Bill Anderson on the H-S; my response

Professor and columnist William (Bill) Anderson was among the first to call "foul" in the Duke lacrosse case. In his columns and comments at Liestoppers Meeting and elsewhere he's been an insightful, informed and dedicated advocate for as much justice as possible for the hoax and frame victims.

He commented in response to Sunday's post - Durham PD & H-S's big "present" to Duke's laxers.

Bill's comment follows in full in italics, with my responses interspersed in plain.

Bill begins - - -

"Until Proven Innocent" did a pretty good job of demonstrating the complicity of the Herald-Sun in promoting and continuing the frame.

Agreed. I wish it had done the same with the Raleigh News & Observer.

As much as anything, I believe the H-S did much of its work out of fear of retaliation from Durham.

The corporate philosophy of the H-S’s owner, Paxton, and IMO the personal preference of its editor, Bob Ashley, are, to say it as nicely as possible, "to work cooperatively" with the power structures in the community.

In the Duke/Durham hoax and framing attempt, most of Durham’s power groups either leaned in support of the hoax and frame or were full-bore for them.

So I think rather than fear of retribution, it was more the Paxton/Ashley predispositions as well as the same factors that inclined much of media to follow the N&O’s witch hunt lead that influenced the H-S’s on the whole grossly biased and frequently false coverage.

Had the H-S actually spoken the truth, one can be sure that there would have been a large, organized boycott of the paper by the hard left and the NAACP. Thus, the editorial staff there sold its collective soul to the Devil.

Bill, I’m going to assume you mean particularly or wholly the editorial page staff, headed by Bob Ashley, who’s also chief editor on the news side.

Of the four papers I’ve followed on the hoax and frame stories – The Chronicle and NY Times as well as the H-S and N&O – the H-S’s editorial coverage has been far and away the worst.

I don’t know about selling their souls but, by cheerleading Nifong, by turning a blind eye to police and city official's abuses, by failing to condemn extremist threatening violence, and by slandering and libeling transparently innocent Duke students, Ashley and the other editorial writers certainly sold out Durham.

In the end, however, the H-S’s circulation is still declining; and it either will go out of business or become so tiny that it becomes even more relevant than it is now.

Early in ’09 I’ll pull together the most current H-S circulation numbers and talk to people with knowledge of Durham and the news business; and post what I learn.

Newspaper editors love to portray themselves as heroic friends of the truth who stand between tyranny and freedom. In truth, however, newspapers pretty much are the mouthpiece of government.

The Duke/Durham case is an excellent example of news orgs acting like puppies rolling on their backs to have their tummies tickled by government officials and officers.

The vast majority of "sources" for journalists come from government, and when newspapers "expose" government "malfeasance," they usually mean that government is not using as much regulatory power as the editors believe should be used.

"Yes" to what you say. And I'll bet you've noticed so many editors want government to do everything except hold them responsible for what they do.

In other words, modern newspapers pretty much are the cheerleaders for state power. They are not the "watchdogs" of government, as they like to claim; instead, they are government lapdogs. We saw this in all its ugliness in the LAX case, and the H-S played its part well.

Amen and thank you, Bill

Obama has this one right

First, a post lifted from Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit; then my comments below the star line - - -

Reynolds' post:

JEFFREY GOLDBERG:

If someone was sending rockets on my house where my daughters were sleeping at night, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

These aren’t my words — they’re Barack Obama’s. But I attach myself to this sentiment.

Me too.

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Comments:

Our President-elect said it just right.

I sign with him, Goldberg and Reynolds.

What about you?

Responding to comments since 12/26/08

If you’ve left a comment on a post dated Dec. 26 between that date and 7 PM ET today, Dec. 29, I’ve responded to it on the thread.

Thank you all for your comments.

To those who don’t read the threads, I’ll say it again: often you’ll find the best material at JinC there.

John

Kennedy provides more to cringe over

The NY Daily News’ Michael Goodwin as quoted yesterday in If you love Caroline Kennedy:

“Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure.”

Today Politico's Ben Smith can’t resist ridicule as he brings us the latest cringe-inducing episode - - -

One thing Caroline Kennedy would bring to Washington: A new, distinctive Kennedy verbal tic: She said "you know" 138 times in her Times interview.

The day's other Kennedy read: A more personal interview with the Post, in which she says, among other things, that President-elect Obama had been "encouraging" of her run.

