened an account at the Royal Bank of Canada. And all my revenue from selling rights to my books, or whatever--they were sent to this account." But he was scrupulous about paying Cuban tax on all his income: "I was very careful not to give them the opportunity to charge me with any sort of common crime."
. . .
Back in Cuba, Mr. Latour was waiting out the first months of his Canadian emigration process ("I was fearing that I might be sent to jail, or something") when an unexpected opportunity presented itself: A Spanish translation of "Outcast," the book he'd written in English, was about to be printed in Spain; its publisher asked Mr. Latour to come to that country for a promotional tour.

"I said, 'OK, I'll do it--if you also invite my wife, my son and my daughter.' Let me explain. . . . Cubans living in Cuba need written invitations to file an application with the immigration authorities. I said, 'I will cover the expenses of my family; you will cover my out-of-pocket expenses.' . . . And they said, 'OK, perfect, no problem.' They figured [it] out."

The Spanish publisher got the Cubans to grant permission for the family's trip. At the airport, on Aug. 5, 2002, Mr. Latour produced a Royal Bank of Canada credit card. "That was it: around $3,000. That's how I paid for the plane tickets. So I didn't violate any laws."

Even then,

All the Latours took out of Cuba were the clothes they wore.

At least he and his family were able to leave.

Like Val says, the barges run in only one direction.

The Ladies in White, the wives and mothers of imprisioned dissidents, are not allowed to leave Cuba to receive the 2005 Sakharov prize for freedom of thought that the EU awarded them earlier this year. Instead they get to stay in Cuba where they are constantly harrassed. Mary Anastasia O'Grady has more on them.

(technorati tags Ladies In White, Cuba)

The name is Bone, James Bone,
and he's asking, Where Is the Car?

Probably the most egregious flaw in Mr. Volcker's report is its handling of a contemporaneous document referring explicitly to discussions with the secretary-general in Paris in November 1998 about Cotecna's bid. The internal company memo--a "trip report" written by Annan family friend and then-Cotecna executive Michael Wilson to other Cotecna officials who were also in Paris at the time--says in part: "We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage." Despite the memo's use of "we," the Volcker inquiry held that Mr. Wilson did not meet personally with the U.N. chief, and concluded that "The committee has not been able to corroborate Mr. Wilson's claim that he had a meeting with the secretary-general about Cotecna's bid for the inspection contract as set forth in the Paris memorandum." (My italics.)

This is a distortion in one or Mr. Volcker's key findings: The memo said "we" not "I." Never did Mr. Wilson claim that he met personally with Kofi Annan. Indeed, the Volcker report itself says Mr. Wilson "repeatedly asserted" that he did not meet the secretary-general in Paris. Mr. Volcker's team did discover, however, that Kojo Annan, in Paris as part of the Cotecna contingent, met his father in the U.N. chief's room at the Hotel de Crillon on Nov. 28, 1998. The Volcker report failed even to address the possibility that the "we" in the memo might refer to talks between the U.N. secretary-general and his son, or between the U.N. chief and another Cotecna representative (i.e., one who was not Mr. Wilson).

This is where the missing Mercedes comes in. The Mercedes was purchased by Kojo Annan in his father's name four days before the Hotel de Crillon meeting--and about two weeks before Cotecna won the U.N. contract. The use of the U.N. chief's diplomatic status qualified the car for a $6,541 discount on the purchase price and a $14,103 tax exemption when it was imported to his native Ghana. Mr. Volcker's investigators found a memo on the computer of Mr. Annan's personal assistant asking him to authorize a letter to Mercedes. "Sir, Kojo asked me to send the attached letter re: the car he is trying to purchase under your name. The company is requesting a letter be sent from the U.N. Kojo said it could be signed by anyone from your office. May I ask Lamin to sign it?" the assistant wrote.

Neither Kofi Annan, his aide Lamin Sise, nor his assistant, Wagaye Assebe, can recall what happened, and the original documents have disappeared--but somehow the Mercedes was purchased with the diplomatic discount anyway. Abdoulie Janneh, the U.N. official who arranged the tax exemption in Ghana was recently promoted to U.N. under-secretary-general, in charge of the Economic Commission for Africa.

And the car is still "missing". My guess is that the car is parked in a garage built from tsunami relief funds. Not that Jan "the Americans are stingy" Egeland, the United Nations top disaster official, is telling.

Today's articles from Maria
Dr. Sowell looks at Cheap politicians and asks,

How many people in the top layer of their respective professions are going to sacrifice the future of their families -- the ability to give their children the best education, the ability to have something to fall back on in case of illness or tragedy, the ability to retire in comfort and with peace of mind -- in order to go into politics?

Particularly when politics has become a never ending mud-slinging marathon?

From the NY Post: Steve Dunleavy has been LOOKING AT GITMO FROM THE INSIDE, Amir Taheri's FANTASIES OF THE 'REALISTS', Michelle Malkin's Hypocrites, and Linda Chavez's Anti-patriot politics.

From TownHall: Of Mice and Minutemen

Other interesting items
A flag for Cubazuela
El cóndor pasa.

Flying blind
I had just read this post from Philomathean, MSM Blows the Cover on Terrorist Nuke Monitoring Program

Recent revelations by The New York Times and other members of the press regarding the CIA's secret prison system and the NSA's efforts to monitor terrorist communications have severely harmed national security. The mainstream media do not appear to care, as long as their stories hurt President Bush. Meanwhile, every "scoop" about the government's efforts to prevent a terrorist disaster make such a disaster more likely.

The press has always had broad discretion in what gets reported. But now they've gone too far. David Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report has just blown the cover on "a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities."

This is yet another instance where the press behaves as if we were not at war, while endangering all of us.

Philomathean’s post reminded me of a sermon I heard on September 11. On September 11 this year I listened to a church sermon where the person giving the sermon said that on 9/11/2001 the USA had “sand thrown in its eyes”.

Some sand. Six hundred and sixty-two people from NJ died at the WTC alone, out of a total 2,996 killed or missing on just one morning. That is not what I would call “sand in the eyes”, but the sermon giver’s outrage was placed elsewhere. His outrage was saved for the 2,000 soldiers who died in Iraq, because they were sent there by Bush. Buried under all the verbiage, the message was that the USA has no enemies, that there is not much in the way of danger, and that we’d all live in peace if only we’d turn our swords into plowshares. I kid you not. I fully expected him to introduce Peter, Paul and Mary, and break into chords of Kumbayah while we all held hands.

But the fact is, we are at war. Thousands of people around the world have died over several decades at the hands of Islamist fascists who want to impose their vision of a caliphate on everybody.

This is not a new war.

Yesterday I read in the Sunday NYT Magazine that Uli Derickson died this year. I had the privilege of briefly meeting Ms Derickson in the late 1980s, a few years after her ordeal. Ms Derickson was a woman of luminous beauty and tremendous courage. She saved the lives of the people of flight 847, which was kidnapped by Lebanese Shiite Muslims in 1985. The NYT obitiuary calls her, The Peacemaker of Flight 847, and justly so. Back then the terrorist kidnappers [*] were able to listen to her.

