Barry Farber dreams of a better Mexico

Mexican National Pride Would End the Illegal Immigrant Invasion:
"We come now to the degrading, disgraceful and disgusting spectacle of uncounted Mexicans surging across America's southern border looking for a better life.
"Where is Mexico's pride? If I were president of a country whose underclasses had to leave to find life-sustaining work, I'd be too ashamed to beg a neighboring country's leadership to 'Let My People In.'"

It's an interesting column with some unusual observations on, of all things, World War Two in Scandinavia.

The main point Farber is making, though, is why President Fox doesn't spend as much effort enlisting his countrymen to stay home, work hard, root out corruption and incompetence and inefficiency in their own economy, rather than using moral blackmail to pass the responsibility for Mexico's poor - and, by extension, poverty in Mexico - upon the USA.

Farber is perhaps too polite to note that neither Fox, nor his predecessors, and likely not any proximate successor, would do such a thing because (as the old saying goes) the fish rots from the head.

It shows incredible chutzpa that Fox accuses Americans like me of racism for wishing to control our borders. He is one of a long line of white Mexican presidents. In fact, since the current government was formed by the PRI over seventy years ago, there has been only one non-white president (Cardenas). And, when he speaks of the violation of human rights of Mexicans crossing our southern border into the US, you might politely enquire about the way Central Americans are treated when crossing Mexico's southern border to enter his country.

Live Vote - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

Live Vote - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com:
"Should the United States restrict immigration? * 123723 responses"

As of 4:50 PM EST, the resuls were:
81% Yes - 16% No - 3% I don't know

This is not a scientific survey, of course; but neither is it meaningless. The remarkable thing is that Newsweek worded this about as strongly as you could for a no vote and still got such an overwhelming positive response.

Text, sub-text and the language barrier

cbs2.com - Spanish Media Organized Nationwide Mass Protests:
"(AP) LOS ANGELES The marching orders were clear: Carry American flags and pack the kids, pick up your trash and wear white for peace and for effect.
"Many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest legislation that would make criminals out of illegal immigrants learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media.
"For English-speaking America, the mass protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past few days have been surprising for their size and seeming spontaneity.
"But they were organized, promoted or publicized for weeks by Spanish-language radio hosts and TV anchors as a demonstration of Hispanic pride and power."

TEXT

For the benefit of us second class citizens who do not speak Spanish, the AP has provided a peek at the workings of the world around us. What appear to us mere Anglos* to be spontaneous outpourings of sentiment about pending immigration legislation have in fact been planned and publicly promoted for weeks - but promoted in Spanish.

THE LANGUAGE BARRIER

Now, don't get me wrong, the First Amendment protects speech in Spanish today just as it once protected my maternal ancestors speaking German in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Indiana. My beef is not with the Spanmish-language media per se.

However, this does illustrate how the political movement to promote Spanish to the exclusion of English in the growing Hispanic community serves to divide us further from one another. You can't maintain a public dialog effectively when a substantial minority are carrying on their own conversation among themselves which is not subject to engagement by the larger society.

And there is a decided one-sidedness to this process. For one example, much Enlish-language programming on television offers Spanish SAP, but how much Spanish-language programming comes with English SAP? Or, have you noticed, as I have, how characters speaking Spanish in English language programming say things in that language that would be bleeped out if said in English?

And, as the AP story notes later on, there is a serious lacuna in that the mainstream (English-language) media does not report to the English-only audience what is going on in the Spanish-language media.

SUB-TEXT

Return to the quoted matter above, and notice this part of the second paragraph: "... to protest legislation that would make criminals out of illegal immigrants ..." This is approximately what US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee shich has jurisdiction over immigration legislation, said within the last few days.

News Flash for Sen. Specter and the Associated Press - crossing the border without passing through immigration control is a crime, do it and you are a criminal; overstaying your visa is a crime, do it and you are a criminal; obtaining employment while here on a tourist visa is a crime, do it and you are a criminal. These "undocumented workers" are already criminals - the legislation they and their apologists are protesting is only designed to improve enforcement of existing law.

WP: Police find it hard to fill vacancies - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

WP: Police find it hard to fill vacancies - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com :
"Elsewhere, departments have dropped their zero-tolerance policy on drug use and past gang association, eased restrictions on applicants with bad credit ratings, and tweaked physical requirements to make room for more female candidates or smaller male candidates, police officials said. Departments also offer crash courses in reading and remedial English for the written parts of the entrance exam, and provide strength and agility coaches for the physical part -- all of which have raised concerns about how qualified some of the new personnel will be.
...
"In the past, some recruitment drives have resulted in questionable hiring. In 1989 and 1990, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, seeking to quell a crime wave, mistakenly hired numerous gang members and people with substantial criminal histories and drug and credit problems. Some were later implicated in questionable police shootings."

In an otherwise fairly thorough survey of the problem, this article manages to minimize the point that there is always a great danger of corruption in police forces. We Americans like to think our own police agencies are squeaky clean - and I believe, taken as a whole, they are among the best in the world, there are always some bad apples.

