SUCCESS IS NICE, BUT WE MISS CHARLIE:

A mystery he isn't better known: John Harvey has long been the crime writers' crime writer. Now his new hero is also giving him the public recognition he deserves. (Marcel Berlins, 3/27/07, Times of London)

YOU'VE MADE IT AS A CRIME writer when the jackets of your novels proclaim your name in huge colourful capitals, while the titles of the books lurk modestly below. John Harvey has now reached that status, but there remains a mystery. Why has it taken so long? I know of no other crime writer who writes so well, has attracted such unanimously positive reviews, and been so respected by his fellow writers - yet failed to become the household name and bestselling author that he deserved to be.

Harvey has now further proof of the esteem in which he's held. The Crime Writers' Association has given him its most coveted award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger, for "sustained excellence" in the genre. He is chuffed. "The really nice thing about it is that it isn't based on one particular work," he says. "It's people who are aware of your work over a period of time. And when those people are other writers, it means a lot."

IT DOESN'T GET ODDER:

You're So Vain is a highlight, relatively speaking.

HE OUGHTTA TRY GOING TO A CPAC CONVENTION...:

Cameron is winning and only the Tory boobies have not noticed (Charles Moore, 31/03/2007, Daily Telegraph)

There is a well-known story of a man in the audience of Othello. As he watched the Moor persistently refusing to believe that Desdemona is honest, the man became beside himself. Eventually, he yelled out: "You great black booby! Can't you see it's all right?" That is rather the sort of thing I feel like shouting at the Tory critics of David Cameron.

THE RIGHT TO 15 MINUTES:

The Celebrity of Celebrity (PAUL HOLLANDER, January 17, 2007, NY Sun)

Why is such ogling, mingling, or rubbing of shoulders with celebrities in person such a source of pleasure and self-fulfillment?

Those who rejoice in rubbing shoulders harbor a hope that temporarily sharing the same physical space will elevate their own social standing. As the St. Moritz article put it, "You can attend their events, eat in their restaurants, walk among them, wear their clothes, sleep on the same luscious sheets."

The real problem is the decline of community and the rise of social isolation. This leads to fantasies of having something in common with the rich and famous. Live celebrity watching expresses and exemplifies false consciousness. It is an attempt to find meaning and fulfillment in the life and the attributes of others far removed from one's own circumstances.

Daniel Boorstin grasped the essentials of the celebrity cult half a century ago: "Our age has produced a new kind of eminence. ... He is the human pseudo-event ... a substitute for the hero who is the celebrity and whose main characteristic is well-knownness ... anyone can become a celebrity if only he can get into the news and stay there. ... The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark."

Many highly talented people, such as scientists, are not widely known and are not celebrities. They don't provide entertainment, their skills and accomplishments are hard to emulate, and they are not uniformly good looking. If you are a scientist, but your daughter follows rock stars, you have not succeeded in conveying to her the importance of your work.

The celebrity cult is a form of vicarious gratification, an attempt at identification with those who possess attributes missing from the life of ordinary human beings: fame, wealth, vast amounts of attention, and, quite often, adulation. In today's populist, socially mobile society, though, a growing number of individuals feel that they are entitled to the same privileges celebrities possess. They believe that each individual has limitless potential and that there are no exclusive elites. Like many of us, they want to transcend anonymity.

Becoming a celebrity is also an obvious avenue for enriching personal wealth. This is a motivation we can readily grasp - even if we dissent from the cult. If you are famous enough, sooner or later you will become rich, because fame sells.

THEY'RE ALL CIRCUMSCRIBED:

Afraid of Freedom?: Backtracking on warrantless surveillance, president still scorns privacy rights (Nat Hentoff, January 26th, 2007, Village Voice)

[T]he president in no way acknowledges that he broke the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the NSA's warrantless filling of FBI and CIA databases in its secret spying. As New York Times legal analyst Adam Liptak noted on January 19: "The administration continues to maintain it is free to operate without court approval." The president has not embraced the Fourth Amendment and judicial review of his "inherent" powers, despite his backtracking on the warrantless spying."

Furthermore, in a little-noticed declaration on January 17, the nation's chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, said in a speech at Washington's American Enterprise Institute that federal judges are not "equipped to make decisions" about actions taken by the commander-in-chief regarding national security. "A judge," said Gonzales, "will never be in the position to know what is in the national security interest of the country." So judges should back off. [...]

In the landmark free-press 1971 "Pentagon Papers" case (New York Times Co. v. United States) -- in which the Nixon administration demanded severe punishment for the New York Times's having published highly classified information on government conduct (and lies) in the course of the Vietnam War -- Justice Hugo Black, writing in the majority, warned of government brandishing "national security" to silence the press in time of war. "The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security for our Republic," Black wrote. "The Framers of the First Amendment, fully aware of both the need to defend a new nation and the abuses of the English and Colonial governments, sought to give this new society strength and security by providing that freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly should not be abridged."

But among the dissenters, Justice Harry Blackmun warned: "The First Amendment . . . is only one part of an entire Constitution. Article II of the great document vests in the Executive Branch primary power over the conduct of foreign affairs and places in that branch the responsibility for the Nation's safety . . . I cannot subscribe to a doctrine of unlimited absolutism for the First Amendment . . ."

THE EYES OF A dEMOCRAT:

Putin 'against having third term' (BBC, 3/30/07)

A senior Russian lawmaker has proposed changing the constitution, in a move that might allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power longer.

But a Kremlin spokesman responded by saying Mr Putin was opposed to any such change to the constitution.

A TIMESIAN SENSE OF IRONY:

Riot boosts Le Pen's poll ratings (Angela Charlton, 31 March 2007, AP)

Rioting French youths who hurled insults about presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy may, ironically, help him win.

Polls yesterday suggested that the outburst of violence at a Paris train station this week boosted support for the conservative who cultivated a law-and-order image as interior minister - and for far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

MORE:
Meanwhile, on the Left...School strikes stoke election fever in France (Katrin Bennhold, March 30, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Many primary schools in Paris were on strike Friday and hundreds of teachers and parents took to the streets to protest the temporary detention of a principal who had tried to prevent the arrest of an illegal immigrant picking up his grandchild after school.

MAGOO WAS A JERSEYAN TOO:

Waiting for Magoo: Is Rudy Giuliani the next Steve Forbes? (Bruce Reed, Mar. 30, 2007, Slate)

Always Look on the Supply Side of Life: No matter what else comes out about Rudy Giuliani's three marriages, it's hard to imagine a stranger union than the one he announced this week, with multimillionaire conservative presidential wannabe Steve Forbes. [...]

Like Forbes, Giuliani is a one-note candidate - but they're completely different notes. The Onion teased Giuliani for running for president of Sept. 11th; Forbes ran for president of April 15th, the national day of remembrance for taxes.

As a candidate, Forbes had one idée fixe - the flat tax. Over the years, that has been his economic policy, his social policy, and at times, his foreign policy. Steve Forbes viewed the flat tax the way George W. Bush views Iraq: You're either for it or against me.

Until this week, Giuliani was one of the flat tax's most outspoken Republican opponents. Back in 1996, as the New York Times pointed out yesterday, Giuliani took to the airwaves to attack the Forbes flat tax as "a disaster." This week, Giuliani stood alongside Forbes and offered up a reverse double pander, declaring that he'd rather not have a federal income tax at all, but if we must have one, it ought to be a flat tax.

Giuliani didn't even try to hide the motives behind his strange new arranged marriage. In conjunction with the Forbes endorsement, his campaign started running ads on conservative talk radio touting his support for "supply-side policies." He told Larry Kudlow, "I regard myself as a supply sider for sure."

Never mind that in eight years, Giuliani's supply-side revolution managed to reduce the top personal income tax rate in New York City by nine-tenths of 1%. The campaign's theory is obvious: Giuliani can't win the nomination as a social liberal, and Mitt Romney is already running as the social flip-flopper. So Hizzoner will run as an economic flip-flopper instead.

The trouble with this theory is that even Steve Forbes doesn't believe in it. In 1996, Forbes ran a campaign like Giuliani's - as a pro-choice supply-sider. He lost everywhere but Delaware and Arizona. When he ran the next time, Forbes turned himself into such a pro-life enthusiast he accused Bush of hedging on whether abortion would be a litmus test for judges and his running mate. (He lost again, anyway.)

WELCOME TO FISHERCAT NATION:

Pettitte and Mussina get their work in (Peter Abraham, 3/30/07, Lo Hud Yankees)

Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina each started games over at the minor-league complex across the street. They faced Toronto prospects.

Pettitte vs. Class AA New Hampshire: 4 innings, 7 hits, 4 earned runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. 70 pitches/43 strikes. He retired 8 of the first 10 batters he faced before a rocky fourth inning that included five hits and 34 pitches.

MITT VS. HIMSELF:

Mitt's Biggest Flop (David Hogberg, 3/30/2007, American Prospect)

Mitt Romney's most-heralded achievement as governor of Massachusetts was his overhaul of the Bay State's health care system. However, as I've noted on the AmSpec blog, "RomneyCare" began running into problems pretty quickly. After much initial self-promotion, Romney now is slowly backing away from his health care plan, hinting that the Democrats now in charge should be blamed if it flops. "I was a little concerned at the signing ceremony when Ted Kennedy showed up," Romney recently quipped. But the fact is that RomneyCare was a pretty liberal health care plan right from the start.

In 2006, then-governor Romney promoted his plan with enthusiasm and aplomb. He also did his best to mollify conservatives he sought to court for his presidential campaign who were concerned that his plan was little more than big government in disguise. Regarding the individual mandate that required all citizens of Massachusetts to purchase health insurance, Romney defended it in conservative terms -- even if doing so seemed a bit Orwellian. He referred to the mandate as "a personal responsibility principle." Yet if the government is forcing people to buy insurance, how can that be described as "personal"? Romney has never bothered to explain.

Romney is now avoiding responsibility for RomneyCare.

DUDE, YOU'RE MAKIN' MAJOR LEAGUE MEAL MONEY...:

Peralta a sure thing for Royals (Pitcher, whose career has been more suspect than prospect, has become what Bell calls a 'valuable guy.' (BOB DUTTON, 3/30/07, The Kansas City Star

Royals reliever Joel Peralta has it figured out, he believes. It was a Dominican delicacy that knocked him for a loop last month and resulted in a hospital stay that included a strength-zapping spinal tap.

"Food poisoning," he said. "Because all of the tests that they did to me, they didn't find anything wrong. I know what it was -- it was some part of the cow that I'd never had before."

Hey ... got to ask.

"The tail," Peralta revealed.

Not as bad as you thought, right?

Bad enough, though. It put Peralta, who was born and still lives in Bonao, Dominican Republic, on the shelf for more than a week in a camp where he needed to pitch well to retain his job in a revamped bullpen.

Comments

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ALL MOBBED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO:

Testimony by Giuliani Indicates He Was Briefed on Kerik in '00 (WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, 3/30/07, NY Times)

Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik's relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik's appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Mr. Giuliani's testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik's appointment as the city's top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik's entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation's homeland security secretary.

IT'S NOT BAD ENOUGH THE 5 YEAR OLD CAN KICK YOUR BUTT IN MONKEYBALL? (via The Mother Judd):

Video Games Conquer Retirees (SETH SCHIESEL, 3/30/07, NY Times)

Anxious about the mental cost of aging, older people are turning to games that rely on quick thinking to stimulate brain activity. A step slower than in their youth, they are using digital recreations of bowling, tennis and golf.

Spurred by the popularity of the Nintendo Wii game system among older players, Erickson Retirement Communities, based in Baltimore, which manages 18 campuses around the country with 19,000 total residents, is installing the consoles at each location.

THE GUSHERS WILL STILL BE GOING WHEN THE SUN EXPLODES:

Why hybrid cars aren't selling well (Alan Caruba, March 26, 2007, Enter Stage Right)

In an informative new book by John Ghazvinian, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, the author notes that, "Thanks to more than a decade of wildly successful discoveries by the world's largest oil companies, as well as the efforts of a growing army of Washington's lobbyists and lawmakers, Africa has been quietly transformed in policy-making circles from an insignificant backwater into a potentially lucrative new source of oil and gas for the global market."

"Since 1990 alone," writes Ghazvinian, "the petroleum industry has invested more than $20 billion in exploration and production activity in Africa. A further $50 billion will be spent between now and the end of the decade, the largest investment in the continent's history--and around one-third of it will come from the United States."

"Three of the world's largest oil companies--the British-Dutch consortium Shell, France's Total, and America's Chevron--are spending 15 percent, 30 percent, and 35 percent respectively of their global exploration and production budgets in Africa."

The need for energy, the lifeblood of economic development, is driving nations of considerably divergent outlooks in terms of their religions and their political systems to work together for their own and the greater good of the world's population. It is largely an invisible force at work, but it shows up at the gas pump and in the auto showroom where hybrids go unsold.

The ultimate irony is that Big Oil may do more for world peace and prosperity than all the posturing of diplomats and world leaders combined.

MORE:
The following is an excerpt from the book Untapped by John Ghazvinian (Copyright © 2007 John Ghazvinian)

Since 1990 alone, the petroleum industry has invested more than $20 billion in exploration and production activity in Africa. A further $50 billion will be spent between now and the end of the decade, the largest investment in the continent's history -- and around one-third of it will come from the United States. Three of the world's largest oil companies -- the British-Dutch consortium Shell, France's Total, and America's Chevron -- are spending 15 percent, 30 percent, and 35 percent respectively of their global exploration and production budgets in Africa. Chevron alone is in the process of rolling out $20 billion in African projects over a five-year period.

The overwhelming majority of this new drilling activity has taken place in the so-called "deep water" and the "ultradeep" of the Gulf of Guinea, the roughly 90-degree bend along the west coast of Africa that can best be visualized as the continent's "armpit." Its littoral zone passes through the territorial waters of a dozen countries, from Ivory Coast in the northwest down to Angola in the south, and a good deal of its geology shares the characteristics that have made Nigeria a prolific producer for decades. Indeed, a number of unexpectedly productive fields have been discovered in the Gulf over the past decade. But although the Gulf of Guinea has lately been sub-Saharan Africa's most exciting region for the oil industry, it is hardly the only "prospective" part of the continent (to borrow the industry term). The parched semideserts of southern Chad and southern Sudan have recently added hundreds of thousands of barrels a day to global markets, and a growing chorus of voices is now touting the East African margin as the industry's "next big thing."

But be it east or west, jungle or desert, it is a safe bet that where the drillers go, the politicians, strategists, and lobbyists are not far behind. Washington in particular has taken a keen interest in Africa's growing significance as an oil-producing region since the headline discoveries of the late 1990s. In December 2000 the National Intelligence Council, an internal CIA think tank, published a report in which it declared unambiguously that sub-Saharan Africa "will play an increasing role in global energy markets," and predicted that the region would provide 25 percent of North American oil imports by 2015, up from the 15 percent or so at the time. (This would put Africa well ahead of Saudi Arabia as a source of oil for the United States.) In May 2001 a controversial and fairly secretive energy task force put together by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney declared in its report: "West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-growing sources of oil and gas for the American market."

In the following months, a group of congressmen, lobbyists, and defense strategists came together under the umbrella of the African Oil Policy Initiative Group, and began preaching the message that the Gulf of Guinea was the new Persian Gulf, and that it should become a strategic priority for the United States, even to the point of requiring an expanded military presence. A series of well-placed articles in the American media followed, some breathlessly announcing the inauguration of a new Middle East off the shores of Africa. Before long, the influential Center for Strategic and International Studies had chimed in with a couple of reports, its most recent, in July 2005, claiming that "an exceptional mix of U.S. interests is at play in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea."

During these years, a number of prominent lawmakers in Washington began getting excited about the possibility of shifting some of America's oil dependence from the Middle East to Africa. One former senior official charged with African affairs recalls Kansas Senator Sam Brownback rushing up to him one afternoon in October 2002, positively glowing with excitement. "What do you think about bases in Africa?" Brownback asked. "Wouldn't that be great?"

But does Africa measure up to the hype? After all, the entire continent is believed to contain, at best, 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, making it a minnow swimming in an ocean of seasoned sharks. Africa is unlikely ever to "replace" the Middle East or any other major oil-producing region. So why the song and dance? Why all the goose bumps? Why do so many influential people in Washington let themselves get so carried away when they talk about African oil?

The answer has very little to do with geology. Africa's significance as an oil "play," to borrow the industry lingo, lies beyond the number of barrels that may or may not be buried under its cretaceous rock. Instead, what makes the African oil boom interesting to energy security strategists in both Washington and Europe (and, increasingly, Beijing) is a series of serendipitous and unrelated factors that, together, tell a story of unfolding opportunity.

To begin with, one of the more attractive attributes of Africa's oil boom is the quality of the oil itself. The variety of crude found in the Gulf of Guinea is known in industry parlance as "light" and "sweet," meaning it is viscous and low in sulfur, and therefore easier and cheaper to refine than, say, Middle Eastern crude, which tends to be lacking in lower hydrocarbons and is therefore very "sticky." This is particularly appealing to American and European refineries, which have to contend with strict environmental regulations that make it difficult to refine heavier and sourer varieties of crude without running up costs that make the entire proposition worthless.

Then there is the geographic accident of Africa's being almost entirely surrounded by water, which significantly cuts transport-related costs and risks. The Gulf of Guinea, in particular, is well positioned to allow speedy transport to the major trading ports of Europe and North America. Existing sea-lanes can be used for quick, cheap delivery, so there is no need to worry about the Suez Canal, for instance, or to build expensive pipelines through unpredictable countries. This may seem a minor point, until you look at Central Asia, where the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, stretching from Azerbaijan through Georgia and into Turkey, and intended to deliver Caspian crude into the Mediterranean, had to navigate a minefield of Middle East politics, antiglobalization protests, and red tape before it could be opened. African oil faces none of those issues. It is simply loaded onto a tanker at the point of production and begins its smooth, unmolested journey on the high seas, arriving just days later in Shreveport, Southampton, or Le Havre.

A third advantage, from the perspective of the oil companies, is that Africa offers a tremendously favorable contractual environment. Unlike in, say, Saudi Arabia, where the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco has a monopoly on the exploration, production, and distribution of the country's crude oil, most sub-Saharan African countries operate on the basis of so-called production-sharing agreements, or PSAs. In these arrangements, a foreign oil company is awarded a license to look for petroleum on the condition that it assume the up-front costs of exploration and production. If oil is discovered in that block, the oil company will share the revenues with the host government, but only after its initial costs have been recouped. PSAs are generally offered to impoverished countries that would never be able to amass either the technical expertise or the billions in capital investment required to drill for oil themselves. For the oil company, a relatively small up-front investment can quickly turn into untold billions in profits.

Yet another strategic benefit, particularly from the perspective of American politicians, is that, until recently, with the exception of Nigeria, none of the oil-producing countries of sub-Saharan Africa had belonged to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Thus they have not been subject to the strict limits on output OPEC imposes on its members in an attempt to keep the price of oil artificially high. The more non-OPEC oil that comes onto the global market, the more difficult it becomes for OPEC countries to sell their crude at high prices, and the lower the overall price of oil. Put more simply, if new reserves are discovered in Venezuela, they have very little effect on the price of oil because Venezuela's OPEC commitments will not allow it to increase its output very much. But if new reserves are discovered in Gabon, it means more cheap oil for everybody.

But probably the most attractive of all the attributes of Africa's oil boom, for Western governments and oil companies alike, is that virtually all the big discoveries of recent years have been made offshore, in deepwater reserves that are often many miles from populated land. This means that even if a civil war or violent insurrection breaks out onshore (always a concern in Africa), the oil companies can continue to pump out oil with little likelihood of sabotage, banditry, or nationalist fervor getting in the way. Given the hundreds of thousands of barrels of Nigerian crude that are lost every year as a result of fighting, community protests, and organized crime, this is something the industry gets rather excited about.

Finally, there is the sheer speed of growth in African oil production, and the fact that Africa is one of the world's last underexplored regions. In a world used to hearing that there are no more big oil discoveries out there, and few truly untapped reserves to look forward to, the ferocious pace and scale of Africa's oil boom has proved a bracing tonic. One-third of the world's new oil discoveries since the year 2000 have taken place in Africa. Of the 8 billion barrels of new oil reserves discovered in 2001, 7 billion were found there. In the years between 2005 and 2010, 20 percent of the world's new production capacity is expected to come from Africa. And there is now an almost contagious feeling in the oil industry that no one really knows just how much oil might be there, since no one's ever really bothered to check.

All these factors add up to a convincing value proposition: African oil is cheaper, safer, and more accessible than its competitors, and there seems to be more of it every day. And, though Africa may not be able to compete with the Persian Gulf at the level of proven reserves, it has just enough up its sleeve to make it a potential "swing" region -- an oil province that can kick in just enough production to keep markets calm when supplies elsewhere in the world are unpredictable. Diversification of the oil supply has been a goal -- even an obsession -- in the United States since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. Successive U.S. administrations have understood that if the world is overly reliant on two or three hot spots for its energy security, there is a greater risk of supply disruptions and price volatility. And for obvious reasons, the effort to distribute America's energy-security portfolio across multiple nodes has taken on a new urgency since September 11, 2001. In his State of the Union address in January 2006, President Bush said he wanted to reduce America's dependence on Middle East crude by 75 percent by 2025.

FEAR OF A BLACK HAND:

Agents of change see a free China: Dissidents' visits are an uncomfortable reminder of oppression (Greg Sheridan, March 31, 2007, The Australian)

[T]here are others who see a different China, who imagine a future for China beyond economic growth alone, one that does encompass democracy and human rights.

Four such Chinese visited Australia this week.

There was Wang Jingtao, labelled by Beijing as "the black hand of the black hands" for his role in organising the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989 in Beijing. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail on the charge of seeking to overthrow the Government.

He was joined by Han Dongfang, founder of the China Labour Bulletin. A former railway worker, he was sentenced to four years in jail for founding a trade union and for organising workers to join the student demonstrations of 1989. His notional crime was spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda.

Also visiting was Fei Liangyong, the Cologne-based president of the Foundation for a Democratic China. And the fourth was Albert Ho, the new chairman of the Opposition Democratic Party in Hong Kong.

All share a single vision: that in their lifetimes they may see a democratic China. But lest they, too, be accused of the fatuousness of the Australian businessman, it is clear they see this is emerging not out of a straight-line continuation of trends in China today; rather, only if there is radical political change in China.

They visited in part to speak to a seminar organised by three unusually brave politicians: Victor Perton, a former Liberal member of the Victorian parliament; former Liberal senator Tsiben Tschen; and the federal Labor whip and member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby, by far the most courageous politician in any mainstream party when it comes to Chinese human rights.

Though they were received politely enough, the delegation was hardly the toast of the town. It is remarkable, really, with honourable exceptions, how few senior politicians wanted to see them.

What's that? Labour rights in China? I think I'm washing my hair. Chinese prison conditions? Not my bailiwick. The future of democracy? What if we talk about the future of trade instead.

Of course, it is entirely a good thing to trade with China and to acknowledge the remarkable progress it has made on so many fronts of human as well as commercial endeavour. But it's a pity not to listen to the voices of Chinese democracy, for they too have enlightening, mostly positive, sometimes alarming, things to say.

MORE:
China and the 'enlightened' West: a review of The Writing on the Wall by Will Hutton (Tony Norfield, 3/31/07, Asia Times)

WHAT LIES BETWEEN:

India straddles Middle East divide (Sudha Ramachandran, 3/31/07, Asia Times)

Even as the Indian government courts Israel, its soldiers - part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon - are winning the hearts of Hezbollah and of the Lebanese people.

Hezbollah spokesperson Ali Fayyad praised India's peacekeeping in southern Lebanon at a conference on "War, Imperialism and Resistance" in New Delhi two weeks ago. "The role of the Indian Army deployed as part of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon is very positive and it has no problem with the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah," he said.

India, which has provided soldiers to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for the past nine years, has about 850 soldiers currently deployed in the eastern sector of the 13-mile buffer zone north of the Israeli border.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE W BEHIND THE CURTAIN:

'Axis of democracy' flexes its military muscles (Hisane Masaki, 3/31/07, Asia Times)

Will their love be requited? Japan and the United States have been ardently courting India recently for what appears to be an emerging "axis of democracy" in Asia, also involving Australia, primarily aimed at keeping China in check.

In a significant sign that these efforts by Japan and the US may be bearing fruit, the two countries and India are preparing to hold their first-ever joint military exercise in the Pacific Ocean near Japan.

WHICH IS WHY THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD IS ACTING OUT OF PANIC:

Real US battles with Iran still lie ahead (Mahan Abedin, 3/30/07, Asia Times)

As the war of words between Iran and the United States continues to escalate, the psychological-warfare campaign of the latter is assuming greater and more sinister proportions, so much so that there are now good reasons to believe the US has orchestrated the kidnapping of a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps general in Istanbul.

Unfortunately for Iran, the US psychological-warfare campaign seems to be working. This is evident on both the domestic and external fronts. Domestically, the Mahmud Ahmadinejad government and its allies - who favor a tough approach to nuclear negotiations - are being increasingly attacked by a broad range of political forces. Moreover, on the foreign-policy front, the Islamic Republic continues to lose ground. Having acceded to Saudi Arabia's new and more forceful diplomacy, the Iranians have now acquiesced - albeit very tentatively - to US security designs in Iraq, as evidenced by their participation in the Baghdad security conference this month.

WHY ARE NEOCONS ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW?:

Arab proposal is 'revolutionary change', says Israel (Staff and agencies, March 30, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today welcomed a land-for-peace deal offered by Arab states as a "revolutionary change", but warned that his country remained deeply sceptical about aspects of the plan.

Members of the Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia agreed yesterday to a unified proposal offering Israel recognition and security in exchange for a return to 1967 borders and a "just solution" to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

This plan shows Arab states now realise they "may have been wrong to think that Israel is the world's greatest problem", Mr Olmert told the Haaretz daily in one of a round of newspaper interviews. As such, it was a "revolutionary change in outlook", he remarked.

He told another paper, Yediot Ahronot, that there was now "a real chance that within five years Israel will be able to reach a comprehensive peace deal with its enemies."

Mr Olmert added: "Things are happening that haven't happened in the past, and they're ripening. We have to know how to take advantage of this opportunity."

WHICH IS WHY THE NATIVIST SPASM IS DOOMED TO A SHORT LIFE:

Where Are All The Workers?: Companies worldwide are suddenly scrambling to manage a labor crunch (Business week, 3/30/07)

Employers in some unlikely places say they're having trouble filling jobs. Factory managers in Ho Chi Minh City report many of their $62-a-month workers went home for the Tet holiday in February and never came back. In Bulgaria, computer experts are in such demand they can't be bothered to answer the want ads of a Los Angeles movie studio. And in Peoria, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT ) is struggling to train enough service technicians. The problem in each case: not enough people who are both able and willing to do the work for the posted pay. "We've got a global problem...and it's only going to continue to get worse," says Stephen Hitch, a human resources manager at Caterpillar.

A global labor crunch, already being felt by some employers, appears to have intensified in recent months. That's in spite of widely publicized layoffs, including Citigroup's (C ) plans to shed as many as 15,000 staffers. In fact, U.S. unemployment remains low--just 4.5% in February--and even companies in countries with higher jobless rates are feeling pinched. "It's not just a U.S. phenomenon," says Jeffrey A. Joerres, CEO of Manpower Inc., the staffing agency. On Mar. 29, Manpower was to release the results of a survey of nearly 37,000 employers in 27 countries. The study found that 41% of them are having trouble hiring the people they need.

What's going on here? With global growth running at a strong 5% a year since 2004, the strategies that companies developed to hold down labor costs--including offshoring work to low-wage countries--are running out of gas far sooner than many expected. The seemingly inexhaustible pools of cheap labor from China, India, and elsewhere are drying up as demand outstrips the supply of people with the needed skills. "Companies were hoping they wouldn't have to worry about human resources at all," says Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Now they do."