Four years ago the story changed; the last four American planes that were hijacked couldn’t be saved by the courage of a great woman. There was no more listening. The focus had changed from making hostage deals to simply killing.

The war that went unnoticed for so many years is now very much in front of our eyes, if we have our eyes open.

The press chooses to close their eyes, and, as Philomathean said, cash in on any "scoop" about the government's efforts to prevent a terrorist disaster, which makes such a disaster more likely – as long as it hurts Bush. Like the guy that gave the sermon, they’re flying blind.

[*] Update As a coda to this post, I attach a correction the NYT posted on its website (emphasis mine),

A Lives They Lived essay on Page 59 of The Times Magazine today about Uli Derickson, a flight attendant who negotiated with hijackers during a T.W.A. flight in 1985, includes an outdated reference to one of them. Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was captured two years later and imprisoned in Germany, was released last week.

he flew home to Lebanon last Thursday, four days before a German hostage, Susanne Osthoff, was released from unnamed kidnappers in Iraq.

Other blogs and articles on leakers
Enlighten NJ What Are The Motives Of The Leakers and Their Media Enablers?
Ankle Biting Pundits states,

. If you can't see the difference between detecting drugs and detecting nuclear bombs then there's really no hope for you, as you are stuck in the September 10th world of fighting terrorism by using law enforcement techniques. And we all know how that worked.

The Volokh Conspiracy has a series of posts on the subject from the legal point of view.
The New York Times' Christmas Gift
The Paranoid Style In American Liberalism
The NY Times Strikes Again
Cassandra posts on the Fourth Branch of Government.
Update What They Did For "Love"

Welcome, Michelle Malkin readers!

(technorati tags Terrorism)

The history behind Munich, Lost Budgie, and others
The History Behind Munich: Separating truth from fiction in Spielberg's movie at Slate:

Spielberg, in inventing a story about violence begetting violence "inspired by real events" is raising questions worth asking. Even so, Israel's response to Munich was not a simple revenge operation carried out by angst-ridden Israelis. Both the larger context, and the facts on the ground, rarely get in Spielberg's way. A rigorous factual accounting may not be the point of Munich, which Spielberg has characterized as a "prayer for peace." But as result, Munich has less to do with history and the grim aftermath of the Munich Massacre than some might wish.

Kesher Talk has a series of posts examining the Munich Massacre and "Munich" the movie:

Munich remembered: The PLO and the Germans and the French
Munich remembered: The Athletes
Munich remembered: The Olympics
Munich remembered: The Protagonists Speak
Munich remembered: First they came . . .
Munich remembered: the British Arabists
Munich remembered, the movie: "Inspired by Real Events"

That was then. This is now: Lost Budgie posts on Tariq Ramadan:

Killing 8-year-old Jewish children is "contextually explicable" according to Tariq Ramadan, a featured speaker at the "Reviving The Islamic Spirit" convention being held at the National Trade Centre in Toronto Canada from December 23 to 25, 2005.

In the local news,
Princeton Future seeks donations. Well, cry me a river.

Carnival time

The Carnival of the NJ bloggers is hosted by Media in Trouble. Dr. Sanity has the Carnival of the Insanities:

Heard the Word of Blog?

On a lighter vein, Jib-Jab's latest

Merry Christmas
Christmas makes Hitchens tetchier than any other holiday.

This was a useful demonstration of what I have always hated about the month of December: the atmosphere of a one-party state. On all media and in all newspapers, endless invocations of the same repetitive theme. In all public places, from train stations to department stores, an insistent din of identical propaganda and identical music. The collectivization of gaiety and the compulsory infliction of joy. Time wasted on foolishness at one's children's schools. Vapid ecumenical messages from the president, who has more pressing things to do and who is constitutionally required to avoid any religious endorsements.

Melanie Phillips, on the other hand, reminds us

That is why the great social reform movements of the 19th century arose from evangelical Christianity. The monumental campaign against slavery, which in turn gave rise to a host of other progressive movements such as women’s rights, temperance and prison reform, was instituted by Christian activists. It could only have been promoted by people whose religious faith gave rise to outrage at slavery’s wholesale denial of human dignity.

And that is why modern social programmes attempting to deal with problems such as drug abuse or criminality tend to achieve much better results if they have a religious framework.

Some of the most spectacular examples have occurred in America. The InnerChange programme in jails, for example, which immerses prisoner volunteers in an intensive Bible–based programme for 18 months prior to their release, has dramatically slashed recidivism rates. Secular critics throw up their hands in horror at such ‘brainwashing’ but the fact is that it seems to work.

Donald Luskin looks at tax receipts and I believe he's ready to ask Santa for more tax cuts. Kofi and Saddam sing a song at Dr. Sanity.

Pajamas Media's changed into Santa's bathrobe

and the Llamas are in full regalia, along with Roberto's family. Even the Pope's wearing his Santa hat.

Dave Johnston's lapsed into Seinfeld mode, but Sluggo thanks his friends. Click on the Christmas tree above to wish Captain Marlow a Merry Christmas. Lost Budgie welcomes Aiden.

In Miami, Val asks, So, what's your favorite Christmas memory? while Steve helps him get ready for the pig roast. Dave Barry has a Santa Update.

Daniel has a The Christmas post: Santa out, ethnic Jesus in in Venezuela. In London, Scott's off on holiday.

At La Shawn's A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. [Update I just realize I omitted the next sentence when I did the post this morning. My apologies.] Mr. Snitch! and Dan say Merry Christmas to our troops.

Jeanette has a lovely post on Navidades in Puerto Rico that reminded me a lot of how we used to celebrate Christmas at home when I was a kid and my parents still lived in Puerto Rico.

The Achoress writes about Advent and Antiphons through the years…

I cannot help - in these final days of Advent - to think about what God did, in a lonely cave on the outskirts of Bethlehem, when He condescended to enter into the pain and fear, the tumult and whirlwind of the world…when he “set his tent among us,” not merely “dwelling” among us as lofty king, but literally “with” us, with hunger, the capacity for injury and doubt…

From the author of SC&A: My time to keep my part of the bargain has to be one of the best posts of the year, a diamond among the many jewels in SC&A's vault:

Prayer certainly isn't for God. With or without our devotions, His power is constant.

Prayer isn't even necessarily for the object of our prayers, be that ourselves or others. That may sound cruel, but it is true. The universe God created was for all of us, not just one of us. While we are each important in God's eyes, we are part of a community of man, a family. There are times when individual and specific prayers appear to go unanswered, yet in truth, the community is served. The universe is a delicate balance, in which time, events in the present, past and future all factor into that balance.

That's a post to not only read, but to bookmark.

Via The Anchoress, music from The North American Music College Choir

And in that note, I wish you all happy holidays, a happy Christmas and a happy Hannukah.

