Tidbits on September 26, 2006
Bob Jensen

Foliage Network --- http://www.foliagenetwork.com/default.php
Foliage in New Hampshire's White Mountains --- http://www.nhliving.com/foliage/index.shtml
Fall Foliage --- http://gonewengland.about.com/cs/fallfoliage/l/blfoliagecentrl.htm
Foliage Pictures --- http://photo.net/travel/us/ne/foliage

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   
 

Click here to search this Website if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

San Francisco is known for its lenient Judges and liberal Supervisors. The S.F. Chief of Police accuses the Judges and Supervisors of having no accountability and calls the San Francisco Chronicle a piece of crap ---http://mfile.akamai.com/12948/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2006/0728/9591734.300k.asx

Condoleezza Rice kept her cool and poise during interview by Katie Couric on Sixty Minutes, September 24, 2006 --- Click Here
She's got real class on top of graduating Phi Beta Kappa at age 19 followed by earning a PhD and becoming both a tenured political science professor and the Provost at Stanford University  before becoming the current U.S. Secretary of State. She's faced terror, bigotry, and adversaries since she was five years old. She's a classical pianist on top of everything else. Dr. Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville, Michigan State University in 2004, and Boston College Law School in 2006 --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice#Academic_career

Pixsy (Variety Photos and Films) --- http://www.pixsy.com/

National Institutes of Health: Radio --- http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/index.htm

The Living History Farm --- http://livinghistoryfarm.org/index.html

NBC launches online video venture, hoping to reclaim viewers ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17496

Smuggler Site --- http://www.smugglersite.com/mov/stylewar_inthisworld.mov

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings (video with a shore commercial in front) --- http://www.pixsy.com/search.aspx?q=Willie Nelson
There are great selections at the above link!
Other video features http://www.pixsy.com/

Four-year old drummer boy --- http://www.usefulconcept.com/index.cfm/2006/9/18/kickin-the-drums

Home Sweet Home: Life in 19th Century Ohio --- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/ohio/ohio.html

Mixmatcher --- http://www.mixmatcher.com/

From the Church to the Tavern and Back (Johnnie Paycheck) ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6063412

Defining 'Jique' as Something Lithe and Worldly --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6062842

A Poppy Rock Band Discovers Hints of Metal --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5783211

The Galaxy Song (from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life) --- http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/music/Galaxy_Song.html

Young Tuba Player Gets Nod from Phila. Orchestra --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6077977

From 'Popeye' Doyle to Puccini: William Friedkin --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6070626

Barenaked Ladies in Concert (entire rock concert)--- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6063654

How To: keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive ---
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-hard-drive/

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Representative Poetry On-line --- http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display/index.cfm

The Literature Network --- http://www.online-literature.com/

Craftzine (for arts and crafts) --- http://www.craftzine.com/

Literature.org --- http://www.literature.org/ 

Literature Project --- http://www.literatureproject.com/

The Tragedy Of Pudd'Nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (1835-1910) --- Click Here

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) --- Click Here

Shakespeare Insult Kit --- http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html

Bethlehem (Steel) Digital History Project http://bdhp.moravian.edu/home/home.html 

Guess what clears out (sadly) the neighborhood about as fast as a tornado?
Over the past six months, landowners here have been clear-cutting thousands of trees to keep them from becoming homes for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. The chain saws started in February, when the federal Fish and Wildlife Service put Boiling Spring Lakes on notice that rapid development threatened to squeeze out the woodpecker . . . Hoping to beat the mapmakers, landowners swarmed City Hall to apply for lot-clearing permits. Treeless land, after all, would not need to be set aside for woodpeckers. Since February, the city has issued 368 logging permits, a vast majority without accompanying building permits.
"Rare Woodpecker Sends a Town Running for Its Chain Saws," The New York Times, September 23, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Bad news always travels faster than good news. This supports the argument that some government information should be classified.

Question
What country is the largest oil producer in the world?
Hint:  It's not Saudi Arabia.

There has generally been a lot of truth in that perception, as Saudi Arabia has for years topped the list of the world’s oil producers. But those not attuned to the finer points of the oil market may have missed a shift in the rankings over the summer, as Russia sneaked past the Saudis to top the list, with a six-month average of 9.37 million barrels a day, compared with 9.32 million for the ex-champ. (OPEC over all, of course, still dominates, with 29.5 million of the world’s 73.5 million barrels.)
Hubert B. Herring, "Who Produces the Most Oil? Not Who You Think," The New York Times, September 17, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/business/yourmoney/17count.html?ref=business

Thieves respect property; they merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton

Harvard University’s endowment — the largest in the United States — earned a 16.7 percent return in the year ending June 30, 2006, bringing its value to $29.2 billion.
Inside Higher Ed, September 20, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/20/qt

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes. And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the river.
Cornealia Dean, "Time to Move the Mississippi, Experts Say," The New York Times, September 19, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/science/19rive.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

“Democrats vow not to give up hopelessness” ran a spoof headline in The Onion.
Tim Reid, "Will Democrats squander best chance for a decade?" London Times, September 22, 2006 --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2369426,00.html

It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.
Henry Allen as quoted in an email message from Aaron Konstam

History: an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
Ambrose Bierce (1842 1914) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce

The "mainstream media presents itself as unbiased, when in fact there are built into it many biases, and they are overwhelmingly to the left." The man who made that comment is not some rabid right-wing critic but Thomas Edsall, a Washington Post political reporter for a quarter-century who recently accepted an early retirement offer.
Howard Kurtz, "Chris Wallace, Caught Off Balance?" The Washington Post, September 25, 2006; Page C01 ---
Click Here

San Francisco is known for its lenient Judges and liberal Supervisors. The S.F. Chief of Police accuses the Judges and Supervisors of having no accountability and calls the San Francisco Chronicle a piece of crap A video of his public announcement is at ---http://mfile.akamai.com/12948/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2006/0728/9591734.300k.asx

When the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic left office in October 2000, he was felled not by NATO's bombs but by his own police and soldiers' refusal to enforce his orders. For nearly a decade, a merry band of militants called Otpor ("Resistance") had been treating his regime to a mix of Gandhian disobedience and Yippie-style pranks, planting the seeds of rebellion across the country and helping assemble a broad, nonviolent anti-government coalition. When Milosevic refused to acknowledge that he had lost the 2000 election to Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition called a general strike. For a taut description of what came next, turn to Nonviolent Struggle: 50 Crucial Points, a new book by three veterans of Otpor, Srdja Popovic, Andrej Milivojevic, and Slobodan Djinovic:.
Jesse Walker, "The 50 Habits of Highly Effective Revolutionaries The third wave of nonviolent revolt," Reason Magazine, September 21, 2006 --- http://www.reason.com/links/links092106.shtml

The U.S. Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding. The decision by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked, current and former Pentagon officials said . . . The Army, with an active-duty force of 504,000, has been stretched by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. About 400,000 have done at least one tour of combat duty, and more than a third of those have been deployed twice. Commanders have increasingly complained of the strain, saying last week that sustaining current levels will require more help from the National Guard and Reserve or an increase in the active-duty force.
Peter Speigel, "Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short," L.A. Times, September 24, 2006 --- Click Here

“Freedom and Justice in Islam” Bernard Lewis Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, Imprimis, September 2006 --- http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/
This is a great summary of the history of the Middle East and alternatives for the future.

Bernard Lewis, born and raised in London, studied at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, where he earned a Ph.D. in the history of Islam. After military and other war service in World War II, he taught at the University of London until 1974 and at Princeton University until 1986. He is currently Princeton's Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies. For many years he was one of the very few European scholars permitted access to the archives of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. In addition to his historical studies, he has published translations of classical Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Hebrew poetry. Professor Lewis has drawn on primary sources to produce more than two dozen books, including The Arabs in History, What Went Wrong? and The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror.

. . .

So there is a good deal of pro-Western and even specifically pro-American feeling. But the anti-American feeling is strongest in those countries that are ruled by what we are pleased to call “friendly governments.” And it is those, of course, that are the most tyrannical and the most resented by their own people. The outlook at the moment is, I would say, very mixed. I think that the cause of developing free institutions—along their lines, not ours—is possible. One can see signs of its beginning in some countries. At the same time, the forces working against it are very powerful and well entrenched. And one of the greatest dangers is that on their side, they are firm and convinced and resolute. Whereas on our side, we are weak and undecided and irresolute. And in such a combat, it is not difficult to see which side will prevail.

I think that the effort is difficult and the outcome uncertain, but I think the effort must be made. Either we bring them freedom, or they destroy us.

