April 1, 2004
Two stories from the London Telegraph show how the war on terror has divided the Muslim community -- and how imams and other leaders of Islam continue to demonstrate their disloyalty to their nation and their insistence that the only law worthy of recognition is Islam. The first article looks at the reaction of the families of the eight Muslims arrested in the UK after months of surveillance, netting a half-ton of explosives and preventing a large-scale terrorist attack: Britain's most prominent Muslim leader last night demanded a crackdown on "rogue" Islamic preachers, blaming them for brainwashing young men with sermons promoting holy war against the West. Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, was backed by the families of some of the eight men arrested in Tuesday's anti-terrorism raids in south-east England. ... People such as Omar Bakri Mohammed, the leader of Al-Muhajiroun, which campaigns for...
The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that despite Iranian claims of full cooperation with IAEA inspectors, Iran has continued to interfere with the inspections and block the investigations into its nuclear program: An internal report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency challenges Iran's contention that it has provided international inspectors with free access to workshops where it has manufactured parts for centrifuges. The document contradicts Iranian assurances this month that it had allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, unrestricted access to the sites during inspections in January. "The agency's visit was 'managed' by the Iranians in the sense that the inspectors were not permitted to take pictures with IAEA cameras or use their own electronic equipment," said the document, which was first reported by Reuters and obtained Wednesday by The Times. The last time that the IAEA or the UN issued a critical report on...
I have another First Mate update, and unfortunately this time the news is not so good. The friend who had generously volunteered to donate a kidney has received notice that her medical tests show she will be unable to do so. Her own kidney function falls below the thresholds needed to qualify as a donor. She had no idea that there was any problem, and it's not a serious issue for her; in fact, she probably won't require any treatment. I didn't realize how much I was counting on this transplant emotionally until I got this call on Tuesday. The First Mate had spent all day Monday at the hospital getting an angiogram done -- which came back okay -- and we knew our friend had been at the transplant center at the same time, working on her own evaluation. Up until that time, whenever my wife had felt poorly...
The Australian newspaper, The Age, features an interview with a scientist formerly in Saddam's employ who insists that Iraq maintained stockpiles of WMDs, at least until he was arrested and almost executed in 1998 (via Drudge): For seven years, before he was tortured and sentenced to death, Rashid (not his real name) worked at the top of Iraq's scientific establishment. He says he regularly met Saddam Hussein and his cousin and strongman deputy prime minister Abdul Tawab Huweish. After the Gulf War he was put in charge of a taskforce code named "Al Babel" to develop stealth technology to make aircraft and missiles undetectable on radar. Rashid, who now lives in Melbourne, also claims to have had access as a trusted insider to secret underground bunkers where chemical weapons were stored. "Saddam gave me access to everything, he was so desperate to perfect the stealth technology," he says. Now Rashid's...
Two stories in today's USA Today demonstrate the strength of the economic expansion. Manufacturing, which the Democrats have used to beat George Bush over the head, turns out to be expanding even faster than the overall economy: The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index registered 62.5 in March compared with 61.4 in February. The new reading beat the expectations of most analysts, who had forecast a figure of 59.5. ... It was the 10th consecutive month of expansion in the sector, which makes up less than a fifth of the U.S. economy. The ISM said its monthly employment index climbed to 57.0 versus February's 56.3. February's reading was its highest level since December 1987 [emph mine]. The ISM measures 20 manufacturing industries and reports expansion in all twenty. That may account for the dropping numbers of jobless claims, which indicate that companies have stopped trimming payrolls in the...
First off, I love running this blog. Although it takes a lot of effort to maintain, Captain's Quarters has allowed me to interact with some terrific people throughout the political spectrum -- and I find that the regular readers of this blog are almost intimidating in their intelligence. Friends and family ask whether I'm preaching to the converts, but I have been challenged many times on my positions, which just makes me better at defending my positions or, as happens on occasions, rethink those positions entirely. Some of you bypass the comments and e-mail me directly, which is fun to read. Lately, I have been receiving suggestions for posts, which is new for me. I do read each of them, even if I don't respond, so feel free to keep sending them to me. If you don't see a post, it's just because I either have decided to focus on...