It is curious that when a constable here in Pennsylvania turns out to be a crook, a pervert or otherwise unsuitable, there is always some newspaper editorial saying maybe we ought not to have this class of elected police officers anymore. After all, they are not subjected to the same background checks, competitive interviews, examinations and psychological screening as municipal and state officers.

Yet, when a municipal or state police officer turns out to be a bad egg, it never seems to occur to those editorial writers that all that bureaucratic screening may not be any more effective than asking your neighbors to vote for you.

One of my instructors in one of the numerous training sessions I attended as a constable was a lieutenant in a small city's police force where recruiting was a part of his responsibility. He told me that he had never known the psych eval to be of any use whatsoever - lots of totally unssuitable candidates came through it with flying colors.

Back to the shortage of suitable candidates. Maybe we could get by with fewer officers if we had fewer laws. How's that for a libertarian alternative?

A little ray of sunshine on global warming

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2006�:
"The partisan gap on global warming seems to be shifting, according to the poll. In 1998, 31% of Republicans and Independents alike were sure that global warming was happening; it was not a distant 39% among Democrats. Today, 46% of Democrats and 45% of Independents are certain, and 26% of Republicans feel that way, according to the TIME/ABC News/Stanford University poll."

The bad news, of course, is that the war for the hearts and minds of the people in general is not going well. Nearly forty percent say global warming is already a serious problem, sixty percent say they feel personally threatened to a great degree and almost ninety percent agree global warming threatens future generations.

The little ray of sunshine is that Republicans appear to be getting smarter.

I won't go into any long discourse on global warming at the moment, but ask the doom and gloomers about the following:

1) Temperatures were substantially warmer than today during the so-called Midieval Optimum. At that time the Vikings were growing wheat and raising cattle in Greenland and may have been making wine in Massachussetts. What disasters were associated with this warming period? Since this was centuries before the Industrial Revolution, what human activity could have caused this warming period to occur or was it a natural phenomenon?

2) Temperatures appear to have been warmer still over four millenia ago when the first cities and large scale settled agriculture appeared in the Middle East. What disasters were associated with this warming period? Since this was millenia before the Industrial Revolution, what human activity could have caused this warming period to occur or was it a natural phenomenon?

Another bad idea from the Left, dishonestly promoted

CNN.com - Molly Ivins: How about some democracy in the U.S. of A.? - Mar 21, 2006:
"The Campaign for a National Popular Vote has a dandy new approach. Instead of trying to amend the Constitution through a long, difficult process that can and will be stalled by small sates, the campaign proposes a simpler, elegant solution. According to the Constitution, each state legislature can instruct its own electors to cast their votes however the state decides, usually as winner-take-all for whichever candidate carries the state. But there is no reason a state legislature cannot instruct its electors to vote for whomever wins the popular vote.
"Democracy! What a concept! The states can do this one-by-one, subscribing to an interstate compact that would take effect when enough states join to elect the actual winner -- a majority of the 538 electoral votes."

It appears that the folks pushing this lame idea have read the Constitution to suit themselves. They acknowledge that tossing out the electoral college is unlikely to pass the Congress and the requisite number of states, so they are proposing an end run strategy that conforms to the Constitution - or does it?

First, the Constitution says the state legislatures may determine the manner of selecting electors with a very few restrictions (no members of Congress or other federal employees may be chosen, the date for choosing may be set by Congress, etc.) but it dopes not say that the legislatures may dictate for whom the electors shall vote. That would certainly be contrary to what the founders intended.

Some states have laws requiring electors to vote for the presedential and vice presidential nominees of the same party that nominated them as electors. The enforceability of such statutes is questionable. And, in any event, the eventuality such laws are designed to prevent - the so-called "faithless elector" - has been a fairly rare occurrence. There was one such elector each in 1956, 1960, 1972 and 1976 - none had any effect on the outcome - only four "faithless" electors out of over 3,200 chosen in six elections.

The other problem, on the face of it, with this scheme is the "interstate compact" part. First, because the Constitution requires that such compacts have Congressional authorization; and, second, because they clearly intend to use the compact mechanism as a way to amend the Constitution. The compacts are intended to allow groups of states to address issues which directly relate to themselves and not the US generally - for example, controlling pollution in Chesapeake Bay only needs the exertions of the five states (plus DC) whose waters drain into it.

And, of course, nowhere to does Ivins mention the one great virtue of the electoral college - it limits the usefulness of stealing votes. In a purely popular vote election, there is a great incentive to steal as many votes as possible in every place you can. Under the electoral college system, once you have stolen enough votes in a state to claim a plurality there, you have no reason to keep piling up phony ballots. Thus, the electoral college means theives in New York or Illinois can't wipe out the votes of the folks in Wyoming.

Even in a thoroughly honest election, it is just silly to assume, as Ms. Ivins says, that a direct popular election will make politicking more uniform rather than confined to a few battleground states. The difference will be that the campaigns for president will focus on battleground media markets and those markets where your candidate is most popular. Each party will still shun their opponents' strongholds, but the basis for those decisions will be media markets not states.