Our lives end the day we become silent about things that really matter.
Martin Luther King (1929-1968) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King

The problem with heated words now is that it's not the old world anymore. In the old world, incompetent governments dragged cannons through the mud to set up a ragged front . . . Now every nut and nation wants, has or is trying to develop nukes.
"The World Is as Hot as the Devil," by Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2006; Page P12 ---
Click Here

He broadened his claimed base. Chávez made the argument that it is not America versus Saddam or America versus terrorists but the American Empire versus all the yearning people of the world. He claimed as his constituency everyone unhappy with the unipolar world.

He acknowledged a particular reality by putting distance between the current administration and the American people. This is not so much new as shrewd, and telling. It is an unacknowledged fact known to every diplomat in the world that the people of the world like Americans. Old Europe and new, Africa, people on the ground all over, have some acquaintance with the particular American character of openness and generosity. We turn our faith, and guilt at good fortune, into do-gooding. We send money, bring bandages and overtip. The world has met us. (This by the way is our biggest foreign-policy strength.) Those who attack America are forced to speak highly of Americans, and Chávez did, which allows him to reach potential new allies here. People don't mind being told they are very fine but their government is very wicked. He gave new cover to critics of America. Jacques Chirac to Condoleezza Rice the next time he throws a snare: "You think I'm bad? Chávez would kill you!"

America has seen this before, seen Khrushchev bang his shoe on the table and say "We will bury you." We grew up watching our flag being burned on TV. So it's tempting to think this is part of a meaningless continuum.

But the temperature of the world is very high, and maybe we're not stuck in a continuum but barreling down a dark corridor. The problem with heated words now is that it's not the old world anymore. In the old world, incompetent governments dragged cannons through the mud to set up a ragged front. Now every nut and nation wants, has or is trying to develop nukes.

Harsh words inspire the unstable.

Coolants are needed. Here is an idea. Don't try to ignore Chávez, answer him. With the humility that comes with deep confidence, with facts, and with some humor, too.

There is an opportunity for the Democratic Party. Some Democrats responded with spirited indignation the day after Chávez spoke, and it was rousing. But Chávez's charges were grave, and he claimed America's abuses could be tracked back a century. If the Democrats seek to speak for America, why not start with a serious and textured response, one that isn't a political blast-back but a high-minded putting forward of facts? This would take guts, and farsightedness. Rebutting a wild-eyed man who says you can find redemption reading Noam Chomsky is a little too much like rebutting a part of your base.

As for the administration, it is so in the habit of asserting, defending and repeating, it barely remembers how to persuade and appeal. It speaks starkly and carries a big stick. It feels so beleaguered on a daily basis, and so snakebit, that even its mildest players have taken refuge in gritting their teeth and tunneling on. They take comfort in this: They think Chávez helps them. See what we're up against? But that's not a response, it's a way not to respond. It doesn't help, because it doesn't even try to cool things down. Which is no good, because the temperature of the world is very high.

Ted Turner Urges More Balance in Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Often contrarian, Turner called it a "joke" that Bush demanded that Iran abandon any ambitions for nuclear weapons while at the same time hoping to ban all such bombs. "They're a sovereign state," Turner said of Iran. "We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel -- they've got 100 of them approximately -- or India or Pakistan or Russia. And really, nobody should have them.
"Ted Turner says Iraq war among history's "dumbest," Reuters, September 20, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
What a stupid comment! Nations having nukes will not willingly destroy all of them unilaterally. Fortunately, those nations that have nukes are not knowingly plotting complete annihilation of another country (like Israel). Secondly, those nations that have them, aside from North Korea, are not threatening to sell them to a rogue regime or to really dangerous sociopaths unless the rest of the world pays enormous extortion fees. Since we cannot see a way to take nukes away once a nation has weapons of mass destruction, should we adopt a policy of spreading them around to every dangerous nations bent on invasion of other nations and/or extortion criminality? Nice going Ted! Perhaps  Hugo Chavez should have at least 10 nukes as well since he's much more within missile range for an attack on the largest cities in the U.S., including your prized Atlanta Ted.
You can read more about Ted Turner at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner

Thanks Ted:  Here's What You Can Anticipate if Iran Gets Its 10 Nukes
From "Iran leader's U.N. finale reveals apocalyptic view Ahmadinejad evokes return of messianic Islamic 'madhi'," WorldNetDaily, September 21, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52071

The last two paragraphs of (Ahmadinejad's U.N.) remarks revealed his steadfast and driving conviction, as previously reported in WND ,that a messianic figure, known as the "Mahdi" to Muslims, is poised to reveal himself after an apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead.

"I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet," Ahmadinejad said. "Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause."

With Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons and already in possession of sophisticated medium-range missiles, mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah is of particular concern because of Iran's potential for triggering the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

Thanks Ted:  Now Egypt Wants at Least 10 Nukes for the Sunni Side of Things
The conclusion is hard to resist that the U.N. effort is really about persuading America that it can "live with" an Iranian bomb, just as it lives with a Pakistani bomb, because the costs of economic sanctions or military strikes are supposedly prohibitive. But a glimpse of what the world will look like if Iran succeeds was provided on Tuesday by Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Cairo's heir apparent floated a proposal for Egypt to develop its own nuclear programs, clearly a signal that the largest Sunni Arab country will go nuclear itself to prevent Shiite Iran from dominating the region. And where Egypt goes, Saudi Arabia and Turkey cannot be far behind. Is the international system really prepared to live with five, maybe six, nuclear powers in the Middle East?
"U.N. Charades:  After the Shiite bomb, a nuke for Sunni Egypt?" The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2006 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008978 

If Chavez and Ahmadinejad made a mockery of the U.N., it was only because the U.N. has made a mockery of itself.
"U.N. Charades:  After the Shiite bomb, a nuke for Sunni Egypt?" The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2006 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008978 

"It smells of sulfur still today," said Venezuela's screwball strongman, Hugo Chavez, in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly. "Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. "Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation.
CHAVEZ DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 20, 2006, Drudge Report, September 21, 2006 --- http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm
Also see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52076
Also see NPR at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6111992

[Chavez] brandished a copy of Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" and recommended it to members of the General Assembly to read. Later, he told a news conference that one of his greatest regrets was not getting to meet Mr. Chomsky before he died. (Mr. Chomsky, 77, is still alive.)
Helene Cooper, "Iran Who? Venezuela Takes the Lead in a Battle of Anti-U.S. Sound Bites," The New York Times, September 21, 2006 --- Click Here

Chávez, 52, believes it's his destiny to be the leftist David who puts the brakes on what he calls Bush's imperialist Goliath--not just in Venezuela, which has the hemisphere's largest oil reserves, but in Latin America and the world. In his eight years as President, Chávez has gone from a backwater strongman to a genuine global player, capitalizing on sky-high oil prices to spread his influence across Latin America and to win attention when he denounces the Bush Administration. That has made Caracas a hot destination for leftist tourists, bolstered Chávez's celebrity cachet--he counts Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte as friends--and made him the most visible Latin leader since Fidel Castro. But his rhetorical excesses, like his antics at the U.N., allow his critics to dismiss him as a buffoonish pretender. It was a sign of how badly his act played in New York City last week that even Democratic Representative Charles Rangel, a harsh critic of Bush's, went out of his way to tell Chávez that "you don't come into my country, you don't come into my congressional district and ... condemn my President."
Tim Padgett, "Crazy Like a Fox: How Hugo Chávez turned Bush bashing into a global political movement--backed by a lot of oil." Time Magazine, October 2, 2006 --- Click Here

Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi, have publicly stated their disagreement with Chavez . . . Apparently, (Iowa's Senator) Tom Harkin didn't get the Dem memo. Harkin gave his stamp of approval to the Chavez rant.
"Chavez and the Dems' Delayed Reaction," Freedom Eden, September 21, 2006 --- http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2006/09/chavez-and-dems-delayed-reaction.html
Also see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52089

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill (as quoted in Opinion Journal, September 20) --- http://www.bartleby.com/63/24/1224.html

Between 2000 and 2006 The Smile Train provided free cleft surgery for nearly 200,000 children
I find it interesting that Chavez makes headlines giving free oil to Harlem while thousands of Venezuelan children with cleft lips and palates depend upon U.S. and other medical charities to provide mobile surgical teams to provide free corrective operations. The Smile Train partnered with Rotaplast to reach out to the children of Venezuela born with cleft lip and palate. If Chavez can spread so much money around the world for media publicity, why can't he help Venezuelan children?
Bob Jensen

Question
What Venezuelans have to fear from Mr. Chávez? (this is the real "devil")
"An Uncertain Threat in Venezuela," Roger Lowenstein, The New York Times, September 17, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/business/yourmoney/17shelf.html?ref=business

And in fact, Mr. Kozloff’s fantasy of an America threatened by left-wing Latins is a vestige of a world that was dominated by a Moscow-Washington rivalry — a world that no longer exists. The only way Venezuela could truly stop supplying the United States with oil (which trades in a global market) would be to stop selling it to everyone, which isn’t in the cards.