LAST GASP:

The Revolutionary Guards are the Real Power in Iran (David Ignatius, 3/30/07, Real Clear Politics)

The Revolutionary Guards seized the hostages, if that's the right word, at a time when they are under intense and growing pressure. U.S. troops captured five of their intelligence operatives last January in the Iraqi city of Irbil. Perhaps the Revolutionary Guards commanders wanted some bargaining chips to get their people back.

There are larger forces at play, too. The Revolutionary Guards were targeted in the new U.N. sanctions enacted last weekend against Iran's nuclear program -- which, as it happens, is run by the Revolutionary Guards. The elite military group may have wanted to retaliate by imposing its own brute sanctions against Britain, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

European officials note that the provocative move comes at a time of growing speculation about new discussions between the United States and Iran -- a dialogue the Revolutionary Guards may oppose. The two nations met in Baghdad this month as part of a regional conference on Iraqi security, and it was expected that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would meet her Iranian counterpart at a follow-up meeting in Istanbul in April. That meeting may be in jeopardy if the British sailors aren't returned soon.

The Revolutionary Guards may also have hoped to sabotage diplomatic negotiations over the nuclear issue. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said several weeks ago that the United States was getting "pinged all over the world'' by Iranian intermediaries who wanted a resumption of negotiations. Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, hinted that message in his recent contacts with the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana. But the prospect of nuclear talks may have been blown out of the water, as it were, until the British issue is resolved.

THEY'VE WON THE ARMS RACE BY A MILE, BUT...:

GM reviews state of team (Howard Ulman, March 29, 2007, AP)

Before Boston's final Grapefruit League game, a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Epstein discussed Daisuke Matsuzaka, the rookie pitching star from Japan, and players whose exhibition game performances weren't as good.

Matsuzaka has a 2.04 ERA with one game left, a brief tuneup on Saturday in Philadelphia, before his first regular-season start next Thursday in Kansas City. Reliever Hideki Okajima has a 2.84 ERA in 10 appearances.

"I'm very happy with the transition process," Epstein said. "The rest of our players deserve credit for taking something that could have been a distraction and turning it into a positive."

The lack of distractions didn't help captain Jason Varitek or rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Varitek is 4-for-39 (.103) and Pedroia is 12-for-57 (.211). Varitek turns 35 on April 11 and is coming off a career-low .238 batting average.

Though Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka certainly represent an imposing front three to the rotation, Epstein isn't ready just yet to anoint it as the best starting staff he's had in his five years as general manager.

"I don't like assessing teams on paper," Epstein said. "On paper, it's got as high a ceiling as any team we've had. We got it going pretty good towards the end of 2004. Those guys made all their starts. That's an important thing.

"Often times, you look at the end of the year, the team that won the pennant is the team that had a rotation that made the most starts and stayed the healthiest, the top five guys. They can take the ball and not miss starts, that's a good sign. That's a pretty important factor for us and for all of our competitors as well."

In the past, Epstein has admitted that building a bullpen is an art he has struggled at. How does he like this year's bullpen now that Jonathan Papelbon is back in the closer's role?

"It's always wait-and-see [approach] for every team," Epstein said. "I think we have some veteran talent in the big leagues right now. I think we have the best depth we've had in Triple-A in a long time. That's a pretty good Triple-A bullpen that we have right now, and starting rotation. Considering that we usually use at least 20 pitchers to get through the season, I think we're built better for the long haul."

YET THERE IS NO FRENCH "TRAIN IN VAIN":

Paris calling: Rachid Taha was just one of the musicians inspired by the Clash's visit to Paris in 1981. John Lewis explores the band's enduring influence in France (John Lewis, March 30, 2007, The Guardian)

Rachid Taha wasn't the only musician to be inspired by the Clash on that seven-night residency. Just as the Sex Pistols show at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976 served as the catalyst for Morrissey, Ian Curtis, Mark E Smith and Mick Hucknall, the Clash's run at the Théâtre Mogador five years later was witnessed by a veritable who's who of French rock. Manu Chao was in the audience with friends who would later form Mano Negra, as was Helno and his ramshackle world music combo les Négresses Vertes, gypsy rockers Lo'Jo, members of anarchist punk collective Bérurier Noir, and Kortatu, the Basque ska-punk band formed by Fermin Muguruza.

"The gigs were important for many reasons," says Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, editor of the French rock and arts weekly Les Inrockuptibles, who was also at Mogador in 1981. "French pop was always very apolitical. In May 1968, leftwingers were suspicious of music, and pop music in particular, and that suspicion continued for many years. Even when punk kicked off in France in 1977 with bands like the Stinky Toys - who played on the same bill as the Sex Pistols in London - it was very much an arty fashion movement for rich kids. It had none of the anger you got in England at the time. But the Clash changed all that. Mogador '81 was May 1968 gone rock'n'roll: the slogans, the graffiti, the combat fatigues, the air of revolution. It was all there."

"The Clash were militant and hedonistic in equal measure," says Rachid Taha. "And that was exciting to me. You could be a rebel and be in the biggest rock'n' roll band in the world! It was also clear that they loved music. Joe Strummer had nothing to do with that terrible punk cynicism. By the time of Mogador '81 they weren't just a rock'n'roll band, they were doing hip-hop, reggae, ska, country and western, disco, but making it sound their own. I think that's what gave French musicians the confidence to do the same with whatever music they were into. In some ways, they introduced us to the world."

E...:

Earmark monitor's exit baffles, troubles GOP (Sean Lengell, 3/29/07, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The federal agency that tracked pork-barrel spending during the 12 years of the Republican congressional majority has discontinued the practice since Democrats took power, riling lawmakers suspicious of the timing and concerned about the pace of fat being added to bills. [...]

Several lawmakers, particularly those who had come to rely on the agency to identify the dollar value of earmarks in appropriations and other laws, were caught off guard by the change.

"It's troubling -- I can't think of any justification for that," said Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. "They've done good research in the past. ... That's what they're here for -- the benefit of the members" of Congress.

ONE ECONOMY TO RULE THEM ALL (via Kevin Whited):

Economy Grows at 2.5 Percent Pace in 4Q (Jeannine Aversa, 3/29/07, AP)

The economy grew at a 2.5 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, healthier than previously thought but still largely caught up in a spell of sluggishness.

The new reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Thursday, was an improvement from the prior estimate of a 2.2 percent growth rate for the October-to-December period. However, it marked the third quarter in a row where the economy's growth clocked in at a lethargic 2 percent or better, reflecting the drag of the crumbling housing market on overall business growth.

ALL PUNCHED OUT:

Arab peace plan could see detente with Israel (Staff and agencies, March 29, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

According to a draft version, the summit will "call on the government of Israeli and the Israelis at large to accept the Arab peace initiative and seize the available opportunity to resume direct and serious negotiations on all tracks".

The initiative, first put together at a summit in 2002, has won uniform acceptance from Arab leaders gathered for the two-day event in Riyadh, but could yet founder, with Israel expressing doubts about the extent of territorial withdrawal and the possible return of large numbers of Palestinian refugees to their former homes.

Israel says it could accept the offer with certain changes, but some Arab leaders have, thus far, refused to amend it. [...]

The Arab unanimity over the deal was due in large measure to Saudi Arabia, which bridged its quarrels with Syria and persuaded the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas to stay onside.

The initial offer in 2002 was ignored by the west and Israel at the height of the second intifada, and was then overshadowed by the Iraq war.

The plan's revival represents the broadest possible Arab support for a permanent accommodation with Israel.

WHERE'S THE VINCENNES WHEN YOU NEED IT?:

... And Prepare To Use Your Guns (DANIEL JOHNSON, March 29, 2007, NY Sun)

Remember the Iranian hostage crisis between 1979 and 1981? This, surely, was the lowest point in American foreign policy since 1945. The botched attempt to rescue the hostages defined the failure of the Carter presidency, just as their release indicated that the Reagan era would be different.

Well, now we have a new Iranian hostage crisis. By "we" I mean in the first instance the British. Last Friday, eight royal navy sailors and seven royal marines were taken prisoner by Iranian Revolutionary Guards while carrying out a routine inspection of a cargo ship, on the false pretext that they had entered Iranian waters illegally. This was unmistakably an act of war.

Since then, the Iranians have refused to give any information about the whereabouts of the captives, let alone consular access. All we know is that they are being interrogated and accused of espionage. There have been hints that a show trial is being prepared. So-called students have already held a mock trial of the hostages that ended in shouts of "death to Britain."

The Foreign Office reflex in these situations is to appease. It did so in a similar incident that occurred in 2004, when eight marines were captured. The Foreign Office prides itself on the fact that the marines were soon released. It omits to mention that the marines were physically abused by their guards and humiliated by being forced to grovel on Iranian television. One of their boats is on display in Tehran as a trophy.

The feeble British response three years ago will have emboldened the Iranians to go further this time. They know how these stories will be depicted in the Western press.

HECK, THAT'S A COMPLIMENT:

Bloc Party attacks Oasis with thesaurus: Frontman Kele Okereke calls the Gallagher lads 'pernicious' and 'repetitive Luddites' in an interview (Rosie Swash, March 29, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

Repetitive Luddites is even a better name for a band than Oasis.

HECK, HE'S ONLY THE SECOND BEST SS IN NYC:

Stealing Mickey's Mantle: José Reyes could be the greatest--if he doesn't figure out just how much Mets fans want from him (Allen Barra, March 27th, 2007, Village Voice)

He is, to listen to his teammates and others who watch him on a day-to-day basis, the game's new Superman, or at least Superboy. "He's our igniter--offensively and defensively--especially on offense," said Mets third baseman David Wright during last year's National League Championship Series. "As he goes, we go."

Carlos Beltran, the Mets' best slugger, is fond of telling his young teammate, "You have the potential to be one of the best players in the game." Mets announcer Gary Cohen calls Reyes "the most fabulously gifted player in the game, and the most exciting player baseball has had so far in this century." Reyes is also, to listen to the swarms of radio talk-show callers and bloggers, an antidote to the city's weariness of the ongoing dialogue over Alex Rodriguez's psyche.

These are great notices for a show that, for all intents and purposes, is still on the road. José Reyes is just 23 years old--he will be 24 on June 11--and has played only two full seasons of Major League Baseball, fewer than 440 games overall. He has never won a Most Valuable Player award and in fact has never led the leagues in any major category except stolen bases, a stat regarded by most baseball analysts as more gaudy than meaningful. The list of things that José Reyes has so far not done is quite long: He has never hit as many as 20 home runs in a season, driven in more than 81 runs, or batted as high as .310. But if greatness is measured in potential, many of Reyes's contemporaries are ready to vote him into the Hall of Fame right now.

"I can't remember the last time I saw such a combination of power, speed, and enthusiasm," says his manager, Willie Randolph, who played with Reggie Jackson and coached Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. "I ask myself what his limits could be, and I don't know the answer. He might have more sheer talent than any player I've ever seen."

Given the fact that Mr. Reyes plays ss, rather than the outfield, he really only needs to raise his OBP to take his place in the firmament along with the greatest of lead-off men.

However, Alex Rodriguez turned 24 in July of 1999 and the year before he hit .310 (.360/.560) with 42 HRs, 124 rbi, and 46 sbs. Not too shabby....

IS IT STILL A REVOLUTION IF THE STUPID PARTY DOESN'T REALIZE THEY EFFECTED IT?:

Health Savings Accounts can do double duty as backup for insurance, retirement booster (Associated Press, 3/29/07)

New rules governing Health Savings Accounts are making them more attractive to consumers, who can use HSAs to help reduce health insurance costs now - and, potentially, in retirement.

Health Savings Accounts are like Individual Retirement Accounts for health care. They were created by Congress in 2003 so that workers could cover some of their medical costs with pretax money if they have high-deductible health insurance plans.

The idea is that workers and their employers can fund the tax-free accounts, with withdrawals used for copays at doctors' offices, prescription and nonprescription medicines, and hospital services not covered by insurance.

Because unused balances in the HSAs can be rolled over from year to year, some financial advisers are suggesting that the accounts can be a way for families to accumulate money to be used to cover health care costs in retirement, including Medicare deductibles and long-term care insurance.

JoAnn Mills Laing, author of "The Consumer's Guide to HSAs," said that there were 3.6 million HSA accounts at the end of 2006 with $5.1 billion in deposits, up from 1.1 million accounts with $1.2 billion in deposits at the end of 2005.

She predicts further growth, in part because more companies are offering high-deductible insurance plans to their workers. That's because these plans are less costly for employers and employees than traditional health policies but still give workers coverage for medical catastrophes.

THERE'S A WRITER WHO NEVER MET ROGIE VACHON:

Quirk of fortune: Superstitions the norm among baseball players (Stan Grossfeld, March 29, 2007, Boston Globe)

The Red Sox have had plenty of superstitious players.

First baseman Dick Stuart -- known as "Dr. Strangeglove" -- used to get comfortable in the batter's box and then take his used gum out and toss it across the plate. Third baseman Wade Boggs made it into the Hall of Fame with a routine of eating chicken before every game, taking batting practice at exactly 5:17, and running wind sprints at exactly 7:17. He also took exactly 150 ground balls in practice and carved the Hebrew "chai" symbol in the dirt each time he stepped to the plate, even though he is not Jewish. Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra taught a whole generation of New England kids to tap their toes and adjust their batting gloves before they stepped in.

No major sport has more rituals or superstitions than baseball. Players avoid touching the foul lines as if they are the third rail. They never talk to the pitcher during the late stages of a no-hitter. Some behave as if the baseball gods will strike them dead if they don't follow the same rituals.

Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn used to sleep with his bat.

EVEN BUSHROVE ISN'T THAT BRILLIANT:

Bush Derides Iraq War Measure: He Says Democrats Will Be Blamed if Funds Are Held Up (Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman, 3/29/07, Washington Post)

In his most combative comments yet, President Bush mocked Democratic lawmakers yesterday for including a deadline for troop withdrawals and "pork" projects in an Iraq spending bill, declaring that "the American people will know who to hold responsible" if funding for the war stalls. [...]

Many Republicans are eager for Bush to veto the legislation, believing it could bolster him politically by reinforcing his role as commander in chief, while bringing about the Democrats' first public defeat on Iraq since they took control of Congress in January. Even GOP critics of Bush's Iraq record regard the Democratic withdrawal effort as overly meddlesome.

"The war will be funded," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told CNN yesterday morning. "And we will give these young people a chance to succeed, not a signal that we're going to depart at a certain date and divorce totally from reality on the ground."

In a speech to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Bush said "members of Congress need to stop making political statements and start providing vital funds for our troops. They need to get that bill to my desk so I can sign it into law."

Although Democratic leaders said they still hope to negotiate a final war spending bill that the president could sign, they now view a presidential veto as unavoidable. To prepare, they are studying the events of 1995 and 1996, when President Bill Clinton vetoed appropriations bills and then successfully blamed Congress for shutting down the government.

SUPLEXED HIM:

Sox: Let's do lunch: Matsuzaka, Okajima on menu (Michael Silverman, March 29, 2007, Boston Herald)

As soon as the right elbow of Daisuke Matsuzaka banged hard against the edge of the table, 10 pairs of eyeballs widened to expose maximum whiteness.

"Whoa, what just happened? Is he OK? How do you say 'Tommy John surgery' in Japanese," was the evolution of the thought process flashing through the collective minds of Red Sox [team stats] media types, invited by the team to have lunch yesterday with Matsuzaka, reliever Hideki Okajima and Japanese interpreters Masa Hoshino and Sachiyo Sekiguchi.

Matsuzaka had been asked to answer a question about how aware he had been of the Red Sox' historic 2004 World Series drive. While answering in Japanese, he had been rolling both his forearms forward when his right elbow connected with the table. He did not blink or even rub the elbow, but everyone could not wait for Hoshino to explain what the heck had just happened.

"That was Pedro (Martinez) throwing Don Zimmer to the ground," said Hoshino, prompting a collective round of laughter that pretty much defined the relaxed and helpful breaking-of-bread session, even if Matsuzaka's answer was about 2003.

REAGAN/SIMPSON REDUX:

White House works behind the scenes for immigration reform: The administration has been meeting with key Republican senators to devise a consensus plan aimed at garnering wide GOP support (Nicole Gaouette, March 29, 2007, LA Times)

With President Bush looking to counter a legacy increasingly marred by the war in Iraq, the White House has launched a bold, behind-the-scenes drive to advance a key domestic goal: immigration reform. [...]

The intense effort -- conceived by the president's chief political strategist, Karl Rove -- is intended to ensure that Bush will achieve at least one crucial policy victory in the last two years of his presidency.

Success on immigration reform could also accomplish another Rove goal, shoring up the GOP's weakened support among Latinos, who are even more important to the party as independent voters become increasingly disenchanted.

IT'S NOT IMPORTANT TO BE HAWKISH, JUST TO SEEM SO:

Hard line on inflation adds to fears: The Fed chief's stance underestimates the risk of waiting too long to cut interest rates, critics say (Molly Hennessy-Fiske, March 29, 2007, LA Times)

The primary sources of inflation -- rising energy and commodity prices -- are not easily controlled by tight monetary policy, critics say. If the Fed waits too long to cut interest rates and stimulate growth, unemployment could start rising and slip beyond its control too.

By holding interest rates at current levels, as it has since August, the central bank risks recession while failing to significantly lower inflation, some analysts say.

The Fed "always focuses on inflation risks until the growth story is so blindingly obvious that it can no longer be ignored.... The longer this lasts, the bigger and quicker will be the easing," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, predicting that the Fed will cut " very aggressively" this year when the slowing economy becomes more obvious.

JUST BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW HISTORY ENDS DOESN'T MEAN WE GET THERE SMOOTHLY:

In Zimbabwe, even loyalists are disloyal: His own party, the army and police are all ready for Mugabe, 83, to go. (Robyn Dixon, March 29, 2007, LA Times)

Even as Mugabe cracks down on the opposition, his support among core backers has evaporated as hyperinflation eats into the business interests of ruling party heavyweights and gobbles police and army wages, causing mass desertions.

"The internal problems we have got are much larger than the problems created by the MDC," said the party official. "I don't think that even the president worries about the MDC. He's much more worried about what is happening in his own party."

The official's willingness to talk, even anonymously for fear of political reprisal, is a sign of the divisions in ZANU-PF and the difficulties Mugabe faces in overcoming party opposition to his plans to run for president again next year. Internal party opposition has already forced him to abandon a bid to extend his term to 2010.

African leaders, normally mute about Zimbabwe's human rights abuses and economic collapse, also have grown more alarmed since Tsvangirai and dozens of other activists were arrested and beaten in the capital, Harare, on March 11. About 100 activists have been hospitalized since then. Many were abducted from their homes and severely beaten, often with iron bars.

On Wednesday, at least nine other opposition leaders were arrested overnight, said opposition spokesman Eliphas Mukonoweshuro. Tsvangirai was released unharmed several hours later.

The opposition is demanding a new constitution leading to free and fair elections next year and is reportedly willing to offer Mugabe immunity from prosecution. Without reform, it has threatened to boycott next year's election.

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community, a regional group, will hold an emergency meeting in Tanzania today at which they are expected to press Mugabe to spell out plans to retire and ensure an orderly transition.

The small ruling party clique that still supports Mugabe argues that ZANU-PF will collapse in chaos if he goes.

MORE:
Africa: How we killed our dreams of freedom: Across the continent, liberation movements that fought against colonial rule proved unable to sustain democratic governance. We cannot keep blaming the past. (William Gumede, 02 April 2007, New Statesman)

In the inner sanctum of South Africa's ruling African National Congress they have coined a word for it: "Zanufication". As Zimbabweans flee across the border to avoid police brutality or the hardships of an economy in free fall (inflation at more than 1,700 per cent and shortages of basic foodstuffs), they whisper it in hushed tones, a warning.

A senior national executive member of the ANC, Blade Nzim ande, warned recently: "We must study closely what is happening in Zimbabwe, because if we don't, we may find features in our situation pointing to a similar development."

Unions, sections within civil society and church groups daily inveigh against the South African government's head-in-the-sand policy towards Zimbabwe and President Thabo Mbeki's "quiet" diplomacy. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has complained to the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the public broadcaster, over its failure to cover the Zimbabwean meltdown. Although the ANC in South Africa and Zanu-PF are light years apart, the spectre of "Zanufication" haunts South Africa, raising the question: "Is there something inherent in the political culture of liberation movements that makes it difficult for them to sustain democratic platforms?"

The irony is that it is the leaders of former heroic liberation movements who have become stumbling blocks to building a political culture on the African continent based on good governance.

THE MAN WHO SAVED TELEVISION?:

A 'Law & Order' Presidential Candidate? (Michael D. Shear, 3/29/07, Washington Post)

For now, anyway, Thompson's supporters are apparently stuck with reruns of "Law & Order." But his fans could be disappointed on one front if he does ultimately run.

Election law requires that TV stations give all candidates equal time. Experts said Thompson -- like the last movie-star candidate, Ronald Reagan -- would probably vanish from the airwaves except in news programming. That would probably mean that he would leave "Law & Order" and that networks would not air his reruns during the campaign.

In the 1970s and 1980s, stations dropped "Bedtime for Bonzo" and other Reagan movies during his campaigns for governor of California and for president.

POLICY IS JUST POLITICS PUT INTO EFFECT:

Former Justice official defends firings: The attorney general's former chief of staff testifies today before Congress about the role of politics in dismissals. (Richard B. Schmitt and Richard Simon, March 29, 2007, LA Times)

The former Justice Department official who orchestrated the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year plans to tell Congress today that such dismissals are appropriate when prosecutors prove ineffective from "a political perspective."

In his first public remarks on the firings, D. Kyle Sampson says the process of identifying underperforming U.S. attorneys "was not scientific nor was it extensively documented," according to testimony prepared for delivery to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

None of the prosecutors was asked to resign for "improper reasons," notes a copy of Sampson's statement obtained by The Times, but an unusually broad standard was used to decide on proper grounds for dismissing them.

"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," Sampson says, noting that a federal prosecutor who falls down on the job from a political perspective is "unsuccessful."

WHO YA GONNA CALL?:

Faced with Iranian blackmail, Europe must show real solidarity: Iran depends on German government export guarantees. Let the EU presidency put its money where its mouth is (Timothy Garton Ash, March 29, 2007, The Guardian)

Last week, while the European Union celebrated 50 years of peace, freedom and solidarity, 15 Europeans were kidnapped from Iraqi territorial waters by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. As I write, those 14 European men and one European woman have been held at an undisclosed location for nearly a week, interrogated, denied consular access, but shown on Iranian television, with one of them making a staged "confession", clearly under duress. So if Europe is as it claims to be, what's it going to do about it? Where's the solidarity? Where's the action?

MORE:
Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs (Claus Christian Malzahn, 3/29/07, Der Spiegel)

The Germans have believed in many things in the course of their recent history. They've believed in colonies in Africa and in the Kaiser. They even believed in the Kaiser when he told them that there would be no more political parties, only soldiers on the front.

Not too long afterwards, they believed that Jews should be placed into ghettos and concentration camps because they were the enemies of the people. Then they believed in the autobahn and that the Third Reich would ultimately be victorious. A few years later, they believed in the Deutsche mark. They believed that the Berlin Wall would be there forever and that their pensions were safe. They believed in recycling and environmental protection. They even believed in a German victory at the soccer World Cup.

Now they believe that the United States is a greater threat to world peace than Iran. This was the by-no-means-surprising result of a Forsa opinion poll commissioned by Stern magazine. Young Germans in particular -- 57 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds, to be precise -- said they considered the United States more dangerous than the religious regime in Iran.

The German political establishment, which will no doubt loudly lament the result of the poll, is largely responsible for this wave of anti-Americanism.

THIRD AS IN ONLY:

Actuaries call for 'third way' (om Stevenson, 29/03/2007, Daily Telegraph)

Pension fund advisers have called on the Government to change the law to allow a new "third way" of shared risk retirement schemes.

The Association of Consulting Actuaries described its proposal for a new tier of pensions to sit between generous final salary schemes and riskier defined contribution plans as a "once in a generation opportunity to re-energise workplace pensions".

Ian Farr, ACA chairman, said: "Shared risk schemes could fill the gap being left as final salary schemes close to new entrants and future accrual".

THE BALL IS IN THE SUPREMO'S COURT:

The two faces of Tehran: how diplomats and extremists fight for control of foreign policy (Angus McDowall, 29 March 2007, Independent)

Taking advantage of the deep fractures in the Iranian state, the revolutionary guards have created a fait accompli, forcing the government to adopt a position from which it will be hard to back down. Driven by their experiences of the revolution and eight bloody years of war with Iraq, many guardsmen want to see Iran take a more aggressive stance against Britain and America.

The confusion is caused by Iran's unusual political system, which combines democratic elements such as an elected president and parliament with the theocratic rule of a supreme leader. In practice, this means decisions are rarely made by a single person: they are disputed and fought over by a host of political factions and vested interests including religious leaders, elected politicians, wealthy merchants - and soldiers.

Analysts believe the latest confrontation stemmed from a desire to show Britain and America that Iran can hit back despite coming under sanction for its nuclear programme and having military figures arrested in Iraq. Revolutionary guards and their supporters in government have always viewed the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan with the deepest suspicion and accuse America and Britain of fomenting unrest among their own ethnic minorities.

MORE:
Iran ahead of the game - for now (Kaveh L Afrasiabi, 3/30/07, Asia Times)

"The US is not escalating tensions with Iran," said a Pentagon spokesperson in reference to the major US naval exercise in Persian Gulf "off the coast of Iran", per the wire reports. That is, a hair stretch beyond Iran's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters.

The Iranians can be excused if they think otherwise - that the purpose of the massive US maneuver at their doorstep, involving two aircraft-carrier task forces and some 10,000 troops, is to send a "strong signal" to them about the price they may have to pay if they persist in defying the will of US power and its allies. This is not to mention a French aircraft carrier making a solidarity appearance in Persian Gulf waters at the same time, thus adding to the overall Western menace with regard to Iran.

YOU JUST KNOW FOLKS WILL EVENTUALLY BE FARMING KUDZU:

Deadly Nut Tapped as Biofuel Source (Thanaporn Promyamyai, 3/28/07, AFP)

On a large tract of land in Thailand's dusty northeast, Suwit Yotongyot hopes to make a fortune on jatropha, a plant with a poisonous nut that might hold the key to the nation's energy troubles.

The flowering bush has long been used as live fencing in dry regions around the world.

But it's the deadly black nuts that have caught the attention of scientists who say that it could help produce biodiesel and ease Thailand's reliance on imported oil.
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The nuts are more than 30 percent oil, which burns with a clear flame, producing a fraction of the emissions of traditional diesel. As a bonus, the oil can be used in simple diesel engines without refining, just by mixing it with fuel.

YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS ONE YOURSELVES:

U.N.: Don't Disturb Decorum With Truth (Democracy Project)

OL' FRED:

Another Beltway Bubba?: Fred Thompson has spun an insider background into a good ol'boy image that could take him to the White House (Michelle Cottle, December 1996, Washington Monthly)

With his traditional Southern values, his common-sense reform goals, and his folksy demeanor, "Ol' Fred," as the senator sometimes refers to himself, puts a populist face on a party struggling with an elitist image. Factor in Thompson's media savvy, and you have the makings of a political icon. You have, in fact, the makings of another Ronald Reagan.

Thompson's acting background alone might have made the Reagan comparisons inevitable. But he also has that innate "Reaganesque" charisma that neither MGM nor Julliard can impart. (In describing the senator, people use "mesmerizing" and "magnetic" often enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck.) Also, like no Republican since Reagan, Thompson embodies what the GOP is desperate to achieve: a marriage between its social traditionalists and its fiscal conservatives. He doesn't even face the gender gap the party grapples with. And unlike fantasy candidate Colin Powell, Thompson is a political animal willing to sling--and get slapped with--some mud if need be.