SOP: Compel 15-year old girl to strip and probe with flashlights beside the roadway

Girl tells jury of deputies' strip-search:
"The attorney for the sheriff's office and deputies, however, said the daughter offered to be strip-searched, Arnetta McCloud invited deputies to check her sister's home and the family was 'cooperative and pleasant' during the search of the house, just as they were when they gave consent to check the car.
"'It was all by the book,' attorney David Cornell said."

Even assuming that the parents had consented as the lawyer for the cops involved indicates, how can it be "by the book" to strip search a minor female by the roadside? What book is that in?

Score one for the Constitution despite the new CJ

Court rules restricts cops in searches - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com :
"Justices, in a 5-3 decision, said that police did not have the authority to enter and search the home of a small town Georgia lawyer even though the man’s wife invited them in."

Despite the emotional appeal that this will somehow abet spouse abuse pushed by those who want to destroy the Constitution, Chief Justice Roberts is wrong and the Court's majority correct on this one.

The police are not hampered in responding to 911 calls by this ruling. They can escort the battered spouse to a shelter or other safe place. In states like Pennsylvania they can take her directly to a magistrate who will issue an order to the police to return to the home and throw the alleged batterer out in the street.

There is also nothing here to prevent a spouse who has called the police to report abuse from giving the responding officers information on which they might base a request for a search warrant. It has been a long time since the legal system regarded the wife as incompetent to act against her husband or vice versa - the old doctrine that not only were they one flesh in the eyes of the church, but they were one person in the eyes of the law.

All the Court has done in this case is to read the Constitution. While that is a radical step nowadays, it is a hopeful sign. Or, it would be if the new CJ who is likely to be there for the next 30 years wasn't on the wrong side.

It's an ill wind that blows good to no man

AccuWeather - World Weather - International Local Weather Forecasts:
"'The Northeast is staring down the barrel of a gun,' said Joe Bastardi, Chief Forecaster of the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center. 'The Northeast coast is long overdue for a powerful hurricane, and with the weather patterns and hydrology we're seeing in the oceans, the likelihood of a major hurricane making landfall in the Northeast is not a question of if but when.'"

Accuweather says the NE is overdue for another big hurricane, so maybe it's time to dust off those plans for evacuating New York City (see prior blogs for that disaster waiting to happen).

It's about time Yankees took responsibility for their involvement in slavery

Educators Shed Light on Northern Slavery - Yahoo! News:
"Their efforts have been buoyed by state legislation enacted last year creating the Amistad Commission to examine whether the slave trade is being adequately taught in New York schools."

It's particularly interesting that this is a report about efforts to teach about slavery in the North generally and in their neighborhoods in particular to students in New York State. New York, as New Amsterdam, was founded by the Dutch at about the same time a Dutch ship brought the first African slaves to Jamestown, Virginia from the West Indies.

Some interesting information here, especially that at the time of the Revolution the only American city with more slaves than New York City was Charleston, South Carolina. I also didn't realize that slavery had continued in New York State until 1827.

Perhaps, in addition to slavery, they might teach young New Yorkers about the Draft Riots in 1863 in which hundreds, some say thousands, of free citizens of African descent were killed by white New Yorkers resisting military service in the Civil War.

Is anyone minding the store? More immigration follies in AZ

1 D-M gate-crasher sent to Sonora facility | www.azstarnet.com � :
"The driver of a pickup truck that ran a checkpoint at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Tuesday headed back to his native Mexico in an ambulance Thursday and may never be prosecuted, Tucson police said."

The man was the driver of a pickup truck that attempted to ram its way through a gate into a USAF base near Tucson. He had a loaded handgun and a stash of what appeared to be cocaine and reeked of alcohol. But, because state lab tests on the drugs and his BAC won't be available for weeks, local police have not filed charges.

This doesn't explain why federal officials did not file any charges in connection with attempted illegal entry to a military facility or at least use the driver's immigration status - here illegally, of course - to detain him.

Spanish youths turn to the bottle - reminds me of "party weekends" from my college days at UVa

News:
"Thousands of teenagers and students swarmed onto Spanish streets on Friday for mass drinking sessions, defying legislation introduced to stop the binges known as 'botellones.'"

I understand what a nuisance this can be to the grownups, but the kids have to blow off steam somehow. One city decided to designate an are for the botellone (big bottle) rather than try to suppress it. As the newspaper El Pais said, the trick is to manage the situation gently and not overreact in a way that would "light the fuse."

Connecting the dots from 1968 to 2006

Student protests in France lack the spirit of '68 - Europe - International Herald Tribune:
"... Paris in May 1968. That was a time of student dreams and of student revolt aimed at tranforming an authoritarian, elitist system.
"'Sixty-eight was a mass revolutionary movement to create a socialist society,' said Henri Weber, now a member of the European Parliament, who was a Communist leader of the 1968 revolt. 'We had an idealistic vision.'
"The current problem stems from a flawed educational system that churns out young people who lack the necessary skills to get jobs, combined with rigid labor laws that discourage job formation because they require hugely expensive benefits and job-security packages that make it difficult for employers to fire anyone."