THE right question is not what America has to fear from Mr. Chávez, but what Venezuelans have to fear from Mr. Chávez. The answer would seem to be plenty. He has militarized the government, emasculated the country’s courts, intimidated the media, eroded confidence in the economy and hollowed out Venezuela’s once-democratic institutions.

Mr. Chávez’s rhetoric has provided a pleasing distraction to the country’s poor, but it has not eradicated poverty. The real riddle of Venezuela today, as it was a generation ago, is why, despite its bountiful oil reserves, its fertile plains and its democratic traditions, it has been persistently unable to make an economic leap similar to that of Chile or of the various success stories in Asia. And writers who serve as cheerleaders for the failed idea of blaming America are anything but Venezuela’s friends.

"Chávez's Inferno." by Alvara Vargas Llosa, The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2006; Page A14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115914134454172599.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Dante's first circle is for those who lack faith. In Chávez's Inferno, the first circle is made up of those who lack food. Cendas, a research center, maintains that 80% of Venezuelans cannot meet the cost of a basic daily diet. According to an official statistic the government inadvertently made public on the Web site of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, between 1999, the year in which Chávez took office, and 2004, poverty rose to 53% from 43% of the population. The authorities attributed the figures to an outdated methodology and now claim the rate of poverty is 42%. If it were true, that would be embarrassing enough, because it would mean that poverty has remained at nearly the same level for eight years.

Dante's second circle is for those unable to control lust. Chávez's second circle is for those unable to control homicidal instincts. His government has degraded social coexistence so much that there have been more homicides in Venezuela during his seven-and-a-half years in office than there have been deaths in any single armed conflict around the world in recent years. Between 2001 and 2006, the number of homicides in Venezuela has been three times the number of victims in Afghanistan.

Dante's third circle is for gluttons who leave us with no food. Chávez's third is reserved for corrupt authorities who leave Venezuelans with no wealth. The major sources of corruption have been Plan Bolívar 2000, the state-owned oil company, and social programs known as "missions." Under Plan Bolívar 2000, the army took over development programs from the local governments. In the case of PDVSA, the energy giant, no one but Chávez and his cronies have access to detailed financial records. The budget for social programs, personally controlled by Chávez, is not included in any government ministry.

Dante's fourth circle is for misers. In Chávez's Inferno, the fourth circle is made up of bureaucrats who claim to provide social services but use funds to pay people to attend rallies or bust up opposition gatherings. Marino González, from Universidad Simón Bolívar, says that the "Barrio Adentro" program that purports to tend to all the pregnant women in the country only serves 2,000 expectant mothers out of a total of half a million each year. No country ever became prosperous through socialism, but for a government that claims to be able to tend to the needy, not being able to meet even 1% of the commitment is a particularly hellish sin.

Dante's fifth circle is for those who succumb to wrath. Chávez's fifth is for political persecution. Venezuela's human rights record is atrocious. Two violent incidents involving Chavista henchmen with many fatalities have gone unpunished, including the killing in April 2002 of 12 people who were protesting near the government palace. There are political prisoners such as Francisco Usón, former minister of finance in Chávez's government, who received a six-year sentence for saying he thought an incident in which a few soldiers died at Fort Mara in 2004 was no accident. Henrique Capriles, the mayor of Baruta, was jailed in 2004, accused of organizing a violent protest against the Cuban embassy which he had actually helped diffuse.

Dante's sixth circle is for heretics. Chávez's sixth circle is for heretic journalists who try to tell the truth. In December 2004, a "gag law" was imposed making it easy to prosecute journalists. The president continually threatens to withdraw TV and radio licenses -- the reason why there are no opinion programs on network TV. Government-controlled mobs called Bolivarian Circles, formed with the help of the Cuban intelligence apparatus, harass journalists.

Dante's seventh circle is for the violent. Chávez's seventh circle is another name for imperialism. His government has bought (or is buying) 100,000 AK-47s, 53 Mi-35 assault helicopters, fighter jets, transport planes, patrol boats, speedboats and Tucano jets from Russia, Spain and Brazil. Chávez is a long-time supporter of FARC, Colombia's terrorist group. He granted Venezuelan citizenship and protection to Rodrigo Granda, its "foreign minister," until Alvaro Uribe's government hired bounty hunters to bring him back to Colombia in 2005. The Venezuelan leader has given financial and political support to movements from Mexico to Bolivia. (His support for Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico was a major factor in both men's recent defeats.)

Chávez buys influence through oil. It is a form of blackmail: At OPEC, Chávez fights for increasing prices, making life hard for poor countries that import oil, and then offers those very nations oil subsidies they have no choice but to accept. That is what happened with the 14 Caribbean countries that make up the Caricom group. He also sends 100,000 barrels of oil to Cuba daily; and 200,000 barrels to Bolivia every month in exchange for soy, poultry and political subservience. And he has bought $3 billion worth of Argentine bonds to entice President Kirchner's loyalty. Chávez is denying his nation its wealth from oil, somewhere between $40 billion and $50 billion a year. His annual "aid" budget totals more than $2 billion. He sponsors 30 countries, including some in Africa, in order to buy their vote for a seat at the U.N. Security Council.

Dante's eighth circle is for those who commit fraud. Chávez's eighth is fraudulent anti-Americanism. Chávez exports 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S. Since oil makes up half the government's revenue and the U.S. is the principal destination of Venezuelan oil, he pays daily homage to U.S. capitalism. Moreover, Venezuela imported $18 billion worth of goods and services from the U.S. in 2005. He may have signed 20 trade deals with Iran's Ahmadinejad, but what he really lusts for is U.S. capitalism. (Another type of fraud involves the electoral system. Chávez has manipulated the voter registration rolls, adding two million phantom voters, including 30,000 who are 100 years old and citizens named "Superman." Four out of five members in the Electoral Council are Chávez lackeys.)

Dante's final circle is for traitors. Chávez's ninth is for traitors, too -- and the place is getting crowded. Army officers betray Chávez every day. Labor leader Carlos Ortega recently fled with three officers from a high-security prison controlled by the army. They evaded security controls thanks to help from army personnel.

At the end of Dante's Inferno is the center of the earth, where Satan is held captive in the frozen lake of Cocytus. In Venezuela's Inferno, Satan is frozen in oil-rich Lake Maracaibo, a metaphor for astronomical wealth squandered by tyrannical populism. The journey through hell is now complete.

Mr. Vargas Llosa, author of "Liberty for Latin America" (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005), is director of the Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute.

What does the U.S. have to fear from Venezuela?
Chavez said Russia is to supply Venezuela by year's end with the first of 24 Sukhoi SU-30MK2s, Russia's most sophisticated fighter planes, and 30 Mil Mi-35 assault helicopters that were part of an arms order worth about 1 billion dollars that he placed in July during a visit to Russia.
M&C News, September 21, 2006 --- Click Here

Chavez' rant went a long way to prove conservatives correct about endemic anti-Americanism in the United Nations. Even other nations appeared stunned by the ferocity of the remarks, such as China's foreign minister, who had to ask for confirmation of his remarks out of disbelief. The warmth of the reception of these remarks provided a stunning look at the hostility that the non-democratic nations have for the United States, especially in the General Assembly. It will add fuel to the fire for conservative skepticism of the body's effect on spreading freedom and liberty around the world, which is supposed to be one of the UN's core missions.
Carol Muller, Opinion Journal, September 21, 2006

Everybody mentions the giant Hezbollah rally that took place in Beirut. The NYT—which has an astonishing picture of the rally on its front page—describes the event as an exercise in idol-worship: hundreds of thousands of eager Lebanese, waiting to see Hassan Nasrallah in person. (It was, according to the paper, Nasrallah's first public appearance since the war began.) But while the Times saves its caveats for the final paragraph, the Post article—a long front-pager by Anthony Shadid—strikes the balance earlier. "Some saw Nasrallah's appearance as a way to reinforce the notion of victory to his supporters, who bore the brunt of a 33-day conflict," writes Shadid. "Others saw it, more darkly, as a first step toward delivering the state (Lebanon) to Hezbollah." The Journal looks into Israel's response, and everyone is sure to mention the number of rockets that Nasrallah has left: 20,000.
Conor Clarke, Slate, September 23, 2006 --- http://www.slate.com/id/2150320/
Jensen Comment
Economic reality will most likely block Hezbollah from taking over Lebanon. If all of Lebanon falls completely into Hezbollah's hands the prospects for its economy are horrible. With nearly half of its own population below the poverty line, Iran cannot afford to support four million more people in Lebanon on and on from day to day. The Lebanese must develop their own economy which in the past depended heavily on Western tourism. The fundamentalist Hezbollah will ruin Western tourism in much the same way that fundamentalists in Iran ruined Western tourism. This didn't matter as much in oil-rich Iran, but it will matter a great deal in oil-starved Lebanon. Islamic fundamentalism and Western tourism mix like oil and water, something that became horribly evident on Bali. In the past, Hezbollah sustained itself on counterfeit U.S. dollars, but counterfeiting can only go so far in sustaining over 4 million people. If Hezbollah gets nukes it can adopt a strategy like North Korea is using to extort billions of dollars from the rest of the world. Lebanon should get at least ten nukes if we follow the convoluted logic of Ted Turner (see above).