(technorati tags christmas)

STRIKE OVER -- RETURN TO WORK, says TWU. See today's post updates

Bust Toussaint, part II, and my unpadded walls

(Part I here)
The NY Post shares my sentiment. Pamela disagrees, slightly.

Wolcott sides with the union, and says,

Predictably, rightwing bloggers are bouncing off their padded walls angrily demanding that the union be crushed and its leaders jailed. Some have even begun using Reagan as a verb, as in, "Somebody needs to Reagan the TWU the way he did the air controllers' strike."

I am thrilled to have been linked to by Mr. Wolcott, but hasten to clarify that there's no padding here at F'sB. The walls, like everything else Fausta, are all organic, with no artificial additives.

If Mr. Wolcott would care to read again my post, he'd realize that the first objection I list to the TWU action is

the local union has decided to undermine the international union

and that the only other text (aside from Update times) I emphasized in bold print refers to the deleterious effect the strike has on the union's members. Anyone can verify that with a cache screen shot, if you care to.

In fact, the one way the TWU might survive this ordeal may be that its membership repudiate the strike and follow the TWU International by "going back to work, en masse", as quoted in yesterday's Daily News. Should the remaining workers that haven't returned to work by then be fired? Of course.

Toussaint is the president of the union local, he is not the union. Of course, Mr. Wolcott and any visitor to this blog may interpret "Bust Toussaint" as synonymous with "bust the union", but I suggest that it's not the same.

Jeff Jarvis says Excercise will be good for [Wolcott].

At the NY Sun: Kalikow Warns Talks May Be 'Futile'

The intensification of warring words between Mayor Bloomberg and the president of the transit union, Roger Toussaint, means both sides have dug in for a protracted strike.

The drama comes to a head today when Mr. Toussaint appears in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where Judge Theodore Jones, who levied a $1 million a day fine against the union Tuesday, will decide whether to send the union leader to jail. Judge Jones said yesterday that jail time was a "distinct possibility" for Mr. Toussaint and his top two deputies for violating an injunction barring the union's leaders from inciting or authorizing a strike.

To which I say, make it a certainty, Judge!

At the NYT, Resolution to Transit Strike May Be Imminent

Let's hope the NYT is right.

Via Mara, All Hail The New York Transit Worker
'Twas five days before Christmas and all through the town;
Not a train was up running, they'd all been shut down.

The turnstiles were locked and the stations were cleared,
in hopes that Old Bloomberg would give them their share.
Don't miss the rest.

Meanwhile, "Al Sharpton and other black leaders blasted Bloomberg for calling union leaders "thuggish" on Tuesday. They said the comment was racist because the union is less than 30 percent white". Hey, Al, With Roger, all lose out.

Update: More at A Blog For All, Mister Snitch!, and Jane Galt

Update 2: Strike Blogging: It's Joke Time
This PhD in Chemistry compares salaries in 1980, at the time of the prior transit strike.

12 noon: STRIKE TO END
Transit Union to Vote on Ending Strike Under Framework Set by State Mediators. No Timetable Is Announced on Resumption of Service
Light at end of the tunnel!
Union May Soon Send NYC Transit Workers Back to Work

Transit workers will take steps to restore service to New York's buses and subways while the union and transit authority resume negotiations after a three-day strike, a state mediator announced Thursday morning.

Strike to End, Negotiations Resume

No timetable was announced for the restoration of service.

Transit Workers Agree to End Strike; Talks Continue

At least 12 hours will be needed to get the city's subways and buses back up and running, said New York City Transit spokesman James Anyansi.

You can go to 1010 Wins for live broadcasts.

2PM Enlighten sees a Striking Difference.
The WSJ Subway Strike News Tracker says "service likely wouldn't be restored until Friday morning".

3:23PM: TWU Local 100 website: STRIKE OVER: RETURN TO WORK

When: If your tour has started, report immediately. If not, at your scheduled report time. If you are RDO, on your next scheduled shift.

(also posted at Blogger News Network)

(technorati tags transit strike)

Kofi chides the Times reporter, Power Line talks to the Times, and other news
James Bone of the London Times insisted on an answer over Kojo's Mercedes, and Kofi got indignant: Kofi Annan lashes out at media over Oil-for-Food scandal

The outburst happened at Annan’s year-end press conference, when Bone mentioned a Mercedes-Benz which Kojo Annan imported into Ghana, using his father’s diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes and customs duty. He added that some of the Secretary-General’s version of Oil-for-Food related events "don’t really make sense".

"I think you’re being very cheeky," Annan interrupted.

"Listen James Bone, you’ve been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let’s move on to a serious journalist."

I am shocked, shocked that Mr. Bone made bones over such a trivial matter as a Mercedes Benz, and in the presence of the Excelentísimo Kofi. (/sarcasm)

Update: In 2005 America's economy grew while Kofi Annan shrank

But the worst failing grade for the year goes to the United Nations and Kofi Annan. Paul Volker's report on the Oil for Food scandal concluded that $10 billion worth of Iraqi oil was illegally smuggled to adjacent nations; that Saddam Hussein collected $229 million in bribes from 139 of 248 companies involved in the oil business, and illegal payments from 2,253 out of 3,614 firms providing humanitarian goods to Iraq. So Dennis Kozlowski stole $600 million from Tyco and got eight to 25 years in jail, while Kofi Annan supervised more than $10 billion in Oil for Food theft and will stay in his job since, in his own words, "the business of the United Nations is not reform."

-----------------

John Hinraker's trying to engage the NY Times in a colloquy, and wrote to them:

I don't think you should be quoting anonymous "officials" making incorrect assertions about legal issues, while not pointing out that their assertions are wrong. (I would also note that the NSA intercepts are not "inside the United States.") And I don't think that a partial sentence from one of the controlling decisions, buried at the end of a long article and not repeated in subsequent articles, removes the incorrect impression you convey that the NSA program is, in all likelihood, illegal. Also, with all due respect, I think your treatment of the 2002 FISA case is itself misleading.

He's still waiting for an answer.

Dhimmitude today:Australia - Pastor Under Muslim Death Sentence Sued for Mentioning It

Today's weirdest headline: Big Bird's Caretaker Charged With Murder

'allo, Evo, is that you?
Via Babalu, The telephone conversation was cordial, and in the course of it Rodriguez Zapatero told Morales that the call he received from an impersonator on a show on Spain's COPE radio was an "unacceptable" prank..
You can listen to the prank here, in Spanish, of course.

Maria's articles of the day
Proud to be a conservative

On the subject of the NSA, Not a Suicide Pact and The Left's privacy hypocrites. Also don't miss ACLU Freedom of Information Request Would Gut NSA Program

The requests submitted today seek all records about “the policies, procedures and/or practices of the National Security Agency for gathering information through warrantless electronic surveillance and/or warrantless physical searches in the United States …”…. Information received by the organization will be made public on its Web site.

Or as Jay put it,

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/ or Gribbit at http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already onboard.