The article goes on to point out that the students have been joined by many faculty and retirees - presumably including not a few veterans of the '68 struggle.

Yet nowhere here is there a hint of the irony of this situation. To the extent that the protests of four decades ago succeeded, they caused the situation which confronts today's students.

They are protesting a proposed law that would make the first two years of employment a probationary period in which employees could be terminated at will. This is intended, in a very small way, to improve employment prospects for young French men and women entering the workforce.

French students of my, and MEP Weber's, generation fought against what their Marxist mentors said was a rigid, authoritarian and elitist system. They made it more so. And now, that success threatens to destroy the French economy. So, what do today's students demand? More of the same.

Declaration of Arbroath, 6 APR 1320

Clan Stirling Online! Research Library Article:
"'WE FIGHT NOT FOR GLORY, NOR FOR WEALTH NOR HONOURS, BUT ONLY AND ALONE WE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, WHICH NO GOOD MAN SURRENDERS BUT WITH HIS LIFE...'"

I find that my education has yet again proved deficient. I stumbled on this remarkable document while researching a column on a wholly different subject which I intended to post here.

The Declaration of Arbraoth was a missive written in Latin by the Chancellor of Scotland, subscribed to by over forty members of the Scottish nobility, and addressed to Pope John XXII at Avignon. Along with similar letters from King Robert and the clergy, which are now lost to history, it set forth the case for Scottish independence from England. Follow the link to read the full text in English.

It is said to have been among a handful of source documents for our own Declaration of Independence. In support of this view, it is said that nine of the 13 governors in the US and a sizable proportion of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 - including the Declaration's chief draftsman Thomas Jefferson - were of Scottish descent.

It also contains some interesting historical claims. For example: "... we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken by a single foreigner."

While hardly exactly parallel, the two declarations share several features including a list of outrages laid to the charge of the king of England.

The nearest to a set of parallel passages may be these:

From the Declaration of Arbraoth -
"... to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, casting our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought."

From the Declatation of Independence -
"... appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, ... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Gore endorsed by congress-critter but it may not be helpful

WorldNetDaily: 'Blame-the-Jews' official endorses Gore:
"At a question-and-answer session with anti-war activists, [US Rep. Jim] Moran [D-VA] said, 'If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this. ... The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going and I think they should.'
"[House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi [D-CA] said Moran's comments on the rationale for war 'were not only inappropriate, they were offensive and have no place in the Democratic Party.'"

Even a whiff of anti-semitism would be the kiss of death for a mainstream politician of either party. Moran seems to have complicated his own situation by taking contributions from "the Wahhabi Lobby" according to this story. [NOTE: I don't have the full text of Moran's remarks, only what appears here. It is possible that, taken in their entirety, Pelosi's characterization is accurate.]

OTOH, it might be useful to examine the Moran and Pelosi quotes above. Is it "inappropritate and offensive" to discuss the influence of the Israeli lobby in America on our Mideast policies? Suppose Moran had commented on the influence of Greek Americans on our policy vis-a-vis Cyprus, or Irish Americans vis-a-vis Ulster; would that be, in Pelosi's words, "inappropriate and offensive"?

Attacking people and opposing their political and social aspirations merely because of their religion or ethnicity is clearly wrong and highly reprehensible. But, this cannot be used as an excuse to shut down dialog on important matters of public policy.

Amnesty for law-breaking foreigners said to be a done deal

WorldNetDaily: Millions of illegals to become citizens? :
"'The votes are there,' said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa."

Read "In the Camp of the Saints" by Respail. We are enacting in slow motion what took only a matter of weeks for France to do in the novel.

GAO review of 13 large Katrina contracts finds waste, high prices, and poor management control at FEMA

My Way News:
"Some of the firms, including Gulf Stream Coach and Bechtel, have close ties to the Bush administration or have contributed significantly to the GOP."

Of course there was poor oversight, waste and high prices. It was an emergency - the E in FEMA stands for emergency.

There is a limited amount of foreknowlege possible in these situations. Normal contracting procedures are based on a plan and a budget and mean weeks of preparation of RFPs or IFBs by operational personnel, contract management specialists, accountants and attorneys. Then there is an announcement in the Federal Register with a submission deadline date a month or so later. Well, none of that can be done in the middle of a disaster.

Or, you may have requirements contracts in place in advance where the government doesn't guarantee to buy anything but the contractor agrees in advance to a schedule of available quantities, delivery dates (stated in terms of time from notice to proceed), shipping arrangements, prices and payment terms.

Even if all possible commodity and service need categorirs are covered in advance by requirements contracts, how much to you plan to buy? The average year's requirements? Twice that amount? Probably somewhere in between - and then you still get caught short once in a while.

And another thing - the more you buy of whatever it is you draw up requirements contracts for, you run into the problem that at some level of purchases the system would begin to break down because suppliers bump up against each other in competing for personnel, materials, transport services, etc.

This is not the place for a full course in government contracting and I am not the guy to give it. I did some contract related work at the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration and worked briefly in the Defense Contract Administration Service and picked up bits and pieces through the media and some personal contacts over the years. But, I don't pretend to be an expert on all the arcana of this field.

And the FEMA contracting rules have their own vagaries. For example, in one county training session, we local government emergency managers were warned not to set up shelters for displaced residents or else the governments we represent would be stuck with the bill. But, if we went through channels, the Red Cross would set up shelters in schools with which they had standing contracts and the bill would go to higher authorities.

Also, as you read this and other stories on this, keep in mind that relatively few firms exist which can big on the biggest or most specialized contracts and that even the opportunities available to small companies sometimes go begging because dealing with the Federal government is perceived, correctly, as more trouble than it is worth.

What I want to make clear is that these things are always going to be a bit messy. And, that a lot of the criticism coming from the Hill is entirely partisan and bears no relation to any actual corruption. All that is necessary is to create the impression of corrunption - sort of like the way the government prosecuted Martha Stewart.

Soccer for peace and understanding

BREITBART.COM - Gay-vs.-Muslim Soccer Set in Netherlands:
"Gay Muslims can take their choice of teams, she [an organizer of the group, Suzanne Ijsselmuiden] said. 'People can have many identities.'
"A Latin team along with a team of all-women players has also been assembled for the government-sponsored competition."

Somehow, I doubt this will work very well to promote better relations among social groups. In my mind are too many memories of soccer riots - English fans banned from the continent, Spanish fans booing Black players on English teams, etc.

Having the Muslims play to women would cause enough trouble, having them play the homosexual team seems a prescription for disaster.

Iraq lied about WMDs - I thought so

Haaretz - Israel News - Saddam Hussein maintained pretense of chemical arms to prevent Israeli attack:
"'Many months after the fall of Baghdad, a number of senior Iraqi officials in coalition custody continued to believe it possible that Iraq still possesed WMD capability hidden away somewhere. Saddam attempted to convince one audience that they were gone while simultaneously convincing another that Iraq still had them,' the report says.
"Senior Iraqi officials told their interrogators that Hussein had no idea what the true state of the country's weapons was, because everyone lied to him and refrained from giving him bad news for fear of being executed."

As this report on a Pentagon study soon to be offered in condensed form in the establishment's flagship publication Foreign Affairs states, Saddam Hussein's regime kept up an active deception on the subject of WMDs to keep Israel, Iran and other regional powers off balance. Tragically for all concerned, he "misunderestimated" the resolve of George W. Bush to exact revenge for the plot against his family.

JetBlue Airways CEO: Coal Could Be Answer To High Oil Prices

The Columbia Journalist:
"Instead of scaling back on costs, Neeleman said he is investing in methanol research. Methanol is fuel made from coal and while it has less energy per gallon than both ethanol – the corn-based fuel touted by President George Bush in his State of the Union address – it is also significantly less expensive."

So good to hear someone prominent echoing what I have been saying in the alternate energy policy debate, "Don't forget coal."

This is the dirty little secret of the "we're running out of oil" hysteria. Going back to the early days of gas lighting utilties, coal was used to produce gas for illumination. In many places this continued to be the case when gas had been relegated to a heating fuel until the natural gas pipeline system was built (i.e., late 1800s to mid 1900s).

In WW1, the British experimented with making oil from coal in response to the threat posed to imports of petroleum products from German U-Boat activity. It worked well enough, but it was expensive and after the war ended interest in the process died.

In WW2, it was the turn of Germany to look to coal as a source of petroleum products and synthetic rubber. With the end of the war and resumption of normal international trade, such plants shut down.

During the anti-apartheid trade sanctions against South Africa, they turned to coal as at least a partial replacement for petroleum. When sanctions ended, petroleum could be purchased in sufficient quantities at lower cost from conventional sources.

In each case, it was just a matter of money. So, you may ask, why has the recent rise in oil prices brought more discussion of oil from coal?

First, the recent rise in nominal, dollar-denominated, cost of crude oil and refined products is primarily a function of the debauching of the dollar. When monetary inflation raises the nominal price of petroleum, it also raises the nominal cost of producing alternatives.

When, if, we see the price of crude oil rising from actual scarcity (what we economists call real rather than nominal price) - the inability of supply to keep pace with demand, then there will come a point where petroleum products derived from coal will become cost competitive with oil and act as a brake on further real increases in petroleum product prices.

Second, there is an unwillingness on the part of politicians to raise the ire of the environmental lobbies by arguing for expanded coal production and use. Coal has been labeled one of the demons in the polluting of the planet - acid rain, particulates, sulfur, global warming, water quality, etc. Until the crisis comes, there will be no political will to open up that can of worms.

US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to GOP: Let us screw you again

My Way News:

"'I am sorry for letting you down when it comes to spending your money,' Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told several hundred delegates Saturday. 'We're going to turn it around and if we don't, we're going to be in trouble' in November.
"He apologized for the lobbyist scandal that has tarnished the Republican majorities in Congress.
"He apologized for Republican-run Washington failing to stand up to China and India on trade matters.
"And, finally, Graham urged activists to make sure the party returns to its roots before Election Day.
"'We're not going to win by being Democrats,' he said. 'Conservatism sells.'"
...
"Graham, who backed McCain in 2000 and would again in 2008, suggested that McCain wants Republican voters to view him as Bush's heir in fighting terrorism, but his own man on fiscal responsibility.
"'If you believe the party has drifted from fiscal conservatism, you'll have no greater advocate than John McCain,' Graham told reporters."

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with the GOP these days.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't remember the time that McCain and Graham stood up to vote "No" on the budget or the time they went up to the White House to demand that Bush veto one of those pork barrel monstrosities. Do you?

US Sen. Bill Frist's victory in the 2008 straw poll means nothing since attendees at Southern Republican Confrences are not delegates representing anyone but only acting privately and attendance is always skewed toward the area where the meeting is held. I used to attend these biennial confabs back in the 70s - some speeches and seminars, lots of informal gabfests and a good bit of drinking - the perfect holiday for political junkies.

For the present, I am backing US Sen. George Allen (R-VA). The reason is less ideological - I hardly trust what any politician says anymore - than personal. I met George when he started law school at UVa and liked him very much. Maybe I'd get an invite to the inauguration for old time's sake if I give him a grand or two for his presidential race.

When is a freedom fighter a terrorist, or can he be both?

TIMEeurope.com: Europe -- The Mad Man In The Mask:

"V for Vendetta, set for mid-March release in most markets, is that movie, and it is the most bizarre Hollywood production you will see (or refuse to see) this year. It's the kind of film that makes you ask questions like, Who thought this was a good idea?"

The pre-release media coverage of this film - at least what I have seen of it - is a bit thin on the details I would want to know before condemning it.

So he blows up things and enjoys his work. But is he terrorizing the good people of London or is he striking blows at the evil powers that be which inspire the people to hope for an end to their oppression?

It appears that we have here yet another example of the absurdity of declaring war on a tactic as if the goal or a violent act were a matter of indifference. We don't do this is in the civil law. When you kill a man because a third party pays you for his death, that is murder; but when you kill a man who is in the process of trying to kill you, that is self-defense - the purpose of the killing matters.

From what I have seen so far, the only error the Wachowski brothers made was not identifying that future dystopic Britain as Britain under Mullahs and Sharia law. That's a movie I'd pay to see; sort of an updated Red Dawn.

The Pellicano Beef

A Studio Boss and a Private Eye Star in a Bitter Hollywood Tale - New York Times:

"'It's about little people being pushed around,' she [Linda Doucett, Garry Shandling's ex-girlfriend] said."
...
"Mr. Grey, she testified later, called one day to let her know that she might be called as a witness. He then made an offer that seemed heavy-handed, she recalled in an interview: 'He said, "Are you ready for your own series?"' Mr. Grey, who would go on to produce "The Sopranos" a year later, also assured Ms. Doucett, 'You're like family to me,' she recalled."

Reading this account of threats and promises surrounding the Garry Shandling Show, Mr. Shandling, his agent and the show's producer Brad Grey (now head of Paramount) and one-time Clinton PI Anthony Pellicano, I was reminded of the movie Quiz Show which tells the true story of the rigging of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One (as big a hit as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ever was when it aired in the 1950s). It seems nothing much has changed in the television industry.

BTW, the story mentions in passing as a witness to a part of this story Gavin de Becker, a security consultant and friend of Garry Shandling. He is also the author of a book I highly recommend, especially to single women, called The Gift Of Fear.

'Statue of Winston Churchill in straitjacket

WorldNetDaily: 'Winston Churchill' stuck in straitjacket:

"'We chose the former prime minister to show that mental illness should not be a barrier to leadership, historic significance and popularity,' Rethink's chief executive, Cliff Prior, told the Eastern Daily Press. 'If the general public's negative views on mental health held sway, Winston Churchill would never have been an MP, let alone prime minister.'"

It's true that many dismissed Churchill's warnings about a resurgent Germany during the early and mid-30s as the ravings of a madman. And, he is said to have had some notable eccentricities like strolling about his home in the nude. But, I doubt he was really mentally ill.

Still, though, the statement quoted here from the mental health advocacy agency that commissioned the controversial sculpture reminded me of something written by Paul Goodman in his introduction to - if memory serves - the paperback edition of Compulsory Mis-education, and the Community of Scholars (excellent long essays on the defects of, respectively, American public schools and universities).

Goodman mentioned that he was from Louisiana which he said was a state where neither ignorance nor insanity had been a bar to high public office; and, as a result, Louisiana had enjoyed unusually creative leadership.

Gangs of LA

ABC News: Federal Sweep Results in Arrests of 375 Gang Members :

"Since Community Shield was set up last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, has arrested more than 2,300 suspected gang members, including 51 gang leaders and 922 members of MS-13. MS-13 is believed to have as many as 10,000 members in the United States, who are mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala."

Mara Salvatrucha is a major player in the politics of its home country. There are reported to be neighborhoods in some cities and whole small towns where the police fear to go because these are no ordinary criminals. By some accounts, MS-13 began among Salvadoran leftist guerillas who fled to Los Angeles when the Salvadoran government proved itself able to withstand the communist insurgency and only became established in Central America as members were deported from the US - often following incarceration or as an alternative to prosecution for crimes committed here.

Illegal immigration - it ain't just pool boys and gardeners

The Denver Business Journal: Crime 'franchise' hub in Denver - 2006-03-06:

"In one case alone, the counterfeit documents were used to purchase 300 homes valued at $51 million. The FHA insurance fund lost millions of dollars in metro Denver last year because of the schemes, investigators said. Dozens of people have been prosecuted or face deportation as a result of the crimes."

Interesting story on a Mexican organized crime syndicate running a fake document operation based in the Denver area that even sold franchises in most major cities for a fee of $5,000 per month. The story is not clear on this point, but it seems a key element in breaking up this ring was a turf war with another Mexican gang in the document racket.

When is a crime terrorism?

NBC 17 - Schools - UNC Chancellor: Not School's Role To Call Attack Terrorism :

"[Mohammed] Taheri-azar told police that he intended to kill people to avenge the treatment of Muslims around the world." This is the man who seriously injured nine people with a car at UNC-CH.

The story goes on to quote UNC Chancellor James Moeser as saying, "As we have investigated this, we've come more and more to the conclusion that this was one individual acting alone in a criminal act."

With all due respect to the chancellor, it is not the numer of persons involved that makes an act terrorism, but the motivation.

They say Sirhan Bishara Sirhan acted alone in assassinating US Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on the night he won the Democrat presidential primary in June 1968. But his motive was supposed to be that he felt Kennedy was pro-Israel. That is a political motive of the sort that we commonly call terrorism.

The Beltway sniper team of Muhammed and Malvo do not seem to have had direct contact with others in launching and carrying out their multiple murders and assaults, but Islam was clearly a part of John Muhammed's motivation.

And what about the lone gunman who shot up the El Al ticket counter at LAX?

I'm not saying that all crimes by Muslims are terrorist acts. If a man who happens to be a Muslim walks into his place of employment and shoots his supervisor because he didn't get a promotion he thought he deserved or goes next door and plugs the neighbor he thinks is fooling around with his wife, those are private and personal tragedies. But when one like Taheri-azar rents a car so he can mow down nine strangers in a public place and he says its a protest about the treatment of Muslims - that sure sounds like terrorism to me.

One of the problems in dealing with the GWOT is precisely its diffuse nature. Terrorist leaders, radical politicians and many clerics - literally thousands of men around the world - are constantly urging others to act as terrorists. It is not so important what they hit and when as that they hit something and, in the aggregate, fairly often. So, while something like 9/11 or the East African embassy attacks require a high degree of organization, expertise and money and the attacks on the commuters in London and Madrid a little less so, the cause also benefits from those who recruit themselves by ones and twos. This is why killing UBL won't solve the problem and may not even have much impact.

"Abajo Fidel"

BREITBART.COM - Anti-Castro Sign at Ballgame Causes Stir:

"The image of the man holding the sign behind home plate was beamed live Thursday night to millions of TV viewers _ including those in Cuba. The top Cuban official at the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan rushed to confront the man.

"Puerto Rican police quickly intervened and took the Cuban official _ Angel Iglesias, vice president of Cuba's National Institute of Sports _ to a nearby police station where they lectured him about free speech."

Congratulations to Col. Adalberto Mercado and his colleagues in the Puerto Rican police for defending free speech against Cuban communist attempts to suppress it. Now, if we could find someone to explain the concept to all those Muslims protesting caricatures of Mohammed ...

Peaceful rally for uncontrolled borders and immigration amnesty snarls Loop traffic

cbs2chicago.com: Chicago news, weather, traffic: Protesters Rally Against Illegal Immigration Bill:

"As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the protesters -- of Polish, Irish, Latino, Chinese and many other nationalities -- gathered at Union Park, at Ashland Avenue and Lake Street, and marched to the Loop. From the air, it appeared to be an endless sea of demonstrators, flooding the streets to protest the recently-passed house bill, which would make it a crime to hire or even help undocumented immigrants."

Notice they don't mention any protestors being of American nationality - surely this is an oversight.

And, BTW, it is already a crime to hire foreign workers who are here without a green card. The House bill merely tries to put more teeth in the enforcement of that law although it will not have any effect since the administration won't enforce the law no matter how strongly it is written.

From tjhe White House to the Big House

Former Top Bush Aide Accused of Md. Thefts:

"Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said."

According to a list published in the Washington Post last fall, Mr. Allen was among 16 White House aides at the top pay grade of $161,000 per year, the same salary as Chief of Staff Andy Card and head political guru Karl Rove. And they caught him stealing from retailers.