Don't Call Us Violent or We'll Blow You Up
KHALED ABU TOAMEH --- Click Here

In an ABC News story by its Rome correspondent Martin Seemungal, Pope Benedict XVI was compared to an attack dog — the Rottweiler — during Seemungal’s extraordinarily biased coverage of the Muslim uprising over the Pontiff’s recent comments. At first reading, I had to remind myself I wasn’t on the Al-Jazeera News website. ABC News said: “Pope Benedict, nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” because of his conservative views, staked out a much harder line right from the beginning.”
Jim Kouri --- http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/09/19/abc-news-compares-pope-to-a-dog/

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' state-run television the past few weeks has broadcast a music video in which viewers are encouraged to "martyr" themselves in exchange for eternal paradise and beautiful "maidens."
Aaron Klein --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52056

Al-Qaida pleads with Muslins to leave the U.S. for protection against planned terror attacks
The new al-Qaida field commander in Afghanistan is calling for Muslims to leave the U.S. – particularly Washington and New York – in anticipation of a major terror attack to rival Sept. 11, according to an interview by a Pakistani journalist. Abu Dawood told Hamid Mir, a reporter who has covered al-Qaida and met with Osama bin Laden, the attack is being coordinated by Adnan el-Shukrijumah and suggests it may involve some form of weapon of mass destruction smuggled across the Mexican border. Our brothers are ready to attack inside America.
"Al-Qaida warning: Muslims leave U.S. --- Afghan terror commander hints at big attack on N.Y., Washington," WorldNetDaily, September 17, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52018

el-Shukrijumah is a trained nuclear technician and accomplished pilot who has been singled out by bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to serve as the field commander for the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The terrorist was last seen in Mexico, where, on Nov. 1, 2004, he allegedly hijacked a Piper PA Pawnee cropduster from Ejido Queretaro near Mexicali to transport a nuclear weapon and nuclear equipment into the U.S., according to Paul Williams, a former FBI consultant and author of "The Dunces of Doomsday."

"He is an American and a friend of Muhammad Atta, who led 9/11 attacks five years ago," said Dawood. "We call him 'Jaffer al Tayyar' (Jafer the Pilot); he is very brave and intelligent. (President) Bush is aware that brother Adnan has smuggled deadly materials inside America from the Mexican border. Bush is silent about him, because he doesn’t want to panic his people. Sheikh Osama bin Laden has completed his cycle of warnings. You know, he is man of his words, he is not a politician; he always does what he says. If he said it many times that Americans will see new attacks, they will definitely see new attacks. He is a real mujahid. Americans will not win this war, which they have started against Muslims. Americans are the biggest supporters of the biggest terrorist in the world, which is Israel."

Dawood said he was currently conducting operations in Afghanistan under the leadership of the Taliban. He warned of a series of upcoming suicide bombings there directed against government and coalition forces during Ramadan.

He is also quoted as saying the next attack in America will not be conducted by people like Atta.

"We have a different plan for the next attack," he told Mir. "You will see. Americans will hardly find out any Muslim names, after the next attack. Most of our brothers are living in Western countries, with Jewish and Christian names, with passports of Western countries. This time, someone with the name of Mohamed Atta will not attack inside America, it would be some David, Richard or Peter."

He said there will be another audio message from bin Laden aired within the next two weeks.

Mir reportedly interviewed Dawood Sept. 12 at the tomb of Sultan Mehmud Ghaznawi on the outskirts of Kabul. Dawood and the al-Qaida leaders who accompanied him were clean-shaven and dressed as Western reporters. The al-Qaida commander had contacted Mir by cell phone to arrange the meeting.

"You have witnessed the brutality of the Israelis in the recent 34-day war against Lebanese civilians," said Dawood. "9/11 was a revenge of Palestinian children, killed by the U.S.-made weapons, supplied to Israel. The next attack on America would be a revenge of Lebanese children killed by U.S.-made cluster bombs. Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair are the Crusaders, and Muslim leaders, like (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf and (Afghani President Hamid) Karzai are their collaborators. We will teach a lesson to all of them."

El-Shukrijumah was born in Guyana Aug. 4, 1975 – the firstborn of Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, a 44-year-old radical Muslim cleric, and his 16-year-old wife. In 1985, Gulshair migrated to the United States, where he assumed duties as the imam of the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn.

The mosque, located at 554 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, has served as a hive for terrorist activities. It has raised millions for the jihad and has served as a recruiting station for al-Qaida. Many of the planners of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, including blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, were prominent members of this notorious "house of worship."

In 1995, the Shukrijumah family relocated to Miramar, Fla., where Gulshair became the spiritual leader of the radical Masjid al-Hijah Mosque, and where Adnan became friends with Jose Padilla, who planned to detonate a radiological bomb in midtown Manhattan; Mandhai Jokhan, who was convicted of attempting to blow up nuclear power plants in southern Florida; and a group of other home-grown terrorists.

Adnan Shukrijumah attended flight schools in Florida and Norman, Oklahoma, along with Mohammad Atta and the other 9/11 operatives, and he became a highly skilled commercial jet pilot, although he, like Atta and the other terrorists, never applied for a license with the Federal Aviation Commission.

In April 2001, Shukrijumah spent 10 days in Panama, where he reportedly met with al-Qaida officials to assist in the planning of 9/11. He also traveled to Trinidad and Guyana, where virulent al-Qaida cells have been established. The following month, he obtained an associate's degree in computer engineering from Broward Community College.

During this time, he managed to get passports from Guyana, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States, according to Williams. He also began to adopt a number of aliases, including Abu Arifi, Jafar al-Tayyar, Jaafar At Yayyar, Ja'far al-Tayar, and Mohammed Sher Mohammed Khan (the name that appeared on his official FBI file). He traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he met with Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and other members of the al-Qaida high command. He also spent considerable time within al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, where he received training in explosives and special operations.

Following 9/11, el-Shukrijumah was reportedly singled out by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to spearhead the next great attack on America. One plan was for a nuclear attack that would take place simultaneously in seven U.S. cities, leaving millions dead and the richest and most powerful nation on earth in ashes.

"Muslims should leave America," said Dawood. "We cannot stop our attack just because of the American Muslims; they must realize that American forces are killing innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq; we have the right to respond back, in the same manner, in the enemy's homeland. The American Muslims are like a human shield for our enemy; they must leave New York and Washington."

Continued in article

Columbia Withdraws an Invitation to Ahmadinejad
Overruling a prominent dean, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, yesterday withdrew an invitation to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dean of Columbia's school of international and public affairs, Lisa Anderson, had independently invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at the World Leader's Forum, a year-long program that aims to unite "renowned intellectuals and cultural icons from many nations to examine global challenges and explore cultural perspectives." In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad's invitation because he couldn't be certain it would "reflect the academic values that are the hallmark of a University event such as our World Leaders Forum." He told Ms. Anderson that Mr. Ahmadinejad could speak at the school of international and public affairs, just not as a part of the university-wide leader's forum.
Iliana Johnson, "Columbia Withdraws an Invitation to Ahmadinejad," New York Sun, September 22, 2006 ---
http://www.nysun.com/article/40142

Also see "The Speech That Wasn’t," Inside Higher Ed, September 22, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/22/columbia

The NYT take on this is at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/nyregion/22columbia.html

Jensen Comment
I am repeating a module from above because it is possible that President Bollinger did not want to provide a platform to hear  Iran's President Ahmadinejad assert his own role in instigating an "apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead."

From "Iran leader's U.N. finale reveals apocalyptic view Ahmadinejad evokes return of messianic Islamic 'madhi'," WorldNetDaily, September 21, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52071

The last two paragraphs of (Ahmadinejad's U.N.) remarks revealed his steadfast and driving conviction, as previously reported in WND ,that a messianic figure, known as the "Mahdi" to Muslims, is poised to reveal himself after an apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead.

"I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet," Ahmadinejad said. "Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause."

With Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons and already in possession of sophisticated medium-range missiles, mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah is of particular concern because of Iran's potential for triggering the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

As Taliban fighters clash with thinly spread NATO forces across Afghanistan and "suicide cell" claims lives daily in Kabul, hope is fading that the country can avoid descending into chaos.
Christian Parenti, "Chaos and Fear Stalk Afghanistan on 9/11 Anniversary," The Nation, September 11, 2006 --- http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060925/afghanistan

Finally, we must use economic leverage to ensure the Taliban no longer finds sanctuary and recruits in Pakistan. Last year we gave Pakistan only $300 million in economic support, about what we spend in a day in Iraq. We need to give more, in development funds earmarked for specific projects that help undermine radicals, and demand more in return from the Musharraf government. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. The U.S. must not cut and run from the real front line in the war on terror. We must recommit to victory in Afghanistan.
John Kerry, "Losing Afghanistan:  We're not adequately fighting the war we should be fighting," The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2006 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008993 

Musharraf of Pakistan says that the CIA has secretly paid his government millions of dollars for handing over hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects to America. The US government has strict rules banning such reward payments to foreign powers involved in the war on terror. General Musharraf does not say how much the CIA gave in return for the 369 al-Qaeda figures that he ordered should be passed to the US.
Daniel McGrory, "'America paid us to hand over al-Qaeda suspects'," London Times, September 25, 2006 --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2373840,00.html
Jensen Question
Compare the two quotations shown above and then explain what the philosophical difference is between economic reward payments  tied to cooperation in handing over terrorists and "economic leverage to ensure the Taliban no longer finds sanctuary and recruits in Pakistan"? This is especially a question when in return from increased funding we should "demand more in return from the Musharraf government" according to Senator Kerry. In the entire history of crime, rewards have been offered for the capture and prosecution of criminals. Why are rewards payments supposedly banned in the war on terror?

Immigration Violence We Don't Hear Much About in the U.S. Media
Four months ago, the hostility between Sao Paulo's police and gangs erupted into violence - the result was open warfare. Tom Phillips reports from a city caught in a spiral of terror . . . Welcome to the periferia of Sao Paulo; the impoverished outskirts of one of the world's largest cities, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the megalopolis in search of gold-paved streets have been abandoned to their own dismal fate.
"Blood simple," The Guardian, September 17, 2006 --- http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1872185,00.html

The violence was unprecedented in scale, even for a city like Sao Paulo, renowned for its high crime rate. So bloody were the attacks that politicians, media outlets and academics alike have, in its wake, begun describing the start of an 'urban guerrilla war'. It is a drastic and problematic conclusion - yet one which is in many ways borne out by numerical comparisons with official war zones. During the recent 34-day conflict between Israel and Hizbollah, just over 1,000 civilians are thought to have been killed in Lebanon. In Iraq, 117 British soldiers have been killed since the country was invaded in 2003, while 23 have been killed since the beginning of August in Afghanistan. In Sao Paulo, the figures are no less startling. According to coroners' reports, at the height of May's violence at least 492 people died of gunshot wounds in Sao Paulo state in just over a week.

Two-year-old crackdown by Brazilian police on ranches, logging operations and mines reportedly has freed more enslaved workers than in previous eight years; crackdown, however, has done little to deter severe labor abuses in Sao Paulo, where thousands of undocumented immigrants from Bolivia and neighboring countries work and live in small-scale garment factories in slave conditions; Catholic Church estimates that 50,000 to 60,000 Bolivians live in Sao Paulo, mostly in gritty immigrant neighborhoods on fringe of city center
Todd Benson, "No Streets of Gold in São Paulo," The New York Times, December 2, 2004 --- Click Here

Imagine All the People --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/imagine.htm 
If the sound does not commence after 30 seconds, scroll to the bottom of the page and turn it on
The new documentary "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," which opens Friday Sept. 15 in New York and Los Angeles (and nationwide Sept. 29), tells the story of Lennon's transformation from loveable moptop to anti-war activist, and recounts the facts about Nixon's campaign to deport him in 1972 in an effort to silence him as a voice of the peace movement. In the film, Walter Cronkite explains that J. Edgar Hoover "had a different conception of democracy" from the rest of us; George McGovern talks about losing the 1972 election to Nixon; Sixties veterans Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, John Sinclair and Tariq Ali recall their movement days; and G. Gordon Liddy happily explains the Nixon point of view: Lennon was "a high profile figure, so his activities were being monitored."
Jon Wiener, "The US vs. John Lennon," The Nation, September 12, 2006 ---
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=120879 

Academic Boycotts in the Name of Political Correctness

"Boycotting a Magazine’s Boycott Issue," by Scott Jaschik, Issues in Higher Ed, September 15, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/15/boycott

In the annals of academic conferences, few may have been more ill-fated than the aborted conclave on academic boycotts planned by the American Association of University Professors.

When the conference was called off in March, organizers hoped that they could salvage something good from the idea by taking papers planned for the conference and publishing them in a special issue of Academe, the AAUP’s magazine.

The issue is out, but the controversy continues. Authors who are supportive of Israel refused to let Academe publish their work, arguing that the entire effort was just an attempt to “demonize” Israel. Ironically, those who support Israel generally endorse the AAUP policy on academic boycotts, which takes the view that boycotts are almost always wrong. So the issue features considerable commentary from scholars who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and who support efforts to boycott Israeli universities — a stance opposed by the association.

Continued in article

Related stories

• British Professors Seek to Cut Ties to Israeli Scholars, May 30
• Florida Isolationism, May 25
• Middle East Wars on U.S. Campuses, May 15
• Boycott Debate Is Back, May 12
• War of Words Over Paper on Israel, March 27

Bob Jensen's threads on "The Politically Correct Fracture of Academe (including sponsored boycotts of some professors)" are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PoliticalCorrectnessFracture

Bravo Bangor
"Saying Thank You to Those Who Answered the Call of Duty," by Katie Zezima, Bangor Journal via The New York Times, September 20, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/us/20greeters.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Shortly before 11 on a recent Monday night, Cathy Czarnecki made sure the macadamia nut cookies were on the table of treats in a room at Bangor International Airport. The commercial passengers had all left, but 260 soldiers would soon arrive to a welcome that few of them expected.

“Here they come!” someone shouted, and a dozen or so volunteers went out into the hallway and applauded as a line of soldiers in desert camouflage and tan boots poured into the small terminal.

“Thank you for your service,” one man said to a soldier while shaking his hand. “Welcome to Maine,” another greeter said.

“I think I’m going to cry,” a female soldier said after being hugged and cheered in the terminal.

The volunteers are members of Maine Troop Greeters, which was founded in 1991 to greet troops headed to the Persian Gulf war. Since May 2003, shortly after the start of the Iraq war, the group has welcomed every military transport flight that has arrived here.

The group came about, in part, because this is the country’s easternmost airport and it has one of the longest runways in the nation, making it a favored military refueling and transfer location.

The founder of the group, Bill Knight, 84, is a World War II veteran. He recalled how soldiers were treated after Vietnam and said he wanted to ensure that troops were thanked.

“The way they treated those troops was horrible,” Mr. Knight said. “We can’t go back, but we can try to make a difference from here on out.”

Maine Troop Greeters has about 100 volunteers who operate out of the small room, which is lined with American flags, signed military T-shirts and maps of Iraq. They arrive about three hours before a flight to set out cookies donated by a local Sam’s Club, pies baked by volunteers, and candy and donuts. They also make sure free cellphones donated by local providers are available for troops to use.

The greeters here on the recent Monday night had various reasons for donating their time.

Ms. Czarnecki joined in 2004 after her son was deployed to Iraq. “It was my security blanket,” she said. “It was my way to stay connected with what was going on over there.”

Her son has returned safely, and she continues to volunteer.

Peter Jones, 51, started greeting troops here in March, shortly after his father, Freeland, died at age 82. Freeland Jones, a World War II veteran, volunteered until he was not strong enough, and his son said he felt that coming here honored both his father and the troops.

Mr. Jones said he became hooked his first day, when members of a New Jersey National Guard unit wept as greeters hugged them and shook their hands. “It lifts my spirit to know I can come out here and make a difference,” Mr. Jones said.

