Puzzling assertion by leading Venezuealan media analyst

Chavez Defends Decision on TV Station:

"Information Minister Willian Lara on Monday accused Globovision of encouraging an attempt on Chavez's life by broadcasting the chorus of a salsa tune—'Have faith, this doesn't end here'—along with footage of the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square."

I have no idea how one can interpret this as an incitement to assassinate president Chavez, although I have no doubt that many Venezuelans might welcome such an act and some of them might even work for Globovision. Nor can I find any further elucidation. Even the MercoPress independent news agency in Montevideo, Uruguay had nothing to offer on this beyond the short shrift given in the AP story, although another blogger on blogspot.com did offer that the song in question was sung by Ruben Blades.

Whither Turkey? Parliamentary election coming July 22

Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Turkey at the crossroads:

"At a time when there still has been no concerted attempt to solve the Kurdish problem, the country cannot afford another deep division in society. But at the moment the JDP and the secularists who have been taking to the streets appear to be moving further apart, not coming together."

In what could be a major watershed election on July 22, Turkish voters must decide whether they will continue to have a secular republic or slide further into the abyss of Islamic extremism.

Turkey has a very awkward electoral system based on proportional representation but requiring a party to get a minimum of ten percent of the vote to gain any representation. So many small parties were represented in the 2002 vote that only two parties crossed the threshhold and the Justice and Development Party (JDP), the Islamist party, walked off with a two-thirds majority despite getting only one-third of the votes.

This election may be much different as center-left and center-right parties are forming mergers and pro-secular demonstrations have attracted large numbers of persons. The problem is that the JDP will likely still be the largest party and may well get a majority in the parliament without a majority of the vote and still claim a mandate for its anti-secular policies.

This, in turn, could lead the military to reassert its traditional role as the last line of defense of the pro-secular Turkish constitution. Either military intervention or a retreat from secularism could have serious repercussions for Turkey's long-delayed bid to join the EU.

Some things in India are slow to change

Thousands embrace Buddhism-India-The Times of India:

"MUMBAI: In a hugely symbolic gesture that may have a long-term effect on state and national politics, thousands of tribals and Dalits converted to Buddhism at a massive gathering here on Sunday, marking the 50th year of Dr B R Ambedkar's conversion to the religion to escape the rigid Hindu caste system.

"Though the number of people present at Mahalaxmi Race Course was a little less than the expected figure of 100,000, it was definitely one of the biggest mass conversions in modern Indian history."

Despite all the signs of material progress, some parts of Indian culture have been very slow to change. Dalits (untouchables) and tribal peoples are still at a great disdavantage socially, economically and politically vis-a-vis higher caste Hindus. The ascendance of militant Hinduism in Indian politics has exacerbated those problems.

It isn't just Muslim-Hindu tensions that tear at the fabric of Indian society. There is also a lot of hostility toward Christians - both native born believers and foreign missionaries.

The Dalits and tribals who converted to Buddhism in this mass ceremony - approximately 50,000 of them - are said to be doing so in part to exempt themselves from the Hindu caste system.

Expedia.com survey rates tourists

Indian tourist most impolite: Survey-India-The Times of India:

"Trailing India in the league of terrible tourists are the Chinese followed by the Russians and Brits, according to the latest survey by travel website Expedia. The Japanese were voted the world's best tourists, followed by the Americans and the Swiss."

The French enjoy a hard-won reputation as being among the rudest people to travel among. Now a survey of hotel managers by Expedia.com reports that they rate as the most obnoxious when they are the doing the traveling. Despite the "Ugly American" image of so many American tourists in the movies, even our own movies, we Americans managed to place second in the nice tourists rankings behind the Japanese and ahead of the Swiss.

One might wonder that the Indians were sufficiently numerous to show up in the survey. But the Indian economic boom of recent years has been marked by a great increase in foreign travel. I suspect that, in addition to rising wages, there is some impact here of what economists call the "wealth effect" - the value of publicly traded shares on the BSE now exceeds one trillion US dollars. BTW, an ad on the Times of India site gives a price of only $579 for a flight from Delhi to New York City.

Particularly galling to their French hosts must be the Indian penchant for package tours to bring along their own chefs to supply the tourists with a steady diet of home cooking. I just don't see the point; sampling local foods has to be one of the great pleasures of travel right along with getting to know something of other cultures' art, architecture and music.

Chalk up a win for the distaff side

Vodka knocks out Derby competition | The Japan Times Online:

"Disbelief and awe swept over the crowd as Vodka pulled out with 400 meters to go, swept forward and powered decidedly into the lead with a dozen strides left to the finish. The rest of the 18-strong field appeared to have lost its equilibrium as the daughter of 2002 Derby winner Tanino Gimlet went unchallenged to the line."

For the first time in 64 years, a filly has won the Nippon Derby. And, not just won it, Vodka finished three lengths ahead of Asakusa Kings which had led the field from the gate. This race was run at a distance of 2400 meters (almost a mile and half) in 2:24.5.

Playing hardball in South Africa

The great Zuma funding mystery : Mail & Guardian Online :

"The Sunday Independent said that an explosive 'top secret' report, titled Special Browse 'Mole' Consolidated Report, alleges that Zuma was bankrolled by Libyan and Angolan leaders to topple President Thabo Mbeki."

"Politics," said Mr. Dooley over a hundred years ago, "ain't beanbag." And, that's still true today. But the latest political news from South Africa has a delicious touch of irony.

The deputy president of the African National Congress is counting on South African law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of smear campaign which seems designed to derail his bid to oust South African president Thabo Mbeki from the leadership of their party later this year.

Meanwhile, police have determined that a claim by Mr. Zuma's supporters that a former member of the South African Defense Forces had been offered a million Rand to assassinate him was a hoax designed to gain sympathy for his candidacy. Police have a beach bum in custody who posed as the assassin and have raided the home of a member of Mr. Zuma's inner circle in pursuit of evidence as to the origins of the "plot."

Gee! I thought the 60 Minutes flap over Bush's national guard records was a bit juvenile, but that pales in comparison to this nonsense coming from what is supposed to be the most advanced nation on the African continent.

Radical islamism: 'eaarly detection,' specialized services' new tool'

Radical islamism: 'early detection, 'specialized services' new tool:

"According to the DST chief, 'families, teachers, social workers, and sports coaches must be made more aware in order to identify youngsters who become introverted, develop an aggressive rhetoric on religion, or criticize their parents for frequenting cafes... The aim of the operation is not to include these youngsters on any file, but to engage in dialogue and to help them before it is too late.'"

A report on the French contribution to the G6 interior ministers' conference on dealing with the terror threat. An attempt to forge a pro-active strategy runs some risks, but so does waiting for the bombs to go off in Paris. One wonders whether a strategy of getting parents to notify police that their sons have suddenly become religious is going to work. Still, the French are serious about this and it's worth thinking about.

Le Figaro editorial sees prominent role for France in search for peace in Mideast

France gaining new scope in Middle East:

"Paris enjoys two major assets in the region, one of them old, the other new. The former is the fact that France had the wisdom and courage, from September 2002 through March 2003, to do its utmost to try to prevent the disastrous Anglo-US military venture in Iraq. Its undiminished credibility makes France the Western power best placed to perform an honest broker role in all the Middle Eastern crises.

"However paradoxical it may seem, its second asset is the esteem enjoyed by both Nicolas Sarkozy and Bernard Kouchner in the United States. This, because, though the United States' influence has diminished greatly in the region from the days of the Clinton administration, none of the crises can be resolved in the long term without Washington's endorsement."

While I am always a bit skeptical about grand plans to settle the seemingly intractable quarrels of that ill-starred region, the editorial makes a good case for its outlines of a settlement on two key issues, Iran's nuclear power needs and Israel's security needs. It's worth a read.

Global warming hysteria penalizes developing nations

.: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.:

"But the most verifiable threat to the recreation and travel industry is the unintended consequences of misguided government policy and environmental activists. The chilling effect of guilt that the climate alarmists are attempting to instill in Americans for owning four wheel drive vehicles, flying in an airplane and enjoying travel is enough to harm the industry."

So said Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK), ranking minority member at a recent hearing of the environment and public works committee on global warming in relation to the recreation industry. He pointed out that global warming alarmists are attacking not just Americans driving SUVs and RVs, but air travel, even that for very trendy eco-tourism.

Eco-tourism is a significant part of the tourist industry for many poor nations that depend heavily on tourism to earn hard currencies. As. Sen Inhofe mentioned, one such nation is Kenya where tourism is the leading foreign exchange earning industry. And, Kenya's second largest source of foreign exchange - horticulture exports to Europe - has now been hit by the announcement of UK supermarket chain Tesco that it will reduce its offerings of air freighted products by half.

I'll stick to butterflies

Photographer Mauled by Yellowstone Bear:

"YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - A man whose face was severely mauled by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park is a photographer and author of books about grizzlies who also had been attacked in 1993."

I wish Jim Cole, author of Lives of Grizzlies: Montana and Wyoming and Lives of Grizzlies: Alaska, a full and speedy recovery from this unfortunate attack.