Thompson's no-nonsense demeanor also marks him as statesmanlike. "In Tennessee, we have two Republican U.S. senators, a majority in the House, a Republican governor--all these people look to Fred as a unifying voice," says Alex Fischer, executive vice-president of Akins & Tombras, a Knoxville-based public relations firm that works with the state's prominent Republicans. "He pulls everybody together and has kept the party here on a more even kilter than in other parts of the nation"

For all of his charm and presence, Thompson is more than just a pretty face. Once people finish gushing over how genuine and friendly he is, they move on to terms like "smart," "intelligent," even "brilliant" (giving him a leg up on Reagan in the brains department). His professional reputation among lawyers and politicians alike is that of a sharp mind and quick wit. "Fred brings with him the grace of a Southern lawyer, and he's an excellent negotiator," says Sam Dash, Thompson's majority counterpart during the Watergate hearings. "He knows how to look laid back even when he's not. He can tell a joke and drawl his voice to make everybody feel he's not under anxiety. He'll get you talking about an entirely different topic, then from out of nowhere comes the punch"

The GOP is well aware of Thompson's potential. Tennessee was the epicenter of the 1994 Republican revolution, with the party picking up the governorship, two Senate seats, and two seats in the House. Republicans credit much of their Tennessee landslide to Ol' Fred.

Buoyed by Thompson's performance at home, party leaders lost no time trotting him out to test on a national audience. In December 1994--having served a total of one day in elected office--Thompson was picked by Bob Dole to give the GOP's response to President Clinton's televised tax-cut message. Chosen largely for his familiar mug and intimate speaking style, Thompson served up a performance that garnered rave reviews. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post declared him the clear victor in this Battle of the Bubbas.

Since then, Thompson's cup has continued to run over. He has been listed as a "rising star" and "freshman all-star" in the Washington press. In October Bob Dole invited him down to his Bal Harbor, Fla., condo to help Dole practice for the presidential debates, and after waltzing into his second term last month, Thompson is slated to assume the chairmanship of the influential Governmental Affairs Committee--a major coup for someone with only an abbreviated, two-year term under his belt. "Right now," says Susan Thorp, political columnist for The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, "he's the poster boy of the party, and he knows it"

Already there are rumblings about Thompson as a future contender for the White House. (With Vice President Gore the likely Democratic choice, this sets up the intriguing possibility of an all-Tennessee ballot.) Even the opposition is taking notice. One former Clinton campaign staffer predicts: "Forget Kemp. Thompson is the Republican to beat in 2000"

Thompson's swift rise to power can be attributed to equal parts luck, savvy, and timing Like many of the 1994 freshmen, he rode the prevailing wave of antigovernment sentiment into office, campaigning on a platform of term limits, campaign finance reform, and slashing congressional pay and perks. Arguing that career politicians lack the courage to make the tough decisions (i.e., spending cuts), Thompson maintains congressional service should be an interruption to, rather than the foundation of, a career. He advocates filling Congress with "citizen legislators," people not dependent on the government for their livelihoods. Thompson's 1994 campaign ads combined this reform theme with a down-to-earth image, featuring the candidate in bucolic settings, talking about eliminating Congress's "million-dollar pensions" and teaching them that "we can't tax our way to prosperity:' His stump speeches painted voters a picture of Thompson riding up to the Capitol in his truck, picking Washington up "by the scruff of the neck and giving it a good shake"

The voters ate it up. Positioned as a champion of the people, Thompson stood out in sharp contrast to his cerebral, wonkish opponent, then-Rep. Jim Cooper. The epitome of a New Democrat, Cooper had undercut much of his support on the left by supporting NAFTA and voting against the administration's crime bill. His proposal for overhauling health care (the major competitor of the President's plan) had earned him the moniker Mr. Managed Care, and the insurance industry contributions to his campaign marked him as the puppet of special interests. With his 12 years in the House, Cooper didn't stand a chance against Thompson's popular cut-their-pay-and-send-them-home campaign.

Once in office, the unthinkable happened: Thompson began working to make good on his word.

HECK, MOST OF THEM STILL THINK ALGER HISS WAS INNOCENT:

'Guilty' puts end to the Hicks myth (Miranda Devine, March 29, 2007, Sydney Morning Herald)

By pleading guilty to terrorism this week, David Hicks has plastered egg all over the faces of his supporters - the naive hysterics who believe he is a tortured innocent as well as those glory-seeking civil rights lawyers who have attached themselves to his case.

JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN THEM DOESN'T MEAN THEY'VE FORGOTTEN YOU:

Powder Keg at Shatt al-Arab: The Shatt al-Arab waterway, where Iranian forces seized 15 British sailors last week, has been contested by regional and world powers for decades. The first shots of the Iran-Iraq war were fired here. Iranian sensitivities and the West's desire to protect Iraqi oil installations make for an explosive mix. (Bernhard Zand, 3/28/07, Der Spiegel)

Most of Iran's oil wealth lies concentrated in Chusistan province, which is why the British would have liked nothing more, after World War One, than to make that stretch of land with its Arab population part of a British-controlled sheikhdom. But that was prevented by Shah Reza Pahlevi, who managed to consolidate his power. Still the region remained disputed, because the British remaining in Iraq continued to covet it.

Violating international custom, the British fixed the border along Shat al-Arab in such a way that the entire river, which marks the border between Iran and Iraq, became Iraqi territory - right up to the Iranian coast. It was only in 1975 that the government in Baghdad accepted shifting the border to the center of the river - a concession in return for which Shah Resa Pahlevi ceased supporting insurgent Iraqi Kurds.

In 1980, Saddam Hussein changed his mind, and the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran began with an Iraqi bombardment of the Iranian oil refinery town Abadan on the eastern bank of the Shat. Britain and the United States sided with the Iraqi dictator, providing him with military reconnaissance, weapons and even poison gas - a decision that continues to represent a bitter legacy liability for the West, and especially Britain, to this day.

Andrew Phillips, a British member of parliament, recently noted that the number of Iranians killed between 1980 and 1988 is comparable to that of British losses during World War One. In Iran, anti-British sentiment isn't limited to conservatives or to the radicals surrounding President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's much more deep-seated than the hatred of the "Great Satan," the United States, that is constantly reiterated, partly for propaganda purposes.

MORE:
The appeasement of Iran (Melanie Phillips, , 28 March 2007, Daily Mail)

[I]n its response to these events, Britain seems to be in some kind of dreamworld. There is no sense of urgency or crisis, no outpouring of anger. There seems to be virtually no grasp of what is at stake.

Some commentators have languidly observed that in another age this would have been regarded as an act of war. What on earth are they talking about? It is an act of war. There can hardly be a more blatant act of aggression than the kidnapping of another country's military personnel.

What clearly does belong to another age is this country's ability to understand the proper way to respond to an act of war. When his Marines were seized by the Iranians, the commander of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert, did nothing to stop them and later said it was probably all a misunderstanding. If Nelson had been such a diplomat in such circumstances, Trafalgar would surely have been lost.

Our Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the Government had been 'disturbed' by the incident. The Prime Minister took three days to say that the seizure was 'unjustified and wrong' and mouthed platitudes about the welfare of the detainees. Yesterday he talked severely of 'moving to a new phase'.

My goodness, the Iranian regime must be shivering in its shoes. With what contempt they must regard us -- a country that stands impotently by while its people are kidnapped and then does no more than bleat that it is 'disturbed'.

What on earth has happened to this country of ours, for so many centuries a byword for defending itself against attack, not least against piracy or acts of war on the high seas?

Twenty-five years ago, we re-took the Falklands after the Argentines invaded. Faced with an act of war against our dependency, Mrs Thatcher had no hesitation. Aggression had to be fought and our people defended. It was the right thing to do.

Can anyone imagine Mrs T wringing her hands in this way over Iran's seizure of our Marines?

IT'S been a tough month for the British Navy. On March 7, it learned that Tony Blair's Labor government was going ahead with drastic cuts in its budget and number of ships. By this time next year, the once-vaunted Royal Navy will be about the size of the Belgian Navy, while its officers face a five-year moratorium on all promotions.

If that wasn't demoralizing enough, last Friday the Iranian Navy seized a patrol boat containing 15 British sailors and Marines, claiming they'd crossed into Iranian waters. They're now hostages and may well go on trial as spies.

The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.

There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.

IT WAS SAFE RIGHT UP UNTIL THEN:

HIV man 'tricked sex slave' (Natasha Robinson, March 29, 2007, The Australian)

A MAN charged with deliberately spreading HIV allegedly tricked his lover - who had registered himself with the local council as a dog - into having unsafe sex on the basis he could not transmit the disease.

E...:

Patrick aide accused of meddling in labor cases (Frank Phillips, March 28, 2007, Boston Globe)

Two commissioners on the state's quasi judicial labor relations board are accusing Governor Deval Patrick's chief labor aide of interfering with the agency on cases involving two unions that endorsed Patrick and donated heavily to his gubernatorial campaign.

MATZOH CONTINENT:

That Europe may again be "leaven for the world" (Benedict XVI, Chiesa)

It clearly emerges from all this that one cannot think of building an authentic "common European home" while overlooking the very identity of the peoples of our Continent.

This is, in fact, an historical, cultural, and moral identity before being geographical, economic, or political; an identity constituted by a collection of universal values that Christianity has contributed to forging, thereby acquiring a role that is not only historical, but also foundational in relation to Europe.

These values, which constitute the soul of the Continent, must remain in the Europe of the third millennium as a "ferment" of civilization. In fact, if these were to be diminished, how could the "old" Continent continue to carry our the function of being "leaven" for the entire world? If, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the governments of the Union wish to "get closer" to their citizens, how could they exclude an element of European identity as essential as Christianity is, and with which the vast majority of them still identify themselves? Is it not a cause for surprise that today's Europe, while striving to position itself as a community of values, seems more often to contest the idea that there are universal and absolute values? Does not this remarkable form of "apostasy" from itself, even before [apostasy] from God, perhaps induce it to doubt its very identity?

This ends in the spread of the conviction that the "weighing of benefits" is the only method of moral discernment, and that the common good is synonymous with compromise. In reality, if compromise can constitute a legitimate balancing of different particular interests, it becomes a shared ill whenever it involves agreements that are harmful to the nature of man.

A community that constructs itself without respect for the authentic dignity of the human person, forgetting that every person is created in the image of God, ends up by not being good for anyone.

This is why it appears increasingly more indispensable that Europe should guard itself against that pragmatic attitude, widespread today, which systematically justifies compromise on essential human values, as if the acceptance of a presumably lesser evil were inevitable. Such pragmatism, which is presented as balanced and realistic, is not that way deep down, precisely because it denies the dimension of values and ideas that is inherent in human nature.

When, later, secularist and relativist tendencies and currents are woven into this sort of pragmatism, Christians are in the end denied the right to intervene as Christians in public debate, or at the very least their contribution is disqualified with the accusation that they want to safeguard unjustified privileges.

In the present historical moment and in the face of the many challenges that mark it, the European Union, in order to be a valid guarantor of the order of law and an effective promoter of universal values, cannot help but acknowledge clearly the certain existence of a stable and permanent human nature, the source of rights common to all individuals, including those who deny them. In this context, the right to conscientious objection must be safeguarded whenever fundamental human rights may be violated.

Dear friends, I know how difficult it is for Christians to make a strenuous defense of this truth of man. But do not grow weary, and do not be discouraged! You know that it is your task to contribute to building up, with the help of God, a new Europe - one realistic but not cynical, rich in ideals and free from naïve illusions, inspired by the perennial and life-giving truth of the Gospel.

THERE IS NO BRITAIN:

Labour faces meltdown as SNP heads for power (Angus Macleod and Philip Webster, 3/28/07, Times of London)

The SNP is heading for victory in the Scottish parliamentary elections on May 3, in what would be a severe blow to Gordon Brown shortly before he becomes Prime Minister, an opinion poll for The Times suggests today.

Mr Brown could go into the next general election with the Nationalists the largest single party in his own backyard, and facing the prospect of an SNP-led minority executive in Edinburgh seeking to challenge him at every turn. [...]

If the SNP leader Alex Salmond becomes First Minister, Mr Brown would face taunts that he would be a Scot in power in England whose writ did not run on issues such as health, education and transport in Scotland.

THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL:

Senate backs Iraq retreat -- Bush again says no (DAVID ESPO, March 28, 2007, AP)

JUST CAUSE YOU CAN'T PLAY 2ND DOESN"T MEAN YOU CAN'T RUN THE TEAM...:

Who's on First? Who Cares. What's His GPA?: The future of baseball is a 16-year-old mathlete from Bloomington (G.R. Anderson Jr., 3/27/07, City Pages)

Victor Wang does the math. Seated in an overstuffed recliner in his family's living room, the Bloomington Jefferson High School junior is tossing out terms that wouldn't be out of place in his Calc II class. Coefficient. Correlation. Predictor. He shrugs: He knows he's a math geek and now you know he's a math geek, too. So what?

Besides, Wang is actually talking baseball, not calculus, on this recent Sunday afternoon. He keeps an eye on a TV in the corner broadcasting a Twins spring training game. He likes the hometown nine's chances this year, but he warns that the team can't stumble out of the gate like last season. He sums up some of the team's notable qualities.

"Justin Morneau is a good player, but he's not an elite player," Wang says flatly of the MVP first baseman. "But for a guy who comes this cheap, you gotta have him."

Wang's assessment is more than just the talk of a casual fan. It is the assessment of an obsessive fan and baseball number-cruncher. Wang recently garnered notoriety in the cloistered niche of baseball stat-heads when the New York Times publicized his article for a small baseball quarterly called By the Numbers. In the February 25 Times story, Alan Schwarz prominently discussed Wang's work to explain a statistic. [...]

For even by the malleable standards of the world of baseball stats, where numbers can be manipulated to say pretty much anything, Wang's August 2006 essay in By the Numbers dealt with a rather arcane stat called Gross Production Average. Wang examined all the runs scored by every team since 1960, then referred to a stat called OPS, or on-base-plus-slugging percentage. On-base percentage measures how often a player gets on base, while slugging percentage measures the number of bases for every at bat.

Wang set out to prove an age-old theory: that on-base percentage is a far better measure of a player's value than slugging, and a greater contributor to a team's total runs. In Wang's accounting, multiplying on-base percentage by a coefficient of 1.8 and adding it to slugging percentage, drew the strongest correlation to runs scored. And, voilà! A new stat, GPA, was born. [...]

Wang possesses an even stronger hint of humility. "If I can contribute stuff to the statistics community, that's good," he concludes, sounding like a graduate of the Bull Durham school of media relations. "But I don't want to do this forever. I want to run a baseball team."

WHAT THEY MEAN BY SUFFERING:

Putting brisket to the taste test: A chef's sophisticated version goes up against a traditional Passover recipe. Which will be the favorite? (Lucy Stille, March 28, 2007, LA Times)

Friday night brisket

Total time: 5 hours and 25 minutes, plus cooling time

Servings: 8 to 10

Note: Adapted from Joan Nathan's "Jewish Holiday Cookbook." Bottled chile sauce such as Heinz Chili Sauce is widely available.

1 (4- to 5-pound) brisket

2 (1-ounce) packets onion soup mix

1 1/2 cups chile sauce

6 cloves garlic

1 1/2 pounds carrots

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the meat fat-side up in a large Dutch oven. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the meat. Cover with the chile sauce and 2 cups of water, or more if needed to almost cover the meat. Crush the garlic cloves and add to the liquid.

2. Cover the pan and cook for 4 hours. Let the brisket cool for about 45 minutes and refrigerate overnight. Then skim the fat off the meat.

3. About 1 1/2 hours before you wish to serve the brisket, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the brisket to a cutting board and slice it thinly across the grain. Trim, peel and cut the carrots into one-half-inch-by-2-inch sticks. Cook the brisket and carrots covered for 1 hour, until the brisket is heated through and the carrots are fork tender. (Alternatively, the brisket can be completed the same day: While the brisket is cooling for 45 minutes, trim, peel and cut the carrots into one-half-inch-by-2-inch sticks. Remove the brisket and slice it thinly across the grain. Skim the fat off the top of the liquid, add the sliced brisket back to the pan with the carrots, cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 more hour, or until carrots are fork tender.) Serve on a platter.

SORRY, WE CAN'T TALK TO YOU, WE'RE PRETENDING:

Salam Fayyad: Everyone's favorite Palestinian (Barak Ravid, 3/27/07, Ha'aretz)

The old-new Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayyad, took advantage of last weekend, before the new Palestinian unity government was sworn in, to say "farewell" to his Israeli colleagues. In effect, already at the end of February, when Fayyad held talks with senior Israeli officials at the Finance and Foreign Ministries, he was aware that by joining a government which includes Hamas, he - the Palestinian politician most esteemed in the West - would be added to the growing list of Palestinians Israel is boycotting. "I very much enjoyed working with you," Fayyad told one senior Israeli official during that weekend. "It is a shame that we will not be able to continue talking. I can only hope that this will change in the future."

Fayyad was not the only one who regretted the end of contacts. Many Israelis, both senior and less so, were sorry to see him leave. Everyone who met him in the past few years was enchanted by him. In Jerusalem, Washington, Paris, London and many other capitals, Fayyad became the ultimate Palestinian "icon," the ideal partner. Tzipi Livni, Ephraim Sneh and other Israeli politicians enjoyed sitting and talking with him in the captivating garden of the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, or on the terrace of the King David Hotel, in the city's west. Fayyad is the only Palestinian in whose hands they were prepared to place hundreds of millions of dollars in the belief that these monies would indeed be used to pay salaries. [...]

Fayyad is a strange bird in Palestinian politics. On the one hand, he is the Palestinian politician most esteemed by Israel and the West. However, on the other hand, he has no electoral power whatsoever in Gaza or the West Bank. Before last year's parliamentary elections he was courted by Fatah, which promised him that if he joined the party's slate he would become prime minister. But Fayyad read the political map astutely and realized that Fatah did not have a good chance at winning. Instead, he set up the Third Way Party with Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abed Rabbo. They won only two seats but Fayyad remained an extremely influential figure in the PA's political arena.

FORCING THE CONTRADICTIONS:

Quebecers no longer have to take it or leave it (William Johnson, March 27, 2007, Ottawa Citizen)

What an upset. No, a volcano. The first minority government since 1878. Mario Dumont's party, the Action Democratique du Quebec, surging beyond anything that was expected. The Parti Quebecois under Andre Boisclair falling back to an unimaginable third place. This campaign has changed the political landscape of Quebec. It broke the three-decades-long polarization between secessionist Parti Quebecois and federalist Quebec Liberal Party. [...]

Several factors contributed. Stephen Harper's offer of a new "open nationalism" and his Quebec breakthrough in the 2006 elections ended a long deadlock. He displaced the federal Liberals, courted Quebec and Charest shamelessly, and rehabilitated federalism for Quebecers. Some nationalists now look to Charest to deliver tangible "gains" for Quebec, such as reversing federal intrusions into Quebec's jurisdictions, recognizing the Quebecois nation, settling the fiscal imbalance to Quebec's advantage, and promising to restrict federal spending power. It also happened that Boisclair's personality provoked resentment outside Montreal's cosmopolitan circles. The more conservative were disturbed by a prospective premier who was an avowed homosexual, had taken cocaine while a cabinet minister, whose former chief of staff Luc Doray pleaded guilty in 2001of defrauding the government to pay for purchases of alcohol and cocaine, who appeared in a gay parody of Brokeback Mountain and who advocated removing the crucifix from the National Assembly.

The very epitome of the city slicker, Boisclair's decline in the polls coincided with a grassroots revolt against cosmopolitan Montreal and "reasonable accommodations," exemplified when Herouxville adopted a municipal code against stoning women and veiling faces except at Halloween.

While Charest and Boisclair initially deprecated this nativist movement, Dumont defended it as "a cry from the heart" in defence of Quebec's identity and values. He scored with an unexpected new category of nationalists.

Dumont tapped into a conservative nationalism earlier associated with Maurice Duplessis's Union Nationale and Real Caouette's Ralliement Creditiste. He positioned his party as the alternative to federalism and separatism, ending the deadlock between Liberals and Pequistes by taking a third way called "autonomism."

His slogan: "To assert ourselves without separating." Quebec should develop its own constitution, take control of all income taxes, create a Quebec citizenship. He denounced Charest for putting off constitutional reform and Boisclair for weakening Quebec by holding another losing referendum. He repudiates the Council of the Federation because it brings Quebec down to the level of other provinces. He would negotiate "d'egal a egal" with the rest of Canada, dealing as an equal nation with the other nation of Canada. Shades of Daniel Johnson Sr. [...]

Dumont's issues, once derided, became so popular during the campaign that the new Quebec government will have to consider them seriously. They include $100 a week for each child under six not in subsidized daycare; $5,000 for a third or subsequent child; a greater role for private medicine to ensure timely treatment, and putting 25,000 people on welfare back to work.

HEIMLICH? HE WAS WORKIN' HER LIKE A PEZ DISPENSER:

Retriever did Heimlich on me: owner (Chicago Sun-Times, March 28, 2007)

Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

TWO MORE GOOD SOURCES FOR PODCASTS FOR YOUR WALK:

Baseball Prospectus Radio

and

ISI has a bunch of old lectures on-line in MP3 form, including a bunch by Russell Kirk and one by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, who Friend Robert Mitchell has recommended to us all.

WHAT FUTURE?:

The Foundering Continent: a review of The Future of Europe by Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi (CLAIRE BERLINSKI, March 28, 2007, NY Sun)

It takes on average 62 working days, 16 separate documents, and the equivalent of $5,000 to acquire the permits to open a business in Italy. In France, it takes 53 days, 15 documents, and $4,000. In America, it takes a mere four days, four documents, and $166. In "The Future of Europe" (MIT Press, 172 pages, $24.95), economists Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi provide a wealth of such examples to buttress their argument that Europe is on a state-subsidized train to economic and political irrelevance, but as anyone who has tried to do business in Europe knows, those statistics alone are all you really need.

The 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the founding document of the European Economic Community, has occasioned festivities across the Continent -- free beer and sausages on the streets of Berlin, a gala performance in Brussels by the stars of the Eurovision Song Contest, state-subsidized raves -- accompanied by a great deal of self-congratulation. The editors of Newsweek's international edition have declared this Europe's "Golden Moment." Europe, they write, is now "a global superpower of world-historical importance, second to none in economic clout ... its values are spreading across the globe -- far more attractive, in many respects, than those of America." As for the gloomy pundits who keep insisting that Europe is in terminal decline, well, if only they would visit Europe, they would see this is "wrong, even absurd," and if anything, "Europe's trajectory is up, not down."

Messrs. Alesina and Giavazzi have not only visited Europe but are, in fact, Europeans, albeit Europeans who, like many of their most talented contemporaries, have taken up residence in America. Mr. Alesina is a professor of political economics at Harvard University, where, he notes, Europeans who have fled their countries' moribund universities comprise about a third of the economics department. Mr. Giavazzi is a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They are not persuaded by the vision of Europe's trajectory as an infinitely ascending golden ladder. The extended postwar period of European economic growth is over, they argue, and barring "serious, deep and comprehensive reforms," Europe will "inexorably decline, both economically and politically."

Disputing the oft-asserted claim that Europeans work less than Americans because they have perfected the art of living, Messrs. Alesina and Giavazzi contend that European idleness is the predictable result of stultifying labor market regulations, high taxation, and the excessive power of Europe's labor unions.

BREAKING THE DROUGHT:

The Long-Cherished Anger of Geoffrey Hill (ADAM KIRSCH, March 28, 2007, NY Sun)

For the last few years, one of the running scandals in the world of poetry was the failure of Geoffrey Hill to find an American publisher -- or, rather, the failure of any American publisher to make its way to Mr. Hill's doorstep. Mr. Hill, an Englishman who teaches at Boston University, has been considered one of the leading poets of his generation ever since his first book, "For the Unfallen," was published in 1959. But in the past 10 years, he has become something more, thanks to a sudden and surprising transformation of his style.

For four decades, Mr. Hill was the most costive of poets. His "New and Collected Poems 1952-1992" runs to barely more than 200 pages, and each of his poems seemed to require long gestation: They were gorgeously wrought, highly allusive, and obsessed with the difficulty of honest poetic speech. Mr. Hill seemed to write little and rarely because every word he did write was charged with conscientious labor. His style was darkly beautiful, saturnine, full of Latin echoes:

Platonic England, house of solitudes,
rests in its laurels and its injured stone,
replete with complex fortunes that are gone,
beset by dynasties of moods and clouds.

These lines, from Mr. Hill's 1978 collection "Tenebrae," also suggest his favorite themes. He is deeply engaged with English history, including church history, and with the landscape that is history's theater. At a time when English poetry was becoming more modest, confessional, and cosmopolitan, Mr. Hill's high seriousness and implied conservatism made him distinctly unfashionable.

Then, in the mid-1990s, came a surprising change. Mr. Hill began to write very rapidly, his trickle of poems turning into a torrent -- he has published more verse in the past 10 years than in the previous 40. And his poems, while still intricate and ambiguous, became much more personal, outlandish, and comical. Instead of small, poised objects, they started to seem like installments in an ongoing monologue. In the rants that make up "The Triumph of Love" (1998) and "Speech, Speech" (2000), the poet presents himself as a cross between King Lear and Coriolanus -- a bemused, outraged, always eloquent denouncer of his times and his fellow men. Sometimes, the manic energy of Mr. Hill's writing sends it careening over the cliff of sense, so that all the reader can glean is a mood:

Ruin smell of cat's urine with a small gin.
Develop the anagram -- care to go psychic?
Psych a new age, the same old dizzy spell.
Force-field of breakdown near the edge.

Whether Mr. Hill's late style is an improvement on his early style remains an open question. What is beyond doubt is that the transformation has made Mr. Hill one of the most fascinating poets at work today -- one whose every new book promises a revelation. That is why so many readers of poetry have been aghast to see Mr. Hill's publishers grow smaller and smaller, and finally disappear, so that his last collection -- "Scenes from Comus" which appeared in England in 2005 -- was never even released here. It is now common to hear English critics call Mr. Hill the greatest poet alive; in America, where he actually lives, it is hard even to find his books.

Happily, the drought has broken with the publication of "Without Title" (Yale University Press, 96 pages, $26).

Coarsely textured cookie makes a smooth finish (ELIZABETH PUDWILL, 3/26/07, Houston Chronicle)

CORNMEAL HAZELNUT COOKIES

* ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 large egg
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup cornmeal
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1½ teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup toasted, skinned hazelnuts, chopped (see note)

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Combine the dry ingredients, and add to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Add the vanilla and nuts. Shape the dough into 2 rolls, each approximately 1 inch in diameter, and wrap well in wax paper. Chill for several hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the dough into ¼-inch-thick discs, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

THE PROBLEM BEING THAT RUDY ISN'T THE GUY THEY THINK THEY KNOW:

Too Late? (Lisa Fabrizio, 3/28/2007, American Spectator)

[T]his week, I saw an interesting thing happen. As dubiously as I normally regard polling data, the latest from Rasmussen -- its first national telephone survey involving Thompson -- may be highly instructive. The results show that without even the brim of his hat in the ring, he already leads Hillary Clinton by a percentage point.

True, it also has him trailing Barack Obama by 12%, but the bad news for Obama is that although he has a robust 54% favorability rating, he has a 36% unfavorable mark, which means that only 10% of those polled are left with no opinion of him. Likewise, only two percent are undecided about Mrs. Clinton; not surprising since she's been in the national spotlight for nearly 15 years. And while Rudy -- with a 66% favorability rating -- beats both of them head to head poll-wise, only a slim five percent of those polled had no opinion of him.

In other words, with nine months to go before the first primaries kick off, most folks have their minds made up about the front-runners. On the other hand, according to the poll Thompson shows a 36% favorable and only a 23% unfavorable number meaning that he's got a potential 41% of the folks to win over. Should his Reagan-like affability and common sense values appeal to say, even half of them, we've got ourselves a horse-race with a real conservative entry in it.

IT CAN'T GO MUSLIM FAST ENOUGH:

Drug smuggler can deduct cost from taxes (AP, March 28, 2007)

A Dutch court has added a new item to the list of activities eligible for tax relief: drug-running.