Mr. Allen is also a former number two man at Health and Human Services. The last time I can recall such a high former official being arrested was when Stuart Udall, who had been Secretary of the Interior for eight years under Kennedy and Johnson, was caught leaving a drug store with a pack of cheap cigars in his pocket.

The Bush administration should be thanking the Washington Post for the headline on this story. If you read down to the sixth graph, you find that Bush had nominated him for a seat on the 4th Circuit Court in 2003.

The world communist revolution continues

Six killed in Chhattisgarh Maoist attacks- The Times of India:

"RAIPUR: Six people were killed and at least 15 injured in two separate attacks by Maoist rebels in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Monday, police said."

The paper notes that the last serious Maoist outrage in the region, only a week ago, killed 30 people by the official government count - other sources claim more than 50 died.

Other little leftist guerilla wars continue in such places as widely separated as Nepal and Mexico. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain and the USSR were an excuse for the media to ignore communism despite the fact that communists are still working hard all around the world to bring terror and misery to masses oppressed by satellite TV, store-bought clothes, and the other impedimenta of modern capitalist enterprise.

Indian Army dodges bullet

Kadiyan withdraws PIL on Muslim headcount- The Times of India:

"NEW DELHI: Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen RS Kadiyan on Monday withdrew his petition seeking an immediate halt to Muslim head count in defence forces in view of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement that Rajender Sachchar Committee will not go ahead with it."

Retired Gen. Kadiyan, a 44-year veteran of the army, is no doubt correct that the prime minister's scheme to measure how badly, if at all, Muslims are represented among the troops could only spread sectarian conflict in one of the more successfully secular institutions in Indian society.

Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis - New York Times

Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis - New York Times:

"'There are so many laws in the Torah about sexual behavior that we choose to ignore, so when we zero in on this one, I have to wonder what's really behind it,' Rabbi Visotzky said."

Let's see, the Old Testament bans, in addition to homosexuality, adultery, incest, and bestiality. Which of these does Rabbi Visotzky feel are already ignored by his denomination?

Costa Mesa, CA, student suspensions

:

"Some parents however questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours."

It is clear from the AP story that the boy who posted abusive and anti-semitic comments about a female classmate at TeWinkle Middle School has serious issues. The controversy regards 20 other students who were suspended for accepting an invitation to view the offending material posted on the internet.

This is by no means the only school district to take an expansive view of the meaning of "in loco parentis." Not long ago, the Reading, PA, school board disciplined some high school students for smoking after school hours and off school property. The proper way to handle that problem, it seems to me, would be to have the police issue citations. I suppose the schools people figure that they have been so successful with the traditional educational functions that they owe it to the community to extend their benevolent influence into other areas.

New Clinton challenger makes late entry in Senate race

Clinton Challenger Pulled From Reagan-Era Hat - New York Times:

"Those Republican critics [of the Senate candidacy of former Yonkers mayor John Spencer] are now coalescing around a late entry: Kathleen Troia McFarland, 54, a prot�g�e of Henry A. Kissinger who has not been in public service since working as a Pentagon spokeswoman under President Ronald Reagan. Yet Ms. McFarland, known as K. T., is pretty green: She has been a stay-at-home mother since 1985, and was drawn to the Senate race only because she already believed she was going to lose her bid for a Congressional seat on the Upper East Side of Manhattan."

The Times goes on to report that Mrs. McFarland "described herself first as a 'moderate Republican' and then as a 'Reagan Republican.'" Considering her political pedigree - protege of Henry A. Kissinger who was a protege of Nelson A. Rockefeller - one suspects that the first description is nearer the mark.

This is a strange situation. Party operatives scared off attorney and Nixon son-in-law Edward F. Cox so as not to have a contested primary with the establishment's annointed candidate, Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro. Ms. Pirro was chosen on the theory that only a pro-abortion woman challenger can compete with the pro-abortion woman incumbent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Alas the party leaders' clearing the field for Ms. Pirro proved a Pyrrhic victory when her campaign went down in flames. Now, having scrambled to recruit Mr. Spencer, they are embarassed to have to defend his candidacy against yet another pro-abortion woman who has entered the lists at a late hour.

NY State GOP chairman Stephen J. Minarik III has my sympathy. This is a tough spot to be in. I haven't seen Mr. Minarik in many years - we were in national YR politics at the same time - but I remember him as smart, hard-working and tough, so he ought to come through this alright, although it's not clear the same can be said for Mr. Spencer.

Deadbeat caught driving while "dead"

KCCI.com - News - Police: Woman Fakes Death To Avoid Paying Traffic Tickets:

"Polk County investigators said Kimberly Du, 36, faked her own obituary and forged a letter telling a Polk County judge she was dead."

Ms. Du's scheme to avoid a stack of unpaid traffic citations by claiming to be dead unraveled when she was stopped for a new infraction after informing the courts she was dead. She now faces charges of forgery which could earn her up to five years in prison.

In my days as a constable in Pennsylvania, the courts would only accept an official death certificate before cancelling warrants.