Today's Boston Globe manages to surpass other American broadsheets in covering John Kerry's association with the Phoenix Project, the assassination plot cooked up by Scott Camil and debated at the November 1971 meeting of the VVAW, where Kerry was present as one of the organization's leaders. However, as reader Pat Curley notes, the Globe tries its best to minimize the seriousness of the plot in order to limit the damage to the home-town candidate: Senator John F. Kerry said through a spokesman this week that he has no recollection of attending a November 1971 meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which some activists discussed a plot to kill some US senators who backed the war. Quite frankly, although Pat feels that the Globe didn't bury the lede, this is one of the weakest lead paragraphs I've read on a major news story (as opposed to human-interest stories, which...
If you weren't listening to the Hugh Hewitt radio show -- or if you're allergic to "Going Up The Country" by Canned Heat -- you missed a terrific hour and a half, where Hugh interviewed Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, James Lileks, and Roger L. Simon, all of which can be found on my blogroll as well. Great discussion and phone calls, and Hugh was kind enough to mention an e-mail I sent in. DC from Brainstorming called in and did a great job. If you missed it, check out the replay at the KRLA website, and find out the top five blogreads of these blogosphere leaders......
April 2, 2004
Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times watches very little television in his role as entertainment critic -- or else he wouldn't have written such a pandering, naive article as today's report on the shocking development that Hollywood has 'suddenly' started injecting partisan politics into its TV shows: Galvanized politically in ways they have not been since the early 1990's, Hollywood's more liberal producers and writers are increasingly expressing their displeasure with President Bush with not only their wallets, but also their scripts. In recent weeks, characters in prime time have progressed beyond the typical Hollywood knocks against Washington politicians to calling out the president directly or questioning his policies, including the decision to go to war in Iraq, the support of the antiterrorism law and the backing of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Translation: Having a Republican in the White House galvanizes Hollywood activists to get partisan...
The Boston Globe informs us this morning of a disturbing phenomenon in Germanny: the balooning of Michael Moore's popularity. In an article today about a visit made by Colin Powell to a group of high-school students, Glenn Kessler provides background on the source of German anti-Americanism: When you want to send a message to a nation that gobbles up the anti-Bush ideas of Michael Moore, whom do you call to deliver it? Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, of course. ... Most were two or three years old when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; their parents had grown up under communism. Many told reporters they detested President Bush, and several said they learned a lot about foreign policy by reading Moore's books. Even those who hadn't said one of the school's music teachers manages to talk at length about Moore's condemnations of the Bush administration while kids are tuning...
As you may have noticed, I played an April Fools joke on you all yesterday ...er, by not playing one. Ha ha! Bet I had you all fooled, right? Okay. However, if I had played one, maybe it would have been like this post at Fraters Libertas. The Elder thought through what a number of bloggers should have done to celebrate yesterday -- and none of us did. Thank goodness for The Elder. But Glenn, if you're reading this ... it's all lies. I swear....
Job growth may finally be catching up to the roaring economy, as 308,000 jobs were added in March: U.S. payrolls grew at the fastest pace in nearly four years in March, the government said Friday, in a report that soared past Wall Street's expectations and could play a pivotal role in Fed policy and the presidential election. ... Payrolls outside the farm sector grew by 308,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported, compared with a revised gain of 46,000 in February. When these numbers were released, stock prices jumped and the bond market dropped, indicating that Wall Street was surprised at the strength of the new job creation. It's hard to understand why. Capital investment jumped upward the past few months, indicating that businesses were gearing up for higher production that would require higher employment. Now that the economic recovery is an undisputable fact and job growth seems to...
Michael Crowley, the assistant editor for the New Republic, writes today in Slate about one of the sacred icons of the 2004 Democratic Party, former Senator Max Cleland. Kerry has used Cleland as an example of how eeeeeeevil Republicans get when they're on the campaign trail, but Crowley questions the basis of the Dems' almost religious belief in Cleland's victimization: Cleland's image as Bush's ultimate victim suits Kerry's campaign all too well. There are no bold new ideas in the Democratic Party today, no coherent policy themes. Even Kerry's supporters are hard-pressed to explain what he stands for. What does define and unify the party is a sense of victimhood—and a lust for revenge. ... Bush and Chambliss hammered at the fact that Cleland was voting with Senate Democrats against Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department because of its infamous provision limiting union rights. The message was that Cleland was kowtowing...
April 3, 2004
The Washington Post profiles Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate-cum-presidential wannabe, who's busy trying to get himself on the ballot around the country. As Brian Faler notes, Nader isn't helping himself with his go-it-alone strategy: Nader's task would be easier if he accepted the presidential nomination of one of the minor parties that already have spaces reserved on some states' ballots. Some members of the Green Party, which has yet to choose its presidential candidate, want to support Nader. The Green Party nomination would give access to ballots in 23 states, thanks to the party's performance in previous elections. The Reform Party, founded by Texas billionaire Ross Perot, has offered Nader its top spot, along with its seven ballot spots. The Natural Law Party is also considering giving him its nomination and 12 ballot lines, according to John Hegelin, the group's former presidential candidate. But Zeese said Nader will not accept...
The London Telegraph profiles a new German book that is flying off the shelves in Berlin and around the country, arguing that Germany may be in a fatal economic decline. The book, Germany: Decline of a Superstar, points out the crippling effect the nanny state has had not only on German productivity but also on its inventiveness and its self-sufficiency: The book argues with a brutal frankness that Germany needs to be completely restructured and that it has been poorly run since 1945. The result, according to Mr Steingart, is a country where industry is on its knees, where the welfare state is deep in debt, whose inventive minds have been forced into exile, and whose citizens largely hate work. ... "It is simply not profitable or viable to have German workers, who cost considerably more than they produce," Mr Steingart says. "Our productive core is melting away and Germany...
Today's New York Times runs a puff piece -- typical weekend fare -- on John Kerry, this time on his supposed skills as a flesh-presser on the campaign trail: Mr. Kerry, the all-but-nominated Democratic presidential candidate, has been criticized throughout his career for an aloof, inaccessible style on the stump, and his stemwinders are a constant worry for supporters of his White House bid. Yet he is proving adept at the more intimate political ritual of the rope line: the inevitable postspeech meet-and-greet over a rope placed as a security measure to keep the crowd from the candidate. It is a daily dance that has become a central, even dominant element of his schedule. In fact, he sometimes spends more time in that kind of chitchat than in delivering substantive speeches. Jodi Wilgoren doesn't mention Kerry's most well-known rope-line moment from this campaign season, however (link to my post here):...
It's Saturday, so it's time for another installment of the Northern Alliance Radio Network. Unfortunately, I won't be there today -- I have a prior commitment at an Irish-language workshop. (I've got to post on that later on ...) The rest of the gang will be there, reviewing the week's news stories, interviewing important guests, and dissecting the local media. Be sure to tune in if you're in the area....
While I initially held off on commenting on the Spanish rail bombs discovered this week, it's becoming more apparent -- at least to the Spanish -- that radical Islamofascists have targeted Spain despite their appeasement: The explosives found on a high-speed rail track on Friday were of the same type and brand used in the Madrid train blasts, Spain has confirmed. But Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said it was still too soon to draw any conclusions about who planted the unexploded device. ... Several newspapers reported on Saturday that the Spanish embassy in Egypt had recently received a letter signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades threatening to attack Spanish embassies and Spanish interests in north Africa and the southern and eastern Mediterranean region. The letter warned that the attacks would go ahead unless Spain withdrew its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan within four weeks, El Mundo reported. ......
In a rebuttal to the adage "sex sells,", the London Telegraph reports on a new study that demonstrates a lower box-office return on films that have explicit sexuality: A new study has found that films containing explicit sex or nudity do much worse at the box office, earning nearly 40 per cent less on average than more wholesome movies. An analysis of 1,120 cinematic releases over the past four years has shown that films without sex scenes, such as Disney's Finding Nemo or Toy Story 2, earned an average of $41.1 million (£22.3 million), while films with sex have grossed 38 per cent less with an average of $16.7 million. In 2003, the final year of the study, the gap was even wider, with films without sex earning more than double those with explicit scenes. Hollywood has long been concerned with a gradual decline in box-office sales, and this may...
The UK Independent reports that a Member of the European Parliament has secretly been tracking the attendance and participation of other MEPs, and has discovered that many of them falsify their records in order to collect the large per-diem fees paid when the EP is in session: A senior member of the European parliament yesterday exposed what he claimed was widespread corruption at the Strasbourg assembly by revealing that nearly 200 of his fellow Euro MPs had faked attendance at parliamentary sessions in order to pick up generous daily allowances. Hans-Peter Martin, an Austrian Social Democrat MEP, said he had seen scores of colleagues signing on for parliamentary sessions which they had missed, to claim a daily attendance allowance of €262 (£175). "I have witnessed almost 200 MEPs hurrying to the central register to sign on for a session and then watched them drive to the nearest airport or station,"...
April 4, 2004
Tomorrow's UK Guardian/Observer reports that George Bush and Tony Blair reached a personal accord nine days after 9/11 to go to war in Iraq, in a story that's bound to have electoral impact on both sides of the Atlantic: According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror's initial goal - dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy. It was clear, Meyer says, 'that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions'. Elsewhere in...
Walter Pincus puts on a ballet of spin in today's Washington Post, as he tries to wrap readers around the inherent contradictions in his analysis that a degraded al-Qaeda, an ineffectual Osama bin Laden, and the replacement of terrorist leadership with less-capable candidates is somehow bad news: The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger to the United States as the al Qaeda network is becoming less able to mount attacks, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and State Department. At the same time, the Sunni Triangle has become a training ground for foreign Islamic jihadists who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam Hussein loyalists to test themselves against U.S. and coalition forces, these officials say. Translation: the attacks on al-Qaeda and their state sponsorship has made them increasingly unable to mount...
April 5, 2004
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who have underachieved for several years and haven't won a playoff game since Orel Hershiser beat the A's in 1988, finally pulled the trigger on a major trade for a big-time hitter ... but somehow this sounds familiar: If all goes well, Milton Bradley will be that long-awaited impact hitter, stirring a dormant Dodger offense to life and displaying his supreme talent for the hometown fans. If not, he'll be the guy who displaced an entire outfield on the eve of the season opener, a volatile personality injected into the clubhouse of a manager whose contract expires at the end of the season. New owner Frank McCourt promised a big bat before the season started, and new General Manager Paul DePodesta delivered with 24 hours to spare, but only after the Cleveland Indians basically fired Bradley for misbehavior. The Dodgers gambled on him Sunday, trading their...
Who wrote these words about education reform? "It bothers me," the reformer wrote, "that some Democrats have resisted the idea of making educational outcomes — the skills and knowledge our kids obtain from the educational system — as important as educational inputs — the adequate funding, the good facilities and the higher teacher pay we all want." The answer? John Kerry, in his campaign book he published just last year. However, Kerry the Candidate has reversed course and now campaigns against No Child Left Behind because of its "punitive" provisions for schools that fail to raise educational outcomes. However, the Los Angeles Times' Ronald Brownstein -- who usually acts as a reliable spin doctor for the Democrats -- unspins Kerry on this issue: After voting for President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, Kerry, during his race to the nomination, joined the mob of Democrats condemning the education...
Normally I don't even bother to read Bob Herbert in the New York Times' op-ed section, as he routinely bases his screeds on half-truths or sometimes flat-out lies, which the NYT rarely if ever corrects. However, this morning I had the misfortune of popping it up accidentally and reminding myself why I avoid him. Today's fractured fairy tale involves the recent gains in productivity and Herbert's assertion that employers are screwing labor in tandem: American workers have been remarkably productive in recent years, but they are getting fewer and fewer of the benefits of this increased productivity. While the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, has been strong for some time now, ordinary workers have gotten little more than the back of the hand from employers who have pocketed an unprecedented share of the cash from this burst of economic growth. ... Andrew Sum, the center's director and...
I mentioned a couple of days ago that I spent Saturday in an Irish-language workshop, and it occurred to me that some of you (okay, all four of you) may be scratching your heads and wondering what the heck I was talking about. I don't believe many people know that Irish Gaelic, known as Gaeilge (GWAYL-gyuh), is in fact a living language spoken fluently by at least 100,000 people in Ireland alone, with a million more who have a lesser command of it. Gaeilge has a rich history, both spoken and literary, stretching far past English; it has existed for at least 2,500 years, and is the oldest surviving language of Western Europe. To give you an example, here's the Nicene Creed in Irish, as printed in a missalette I purchased at the workshop: Creidim in aon Dia amháin, an tAthair uilechumhachtach, a rinne neamh agus talamh agus an uile...
Up to now, I have studiously avoided the Kos controversy for a number of reasons. One, I thought that other bloggers already had a good handle on the situation, and I didn't think that a me-tooism would be much of an addition. For another, I wanted to see how the situation developed before writing about it. Lastly, and most importantly, I have a friend working for a security contractor in Iraq and didn't think I could write dispassionately enough about my reaction to Kos' post. For the three of you in the blogosphere who haven't heard, Markos Zuniga -- the blogger who runs the phenomenally successful left-wing blog, The Daily Kos -- posted his reaction to the horrific deaths and disgusting aftermath of four Blackwater Security contractors in Falluja last week. Scorning the men as mercenaries, Kos said: "Screw them." He figured they got what they deserved. The blogosphere blew...
April 6, 2004
The case against former professor Sami al-Arian turned a bit more strange yesterday when the US government revealed in a court motion that al-Arian had briefly worked as an FBI informant: Federal prosecutors say a former professor accused of financing terrorism was briefly an FBI informant, according to court documents. The disclosure came in the government's response to efforts by lawyers for Sami Al-Arian to obtain the taped conversations the former University of South Florida professor had with congressmen and top aides in the Bush and Clinton administrations. His status as an informant, apparently confirmed by both sides now in these court motions, raises some uncomfortable questions for the FBI and some government officials. First, Congress will want to know why the FBI felt it necessary to tape conversations between their members and al-Arian. Did the FBI suspect one or more of them of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations? Next,...
The Washington Times has unearthed the final national security report from the Clinton administration to Congress, written in December 2000, and has discovered that it never mentions al-Qaeda and only mentions Osama bin Laden four times (via Drudge): The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times. The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an "urgent" threat, while President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, "ignored" it. The Clinton document, titled "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," is dated December 2000 and is the final official assessment of national security policy and strategy by the Clinton team. The document is publicly...
During the day today, I will be reviewing the national-security report that the outgoing Clinton administration submitted to Congress in December 2000, when certain members of his team claim that they handed the incoming Bush administration a comprehensive strategy to deal with terrorism. In fact, their report belies the notion that anyone took al-Qaeda as a specific threat, and it demonstrates that they focused on state-on-state threats much more seriously -- as could reasonably be expected, under the circumstances. For instance, in the first section of the report, under the subheading Responding to Threats and Crises, the report addresses the major themes of international threats against the United States, and its first statement regards unfriendly states: The persistence of major interstate conflict has required us to maintain the means for countering potential regional aggressors. Long-standing tensions and territorial division on the Korean peninsula and territorial ambitions in the Persian Gulf...
Before the 9/11 Commission questioned Richard Clarke, who as the terrorism "czar" of the Clinton administration prepared this national-security report to Congress, opposition to George Bush from both former members of the prior administration and some members of Congress focused on Bush's strategy of pre-emption -- stopping threats militarily before they became "imminent". Vast amount of energy and debate has gone into whether Bush declared Iraq an imminent threat explicitly (he didn't) or implicitly. Based on this, Bush's opponents have declared the military action in Iraq a violation of international law. However, this report to Congress clearly indicated that the previous administration felt differently. For instance, under the subheading Preparing for an Uncertain Future, the administration made the following suggestions: In addition, preventative diplomacy, often undergirded by the deterrence of our full military capabilities, may help contain or resolve problems before they erupt into crises or contingency operations. You can...
Another interesting subsection of Part 2 of the Clinton national-security report is titled Protecting the Homeland. Remember when George Bush was criticized for using the term "homeland" in national security planning? Pundits associated the word with Nazi Germany and claimed that it promoted a "sacred earth" notion that went against everything that American principles represented. Apparently, we know now where that term originated. Under that heading, the report details the strategy for protecting US territory in this order: 1. National Missile Defense 2. Countering Foreign Intelligence Collection 3. Combating Terrorism 4. Domestic Preparedness Against WMDs 5. Critical Infrastructure Protection 6. National Security Emergency Preparedness 7. Fighting Drug Trafficking and Other Int'l Crime Again, national missile defense appears to be the primary concern of the Clinton administration's national-security strategy, while terrorism is addressed third, after NMD and foreign espionage. In fact, it was Bill Clinton who made it our national policy...