Hitchens interview at Newsmax
Via Maria, Christopher Hitchens: Bush Crippled by Agency Fratricide

Partly because of the debilitating inter-agency fratricide between State, Defense and CIA, the administration has never been able to speak with any coherence about such critical matters as WMDs and the connection between Saddamism and Islamism.

The damage done by this failure is now irreparable. Clearly, the Iraqi democracy theme is more appealing, but that case makes itself without any administration "spin." Meanwhile, it is a rare week that does not bring news of some appalling blunder or misjudgment: most recently the planting of "good news" in the Iraqi press and the misuse of the NSA.

Read it all.

Bust Toussaint
Via Mr. Snitch!: Transit Union Split Over Strike: Upper level may seek to takeover and settle labor dispute

The international arm of the Transport Workers Union is stunned and angry that its Local 100, representing New York subway and bus workers, turned down a contract offer from management and ordered its members to walk off their jobs, CBS2 News has learned.

Sources within other large public employee unions tell CBS2 reporter Marcia Kramer that the TWU's international leadership is considering taking over the local and seeking a settlement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Those sources say the upper level of the TWU thinks the MTA's latest offer is fair and worthy of further consideration and negotiation. They stand against a militant faction within Local 100 that pressed hard for a strike.

It's ridiculous enough that the local union has decided to undermine the international union. We're having record-cold weather. It's the height of the Christmas shopping season, and of the holiday travel and tourist season. Everybody in the city is affected by this. Additionally, this is an illegal strike. The amount of animosity and anger among the seven million people affected by this is tremendous. The N Y Sun (via Maria) explained yesterday,

The New York transit strike begun today is a blatantly illegal act of economic sabotage by a union so selfish that it is willing to destroy one of the most important business weeks in the city in a last-ditch attempt to preserve privileges that most private sector employees can only dream of — like the ability to retire at age 55 with a full pension, or the ability to not contribute at all to health insurance costs.

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend who spent one hour walking to work and one hour walking home in this cold weather. She's willing to spend three hours a day, in addition to her regular work schedule, driving a NYC bus (yes, she knows how) if it means bringing the city back to normal.

Half Sigma proposes how to break the strike. At Atlas Shrugs, NY Transit STEEEEEEERIKE! Yer OUT!. Mr. Snitch! says

It may be the worst miscalculation from a labor leader since the baseball umpires' strike of 1999.

The Anchoress asks WWRD. Insignificant Thoughts Blog says

Merry Christmas, TWU. You’ll understand if Roger Toussaint standing on a podium spouting off about how deplorable your working conditions are while he makes $110k a year with an SUV on the ready fails to strike a chord in the depths of my heart.

The N Y Sun, today

Early in the morning the president of the Transport Workers Union International, Michael O'Brien, a political adversary of Mr. Toussaint, urged the union not to strike, a stance that suggested an internal rift between the international and the local union.

Later in court, a lawyer for the international union, David Rosen, said the parent union would not provide any financial assistance to its local, whose assets are said to be $3.6 million plus the value of their seven-story union headquarters on the West Side of Manhattan.

"The union is engaged in an unauthorized strike," Mr. Rosen said.

As a result, Judge Jones withdrew the orders of contempt against the international union.

News Copy asks,

The question now is why [TWU local president] Roger Toussaint is not in jail for contempt of court

Enough is enough. Throw Toussaint in jail, fire the striking workers, and get the transport running again.

Update A mug for mayor Mike Bloomberg

And, by the way, Bloomberg LP, the company that mayor Bloomberg started, didn't offer pension plans (it offered a 401K, not a vested pension plan), automatic pay raises, or non-contributory health benefits to its employees even in the days when Mike ran it.

Update, 1:44PM Transit officials said about 1,000 transit workers crossed pickets Tuesday and were put to work cleaning and doing paperwork. Put them behind the wheel, Mike!

Update, 2:21PM Throw Roger from the train! (emphasis mine)

The most furious of all should be the 33,700 workers who are on the street without paychecks and facing huge penalties for violating the Taylor Law.

They are about to lose thousands of dollars each - and their union will be financially broken by $1 million-a-day fines - unless they pressure Toussaint to return them to service, having gained all they are ever going to gain through his extortion. Remarkably, the president of the TWU International is urging the transit workers to go back to work on their own, en masse. And well they should, because the makings of a good deal await them.

3PM: Mayor Bloomberg: Get the Buses Running. (my friend will agree with this)

New York has plenty of licensed school bus drivers, tour-bus drivers, regional commuter-bus drivers, and more. Might not some or most of them want a few hundred dollars in extra pay during the week before Christmas for working some city shifts?

Update, December 22 Welcome, James Wolcott readers! Please do read my follow-up post.

(technorati tags transit strike)

Creationism, philosophy and science
Dennis Byrne writes,

Vast areas of knowledge are open to those who realize that just as a branch of physics examines the "first principle of everything," so does metaphysics. Or that cosmology and theology are on the same coin, just on different sides.

We should approach the Big Question with awe and humility, not ridicule and self-certainty. With excitement and optimism, instead of division and the kind of cynicism that rejects the possibility of parallel or complementary explanations.

To leave students without a perspective of how philosophy and theology and religion help bring us to an understanding of "all things," is as wrong as denying students the understanding that science brings. Philosophers and theologians may--must, actually--rigorously examine the scientific theory that random chance explains everything. A denial of that right and responsibility rises from the same spirit of arrogant certitude that haunted Galileo.

I repeat, my position on creationism/intelligent design and science is that, while I oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design in science classes, I also support a scientific analysis of the theory of evolution that would include whatever findings support or contradict said theory. To me, rigorous scientific study can be introduced at a very early age in schools. Embracing either Intelligent Design or the theory of evolution unquestioningly is wrong. Science, by definition, evolves based on the impartial analysis of facts that can be quantified and reproduced. Maintaining science in the science classroom is a top priority in any society. Prohibiting intelligent and civil conversation about religion in the public sphere impoverishes us.

Prior posts: Creation and intelligent design, examined by a scientist and by a humanist, and here.

(technorati tags intelligent design)

Merry Christmas
Dr. Sowell looks at Merry You-Know-What

Those who banish the symbols of a civilization often undermine that civilization in other ways as well. People who warn us against being "Eurocentric" are often totally Eurocentric when it comes to condemning the sins of the human race as if they were peculiarities of "our society."

These are not just isolated foibles that we can laugh at. No society can survive in the long run without the allegiance of its people. Undermining a sense of the worthiness of a society undermines that allegiance -- and, without allegiance, there is no defense.

In the international jungle, made more dangerous by terrorist networks that circle the globe, anything that it is not defended is in jeopardy -- which means we are all in jeopardy, and so are our children and our children's children.

Those who wage war against the symbols of American society and Western civilization may do so for no wider purpose than moral exhibitionism or just a desire to be in step with fashionable trends. But silliness can be a prelude to tragedy.

Read it all.