The plane on that Monday night brought troops from bases in California, Nevada, Utah and Washington, and was headed to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and then to the Middle East. It was the 1,774th flight greeted since May 2003, with 335,195 men and women and 35 military dogs having passed through the airport.

“Use a cellphone, call home,” Mr. Knight said as he doled them out. “Have something,” he added, motioning to the food.

Lt. Col. Eric Shalita, 43, did both, helping himself to a powdered donut after calling his wife and two daughters at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. “It was amazing,” Colonel Shalita said. “We were completely not expecting this.”

“It’s nice to know that people genuinely support us,” he added.

Staff Sgt. Stanley Siaosi, 26, was tired from the trip and missed his wife and children, who live at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Sergeant Siaosi said the greeting made him resolute about his mission.

“This is really motivating for us to go out there and do our job,” he said. “You come here on the other side of the U.S., and there are greeters there ready to shake your hand. It gives you that patriotic feeling.”

The airport’s restaurant and gift shop stayed open late, and the troops eagerly dug into cheeseburgers and chicken fingers, some washing them down with the last Budweisers and Coronas they will have for a while.

Others sat in the terminal, chatting with the greeters about life, family and Bangor’s most famous resident, Stephen King. Some said they really like Maine, despite having never set foot outside the airport, and most vowed to come back for lobster. Two hours after the troops arrived, the beer still flowed and most of the greeters remained, eagerly chatting.

“This is really good for the young kids,” Chaplain Jeff Neuberger, 56, said as he motioned to a room filled with baby-faced soldiers. “It’s one little gesture, but the support means everything to these guys and gals.”

"Yale Creates Center on Anti-Semitism," Fox News, September 19, 2006 --- http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Sep19/0,4670,YaleAntiSemitism,00.html

Yale announced the creation Tuesday of the first university-based center in North America dedicated to the study of anti-Semitism.

"Increasingly, Jewish communities around the world feel under threat,"said Charles Small, director of the new Yale Initiative for Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism."I think we need to understand the current manifestation of this disease."

The center will provide a forum for scholars to research contemporary causes of anti-Semitism and ways to combat it, and will offer courses, conferences and seminars, Small said.

In a report last year, New York-based Human Rights First said racist and anti-Semitic violence was up dramatically in much of Europe.

Small is the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy, an independent nonprofit organization. He earned his doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University and has taught at the University of London, Ben Gurion University, Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Canada is a nation of immigrants and has not been in continual hot and cold wars like the U.S. fought over the past 60 years. I once claimed that overt patriotism is likely to be more evident in nations stressed by continual war, but Canada recently is proving me wrong. Red is the color of the maple leaf in the Canadian flag.
A red wave of people -- supporters of Canadian troops -- swarmed across Parliament Hill at a Friday rally, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged more support for the military. "Let me tell you that this government is committed to rebuilding the Armed Forces of Canada," Harper said. "And we are overwhelmed with the support that we are getting to to do that." Harper was clear to point out that Canadians who wear red in support of the troops should also support the military abroad, such as the mission in Afghanistan.
Katie Lewis and Melissa Arseniuk, "A 'sea of red' unfolds as troop supporters crowd Parliament Hill," National Post, September 23, 2006 --- Click Here

$18B bolstering just a start . . . 75 aircraft on order; Planes in service now will need replacing soon; Chris Wattie National Post Friday, August 25, 2006 The head of the Canadian air force says that $18-billion and 75 new aircraft are only a start at rebuilding an air force that was at one time the fourth largest in the world. Lieutenant-General Steve Lucas told the National Post yesterday the purchases of new heavy transport planes, fleets of new helicopters and replacements for the military's Hercules cargo planes are a good beginning, but more will soon be needed.
"$18B bolstering just a start," National Post, August 25, 2006 --- Click Here

Canadians Grow Weary of Crime Leniency
Calgarians are throwing their support behind a city cop facing internal charges after lashing out at the justice system. Const. Shaun Horne said he is overwhelmed by the support of fellow police officers and the public since the Sun reported he has lost faith in the justice system after a man with 65 convictions and Canada-wide warrants was released with conditions in December by justice of the peace Kristine Robidoux. “I’m at a loss for words,” he said today. “I can’t believe the support.”
"Charged cop gets support City cop facing internal charges after lashing out at the justice system," Canada's CNews, September 14, 2006 --- http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2006/09/13/1837678-sun.html

Water disaster in Kansas:  Farmers are draining the Ogallala aquifer's prehistoric water dry
“These are called semi-dwarfs,” he said while surveying his burnt-looking wheat stalks one recent afternoon. “Our geneticist started developing this. Generally our wheat will be about knee-high when it is harvested. It doesn’t use much energy in developing the stalks. ”For Mr. Kepley, 67, and other farmers in the heart of the Wheat Belt, the cost of energy and water are obsessive topics. Decades of irrigating crops have drained the Ogallala aquifer to dangerously low levels in some areas. And recent high prices for natural gas and diesel, which farmers need to run pumps and sprinklers that water the crops, have made irrigation prohibitively expensive.
Alexei Barrionuevo, "For Kansas Farmers, Water Is a Vanishing Commodity," The New York Times, September 16, 2006 --- Click Here

A technical link "Possible Impacts of Global Warming on the Hydrology of the Ogallala Aquifer Region," --- http://www.springerlink.com/content/n2w408r8vn35080n/

Abstract
The Ogallala or High Plains aquifer provides water for about 20% of the irrigated land in the United States. About 20 km3 (16.6 million acre-feet) of water are withdrawn annually from this aquifer. In general, recharge has not compensated for withdrawals since major irrigation development began in this region in the 1940s. The mining of the Ogallala has been pictured as an analogue to climate change in that many GCMs predict a warmer and drier future for this region. In this paper we attempt to anticipate the possible impacts of climate change on the sustainability of the aquifer as a source of water for irrigation and other purposes in the region. We have applied HUMUS, the Hydrologic Unit Model of the U.S. to the Missouri and Arkansas-White-Red water resource regions that overlie the Ogallala. We have imposed three general circulation model (GISS, UKTR and BMRC) projections of future climate change on this region and simulated the changes that may be induced in water yields (runoff plus lateral flow) and ground water recharge. Each GCM was applied to HUMUS at three levels of global mean temperature (GMT) to represent increasing severity of climate change (a surrogate for time). HUMUS was also run at three levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration (hereafter denoted by [CO2]) in order to estimate the impacts of direct CO2 effects on photosynthesis and evapotranspiration. Since the UKTR and GISS GCMs project increased precipitation in the Missouri basin, water yields increase there. The BMRC GCM predicts sharply decreased precipitation and, hence, reduced water yields. Precipitation reductions are even greater in the Arkansas basin under BMRC as are the consequent water yield losses. GISS and UKTR climates lead to only moderate yield losses in the Arkansas. CO2-fertilization reverses these losses and yields increase slightly. CO2 fertilization increases recharge in the base (no climate change) case in both basins. Recharge is reduced under all three GCMs and severities of climate change.

Jensen Comment
It has been widely known for over a half century that the huge Ogallala Aquifer was being depleted. Early on proposed solutions included building irrigation pipelines from the Great Lakes, but that proposal did not fly since Canada objected to lowering of levels of the Great Lakes.  Realistic solutions have been too little too late --- Click Here

"Global Warming: Apocalypse Now?" by Kevin Shapiro, Commentary Magazine, September 2006 --- http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12202044_1

In 1906 the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius published a popular book speculating on the origins of the earth and of life upon it. (An English translation, Worlds in the Making, appeared in 1908.) In a nutshell, Arrhenius proposed that the solar system was born of a collision between cool stars, with the sun and the planets forming from the resulting nebular debris. The planets, he thought, were then seeded by living spores that had been propelled through the cosmos by electromagnetic radiation.

Unfortunately for Arrhenius, few of these ideas ever achieved wide currency, and most of them were considered far-fetched even at the turn of the last century. One, however, has lately experienced something of a revival: the notion that the earth’s climate is maintained within bounds that are favorable to life by the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As early as 1896, Arrhenius had proposed that surface temperatures rise in proportion to atmospheric CO2, which absorbs radiated heat that would otherwise escape into space. Noting that CO2 can be generated by the burning of coal, Arrhenius predicted that the growth of industry might eventually result in a warmer planet (in modern terms, this would be called “anthropogenic forcing”)—a salutary outcome from a Scandinavian point of view, since a more temperate climate would likely be a boon to agriculture in the North.