Judges have declared a fisherman convicted of smuggling drugs could deduct the cost of buying and shipping hashish to the Netherlands from his income on his tax return.

IT MAY NOT BE TOO LATE TO PICK BURKE OVER ROUSSEAU...:

France's Agents of Change (David Ignatius, 3/27/07, Real Clear Politics)

"This election will end more than 30 years in which politics was dominated by the old system,'' says Olivier Duhamel, a professor of politics at Sciences Po. He notes that most French voters under the age of 50 have known only two presidents, Chirac and his predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, who served a combined 26 years. "The French people know they can't go on this way, with more unemployment and less growth than the rest of the world,'' Duhamel says.

Nicholas Sarkozy, the conservative front-runner, announced two years ago that he wanted nothing less than a "rupture'' from the old politics. He proclaims his fondness for America and was eager to get his picture snapped with President Bush at the White House last fall, which is more than you can say for most Republican congressmen. Most French people secretly love American imports, such as jazz and Hollywood movies, but Sarkozy actually likes liberal, free-market economics, which led a rival to dub him "a neoconservative with a French passport.''

Sarkozy has trimmed his pro-U.S. rhetoric in recent months and has said that Chirac was right to oppose the Iraq War. Even so, his election would mark a sharp break with the Gaullist tradition of French foreign policy, which has defined itself since the 1950s in reaction (and often opposition) to U.S. hegemony. Sarkozy, a hard-nosed child of immigrants, would break that mold. Among other things, he would be closer to Israel and less automatically friendly with the Arabs than recent French presidents.

BUREAUCRACIES NEVER FORGET:

Remember to Forget, Borrow, and Learn: That's the formula for innovation offered by the Tuck School's Dr. Vijay Govindarajan, a world authority on the subject (Marshall Goldsmith, 3/28/07, Business Week)

My good friend Dr. Vijay Govindarajan is a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School and a world authority on strategic innovation. He is also one of the best executive educators and business-school professors in the world. He and I recently spoke about innovation in older businesses. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow: [...]

What is the hardest part of executing innovation?

For a breakthrough idea to have a chance, there must be a careful approach to building the new business unit .The new business must be designed in such a way that they can forget, borrow, and learn. They are the three fundamentals. They must forget the parent company's success formula, borrow the parent's resources, and learn how to succeed in a new environment. It's kind of like when you leave home to go to college. You forget your parent's rules, borrow their laundry facilities, and learn how to succeed on your own terms.

What is the most common mistake that gets made when companies try to innovate?

They underestimate just how hard it is for an organization to shake itself loose from its past. Organizations understandably become very complex machines--machines hard-wired to excel in the current game. As a company gets bigger and bigger, employees get more and more specialized, and the number of people who understand how the machine works as a whole gets smaller and smaller.

And then along comes an idea for an innovative new business. Step 1 in building it is to destroy the hard-wiring. In creating the new business unit, you must be questioning every assumption about the way the core business works. That's a tall task that we call "forgetting."

Why do you say that "forgetting" is one of the most important steps for innovation?

I once had a baseball coach who told me that he couldn't teach me how to hit until he managed to get me to forget all of the bad habits that I picked up on the elementary school playground. This coach understood that forgetting is often a prerequisite for learning. Forgetting is crucial for innovation because at its core, innovation is an experiment-and-learn process. When a company clings to established mindsets and assumptions--when it fails to forget--it cannot learn.

So how do you get an organization to "forget"?

To get an organization to forget, you have to change the underlying rules that control how an organization behaves--things like how it hires and promotes, how it confers status, how it plans, how it evaluates business performance, how it awards bonuses, the core values to which it aspires, and more.

I SEE RED PEOPLE:

Senate Democrats Win Vote to Keep Iraq Withdrawal Timetable in Emergency Spending Bill (Fox News, 3/27/07)

Senate Democrats defied President Bush's threat of a veto Tuesday and narrowly won a vote to keep in place a timetable that calls for the beginning of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq within 120 days of passage of the measure.

An attempt to scuttle the timetable was offered as an amendment to the emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 50-48 vote to defeat the amendment was a reversal of a vote earlier this month that rejected a similar timetable.

The first one to guess which state's two senators turncoated on this wins a corncob.

THE STAN TOO BUSY TO HATE (via Kevin Whited):

Kurdistan lines up production deals (Upstream, 3/25/07)

Iraq's Kurdish regional government expects to sign deals with at least 10 foreign oil companies by the end of the year, it said today, as it strives to increase output by 1 million barrels per day over five years.

Ashti Hawrami, Minister of Natural Resources in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, said five production-sharing agreements have already been signed with the details to be released in the next few weeks.

The companies involved include Norway's DNO, Turkey's Genel Enerji together with Addax Petroleum and Canada's Heritage Oil and Western Oil Sands.

"We are in discussions with a number of other companies and they are ready to come in," Hawrami told a briefing for potential investors in London, Reuters reported. "We are holding things back, not them."

HE MAY NOT BE BLACK, BUT HE SURE AIN'T CAJUN:

Breaux Waits For Ruling on La. Candidacy (Chris Cillizza, March 27, 2007, Washington Post)

Former senator John Breaux (D-La.) will run for governor this November -- assuming the state's top cop lets him. [...]

Still, even if Breaux gets the okay from Foti to run, his election is far from a sure thing. Republicans are extremely confident that their likely candidate -- Rep. Bobby Jindal -- can beat all comers.

A recent poll by Southern Media & Opinion Research showed Jindal with a surprisingly large lead -- 56 percent to 26 percent -- over Breaux.

(via Ed Driscoll):

Mayor Wants Billboards Removed (AP, March 27, 2007)

The head of the city's teachers union said it won't take down "Stop the killings" billboards despite complaints from business owners and the new mayor that they're driving away business.

Mayor Cory Booker, who campaigned last year on a promise of reducing crime, says the signs fuel a negative image of the city, where a record 106 people were killed last year - the highest number in a decade. [...]

"I think we have a serious problem," said [Joe Del Grosso, president of the Newark Teachers Union], whose union endorsed Booker's opponent and is at odds with Booker over school vouchers. "It's about people dying."

MR. ROVE, JOE LIEBERMAN ON LINE #1:

Senate's Iraq vote likely to come down to the wire (ANNE FLAHERTY, March 27, 2007, Associated Press)

An upcoming Senate vote on the Iraq war could come down to just one or two votes, testing Democratic unity on a proposal to begin bringing combat troops home.

Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor and Ben Nelson are expected to deliver the critical votes this week, when members decide whether to uphold legislation that orders some troops home right away, with the goal of ending combat missions by March 31, 2008.

OUGHTN'T CRUISE PLAY THE OTHER ROLE?:

Family of German war hero slam Cruise casting (Guardian Unlimited, 3/27/07)

A forthcoming film about Adolf Hitler's would-be assassin has sparked criticism from the dead man's family. Descendants of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg object to the choice of Tom Cruise for the lead role, fearing that the story will be turned into "propaganda" for the actor's Scientology beliefs.

Focus, a German news magazine, has reported that Cruise is currently considering the role of von Stauffenberg. A spokesperson for United Artists, the film's backers, is believed to have confirmed the news.

Born into an aristocratic Bavarian family, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was the Wehrmacht colonel behind the July 20 plot to kill the Führer in 1944. The German officer placed a bomb in a suitcase under a table at a meeting Hitler was attending. The bomb detonated but was not strong enough to kill the German leader, although four members of his inner circle died in the blast. Von Stauffenberg was subsequently caught and executed.

BUT JOHN EDWARDS WILL KEEP CAMPAIGNING!:

Tests show Snow suffering from recurrence of cancer (JENNIFER LOVEN, 3/27/07, Associated Press)

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's surgery to remove a small growth showed that his cancer has returned and spread to his liver, the White House said Tuesday.

President Bush, making a brief statement to reporters in the Rose Garden, struck an optimistic tone that echoed how aides said Snow was feeling. Bush said he looked forward to the day when Snow returns to the White House.

''His attitude is one that he is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat,'' Bush said. ''My attitude is that we need to pray for him, and for his family.''

Snow, 51, had his entire colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. A small growth was discovered last year in his lower right pelvic area, and after months of monitoring, tests now show that it has grown slightly. It was removed Monday.

Doctors determined that it was cancerous, and found during the surgery, which was exploratory, that his cancer had metastasized, or spread, to his liver, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

DEFENDING TERRORISTS AND KILLING BABIES:

Amnesty International UK endorses policy to campaign for abortion (Simon Caldwell, 3/27/07, Catholic News Service)

The British section of Amnesty International has endorsed a policy in support of legalizing abortion which could change the human rights group's global neutral policy on abortion.

TWO MAN RACE:

The Fred Thompson Effect (The Nation, 3/27/07)

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll is out and it is pretty startling. Despite being undeclared, actor Fred Thompson is polling at 12%. Giuliani, meanwhile, is down 13%, partly as a side-effect of Thompson's potential candidacy, partly as a result of increased conservative awareness of Rudy's personal profile. And Romney barely registers anymore.

E... (via pchuck):

'Billboard King' Reid Looks to Leave Mark on Senate War Funding Measure (Elizabeth Williamson, 3/27/07, Washington Post)

In a (quite) large sign that protecting U.S. troops isn't the only thing on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's mind these days, the Nevada Democrat inserted an item into the Senate's Iraq war funding bill -- safeguarding billboards.

Senate debate began yesterday on the bill, which provides $122 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; sets a goal of March 31, 2008, for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq; and -- if Reid has his way -- allows thousands of billboards destroyed by bad weather to be rebuilt.

For the senator, who has referred to himself as the King of Billboards, "it's a constituent issue, but it's a value that he believes in," said Reid spokesman Jon Summers. [...]

About 40 billboard companies operate in Nevada. Over the past two years, Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund has received $6,000 in contributions from the OAAA's political action committee.

FORTUNATELY, AL GORE IS LIKE A TUMS TO THE SUN!:

Sun Burp Blasted Ozone Layer in 1859 (Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News)

A titanic burp of protons from the sun in 1859 appears to have temporarily weakened Earth's ozone layer, say scientists studying ice cores from Greenland. The evidence of the massive radiation event is in the form of an excessive amount of ozone-related nitrates in the ice from that year.

The huge September 1859 solar flare appears to have gushed 6.5 times the protons of the largest flare seen by modern science -- which was in 1989. By modeling the space storm using nitrate data from the ice -- compared with the modern event also detectable in the ice -- the researchers estimate that more than three times as much ozone was destroyed by the 1859 event than in the 1989 blast.

The discovery is a hint at just how nasty the solar weather can get.

PINOCHET'S ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE...:

Pakistan's Silent Majority Is Not to Be Feared (MOHSIN HAMID, 3/27/07, NY Times)

I WAS one of the few Pakistanis who actually voted for Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the rigged referendum of 2002. I recall walking into a polling station in Islamabad and not seeing any other voter. When I took the time required to read the convoluted ballot, I was accosted by a man who had the overbearing attitude of a soldier although he was in civilian clothes. He insisted that I hurry, which I refused to do. He then hovered close by, watching my every action, in complete defiance of electoral rules.

Despite this intimidation, I still voted in favor of the proposition that General Musharraf, who had seized power in a coup in 1999, should continue as Pakistan's president for five more years. I believed his rule had brought us much-needed stability, respite from the venal and self-serving elected politicians who had misgoverned Pakistan in the 1990s, and a more free and vibrant press than at any time in the country's history.

The outcome of the referendum -- 98 percent support for General Musharraf from an astonishing 50 percent turnout -- was so obviously false that even he felt compelled to disown the exercise.

Rigged elections rankle, of course. But since then, secular, liberal Pakistanis like myself have seen many benefits from General Musharraf's rule. [...]

But there have been significant problems under General Musharraf, too. Pakistan has grown increasingly divided between the relatively urban and prosperous regions that border India and the relatively rural, conservative and violent regions that border Afghanistan. The two mainstream political parties have historically bridged that divide and vastly outperformed religious extremists in free elections, but under General Musharraf they have been marginalized in a system that looks to one man for leadership.

What many of us hoped was that General Musharraf would build up the country's neglected institutions before eventually handing over power to a democratically elected successor. Those hopes were dealt a serious blow two weeks ago, when he suspended the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. [...]

Despite his subsequent apology for the Geo incident, General Musharraf now appears to be more concerned with perpetuating his rule than with furthering the cause of "enlightened moderation" that he had claimed to champion. He has never been particularly popular, but he is now estranging the liberals who previously supported his progressive ends if not his autocratic means. People like me are realizing that the short-term gains from even a well-intentioned dictator's policies can be easily reversed.

General Musharraf must recognize that his popularity is dwindling fast and that the need to move toward greater democracy is overwhelming. The idea that a president in an army uniform will be acceptable to Pakistanis after this year's elections is becoming more and more implausible.

GEE, EUROPE SEEMS SO KID FRIENDLY...:

'Dump your children here' box to stop mothers killing their babies (Roger Boyes, 3/27/07, Times of London)

Desperate mothers are being urged to drop their unwanted babies through hatches at hospitals in an effort to halt a spate of infanticides that has shocked Germany.

At least 23 babies have been killed so far this year, many of them beaten to death or strangled by their mothers before being dumped on wasteland and in dustbins.

Police investigating the murders are at a loss to explain the sudden surge in such cases, which have involved mothers of all ages all over the country.

MORE (via Brian Boys):
Meanwhile, here's Al Gore's view of humankind:

READ WITHOUT YOUR SPOUSE THINKING YOU'RE LAZY:

These feet were made for walking: Forget jogging , gyms and fancy sports gear - the best way to lose weight, avoid illness and improve your brainpower is to take a daily walk (Peta Bee, March 27, 2007, The Guardian)

It requires no gym subscription, no spandex, Lycra or legwarmers and is an activity to which even the most fitness-phobic individual might not be averse. So what is the latest exercise trend that we are being encouraged to embrace for the good of our health and the sliminess of our thighs? A daily stroll. Earlier this month, the LA Times predicted that walking would be this year's biggest fitness trend and that we will be taking to pavements in hordes akin to the jogging boom of the 1970s. Indeed, high-profile personal trainers on both sides of the Atlantic can now be spotted marching their clients around parks and pavements.

Lucy Knight, author of Walking for Weight Loss (Kyle Cathie, £12.99), says that the benefits of walking are countless. You use pretty much the same muscles as running - strengthening the hamstring, quadriceps, iliopsoas muscles at the front of the hips, calf and the gluteus maximus muscles with each stride - but the activity is far kinder to the joints. "It is not a high-impact activity," she says. "So, while it strengthens and stabilises the muscles around your major joints, it reduces the wear and tear on the cartilage and minimises the risk of joint injury." Researchers, too, are in no doubt that the resurgence of a daily stroll to boost health is much needed. "Humans were designed to walk," says James Levine, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic college of medicine in Minnesota, who has studied the benefits. "We spent 7m years of our history walking and now, all of a sudden we are sitting down. That is having a profound effect on our health."

A daily walk has been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes. And studies have shown that a broader set of disorders - from sexual dysfunction to cognitive decline - can also be aided by a brisk walk around the block. Indeed, JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard University, goes as far as describing a daily stroll as being "as close to a magic bullet as you'll find in modern medicine. If there was a pill that could lower the risk of chronic disease like walking does, then people would be clamouring for it".

You can also get free Audiobooks at LibriVox and good podcasts at ESPN, NPR, Radio Lovers (try The Avenger; Nero Wolfe; & Hornblower), and MLB.com.

ISN'T EVERYONE JUST ROOTING AGAINST NOAH?:

Sizing Up the Final Four: Dan Shanoff's Bracket Isn't in Great Shape, But He's Still Savoring March Madness (DAN SHANOFF, 3/27/07, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

As with the Monday morning after the tournament field was announced, the biggest storyline is Florida's chance to become the first team to repeat as champs since Duke in 1992. Simply returning to the Final Four with the same five starters as last year is historically notable.

Blocking Florida's path is the team the Gators beat last year in the national-title game: UCLA.

The question is this: Was the Bruins' loss to the Gators a year ago a template for another defeat this year -- or will UCLA find a decisive edge in the opportunity for a little payback?

In the other semifinal, Georgetown will take on Ohio State.

Twenty-five years after the Hoyas' reputation was secured with a trip to the national-title game (a loss to North Carolina, belatedly avenged Sunday in the most exciting game of the tournament so far), Georgetown is playing the best of any of the Final Four teams:
• Their coach, John Thompson III, is the son of legendary Hoyas coach "Big John" Thompson.

• Their key reserve, Patrick Ewing Jr., is another eponymous kid of a famous Hoyas legend.

• Their star, Jeff Green, is the most complete forward in college basketball.

• Their retro-aggressive Hoyas defense and modified "Princeton" offense is the toughest Xs and Os match-up of the Final Foursome.

• Their ongoing motivation derives from having lost in the final seconds to Florida a year ago in the Sweet 16.

In short: There's a reason Georgetown was the "trendiest" choice to make the Final Four.

IF EVEN THE IRISH CAN DO IT...:

Arab Ministers Agree To Revive Initiative For Mideast Peace (Glenn Kessler, 3/27/07, Washington Post)

Arab foreign ministers agreed to relaunch a five-year-old peace initiative with Israel, including establishment of a working group to begin negotiations on the plan, according to reports from Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

"The initiative includes a mechanism to promote it and gain its acceptance and especially registering it officially at the United Nations," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters. "That's what's going to happen, so that it becomes a basis and a major reference point for peace in the Middle East."

Under the plan, Arab nations would recognize Israel if it gave up land occupied after the 1967 Middle East war and granted Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes lost six decades ago when Israel declared it was a state.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling this week in the Middle East, has pushed Arabs to back the long-dormant plan as the basis for negotiations, not a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Both U.S. and Israeli officials said they were pleased by the decision, which will be formalized later this week at a summit of the Arab League.

MORE:
In Indonesia's Aceh, a former rebel takes the reins (Seth Mydans, March 27, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

[ Irwandi Yusuf, the new governor of Aceh,] is a one-man political science experiment, a separatist rebel who has, quite unexpectedly, become the leader of the government he until recently fought against.

Under a peace agreement signed in 2005, Irwandi renounced his separatist agenda, ran for governor last December and won, taking almost 40 percent of the vote in a field of eight. The second-place finisher was also a member of the former separatist movement, bringing its total to more than 50 percent of the votes cast.

Irwandi took office at the start of February and is now guarded by the army that once hunted him in the jungle. He works with a police force that was known for its brutal treatment of his comrades. He travels to Jakarta to talk policy with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, himself a former general.

He has no alternative but to leave the past behind, he said. Most of the people he works with are his former enemies.

Military intelligence still watches him, he said, as it did in the past, and he expects hard-line opponents to try to complicate his job with political manipulation. But the agreement that ended Aceh's 30-year separatist war is holding - after the death of 15,000 people - and both sides seem to have embraced nonviolence.

NOT CRIME, SO YOU'RE BACK TO RACE (via Kevin Whited):

All illegal immigration is local (Steve Chapman, March 27, 2007, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

The city government of Hazleton, Pa., got in trouble when it passed a law intended to drive out illegal immigrants. [...]

The trial itself, which concluded Thursday and now awaits a verdict, has not shed flattering light on the competence of those who drafted the law. Mayor Lou Barletta said he was compelled to act when a resident was shot to death, it is believed by two illegal immigrants.

But he had trouble explaining why, if illegal immigrants generate crime, they have been implicated in only about 20 of the 8,500 felonies committed in Hazleton in the last six years. ACLU attorney Witold Walczak also noted that amid this supposed crime wave, the city reduced the size of the police force, despite a budget surplus.

If Hazleton's illegal immigrants are prone to crime, they're the exception. Despite the growth of illegal immigration in the last decade, crime rates have dropped sharply across the country. This may not be a coincidence. In every ethnic group, reports a recent study by Ruben Rumbaut and Walter Ewing for the American Immigration Law Foundation, young men born in the United States are far likelier to wind up in prison than those who come here later.

In Hazleton, as elsewhere, the main reason Latino foreigners come is to work and stay out of trouble. In fact, those qualities are the same ones that get them accused of stealing jobs. Even those immigrants who work off the books contribute to the economic health of local businesses by buying goods and services. Hazleton has seen an expansion of its tax base.

CHANGE-UPS DON'T BREAK BOTH WAYS:

The myth behind the man: Matsuzaka says 'gyroball' not part of his arsenal (Tom Verducci, March 27, 2007, Sports Illustrated)

Despite highly descriptive news reports, slow motion video and purported eyewitness accounts from major league hitters -- well, the Florida Marlins' scrubs -- Red Sox pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka does not throw a gyroball, G. Gordon Grinch of the North Pole news bureau of SI has learned. Several sources close to Matsuzaka -- and you can't get much closer to Matsuzaka than Matsuzaka himself -- confirmed to Mr. Grinch that Matsuzaka's gyroball is nothing more than media mythology, a promulgation the pitcher delightfully enjoys.

Repeated attempts to reach the Easter Bunny, the Loch Ness monster, the tooth fairy and a Chicago Cubs world champion for comment were unsuccessful.

Seriously, I know the gyroball is a cool, real concept and Matsuzaka already has this air of mystery about him that invites possibility and that everybody likes a good story, but enough already. A Marlin by the name of Jason Stokes, after facing Matsuzaka in a spring training game, pumped the legend of the demon pitch when he announced in wonderment, "I saw the gyroball." He did stop short of saying it emitted a beam of light that transported him into a flying saucer, where his innards were removed bloodlessly before he was returned to the batter's box.

Here's the truth: Matsuzaka's changeup is so wicked, so unlike most every changeup anyone has seen, that people don't know what to make of it. Matsuzaka has told me he does not throw the gyroball. Every Red Sox staff member and official I've talked with said he does not throw it.

"What the Marlins thought was the gyro was the changeup," one of the Boston sources said. "That's what people think is the gyro. It's his best pitch."

Said another Red Sox insider, "Japan is famous for copious scouting reports. If you throw a pitch once in your life the scout will include it in the report. Dice-K enjoys letting people think he throws it. There's no harm in it. Why not just give them one more thing to think about?"

VICTORY AFTER VICTORY:

Australian pleads guilty at Guantanamo: David Hicks admits to material support of terrorism. He says he did not commit a violent act (Carol J. Williams, 3/27/07, LA Times)

Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty Monday to material support of terrorism, securing a symbolic victory for the Bush administration in the first war crimes trial since World War II.

After a day of legal wrangling in which two of Hicks' three defense lawyers were barred from representing him, the 31-year-old Muslim convert and soldier of fortune told the military judge in a specially reconvened night session that he had aided a terrorist group.

Bedraggled and appearing irritated, Hicks showed little emotion at the prospect of potentially leaving Guantanamo Bay after more than five years in military detention.

Under an agreement between Washington and the Australian government, Hicks would be allowed to serve any sentence in an Australian prison.

PAYING THE COST TO BE JOSS:

Joss Stone to debut 'Introducing' album in U.S.: Hopes are high for the new CD but it comes amid cloud of criticism, skepticism (Ann Powers, March 27, 2007, LA Times)

Stone, whose birth name is Joscelyn Stoker, grew up in a privileged household -- her father is a highly successful importer of dried fruit -- listening to soul music. "Somebody told my mum that you get your pitch within the first three years of your life," she said. "She says that I got mine from Anita Baker, because she was playing her a lot." After school, Joss would put on Dusty Springfield's "Greatest Hits" and cook dinner for her family as the original blue-eyed soul singer's voice wafted through the kitchen. Factor in her brother's penchant for old-school hip-hop, dad's Jam fandom and her granny's fondness for Led Zeppelin, and it adds up to a smorgasbord of takes on black music, from both sides of the racial divide.

Unlike many artists who absorb these sources and then take time to make them into something new, Stone became a star in her mid-teens. She won an "American Idol"-style TV talent contest at 14 by singing Donna Summer's "On the Radio" and soon signed with an American manager who brought her to Miami, where she recorded her debut under the guidance of soul singer Betty Wright. Stone's big voice and gift for channeling her sources gained her instant notice, and soon she found herself learning at the feet of the very people whose recordings had shaped her childhood reveries.

"I learn from Lamont Dozier, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle," she said, name-checking one great songwriter and two essential divas from soul's greatest era. "I sit around and soak up whatever they want to give me. I've had long conversations with them. My mom told me when I was young: Just be like a sponge. And that's what I'm trying to be."

The problem is, a sponge isn't an artist, especially as defined by Anglo-American pop culture, which values individualism over the upholding of tradition. The "gifted student" approach that Stone took on her first two albums -- which have sold 914,000 and 1.2 million copies in the U.S., respectively -- is now a weight around her neck. "Introducing," produced by veteran R&B auteur Raphael Saadiq, is Stone's attempt to break free of the vintage aura of her earlier work, which she feels was too uniform.

"When you listen to the [new] album, you're going to have to decide what you call it, because I don't know," she said. " 'Less Is More' is a reggae joint. 'Tell Me' has the Bob Marley thing too. 'Music' is more hip-hop, and 'Arms of My Baby' is actually a salsa-ish track."

Saadiq's approach, which he's been refining since his mid-1980s debut with the band Tony! Toni! Ton-!, is retro-futuristic: He blends classic references (punchy horns, bubbly bass, sassy backing singers) with up-to-the-minute studio techniques to create a sound that is modern but not trendy. Enlisting like-minded (if somewhat predictable) souls like Lauryn Hill and Common as guests, Saadiq has created an environment well-suited to a young singer trying to find herself within a daunting tradition.

"I think we both have a love for authentic real music," Saadiq said by e-mail about the collaboration. "That does not mean just a live band jamming; it means that through those live musicians you create a song.... The song, the players' dedication to the song -- not the drum roll or guitar lick -- each player playing a role actually makes it a record. We both hear that."

If there's one fault on "Introducing," it's that Stone's comfort level with that tradition remains too high. Throughout the album, she sings in a voice she learned from those soul albums; the lilt of coastal England never surfaces. Crafting a new self from beloved popular cultural sources, Stone is very much of her generation; it's her sincerity, her refusal to see that identity as artificial, that singles her out.

RED ON RED:

Insurgents report a split with Al Qaeda in Iraq: The U.S. hopes to take advantage of the Sunni rebel schism, which has resulted in combat in some areas. (Ned Parker, 3/27/07, LA Times)

Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq have widened and have led to combat in some areas of the country, a schism that U.S. officials hope to exploit.

The Sunni Arab insurgent leaders said they disagreed with the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq over tactics, including attacks on civilians, as well as over command of the movement.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, on his last day in Iraq, said Monday that American officials were actively pursuing negotiations with the Sunni factions in an effort to further isolate Al Qaeda.

"Iraqis are uniting against Al Qaeda," Khalilzad said. "Coalition commanders have been able to engage some insurgents to explore ways to collaborate in fighting the terrorists."

THEIR SOVEREIGN:

An Enclave of Normalcy in Fearful Baghdad: In Shiite Slum Named for His Family, Radical Cleric Offers Aid, Hope (Sudarsan Raghavan, 3/27/07, Washington Post)

In front of a blue metal gate, women in black abayas clutch food ration cards and exhibit a confidence rarely felt in the Iraqi capital. They will feed their families tonight. Several yards away, men sit behind wooden desks poring over hundreds of colorful folders, one each for Shiite families forced to flee their homes. Every family will be given a new life.

This busy office in the heart of the vast Shiite slum of Sadr City is not an arm of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Nor is it a relief agency. It is the domain of the 33-year-old Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Here, Sadr doles out aid to his neediest followers, from cradle to grave, filling a void in a desperately uncertain country.

"We get no help from Maliki. Only Sayyid Moqtada helps us," said Saleh al-Ghathbawi, a tall, balding clerk in a blue tracksuit, using the honorific that signifies Sadr's descent from the prophet Muhammad.

As the United States and Iraq proceed with a six-week-old security offensive to pacify the capital, Sadr's black-clad fighters have melted away. His advisers have fled to evade arrest. His own whereabouts are contested. U.S. intelligence officials say elements of his Mahdi Army militia have splintered off beyond his control.