CORRECTION: Gawker counts 138 "you knows," noting that the Times used it a couple of times too.

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Comments:

The “you knows” don’t bother me all that much.

What does bother me is her failure to demonstrate a detailed grasp of any complex domestic and foreign policy issue, including federal legislation in place and proposed regarding it.

Also, Kennedy hasn’t discussed such basic, important questions as whether she supported or opposed the surge and whether she thinks New York’s Charles Rangel should step down from the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee while he’s under investigation for failure to pay certain federal income taxes and for other matters bearing on abuse of his office.

I can't see anything Kennedy's offering New Yorkers besides her name?

Duke's Allison Haltom & the trustees

In response to a recent Dec. 21 post - Why did Duke's trustees enable the frame-up? - a number of you raised questions.

All of you commenting agreed BOT Chair Robert Steel played a lead role in Duke's disgraceful and bungled response to events which grew from the lies of Crystal Mangum.

But many of you pointed out it's impossible to say now whether most trustees were involved in "front end" decision making or merely rubber stamped what was put before them.

There were comments noting it's impossible to say at this time what, if any, information most trustees had before the public had it.

Then there's the question of how much confidence to place in assertions which began circulating as early as Spring 2006 that some trustees had expressed misgivings among themselves, to President Brodhead and senior administrators, and others with major connections to Duke regarding one or more of Duke's actions and inactions related to the hoax and frame-up attempt.

Many critical questions about the trustees' awareness and decision-making during the hoax, frame and cover-up will only be answered during discovery in the suits now pending before a federal court in Greensboro, NC.

If and, as I think, when we do start to get answers to "trustee questions," one of those who may lead in providing them is someone even most people who've followed the case closely have never heard of: Allison Haltom, Duke's recently retired University Secretary.

The following, via Liestoppers.com, is an extract from the complaint filed Dec. 18, 2007 in federal court by attorney Robert Ekstrand on behalf of three members of the Duke Men's 2006 lacrosse team who were not indicted.

B. The CMT’S Acts in Furtherance of the Conspiracy

414. On or before March 25, 2006, Defendant Steel directed Defendant Brodhead to create a Crisis Management Team (“CMT”) to manage the University’s actions relating to the investigation of Mangum’s claims.

The original participants in the CMT were Defendants [BOT chair] Steel, [President] Brodhead, [Provost] Lange, [VP] Trask, [VP] Burness, and [VP] Moneta. Defendant Victor J. Dzau [Chancellor for Health Affairs, and President and CEO of Duke University Health Systems, Inc.] was added to the CMT shortly after it became clear that DUHS and Tara Levicy were critical to the State’s case.

Defendant Allison Halton (sic) [the University’s Secretary] was also added to the CMT following its first meeting on March 25, 2006 (emphasis added)

For many years at Duke Haltom's principal duty involved trustee liaison.

Here’s part of a Duke News story released in connection with Haltom's retirement celebration :

. . . At a retirement party for her Tuesday, President Richard H. Brodhead listed her many Duke roles and concluded, “I learned today that you did nursing admissions. What have you not done?". . .
Haltom served under four presidents. As university secretary, she ensured members of the Board of Trustees were kept abreast of university issues and oversaw presidential transitions. In 2001, she took over the duties of university marshal, which include the operations of major university ceremonies such as commencement. ...

This excerpt from a Dec. 10, 2007 Chronicle story on her retirement:

As University secretary, Haltom manages the activities of the Board of Trustees, serves as the University marshal-which oversees major ceremonies like commencement-and has either chaired or served on most hiring committees for the University's senior officials, including the search committee for President Richard Brodhead.

"She makes the trains run on time," said John Burness, senior vice president for government affairs and public relations, whom Haltom considers one of her best friends. "Whoever is the University secretary has the inevitable position of both working for the President and working for the Board.... We're loaded with big thinkers, and if you don't have someone in the group who pays attention to the details, the logistics of managing 40-odd people [on the Board] will not get done."

When she retires, the majority of Haltom's responsibilities will be divided between Richard Riddell, special assistant to the president, who will handle the larger duties dealing with the Board, and Laura Eastwood, the current associate University secretary, who will handle many of the day-to-day communications with Trustees.

"The University is splitting Allison's position into two jobs because they don't believe one person can do it," Burness said. "What happens sometimes is you find really competent people like Allison who can juggle many different responsibilities and end up with them because they are so damn good at it. And then when they leave, you realize that the responsibilities are more than one person can handle.". . .

The decision to add Haltom to the CMT after its initial Mar. 25, 2006 meeting strongly suggests Steel knew then Duke was in for "a long haul," and that trustees would rightly have many questions and want to be kept informed as things developed.

I believe Steel, Brodhead, and other senior administrators communicated with certain key trustees. Haltom no doubt was liaison for the rest and very likely for key trustees from time to time.

It’s safe to say within the CMT group, she was not to any great extent a decision-maker. Her role would have been more to communicate between and among trustees and senior administrators.

More than almost all others, Haltom knows what happened during the hoax and frame at the upper levels of Duke. She was surely the bearer to the CMT of many suggestions, concerns and questions from trustees. And she knows how the CMT reacted to them.

It's hard to overstate how important Haltom’s inside knowledge can be to helping courts and the public understand what the key Duke decision-makers did when they were outside the public spotlight and how Duke's BOT has funtioned since it began hearing the lies Mangum told.

Allison Haltom is someone to remember.

Here are the Duke News and Chronicle stories in full.

If you love Caroline Kennedy

Michael Goodwin today in the NY Daily News - - -

[A] strange thing is happening on the way to the coronation. The wheels of the bandwagon are coming off. Fantasy is giving way to inescapable truth.

That truth is that Kennedy is not ready for the job and doesn't deserve it. Somebody who loves her should tell her.

Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure.

Because she is the only survivor of that dreamy time nearly 50 years ago, she remains an iconic figure. But in the last few days, her mini-campaign has proved she has little to offer New Yorkers except her name.

Her handlers and family enablers insist she feels no entitlement to the Senate job, yet there is no other possible reason to give it to her.

Her name is the sole reason she even dares go for it.

Camelot must be Gaelic for chutzpah. …

Goodwin’s entire column’s here.

Hat tip: Instapundit.com

Durham PD & H-S’s big “present” to Duke laxers

I don’t recall the Durham Police Department and the Durham Herald Sun ever teaming up to give the members of the 2006 Duke Men’s lacrosse team any kind of “present”.

But they did recently, just in time for the holidays. And it was a big one.

If you’ve followed the Duke/Durham hoax, frame-up attempt and their ongoing cover-up, you’ll spot the “present” in this Dec. 16 H-S editorial - -

The Durham police department's investigation into alleged racial slurs involving president-elect Barack Obama on officers' social-networking sites is proceeding with frustrating if unavoidable slowness.

That said, we must say the results reported so far are encouraging, both as the process reflects the department's intent to take the concerns seriously and as so far it has revealed that the postings were more innocent than at first feared.

The department has yet to complete its investigation into the allegations against one officer, so the full extent of the case remains uncertain.

One officer has been cleared, another disciplined -- not for racist remarks, as it turns out, but for comments about women's rights. And while we don't condone that, the remarks were relatively mild, teasing his fiance, investigators reported, about the 19th amendment and women's voting rights.

The racial connotation was originally inferred because the officer confused the 14th and 19th amendments to the Constitution, an embarrassing slip in its own right but the sort of casual error not uncommon in rapid-fire web postings and e-mail.

The department, Deputy Chief Ron Hodge told The Herald-Sun's Gregory Childress, has been weighing officers' rights of free speech against the public perceptions that can be created by what law enforcement officers are saying.

"We take very seriously any activity by a police officer that has the potential to create a weakening of public confidence," Hodge said.

Had the officer not identified himself as a police officer, "you probably have a citizen expressing a political opinion," he said. It's a delicate balance the department appears trying hard to get right.(emphasis added)

Although at least one council member has publicly worried that the investigation might be a cover up, we, like Mayor Bill Bell, are encouraged by the news so far.

We hope the final findings of the investigation are soon in coming, and similarly encouraging.

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Comments:

For those who didn’t know- - -

Beginning in March 2006 and continuing for almost a year thereafter, certain Durham police officers and their supervisors slandered, libeled and in other ways grossly mistreated the Duke students on the lacrosse team.

False statements about a “horrific crime,” “stonewalling” and “really strong evidence” were just part of it, with the false statement of “really strong evidence” coming from Deputy Chief Ron Hodge himself.

The Herald Sun went along cheerleading all of that and more.

Imagine the surprise of faithful H-S readers when our State Attorney General told them and the rest of us there never was any credible evidence of a crime.

Durham City and Police responded to that with something called the Chalmers-Baker report, which concluded DPD did nothing wrong.

When Hodge subsequently appeared at a public gathering, he assured his listeners, he could think of nothing wrong DPD had done.

His claim was greeted with laughter.

But the Chalmers-Baker report and Hodge’s claim that what DPD did to the lacrosse players was appropriate police procedure are now the position of Durham City and Police as they defend themselves from suits brought by the players.

Need I add the Herald Sun is not happy the players now hold Durham Police (and its “lead investigator,” the disbarred former DA Mike Nifong) and others responsible for their flagrant disregard of the Constitution and the laws of our state?

And need I tell any of you why the recent DPD investigation and Deputy Chief Hodge’s statements, so nicely recorded by the H-S, are a big “present” to the laxers, their families and their attorneys?

Are Caroline Kennedy’s prospects weakening?

Yes, according to WaPo’s Jonathan Capehart - - -

…[Kennedy’s] celebrity could have taken her far, were it not for five big political, style and substance mistakes committed by her otherwise able strategic team that have diminished the prospects of the highly regarded Camelot heiress.

Mistake No. 1: Not voting in many New York City and State elections over the last 20 years. It's hard to carry the mantle of America's political royal family, with its well-earned history of public service, when it's been revealed that you couldn't even muster the energy to vote for Democrats.

Mistake No. 2: Refusing to swear allegiance to the Democratic challenger to Mayor Bloomberg when he seeks a third term next year. New York Democrats are right to demand it.

Mistake No. 3: Not giving money to New York's Democratic Party candidates. According to the New York Daily News, in the last ten years, Kennedy has given $1,000 to local office seekers. She was more generous at the federal level. She even maxed out to Clinton, who gave the money back after Kennedy publicly endorsed Barack Obama. …

Mistake No. 4: Avoiding the press. I could understand Kennedy not chit-chatting at length with the press corps in Syracuse on her first day as a Senate aspirant. But her strategic advisers were a little too cute in asking for written questions from media outlets and then selectively answering the inquiries with as much depth as an After Eight mint. …

Mistake No. 5: Refusing to make any potential financial, legal and ethical disclosures until after she's been appointed. Kennedy is not legally bound to do this. But this arrogance won't go over well with most New Yorkers. And considering that most of the other senatorial prospects are elected officials who must submit to all manner of public and financial disclosures, and who are held accountable for them, it's unfair.

Capehart’s entire post’s here.

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Comments:

I agree all 5 mistakes have hurt her.

But another mistake that’s hurting Kennedy isn’t on Capehart’s list.

Kennedy and her team’s failed to prepare for some very obvious problems they ought to have known she’d face once she indicated her interest in the Senate seat.

With some common sense planning, Kennedy could easily have avoided the fallout from what Capehart calls Mistake No. 2 (Bloomberg and the ’09 mayoral race) and Mistake No. 5 (financial, legal, etc records releasing).

Mayor Bloomberg’s been a big booster of hers. So the question of who’d she support in next year’s mayoralty election was bound to come up.

She should have been ready with a standard answer such as: “I’ve worked effectively with Mayor Bloomberg on a number of projects and have great respect for his skills and commitment to doing his best for the people of New York. If I’m appointed to the Senate, I look forward to continuing our work together for all New Yorkers. As for next year’s mayoral race, I’m a Democrat and have every expectation I’ll be voting for the candidate of my party.”

Regarding the financial, ethical and other disclosures, Kennedy should have said something like: “When the possibility of my serving in the Senate came up, I sat down with my husband, and we talked. We agreed if I’m considered for the Senate appointment by Gov. Paterson, he will first want to look at records that bear on my financial, tax and ethical dealings. Our financial advisors, tax attorneys and others are reviewing and updating those documents now so they’ll be ready or as near ready as I can make them should Gov. Paterson request them.”

“At such time as Gov. Paterson may request them, those records will also be made available to the press and public.”

I think party leaders, the press and public would generally have reacted favorably if Kennedy had made Bloomberg/mayoral race and records statements such as I’ve sketched here.

Do you agree Capehart’s Mistake’s Nos. 2 and 5 were avoidable with just some common sense planning?

Some gays engage in shakedown thuggery

From today’s Wall Street Journal - - -

Soon after California's passage of a initiative banning same-sex marriage last month, dozens of gay activists descended on the El Coyote restaurant with signs and placards. They chanted "Shame on you," cussed at patrons and began a boycott of the cafe.

The restaurants's crime: A daughter of the owner donated $100 to support Proposition 8, the antigay-marriage initiative approved by voters.

Gay activists have refused to lift the boycott -- which restaurant managers say has slashed revenues by 30% -- even after some El Coyote employees raised $500 to help repeal the new ban.

The boycotters have demanded that the owner's daughter, El Coyote manager Marjorie Christoffersen, pony up $100 to help repeal Prop 8. She tearfully declined, citing her Mormon faith, during a raucous meeting with activists.

"You are not my friend if you take my civil rights," one activist shouted before she fled the room. …

The entire WSJ story’s here.

Comments:

The most telling word in the WSJ story is “Mormon”

The boycotters wouldn’t be at the El Coyote restaurant if the owner’s daughter was a Muslim or African-American or both.

Muslims and African-Americans in overwhelming numbers supported Proposition 8.

Yet you don’t read of gays disrupting the businesses of Muslims and African-Americans.

And do you know of a single instance of gays disrupting a black church or Muslim religious service as they have Mormon services?

Something else: The “boycott” described in the WSJ story is not the peaceful picketing and economic boycotting that’s every Americans right.

It’s shakedown thuggery.

Where are the government protections for Mormons now targeted by angry, disruptive and violence-prone gays?

In America, Mormons are entitled to the same protections as African-Americans, Muslims and the rest of us.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Police Report

Before the now disbarred former DA Mike Nifong ever spoke publicly about the Duke lacrosse case, the script he’d use to frame three innocent students was published by the liberal/leftist Raleigh News & Observer in a deliberately fraudulent story the N&O said was about a night that ended in “sexual violence.”

The N&O’s “sexual violence” story included an interview with the then anonymous false accuser, Crystal Mangum. N&O senior editors told readers it published only things Mangum said which were already in a “police report” (sometimes N&O editors have used the plural “reports”).

But the editors’ "police report" claim is not true, as this post makes clear. So it's not surprising that in the almost three years since the story ran, the N&O's failed to respond to requests from hundreds of readers and some researchers that it produce a copy of the "police report."

The N&O's claim about a "police report" it used brought to mind this 1897 letter to the editor of the New York Sun:

Dear Editor:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, “If you see it in THE SUN it's so.”

Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Most of you know the editor responded to Virginia in what’s become one of the most frequently republished editorials in the English language.

He assured Virginia her friends were wrong, the victims of people in “a skeptical age” who “do not believe except [what] they see.”

He told Virginia, “Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.”

The editor had more to say before he got to the editorial’s most famous line: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

And now this - - -

Dear Editor:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there was no police report used as a check against what you published in the paper in your “sexual violence” story.

Papa says, “If you see it in THE N&O it's so.”

Please tell me the truth; is there such a police report?

Virginia O’Hanlon

The N&O editor responded - -

Ah, Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of bloggers and blog hooligans who do not believe except [what] they see.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Police Report.

It exists as certainly as love and generosity and subscription renewals exist, and you know that they abound and give to life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas, how dreary would be the world, especially a certain newsroom, if there was no Police Report.

Not believe in the Police Report! You might as well not believe in the integrity of The N&O!

Nobody sees the Police Report, but that is no sign there is no Police Report.

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see like Mr. Nifong’s smoking gun and Duke’s equal treatment of its black and white students.

Did you ever see Crystal Mangum levitate in the bathroom that night?

Of course not, but that's no proof she didn’t.

Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in Durham and at Duke BOT meetings.

Your Friend,

The N&O Editor

NPR affiliate’s NIMBY-response to public transportation

I had to laugh when I read a Pioneer Press post about All Things Liberal NPR’s Minnesota Public Radio’s angry opposition to just the sort of public transportation project NPR and its affiliate keep insisting the public should support.

But this particular project goes just a little too close to Minn. Public Radio which is screaming “NIMBY!”

Joe Soucheray can’t resist some gentle reminding and ridiculing - -

Our building trembles, sometimes, but perceptibly. It is unmistakably a tremble, and I can't imagine what brings it about because the heavy machinery is across the river, where the paper is printed. I've worked in newspapers that house the presses, and when those babies start rolling, you have to grab a strap and hold on because the place feels like a submarine that just got the dive command.

Probably, old buildings like ours occasionally settle themselves even more comfortably on their haunches and it is nothing to get worked up over.

It only comes to attention, the trembling down at this end of Cedar Street, because up at the other end of Cedar, the pastors at Central Presbyterian and the Church of St. Louis are worried about what might happen to their buildings when they start construction on the Central Corridor light-rail line and, after, when the light-rail trains, which are not light at all, rumble past. …

Minnesota Public Radio, also on Cedar, is even more worked up than the Rev. Paul Morrissey at St. Louis and the Rev. David Colby at Central Presbyterian. Those are only churches.

At MPR, they have themselves convinced they are doing the real work of the people and the prospect of a train interrupting a whispery-voiced interview with a Bulgarian poet or throwing some folk singer's guitar out of tune has them threatening to move or sue or do something that could foul up the whole project. …

The argument could easily be made that public transportation and all it connotes has had no better friend in the media than MPR. Why, the prospect of us politely shuffling aboard a train while carrying our cloth MPR bag to hold the vegetables we purchase at various small local markets has been right up their editorial alley.

Except now, when they might actually have to be the train's neighbor. That's when they fire off letters and unleash the lawyers and plead for a public understanding that their studios, more than any other studios, apparently, are too delicate and fine-tuned to withstand the bells and whistles and rumbling of the great rolling collective.

(The train will go past our building, too, but none of us can really make an argument that it would disrupt the creative process because we are often yelling at each other, anyway.)

Metropolitan Council President Peter Bell said Monday that "Cedar Street remains the route."

Where it leaves a fellow like me is in limbo, a term you would learn at St. Louis or Central Presbyterian but not at MPR. Light rail is a boondoggle that is being shoved down our pocketbooks and we all know it and we can't do anything to stop it. If I thought MPR had a chance to stop it, I'd have to contribute to one of the 20 or 30 fund drives they hold each year, but they can't stop it and they know it and all they can do is bluster. …

[Maybe] MPR will leave the sustainable urban core for the sprawl of a suburban industrial park and the kind of transportation in a snowstorm that only a gas-guzzling SUV can reliably provide.

Joe Soucheray’s entire post’s here.

I think it will make you smile.

The N&O on Obama team's "clearing" Obama team

Yesterday I posted A headline classic. And what about the N&O?

The short of it: Andrew Malcolm’s LAT Top Of The Ticket blog post headline,

Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety,

is a classic. I wondered what headlines the McClatchy Company’s liberal/leftist “Anything for Obama” Raleigh N&O ran for the story?

I promised to check and get back to you.

The front page of the Dec. 24 N&O has a small lead-in headline in bold and capitals :

BLAGOJEVICH CONTACT CALLED CLEAN

That’s followed by, in normal size print:

Emanuel was the only one of Obama’s team to have a direct talk, but there was no dealing, internal report concludes

Readers are then directed to more of the story on pg. 3A.

There, the two-column-wide headlines read:

Contact with Blagojevich called clean

Internal inquiry finds only ‘innocent’ discussions with the Illinois leader over Obama’s Senate seat

Well, of course.

What could be more ‘innocent’ than “‘innocent’ discussions with the Illinois leader over Obama’s Senate seat?”

Sounds like just the sort of thing responsible public officials would do, doesn't it?

What's all the fuss about? No wonder the “internal report” found “there was no dealing.” Let's turn to the funnies.

Request to McClatchy Watch: Please consider posting on the N&O’s latest “Anything for Obama” headline “reporting;” and then asking bloggers who watch other McClatchy papers to provide those papers’ headline reporting of Malcolm’s story:

Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety

Malcolm's entire post's here.

Terrible but unsurprising news from Pakistan

From the Dec. 26 Times of London with my comments below the star line - - -

The Taleban have ordered the closure of all girls’ schools in the war-ravaged Swat district and warned parents and teachers of dire consequences if the ban is flouted.

In an announcement made in mosques and broadcast on radio, the militant group set a deadline of January 15 for its order to be obeyed or it would blow up school buildings and attack schoolgirls.

It also told women not to set foot outside their homes without being fully covered.

“Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society,” Shah Dauran, leader of a group that has established control over a large part of Swat district in the North West Frontier Province, declared this week.

Teachers said that they had little choice but to comply. The Taleban have destroyed more than 125 girls’ schools in the area in the past year. …

The militants have also prohibited immunisation for children against polio – claiming that the UN-sponsored vaccination drive is aimed at causing sexual impotence – causing a sharp rise in cases of the disease.

Since the start of the government offensive, girls’ schools have been targeted increasingly by Islamic fundamentalists. The district has 842 boys’ and 490 girls’ state schools for 300,000 children aged 3 to 9; only 163,645 boys and 67,606 girls are actually enrolled at state and private establishments, according to official figures.

According to the local authorities, 50 per cent of girls have stopped attending school because of the militants’ threats..

Attacks on girls’ schools are not confined to the Swat district. In the past two years another 100 schools have been burnt down in Waziristan and other tribal areas, leaving tens of thousands of children between the ages of 5 and 15 with no access to education.

In many areas hardliners have established Sharia, or Islamic law, setting up their own courts and introducing public executions for those who break it. This month militants killed a pro-government cleric and hung his body up in Mingora, the main town of Swat, in full view of the Pakistani military and the local administration.

The entire Times article’s here.

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Comments:

When liberals and leftists here in America ask if I know “Why they hate us?” I usually say, “Well, fot has something to do with how we threat woman, right?”

Paco Martin, Madrid, Spain comments on the thread:

About time ALL Muslims got their act together to condemn this. I fear I do not see this happening - Showing that really this religion needs to get its act together and support western values of health education and freedom for ALL.

I sure wish all, or at least a lot more, Muslims would start doing that.

I wish too there was a chance gay leaders and the Hollywood glitterati would squeeze a little time in between blasting President-elect Obama, Rev. Warren and Pope Benedict to condemn the treatment of women in many Muslim countries and support the elimination of the influence of Muslim fundamentalists everywhere.

A headline classic. And what about the N&O

An Andrew Malcom LAT Top Of The Ticket blog post begins:

The Barack Obama presidential transition office today finally released its own report on its own internal investigation of its own contacts with legally challenged Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And you'll be comforted to know the Obama folks found no impropriety whatsoever by Obama folks.

That’s a very good opening, and all the better as it must surely upset Hollywood liberals and those devoted to them.

But look at that headline above Malcom’s post:

Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety

It's a classic!

Why didn’t the LAT run a headline like that in its print edition?

Were the editors afraid they'd run off some of their devoted core of liberal and leftist readers?

I don’t know.

Anyway, it’s Christmas Day and I’m not doing much blogging.

But tomorrow I plan to look back and see how my local paper, the McClatchy Company’s liberal/leftist Raleigh News & Observer, headlined the story.

I’ll let you know what I find.

Malcolm’s entire post’s here.

Hat tip: Instapundit.com

A most memorable Christmas

included attendance with my wife and dear friends at Mass at the Rosaire Chapel in Vence, France.

There's no exaggeration in the following from a Vence information site:

The Rosaire chapel, conceived by Henri Matisse remains a sacred art monument, unique in the world.

From 1948 to 1951, Matisse drew up the plans for the edifice and all the details of its decoration: stain glass windows, ceramics, stalls, stoup, [etc.]

It was the first time that a painter entirely designed every detail of a monument, from the architecture to the furniture [to the vestments the priests wear at Mass. – JinC]. …

For Henry Matisse, “this work required me 4 years of an exclusive and untiring effort and it is the fruit of my whole working life. In spite of all its imperfections I consider it as my masterpiece."

From New World Encyclopedia are photos of the chapel’s:

Exterior

Interior here, here and here

The green, the red and the white chasubles Matisse designed.

And again from an information site some photos (click on the photo link on the menu at the left) of the area immediately surrounding the chapel.

A photo of the exterior of the alter end of the chapel is in the center. The photos can be enlarged with a click.

I hope a “visit” to this most beautiful chapel and creation of Matisse adds to your enjoyment of this day.

John

A “gift” for all of us from Jeff Jacoby

I woke up this morning to find Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby had left under the masthead at Realclearpolictics.com a “gift” which begins:

Can you hear the grumbling over in what Howard Dean used to call "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?" The tolerance-and-diversity crowd is upset with Barack Obama; it seems the president-elect has been bringing people into his circle who don't agree with them on every single issue.

The rest of Jacoby’s excellent column’s here.