I don't expect that my photos will ever apppear in books or make me any money like this other 57-year old nature photographer. But at least my butterflies and other subjects won't litterally rip my face off if I encounter them in a bad mood.

I do, however, have a Power Point (TM) presentation in the works featuring my own photos of butterlies in northeastern Berks County. Some of my other photos are available on my photo blog - Keen's Photos.

Chavez muzzles opposition voices in media

Venezuelans march against closure of TV station | International | Reuters :

"For years, Venezuela's television stations were virulently anti-Chavez and openly supported the 2002 putsch that briefly ousted him. But more recently the media have slowly started falling in line with the increasingly powerful government."

In a move condemned by a resolution in the US Senate, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has ended the 53-year existence of RCTV in Caracas. He has also threatened to pull the license of Globovision which was attacked by his thugs recently.

Don't look for any criticism from the American (or, should I say, anti-American) left in this country. Chavez is a hero of the left because he constantly attacks George Bush. The fact that he is a thug with utter contempt for civil liberties like his friend and mentor Fidel Castro seems to make no impression.

Bush gets the hatchet job from the most high profile show on CBS and takes it in stride. Yet he is denounced by those who claim to be interested in free speech. Chavez closes TV stations and the same crowd shows their commitment to free speech by freely refraining from speaking out against the suppression of dissent in Venezuela, Cuba and other repressive leftist regimes.

Too Much Monkey Business

Suit Sheds Light on Clintons’ Ties to a Benefactor - New York Times:

"“When the C.E.O. of a publicly traded company can say with a straight face that the shareholders benefit from having a yacht with an all-female crew stationed in the Virgin Islands, then you’ve got a problem,” Mr. [Herbert A.] Denton [president of a New York hedge fund that invested in the company] said."

A shareholder lawsuit brought by two Connecticut hedge funds - Dolphin Limited Partnership and Cardinal Capital Management - has brought into question the profligate spending of corporate funds by InfoUSA's founder and CEO Vinod Gupta. Among the specific complaints made by Dolphin and Cardinal in their suit are numerous questionable trips made by the company's jet in support of former president Bill Clinton in his hectic schedule of lucrative public appearances, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on the presidential campaign trail, and both Clinton's on vacation in Acapulco with Mr. Gupta. All this in addition to extremely well-paid consulting contracts for Bill Clinton.

No word in the article on whether Bill or Hillary has spent any time on that yacht with the all-girl crew, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out. In any event, it might help explain why Bill and Vinod are so sympatico. Even onetime Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO), of Monkey Business fame, didn't have an all girl crew for his seagoing antics in the Caribbean, although he did have a companion named Donna Rice who was all girl if the photos are anything to go by.

It makes you proud to be an American

Boy Bags Wild Hog Bigger Than 'Hogzilla':

"Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Hogzilla II. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50- caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot."

Not quite as good as the legend of Davy Crockett (guys my age will remember the TV show theme song "killed him a bar [bear] when he was only three"), but still an inspiring performance. In fact, this hog was bigger - a whole lot bigger - than our black bears in the eastern US.

My hat's off to this young man from Alabama. The biggest revolver I've ever fired was a .357 Magnum and that's enough punishment for a grown man's hand. I don't even want to think about the pounding young Jamison Stone's hand has taken to develop proficiency with a .50 calibre.

And not only an accomplished hunter, this eleven-year old just finished sixth grade as an honor roll student at Christian Heritage Academy.

A crisis more dire than oil supply

Hi-tech bid to boost desalination - National - theage.com.au:

"This week the West Australian Government announced it is to build a second desalination plant. The $400 million existing plant, which began operating last month, now provides about 17 per cent of Perth's drinking water."

This is the shape of the world to come. There are substitutes for oil (nuclear, coal, etc.), but there is no substitute for water. When water runs out, so does life.
The Age of Melbourne reports that Aussie scientists are hopeful that in a few years they might be able to cut the energy costs of operating desalination plants by half. Let us all hope they succeed.

We might need that technology soon for Los Angeles. Already the US and Mexico are at loggerheads because the US is exceeding treaty quotas for withdrawals of water from the Colorado watershed for diversion to southern California and Mexico retaliates by overdrawing from the Rio Grande hurting farmers in Texas.

Pigeons and pie crusts make strolling St. Mark's Square less pleasant

Corriere.it:

"Now, new rules will apply preventive and repressive measures with an iron hand.To begin with, guards will be hired to patrol the St Mark’s area.They will form emergency “decency patrols” with the task of reprimanding disrespectful or delinquent tourists."

If it would do any good, I'd suggest to the authorities in Venice that, rather than banning the sale of take-out food in the St. Mark's area, it might make more sense to tax the businesses in the area a bit more heavily in order to pay for more refuse bins, street sweepers and special officers. This sort of arrangement works reasonably well in many jurisdictions here in the US.

Of course, it is always harder to do anything sensible in Europe. The article linked here mentions that tourists feeding the pigeons is a problem and the city is trying to figure what sort of alternative employment to offer to the birdseed sellers if they decide to outlaw the sale of birdseed.

I am also mystified by this statement in the Corriere della Sera article:

"The cash-strapped Venice local authority has too few municipal police officers (“We need 6,500 and we’ve got 450”, says Mr Salvadori)."

The population of Venice is comparable to that of Lexington, Kentucky and the latter manages to get along with about 550 officers. No doubt the need for a large marine division, the difficulty of responding quickly across scattered islands and the large numbers of tourists justify higher staffing levels, but 6,500 officers seems excessive. New York City (30 times the population of Venice) is mostly surrounded by water and has a huge daily influx of commuters and tourists, yet it gets by with 35 to 40 thousand officers.

DING !

FOXNews.com - Pop Tarts: Did Angelina Jolie Give Lap Dance to Ex? - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

I have lately noticed a glaring lacuna in my commentaries. I have never written anything about the three most important topics in American life. I am speaking, of course, about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

That "DING!" was the the sound of the toaster serving up our three hot, steaming, sticky pop tart tales this week.

Who says rehab doesn't work? Britney Spears, fresh from a stay in rehab, was observed celebrating her return to the real world at a party at an LA night spot called Teddy's. It has been reported that she was consuming what Rush Limbaugh refers to as "adult beverages." And, that she discarded her outer garments and frolicked in her underwear while her bodyguards attempted to block the view of other patrons of the club. You might ask, how does this prove the efficacy of rehab? Answer: Before rehab, she wasn't wearing underwear. I call that progress.

Jail is so unfair! It appears that numerous letters and petitions from prominent acquaintances and ordinary fans have been deluging California officials to protest the imminent jailing of Paris Hilton for a parole violation related to her DUI conviction. I have considerably less sympathy for Miss Hilton on her imminent, temporary loss of freedom than I had for Martha Stewart; all the hotel heiress had to do to stay out of trouble was leave the driving to her chauffeur until her parole was ended. Whether the PR campaign had any effect or not, she has dropped her appeal and the state has agreed to cut her sentence in half for good behavior and place her in a section of the facility reserved for cops, guards and others at heightened risk from other inmates.

On a happier, but puzzling, note - Maxim magazine has announced that Lindsay Lohan ranks #1 on their Hot 100 list. And, the accompanying photo is sufficiently modest that you can't tell whether she's wearing panties. I realize that Miss Lohan has come a long way from The Parent Trap; but, poised to launch herself into the realm of legal alcohol consumption on July 2, she still has the look, if not the reputation, of the wholesome girl next door.

Kennedy assassination still breeding controversy after all these years

Researchers challenge Kennedy lone gunman theory | Science | Reuters :

"... researchers, including former FBI lab metallurgist William Tobin, said new chemical and statistical analyses of bullets from the same batch used by Oswald suggest that more than two bullets could have struck the president.

"'Evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed,' the researchers said in their article."

The timing of this is quite fortuitous for the publication of Saint John Hunt's new book Bond of Secrecy on the JFK assassination which draws on the confession of his late father, CIA operative and Watergate "plumber" E. Howard Hunt, that the death of President Kennedy was engineered by a group of CIA veterans acting on behalf of then-Vice President Lindon Baines Johnson.

Unseemly haste on Senate immigration bill - shouldn't they read it before voting?

United States Senator - Jim DeMint:

"But the little we do know about the bill is troubling."

So said Senate Republican Steering Committee chairman Jim DeMint in commenting on the thousand page Senate immigration bill just unveiled in DC. His comments were in marked contrast to the unrestrained enthusiasm of his fellow senator from South Carolina, Lindsay Graham.

There seems to be a mood among many senators to get this plan approved quickly before anyone has a chance to read it. Early reports indicate that the plan is a wonderful mix of bits of window dressing to distract conservatives from the bills flaws, a basic orientation toward expanding legal immigration, and enough bureaucratic redtape to convince many illegals to ignore the new rules and continue to work here illegally.

While senators might want to vote on this turkey quickly before people notice what it means, that won't entirely solve their problem as the House expects to produce its own bill covering the same subjects sometime before the congressional recess in August. This would set the stage for a conference committee to work out discrepancies when Congress reconvenes in the fall. That would be a time of year when constituents are much more likely to be paying attention and writing the kind of disrespectful and insulting letters and emails that are the bane of political life.

Gender discrimination in public accomodations - is this even legal?

Hotel Reservation: Floor For Women Only - Travel News Story - WKMG Orlando:

"A lounge at the hotel also will be reserved for women only when the hotel opens in September."

This comes from the announcement of a new Marriott hotel to open later this year in Grand Rapids. No doubt the company's legion of high-priced lawyers has gone over this, but I find it hard to believe that this does not amount to impermissible gender discrimination in public accomodations. Could a hotel get away with having a men-only floor or a lounge reserved only for men? I don't think so.

The GOP candidates' first debate

Interactive: Rate the candidates - The Debates - MSNBC.com

I started to write this a few hours after the debate when the number of post-debate ratings was less than 18,000; but I got knocked off line by a computer glitch. Now the number of post-debate ratings is over 80,000 (about 10% more than the number of pre-debate ratings) but the shape of the numbers has held up pretty well, so my analysis isn't really changed.

On the MSNBC rating scheme whish allows only three options - positive, neutral or negative - for each candidate, even the three front-runners started rather dismally only one of them (Giuliani) getting more positive than negative assessments. Their positives ranged from 41% for Giuliani to 28% for Romney. The only others with double-digit positives were Huckabee, Thompson, Tancredo and Brownback and none of them did better than 14%.

Curiously, McCain, with negative ratings from 40% of pre-debate viewers, was only barely ahead of the bottom seven whose negavives ranged from 49% to 40%.

With such a lackluster response to this diverse field of contenders (two senators, three representatives, four former governors and an ex-mayor of New York), it is no wonder Fred Tompson and Newt Gingrich are keeping the door open. However, with all due respect to Gingrich, Hunter, Paul and Tancredo, I cannot recall a serious candidacy for the White House by a US House member in my lifetime. With the notable exception of Eisenhower, the serious contenders since FDR beat Hoover have been governors, senators or vice-presidents and even most of the Veeps had senate experience.

Trying to shoe-horn 10 candidates into a 90 minute Q&A session (not really a debate) was bound to produce less than satisfactory results. I would rather they had given us a 180 munute debate and skipped the 90 minutes of analysis and interviews that followed on MSNBC.

Still, I think it is true that none of these 10 men seriously embarassed himself. And, as one of them said, any of them would make a better president than any of the Democrat contenders. None of the second tier candidates increased his negative ratings, but all three of the leaders did.

My favorite, Jim Gilmore, used his marvelous speaking voice and clarity of thought rather well in the relatively few opportunities given him, but his appearance suffered from an excessively shiny forehead gleaming under the television lights. Tom Tancredo proved himself knowledgable on a range of issues and not merely a "Johnny one note" on immigration. Duncan Hunter's performance was a revelation to me, having known him only by reputation - he'd make a good candidate for vice president or he could be an excellent defense secretary.

Ron Paul was the real surprise of the evening. He jumped out of the pack in the post-debate ratings to 36% postive and 27% negative. That doesn't look too impressive by itself, but those were the best scores posted by any candidate in the post-debate poll.

Mitt Romney did best among the top three' holding his positives steady at 28% and dropping his negatives by four points. All things considered, this has to be good news for Romney.

John McCain dropped his positives by 11 points - from 31% to 20%, but nine points of that drop only moved into the neutral category. This reinforces my view that McCain doesn't have much room to improve. He has been a national figure for a long time, longer than any of his rivals; and. if folks were inclined to like him, they would by now.

Rudy Giuliani took the worst hit - dropping his positive ratings from 41% (the pre-debate poll leader) to only 25%, with almost half the 16 point difference going into the negative column. Giuliani is toast, the better known his positions are on a wide range of issues the farther he will fall among likely GOP primary voters.

I suspect that by Labor Day the race will change significantly. Both Newt Gingrich and Fred Thompson will get into the race and Tommy Thompson will be gone by then, followed closely by Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee. Tom Tancredo probably has enough fans of the immigration issue to hang in until the primaries start and the serious spending starts. Whether Jim Gilmore and Duncan Hunter will still be in the race is hard to say, but they at least look and sound presidential.

As for Ron Paul's future, he has already been the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party once and there is some talk that they might put him forward again after the Republican primaries have run their course. He has no reason not to keep going even if he does poorly in the primaries.

Democrats should not assume that a Ron Paul candidacy on the LP ticket would hurt only the Republican nominee. Depending on who the Democrats nominate, and this includes both Clinton and Obama, Paul could take a lot of votes from the anti-war crowd and civil libertarians.