Section 3 of the national-security report submitted to Congress in December 2000 deals with regional issues and strategies for confronting them individually as well as integrating approaches across regions. Interestingly, for an administration that Richard Clarke said was focused on al-Qaeda as the greatest threat to American security, the report leaves the two regions most closely associated with Islamofascist terror to last. The structure of Section 3 is shown in the table of contents: Europe and Eurasia East Asia and the Pacific The Western Hemisphere Middle East, North Africa, Southwest and South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa The first topic takes up over a third of Section 3 and covers a number of different state-on-state or ethnic-centered conflicts, mostly in Southeastern Europe, and reviews the Balkans in depth. After talking about the primary goal of the European strategy was to accomplish the complete integration of Europe into a democratic organization of nations,...
Perhaps the most striking feature of the December 2000 national-security report's conclusion is its banality. It starts out by mouthing platitudes about how the world holds the US in high regard, relying on us as a "catalyst of coalitions" -- as if forming coalitions alone have any merit without an indication as to whether they contribute to success, or mire us in paralysis of endless debate and resolution issuance. Nothing specific about terrorism or even missile defence or any other strategic policy discussed in the report makes it into the conclusion. Instead, it closes with a recommendation to remain engaged globally and a warning to avoid our isolationist impulses, for our own good as well as that of the world. It makes an oddly bureaucratic, bland ending to what actually is an interesting and well-written report. The report represents Clinton foreign-policy objectives fairly well -- and that's why this report...
It's that time again, and now we have a song to go along with our weekly Caption Contests: If you're going to I - da - ho, Be sure to show A flower in the snow ... Lame? You bet! That's why I need you to make up a better caption than this one. Put the winning caption to this Flower Power Kerry photo and win the respect and envy of your peers in the blogosphere. The contest will be open until Tuesday at 6 PM CT, when the winning entries will be hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar and placed on Funk & Wagnall's doorstep ... or something like that. Remember, the only losers are the ones that don't get submitted! BUMP 4/3: Hey, it's the Birthday Bump! I'm 41 today. How's that for a nice, round number? ... BUMP 4/4: Today will probably be a light posting day,...
April 7, 2004
Florida Governor Jeb Bush may need new glasses. Apparently, when he read about former California Governor Gray Davis' decision to approve a bill authorizing illegal immigrants to receive state drivers' licenses, Jeb must have thought that made Gray more popular with his constituents: Gov. Jeb Bush endorsed a bill on Monday to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Under the bill, illegal immigrants seeking licenses would be fingerprinted and required to show identification like an employee card, said Senator Rudolfo Garcia Jr., a Hialeah Republican and a sponsor of the bill. The brief article goes on to assure people that illegals would have to also prove they own or lease a car, and get a background check from their consulate proving that they have no criminal record -- even though their status in Florida gives them a de facto criminal status. Anyway, if they could do all that, why...
Thanks to some rather unfortunate circumstances, a New York Times reporter and photographer got an unplanned up-close-and-personal look at Moktada al-Sadr's militia, which has started an insurrection challenging American and Iraqi authority in Kufa. The quality of military discipline left journalist John Burns a bit shy of impressed: If Moktada al-Sadr has chosen a grand mosque in this Euphrates River town for a last stand against American troops, as many of his militiamen have claimed in recent days, he appears to be relying more on the will of God than anything like military discipline to protect him. Many hundreds of militiamen in the black outfits of Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army were visible on Tuesday on roads approaching the golden-domed mosque and inside the sprawling compound leading to the inner sanctuary. But they seemed unmarshaled, at least to the layman's eye — more milling about than militant. Burns and his photographer...
The London Telegraph reports on two teachers who have been given pensions due to abuse they suffered at the hands of their elementary-school students and, in one case, the parents: Jo Redmond, a mother of five children, said she struggled on for as long as she could "as a matter of professional pride" despite being spat on, kicked, punched and cut by a makeshift weapon of glass strapped to two pencils. Mrs Redmond, 51, said she was "devastated" to be forced to give