Yet nowhere is Sadr's power more visible than in the sprawling district in eastern Baghdad that bears his family's name. Through legacy, symbolism and money, he has built up his street credentials by helping and protecting Iraq's Shiite majority. His militiamen have made Sadr City into the safest, most homogenous enclave in a capital scarred by war and ruled by a fragile government. It often appears to operate like a separate nation, where Sadr's words carry the weight of law.

...ON THE PC:

TV on the Radio: No static from original, energetic outfit (Patrick MacDonald, 3/27/07, Seattle Times)

Being different is an asset in rock 'n' roll, and TV on the Radio, the Brooklyn band that headlined the Moore Sunday night, is decidedly different.

Energetic, intense lead vocalist Tunde Adebimpe, whose hands, arms and legs are in constant motion when he performs, is a rock singer who also croons and whistles, shouts and scats, and weaves elements of blues, jazz and rap into his potent delivery.

Drummer Jaleel Bunton drives the music with powerful rhythms, aided by Gerard Smith on bass. Kyp Malone, the band's most instantly identifiable member, due to his enormous Afro and matching beard, plays bluesy rock guitar and contributes sweet background vocals.

Second guitarist David Sitek, also the band's producer, matches Adebimpe in intensity on stage, seeming to delight in creating big, enveloping soundscapes, by way of pedal-effects and feedback.

TVOTR is David Bowie's favorite new band, which is not surprising because he's one of rock's original space cowboys. He duets with Adebimpe on a song called "Province" on TVOTR's latest CD, "Return to Cookie Mountain," which was Spin magazine's 2006 album of the year.

THE NORTH REMAINS:

Paisley's politics pays off (Padraig O'Malley, March 27, 2007, Boston Globe)

He destroyed every Unionist leader who tried to make an accommodation with the Catholic minority. He played to Protestant fears: of a united Ireland, a Catholic Ireland, of a sellout by the British government.

He castigated six British prime ministers and he denounced every agreement between the Irish and British governments, the Sunningdale Agreement, the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Downing Street Declaration, and, finally the breakthrough Good Friday Agreement. He refused to become a signatory to the Good Friday Agreement, demanding that unless the IRA put its weapons permanently and verifiably beyond use, there could be no lasting peace and no power-sharing government. The more he dug in his heels, the more the Protestant community swung toward him until the Democratic Unionist Party eviscerated the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party and can claim to be the one true voice of Protestant Ulster.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has emerged as the authentic voice of Catholic nationalist aspirations. In the furtherance of its interests and in order to restart power sharing in Northern Ireland, even one that would put Paisley at the helm, Sinn Fein decommissioned its arms, accepted the authority, and will fully support the Northern Ireland Police -- all demands that for Paisley were non-negotiatiable.

Although many Catholics would say that his actions over the years were incitement to violence by Protestant paramilitaries, Paisley fulfilled his historical role. His unequivocal, non-negotiatiable demand that he would not do business with Sinn Fein until the IRA had for all practical purposes put itself out of business is an articulation of what most nationalist politicians in the North and most people in the South felt but were constrained from expressing because of their history. For all his braggadocio, he spoke relentlessly to one essential truth: In a democracy you cannot have a political party that is attached to a paramilitary organization.

IF WE NEEDED STENTS WE'D EVOLVE THEM:

Study finds heart procedure benefits few (MARILYNN MARCHIONE, 3/27/07, The Associated Press)

More than half a million people a year with chest pain are getting an unnecessary or premature procedure to unclog their arteries because drugs are just as effective, suggests a landmark study that challenges one of the most common practices in heart care.

The stunning results found that angioplasty did not save lives or prevent heart attacks in non-emergency heart patients.

An even bigger surprise: Angioplasty gave only slight and temporary relief from chest pain, the main reason it is done.

THE DRIVER'S SEAT:

Singapore woos immigrants to boost population (Koh Gui Qing, 3/26/07, Reuters)

Singapore's government is so worried about the low birth rate and greying population that it is turning to immigrants like Chandran to add another two million people to the island of 4.5 million over the next 40 to 50 years. [...]

Many countries -- such as Spain, Ireland and United Arab Emirates -- rely on immigration to boost a shrinking labor force. But Singapore's immigration plan is unique because it would boost the population by nearly 50 percent, to the point where those born in Singapore would barely form a majority in their own country.

NO HARAAM, NO FOUL?:

Rookie Mistakes Plague Obama (Mike Allen, March 26, 2007, Politico)

Speaking early this month at a church in Selma, Ala., Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said: "I'm in Washington. I see what's going on. I see those powers and principalities have snuck back in there, that they're writing the energy bills and the drug laws."

It was a fine populist riff calculated to appeal to Democratic audiences as Obama seeks his party's presidential nomination. But not only did Obama vote for the Senate's big energy bill in 2005, he also put out a press release bragging about its provisions, and his Senate Web site carries a news article about the vote headlined, "Senate energy bill contains goodies for Illinois."

NO CONTEST:

Former dictator Salazar chosen as greatest Portuguese of all time by TV viewers (Joana Mateus, 3/27/07, Associated Press)

Former dictator Antonio Oliveira Salazar was chosen as the greatest Portuguese of all times by viewers of a TV show.

Salazar, prime minister of a repressive right-wing regime also known as the New State from 1932 to 1968, received 41 percent in Sunday evening's final of "Great Portuguese."

The show, broadcast by state-owned RTP, asked viewers to choose people who had contributed to the greatness of Portugal's history. Ten figures were selected for voting, from statesmen like the Marquis de Pombal to explorers like Vasco da Gama.

Salazar's secret police, PIDE, used detentions without trial, torture and kangaroo courts to keep opponents off the streets.

THEY USED TO BE THE SUNNI AND THE SHI'A:

HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGH IN NORTHERN IRELAND: Paisley and Adams Reach Agreement on Power-Sharing: UPDATE Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, the leaders of Northern Ireland's main Protestant and Catholic parties, have met for the first time to discuss devolution for the province. They have reached an agreement to form a power-sharing administration by May 8. (Der Spiegel, 3/26/07)

Ian Paisley meeting Gerry Adams? It was an event of lion-laying-down-with-lamb proportions, as Paisley, a Protestant minister with a taste for fiery Biblical rhetoric, might describe it -- even though each side would doubtlessly argue over who was the lion and who was the lamb.

The meeting was certainly a historic breakthrough for Northern Ireland. Arch-rivals Paisley and Adams have long been icons of the Protestant and Catholic sides respectively in the long and bitter struggle over who should rule Northern Ireland. Paisley is the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which wants to keep Northern Ireland's ties to Britain, while Adams is president of Sinn Fein, whose ultimate goal is a united Ireland.

The two men held their first ever face-to-face meeting Monday in the Northern Ireland Assembly buildings in Stormont, Belfast. However the two arch-rivals did not shake hands, according to officials from both sides.

Afterwards they announced a deal to forge a power-sharing administration by May 8, which will lead to a new era of home rule for the province.

"After a long and difficult time in our province, I believe that enormous opportunities lie ahead for our province," commented Paisley, 80, who had previously refused to negotiate directly with Adams or Sinn Fein. "We must not allow our justified loathing of the horrors and tragedies of the past to become a barrier to creating a better and more stable future for our children."

I'M AFRAID OF THE BRITISH, CAN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT:

The big question: What is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and who controls them? (Angus McDowall, 27 March 2007, Independent)

Will the British servicemen be released soon?

Yes...

* Iranian media have played down the incident, creating some room to back off

* The Iraqi government has said that the boats were in their waters, not in Iran's

* Iranian pragmatists have become more important in recent months and might counsel a swift solution

No...

* Top officials have said the servicemen could be charged ­ which might take weeks

* Revolutionary Guards are angry at what they see as recent American escalation of involvement in Iraq

* Some factions might see the servicemen as bargaining chips for other disputes

My Uncle Napoleon is the story of a pathetic and pathological man who, because of his failure in real life, turns himself into a Napoleon in his fantasies and becomes convinced of a British plot to destroy him. It gripped the Iranian imagination to such an extent that since its publication in 1973 it has sold millions of copies and has been turned into perhaps the most popular television series in the history of modern Iran. Banned by the censors of the Islamic Republic in 1979, both the book and television serial have thrived underground.

Part of this phenomenal success is because, like all good works of fiction, My Uncle Napoleon is rooted in the reality it fictionalises. It reveals an essential truth about life in contemporary Iran. In a speech at the University of California at Los Angeles, Pezeshkzad traced the origins of Uncle Napoleon's character to his own childhood, when, listening to grown-ups, he was baffled by the way they indiscriminately labelled most politicians "British lackeys". This obsession was so pervasive that some Iranians even claimed Hitler was a British stooge and Germany's bombing of London a nefarious plot hatched by British Intelligence. Similar sinister musings were spouted recently when, after the bombings in London last July, the powerful Iranian cleric Ahmad Janati, chair of the Council of Guardians of the Revolution, claimed in a nationally broadcast sermon that "the British government itself created this situation". Janati also blamed the Americans for the attacks on September 11 2001.

After the publication of My Uncle Napoleon many, including the late prime minister Amir Abbass Hoveyda -who, in a macabre twist of fate, was accused of being an imperialist stooge, among other charges, and was murdered by the Islamic regime - were convinced that Dear Uncle Napoleon was based on a family member.

Although the book is not political, it is politically subversive, targeting a certain mentality and attitude. Its protagonist is a small-minded and incompetent personality who blames his failures and his own insignificance on an all-powerful entity, thereby making himself significant and indispensable. Uncle Napoleonites can be found anywhere in the world and among the different strata of any society. In Iran, for example, as Pezeshkzad has mentioned elsewhere, this attitude is not limited to "common" people but is in fact more prevalent among the so-called political and intellectual elite.

In My Uncle Napoleon, as in another and very different Iranian masterpiece, The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, the tension between reality and fiction is an integral part of the story's plot. The conflict between what exists and what is imagined to exist shapes the characters and their relations. The plot's tragicomic resolution depends on the way this tension is resolved. But the absurdities that cause us to laugh at a ludicrous fictional character can become sources of great suffering when practised in real life. Pezeshkzad's Dear Uncle Napoleon can only exercise his petty tyrannies within his own household, yet he also represents far grimmer dictators with much greater power to harm.

Sometimes it seemed to me when I still lived in Iran that My Uncle Napoleon predicted and articulated in farcical terms the mindset ruling over the Islamic Republic. Like all totalitarian systems, the Iranian government feeds and grows on paranoia. To justify its rule the regime had to replace reality with its own mythologies. The Islamic regime based its absurd justice on Uncle Napoleonic logic, destroying the lives of millions of Iranians through its laws, jailing and torturing and killing all imagined enemies and accusing them of being agents of the Great Satan, namely America and its allies. If Uncle Napoleon felt that the delay in his nephew's train was a British plot, the guardians of morality in Iran saw a woman's lipstick or a man's tie as props/accessories in an imperialist plot to destroy Islam.

MORE:
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH IRAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER: 'We Warned the United States': Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, 53, discusses efforts to resolve the conflict over Tehran's nuclear program, his country's right to resist and its offer to help bring peace to Iraq. (Der Spiegel, 3/26/07)

SPIEGEL: Is Iran's nuclear program truly so important that you would even risk going to war over it?

Mottaki: Every country in the world sets its goals and should also be able to achieve them. On March 5, 1957, exactly 50 years ago, we signed a treaty with the United States that granted us the right to acquire nuclear power plants. The first sentence in that agreement guarantees that the peaceful use of atomic energy is one of the fundamental rights of all nations. We consider the right to development to be inalienable.

LOST IN ATOMIZATION:

Meanwhile: The only warmth in my life is the heated toilet seat (Kumiko Makihara, March 26, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Pity the lonely Japanese salaryman, or white-collar worker, who wrote that ode to his electrically warmed commode. The poem was an entry to this year's annual Salaryman Senryu Contest (senryu is a form of Japanese short poetry).

I had thought the stereotypical salaryman, often mocked as a corporate drone, was a thing of the past. Many fathers at my son's primary school, after all, show up at dawn on field day to grab prime viewing spots, displaying what seems like a healthy devotion to family life. But the following senryu suggests those dads may have simply extended their corporate servitude to the household.

Dad, please, a ride, save a seat, be in charge of the camera, and take out the trash

The insurance firm Dai-ichi Life runs the contest and recently selected 100 finalists from this year's 23,179 submissions. The public is currently invited to vote via the company's Web site (www.dai-ichi-life.co.jp), and the 10 most popular senryu will be announced in May. The contest is now in its 20th year, and the winners' words have come to be regarded as indicators of the times.

Office politics and family life - or the lack of it - have been mainstay themes over the years, according to Dai-ichi Life, while dieting and high-tech ineptitude are recent topics. This year's submissions show many aging salarymen finding themselves misfits in their own firms amid increased competition, while years of corporate devotion have left them isolated from their families and communities.

ADLAI STEVENSON WITH A 'FRO:

Obama and blue collars: Do they fit?: History says he must reach working-class voters -- Hillary Clinton's stronghold (Ronald Brownstein, March 25, 2007, LA Times)

IN THE EARLY returns among the young, computer-savvy social networkers on the MySpace website, Barack Obama is running laps around Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama's MySpace page has attracted more than twice as many friends as Clinton's unofficial page on the site.

But when the two leading contenders for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination appeared earlier this month in Washington before a beefy, brush-cut audience at an International Assn. of Fire Fighters convention, the result was reversed. Obama received a tepid response while Clinton blew away the room when she followed him to the stage.

"If I was Barack Obama, I'd say that speech -- that's the one I wanted to deliver to the firefighters," said Bob Markwood, an Orlando firefighter, a few minutes after Clinton concluded.

These contrasting responses signal the resurgence of a dynamic that has repeatedly shaped, and frequently decided, the contests for the Democratic presidential nomination over the last generation.

Obama's early support is following a pattern familiar from the campaigns of other brainy liberals with cool, detached personas and messages of political reform, from Eugene McCarthy in 1968 to Gary Hart in 1984 to Bill Bradley in 2000. Like those predecessors, Obama is running strong with well-educated voters but demonstrating much less support among those without college degrees.

IS IT JUST ME...:

The personal is political: Giuliani's propensity for the weird has GOP worried (CRAIG GORDON, March 26, 2007, Newsday)

Rudolph Giuliani's own campaign once called it the "weirdness factor."

In 1993, aides fretted that voters would look askance at him for his 14-year marriage to his second cousin, later annulled.

Then last week, the latest Mrs. Giuliani injected a twist into his White House campaign, with revelations of a "secret" third husband.

For longtime Giuliani-watchers, it was just a fresh chapter in the long-running Rudy drama - the kind of made-for-tabloids story that left his aides scrambling and people scratching their heads about his would-be first lady Judith Nathan Giuliani. But the story pointed up a fear among some Republicans as Giuliani sits in the frontrunner's spot: that the ex-mayor's personal and political foibles, mostly shrugged off at home, won't wear well nationally, because voters want to see their candidate as commander-in-chief material and not tabloid fodder.

"There are people who if they support Rudy, they'll be keeping their fingers tightly crossed that there's no other embarrassing episode in the media. They've got a lot on the line here," said one Republican familiar with Giuliani's hunt for GOP endorsements.

TOO BAD THEY SHAFTED THE ORANGE:

Four Mighty Contenders for NCAA Basketball Crown (JONAH KERI, March 26, 2007, NY Sun)

After 60 games, dozens of thrilling moments, and one of the lowest upset tallies in recent tournament history, the Final Four has come down to four mighty contenders. Or to be more precise, two talent factories and two great systems.

Get ready for a star-studded cast: Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, Joakim Noah and Al Horford, Arron Afflalo and Darren Collison. One of the strongest Final Four fields in years will do battle, with two no. 1 and two no. 2 seeds taking the floor. Here's a look at the four combatants, how they got here, and how they might fare in Atlanta...

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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad MARCH (JONAH KERI, March 14, 2007, NY Sun)

Raise your hand if you can remember an NCAA tournament field as wide open as this year's. The usual stalwarts of recent vintage, Duke and Connecticut, are nowhere near their usual status as no. 1 seeds -- UConn didn't even make the NIT.

There are still plenty of familiar names. But how do you separate North Carolina from Kansas? If Ohio State plays Florida, would the Thad Five prevail, or would Gators fans be chanting "Just like football"?

You've got questions; we've got answers.

If the tournament plays out the way the regular season did, there's sure to be fireworks. The 2006-2007 season was the Year of the Freshman. The NBA's new rookie eligibility rules forced top high school seniors to go to college for at least one year. Combine the rule with an amazing bumper crop of super frosh, and you have a situation similar to Carmelo Anthony's national championship season at Syracuse -- times 10.

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FOR CAUSE:

Three fired U.S. attorneys balked at seeking death penalty: Prosecutors in California, Michigan and Arizona share a reluctance to pursue the ultimate punishment. (Richard A. Serrano, Tom Hamburger and Ralph Vartabedian, March 26, 2007, LA Times)

As a U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., Margaret Chiara, who once studied to become a nun, appealed several times to the Justice Department against having to seek the death penalty. In hindsight, for her it was a risky business.

No prisoner has been executed in a Michigan case since 1938, but the Bush administration seemed determined to change that. Under Attys. Gen. John Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, far more federal defendants have been dispatched to death row than under the Clinton administration. And any prosecutors wishing to seek other punishment often find themselves overruled.

Chiara was not the only one to run afoul of the administration's death penalty stance.

In San Francisco, U.S. Atty. Kevin Ryan was ordered by Ashcroft to conduct a capital trial for a Californian charged with killing a man with a booby-trapped mail bomb. Ryan persuaded Ashcroft's successor, Gonzales, to drop the death charge; last month the defendant, David Lin, was acquitted in San Jose.

In Phoenix, prosecutor Paul Charlton was told repeatedly, despite his resistance, to file capital murder charges in a case where the victim's body has not been recovered. The woman's remains are believed buried deep in an Arizona landfill, but the Justice Department refused Charlton's request to shoulder the cost -- up to $1 million -- to retrieve the corpse.

The three prosecutors are among eight U.S. attorneys terminated last year in a housecleaning by the Justice Department.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU TOLERATE:

Germany rattled by militant's release: Unrepentant convicted killer Brigitte Mohnhaupt walks free, setting off a debate over whether everyone really does deserve a second chance. (Jeffrey Fleishman, March 26, 2007, LA Times)

A recent poll...found that 66% of Germans believed the militants should serve their full life sentences. Known to most of the country from her wanted poster, which showed a broad-faced woman with light hair and thick mascara, Mohnhaupt today is at the center of a debate over a legal system rooted in European liberalism that prides itself on tolerance and compassion. Her case also has revealed that vestiges of extreme leftist politics still resonate among certain intellectuals who never realized their anarchist dreams.

"The people are against releasing Mohnhaupt and Klar," said Gabriele von Lutzau, who was a flight attendant on a Lufthansa jet hijacked by RAF-inspired Palestinian militants in 1977. "The RAF wanted to free the masses, but the masses wanted them thrown into the dungeon and the key tossed away. How many people do you have to kill before they don't let you walk free?"

The RAF went through several incarnations between 1968 and its disbanding three decades later. It was a violent spinoff of a student movement that demanded Germany account for its Nazi past, denounce capitalism and oppose U.S. power. Public support for the RAF evaporated quickly in the face of the group's bombings and kidnappings, which unnerved a divided nation that was rebuilding from World War II and navigating the dangerous politics of the Cold War.

The terrorists turned the country into a film noir landscape where TV news carried images of bullet casings and blanket-draped bodies. It was a time that also foreshadowed a new generation of politicians, including Joschka Fischer, a cabdriver- turned-street protester who would become Germany's foreign minister, and Gerhard Schroeder, a young lawyer who represented an RAF member and would be elected chancellor in 1998.

Mohnhaupt and Klar surfaced as two of the RAF's main leaders in the mid-1970s. During their tenure, the group stormed the West German Embassy in Sweden, tried to forge bonds with other European extremists and killed several leading German citizens, including federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and banker Juergen Ponto, whom Mohnhaupt and Klar shot at least five times after delivering flowers to his home.

Neither Mohnhaupt nor Klar has offered public apologies or given details about the RAF's inner workings or which members carried out certain killings. Nor was Mohnhaupt required to apologize under the terms of her release.

Their reticence has left criminal cases unresolved, including bombings and attacks on U.S. bases in Germany. Furor and bewilderment concerning the imprisoned terrorists' fate intensified in January when a letter in which Klar called for the overthrow of capitalism was read at a political conference.

"Considering the gravity of this wrongdoing," Gunther Beckstein, the conservative interior minister of Bavaria state, said of Mohnhaupt's crimes, "I can't imagine that the victims and those affected will consider it justice when a criminal like this walks around in freedom."

The center-left newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote that the case underscores the wisdom of German law: "The state remained a state of justice; it didn't become a state of revenge. The decisions to release prisoners from jail, these acts of humanity ordered by the state, show the strength of this state far more impressively than any tightening of laws."

THE BEST THE EUROS CAN DO...:

Europe's 50th Anniversary Clown Show: The European Union's absurd birthday bash says more about the EU at 50 than 1,000 bland pronouncements from the bureaucrats and politicians who wish to rule Europe ever could. (Alan Sked, March 2007, Foreign Policy)

Today's EU resembles a sort of undemocratic Habsburg Empire. Its legislation is proposed by a Commission of unelected bureaucrats who have now apparently lost control of their own staffs and who themselves are usually political outcasts from their national political systems. Decisions on whether to adopt their often bizarre initiatives are then taken in total secrecy by the Council of Ministers or the European Council, before being rubber-stamped by the federalist parliament and imposed on the citizens of member states, whose national legislatures can do absolutely nothing to alter their directives or regulations. Indeed, 84 percent of all legislation before national parliaments, according to the German Ministry of Justice, now simply involves implementing Brussels diktats. All this makes European politics undemocratic at all levels, and opinion polls reflect the public's growing disillusionment. So, given the present lack of democracy, together with corruption scandals and splits over foreign policy--not to mention the prospect of having a constitution rammed down the throats of voters who originally rejected it or never had the chance to vote on the matter in the first place--it can be no surprise that ordinary Europeans see the celebrations as a sick joke.

NANCY'S NEWT:

A Fresh Face Vows to Revive the G.O.P. (MICHAEL LUO, 3/26/07, NY Times)

Amid the sea of square jaws and swept-back gray hair in Congress, Representative Adam H. Putnam, a tousled redhead whose cherubic appearance still causes Capitol police to stop him occasionally, appears a bit out of place.

But Mr. Putnam, 32, a Florida Republican, has become the unlikely mouthpiece for the beleaguered minority in the House, taking over as chairman of the Republican Conference, the third-ranking post behind the minority leader and whip, as his party struggles to right itself.

Mr. Putnam, something of a political wunderkind who at 26 was one of the youngest members of Congress in decades when he was elected in 2000, has taken on the role of attack dog over the last three months.

Combining agility on the issues and controlled partisan outrage, he has helped lead Republicans in the debate over the war in Iraq, lambasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her use of a military jet to fly across country to her home district, and generally tried to eke out political points at every opportunity.

"I think in the minority, the challenge is to get noticed," Mr. Putnam said in an interview. "In a presidential election cycle, the novelty of a new Democratic majority, the historical nature of a woman speaker, it becomes very hard to be heard above all the noise."

His tactics, however, have earned him the enmity of the speaker's office, as well as others who accuse him of partisan showboating.

BECAUSE THE BANLIEUE'S NEED A POLITICAL PARTY TOO:

Royal gives backing to Ankara's EU bid (Delphine Strauss, March 25 2007, Financial Times)

Ségolène Royal has declared her support for Turkey's bid to join the European Union, becoming the only main contender in France's forthcoming presidential election to endorse an enlargement deeply unpopular with voters.

"In the end, Turkey has a vocation to join Europe, provided that it satisfies the membership criteria, which are not just economic and financial but also democratic," the Socialist party candidate said in a new book, extracts of which were published by Le Monde on Sunday.

ETHNICITY UBER ALLES:

The Most Un-Islamic Republic of Persia (Spengler, 3/27/07, Asia Times)

Iran's uninterrupted tantrum over the portrayal of the 5th-century BC Persian Empire in a US film is very Persian, but not at all Islamic. It has gone unnoticed in the shouting over 300 that the Koran explicitly welcomed the destruction of the pagan (Zoroastrian) empire at the hands of the Byzantine Christians a millennium after the Spartans and their allies defended the pass at Thermopylae. Iran's identification with pre-Islamic Persian paganism is decidedly un-Islamic.

Writing of the destruction of the Sassanid Empire at the hands of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius at the Battle of Issus in AD 628, the Koran hailed a "victory for believers", namely the Christian monotheists of the Eastern Roman Empire, over the Persian heathens. The Romans at first would be defeated (as they were when the Persians occupied Jerusalem in 615), but they would rise and win again, and "on that day, the believers shall rejoice" (Sura 30, verses 2-4). The Sura is by no means obscure, for Islamic scholars cite it as an example of a Koranic prophecy that came true.

That does not square with the declaration last Friday of Iran's embassy in France denouncing the local release of the film 300: "Throughout history, the Iranian culture has always advocated peace ... As a result, any wrong image about Iranian culture will be void of value and will be accordingly judged by those familiar with the history of the world."

THE NEXT W:

Yes, the next Reagan (Bruce Walker, March 26, 2007, Enter Stage Right)

Two months ago, I wrote an article, "The Next Reagan," in which I outlined many of the reasons why Fred Thompson will be the next Ronald Reagan. Events since then have confirmed my arguments. I predict that Fred Thompson will enter the Republican nomination, that he will win it fairly easily, and that he will also defeat Hillary comfortably in the presidential election.

THE TIME ARCHIVES IS A VERY GOOD THING:

TRIBALISM IS TOO TOUGH A NUT FOR ISLAMICISM TO CRACK:

Sunni sheiks become valuable U.S. allies (TODD PITMAN, 3/26/07, The Associated Press)

Not long ago it would have been unthinkable: a Sunni sheik allying himself publicly with U.S. forces in a xenophobic city at the epicenter of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.

Today, there is no mistaking whose side Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi is on. Outside his walled home, a U.S. tank is on permanent guard beside a clutch of towering date palms and a protective dirt berm.

The sheik, 36, is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province.

The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency than American forces have achieved in years with arms.

The U.S. commander responsible for Ramadi, Col. John Charlton, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, have helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.

NOT YOUR FATHER'S SOX:

New 'swing' looks good: Beckett pays off with delivery (Jeff Horrigan, 3/26/07, Boston Herald)

Beckett said his new delivery adds an element of deception. Instead of raring back to throw and surging forward to release the ball with the same relative speed in the motion, he is beginning the windup at a much more deliberate pace, adding quickness to the arm action only before releasing the ball. Beckett said it's a return to his former style, which he gradually got away from over the past few years.

"I think I'm going slower at the beginning and not rushing through the delivery," he said. "It helps me throw the ball late. All my power is like a golf swing. Your power is the last three feet of your swing. It's the same thing with pitching. The last foot and a half of my arm slot will dictate how hard I'm going to throw the ball and where I'm going to throw it."

Beckett, who is 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA in five Grapefruit League starts, also is throwing more curves, preventing batters from sitting on his fastball. Last year, partly in an effort to avoid the finger blisters that have hampered him throughout his career, Beckett cut way back on the number of breaking balls he threw, relying on a much higher percentage of fastballs.

If the Red Sox [team stats] want to deal Joel Pineiro now that he is no longer in the picture to serve as closer, they are not going to have difficulty finding a trading partner.

Scouts from several teams have been monitoring the right-hander, whose role was shifted to middle or set-up innings following Jonathan Papelbon's recent return to closer. The Cincinnati Reds, who are leaning toward selecting Dustin Hermanson as closer from a pool of journeyman relievers, may be the best fit. Signed for only one year at $4 million (plus the possibility of an additional $2 million in incentives based on games finished), Pineiro most likely would fit into Cincinnati's tight budget.