Update, December 21


(technorati tags christmas, intelligent design, Philosophy)

Human rights watch
Lost Budgie posts on runaway maids in Saudi Arabia, something Daniel Pipes had brought to the public's attention in the past.

Democracy is spreading
according to a Freedom House report

Reports of increased freedom emerged from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian territories, and observers attributed the results to the Bush administration's support of fledgling democracies worldwide.

The findings were released yesterday as part of Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2006 report, a global survey of political rights and civil liberties published annually by the organization since 1972.

NSA and the law: what the Times didn't print is the title of Michelle Malkin's round-up, where she comments (emphasis mine),

Now, go back and look carefully through the Times article. The reporters who have been so assiduously working on the story for at least a year couldn't find a single, non-anonymous expert in national security and the law to come up with the kind of informed analysis that took legal and counterterrorism bloggers three days to research and post.

How pathetic is that?

Coping with the transit strike
will be difficult and expensive for all seven million people affected. For comic relief, you might want to read how ‘Life Reeked with Joy’ a thousand years or so ago.

South America: Bolivian elections; Venezuela
Bolivia: Communist coca grower Evo Morales won, which didn't surprise me. Publius Pundit posts

There was nothing fraudulent about it, and voter turnout was an amazing 80%. Bolivians who are celebrating this are happy because Morales is the first-ever indigenous Aymara president the nation has ever had. For people who have been shut out from the existing system, for whatever reason, it’s a great step forward to see one of their own in the highest office in the land.

But there is no question that this is not necessarily good news for the U.S.

In his victory speech, Morales has vowed to challenge the U.S., saying ‘long live coca, no to the yanquis.’ As recently as two days ago, Morales vowed to be “the United States’ worst nightmare.” He also vowed to ‘defeat the U.S. economic blockade’ which must be a line from Fidel Castro, as there is no U.S. economic blockade against Bolivia, other than the one Morales himself will create with his rejection of the free trade of the Americas agreement - something unlikely to make a difference in the U.S. Bloomberg reports that he has targetted Exxon and British Gas as his enemies two days ago. Morales also took this opportunity to denounce the ill-defined concept known as ‘neo-liberalism,’ which probably means IMF aid, but is also a code word for the U.S., which runs the IMF. Disliking neo-liberalism is one of those things that, if carefully defined, I usually hate, too. But this should not be confused with capital-L liberalism which is a different animal altogether and requires no IMF.

Jubilant Morales vows to be another thorn in the side of US but The Grauniad says he vows to help poorest of South America's poor. At Babalu, castro's new Bolivian mini-me has a photo of the ¡Three Amigos!,

By pledging to be a thorn in the side of the US, Evo has insured himself endless praise as a-charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions for many years to come.

Pajamas Media has a round-up of bloggers' coverage.

Venezuela: Daniel Duquenal has chronological report of what happened electorally in Venezuela since September.

Writing on the subject of elections, Fistful of Euros looks at the demographics of both countries.

Update The Miami Herald says Despite the strong showing, Morales may encounter difficulty implementing his policies because his Movement Toward Socialism party failed to win control over the Congress.
Bolivia in for bumpy ride

Update, Tuesday, December 20
Wretchard proposes a truly revolutionary concept (emphasis mine),

Politics in the Third World has long been principally a synonym for plunder. The sole variation from this boring theme lay in finding new and innovative alibis under which to commit the intended looting. Throughout the 1990s traditional elites operated under the banner of the free trade, economic liberalization and privatization -- while doing nothing like that. Each time, the local elites were at pains to emphasize their theft was at the behest; indeed the compulsion of international lending institutions. Though economics in the Third World very often consisted of banditry planned locally; it was always attributed internationally, preferably to Washington; and for decades no one was overly concerned at this sickening charade because these dens of corruption were distant from the centers of world power. Until September 11.

While radical Islam is the best known form of chaos from the Third World it was merely the worst -- but not the only -- form of dysfunction. There were many other countries where things simply didn't work, and where their overlords made a career of covering their crimes by claiming subservience to an 'international' program, as simple misdirection. The post-colonial world fell to pieces in a million ways; united only in a single, agreed-upon scapegoat: the USA. Chavez can be depended on to destroy his own country; as did Castro and as probably, will Evo Morales. Yet in the end, they too, will attribute their failings to America. What's needed is some way to make each nation consciously responsible for its own destiny. Whether in Iraq or elsewhere, that's the only way to go.

(technorati tags Bolivia, Venezuela)

Africa and foreign aid
Too bad the silly editors of People Time Magazine took the entertainment route for their persons of the year. Time says,

For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are TIME's Persons of the Year.

Paul Theroux writes,

It seems to have been Africa's fate to become a theater of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all the news that has been reported recently from that unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more appalled by most of the proposed solutions.
I am not speaking of humanitarian aid, disaster relief, AIDS education or affordable drugs. Nor am I speaking of small-scale, closely watched efforts like the Malawi Children's Village. I am speaking of the "more money" platform: the notion that what Africa needs is more prestige projects, volunteer labor and debt relief. We should know better by now. I would not send private money to a charity, or foreign aid to a government, unless every dollar was accounted for - and this never happens. Dumping more money in the same old way is not only wasteful, but stupid and harmful; it is also ignoring some obvious points.
If Malawi is worse educated, more plagued by illness and bad services, poorer than it was when I lived and worked there in the early 60's, it is not for lack of outside help or donor money. Malawi has been the beneficiary of many thousands of foreign teachers, doctors and nurses, and large amounts of financial aid, and yet it has declined from a country with promise to a failed state.
. . .
Africa has no real shortage of capable people - or even of money. The patronizing attention of donors has done violence to Africa's belief in itself, but even in the absence of responsible leadership, Africans themselves have proven how resilient they can be - something they never get credit for. Again, Ireland may be the model for an answer. After centuries of wishing themselves onto other countries, the Irish found that education, rational government, people staying put, and simple diligence could turn Ireland from an economic basket case into a prosperous nation. In a word - are you listening, Mr. Hewson? - the Irish have proved that there is something to be said for staying home.

I made my own views very clear last July at this blog, and at other blogs, for which I was told to go grow balls. I said then and continue to repeat, that good governance, true democracy, the rule of law, property rights, free trade, and educational choices are what will lead Africa out of its misery. Or, to use Chrenkoff's words paraphrasing Adam Smith, "It is not from the benevolence of the aging rock legend, or the upcoming pop star, that Africans can expect dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

No amount of celebrity worship from Time Magazine will change that.

Michelle Malkin's persons of the year include the brave peoples of Iraq, Lebanon, and the Ukraine.

John Stephenson posts on Persons of the Year, ACLU style.

Update: Trivia rules everywhere. In a year of momentous changes in many parts of the world, Time magazine has picked Bono, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates for the cover. Excuse me?