This “greenhouse effect” is the cornerstone of the contemporary notion of global warming.1 A hundred years after Arrhenius wrote, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has already nearly doubled, and the earth’s surface is on average about 0.6°C warmer—enough to convince many scientists and laypeople that Arrhenius was right at least about this. In 2001, the official estimate of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was that we should expect a warming of about 3°C, give or take a few degrees, in the decades ahead.

. . .

Somewhere in-between Kolbert’s measured warning and Flannery’s hysterical fearmongering lies An Inconvenient Truth. Narrated in its entirety by Al Gore, the film is part documentary, part hagiography: ominous warnings about the threat of climate change are interleaved with flashbacks to Gore’s childhood and other formative moments in the former Vice President’s career.

The movie covers much of the same ground as Field Notes and The Weather Makers, but with less concern for factual accuracy. Gore all but explicitly blames global warming for the disastrous effects of Hurricane Katrina; even Flannery only goes so far as to offer Katrina as an example of the kind of disaster that might become more prevalent in a warming world, and climatologists themselves are divided over whether global warming implies an increase in tropical-storm activity. In another segment, an animated polar bear is shown swimming for his life in an ice-free Arctic sea. Presumably the filmmakers resorted to animation because, in fact, most polar-bear populations are not under such imminent threat.

Gore’s overall strategy is to present the worst of worst-case scenarios as if they were inevitable, barring a miraculous reduction in atmospheric CO2. He suggests, for example, that Greenland’s ice cap is in danger of melting, which in turn would cause the jet stream to shut down—a bit like the scenario dramatized in the 2004 disaster film The Day After Tomorrow. Needless to say, most earth and atmospheric scientists consider the likelihood of such an event to be vanishingly low. Animated maps show sea levels rising to inundate Miami, New York, and Shanghai, which is more than even the most extreme predictions would seem to allow.

One might note that An Inconvenient Truth contains more than its share of ironies and curious lacunae. Gore suggests that viewers can help cut back on their own carbon emissions by taking mass transit. And yet, during much of the movie, Gore is shown either riding in a car or traveling on a plane—by himself. He berates Americans for our reliance on fossil fuels, but, chatting amiably with Chinese engineers, seems peculiarly unconcerned by Chinese plans to build hundreds of new coal-fired power plants. Indeed, he compares vehicle-emission standards in the United States unfavorably with China’s. Touting “renewable” fuels like those derived from biomass (which at present offer no carbon savings compared with traditional fuels), he does not mention nuclear power or other practical carbon-reducing alternatives to coal, oil, and gas.

In the end, An Inconvenient Truth brings nothing new to the global-warming debate, except perhaps its insistence that the “debate” is over. Its effectiveness as a film—the New York Times has called it “surprisingly engaging”—hinges, one suspects, on the degree to which the viewer is likely a priori to have a favorable view of Al Gore. Those who basically like him, or hope to see him run again for the presidency, have described his performance as earnest and energetic, and have found his appeal persuasive; Franklin Foer, the editor of the New Republic, was so impressed that he pronounced the film likely to become a “seminal political document.” To others, he comes across as a self-absorbed, condescending know-it-all.

Politics aside, however, does Gore have a point? Is it really true that the threat of climate change impels us to take action?

The data themselves—that is to say, actual observations of the earth’s climate—are hardly grounds for much excitement. For example, the fact that global temperatures and CO2 levels are correlated in the climatological record is not in itself cause for panic. Consider the “smoking gun” for many global-warming alarmists—the Vostok ice core, an 11,775-foot-long sliver of Antarctic ice that has allowed scientists to extrapolate atmospheric CO2 and temperature anomalies over roughly the past 420,000 years, showing that temperature and CO2 have risen and fallen roughly in tandem over this time frame.

But the key word here is “roughly.” The Vostok data make it clear that at the onset of the last glaciation, temperatures began to decline thousands of years before a corresponding decline in atmospheric CO2. This observation cannot be replicated by current climate models, which require a previous fall in CO2 for glaciation to occur. Moreover, an analysis published in Science in 2003 suggests that the end of one glacial period, called Termination III, preceded a rise in CO2 by 600 to 1,000 years. One explanation for this apparent paradox might be that global warming, whatever its initial trigger, liberates CO2 from oceans and permafrost; this additional CO2 might then contribute in turn to the natural greenhouse effect.

Should we worry that adding even more CO2 to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels could contribute to a runaway warming effect? Probably not. In simple physical terms, each extra unit of CO2 added to the atmosphere contributes less to the greenhouse effect than the previous unit, just as extra layers of paint applied to a pane of glass contribute less and less to its opacity. For this reason, we have already experienced 75 percent of the warming that should be attributable to a simple doubling of atmospheric CO2 since the late 19th century, a benchmark we have not yet reached but one that is frequently cited as dangerous by those who fear global warming. Moreover, it seems unlikely that we can do very much about it.

Most models, of course, predict much more warming to come. This has to do with the way they account for the effects of clouds and water vapor, which are assumed to amplify greatly the response to man-made greenhouse gases. The problem with this assumption is that it is probably wrong.

Many scientists who study clouds—including MIT’s Richard Lindzen, a prominent skeptic of climate-change alarmism—argue that the data show the opposite to be true: namely, that clouds act to limit, rather than aggravate, warming trends. In any case, the GCM’s have failed miserably to simulate observed changes in cloud cover. Flannery, to his credit, is cognizant of this criticism, and acknowledges that the role of clouds is poorly understood. By way of a response, he draws attention to a computer simulation showing a high degree of correspondence between observed and predicted cloud cover for one model on a single day—July 1, 1998. Overall, however, GCM simulations of clouds are a source of significant error.

Indeed, the models are subject to so much uncertainty that it is hard to understand why anyone would bother to get worked up about them. Generally speaking, the GCM’s simulate two kinds of effects on climate: natural forcing, which includes the impact of volcanic eruptions and solar radiation, and anthropogenic forcing, which includes greenhouse gases and so-called aerosols, or particulate pollution. But the behavior of most of these factors is unknown.

The major models assume, for example, that aerosols act to cancel warming; this effect is said to “explain” the apparent decline in global temperatures from the 1940’s to the 1970’s, when the popular imagination was briefly obsessed with the possibility of global cooling. Some scientists, however, are now claiming that the opposite is true, and that aerosols actually exacerbate warming.

Whatever the case, the impact of aerosols is so poorly understood that the term essentially refers to a parameter that can be adjusted to make the models’ predictions correspond to actual observations. Making inferences from the models about the “true” state of the earth’s climate is therefore an exercise in circular reasoning. To be sure, the business of fine-tuning GCM’s provides a livelihood for many climatologists, and may one day yield valuable insights into the workings of the earth’s climate. But the output of these models is hardly a harbinger of the end of civilization.

If the empirical basis for alarmism about global warming is so flimsy, it is reasonable to ask what can account for the disproportionately pessimistic response of many segments of society.

Part of the problem is that global warming has ceased to be a scientific question—by which I do not mean that the interesting scientific issues have actually been settled, but that many of those concerned about global warming are no longer really interested in the science. As Richard Lindzen has reminded us, the Kyoto Protocol provides an excellent illustration. Although there is widespread scientific agreement that the protocol will do next to nothing to affect climate change, politicians worldwide continue to insist that it is vital to our efforts to combat the problem of global warming, and scientists largely refrain from contradicting them.

Some have suggested that the underlying reason for this is economic. After all, public alarm is a powerful generator of science funding, a fact that is not lost on theorists and practitioners. In 2003, the National Research Council, the public-policy arm of the National Academy of Sciences, criticized a draft of the U.S. National Climate Change Plan for placing too much emphasis on improving our knowledge about the climate and too little on studying the likely impacts of global warming—the latter topic being sure to produce apprehension, and hence grants for more research. By the same token, the Kyoto process seems to lumber on in part because of the very large number of diplomats and bureaucrats whose prestige and livelihoods depend on maintaining the perception that their jobs are indispensable.

Money aside, it may be that many scientists have a knack for overinterpreting the importance of their own work. It is of course exciting to think that one’s research concerns an unprecedented phenomenon with far-reaching political implications. But not only can this lead to public misperception, it can encourage a politicization of the scientific literature itself. Scientists skeptical of the importance of anthropogenic warming have testified that it is difficult to publish their work in prestigious journals; when they do publish, their articles are almost always accompanied by rebuttals.

In fact, the scientific “consensus” on climate change—at least, as it is summarized by Gore, Flannery, and the like—includes a very large number of disparate observations, only a small number of which are pertinent to understanding the actual determinants of contemporary climate change. The fact, for example, that certain species have become scarce or extinct is frequently presented as a cause for alarm about the climate. But such ecological shifts are often the result of idiosyncratic local conditions, and in any case are largely irrelevant to the broader issue of global warming.