Believing that sitting for long stretches in the bullpen could hamper Devern Hansack in the long term, the Red Sox reached the difficult decision to option the right-hander to Triple-A Pawtucket. [...]

"We felt he was very capable of doing this, but it was nice to see," Francona said. "We just don't want a kid like that to come here and not pitch, because that would hurt his development, and we don't want to do that."

Hansack was visibly crestfallen by the news. He politely declined to comment.

"We tried to make sure Hansack understood that last year at this time, he wasn't even in camp, and this year there's disappointment he didn't make the club, so that's an unbelievable jump," Francona said. "He did a fantastic job. He has a bright future. We've tried to make sure he understands that."

WHO KNEW THE PRESSURE EVER RELENTED?:

Hong Kong's new chief faces renewed pressure for universal vote: Donald Tsang must navigate the choppy waters between his constituents - who want democracy - and his political backers in Beijing (Peter Ford, 3/26/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

Hong Kong, often seen as a bellwether for democracy's prospects in China, opened a potentially decisive chapter in its history Sunday, as the winner of elections to the territory's top job pledged new steps to open up the territory's backroom politics. [...]

Now [Donald Tsang] will have to navigate the choppy waters between the citizens he rules and represents in Hong Kong, who overwhelmingly want democratic elections for his job in five years, and his political masters in Beijing, who are wary of free votes.

BUT EVERYONE INSIDE THE BELTWAY LIKES HIM...:

Blanco's out - Who will be our next Governor (Christopher Tidmore, March 26, 2007, Louisiana Weekly)

Who will be the next governor?

Former Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub revealed he is considering a run for Governor himself, and he is confident John Breaux is not. Some insiders wonder if Breaux opts not to run, would Mitch Landrieu take his place?

Ieyoub told The Louisiana Weekly, he is "not closing the door" on running for Governor. "I am not foreclosing any options," he said.

"Obviously the announcement has changed the political landscape," the former Attorney General stated. "I'm just leaving things open."

"I think you need a dynamic aggressive leader, who will make decisions," Ieyoub said, sounding very much like a candidate, "We need somebody with a lot of dynamic charisma, aggressive in his program, and capable of making decisions."

Moreover, he does not believe that John Breaux will make the race.

"First of all as to the legal issue, as concerning his residency," the former Chief Attorney of Louisiana said, "It would be a very, very stiff legal challenge from the Republicans if he chooses to run. In my opinion, I don't believe that Breaux is going to run. He has an excellent position as a lobbyist."

Breaux's family is in Maryland, Ieyoub explained, and he faces a daunting election. "John in most of his political career has not had to get into a drop down drag out fight." The GOP will press the residency issue, and, the former AG said, "I don't think he wants to get into that."

Pollsters, like Bernie Pinsonat of Southern Media & Opinion Research, claim that the latest polls show that former U.S. Senator John Breaux would be "a significant underdog" in a race against Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal.

Pinsonat says the latest survey shows Jindal leading Breaux by nearly 30%, with 55% of those polled favoring Jindal and 25.6% supporting Breaux.

The pollster says "not a lot of people could name anything he (Breaux) has done for Louisiana recently."

YOU'D WIN OR LOSE DEPENDING ON WITH WHOM YOU SPOKE:

At the table with Iran, what could the US concede?: Dialogue is the right step. But the US must be ready to settle old claims of compensation (John K. Cooley, 3/26/07, CS Monitor)

The UN Security Council Saturday unanimously passed a resolution to sharpen sanctions against Iran for its presumed nuclear-weapons ambitions. This unanimity provides the West with an occasion for a bold new diplomatic initiative.

The US should propose a comprehensive, formal dialogue with Iran on nuclear matters that also covers all issues that have divided Washington and Tehran since the cleric-led revolution toppled America's former ally, Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlevi, in 1979.

UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS:

A convocation of eagles: A parliament of owls? A clowder of cats? When two or more animals of the same species congregate, it can be quite a 'romp.' (Robert Klose, 3/26/07, CS Monitor)

Just the other morning, while working at the computer, my 10-year-old son and I stumbled upon a website listing collective names for animals. Anton's response was the same as mine had been when I first discovered this peculiarity of the language as a child: He was captivated.

A brace of ducks, a gaggle of geese, a kindle of kittens, and on and on. We immediately commenced a spontaneous census of the wildlife about our house here in central Maine, in terms of collective nouns.

OUTLASTING ANOTHER ONE:

Chirac bows out of politics praising his enemy Blair (Stephen Castle, 26 March 2007, Independent)

The feud between Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac fizzled out yesterday as the French President departed from European politics, offering his old adversary praise and support.

EU summits have been the scene of spectacular verbal fireworks between the two leaders over issues ranging from Iraq to the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.

But at a press conference, 74-year-old M. Chirac offered his backing to Mr Blair over the detention of British marines and sailors by the Iranians. He also praised Britain for its contribution to EU defence policy.

No doubt to his satisfaction, Mr Blair has outlasted his French counterpart...

THEY'LL HAVE NONE OF IT:

'Quebec's Le Pen' likely to make major election gain (Hugh Winsor, 26 March 2007, Independent)

A young conservative populist sometimes described as Quebec's Jean-Marie Le Pen is likely in today's election to throw a spanner into the separatist versus federalist competition that has dominated Quebec politics for decades.

Polls indicate Mario Dumont's Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), a small fringe party for the past three elections, is about to seize the balance of power in the first minority parliament in 129 years.

The ADQ has side-swiped the separatist Parti Quebecois and the ruling federalist Liberals, led by Jean Charest, by exploiting a backlash against multiculturism, especially Muslims.

Adebate has developed throughout the province about what constitutes reasonable accommodation to the cultural and social practices of expanding ethnic communities.

AS LABOUR TURNS LEFT AND AWAY FROM TONY BLAIR...:

Labour will send fewer to jail in U-turn on crime policy (Andrew Grice, 26 March 2007, Independent)

The Government is to dramatically overhaul its strategy on crime by ending its drive for ever-tougher sentences and instead putting more emphasis on rehabilitating offenders and sending fewer of them to prison.

Cabinet papers leaked to The Independent show that ministers admit their current approach alone will not solve the complex problem of crime in Britain today. The significant change of emphasis will be welcomed by critics who claim Tony Blair has not lived up to his own rhetoric because he has been "tough on crime" without being "tough on the causes of crime".

STARRING--W AS THE GIPPER; ISLAMICISM AS COMMUNISM; BA'ATHISTS AS THE SANDINISTAS; AND TED KENNEDY, JOHN KERRY, ETC., AS THEMSELVES:

Time Present, Time Past: Reinventing Ronald Reagan (Noemie Emery, 04/02/2007, Weekly Standard)

A look at Time's archive for 1987 shows a drumbeat of attack, if not of derision, for the man and his plans and ideas. True, the magazine did have a column by the late Hugh Sidey, a centrist's centrist if ever there was one and a man with an institutional fondness for presidents. He cut the old man a break every few issues. But on the whole, in a long series of fairly long stories, some of them featured on the cover, the magazine made room for a series of writers--Garry Wills, Lance Morrow, and George J. Church among them--to whipsaw the Gipper back, forth, and sideways as a poseur, a fraud, an out-of-touch airhead, a lame duck, a loser, a man dwelling in dreamland, a man whirled about by the currents around him, and, of course, wholly washed up. It had been a bad year for Reagan and Republicans, bracketed by the Iran-contra scandal and the stock market crash. Reagan's foreign policy ventures in Latin America and vis-à-vis the Soviet Union seemed stalled. His nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court had failed, and in November 1986 he had lost the Senate. As far as Time was concerned, the whole jig was up.

"What crashed was more than just the market," wrote Walter Isaacson in the November 2, 1987, issue. "It was the Reagan Illusion: the idea that there could be a defense build-up and tax cuts without a price, that the country could live beyond its means indefinitely. The initial Reagan years, with their aura of tinseled optimism, had restored the nation's tattered pride and the lost sense that leadership was possible in the presidency. But he stayed a term too long. As he shouted befuddled Hooverisms over the roar of his helicopter last week or doddered precariously through his press conference, Reagan appeared embarrassingly irrelevant to a reality that he could scarcely comprehend. Stripped of his ability to create economic illusions, stripped of his chance to play host to Mikhail Gorbachev, he elicited the unnerving suspicion that he was an emperor with no clothes."

Another piece in that same issue piled on: "The stock-market plunge only magnified his new aura of ineffectiveness." The announcement that a Washington summit had been called off by Mikhail Gorbachev (it would be back on within weeks) "was a devastating political blow for Reagan, all but ending his last, best hope for recovering from a string of setbacks that have left him, with 15 months remaining in his term, not just a lame duck, but a crippled one. One after another, his major goals for this fall have gone aglimmering: the appointment of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, the hope to win renewed funding for the contras in Nicaragua, and his aim of pushing through a budget plan that would protect defense spending without raising existing taxes or imposing new ones."

Even before the crash, the magazine was ringing with warnings that the whole Reagan era had been a mistake. "Ronald Reagan did not build a structure; he cast a spell," wrote Garry Wills in the March 9, 1987, issue. "There was no Reagan revolution, just a Reagan bedazzlement. The magic is going off almost as mysteriously as the spell was woven in the first place. There is no edifice of policies solid enough to tumble down piece by piece, its props being knocked out singly or in groups. The whole thing is not falling down; it was never weighty enough for that" in the first place. It was "simply evanescing," as befitted a fantasy. "Aides defended the Reagan fairy tales; editors treated his errors with restraint; the public punished those who were too critical of his whoppers. It was a vast communal exercise in make-believe."

"Is he more out of touch than ever?" asked George J. Church on January 26, 1987. "'Brain Dead,' the title of an article in the New Republic, referred to the lack of new ideas within the Reagan administration . . . but carried a not-very-subtle implication about the president as well. A story in the Washington Post reported that chief of staff Donald Regan had formed the administration's position on federal pay raises with only 'minimal' involvement from the President, and one in the New York Times described how congressional leaders had come away from meetings with Reagan wondering 'if he had understood the issues they had raised.'"

"Who's in Charge?" asked Lance Morrow in Time's November 9, 1987, issue. "Reagan's tepid and grudging reactions--reluctant and uncomprehending--confirmed a suspicion in many minds that Reagan, a lame duck with 15 months to go in his second term, was presiding over an administration bereft of ideas and energy. . . . The President seemed bizarrely disengaged." He seemed in fact just like Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, who rode a smile and shoeshine into utter oblivion. "Reagan seems to invite the thought that he has found a new model, the Salesman, in the last act, standing on a stage about to go dark."

Judging from all this, the right had little to go wrong from in the first place, the Reagan Legacy seems hardly worth claiming, and the charges brought by Time against current conservatives eerily echo those brought by Time against Reagan himself.

A SIMPLE SECURITY ISSUE:

Jeb Bush encouraged brother to pursue ethanol (DAVID ADAMS, March 5, 2007, St. Petersburg Times)

For years, Brazil tried in vain to persuade U.S. officials of the merits of ethanol, which had made the largest country in South America virtually energy self-sufficient.

"The price of oil for a long time didn't compel," said Donna Hrinak, U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 2002 to 2004. She recalls Brazil raising the issue in 2003. "Our response was 'We are working on the hydrogen car. We are happy with that and we'll see you later.' "

That began to change with the emergence since 1999 of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is using his country's vast petroleum reserves to undermine U.S. influence in the region.

Bush got a taste of that firsthand in November 2005 when he attended a regional summit in Argentina that was marred by anti-U.S. riots stoked by Chavez.

On his way back from the summit, Bush stopped in Brazil, where he got a much warmer reception. Lula invited him to his country home, known as Crooked Creek Ranch, for a relaxed barbecue.

"It was a very good, cordial meeting, lots of smiles and a warm atmosphere," said John Danilovich, U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 2004 to 2006, who was present. "There's a real rapport between the two men."

A leftist former union leader, Lula might not seem Bush's natural ally. But he is big on biofuels. He keeps a display in his office of feedstock samples and the fuels they produce. Bush and Lula have grown so close that they regularly speak by phone, often outside office hours.

At the barbecue, Lula asked his agriculture minister, Roberto Rodrigues, to make the case for biofuels to the Americans.

Rodrigues spoke for an hour.

"How is it that humanity built a civilization upon fossil fuels, a finite substance that is poorly distributed around the world?" he said. "It makes no sense when we have a renewable liquid that can be produced by almost any country."

The Americans listened intently, he said. "President Bush had lots of questions. So did Secretary Condoleezza Rice."

Bush returned to Washington "all charged up" on Brazilian biofuels, recalls Allan Hubbard, the president's chief economic adviser.

"When he got back he grabbed me and said 'Hubbard, what about this, what they are doing with ethanol down in Brazil?' " he said.

White House staff had already done some work on biofuels, but nothing had gone as far as the president's desk.

"We've been working on it for a while. We didn't actually start presenting it to the president until after the (November 2006) election," Hubbard said.

In the meantime the president received a letter from his brother in Tallahassee. Florida had taken a beating from the 2005 hurricane season, sending gas prices soaring. The governor's contacts in Miami were touting Brazil as a model for energy independence.

Jeb Bush wrote to his brother in April, urging the president to implement "a comprehensive ethanol strategy for our country and our hemisphere."

Rather than buy oil from hostile nations such as Venezuela, which supplies about 12 percent of U.S. petroleum needs, Jeb Bush said the United States ought to buy biofuels from friendly countries such as Brazil and Colombia, as well as Central America and the Caribbean.

Jeb Bush was already deep in talks with the Brazilian ethanol industry about a joint partnership. In December, two weeks before leaving office, he co-founded the Interamerican Ethanol Commission to promote regional production. Rodrigues, who gave President Bush the biofuels lecture, was a co-signer.

In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush surprised many by setting a goal of 35-billion gallons of annual biofuels consumption by 2017, a sevenfold leap from current capacity. While the United States hopes to achieve most of that processing domestic corn and other plant material, Bush said imports would also be required.

Since January, Bush has been on a tear, visiting biofuels labs in North Carolina and Delaware. He hosted a hybrid car demonstration at the White House.

Last week, Bush led a panel of biofuels scientists at a leading enzymes company. Bush chatted knowledgeably about the science of ethanol and new technology to make it from nonfood crops.

"I am passionate about this subject," he told the audience.

AS THE PANTIES UNTWIST:

Rejected on ports deal, UAE to buy 2 U.S. aerospace firms (WORLD TRIBUNE.COM, March 22, 2007)

The United Arab Emirates was expected to purchase two aircraft engine repair firms in the United States.

Officials said that neither the Bush administration nor Congress would block a purchase by the UAE state-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise of two U.S. aerospace companies. They said the proposed DAE purchase of Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings Inc. would not be deemed a security threat.

"The deal is unlikely to have problems in Congress," Sen. Charles Schumer, a leading member of the Democratic-controlled Congress, said.

BUT WAIT, THERE IS NO "C" IN SELF...:

Best-case scenario in NY?: Yankees believe they are the team to beat (Nick Cafardo, March 24, 2007, Boston Globe)

[$]180 million probably doesn't buy what it used to. There are flaws.

Andy Pettitte has been bothered by back spasms, and Chien-Ming Wang will start the season on the disabled list with a hamstring problem. The end of the rotation, with Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano, is unsettling, though Igawa, who was being considered for Scranton, eased concerns with six shutout innings against the Phillies last Tuesday after a poor start. Pavano is at least healthy and throwing well, but needs to be careful with lefthanded hitters. And the issues with Pettitte and Wang are not considered long-term problems.

General manager Brian Cashman is trying to get the team younger, and it doesn't appear that he'll let much get in the way. That's why you see righthanded starter Jeff Karstens getting a long look for a spot in the rotation. That's why you see a solid, young five-man rotation at Scranton, with real prospects including 20-year-old phenom Philip Hughes. That's why when camp breaks, veteran Todd Pratt, who might be best-suited for the backup catcher role, might not make it over young Wil Nieves or Raul Chavez.

The front four in the bullpen -- righthanders Mariano Rivera, Scott Proctor, Kyle Farnsworth, Luis Vizcaino (.163 vs. lefties) -- are solid. And lefty Sean Henn's strong spring training performance could cost a veteran like Mike Myers or Ron Villone a roster spot.

A huge issue is whether Alex Rodriguez can ever be comfortable playing in New York, where the fans are relentless. He could make it better by hitting in the clutch and making fewer errors, or he could make it a lot worse. But Damon and Jason Giambi are committed to making sure Rodriguez can relax and just let his incredible talents flow.

"We've got to do a better job with Alex as far as keeping him loose and putting him in a frame of mind where he's going to really take off," Damon said. "The closer we get to the season here, the more excitement we're starting to feel."

"Sky is the limit for this team," Giambi said. "We can hit and score runs. We have a good rotation, a good bullpen. We have to find a way to get beyond where we were last year and just stay consistent as a lineup."

WANNA FEEL OLD?:

Fathers and Sons: College Glory, Family Legacies Intersect As Georgetown Plays for Final Four (Camille Powell, 3/25/07, Washington Post)

When the Georgetown men's basketball team faces North Carolina on Sunday evening for a spot in its first Final Four since 1985, the two men most responsible for that 22-year-old achievement will be watching. Patrick Ewing Sr., the greatest player in school history, will contort his 7-foot frame into a cushioned folding chair in the stands, and his former coach, John Thompson Jr., will provide commentary on CBS Radio.

But Thompson's professional obligations aside, the two men will be here as fathers first, athletic legends second. Georgetown's basketball renaissance has been cultivated by a coach named John Thompson with help from a player named Patrick Ewing, Hoyas of a new generation.

For the fathers, adjusting to their new roles is not always easy. Over the first 11 games of the season, Ewing Jr. averaged only 8.6 minutes of play per game. In four of those games, he didn't attempt a single shot. He wasn't bothered by his role, but his father was.

"It was frustrating for me," said Ewing Sr., who stepped down from his assistant coach position with the Houston Rockets to watch his son play this season. "Big John called me and said, 'Let him have the relationship with his coach that your mother and father let you have with me.' But it was hard to sit here and see him not playing."

John Thompson Jr., meantime, said he tries not to dole out advice, coach-to-coach, to his son, John Thompson III. But father-to-son, well, that's different. "The father has the right and license to meddle anytime he wants to," Thompson Jr. said.

ALL THE HARDER TO JUSTIFY TOLERATING ASSAD, KIM, CASTRO & MUGABE:

Most Americans untouched by war (Rick Montgomery, 3/25/07, McClatchy Newspapers)

Since the start of the Iraq war four years ago, Americans have bought more than 110 million cellphones and spent $35 billion on HDTV sets.

They have moved into 5 million new homes, bought about 60 million new cars and trucks and watched the Dow Jones industrial average climb from 8,200 to 12,000 and beyond.

Despite bloodshed from a conflict lasting longer than U.S. participation in World War II, life for most Americans has clicked along without personal loss or even higher federal taxes to cover the fighting in Iraq.

"We're in a country where it isn't clear in our daily routine that we're living with war," said Carolyn Marvin, a communications professor and cultural historian at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

BUT NOW AM FOUND:

No mystery why he's at the heart of 'Lost' (Maria Elena Fernandez, March 25, 2007, LA Times)

IN the last two episodes of "Lost," John Locke told a few lies, killed an "Other," blew up a hatch full of communication devices and then set off more explosives in the Others' submarine to prevent anyone from leaving or arriving on the island. It's a far cry from the weeks he spent in a hole in the ground last season, punching computer buttons, only to emerge feeling like he wasted his time.

"Lost" mythology has cast Locke, played by the Emmy-nominated Terry O'Quinn, as the show's most enigmatic character. When Locke has his mojo, it seems, so does "Lost." In fact, the arc of Locke, and even O'Quinn's own story, closely parallel the highs and lows of the ABC serialized ensemble drama that changed television three years ago. Now, 80 days into the journey of the plane crash survivors, what most viewers intuited from the beginning seems to hold true: Locke is one important dude.

But is he the most significant castaway? The creators of "Lost" would never say anything that definitively, but they were willing to offer a glimpse of the way they've embedded some of the series' most telling elements in his story from the beginning. Co-creator Damon Lindelof confirms that in the end, Locke will be among the ones who matter most. Executive producer Carlton Cuse added this, with all the finality he could muster: "The character of John Locke is just the very heart of the show."

POLICY IS JUST POLITICS PUT INTO EFFECT:

Justice Department tugged to the right: Under Bush, the department has been tainted by politics, many say (Tom Hamburger, March 25, 2007, LA Times)

Not long after President Bush was first sworn in, White House political guru Karl Rove and his lieutenants met with officials of nearly every Cabinet agency to brief top officials on the latest polling data and issues that could influence voters and key constituencies.

But the departments of Justice, Defense and State were exempt. Given their missions -- to administer federal laws, protect national security and conduct foreign policy -- it was considered inappropriate to make such partisan presentations to them.

HAVING THE CONTRADICTIONS FORCED UPON US:

Hear out Muslim Brotherhood (Joshua Stacher and Samer Shehata, March 25, 2007, Boston Globe)

ON A QUIET, one-way street in Cairo's middle-class Manial district, two bored security guards sit idly sipping tea. The building behind them houses a small apartment that serves as the main offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist group in the Middle East. In Egypt, the Brotherhood is the country's largest opposition group and its best-organized political force. No one would know it from the headquarters' modest appearance, but the Brotherhood is likely to be the dominant force in Egyptian politics in the future. Yet the United States stubbornly refuses to deal with the Brotherhood, taking its cue from the sclerotic and hopelessly corrupt regime of Hosni Mubarak. [...]

Islamist political groups are incredibly popular in the Middle East, and will remain so for some time. As the oldest of these groups, the Brotherhood has continuing ties to other regional Islamist parties and movements. The United States currently lacks access to some of these Islamist organizations. Engaging with the Brotherhood, therefore, would open up new channels of communication with Islamist groups. It would also signal that the United States is open to talking with all groups that are committed to peaceful political participation.

The Brotherhood has consistently demonstrated a long-term commitment to working peacefully within Egypt's legal framework -- despite years of repression against the group's members. The organization has offices across the country, and its members regularly compete in all types of elections. Unlike other Islamist organizations, such as Hamas or Hezbollah, the Brotherhood has no armed wing, and neither the US Department of State nor the European Union considers it a terrorist group.

Indeed, despite its illegality under Egyptian law, the regime tolerates many of its activities, including a wide network of social welfare services, religious activities, and professional and civic organizations.

Opening a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood would signal to ruling regimes and opposition groups in the region that the United States is committed to promoting democracy -- not just to supporting those who are friendly to US interests. Democracy requires a broader commitment to political participation, inclusion, reform, moderation, transparency, accountability, and better governance.

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME UNTIL THEY EVOLVED ORTHODONTURE:

Mouse 3, Man 0: 'That little stinker stole my teeth' (Chicago Sun-Times, March 25, 2007)

Never underestimate a mouse's determination.

There's a mouse in Bill Exner's house that he says he has captured three times. Each time, the mouse escaped, and the last time the rodent made off with his lower dentures.

Exner, 68, said he and his wife, Shirley, scoured his bedroom after the dentures disappeared from his night stand.

''We moved the bed, moved the dressers and the night stand and tore the closet apart,'' he said. ''I said, 'I knew that little stinker stole my teeth' -- I just knew it.''

FLOATER:

Group retracing war hero's past with scenic route (AP, Mar. 25, 2007)

Several groups hope to highlight historic and scenic areas in four New Hampshire towns by retracing some travels of Revolutionary War hero John Stark, author of the state motto "Live Free or Die."

Two regional planning commissions and the towns hope to establish a new General John Stark Scenic Byway along existing roads in Goffstown, New Boston, Weare and Dunbarton. It would pass more than 45 historic, cultural and scenic points.

The groups say they want to reflect the history of the communities through the Stark family.

Stark once lived in Dunbarton and married there. It's where he and Molly Stark had their firstborn son.

If approved, the towns will be eligible to seek federal money for information kiosks, parking lots, bike paths and marketing materials.

The byway would run along Route 13 from Goffstown west to New Boston, north along Routes 77 and 114 to Weare, east along Route 77 to Dunbarton, and south along Route 13 back to Goffstown.

"We want to reflect the history of those communities in terms of the Stark family and General John Stark, to tie them together into a scenic and cultural byway," said Jack Munn, senior planner at the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission, which submitted the application with the Central Regional Planning Commission and officials from each town.

A GLUT OF KNH'S:

Hansack makes another pitch to stay (Jeff Horrgan, March 25, 2007 , Boston Herald)

Devern Hansack is giving the Red Sox [team stats] reason to have second thoughts about leaving him off the Opening Day roster.

The 29-year-old right-hander, who was called up from Double-A Portland last September for the final 12 days of the season and will most likely open 2007 with Triple-A Pawtucket, extended his dominant spring yesterday by tossing three perfect innings in a 1-1 tie with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Al Lang Field.

Hansack, who has a 2.08 ERA in five spring appearances, retired all nine batters he faced, including three on strikeouts. He threw his fastball, changeup and curveball all for strikes and mixed in an effective slider.

The Japanese have a term for people like Hideki Okajima. Loosely translated, the kage no hero is "a supporting actor, someone who lives in the shadow of the hero."

But if Okajima keeps this up when the Red Sox start playing games for real, he'll be casting a sizable shadow himself.

Making his eighth official appearance of the spring, Okajima threw two scoreless innings yesterday in the Red Sox' 1-1 tie with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 10 innings at Al Lang Field. The outing trimmed Okajima's spring ERA to 1.69. He has allowed two runs in 10 innings, both runs coming on solo homers.

For all of the attention that has been placed on Japanese import Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-1, 2.84 ERA in 12 innings), Okajima has been equally as impressive.

Pineiro not pining for Pap's position (Karen Guregian, 3/24/07, Boston Herald)

"They never told me it was my job. They never told me that's what I was going to do," Pineiro said before yesterday's 3-2 win over the Orioles. "They said I'd be in the back end of the bullpen, but I don't feel like I lost the job. It wasn't my job to lose. That was his. My contract, that's no problem.

"I thought it was the right decision anyway in the first place. When I heard (Papelbon) was going in the starting rotation, I was like, 'Why is he doing that?' He did such a great job and he dominated everybody."

Sox manager Terry Francona said that, during a meeting Thursday in which he, pitching coach John Farrell and general manager Theo Epstein informed the relievers of the Papelbon news, Pineiro got up and said, "We're deeper now."

That response impressed the manager.

When you consider how bad several National League rotations are -- like the Mets and Nationals -- and the fact that even a mediocre AL starter like Bronson Arroyo so easily became an NL ace, it would be surprising if the Sox didn't deal at least one guy from the Snyder, Hansack, Hansen, Delcarmen, Gabbard, Piniero group.

Comments

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WITNESSING THE COLD HARD FACTS:

Under sequins, Porter Wagoner is a rebel: His improbable return to Nashville at 79 after a dire health setback wasn't enough. Look who's found the indie crowd (Randy Lewis, March 25, 2007, LA Times)

PORTER WAGONER strides calmly to the microphone set center stage on the wood plank floor of the Grand Ole Opry here, pretty much the same way he has most every week since he was invited into country music's royal chamber 50 years ago.

As usual, he's dressed to thrill on this recent Friday night, in a royal-blue western suit embroidered with wagon wheels and rose blooms, all sparkling with sequins. The tips of the collar on his pale lavender shirt look to have been dipped in gleaming gold, and a dazzling sapphire-colored, triangular cut-glass neckpiece hides the top button. At his waist, a gold and silver National Wild Turkey Federation belt buckle big enough to catch radio waves from Jupiter.

Best of all, his boots. If, as they say in Texas, God is a cowboy, surely Wagoner this night has his boots, a dazzling gold pair with turquoise-colored cactus figures carved in, the toes and bootheels caked in jewels as if he'd stomped through a stable full of rhinestone horses.

At 79, Wagoner is the star most closely identified with the Opry -- the living and, thanks to a little emergency surgery last summer, still breathing personification of Nashville country tradition.