(technorati tag Time Magazine)

Best posts of 2005, today's articles from Maria, and more
Mr. Snitch! is looking for the best posts of 2005. I am honored to participate, and will be showing this graphic in the sidebar for the rest of the year:


Today's articles
Mark Steyn looks at The Defeaticrats
Voting in Iraq

Jeanette remembers her Navidades in Puerto Rico

Today's articles from Maria
Lancing the Boil

Rush Limbaugh takes on the NYT on spying accusations

Is McCain aiding the enemy with his stance on terror? Who defines family values?

Rich Lowry find the Democrats Dazed and Confused on Iraq

Mark M. Alexander’s article, The name "American", explores George Washington’s words,

"The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."

Mona Charen looks at Jewish useful idiots and the call for divestment in companies that support Israel.

Finally — finally — someone is hearing the good news from Iraq -- It’s the Iraqis themselves.

In a lighter vein, Stowaway cat arrives home from France, flying business class, no less.

Sidebar repaired
Finally I repaired the blogroll. I'll be adding a few more blogs this week. My apologies for the delay, and thank you for your patience.

In a Christmas spirit, I'm listing a few CDs of Medieval Christmas music, for those of you tired of the eleventy-hundred rendition of Jingle Bells. I find Medieval music very relaxing, and own two of the listed CDs -- maybe Santa will send me another one!

The senatorial Patriot Act debate
The headlines read Senate blocks Patriot Act vote: Concerns over civil liberties cited; filibuster could let laws expire Dec. 31.

Most of the debate on the PATRIOT Act is based on the premise, as the above link states, "that the government went too far in empowering law enforcement after the Sept. 11, 2001, domestic terror attacks". PATRIOT is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001'. I will refer to it as the Patriot Act. You can read the original text of the act at PATRIOT Act

Last February I attended a lecture by Prof Viet Dinh of the Georgetown University Law Center, one of the people who actually put together the Patriot Act, titled USA Patriot Act and Civil Liberties Since 9/11. As Prof. Dihn emphasized, the purpose of the Patriot act was to treat terrorism as a crime. The Patriot Act uses a deliberate strategy in terrorism investigation: to interdict and prosecute early, based on the premise that no one has a constitutional right to violate the laws of this country.

Nearly all the legal tools on the Patriot Act had been used in crime investigations in the country well before 9/11 but had not been applied in terrorism-related investigations. A legal wall prevented law enforcement agencies from sharing information with the intelligence community.

In Prof. Dinh's own words, "As a counterterrorism strategy, the Justice Department saw their task as one of domestic law enforcement with probable cause, and the avenue would be to develop a strategy to discover information on terrorist plans, while making sure there's proper judicial supervision". The means for this would be

• to exact the same level of judicial supervision and probable cause,
• de-anonimize internet and virtual communications,
• and the use of multi-jurisdictional efforts for search warrants.

The questions he asked during the writing of the act were

• Is it operationally necessary
• Is it wholy consistent with the Constitution
• What unintended consequences can be mitigated

As Prof. Dihn well knows, a lot of the brouhaha over the Patriot act has come about because it has made people realize how much power the government has. Central to that issue is the fact that we are at war.

In today's NY Times, Rudolph Giuliani explains,

The central provisions of the Patriot Act allow law enforcement and the intelligence community to share information. This might seem elementary, but for years law enforcement had been stymied by a legal wall that prevented agencies from sharing information. For four years now, inter-agency collaboration, made possible by the Patriot Act, has played an important role in preventing another day like Sept. 11. The act's provisions helped make possible the investigations in Lackawanna, N.Y., and Portland, Ore., in which 12 people were ultimately convicted for attempts to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Giuliani continues,

It is simply false to claim, as some of its critics do, that this bill does not respond to concerns about civil liberties. The four-year extension of the Patriot Act, as passed by the House, would not only reauthorize the expiring provisions - allowing our Joint Terrorism Task Force, National Counterterrorism Center and Terrorist Screening Center to continue their work uninterrupted - it would also make a number of common-sense clarifications and add dozens of additional civil liberties safeguards.

Concerns have been raised about the so-called library records provision; the bill adds safeguards. The same is true for roving wiretaps, "sneak and peek" searches and access to counsel and courts, as well as many others concerns raised by groups like the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.

And then there's one question: The legal wall that existed between law enforcement and intelligence agencies cost thousands of lives. Do we want to regress to that?

While listening to all the overpoliticized debate on the Patriot Act, bear those facts in mind.

(technorati tags patriot act)

A few items on the Iraqi elections
Roger L. Simon:

BIG LOSERS of the day so far: Howard Dean, Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the reactionary, fuddy-duddy leadership of the Democratic Party. (To call them "liberals" is absurd because they have no ideology whatsoever.) How will they spin this? Of course the second big loser is the Mainstream Media - again without ideology, really.

The Economist (emphasis mine):

The best news, emphasised in Mr Bush’s speech, is the participation of the Sunni Arabs in the poll. Predominantly Sunni cities like Ramadi, which saw a paltry few thousand turn out when most Sunnis boycotted the January election, were completely different on Thursday. January's boycott was costly. With almost no Sunni deputies in parliament, the constitution was written largely over their heads of a group that is some 20% of Iraq’s population—though Sunni representatives were later invited into the process by the majority Shia Arabs (around 60% of the population) and the Kurds (some 20%). As a result, the Sunnis are none too keen on the document, which creates a highly federal Iraq that they fear could break apart. In the referendum on the constitution, held in October, Sunnis turned out in large numbers to vote against it. Though they nearly managed to defeat it, their participation was seen as an encouraging sign. That they have put their efforts into winning seats in this week’s election further suggests Sunni leaders have come to accept that the way forward is through the ballot box, not bombs.

Just two months ago my husband was saying we were succeeding in Iraq because

• Sunni Iraqis say we are succeeding
• Almost all Sunni political leaders are urging their followers to participate in the elections and vote against the draft constitution
• If they thought the insurgency was winning, they’d consider the election irrelevant
• Given the strong tendency to think one’s side is winning, the fact that the Sunnis are being urged to vote against the constitution is very significant

The election proved him right.

Lawrence Kaplan is optimistic:

In its essentials, the logic of the former was straightforward: Induce the Sunnis to surrender violence in favor of political participation and create a broad-based, cross-sectarian coalition that can govern Iraq effectively. Although yesterday's elections hardly guarantee that outcome, they do amount to its necessary precondition. Whether the aim can actually be achieved is up to the Iraqis.

In this regard, yesterday offered reason to hope. Having now moved beyond the mechanics of democracy--that is, the process of choosing leaders--Iraqis may also begin to move beyond a zero-sum brand of politics and toward the sort of compromises essential to a broader conception of democracy. The election offered this glimmer for a simple reason: Sunnis actually participated in it. Unlike January's election for a transitional assembly, which they boycotted, and June's referendum on the constitution, in which few Sunnis participated and then only to vote against it, millions of Sunnis turned out yesterday to vote for legislators who will serve a four-year term and approve a prime minister and president. That fact itself suggests an acknowledgment among Sunnis that either they join the political process or get left behind. Hence, the bitter and recalcitrant Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars encouraged its constituents to vote. Hence, too, Sunni insurgent groups like the Baathist Army of Iraq broke from past practice and declared they wouldn't target polling stations. With Sunnis voting by district and electing their own representatives, Sunni leaders will necessarily emerge within the political arena. This, in turn, should weaken the political appeal of the insurgency, or at the very least create cleavages between the community's politicians and its bombers.

No, The Husband and Lawrence didn't get together for lunch to discuss this, but read the rest of Kaplan's article.

(technorati tags Iraq)

Turkish author's insult trial halted. The insult was mentioning the Armenian genocide
Turk writer's insult trial halted

The trial of acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk on charges of insulting his nation, has been suspended minutes after his first court appearance.

An Istanbul judge said the prosecution could not proceed until it had been approved by the ministry of justice.

Mr Pamuk is accused over remarks about the alleged mass killing of Kurds and Ottoman Armenians - deaths Turkey insists cannot be classed as genocide.
. . .
The charges relate to a magazine interview earlier this year in which Orhan Pamuk said: "One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it."

Turkey maintains the deaths of Armenians in conflicts accompanying the collapse of the Ottoman empire in the early 20th century were not part of a genocidal campaign, arguing that many ethnic Turks were also killed in that period.

Turkey also denies its efforts to contain a separatist uprising in its Kurdish community in the 1980s and 1990s can be classed as genocide.

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred sent this article, Turkish author on trial, Europe looks on anxiously

Pamuk, Turkey's best known novelist and author of "My Name is Red" and "Snow", is charged under Article 301 of the revised Turkish penal code, which has been widely criticised abroad.

He angered many Turks in February when he said a million Armenians were killed in massacres 90 years ago and 30,000 Kurds in recent decades -- issues which he said were taboo in Turkey.

The case has stirred strong passions among both critics and supporters of Pamuk, touted as a future possible winner of the Nobel Prize. After fierce media criticism of his comments, an official in central Turkey ordered the destruction of his books.

With characteristic force, the EU comes to the fore:

The EU has warned the trial raises doubts over free speech in Turkey.

And if the trial doesn't go away, the EU will taunt them a second time, maybe?

Or maybe the Turks should just endow a chair at a major university, again.

Lost Budgie looks at Apple, and today's article from Maria
Apple Computer Hands Out Password to Kevin Costner's Stolen Laptop. Lost Budgie asks, NOW THE MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION: How did Apple know Costner's Password? Make sure to read Lost Budgie's answer.

While at Lost Budgie, don't miss his post on the Shanwei massacre

From Maria
Jane Fonda: U.S. Troops Are 'Killing Machines'; as Maria says, What would this country do without skunks like her? Neo-Neocon has more to say on the subject.

A few notes on the Armenian Holocaust, and some endowed chairs
This morning I was reading Sigmund Carl and Alfred's post on Mythology 101, part one, which starts with

The Iranian president has referred to the Holocaust as 'western mythology',

and I remembered Hitler's words on the Armenian genocide:

Eight days before he invaded Poland in 1939, Hitler exhorted his high command to "send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women and children" who stood in the way of German Lebensraum. This directive was given with impunity and had a historical precedent: "Who today," Hitler said, "remembers the extermination of the Armenians?"

The Armenian genocide has gone ignored by most. Here is a brief summary from the Armeniapedia

Summary of Events Leading up to the Genocide
Somewhat surprisingly to many, Armenians and Turks lived in relative harmony in the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Armenians were known as the "loyal millet". During these times, although Armenians were not equal and had to put up with certain special hardships, taxes and second class citizenship, they were pretty well accepted and there was relatively little violent conflict. Things began to change for a number of reasons. Nationalism, a new force in the world, reared its head and made ethnic groupings self-conscious, and the Ottoman Empire began to crumble. It became known as "the sick man of Europe" and the only thing holding it together was the European powers' lack of agreement on how to split it up.

As other Christian minorities gained their independence one by one, the Armenians became more isolated as the only major Christian minority. Armenians and Turks began to have conflicting dreams of the future. Some Armenians began to call for independence like the Greeks and others had already received, while some Turks began to envision a new Pan-Turkic empire spreading all the way to Turkic speaking parts of Central Asia. Armenians were the only ethnic group in between these two major pockets of Turkish speakers and the nationalist Turks wanted to get rid of them altogether.

As European powers began to ask for assurances that Armenians receive better treatment, the government began to treat the Armenians worse and worse. In the 1890's hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in pogroms ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

A coup by 'progressive' Young Turks in 1908 replacing the Sultans government was supported by Armenians. Unfortunately, promised reforms never came, and in fact a triumvirate of extreme Turkish nationalists took complete dictatorial control, Enver, Jemal and Talat. It was they who masterminded the plan to completely eradicate the Armenian race in a step towards fulfilling their pan-Turkic dreams.

The Genocide

World War One gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse to carry out their plan. The plan was simple and its goal was clear. On April 24th 1915, commemorated worldwide by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul after being summoned and gathered. The now leaderless Armenian people were to follow. Across the Ottoman Empire (with the exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign presence), the same events transpired from village to village, from province to province.

My friend Alice Tashjian's mother was an Armenian survivor, and, like Peter Balakian's family, the only way Alice's mother could live after such horrible experiences was to put it all behind, in silence. As Elie Wiesel said, "The events defy language, defy everything we know because the enemy succeeded in pushing beyond the limit of language".

To this day the Turkish government continues to deny that the Armenian genocide took place. This December 10 article from TurkishPress.com says it all in a few words (emphasis mine)

A recent report by Yasemin Congar in Milliyet about a lawsuit filed over the so-called Armenian genocide shows a possible way to end our headaches. Obviously, the policy of categorically denying the Armenian claims has brought no benefit to Ankara.

Note how the rest of the article says that it's OK to deny the genocide on grounds of academic freedom of expression.

The Turksih government knows how to use academic freedom of expression.

In the 1993 the Republic of Turkey endowed by $1.5 million the Ataturk Chair of Turkish Studies at Princeton University, still held by Heath W. Lowry,

formerly executive director of the Institute of Turkish Studies, Inc., in Washington, DC, has been exposed as working closely with the Turkish government to discredit scholarship which mentions the Armenian Genocide.
Documentation of his collaboration with the Turkish government, including drafting of letters for the Ambassador's signature in an effort to further Turkey's Denial, is provided in the Spring 1995 issue of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Yesterday's New York Sun (via Betsy) looked at Jihad on campus after news that Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal is funding at Harvard University the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life. Harvard and Georgetown University each will be receiving $10 million.

Mayor Rudoplh Guiliani turned a $10 million gift from the same Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal after September 11

because the gift came with a statement saying that America should tilt its foreign policy more in favor of the Palestinian Arabs.

As the article says

While Prince Alwaleed hasn't made it clear openly where he stands on the matter of the war,

or on the history of the Holocaust, or the history of Israel, for that matter, I am not optimistic on this news, and expect a situation analogous to that of the Ataturk Chair of Turkish Studies.

As Betsy said, "I know it's a faulty vision, but I sure would like to see [Harvard President] Larry Summers get asked as many questions about this story as he got for his musings about why there weren't as many women in the hard sciences."

If only.

(technorati tags Armenia, Israel, Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown University)

Election day in Iraq
Omar of Iraq The Model is also posting at Pajamas Media

Stop the ACLU, Michelle Malkin, and Instapundit have links.


Lost Budgie has the best picture.

Update Don't miss Love America First

Iran and Venezuela item of the day
Venezuela, Iran to explore Orinoco oil reserves

Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) signed a deal on Monday with Iran's state company Petropars to explore the heavy oil deposits in Ayacucho Block 7, a 540 square km block in Venezuela's Orinoco River basin.

The study will form the basis of a future joint venture to extract crude.

As far as I can see, I'm the only[*] blogger pointing at the ever-closer relationship between Hugo and the mullahs, which includes

• memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on expansion of mutual cooperation in gas, petrochemical, and aluminum fields, construction of a brick factory and of a second cement factory in Venezuela by Iranian contractors, tractor manufacturing, establishment of bank branches in both countries, construction of a flour factory, dairies, cooling industries, plastic auto parts, irrigation systems, detergents, ceramics, food packaging, and bread baking.
• Iran is constructing 10,000 residential units in Venezuela, a project to be completed in four phases within a four-year period.
• Venezuela and Iran have agreed to explore setting up a joint shipbuilding operation .. .
  The preliminary agreement signed Monday envisions jointly building oil tankers, liquid natural gas tankers and other vessels, and training Venezuelans in shipbuilding technology.
• Venezuela cast the only vote in opposition to the UN's IAEA resolution on Iran
• Venezuela's interested in developing a nuclear program with Iran's help

If I were a betting person, I'd wager that this is only the beginning, folks.

[*] Update: I stand corrected. Rosemary's been looking at Iran's Interest in Venezuela , too.

also posted at Love America First

(technorati tags iran, Venezuela)

Museums, and two articles
Melik Kaylan of The Wall Street Journal proposes A Civilized Solution to Looted Art, namely to build "Getty museums abroad in the Guggenheim Bilbao manner to house its antiquities in style and to create a system of permanently shared collections." It's such a smart idea probably nobody will go along with it.

Speaking of museums, since today's the last day of Dr. Fleming's excellent class on Chaucer, I thought this article on The Museum of London Medieval Collections would be in keeping with the ocassion. For extra fun, go and make yourself your own historic tale using figures from the Bayeux tapestry.

This article from Harry,
Ralph Peters looks at JOURNALISM'S MORAL COLLAPSE

After journalists became matinee idols, every bright young reporter had a new career goal. Forget honest, get-at-the-facts reporting. Henceforth the crowning ambition in the field was to bring down a president — especially one who wasn't "our kind." Failing that, turning the tide of a foreign conflict against Washington would do.

"Serious" journalists became scandal-mongers in drag.

The other product of the Woodward-Bernstein cult was the rise of the self-adoring conviction that journalists were above patriotism, the law and common decency. Today's Joe McCarthys aren't on Capitol Hill — they're in the newsroom. In lieu of Edward R. Murrow, we have Hedda Hopper masquerading as Joan of Arc.

Now we learn that Bob Woodward, the muckraker who became a groupie to the great, felt himself entitled to ignore his basic responsibilities as a citizen and journalist in the CIA leak case: He had information and withheld it from investigators.

His counterpart at the New York Times, Judy Miller (the loudest diva since Maria Callas), invoked the journalist's exception to the rule of law in the opposite manner, grandstanding about protecting her source.

And Maria's article of the day
Iraq Pullout Tougher than it Seems: Michael Fumento examines the situation on the ground.

Palestinian Authority wants the Western Wall because that's where Mohammed parked his horse
Via Isaac, La Autoridad Palestina declara que el Muro de los Lamentos es propiedad musulmana The Palestinian Authority declares the Wailing Wall to be Muslim property (my translation):

La Oficina de Asuntos Religiosos de la Autoridad Palestina declara que el Muro Occidental, venerado por los judíos durante generaciones como la última estructura remanente del Segundo Templo Sagrado, es propiedad musulmana.
The Palestinian Authority's Office of Religious Affairs has declared that the Western Wall, worshiped by generations of Jews as the last remaining structure of the Second Holy Temple, is Muslim property.

Full article in English: Palestinian Authority Claims Western Wall is Moslem Property (emphasis mine)

The Palestinian Authority’s official website, echoing the claims of its Religious Affairs office, also attempts to negate Jewish ownership of the Western Wall.

The PA office claims Moslem ownership of the Western Wall by referring to the wall on its website as the Al-Boraq Wall. According to Moselm legend, the wall is the place where Mohammed tied his horse, named Boraq, before ascending to heaven.

Moslem tradition holds that Mohammed rose to heaven from the Temple Mount, though that idea is not mentioned anywhere in the Koran, the central text of the Moslem faith.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, Director of the International Department of the of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, said that the PA’s claims of Moslem ownership of the Western Wall has “far reaching implications” for Israel.

Richman said that the PA’s denial of the Jewish Temple's existence “is part of a campaign to totally eradicate, erase, and destroy all Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and the land of Israel.

Joseph Farah puts this maneuvre in context:

Last weekend, the Palestinian Authority played its bakshish card in its continuing efforts to raise the stakes in demands on Israel for land concessions. The PA's Office for Religious Affairs claimed the Western Wall – revered by Jews since A.D. 70 as the last structural remnant of the Second Temple.

You've seen the pictures of Jews worshipping at the Western Wall, sometimes called the "Wailing Wall." You've seen the TV video streams of Jews sticking prayers scrawled on tiny pieces of paper into the cracks of the wall. For nearly 2,000 years, it has been considered along with the Temple Mount it supports the only truly holy site for Jews all over the world.

Now, the Arabs say it legitimately belongs to Muslims only. Bakshish.

This shouldn't be surprising, given Muslims claim no Jewish temple ever stood upon the Temple Mount, despite overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence to the contrary.

So now the Western Wall, the most Jewish piece of real estate in the world, is on the negotiating table.

Therefore, today's headline reads, Senior PA Chief Says: ‘No Jerusalem, No Peace’.

Meanwhile, psycho President Ahmadinejad of Iran wants Israel moved to Alaska, "so they (the Jews) can create their own state." Jonathan Freedland writes that The Iranian president's support for Holocaust denial is a measure of how far the infection of Jew-hatred has spread.

Arnold Beichman looks at Iran's undeclared war. Pamela asks, How do we reach Iranians?.

Herbert E. Meyer wants to Leave the Nukes, Take Out the Mullahs.

Across the world, Venezuela has signed 50 Memoranda of Understanding on expansion of mutual cooperation with Iran. Bear that in mind in the future.

(technorati tags Israel, Palestinian Authority, Middle East, Iran)