In recent years the issue of climate change has also been used as a tool to embarrass the political Right, and especially the Bush administration—which, after Bill Clinton declined to submit the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification, withdrew the U.S. signature from the pact. Although efforts to portray conservatives as insensitive to environmental issues are not new, what is new is the scope of the alleged problem, which requires not merely a targeted solution (like the phasing-out of chlorofluorocarbons in response to ozone depletion) but a radical change in our mode of energy generation and specifically a wholesale shift away from fossil fuels.

The really curious element here is that many of those who seem to have become convinced of the reality of climate change appear rather unwilling to take meaningful steps toward cleaner sources of energy. Like Flannery, they simply assert that a carbon-free economy will somehow be much more efficient and productive than one powered by fossil fuels—because, of course, we will be rid of evil and greedy energy companies, which many alarmists suspect are at the root of the problem.

Practically speaking, however, they have little to offer. Very few Democratic politicians have advocated the construction of new nuclear-power plants, a key element of the Bush administration’s energy plan and probably our best bet to avoid an increased reliance on coal. Although Senator Edward M. Kennedy (among other Democrats) signed a bill that would require the U.S. to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, he has strenuously opposed a wind farm planned off the coast of Cape Cod, visible from his Hyannisport family estate.

The overall effect of these inconsistent policy goals—limiting fossil-fuel consumption without activating any viable substitutes—will be to drive up the price of energy, a move that will probably not much affect the affluent but will be quite problematic for the rest of us. Al Gore will be able to continue to crisscross the country by jet, while feeling virtuous about having encouraged the shift worker to reduce his energy consumption by using public transportation. And if the problem of global warming does not eventuate, so much the better. Alarmists will be able to reassure themselves that they have forestalled a catastrophe, even if this comes at considerable expense to the economy as a whole.

There are many good reasons to wean ourselves from a dependence on fossil fuels, not least to cease enriching unsavory regimes in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela. But in combating climate change, we should not ignore the damage done by the proponents of global-warning themselves in diverting money and energy away from more obvious and well-substantiated problems. Unfortunately, many people seem to be more concerned with the supposed menace of global warming, about which we can realistically do very little, than with problems like infectious disease, about which we can do quite a bit. Speaking of inconvenient truths, this is a real one.

Hot Potato Politics and Border Fencing Sidesteps
For Democrats, the legislation presents a political dilemma. They must either support legislation that many consider inadequate or cast a vote that could be portrayed during campaigns as being against border security. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the deputy Democratic leader, said his party members haven't decided how they will vote on the border fence bill. "We'll wait and see how this unfolds," he said.
"Border Fence," USA Today, September 21, 2006 ---
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-20-border-fence_x.htm
Jensen Comment
The border fence presents a tremendous dilemma to legislators who strongly support both labor unions leaning toward more fencing and  legal/illegal Hispanic residents and seasonal-work business firms conducting huge rallies against fencing. To date leading pro-labor Senators like Tom Harkin and Dick Durbin avoid the fence issue altogether at their Websites. Durbin has not yet taken a position, and Senator Harkin does not even mention fencing in his list of Top Issues at http://harkin.senate.gov/issues/index.cfm
Powerful Senator Leahy is pressured by employers of seasonal workers in his state and has flip-flopped on the fencing issue. He voted for the initial fences that were constructed and has come out forcefully against more fencing. The fence is an enormous political hot potato in the U.S. because early experiments have shown that it is more effective than most any other tactic tried for holding back the flood of illegal immigrants.

Twenty Most Corrupt Members of Congress
Today (Sept. 20), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 109th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules. Two members have been removed from last year’s list of 13. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) is now serving an eight-year jail term for bribery and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has agreed to plead guilty to crimes that will likely result in a minimum two-year prison term. CREW has also re-launched the report’s tandem website, www.beyonddelay.org . The site offers short summaries of each member’s transgressions as well as the full-length profiles and all accompanying exhibits.
"CREW RELEASES SECOND ANNUAL MOST CORRUPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REPORT," Beyond Delay, September 20, 2006 --- http://www.beyonddelay.org/node/96

How well do the new mobile Skype phones really work?

"Skype-Only Phones Bring a New Mobility To Free Online Calls," by Sarmad Ali, The Wall Street Journal,September 21, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

I tested three of these new Skype-compatible phones: Belkin's Wi-Fi Phone from Belkin, Free-1 Skype USB phone from Ipevo, and SkyTone RST501 cordless USB Internet phone from Radian Technologies. Overall, the three phones worked well, though often the sound quality on domestic calls to cellphones could have been better.

The Belkin phone costs $189.99, and looks like a regular cellphone. Unlike the other two phones, it doesn't hook into a computer, but instead, connects to Skype via a wireless network. That means, of course, that you need to first be in a wireless "hot spot."

The Belkin phone is shiny black and slightly bigger than an iPod mini. I toted it around New York City and used it wherever there was a reliable -- and fairly powerful -- wireless connection.

The phone has a textured back that gives it a nice grip. However, removing the back cover to insert the battery proved difficult. Charging the battery took three hours the first time, longer than I would have liked.

Unlike Free-1 and SkyTone, Belkin didn't require me to install any software on my computer. To start using it, I just turned it on, selected a language and accepted the user agreement. Then the phone searched automatically for an open Wi-Fi access point.

Logging into Skype on the phone happened just as it did on my laptop. I typed in my user name and entered my password using the keypad. I was able to view my Skype contact list, scroll up and down to select a contact, and place calls to one of them by clicking on a single button. I also used SkypeOut to call regular, non-Skype phone numbers, though that meant dialing a few more digits. I couldn't use the phone to buy SkypeOut credits to make cellphone and land-line calls, though. For that, I had to return to my PC.

I used the phone in a friend's Wi-Fi-connected apartment in Midtown Manhattan, making Skype-to-Skype calls to friends in London and Cairo. The quality was decent, a lot like making the same calls with Skype on a computer. I was also satisfied with the quality when I made land-line calls to friends in Montreal and London. And sound quality was very good when I called my family back in Baghdad.

But calls to domestic cellphones were complicated by a bit of static and a distant-sounding echo. And I could barely hear a friend in Montreal, so I had to hang up. Sometimes, it took several tries to connect to a cellphone. The problem had to have been with the Belkin, because the network was as fast as it needed to be, and because these cellphones sounded fine when I called them with regular phones.

Ipevo's Free-1 is a thin, long and light corded phone that you plug into one of your PC's USB ports. It costs $34.99, and unlike the Belkin, uses your computer's Internet connectivity to access the Skype network. Installing the Free-1 driver took less than a minute on my iBook, and figuring out how to use the phone took not much longer.

I used Free-1 to call other Skype numbers all over the world. In general, the sound quality was very good. There was also decent quality when calling cellphones; the echo and static from time to time in the background wasn't a big problem.

Because the phone is screenless, you do have to check a Skype sidebar on the computer screen to see if your calls are going through, but that's not a hassle.

SkyTone, launched last month, is a $99.99 cordless phone that comes with a base, which also is a charger. The base, in turn, connects via USB to your computer. As with the Free-1, you use your computer's Internet connection to access the Skype network. Installing SkyTone's driver took about the same time as with Free-1.

I made SkyTone Skype calls to a friend in Spain, and received Skype calls from her. The sound quality was good, though her voice sounded faint at times. Calls placed to cellphones in Montreal, Cairo, and locally to New York, were decent, but with occasional static.

The phone's buttons seem to be poorly made; you have to press hard to dial a number. Another annoyance: If you unplug the SkyTone's cord from your USB port and plug in another phone, you'll have to reboot when you plug in the SkyTone again.

I liked the Belkin best for its ease of use and its mobility. Glitches aside, it lets users take Skype with them to roam the world without being tethered to their computers.

In general, all these phones are best suited for tech-savvy talkers, especially Skype customers, whose ranks continue to grow.

One Man's Treasure is Another Man's Trash

"First penis transplant patient hated it," PhysOrg, September 18, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news77821788.html

A Chinese accident victim who became the world's first successful recipient of a transplanted penis psychologically rejected it and asked for its removal.

Surgeons at Guangzhou General Hospital said it took 15 hours of microsurgery on the unidentified 44-year-old man to attach the 4-inch organ donated by the family of a younger brain-dead patient.

In their report due to appear in next month's journal European Urology, the doctors said after 10 days, the man, who had been injured in an accident, was able to urin