"This is my second weekend back," Wagoner says in his no-hurry-folks Missouri drawl backstage a few minutes before going on. He's referring to his seven-month layoff from the Opry after suffering a near-fatal aortic aneurysm last July. "It's so wonderful just to get out of the house. I didn't realize what being cooped up does.... I was so ready to come back to work."

Despite the old-time numbers he and mountain music patriarch Ralph Stanley sing for the Opry audience -- they form a duo that's collectively older than the Civil War -- Wagoner's sights these days are set resolutely forward. He's got a new album coming in June, "Wagonmaster," his first secular studio album in seven years, produced by longtime fan and fellow musician Marty Stuart. It's reductive country and honky-tonk that's likely to give Wagoner some late-in-the-game career-appreciation props the way Rick Rubin's albums with Johnny Cash (Stuart's onetime boss) did.

Wagoner's album isn't as consistently stark, it just shares the vision of classic country music sung the old-school way: staring straight into the heart of human darkness. [...]

His always-ready-to-work ethic has helped keep him as long and lean at 79 as when he was 29. The big difference, besides a fuller face and the usual wrinkles and creases of age, is the hair. The flattop he wore into the '50s, and which morphed in the '60s into his signature blond pompadour, has given way to a meticulously groomed silver cotton candy-like 'do.

Despite his astonishing tenure at the Opry, which will celebrate his half-century there with a May 19 all-star show, Wagoner never made it into country's top echelon of artists with the likes of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones or Dolly Parton.

Parton, in fact, launched her career after Wagoner hired her in 1967 and featured her every week on "The Porter Wagoner Show," the first nationally syndicated country music TV series, one that ran for two decades and is reruns today on the RFD cable channel.

The team of Wagoner and Parton is second in the annals of country duet partners only to George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Their relationship rose to similar musical heights and sank to personal lows after her career skyrocketed in the '70s, taking her right past him and into the top rank of country stardom, at the same time his was falling back to Earth.

It was the stuff of a great country song, especially when the mentor sued his former prot-g- in 1979, feeling slighted and underappreciated once she got a taste of fame and fortune. Parton, meanwhile, felt stifled and exploited by the man who also served as her manager and shared in royalties of the songs she wrote, including "Coat of Many Colors" and "I Will Always Love You," a send-off that some have suggested was written with Wagoner in mind.

They settled the suit -- he got to record with her again at the peak of her pop-crossover success in the early-'80s; she regained ownership of her song catalog, one of the strongest in country music. And despite a period of bitterness, they returned to cordial relations as the years rolled by.

In recent years, Wagoner, who always held the respect of mainstream fans, has won over a lot of today's country cognoscenti for the plain-spoken credibility he typically brought to tightly crafted narratives full of melodramatic, hyper-emotional plot twists.

He's also won points for his maverick sensibility, no more evident than when he funked up the Opry in 1979 after persuading James Brown to play there.

Like the films of Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch, his songs explore the extremes to which characters are often pushed, challenging those who take them in to ponder how far from reality they really are. Yet there's no question how many light years separate Wagoner's brand of country from today's soccer-mom music by the likes of Rascal Flatts.

In "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," a Bill Anderson song that Wagoner took to No. 2 in 1967, a hapless fellow returns a day early from a business trip to find his wife with another man. After confronting the two with a knife -- the tragic denouement is assumed rather than detailed -- he dispassionately sings, "I guess I'll go to hell or I'll rot here in this cell/But who taught who the cold hard facts of life?"

In 1971 he sang of life in "The Rubber Room," a song he wrote about losing one's grasp on sanity, a theme that also crops up on the new album with "Committed to Parkview," a sobering look at life in a mental institution that Johnny Cash wrote in the '70s, at least in part with Wagoner in mind because both singers had spent time in the Nashville hospital by that name. Wagoner was admitted in 1965 for exhaustion because of his extensive touring schedule.

MORE:
'60s country star Porter Wagoner is a Renaissance man: : He always has been a flashy entertainer, though his music has had its macabre moments. (Brian Mansfield, 3/24/07 USA TODAY)

WE ARE ALL DESIGNISTS NOW:

2007: a scorching new space odyssey: One of the most exciting British movies this year is Danny Boyle's sci-fi epic, Sunshine, which puts the divine back into a genre that had lost its way. To film-makers, it seems, the infinite has a spiritual attraction (Mark Kermode, March 25, 2007, The Observer)

At a key moment in Danny Boyle's radiant new sci-fi film Sunshine, a character is asked, 'Are you an angel?' With its retina-scorching visuals, which blaze from the screen into the dark abyss of the cinema auditorium, this extraordinary epic certainly seems to burn as brightly as a host of fiery angels. Set in 2057, Sunshine follows the crew of the spaceship Icarus II as they attempt to deliver a thermonuclear payload into the heart of the sun, lending new light to our galaxy's inexorably darkening star. En route, they pick up a distress signal from their lost predecessor, Icarus I, which disappeared into the void seven years earlier. Like an interstellar Marie Celeste, the first Icarus now hangs in space like a ghost ship, seemingly without a soul in sight. But as the reason for its mission failure is gradually revealed (more psychological than scientific), the crew of Icarus II fall prey to the eternal inner demons which haunt those who fly too close to the sun.

Shot not in Hollywood but in the 3 Mills studios in London's East End, Sunshine boasts extraordinary computer graphic imagery so luminescent you feel you could get sunburn just watching the film. As a sensory experience, it's overwhelming. But perhaps more importantly, Sunshine also harks back to a time when sci-fi turned its attention not toward the hallowed teen market but toward the heavens. Although screenwriter Alex Garland has said the inspiration for the film came from 'an article projecting the future of mankind from a physics-based, atheist perspective', this ambitious British fantasy increasingly blurs the boundaries between science and religion. In this respect, it falls within a grand tradition of adult-orientated science-fiction which is haunted by the question of divinity, whether as a presence or an absence.

These ideas are familiar to director Danny Boyle, who had a traditional religious upbringing, and planned to join a seminary at the age of 14. 'I was at school in Bolton,' he remembers, 'and all set to transfer to this seminary near Wigan. Then one of the priests told me that maybe I should wait, maybe I should stay and finish my school education. Quite soon after that, I saw A Clockwork Orange, which was the first film I went to see by myself. And it just changed everything. I know it all sounds too neat, but that's what happened.'

Boyle went on to make Trainspotting, which has been dubbed 'the Clockwork Orange of the Nineties' - a viscerally hip portrait of anarchic youth culture which became both a controversial modern film classic and a defining pop icon. Yet despite his current free-form agnosticism, Boyle's films have continued to be haunted by the detritus of his religious background, from the worldly angels of the romantic fantasy A Life Less Ordinary (which owes a debt to Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death aka Stairway to Heaven) to the solidly earthy apparitions of saints who appear to the young hero of the underrated Millions. Other Boyle hits include 28 Days Later, a Garland-scripted zombie shocker set in a terrifying post-apocalyptic Britain. Now, with Sunshine, Boyle has set his sights higher than ever before, making a film which addresses 'what happens to your mind when you meet the creator of all things in the universe'.

ONE TRIES NOT TO LAUGH:

Pavano could go Opening Day (Bryan Hoch, 3/24/07, MLB.com)

The Yankees learned Saturday that their Opening Day starter won't be Chien-Ming Wang, who will miss most of the season's first month with a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring.

Because of the way the rotation aligns for the season opener, it won't be Andy Pettitte or Mike Mussina, either. Manager Joe Torre said that the Yankees will select from a group including Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa and Jeff Karstens to throw the season's first pitch on April 2.

Of those three -- unbelievable as it might seem -- Pavano has become the likely favorite.

FIVE YEARS? WHAT A BUNCH OF WAHOOS...:

Breaux: I'll run for Louisiana governor if it's legal (DOUG SIMPSON, 3/24/07, Associated Press)

Breaux said he would give up his lobbying job in Washington, D.C., and begin campaigning if the state attorney general determines he meets residency requirements to run. [...]

Republicans have raised questions about whether Breaux can be a legal candidate in Louisiana. To be eligible to run for a statewide elected office, the state Constitution requires that a person be a "citizen" of the state for "at least the preceding five years."

Breaux is registered to vote in Maryland and lists his primary address there, about 70 miles from Washington, where he works for Patton Boggs LLP, a lobbying firm. Republicans say that disqualifies him from running for Louisiana governor.

OUR WAZIRISTAN:

Gun permits soar in post-Katrina New Orleans (MARY FOSTER, 3/24/07, The Associated Press)

People across New Orleans are arming themselves - not only against the possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina, making New Orleans the nation's murder capital.

The number of permits issued to carry concealed weapons is running twice as high as it was before Katrina - this, in a city with about half its pre-storm population of around 450,000.

Attendance at firearms classes and hours logged at shooting ranges also are up, according to the gun industry.

Gun dealers who saw sales shoot up during the chaotic few months after Katrina say that sales are still brisk, and that the customers are a cross-section of the population - doctors, lawyers, bankers, artists, laborers, stay-at-home moms.

CRANK UP THE VCR:

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: "The First Emperor" (Premieres March 24, 2007 on PBS)

Composer: Tan Dun

Librettist: Ha Jin and Tan Dun, based on the HISTORICAL RECORDS by Sima Qian (c. 145-85 BCE) and on Wei Lu's screenplay for THE EMPEROR'S SHADOW

Production: Zhang Yimou

Conductor: Tan Dun

Performers: Wu Hsing-Kuo (Ying-Yang Master), Michelle DeYoung (Shaman), Plácido Domingo (Emperor Qin), Haijing Fu (Chief Minister), Hao Jiang Tian (General Wang), Elizabeth Futral (Princess Yueyang), Susanne Mentzer (Mother of Yueyang), Paul Groves (Gao Jianli), Timothy Breese Miller (Guard), Dou Dou Huang (Principal Dancer)

THE ONLY REALISTIC ALTERNATIVE TO MAVERICK:

Thompson debuts at 10% in new NH poll (Manchester Union-Leader, Mar. 23, 2007)

A new poll of New Hampshire voters suggests that Fred Thompson might undermine Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani. [...]

In a February poll, Giuliani led the field with 27 percent, one point ahead of John McCain. In March, Giuliani slipped to 19 percent, four points behind McCain. Mitt Romney was supported by 17 percent.

Next in line were two unannounced candidates, Newt Gingrich at 11 percent and Thompson, who had not been part of earlier surveys, at 10 percent.

Well, the first round of Fred Thompson numbers continues to come in from state-level polls around the country. The latest numbers out from American Research Group show Mr. Thompson at 12% among likely Iowa caucus goers, beating Mitt Romney's 10%.

WHICH SIDE WERE YOU ON, MA'AM?:

The reason we have to fight (MICHAEL COREN, 3/24/07, Toronto Sun)

Imagine a history book being read by people in 100 years time. In a chapter entitled, Why We Fought, it would list the crimes of an ideology and a movement, Islamic fundamentalism, that became so powerful and so grotesque in the opening years of the 21st century that the civilized world was obliged to resist.

The book would explain that some of the wars of resistance were unsuccessful, or even ill-advised, but that in the end the forces of light triumphed over the death-black darkness.

It would also recount how some people in the civilized world opposed the struggle, out of self-loathing, cowardice, leftist politics or simply because they were part of the jihadist movement.

But right always wins in the end, the readers would be reminded, and did so in this great culture war.

MORE (via Ed Driscoll):
The Gelded Age: A review of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, by Mark Steyn (Theodore Dalrymple, Claremont Review of Books)

French and British policy towards their large Muslim populations has been very different. There is apartheid in France: not official or legal, of course, but de facto. Whether it is better or worse to segregate, intentionally or not, your social problems in this way, as the French have done, or to disperse them everywhere so that nowhere is free of them, as the British have done, I leave to moral philosophers to decide.

When I was in France during the riots, the most striking thing was not the riots themselves; it was the complete calm, indeed serenity, of ordinary French citizens. Most of them, of course, had no more contact with the riots than they had had with the rioters beforehand. The commander of the CRS, the extremely tough and rightly feared riot police, issued a statement to the effect that the worse the situation got, the more "serene" were his men: a veiled threat that les jeunes were French enough to understand and take seriously, which explains why no cars were burnt, and no riots occurred, in the centers of any major towns or cities.

The British system, of course, has been more laissez-faire in its economic aspects, though combined with enervating political correctness in its cultural ones, which means that in the areas in which Muslims congregate there are large numbers of small businesses, many of them very successful. This is not altogether comforting, however, because it is from this stratum of society--from the sons of the owners of these businesses, who are very far from economically deprived, and who have usually been to university--that some of the suicide bombers have been drawn.

Steyn is right that the main struggle is one of ideas. Unfortunately, political correctness, which is to thought what sentimentality is to compassion, means that the intelligentsia of the West has disarmed itself in advance of any possible struggle. But I think Steyn is mistaken, or at least fails to make a proper distinction, when he says that Islam is ideologically strong and confident. Shrillness and intolerance are not signs of strength, but of weakness; fundamentalism is a response to an awareness that, if the methods of intellectual inquiry that were used to challenge Christianity were permitted in the Muslim world, Islam would soon fall apart. But if Islam fell apart in the Islamic world, what source of self-respect would be left to the population? Their backwardness and mental impoverishment would then be exposed in all nakedness.

FUNNY, HE DOESN'T SOUND ALL THAT CHALLENGED:

House votes to fund war -- with a deadline: The bill would require withdrawal next summer. Bush says it has no chance of becoming law (Richard Simon and Noam N. Levey, March 24, 2007, LA Times)

In their strongest challenge yet to President Bush over the war in Iraq, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed a war spending bill Friday that requires the withdrawal of most U.S. forces by late summer 2008.

The measure passed, 218 to 212, on a largely party-line vote, drawing support from just two Republicans after an emotional debate. House members who fought in Vietnam and Iraq delivered some of the most impassioned speeches -- both for and against the measure.

Hours after the vote, Bush appeared before television cameras at the White House to denounce the legislation, which he has repeatedly threatened to veto. He accused Democrats of performing "an act of political theater" by passing a bill that has "no chance of becoming law and brings us no closer to getting our troops the resources they need to do their job."

HE MAY LOSE THIS BATTLE, BUT HE WON THE WAR:

Class War in Conrad's Court (Naomi Klein, April 9, 2007, The Nation)

It makes sense that Lord Black is a nobody in Chicago. Black never needed to bother with politics in the United States--as far as he was concerned, the country was close to perfect. It was the rest of the English-speaking world that required Black's bombastic ideological lectures. Delivering those was his life's mission.

Black is the world's leading advocate of the "Anglosphere," a movement calling for the creation of a bloc of English-­speaking countries. Adherents claim that the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand must join together against the Muslim world and anyone else who poses a threat. For Black, the United States is not just the obvious leader of the Anglosphere but the economic and military model that all Anglo countries should emulate, as opposed to the soft European Union.

Although the consolidation of the Anglosphere as a political bloc receives far less scrutiny than US military interventions, it has been a crucial plank of Washington's imperial projects. The movement recently gained some notoriety when it emerged that on February 28, the White House had hosted a "literary luncheon" for George W. Bush's and Dick Cheney's new favorite writer, ultra­right British historian Andrew Roberts, author of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, an Anglosphere manifesto. But it is Black who has been the linchpin of Anglosphere campaigns for two decades, using his British and Canadian newspapers to reach out and collectively hug his beloved United States. In Britain this took the form of using the Daily Telegraph as a beachhead against "euro-integrationism" and insisting that Britain's future lies not with the EU but with Washington. This vision reaches its zenith, of course, with the Bush-Blair team-up in Iraq.

In Canada, where Black controlled roughly half the daily newspapers, the push to Americanize was even more strident. When Black founded the daily National Post in 1998, it was with the explicit goal of weaning Canadians from our social safety net (a "hammock") and forming a new party of the "united right" to unseat the governing Liberals.

THE UN-EDWARDS:

Run, Fred, Run!: Thompson's potential candidacy is creating a stir. (Mona Charen, 3/23/07, National Review)

What about that likable fellow from Tennessee? Thompson is not "just an actor" (though they said that about Reagan, and he turned out OK). He began his professional life as an assistant U.S. attorney, worked as Sen. Howard Baker's campaign manager and did a stint as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. It was he who asked the innocuous-sounding but momentous question of Alexander Butterfield:"Were you aware of the existence of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?"

After leaving Washington, he continued to practice law and slipped into acting as easily as a wagon rolls downhill. They were making a film about his legal exploits and couldn't find anyone who could do Fred Thompson as well as he did himself. His voting record is solidly conservative. He is articulate, self-made (his father was a car salesman), highly intelligent, and exudes calm authority. His star power offers him an opening with independent voters that other candidates can only dream of, while his solid conservative credentials will excite the Republican base.

He hasn't dreamed of becoming president since he was in diapers.

MISTAKING THE BAKER'S WINDOW FOR THERMOPYLAE:

The Cost-Free Catastrophe: What will new energy policies cost? (Rich Lowry, 3/23/07, National Review)

Maybe the next Al Gore film should be called How to Profit From the Coming Global Meltdown. The former vice president told Congress during his star-turn there that, in the course of combating global warming, we can "improve our economy's productivity and performance."

It is a common argument among advocates of greenhouse-gas restrictions and clean-technology subsidies that these measures will be an economic boon. When John Edwards unveiled his plan to "halt global warming," he promised to create a million new jobs as part of "a new energy economy." If global warming can be stopped while adding jobs to the economy -- what are we waiting for? We can have all the economic growth we want and save the planet too.

As it happens, serious efforts to combat global warming in the U.S. will create new jobs, but most of them probably will be in China and India. It was just four years ago that Democrats were attacking "out-sourcing." Now they are willing to contemplate measures that would encourage it in the cause of reduced American carbon emissions.

CATCHING UP TO THE REBEL-IN-CHIEF:

GOP Alternatives to HillaryCare (Kimberley Strassel, 3/23/07, Real Clear Politics)

Conservative health-care guru John Goodman remembers going to Washington in the early 1990s to get Republicans interested in individual health savings accounts, and "only about five guys would even meet with me," he recalls. Now, HSAs "are a religion" among the right, he notes, and Republicans used their last years in the majority to significantly expand access to these accounts. In the past 15 years, the GOP has also planted the roots of Medicare reform, looked at interstate trade in health insurance, and got behind competitive Medicare reforms in their states.

The recent White House and Senate proposals are meant to package these ideas into a more unified, free-market whole. Mr. Coburn, like the White House, would remove the subsidy corporations get for health care, and instead give the money to individuals--putting them in charge of their health expenditures. It would expand HSAs, and allow consumers to buy insurance from any state, thereby avoiding costly regulations. It would modernize Medicare, allowing workers to invest their payroll taxes into a savings account and control their care in their retirement years. It would free up the states to inject Medicaid with new flexibility and competition.

There's plenty of big ideas in these new proposals over which conservatives can argue. Do they get behind tax rebates (à la Coburn) or tax deductibility (à la President Bush)? Do you leave medical liability to the states, or intervene with federal legislation to set up state "health courts"? Or do they write all this off as too hard a political sell, and run for the Schwarzenegger "universal coverage" cover?

The important thing is that debate equals education, which equals understanding, which equals precisely what the GOP needs right now. The Heritage Foundation's Mike Franc says Republicans are still too preoccupied with health-care small-ball--which procedures should be covered by Medicare, how much should generics cost--to get their heads around the broader subject. "This is still outside their intellectual comfort zone, and Republicans never do well in that situation," he says. "But to win this debate--the defining issue of the next 40 or 50 years--they're going to have to address it forcefully, head-on, and with every bit of their intellectual firepower."

You'd have thought the right would have figured this out by now, given its success at reframing other policy issues.

THERE'S NO OVERCOMING THE WEIRDO FACTOR:

RUDY JUDI'S BOMBSHELL: REVEALS THAT HE'S HER THIRD HUSBAND (ANDREA PEYSER and MAGGIE HABERMAN, March 23, 2007, NY Post)

Rudy Giuliani's wife, Judith, made a shocking revelation yesterday that stunned even those close to the White House hopeful - he isn't her second husband, but her third.

"Something I will share with you is that, since I haven't done [many] interviews . . . Rudy and I have both been married three times," Judith told The Post.

MORE:
As '08 Candidate, Giuliani Strikes a New Tone on Guns (RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, 3/23/07, NY Times)

As mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani became the favorite Republican of gun control advocates.

He spoke in favor of a licensing system for gun owners that would require trigger locks and firearms training, and he lobbied Congress to outlaw most military-style assault weapons. He was the only Republican mayor to join a lawsuit by dozens of cities against the gun industry, and he complained that Southern states had lax gun laws that fed the illegal weapons trade in the Northeast.

"It was very important to have a visible Republican to make the case that this wasn't some liberal Democratic agenda," said Paul Helmke, a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and the president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "I was at the signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House when Bill Clinton signed the crime bill with the assault weapons ban, and Giuliani had the most prominent seat in the front row."

But as a presidential candidate, Mr. Giuliani now talks very differently about guns as he tries to allay the concerns of Republican primary voters.

NATIONALIZATION HAVING FAILED SO SPECTACULARLY IN THE PAST, ON TO THE NEXT NATIONALIZATION?

Rudd reads Left riot act on schools (Sid Marris, March 23, 2007, The Australian)

Mr Rudd and his education spokesman, Stephen Smith, promised this week that private schools would not lose money - a policy designed to bury Mark Latham's "hit list" of private schools in 2004 and Kim Beazley's freeze on funding of rich schools in 2001.

The blunt message is one of a series of steps being taken by the Labor leader during the first half of the year to drag the party away from some of its historic left-wing pillars and create a less intimidating face for mainstream voters.

AT one stroke the Labor Party has taken a step into the future. Kevin Rudd has surrendered the long-lost battle over Telstra privatisation and declared a new war over a national broadband plan and the Future Fund. Rudd is chasing multiple dividends: pitching to corporates and small business, presenting as the party of productivity and the information economy, and reinforcing his 2007 theme of Labor as the party of the future. This theme will underpin his election campaign.

John Howard and Rudd took decisively different paths this week over the economy, broadband (sometimes called fast internet) and infrastructure. This time Labor is fighting on its own ideas, not those defined by Howard.

Rudd has released two blueprints to command the "future" position in politics: his Education Revolution and this week's national broadband plan. He presents both as economic policies designed to depict the Government as belonging in the past.

By switching the focus from personality politics to policy, Rudd won the tactical contest this week. But it is the strategy that counts and Rudd's strategy is to have Labor known by new ideas, not by anti-Howard negativity. The risks are obvious. Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello have attacked Rudd for a "smash and grab raid" on the Future Fund to finance his scheme, for making "the most irresponsible economic announcements of the past 11 years", for leading a bunch of "tomb raiders" and for stealing from future generations of Australians. It is just the start.

Given Labor's fiscal history, this may give the Government political traction.

NEVER HAVE SO MANY LABORED SO HARD FOR SO LITTLE:

Dems make last push for Iraq vote (DAVID ESPO, Mar. 23, 2007, The Associated Press)

On the eve of a critical vote, House Democrats labored Thursday to lock down a majority behind a Sept. 1, 2008, deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the sternest test yet for a determined new majority eager to challenge President Bush.

"If it comes off, it's a superb accomplishment," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., as the party's leaders cajoled liberals who want an even faster timetable and moderates fearful of tying the hands of the commander in chief and generals in the field.

FORTUNATELY, THE RATIONALISMS ARE ALL INSANE:

"The Wages of Destruction" | An unusual portrait of Nazis' real downfall: a review of "The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy"
by Adam Tooze (Bruce Ramsey, 3/23/07, The Seattle Times)

When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the German economy devoted 1 percent of its output to the military. By 1939 it was 30 percent. The Nazis, writes Adam Tooze in "The Wages of Destruction," had undertaken the "largest transfer of resources ever undertaken by a capitalist state in peacetime."

Tooze, a lecturer in economic history at the University of Cambridge, undertakes to explain how the Nazis overcame their economic problems -- or didn't. He shows how economics influenced Hitler's decisions about going to war, and how to undertake his persecution of the Jews. Tooze affixes an economic turning point for the war -- late 1941 -- and he attacks what he declares to be misconceptions about the German economy,

For example, unlike some theorists, he does not portray the Nazis as pro-business. The party's name was, after all, the National Socialists, and its real interest was conquest rather than commerce. Most German industrialists went along with the Nazis because they promised to tame the unions and leave company management alone. What business got was an economy in which it could make money if it did what the government wanted, which was to build a war machine.

Tooze's story is far more realistic than the cartoonish tale Americans are told about Hitler aspiring to "take over the world." His dream was less than that, but grandiose enough. He was trying to create an Eastern European empire that would be self-contained in raw materials and could hold its own against the British Empire and the United States.

In pursuit of that goal, the Nazis cut Germany off from dependence on the global economy. They stiffed Germany's British and American creditors. They allowed only those imports that fed the military machine and only the exports that paid for the imports. Before the war, the Nazis pressed the Jews to leave, but the central bank wouldn't allow them to take their money out because the foreign exchange was for the military.

By the time Hitler began the war, his central bank was broke. He was not about to subject his dreams to the limitations of bankers. But during the war, he had no choice about subjecting them to the limitations of coal, oil, iron ore, steel, copper, fodder, food, labor and recruits. All were scarce. On paper, Nazi Europe should have been as productive as the United States, but that was impossible because of the predatory way the Nazis ran it.

...AND REDDER...:

Harper's Tories on course for majority: poll (BRIAN LAGHI, 3/23/07, Globe and Mail)

Stephen Harper's Conservatives are edging into majority-government territory with an eight-point lead over the Liberals.

A new poll also shows that although twice as many Canadians support this week's federal budget as oppose it, most think it favoured Quebec over the rest of the country.

The poll conducted for The Globe and Mail/CTV News by the Strategic Counsel shows support for the Conservatives up three points from last week to 39 per cent, while the Liberals have stayed level at 31 per cent.

I'M IN MY HAPPY PLACE:

Tavarez in a happy place: He gets a shot in revamped rotation (Gordon Edes, March 23, 2007, Boston Globe)

The month of March is coming to a much happier conclusion for Julian Tavarez this spring.

Yesterday, Tavarez was officially anointed the Red Sox' No. 5 starter, the trickle-down effect of the team's declaration that Jonathan Papelbon will remain the team's closer. Last March 27, Tavarez was slapped with a 10-game suspension for a punch to the head of Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright that all but eliminated him from assuming a meaningful role with the club.

But Tavarez, who ended last season with an unexpectedly strong run as a starter, will get his chance to reprise that role, at least until lefty Jon Lester is fully recovered from his bout with cancer or Kyle Snyder mounts a challenge.

WHIP HAND:

North Koreans hungry for a deal (Donald Kirk, 3/24/07, Asia Times)

Rising food shortages in North Korea, however, lead analysts to believe that the country is in no position to stay away from the talks for long - and is indeed willing to give up its nuclear program, including its 5-megawatt experimental reactor, after extracting as many concessions as possible.

The World Food Program as well as non-governmental agencies say North Korea is again in the throes of a food shortage in which many people are expected to die. Good Friends, headquartered in South Korea, reports starvation after a "poorer than expected" harvest last year. South Korea has promised to resume food and fertilizer shipments, cut off after the North test-fired seven missiles in July, but North Korea needs far more to meet its needs this year, according to the WFP.

In fact, analysts in Washington and at the United Nations in New York believe that North Korea by now is no longer interested in flaunting its nuclear strength - one reason it signed on to the deal to give up its nukes. A number of reports from North Korea indicate that it had been planning for some time to discontinue activities at the Yongbyon complex but is keeping it open for purposes of negotiations for food, fertilizer and other forms of aid.

YET FOLKS THINK A WALL WILL STOP THEM?:

Six strikes until they're out (ELLIOT SPAGAT, 3/23/07, Chicago Sun-Times)

Guidelines issued by U.S. attorneys in Texas showed that most illegal immigrants crossing into the state had to be arrested at least six times before federal authorities would prosecute them, according to an internal Justice Department memo.

IMAGINE WHAT CAPRA COULD DO WITH THESE GUYS?:

'Reign Over Me': Don Cheadle gives Adam Sandler space to do his serious thing. (Kevin Crust, March 23, 2007, LA Times)

Don Cheadle stars as Alan Johnson, a successful New York dentist, jolted out of a melancholia of indeterminate causes when he unexpectedly encounters Adam Sandler's Charlie Fineman, his college roommate with whom he'd lost contact. That Charlie does not recognize him and appears to have suffered some type of breakdown only energizes Alan's desire to rekindle their friendship.

The oddly matched pair begins to hang out, with Alan drawn into Charlie's strangely cloistered world of vintage rock. He's got a music room where he plays along to vinyl records, and he somewhat incongruously drums in a local punk band. The music is a haven from any reminders of a life he lost.

In hair that looks like it was borrowed from late-model Bob Dylan, Charlie is one sad and scary cat. The tragedy that triggered Charlie's withdrawal from life in the first place hovers in the background like a dark cloud threatening a downpour.

One minute he's feverishly scaling the video game heights of Shadow of the Colossus, the next he's retreating into the safety of his iPod. It's a one-man frat-boy world devoid of responsibility that's marvelously attractive to the reserved Alan.

A scattershot dramatist at best in terms of plot, Binder rigs his scenarios like rickety scaffolding, and you wonder how they remain standing. Like his "The Upside of Anger," with Joan Allen and Kevin Costner as well-matched suburban lushes, "Reign Over Me" depends on the interaction of its complexly drawn characters to remain compelling even when its plot veers into questionable territory.

Along with two excellent lead performances, the film has a fine supporting cast, including Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland and Binder himself. Binder's people are not anyone you'd ask over for dinner, but it's fascinating to watch them argue, negotiate and cajole one another in exasperatingly human ways. The two men at the center of "Reign" are both treading water, and though their situations and reunion feel awfully contrived, there's an authenticity to the way Alan gravitates to Charlie and then tries to help him.

We've seen Sandler do serious before -- notably in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" -- so it should be no surprise that he pulls it off here. There's always an underlying anger to Sandler's most interesting performances, that sense that he's going to pop at any moment. Charlie allows him to be all the things that have made him a lively performer -- outrageous, vulnerable, goofy and violent, almost simultaneously.

It helps that Sandler has the intensely reactive Cheadle to play off, especially when he delivers a key monologue that easily could have gone awry. Generosity is the sign of a great actor, and Cheadle shares the screen in an illuminating way. Alan is the ostensible protagonist, but Cheadle is confident enough to essentially play straight man to Sandler's inherently showier role.

MORE:
Reign Over Me (Todd Hertz, 03/23/07, Christianity Today)

When Charlie feels threatened or must keep his mind from wandering to uncomfortable thoughts, he retreats into loud classic rock played over his headphones. One of those songs--played prominently several times in the film--is The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me" (redone for the film's soundtrack by Pearl Jam). It's obvious that it's not just a random song placement. In fact, the song's title fills in the word missing from the film's name.

What does Charlie need to reign over him? Love.

In telling the story of Alan's steady, bold and abrasive love slowly brightening Charlie's dark world, Reign Over Me hits on poignant, profound themes that make you think. This movie will lead to great discussions. Christians will see several ideas and thoughts reflected from the Bible. And Charlie's attitudes, emotional traps and side effects of grief may remind any audience of hurting loved ones--or themselves. After the film, you may think of hurting friends you need to call. I did. You may feel the need to talk to your spouse about what you want for them if you pass on first. I did. There are just so many provocative truths.

We see an example of why God designed us for close friendships and biblical fellowship. We see why we need one other--and, sometimes, need help from trained professionals. We see the importance of communication. We see the reality of people painfully holed up in their grief. We see the need to not run from or bury past loves, losses and mistakes, but instead remember--as painful as that process may be. We see why love is selfless. And we see the reason for Paul's message in Hebrews 10:24-25: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit are doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (NIV).

At its heart, the movie is about people who have lost their bearings through tragedy, and dealing with it in unhealthy ways. It's redeeming and powerful--though uncomfortable to watch at times because it's about messy people navigating messy lives. And like in life, nothing heals quickly and easily. Instead, progress comes in fits and starts--and tends to hit rock bottom just when you think everything's getting better.

Like "The Upside of Anger," in which Mr. Binder benefited from fine work by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner, "Reign Over Me" uses the rhythms and moods of comedy to explore, and also to contain, overpowering feelings of loss, anger and hurt. And like that earlier movie, this one is maddeningly uneven.

It's rare to see so many moments of grace followed by so many stumbles and fumbles, or to see intelligence and discretion undone so thoroughly by glibness and grossness. And it is puzzling, and ultimately draining, to see a film that waves the flag of honesty -- Face your demons! Speak from your heart! Open up! -- turn out to be so phony.

The best scenes are those that give Mr. Cheadle and Mr. Sandler room to play against each other, to bring their very different temperaments into a workable syncopation. The premise of their relationship is fairly schematic. Alan, who resumes his friendship with Charlie after years of being out of touch, tries to coax his old pal back into contact with the world around him, while Charlie's life of compulsive play allows Alan a furlough from his confining responsibility. The two actors perform the dance of superego and id with impressive ease and suavity.

READY, AIM....

'Shooter': Mark Wahlberg gives 'Shooter' its considerable firepower. (Kenneth Turan, March 23, 2007, LA Times)

It's a sentiment not found on the poster, but if you had to sum up Hollywood's latest action thriller in one sentence, you'd select the traditional "Mark Wahlberg is 'Shooter.' " He really is, and that is a good thing.

One of those elevated B-pictures that runs type across the bottom of the screen to identify cities, "Shooter" has its pro forma, paint-by-numbers elements, but it is executed with such efficiency and energy by action maestro Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") that ignoring flaws and becoming involved in the proceedings isn't a matter of choice.

Starting from a script by Jonathan Lemkin loosely adapted from Stephen Hunter's bestselling "Point of Impact," "Shooter" presents us with the kind of character the movies love: the heroic loner forced to do unequal battle for justice against phenomenal odds.

PSSSST...IT ALREADY KNIEVELED LAST SEASON:

'Battlestar' finale may put fans at crossroads (Mark A. Perigard, 3/23/07, Boston Herald)

For much of the season, fans of Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" have been teased with the notion that one of the five hidden Cylons would be revealed - as a member of the Galactica crew.

The third-season finale (Sunday at 10 p.m.) delivers on that premise and then some.

"Cliffhanger" is such an inadequate word to describe the episode.

Cries of "Holy frak!" will arise from fans all over the country after the final moments air. The "Battlestar" universe will never be the same after the revelations in "Crossroads Part II."

Some fans will be jazzed for the new season. Others will accuse the show of jumping the shark. But no other TV show on any other network has shown such a willingness to both surprise its viewers and rip apart its own formula in such a challenging, creative way. Ronald D. Moore, executive producer/writer, refuses to take the easy route and let his cast or his viewers get comfortable. [...]

I've already said too much. There are spoilers on other Web sites that give away every detail of this episode. Please avoid them. Give yourself the chance to enjoy "Crossroads Part II" as it was meant to be. Allow yourself the pleasure of being genuinely surprised.

There are far too many shows on the air that are capable of doing that. "Battlestar" is one of the few that delivers and one of the best.

WHICH MAKES IT THE NATION OF WAZIRISTAN, NOT PAKISTAN:

Pakistan Officials Applaud Fighting in Tribal Region (Griff Witte and Kamran Khan, 3/23/07, Washington Post)

Pakistani officials say the fighting validates their counterterrorism strategy: allowing tribal leaders to evict al-Qaeda on their own, without the direct help of the Pakistani army. But analysts say that the tribes have their own reasons for battling the foreign fighters and that this latest violence could further distance the region from central government authority.

Waziristan, which is remote and relatively lawless, has become a haven for al-Qaeda in recent years, and the United States has been pressing Pakistan to do more to oust the group. Pakistan's army has tried and largely failed to extricate the foreign fighters on its own.

"For the first time ever, the local tribesmen have taken up arms against the foreign militants in South Waziristan. This is a big breakthrough," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said in an interview.

Officials have recently begun to concede that the fighters are present in large numbers and that they are attacking targets on both sides of the border. Sherpao acknowledged that "the size of the Central Asian and Arab guerrilla force far outnumbered our estimate of foreigners hiding in this area."

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman, said that the Pakistani army was not directly aiding the tribal forces but that those groups are responding to government calls for action. Pakistan's government has told tribal authorities that the presence of foreign fighters could prompt U.S. or Pakistani strikes against suspected hide-outs. It has also offered financial incentives for driving the al-Qaeda fighters out.

"We have asked the tribal governments to take responsibility for their areas and not shelter foreign militants," Arshad said. "That is what they are doing."

THE WESTERNIZER:

The intellect behind Islamic radicalism: review of The Power of Sovereignty by Sayed Khatab (Dmitry Shlapentokh, Asia Times)

It is not surprising that books about Qutb proliferate. The Power of Sovereignty is written for a scholarly audience, with not much attention to style or even to the organization of the text. Still, it provides insight into Qutb's philosophy and explains the reason it has become such a powerful force.

The key to this appeal is that Qutb's teaching discards the notion that Islam is just a religion, reduced to a few rituals and obligations in daily life. In Qutb's view, Islam permeates all aspects of human life; society should be Islamic from top to bottom.

The ideal of the total Islamization of society is an important element of Qutb's philosophy, but does not fully explain its appeal. It has a strong internationalist underpinning and resolutely discards nationalism. In this aspect it strongly resembles Marxism... [...]

[Q]utb's work explains the way radical Islamism has become a sort of replacement for various forms of radical Marxism, such as Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism, and plays such an important role in this century.

AND STARRING PIUS NCUBE, AS POPE JOHN PAUL II:

Zimbabwean archbishop calls for mass protests (The Guardian, March 23, 2007)

The Zimbabwean archbishop Pius Ncube has called his countrymen "cowards" for failing to stand up to the strong-arm tactics of their ageing president, Robert Mugabe.

The archbishop of Bulawayo urged mass demonstrations to force an end to the 27-year rule of Mr Mugabe. "I am ready to stand in front. We must be ready to stand, even in front of blazing guns," he told a group of clerics, pro-democracy activists and diplomats, most from western countries, in the capital, Harare, yesterday.

"The biggest problem is Zimbabweans are cowards, myself included. We must get off our comfortable seats and suffer with the people. We have to stand up against this oppression. The time for radicalism is now. If we gather a crowd of 20,000, the government will not use its guns."

The archbishop has long been an ardent critic of Mr Mugabe, 83, and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front party. The archbishop's efforts in the past to rally Zimbabweans have not led to mass protests, but his latest comments come at a time when the opposition appears particularly determined and international pressure is growing on Mr Mugabe's regime following renewed claims of police brutality.

THE LONGER THEY NEGOTIATE THE MORE THEY'LL GIVE UP:

Sundering Jerusalem Is Explored: Israel's Government Considering Plan Advanced by Riyadh (ELI LAKE, March 23, 2007, NY Sun)

In a bid to open a channel to the Arabs, Israel's premier is embracing a long dormant Saudi peace proposal that would divide Jerusalem and could flood the Jewish state with Palestinian Arab refugees with family claims to land evacuated in the 1948 war that created the state.

DOING HANK PROUD:

Hometown author shares her stories of inspiration (CHRIS GRAY, The Romeo Observer)

Denise Coughlin, author of "Dragon in my Pocket," visited Croswell Elementary to speak with students about writing and inspiration, tying in with March being Reading Month. [...]

In her book, an illustrated children's story about a boy named Sebastian, she gives a message of courage and inspiration for kids, saying it is the size of your heart that matters. [...]

The Shelby Township resident told a captivated audience of students how her father would talk about her Polish ancestor named Henryk Sienkiewicz.

"He was Poland's first Nobel Prize winner for literature," she said. "Listening to my father talk about him inspired me to write."

Because of this, she told students she wanted to have characters from Poland in her story. A character named Grandma Busia tells the Legend of Kraskow, sharing not only a tale from history, but Polish culture with the students.

BUT WHY BE BILLIE?:

The best singer you've never heard of: Bob Dylan was a big fan, like most of those who heard the late, great vocalist. Now, 14 years after her death, Karen Dalton's time has come. (Laura Barton, March 23, 2007, The Guardian)

'Karen's voice is a voice for the jaded ear; a combination of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Jeannie Ritchie, the Appalachian singer." The country singer Lacy J Dalton is on the line from Nevada, trying to put into words the voice of Karen Dalton, whose surname she adopted in tribute. "There's a horn quality to it and her phrasing is exquisite," she says. "I once heard it described as cornmeal mush, but it's more than that. When she sang about something, you believed her."

Dalton is the great lost voice of the New York's Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s. Hers was a voice to make the listener feel sad and lost. At times it was warm and supple, rippling over Something on Your Mind, for example; at others it was twisted and other-worldly, as when wrapped around Katie Cruel. It was a voice that earned her the tag "folk music's answer to Billie Holiday" - a comparison she loathed, but which was inevitable, Dalton's voice possessing that same welling, bluesy sadness. [...]

After the failure of In My Own Time, Dalton seemed to drift out of view, participating less in music and more in drink and drugs. "I only knew her as an addicted personality," says Brooks. "She had drug problems the whole time I knew her. She had a painful personality and I think she did drugs to soothe the pain." Lacy recalls that Dalton and her boyfriend "were probably dealing drugs. They did dangerous things, heavy things like heroin." Dalton once overdosed at her house. "She called me up after that and she said 'I guess it's been three weeks. It's taken me this long to call and say I guess I oughtta thank you for something.' She was furious at me for bringing her back."

Dalton's unhappiness was partly personal - the failure of her marriage and her later estrangement from her children hurt her considerably, according to Lacy. But it was also part of a wider cultural despondency. "She was of the old beat generation that felt you had to be burning the candle both ends and dying of hunger to call yourself an artist," says Lacy. "I've always called them canaries in the coalmine, because they were in some ways hypersensitive to what was going on in the world. They were expressing their feelings of powerlessness and they felt they should live, do drugs, drink, whatever to take the pain away."

By the early 90s Dalton was living on the streets of New York. "Whenever I performed there she would show up," Lacy remembers. "She didn't look too bad. She had an odour and her teeth were awful, but she was a very clean person and very beautiful to everyone, so I don't think people noticed her teeth."

As Dalton drifted steadily downwards, Lacy pulled some strings to get her into rehab in Texas. "We got her guitars out of the pawnshop, we got her damn cat from Pennsylvania and we got her on a plane to Texas. There was a recording session set up for her for when she'd finished. She called me when she got there. She said, 'I oughtta stick my cowboy boot up your ass! One of us oughtta change her name. Get me a plane ticket home now!' I said, 'Karen, stay long enough to get your teeth fixed,' but what I didn't realise at the time was that her teeth was how she was getting access to codeine. And so she went back to New York and died on the streets a year later."

Quite how she died remains muddled. "Some said it was a drug overdose," says Brooks. "But from what I understand, she ran out of steam."

MORE:
-MP3: Little Bit of Rain (Karen Dalton)
-MP3: In the Evening (Karen Dalton)

A QUESTION OF TOO FARNESS:

Executive Overreach: The White House Is Taking Privilege Too Far (Beth Nolan, March 23, 2007, Washington Post)

The Framers of our Constitution envisioned that in the exercise of their authorities, the two political branches would assert their prerogatives against each other. A process of negotiation and accommodation between the branches is what one would expect. That process isn't elegant, but a push-pull between the branches doesn't necessarily mean that anything is wrong.

What is going wrong today, however, is the take-it-or-leave-it position of the White House.

The struggle between Congress and the executive branch over the requested testimony of White House officials regarding the removal of eight U.S. attorneys is playing out in the political arena. In fact, the political arena is where the contours of these prerogatives are largely shaped, rather than in our courts. While executive privilege is based in constitutional principles of the separation of powers and the authority of the president over the executive branch, and the privilege has been recognized by the Supreme Court, its scope has been largely determined outside the judicial process.

ATOMIC WAIT:

The triumph of the Eurocrats (Geoffrey Wheatcroft, March 23, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Behind the resentment is a great gulf, between the politicians and bureaucrats who created the EEC and then saw it evolve into the European Union, and the ordinary people of Europe. At heart, the "European idea" has always been a clerical enthusiasm, in the ecclesiastical sense: like certain episodes in church history, it has been much more cherished by the clergy than the laity.

Our clerisy today are the political and administrative class, the Eurocracy, the "soi-disant élites," as the contrarian French politician Jean-Pierre Chevènement calls them. Again and again they have tried to make Europe run before it could walk; have pushed toward political integration much faster than most of their voters wanted; have written one treaty after another that the electorate greeted with hostility.

Shocking as that French "non" in 2005 was to the clerisy, it was nothing new. Every European treaty is meant to be ratified by each member state, through parliamentary vote or referendum. The Danes voted against the Maastricht treaty and the Irish voted against the Nice treaty, before they were both told to go back and vote again until they got it right.

This dissonance between rulers and ruled is illuminated by comparing the European Union and the American Union. [...]

[T]he American republic was an organic growth, a lay movement, "We the people" speaking as a nation. The EU has too often been the other way round, the clerisy deciding what is good for "you the people."

ONE IN THE BOX:

Stuart Rosenberg: Television and film director best known for 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'The Amityville Horror' (Independent, 23 March 2007)

Stuart Rosenberg, film director: born New York 11 August 1927; married 1950 Margot Pohoryles (one son); died Beverly Hills, California 15 March 2007.

Stuart Rosenberg directed one of the outstanding films of the 1960s, Cool Hand Luke, which won an Oscar for its supporting player George Kennedy and a nomination for its star, Paul Newman. It remains one of the finest films to deal with prison life, and the scene in which the disturbed loner Newman wins over fellow inmates by his ability to consume 50 hard-boiled eggs in one uninterrupted session has become iconic, as has the catchphrase used by the warden (Strother Martin) which has since become part of the language, "What we have here is failure to communicate." [...]

Rosenberg himself discovered Donn Pearce's 1965 novel Cool Hand Luke, and recommended it to Jack Lemmon, who had formed his own production company, Jalem. "It was the first time I had come across an existential hero - not an anti-hero - in American literature," he said. The 1967 film version proved a potent mixture of social comment and fine entertainment, its depiction of life in a southern prison prompting the historian Clive Hirschhorn to comment in his 1979 book The Warner Bros. Story, "Stuart Rosenberg's probing, intimate direction almost amounted to an invasion of the prisoners' privacy."

A TAD TOO MUCH FIRE IN THE BELLY:

The campaign goes on, says Edwards (Guardian Unlimited March 22, 2007)

John Edwards is to continue his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination despite his wife, Elizabeth, suffering a recurrence of cancer, he announced today.

A series of reports in the US had predicted that the 53-year-old former senator - one of three frontrunners for the Democratic ticket along with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - was about to announce his withdrawal.

Democratic sources were quoted as saying that Mr Edwards would use a press conference in his home state of North Carolina to announce the move today.

However, he instead pledged to continue as he stood next to his wife in the town of Chapel Hill. "The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly," he told reporters.

WESTFAILURE:

Europe's approaching train wreck (Stanley Kober, March 22, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

The momentum toward independence for Kosovo seems irresistible because it is unlikely that the predominantly Albanian population there will accept anything less. [...]

If 1244 is ignored, it is unreasonable to expect that our actions would not be treated as a precedent to ignore other UN resolutions in the future. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have both made this point.

Russia, and many other nations, have been irritated by the tendency of NATO countries, and the United States in particular, to bypass the Security Council when they cannot obtain a resolution they want.

The dilemma confronting policymakers is acute. Kosovar aspirations cannot be denied much longer, but the effort to satisfy them absent an agreement with Serbia is bound to alienate the Serbs and, by extension, the Russians.

And if we craft solutions that bypass existing law, we should recognize that we are creating opportunities for mischief down the road.

Indeed, if we attempt to buy peace at the expense of law, we might find out we end up with neither.

With Ahtisaari's declaration that further negotiation is pointless, Europe's trains -- Kosovo independence vs. Serbia's territorial integrity, legitimacy vs. law -- are hurtling toward each other.

If the Russians (and possibly the Chinese) oppose revision of Resolution 1244 to grant Kosovo effective independence, and if the United States and its allies ignore these concerns and endorse the Ahtisaari plan, the reverberations will be felt well beyond the Balkans.

WHAT HAVE ISMS TO DO WITH SENSE?:

All hands to the pump: Oil-rich Iran may have to ration petrol (The Economist, 3/22/07)

In the meantime the shortage represents a vulnerability at an unfortunate moment: Western countries are looking for ways to press Iran over its nuclear programme and there has been some talk of a future embargo on imported petrol.

The subsidy is anyway costing the country dear at a time when the economy has become the focal point of domestic opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A populist spending spree has fuelled inflation and unbalanced the budget. Cheap petrol also encourages enormous waste as well as smuggling to neighbouring countries where it is more expensive. Officials have suggested that raising the price could help reduce consumption by around 20%.

The fear, though, is of a further increase in inflation if prices are brought, as economists say they should be, up to the cost of domestic production, something like 20 cents a litre. There is also a political problem. Iranians often see cheap petrol as proof that the government is redistributing oil wealth back to the people--one of Mr Ahmadinejad's big election promises. Raising the price makes economic sense but is the last thing a populist government wants to do.

UNDERESTIMATING AMERICANIZATION:

Bigger than thought: An underestimated pay-off from economic reform (The Economist, 3/22/07)

WHEN it comes to economic growth, Brazil has long been seen as something of a laggard. But it turns out that the country's economy in 2005 was 10.9% bigger than previously thought and has grown since 2000 at an annual average rate of 3%, rather than 2.6%. That still lags the world (see chart) but is a bit more respectable. [...]

There are other reasons to think that Brazil is better off than generally realised. In a recent paper*, two IMF economists argue that official data "grossly underestimate" the growth of household income. Brazil's economic opening in the early 1990s lowered prices and improved the quality and availability of goods, changes that were largely missed by the consumer-price index. Using data about what people actually consumed, the economists estimate that income per head grew 4½% a year between 1987 and 2002 compared with the official figure of 1½%, with the poor benefiting most. That makes Brazil look better; it makes economic reform look better, too.

'NUFF SAID (via Bryan Francoeur):

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2171124120070322>Marvel theme park to open in Dubai by 2011 (Reuters, 3/22/07)

Fans of comic book superheroes Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will be able to see their favorite characters when a new theme park opens in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates by 2011.

The $1 billion park, the first of its kind in the region, is being developed by U.S.-based Marvel Entertainment Inc, which licenses the comic book heroes, and UAE-based construction and real estate company Al Ahli Group.

Marvel currently owns a superhero island and rides at Universal Studios' parks in Florida, California and Japan, but the Dubai park will be the company's first full theme park and the largest outside the United States.

AND GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO IS STILL DEAD:

Public Still Supports Path to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants (Joseph Carroll, 3/14/07, GALLUP NEWS SERVICE)

The March 2-4, 2007, USA Today/Gallup Poll updated a question asked several times last year that measured Americans' preferences for the handling of illegal immigrants already in the country:

Which comes closest to your view about what government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States? Should the government -- [ROTATED: deport all illegal immigrants back to their home country, allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States in order to work, but only for a limited amount of time, or allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens, but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time]?

Given these three options, the majority of Americans, 59%, support the government allowing illegal immigrants to remain in this country and eventually become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements. Fifteen percent of Americans support allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the country to work for a limited period of time. About one in four Americans, 24%, say all illegal immigrants should be deported back to their home countries.

Across the four polls on which Gallup has asked this question since the illegal immigration controversy heated up last spring, most Americans have consistently supported the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens after meeting certain requirements.

EVER NOTICE...:

Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades (Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst, Federal Reserve Working Paper 06-2)

In this paper, we use five decades of time-use surveys to document trends in the allocation of time. We document that a dramatic increase in leisure time lies behind the relatively stable number of market hours worked (per working-age adult) between 1965 and 2003. Specifically, we document that leisure for men increased by 6-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in market work hours) and for women by 4-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in home production work hours). This increase in leisure corresponds to roughly an additional 5 to 10 weeks of vacation per year, assuming a 40-hour work week. We also find that leisure increased during the last 40 years for a number of sub-samples of the population, with less-educated adults experiencing the largest increases.

WE ARE ALL INTELLIGENT DESIGNISTS NOW:

These invasive species are ruining the retail ecosystem: Unchecked by effective regulation, chain stores such as Tesco resemble nature's hungry breeds, suffocating diversity (Andrew Simms, March 22, 2007, The Guardian)
White Dwarf Explodes in 3-D Simulation (Larry O'Hanlon, March 22, 2007, Discovery News)

A small star was blown to bits on Thursday in Santa Barbara, California. The star was not of the Hollywood sort but a white dwarf, which astrophysicists have finally figured out how to self-destruct in a 3-D supercomputer simulation.

YOU CALL THEM PRISONS, WE CALL THEM NEIGHBORHOODS:

Planners go 'round and around over cul-de-sacs: Once a homeowner's dream, the dead-end street is falling out of favor everywhere -- except Southern California (Dawn Bonker, March 22, 2007, LA Times)

CITY planners shun them. New urbanists hate them. Boulder, Colo., all but banned them.

Cul-de-sacs -- those once-beloved icons of the suburban good life -- have become something of a demonized concept. The growing consensus among urban planners is that these lollipop-shaped streets hurt communities by chopping up neighborhoods, isolating children, intensifying traffic woes and discouraging walking.

Then why are so many still being built here?

Leave it to Southern California to defy the new convention. While cities across the country return to streets laid out on a traditional grid system, cul-de-sacs are springing up from Calabasas to Chula Vista. Yes, homeowners often fall in love with the quiet courts and initial sense of built-in neighborliness. But, experts say, just wait.

"The problem with the cul-de-sac is not the cul-de-sac itself," says Jeff Speck, director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts and coauthor of "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream." Over time, he says, "very few streets carry most of the traffic and therefore must be exceedingly wide, creating an environment that is generally unwalkable."

People inclined to leave their cul-de-sac usually face the equivalent of neighborhood highways -- a pedestrian nightmare of high-speed arterial streets that are unsafe for children and no fun for anyone, Speck says. Dead-end streets that start out as a playground for youngsters, he says, turn into a prison when children get older.

"Age 3 through 8, it's great. Beyond there, you're a captive," says Speck, who along with his "Suburban Nation" coauthors coined the term "cul-de-sac kid" to describe children isolated by geography.

INHERIT THE BAG OF WIND:

Some Heated Words for Mr. Global Warming (Dana Milbank, March 22, 2007, Washington Post)

Al Gore, star of an Academy Award-winning film, was in town for a double feature on Capitol Hill yesterday. But instead of giving another screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," the former vice president found himself playing the Clarence Darrow character in "Inherit the Wind."

POWERS AND PREROGATIVES AREN'T PRIVILEGES:

The Executive Privilege Showdown (Reynolds Holding, 3/22/07, TIME)

Generally speaking, executive privilege is the president's right to withhold certain information from Congress, the courts and most anyone else, even in the face of a subpoena. It's a conditional privilege, meaning it can be overridden in some circumstances, such as when the president is the target of a criminal investigation. That's why President Nixon famously lost his 1974 struggle in the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the Watergate tapes private. But the courts are typically deferential to the privilege, presuming that it holds unless someone can prove an overwhelming interest in obtaining the information.

Executive privilege usually applies to White House deliberations, on the theory that the president needs candid and confidential advice from his staff. The Supreme Court acknowledged that need as early as 1803, in Marbury v. Madison. But the privilege also protects national security matters, especially when they involve military and foreign affairs, and has the very practical effect of allowing the administration to keep things like the names of spies and informers and the progress of delicate negotiations secret.

Although President Bush has not yet invoked executive privilege in the U.S. attorneys standoff, White House counsel Fred Fielding alluded to it when he mentioned "the constitutional prerogatives of the presidency" in a letter offering a compromise to Congress.

MORE: