Restaurant Review: Flirt Sushi

I had come across Flirt Sushi when reading (201) magazine, which had a Best of Bergen County roundup. They reviewed the best restaurants in Bergen, and I had expected Sushi Sakura Bana or Ho Ho Kus Sushi Cafe to top the list. Sakura Bana was the runner up to Flirt Sushi. I was intrigued, given that I've long considered Sakura Bana to be the best sushi in New Jersey, followed closely by the Sushi Cafe and Kumo in Ridgewood.

Well, we went to the Allendale location there this evening and was pleasantly surprised. This isn't your ordinary sushi. You wont find a typical sushi or sashimi platter. Instead, you'll find a fusion of different rolls with a unique presentation. And flirty names.

For example, I had the "Latin Lover" which is fatty tuna, yellowtail, avocado, and mango in a roll (choice of white rice or brown rice). The large roll, eight pieces in total, was a hearty meal in its own right. Mrs. Lawhawk had ample choices among the vegetarian sushi options - there aren't any of the typical teriyaki or tempura dishes that you'll find in other Japanese restaurants. Flirt is about putting on good sushi in unusual combinations.

She had a sweet potato roll, tempura asparagus roll, and a avocado roll.

For dessert, we had the Won Ton Love, which is four fried wantons filled with chocolate ganache and then placed around mounds of whipped cream.

All the dishes were expertly prepared and very fresh.

The decor is modern, and we got into the restaurant just in time as several groups had to wait immediately after we were seated. Noise levels were acceptable and the service was quite good.

As an accompaniment, we drank a 2005 Lieb Cellars Reserve Chardonnay that we purchased last weekend. Quite good balance, with apple and pear and buttery overtones. That it doesn't have the high alcohol content that many of the California wines have become known for, is a huge bonus.

Flirt also has outposts in Suffern, New York and Hillsdale, NJ.

UPDATE:
Fixed links and typo.

Bamboozling?

Norway has made the very public claim that it will go carbon neutral in emissions by the year 2030. Great.

There's just a problem with those plans. Huge, in fact.

Norway’s bold promise raised the bar for other nations, which were mostly still struggling to figure out how to reduce emissions, by even a fraction. Then, in January, the Norwegian government went a step further: Norway would be carbon neutral by 2030, it said.

But as the details of the plan have emerged, environmental groups and politicians — who applaud Norway’s impulse — say the feat relies too heavily on sleight-of-hand accounting and huge donations to environmental projects abroad, rather than meaningful emissions reductions.

That criticism has not only set off anguished soul-searching here, but may also come as a cold slap to the many countries, companies, cities and universities that have lined up to replicate Norway’s example of becoming carbon neutral — with an environmental balance sheet showing that they absorb as much carbon dioxide as they emit.

Many signed on not only to set an example of their own but also for a kind of public relations boon, or to pre-empt or get out ahead of government regulations they feel are probably inevitable. In the past year, the Vatican announced that it was carbon neutral, and companies like Wal-Mart say they are aiming for that goal.

But their claims — like Norway’s — all require asterisks, like home-run records buoyed by steroids. And as the Norwegian plan shows, achieving a carbon-neutral state, for now, often depends as much on how you make the calculation and how much money you spend, as it does on hard work, sacrifice or even innovation.

Indeed, it's done with sleight of hand and doesn't actually reduce tailpipe or smokestack emissions, but rather offsets them with spending on projects elsewhere (like planting trees).

This is a complete joke and it's actually on the taxpayers who are funding all this craziness.

It's one thing to support reduced pollution emissions because it improves air quality. It's quite another when the science is barely there to actually support such drastic moves that may have absolutely no effect on emissions whatsoever.

Oh, and are those carbon-neutral plans taking into account a growing population - after all, everyone exhales carbon dioxide which these plans are all purporting to make disappear in carbon-neutral schemes.

Jammie notes that the global climate data suggests that global warming may have actually ended a decade ago. If carbon emissions were truly driving global climate change, temperatures would continue on an upwards projection. However, they aren't, which suggests that something else is affecting global climate in ways that COx emissions isn't. Indeed, I've got a possible culprit right here:


Yes folks, that is the sun. That great glowing orb in the sky whose presence during the daylight hours warms the planet up and when the sun sets, will cool things off. It drives the solar wind, climate changes on planets near and far in the solar system, and whose full impact on the Earth's climate is still coming into focus, even as we have started to understand how solar cycles affect the Earth's climate.

A Very Rough First Week

Governor David Paterson should have been on cloud nine this week, having been sworn in as Governor of New York on Monday, replacing disgraced Democrat Eliot Spitzer. Paterson, a Democrat himself, promptly began providing cannon fodder for the papers because he admitted to having extramarital affairs, and that campaign funds were used to pay for hotel rooms in some instances.

Now, we learn that Paterson gave campaign funds to someone he might come to regret:

In 2001, Paterson's state Senate campaign paid "wages" to a disgraced doctor specializing in alternative medicine - and secured state funding for a foundation linked to her.

That same year, Paterson appears to have also used campaign funds to purchase anti-aging supplements from a Southern California company that sells alternative medicines.

According to campaign finance records, Serafina Corsello was paid $250 in what's listed as "wages" on Oct. 29, 2001.

Corsello's medical license was revoked by the state Department of Health on Sept. 17, 2001, after she was found guilty of a long list of charges - including negligence and incompetence.

Friday, Paterson's aides said he did not recall the payment and did not remember Corsello.

She did not respond to repeated attempts to contact her this week for comment.

On April 30, 2001, the Paterson campaign paid $182.05 to Roex Inc., a company that sells anti-aging supplements including one called "The Biblical Solution."

Business as usual? For Albany, it is. Once again, questions should be asked as to how and why campaign funds for state politicians aren't policed to prevent these kinds of abuses. I know some are going to claim that it is too difficult or that these are de minimis abuses of campaign funds, but aren't we supposed to be holding politicians to the letter of the law?

Paterson is now reimbursing the campaign fund for two nights at a Manhattan hotel.

The Post has a rundown of other campaign funds used for personal matters, which is a direct violation of state election law:

But the new Democratic governor also used his campaign account for other personal expenditures - a practice that is illegal - and then reimbursed the fund several months late, Berger acknowledged.

The lawyer said he found the repayments after a limited internal review.

They included:

* A $1,430.04 check Paterson wrote in June 2004 to cover more than $1,000 worth of clothes at the Men's Wearhouse, and a roughly $350 tab at the club Den.

The items were listed as "constituent services" in Paterson's filings, and there are no receipts available, Berger said.

It is also a violation of state election law to falsely label the reason for the campaign expenditure.

* A $637 check in July 2004 for roughly $470 worth of furniture at Taft Furniture Warehouse, an Albany Crowne Plaza hotel bar bill and about $40 at another men's store.

* A $70 check in February 2004 to cover a post-Christmas dinner with his dad at Docks restaurant on the East Side.

* Paterson himself reportedly said he paid a woman identified as his former lover, Lila Kirton, $500 as a reimbursement for a donation for another candidate. But Berger yesterday said that upon further review, it turns out there was an extensive reconfiguration of his campaign database and she was paid wages.

Officials refused to say whether Kirton was still romantically involved with Paterson at the time.

* After initially refusing, Paterson aides provided late yesterday a copy of a canceled check for $1,000 to Luiza Vizcarrando, a New Jersey woman who told The Post she barely knew Paterson, never worked for him and didn't get paid.

The check was for "list management," and Berger said she also did work on the database for "two weeks." Vizcarrando couldn't be reached for comment.

Better late than never appears to be the way the game is played, and that's how Paterson's supporters are likely to spin this. You use the campaign funds as needed, and if caught, you repay, and they figure no-harm, no-foul. I wonder, though, if interest were paid on the amounts, given that the campaign funds essentially acted as a loan to Paterson.

Oh, and Paterson says that he supports Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing tax. Nice.

Meanwhile, the Times Union reports that it is very unlikely that Eliot Spitzer used state funds or campaign funds to pay for his trysts with prostitutes. He should be thankful for that - it's bad enough he was breaking the law with the prostitutes, but paying with campaign funds or state funds would have meant prosecutors had a sledgehammer to use against Spitzer, who's now in sex addiction therapy (and will use that to offset any potential prostitution rap).

Rotten to the Core

The Buildings Department in New York City is on quite a tear. One of their investigators was arrested in connection with the crane collapse last weekend, and now it's been revealed that the City is undertaking comprehensive inspections of 26 buildings after finding another inspector didn't thoroughly inspect a building involved in a 2001 collapse that resulted in the death of two firefighters.

The city’s Buildings Department has begun a comprehensive review of other construction jobs that were approved by an engineer who has been charged with lying about his inspection of a Bronx building that collapsed in 2006, killing two firefighters.

A city report on the collapse found that the engineer, Jose D. Vargas, who approved renovation plans for the Bronx building in 2001, never completed a required final inspection to make sure the job met the city’s building code.

A Fire Department report concluded that had Mr. Vargas completely inspected the building, he could have detected rotten pillars in the basement that caused the collapse. Mr. Vargas was charged this month with lying to investigators looking into the collapse of the building, a discount store at 1575 Walton Avenue.

The Buildings Department has been a mess for far too long, and it has put lives in jeopardy repeatedly by failing to detect failed or missed inspections, bureaucratic bungling that resulted in missing paperwork that would have gotten necessary work done to stabilize buildings, and it has little to do with the current building boom, but rather an ongoing and systematic problem within the Department itself.

Some of this has to do with a self-certification process, but it also has to do with failures within the Department.

What Can Go Wrong Will

Pakistan is about to go down a path from which its neighbors, the region, and the world at large might come to regret - and in the near future to boot.

The new Pakistani government is pushing a policy that is little more than warmed over appeasement. They're going to enable the jihadis a safe haven from which they can continue operations.

Faced with a sharp escalation of suicide bombings in urban areas, the leaders of Pakistan’s new coalition government say they will negotiate with the militants believed to be orchestrating the attacks, and will use military force only as a last resort.

That talk has alarmed American officials, who fear it reflects a softening stance toward the militants just as President Pervez Musharraf has given the Bush administration a freer hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator drones.

Many Pakistanis, however, are convinced that the surge in suicide bombings — 17 in the first 10 weeks of 2008 — is retaliation for three Predator strikes since the beginning of the year. The spike in attacks, combined with the crushing defeat of Mr. Musharraf’s party in February parliamentary elections, has brought demands for change in his American-backed policies.

The Pakistanis are being targeted by the jihadis because they're hoping for precisely this kind of outcome. Increase the violence to affect the incoming government to relent and seek appeasement.

It's the same thing that has happened under Musharraf time and time again. Musharraf would engage in appeasement and deals with the Islamists and Taliban operating in the territories adjacent to Afghanistan and it wouldn't take long before those jihadis would attempt to assassinate Musharraf or engage in a bombing campaign. Musharraf would crack down on the jihadis for a time, and then revert to the appeasement method because his forces could never sustain their efforts.

To blame the ongoing violence in Pakistan on the airstrikes that have taken out key al Qaeda and Taliban thugs is misleading at best. The jihadis have been engaging in violence for years, and last year's Lal Masjid siege, not to mention assassination of Benazir Bhutto after a failed attempt murdered more than 130 at a rally, should have revealed the true nature of the Islamists operating in Pakistan, but the media will continue to show a blind eye to the threat until it is too late.

So, what's the deal that we're supposed to rely upon?

In general terms, according to a retired senior Pakistani general who remains close to the current military leadership, new negotiations would be likely to involve a ban on non-Pakistani militants — like Afghans, Uzbeks and Chechens — coming from southern Afghanistan into Pakistan, in return for reduced operations by the Pakistani Army in the tribal areas.

Oh, I'm sure that someone will be patrolling a very porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan demanding passports and turning back all those who fit that profile. Who would be policing the border, if not the Pakistani Army?

This is a return to the days when the territories were essentially autonomous and the Pakistani government in Islamabad had little to no say over what happened there, even though the territories were officially part of Pakistan.

Tibet, China and the Olympics

The Chinese Communists (hey, that's what they call themselves, and who am I to argue, but they're more appropriately called totalitarian thugs) have a full plate to deal with right now.

Tibetans are rioting against the jack booted dominion the Chinese government in Beijing has imposed on them for decades. More than 100 people have been killed in the rioting, and it's showing signs of spreading.

The government has released photos of those wanted in connection with the rioting, and human rights groups are right to warn of mass arrests and still more human rights abuses. The government claims that only a handful of people have been killed, but the Tibetans say at least 99 have been killed by the Chinese forces.

After days of official statements that no lethal force had been used to quash the unrest, which has left an unknown number dead, state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday that four people had been shot and wounded.

It said police shot the four in southwestern Sichuan province in "self-defence". Pro-Tibet groups poured scorn on the report.

"At this point any statement the Chinese government puts out has virtually no credibility," said Lhadon Tethong from Students for a Free Tibet, based in Dharamshala, India.

"We are seeing photographs, we have friends who have lost relatives. We categorically reject any of the (official Chinese) information."

China said early today that 18 "innocent" civilians and one police officer were killed in the rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, raising its official death toll from 13. The victims, it said previously, were killed by Tibetan "mobs".

But the Tibetan exile government of the Dalai Lama based in Dharamshala said it had confirmed 99 people were killed in the Chinese crackdown.

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), stopped short of calling for a boycott of China over the ongoing rioting in Tibet and the ongoing suppression of human rights.

She did not call for an Olympic boycott, which the Dalai Lama has also opposed, but appeared to open the door to one if China maintained its crackdown in Tibet. She said the "world is watching" events there, and called for an international investigation into the violence, and access to the region for journalists and international human rights monitors.

Pelosi said it was incumbent on "freedom-loving people throughout the world" to speak out against China's "oppression". If they did not, "we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world".

There is no appetite among governments for an Olympic boycott. All have too much to lose by alienating the burgeoning superpower. But the news and images filtering through the razor wire around Tibet are making many western capitals uneasy, particularly those that promised to build foreign policies on human rights.

It's interesting that everyone is willing to look the other way when you've got a big bully who's doing all manner of unspeakable acts depriving everyone under their control of human rights. At what point does such actions become intolerable and demand action, even the limited act of boycotting a sporting event? How many people have to die?

Still, for Pelosi to come out and say what she did is a black eye that the Chinese can ill afford. They're already dealing with the very strong possibility that the air quality in Beijing during the Olympics will be so bad that some top athletes might stay away because of health concerns.

And now comes word that the government might prevent anyone from broadcasting from Tienanmen Square, site of the bloody crackdown by the government against pro Democracy students in 1989, which saw incredible bravery in the face of insurmountable force. The Chinese government doesn't like that footage shown, but to remind you of what I'm talking about, here's the photo:



And here's the video showing this same man holding up an entire column of tanks with his simple act of refusing to back down.

Photo of the Weekend

Orient Point lighthouse. Taken March 2008.


This post will serve as my call for the weekend's best and brightest.

State Department Reports Still More Passport File Breaches

After yesterday's report noting that two contract workers were fired and a third suspended for unauthorized access to Presidential candidate Democrat Barack Obama, we have learned today that other individuals engaged in the same conduct with regard to Democrat Hillary Clinton's records and Republican John McCain's records.

Rice expressed concern over the privacy violations as well as the fact that they weren't reported right away. Rice said the incident "should have been made known to senior management. It was not to my knowledge and we also want to take every step we can to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

Rice said the State Department will launch a "full investigation." Spokesman Sean McCormack said the probe wiould include checks to see whether the records of Clinton and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were also breached.

McCormack said the three employees involved in the unauthorized looks into Obama's personal records do not appear to be connected and were in three different passport offices in the Washington, D.C. area.

This morning McCormack said Acting Inspector General Bill Todd has been in touch with the Department of Justice "so they can proceed together" in case the IG's investigation determines any laws were broken.

In a hasty late-night conference call Thursday, embarrassed officials of the State Department acknowledged that two employees had been fired and a third disciplined for improperly accessing Obama's passport file.

Today McCormack said he wasn't trying to suggest anything other than the initial assessment that the employees were anything other than curious Obama fans but was not dimissive of other possibilities.

The State Department has a serious problem on its hands with unauthorized access to these records. Damage control efforts are underway, but if someone could access those records, they just as easily could be looking at other records of the average joe, and use them for more nefarious purposes.

UPDATE:
Sen. Obama now wants to get Congress involved and have them investigate the State Department. He says that it's to keep the investigation from being a purely internal matter. It should be an open investigation, but Congress will do what it always does - grandstand before the cameras.

UPDATE:
Also following the story: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and Stop the ACLU.

UPDATE:
Meet the companies whose employees are responsible for the security breaches:

Two of the government contractors who accessed Sen. Barack Obama's passport records worked for a Virginia-based firm called Stanley, Inc., the company said in a statement. A third contractor who looked at passport information for Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain worked for a company called The Analysis Corporation, the State Department said.

"Two Stanley subcontractor employees were involved in the unauthorized access of Senator Barack Obama's passport files," a Stanley, Inc., spokeswoman said. "In each of these instances the employee was terminated the day the unauthorized search occurred."

"While this is a rare occurrence, we regret the unauthorized access of any individual's private information," Stanley spokeswoman Joelle Pozza added.

Stanley, Inc., is headquartered in Arlington, Va. The State Department awarded it a contract for $164 million in 2006, to print and mail millions of new U.S. passports. Stanley announced on Monday that it was awarded an additional $570 million contract to "continue support of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs/Passport Services Directorate."

One Stanley, Inc., contractor looked at Obama's passport records on January 9, and then a second Stanley employee accessed similar Obama records on February 21, U.S. officials familiar with the controversy told NBC News. The Stanley spokeswoman would not identify the workers or explain why they had accessed Obama's passport data. The State Department Inspector General is now investigating.

Another contractor, who worked for The Analysis Corporation of McLean, Va., gained unauthorized access on March 14 to the passport records for Obama and McCain, a State Department spokesman said. That employee's employment status is pending.

When In Doubt, Go To Therapy

So it is with disgraced Democrat Eliot Spitzer. He's entered sex addiction therapy, just days after resigning over a sex scandal as governor of New York.

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has gone into therapy in the wake of the hooker scandal that swept him out of office, a Spitzer insider told The Post yesterday.

As part of the therapy, Spitzer will explore whether he has an addiction to sex, the source said.

UPDATE:
Spitzer is just the latest in a long line of disgraced politicians and entertainers who decide to go to therapy or rehab to deal with the fallout from their criminal acts.

Happy Purim Israel

And the Palestinians have provided the fireworks - in the form of yet another kassam rocket barrage against Sderot.

Aside from the Kassam attacks, this year's Purim celebrations across the country were clouded by security warnings. The security establishment reported seven specific warnings of attacks, including suicide bombings, shooting attacks and kidnapping attempts. There were also dozens of non-specific warnings.

The high alert level was due in a large part to the end of the 40-day mourning period for slain Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mugniyeh. Israel denied involvement in the assassination, but Hizbullah threatened to avenge his death with an attack on Israeli targets. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the alert level Friday was one below the maximum.

Meanwhile, terrorist training in Gaza took its toll on Hamas Friday morning as one of the group's operatives was killed and two were injured in an accidental explosion at a facility in the southern Gaza neighborhood of Khan Yunis, Palestinians reported.

That latter bit was the second work-accident/own goal in the past two days. The terrorists are getting sloppy, which can only be good news for Israel since that's that many fewer terrorists who can make the bombs and rockets that are meant to kill and injure Israelis and damage Israeli property.

The Russians are pushing their pseudorealist diplomatic activities calling for an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli housing construction projects. Nothing like your morning dosage of moral equivalence.

And for those who still cling to the nonsensical diplomatic drivel that claims that Fatah is a partner in peace, Fatah's wholly owned subsidiary, the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for shooting up a bus in Nablus, which injured a 13-year old boy.

Gov. Paterson's Problems Couldn't Get Worse, Could They?

They do.

Gov. Paterson's campaign-finance reports show he paid $1,000 to a woman who says she barely knows him, didn't work for him and never received any money, The Post has learned.

Luisa Vizcarrondo, 49, was listed as "staff" on Paterson's campaign for re-election when he was in the state Senate, and a payment of $1,000 was made to her on June 25, 2002, according the records.

But the New Jersey day-care worker insisted that wasn't the case.

She says she had never worked for Paterson and that she must be the wrong person.

So, the question remains who got the money and for what purpose was it given? Paterson's campaign manager is under the gun to provide details about whether Paterson used campaign funds for his extramarital affairs. If he had used such funds, it would be a criminal act.

The Post's review thus far has found more than 60 instances where Paterson's campaign paid for hotel stays since 1999. Paterson says that he's reimbursed the campaign for those stays.

In addition to hotel stays, Paterson's campaign account spent thousands of dollars on meals and flowers.

In the city, his campaign paid between $104 and $251 for four stays at a Quality Inn where he is known to have brought at least one woman and reportedly admitted to using - but later reimbursing - campaign cash.

Meanwhile, Lila Kirton is stunned at the chain of events since Paterson admitted to the affair. After all, no one expected Paterson to admit to extracurricular activities.

The Daily News also reports that most New Yorkers are on the fence about Paterson. He's got a 46% approval rating. If this first week is any indication, he's going to have a real hard time ever cracking 50%.

UPDATE:
Capitol Confidential reports that there's a good chance the state budget wont be passed on time, which is business as usual in Albany.

They also note that Spitzer has entered sex addiction therapy (and will get a whole thread devoted to that!).

Previously Hidden Secrets Of NY Governors Revealed

After snooping around the shredded papers on the Second Floor at the NYS Capitol and spending minutes putting them together with the assistance of a Persian carpet weaver and at Mrs. Lawhawk's insistence, I believe I've found who has been advising New York's governors for the past several years and may have indeed played a role in creating the Bear Mountain Compact, which has survived to this very day, despite every attempt to try and make politicians accountable for their actions. I've even declared it dead, only to watch it arise like a character out of a movie.

The person behind the debauchery? Mayor Joe Quimby. Yes, the current and omnipresent Mayor of Springfield.

The evidence?


Exhibit A. A recent interview.

Exhibit B. The quotes are eerily similar:

Do you mind?! I am just trying to have a quiet meal with my secret other family!

Quimby: Wiggum, you glorified nightwatchman, let her go!
Wiggum: But she broke the law!
Quimby: Thanks for the civics lesson. Now listen to me. If Marge Simpson goes to jail, I can kiss the chick vote goodbye. And if I go down, you're gonna break my fall!
Wiggum: Word to the wise, Quimby. Don't write cheques your butt can't cash.
Quimby: Hear me loud and clear, Wiggum. You bite me, I'll bite back.
Wiggum: You talk the talk, Quimby. But do you walk the walk?

Also I would like to say that this woman is not my wife, although I am sleeping with her. I'm telling you because I'm comfortable with my womanising.

Exhibit C: The audio is pretty damning. You can listen to the most incriminating bits over and over and it still doesn't get old. Maybe that's the charm that Quimby uses to stick around in office.

However, the most damning evidence is a shaky handheld video incident that was uncovered, but if you're not comfortable with Blair Witch style camera shake, you might want to pass this up (and word to the wise, it appears Quimby was busy advising Jim McGreevey as well).

All in all, I think it's a pretty open and shut case.

State Dept. Contract Workers Fired For Snooping In Obama's Records

The State Department fired two contract workers and suspended a third for illegally snooping in passport data relating to Barack Obama.

The officials, all contract workers, used their authorized computer network access to look up files within the department's consular affairs section, which processes and stores passport information, and read Mr. Obama's passport application and other records, in violation of department privacy rules, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was notified of the security breach today, and responded by saying security measures used to monitor records of high-profile Americans worked properly in detecting the breaches.

Mr. McCormack said the officials did not appear to be seeking information on behalf of any political candidate or party.

"As far as we can tell, in each of the three cases, it was imprudent curiosity," Mr. McCormack told The Washington Times.

Expect the usual suspects to claim that the Administration was engaging in illegal conduct and that Bush and/or Sec. State Rice should be brought up on charge. It's only a matter of time.

The fact is that contract workers at the Department were caught by the State Department's own security measures, but one has to wonder whether such efforts are extended to protect the data of all those who provide such data to the State Department for passport processing. Would the Department be able to tell if someone was improperly viewing data from my passport application or those of anyone else?

It's a question that isn't touched upon in this article.

Crane Collapse Fallout

Well, it's not surprising at all that the Buildings Department inspector who was supposed to have inspected the crane days before the collapse has been arrested and charged in connection with the collapse that crushed buildings around the construction site and killed seven people and wounded dozens this past Saturday.

A Buildings Department inspector, Edward J. Marquette, has been arrested and charged with lying to New York City authorities about inspecting the crane that collapsed on Saturday afternoon, killing seven people, injuring dozens of others and causing widespread property damage. Officials issued a stern warning that corrupt workers will be punished, but said the failure to inspect the crane on March 4 was almost certainly not a factor in the deadly collapse, which officials think may have been caused by the failure of a nylon strap, which caused a massive steel collar to come loose.

For all the talk about how the construction sites and companies are playing fast and loose with safety, the real question is just how well managed the Buildings Department is in the City. Marquette claims to have inspected the crane on March 4th, but admitted to the Department of Investigations that no such inspection ever took place.

The DOI insists that the failure to inspect the crane on March 4 didn't play a role in the collapse, but one has to wonder whether the inspection on the Friday before the collapse was as thorough as it should have been. Could a thorough inspection of the crane and its environs found the problem before it crashed down on the surrounding neighborhood?

This all goes to a pattern of failures by the Buildings Department to uphold its duties to the public and preserve public safety. Within the past few weeks, it's been revealed that the Department failed to inspect buildings and follow procedures, highlighted by a building collapse in Harlem that caused chaos for commuters on Metro North for hours.

The Buildings Department Commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, says that she's determined to root out the corrupt inspectors from the Department. It doesn't look like she's done a vigorous enough job all along.

I'd say that Mayor Bloomberg better be asking for letters of resignation from his folks over at the Department because the investigation is revealing a pattern of failures and poor management.

Gov. Paterson's Troubles

And just like that, Democrat David Paterson, the first African American governor in New York State history and first blind governor in US history, may be facing a crisis on par with the previously dispatched Democrat Eliot Spitzer.

Reports are circulating that Paterson used campaign contributions to pay for the hotel rooms used in his trysts with women.

Governor Paterson's admission he may have used a campaign credit card to pay for a hotel room, but charged it as "constituent services."

While you can snark that he's really into his constituent services and pleasing the people, I'm sure that his contributors and supporters don't think that their money should be going to pay for Paterson's room and board for extramarital affairs.

And it gets worse:

A campaign payment to Lila Kirton, a high-ranking state employee who was one of his paramours, was listed as "professional services" - which is supposed to refer to legal advice, accounting or speechwriting.

Kirton, 49, of White Plains, is the only woman whose name has been confirmed by Albany sources.

She hasn't responded to calls for comment, and co-workers said they didn't see her yesterday at her $150,000-a-year job in Paterson's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where she is a holdover from Eliot Spitzer's administration.

On Tuesday, in an extraordinary Albany news conference, Paterson admitted he'd had affairs with several women, but insisted he never "knowingly" used campaign cash for his trysts. It's illegal to use campaign money for personal expenses.

If Paterson has indeed used campaign contributions in this fashion, it's criminal and could be grounds to see him off. If he used state funds, say hello to Governor Joesph Bruno (R-Rensselaer). That's right, the Republican who is acting Lieutenant Governor at present in addition to his duties as Senate Majority Leader would become the new governor (and would be the icing on the cake since he was the target of Eliot Spitzer's Troopergate kerfuffle). Of course, he's also under investigation for shady dealings, so it may be possible to watch Bruno doing a perp walk before long as well.

It's truly sad that corrupt and dirty New York politicians have to be elected/elevated to Governor of the state to be kicked out of office for misdeeds. And why didn't anyone think of this sooner? The state would be a much improved place had someone thought to start kicking the corrupt politicians over to the Second Floor in the Capitol.

UPDATE:
Some might argue that this is a de minimis violation of state law and that somehow Paterson shouldn't get hammered over it. Well, just because the state law isn't enforced as it should be doesn't mean that it's okay.

UPDATE:
Like I said (ed: and note the name that party game is involved)

Diplomat Dunces

The Russians think that they can build on the progress of Annapolis and somehow get Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria. Fat chance of that happening. There wasn't any progress as a result of Annapolis, unless you want to count Hamas deciding that Gaza should have an open border with Egypt and invaded Egypt en masse.

Why would Israel engage in diplomacy with Syria, which harbors terror masters from Hamas and Hizbullah, and who supplies both groups with equipment, personnel, and assistance, not to mention is a destabilizing presence in Lebanon and thwarts Lebanese sovereignty at every turn.

This is nothing more than a misdirection play in order to give Hamas more time to regroup and rearm itself in Gaza. It's nice to see that some Israelis are similarly distrustful of anything coming out of Syria, but I also expect Olmert to be pushing backchannel negotiations with Assad and his cronies as well.

Once again, we're witnessing the psuedoreality in which the diplomats reside. The reality is quite different. Yet more kassams slammed into Israel today.

At the same time, a Yemeni effort to get Hamas and Fatah talking again has failed. Go figure. The reason for its failure is simple; Hamas would have had to give up control of Gaza. There's absolutely no reason for it to do so - it crushed Fatah there, and would likely destroy Fatah entirely but for the Israeli security presence in the West Bank.

News and Notes From the Legal Profession

One of the biggest law firms in the country, Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, looks like it will be laying off a significant portion of its associates and support staff. Depending on who you talk to and how you count the layoffs, it ranges from 4% of the total lawyers at the firm or up to 10% of the associates on the payroll, which is roughly 600 lawyers at present.

That's a pretty hefty chunk of lawyers who will be looking for work elsewhere. Thelen Reid had recently acquired Brown Raysman & Steiner, so this suggests that the deal wasn't as good for Thelen's bottom line as they had suspected. While Above the Law posits that this is the result of a slowing economy and a recession, blaming it on the recession is a good way for the managing partners to shift the blame for the mess at the firm to someone other than themselves.

UPDATE:
Via law.com:

Thelen may be the first major West Coast firm to announce layoffs, but lawyers have been laid off from two New York firms -- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Thacher Proffitt -- and national firm Dechert over the past six months.

Blood Libels Distilled To Their Essence

Yesterday, I wrote of the latest blood libel to be published against Jews. Some might argue that such propaganda is so transparent that no one in their right mind would believe the stuff. Well, that's because the target audience aren't adults, but rather children.

It's designed to turn Jews into bogeymen - making them appear evil and demented. The use of blood libels isn't so much to convince adults that Jews are busy turning children's blood into matzos or hamentashen so much as to indoctrinate a new generation of children into believing that Jews are evil and that Jews do such acts as part of their rituals. It's indoctrinating evil among those who are least capable of figuring out just how outlandish such claims are in the first place. Children are impressionable, which is why concepts like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other fairy tales are successful at providing parables of good and evil. The hatemongers use this to their advantage, spreading a message of hate.

Indoctrinating children in hatred and evil is a staple of Palestinian media outlets for years, and the blood libel goes hand in hand with such evil. They'll coopt cartoon characters to spread the message of hate and violence against Jews.

Thai Islamists Have Their Grim Milestone

Bloody mayhem is the specialty of the Thai Islamists, and they've succeeded in reaching a grim milestone of their own within the past 48 hours. They've murdered more than 3,000 Thai since they started their insurgency to create an Islamic state in the South of Thailand.

THE death toll from insurgency in Thailand’s Muslim south topped 3000 yesterday, police said, highlighting the government’s failure to stem the unrest after more than four years.

A wave of deadly attacks across the violence-racked south killed five people yesterday alone, as Thailand’s new government struggles to come to grips with the separatist violence that erupted in early 2004 in the region bordering Malaysia.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, while Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung admitted on Tuesday he had “no idea” how to curb the unrest, which has claimed 3004 lives.

Srawut Aree, a professor of Muslim studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said the government has made little progress in easing the violence because it has failed to identify any of the militancy’s leadership.

“The problem is the government still cannot recognise real actors behind violent attacks,” Srawut said. “Militants have never issued statements or claimed responsibility.”

While the previous military government launched a raft of peace-building measures, including an apology to Muslims for past abuses, the shootings and bomb attacks continued to rock the region almost daily.

Two militants shot dead a 72-year-old Buddhist grocer yesterday at his store in Yala, one of three provinces roiled by violence, police said. The two men fled, but were stopped at a nearby military checkpoint where they were killed in a 10-minute gun fight.

The government tried to crack down on the Islamists, but the government was toppled and the new government attempted appeasement and failed - the violence actually intensified. So, they're back to trying force to quell the insurgency.

The Anti Semitic Blood Libel Strikes Again

Tis the season for blood libels, and this year is no different than past years. It's happening in Russia (which is no surprise since the mother of all blood libels - the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a forgery created and spread by the Russians), with fliers and pamphlets claiming that Jews use the blood of children to make matzah for Passover.

Hundred of anti-Semitic announcements warning Russian parents to beware of the supposed Jewish practice of using children's blood to prepare Passover matza were put up around the city of Novosibirsk, Russia in southwest Siberia on Wednesday.

"Beware Russian parents. Keep watch over your children before the coming of April 2008, the Jewish holiday of Passover. These disgusting people still engage in ritual practice to their gods. They kidnap small children and remove some of their blood and use it to prepare their holy food (matza). They throw the bodies (of the children) out in garbage dumps," the announcements read.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that anti Semitic attacks and incidents are way up over the past few years. We've seen similar propaganda from Egyptian media outlets, as well as the Palestinians.

And the world media, including the US media, doesn't bother to report this and show the venom being spewed on a daily basis against Israel, Jews and the West in general.

Just yesterday, we saw reports from Saudi Arabia claiming that Jews use the blood of children to make hamentashen for Purim. The Saudis previously have distributed text messages claiming that Israelis are tainting melons with the AIDS virus, and the list will continue to grow.

Phone Job

So, what's with the 3,000 phones that Abbas tried to smuggle into Palestinian controlled areas. He doesn't look like the Verizon guy, and cellphones are quite useful to terrorists. Abbas's flack took the blame, but it doesn't make the incident disappear. The phones were uncovered when Abbas's vehicle was searched as he transited from Jordan into PA controlled territory in the West Bank.

Palestinian sources confirmed that Fattuh's dirver had admitted to being responsible for the imbroglio. "Fattuh is an honest man who has never been involved in any suspicious activity like this or anything else," one source said.

The Office of Coordination confirmed the details of the story, saying, "This is a grave incident in which there was an attempt to exploit a (VIP) pass."

Fattuh was considered for a long time to be one of the senior members of the PA. He served as head of parliament and was temporarily nominated as PA chairman following the death of Yasser Arafat. He was soon afterwards replaced by the Mahmoud Abbas.

They're used to make remote detonators for IEDs and suicide bomb vests for those who might not be willing to pull the switch themselves.

Whither Zawahiri?

Where's al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri? He's been targeted by airstrikes in the past, including one where he managed to slip away only minutes before the attack. It's not the first time that he was targeted, and it surely will not be the last.

It is rare - almost never - when US forces get to count the dead enemy and take toll of who precisely has been attacking them. "I interact on a daily basis with an enemy that has both local and foreign elements," says Captain Loius Frketic, who commands a battalion known as the "Able Main Warlords" in Kunar province's Pech Valley. He is sure they are foreigners because he can hear Arab voices on the radio communications he intercepts. "But just what the foreign element is bringing to the fight, I don't exactly know."

Al-Qaeda's senior leadership was last targeted - two years ago - only 32 kilometers from his base in the neighboring Bajaur district of Pakistan. A few hours before that attack, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, is believed to have slipped away. Until four years ago, US intelligence experts believed that bin Laden himself was traveling in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province in the company of Zawahiri. Though the formerly inseparable pair is believed to have split up - likely out of security concerns - their paths may well still cross - at least for secret meetings.

In such meetings, senior al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan often review videotapes of the fighting in Afghanistan taken by surrogates and plan funding for future operations.

For fighters in the 173rd Combat Team fighting in eastern Afghanistan north of the Khyber Pass, just knowing that they fight in proximity to the masterminds of the September 11, 2001, attacks highlights their own sense of a great divide: a split between what the US forces can and must do in Afghanistan, and what al-Qaeda is planning across the border in Pakistan.

Platoon leaders in regular clashes with insurgents here say that their foe is under the direct sway of al-Qaeda. "When we are in a village, we always know that al-Qaeda and the Taliban will soon be back to try to undercut us and try to one-up us," said Sergeant Mark Patterson, whose platoon in the Korengal Valley has been in some of the heaviest fighting anywhere in Afghanistan. US forces based out of the "KOP", or Korengal Outpost, face a higher concentration of al-Qaeda-backed insurgents than most regions of Afghanistan, not least because an Egyptian lieutenant of al-Qaeda operates among them, say US officers.

While US forces rarely see their enemy, their mission is to fight for the hearts and minds of the same people al-Qaeda and its affiliates try to win over. While the insurgents try to operate with the cover of the what Chinese leader Mao Zedong once called the "sea of the people", US forces are trying to pry away that popular backing.

It's a strategy that has worked with some success in Iraq, and could work in Afghanistan and along the Afghan-Pakistani border, especially as the jihadis inflict a terrible toll through bombings and attacks on those who might otherwise be amenable to harboring the Taliban out of tribal loyalties and the custom of giving shelter to visitors.

At the same time, the US and its allies have to deal with not only al Qaeda, but the Taliban and its elusive thug, Baitullah Mehsud. Five of his followers have been formally charged with Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Meanwhile, Afghan intel services nabbed a Taliban field commander for northwestern Afghanistan during a raid in Herat province.

UPDATE:
We might not know where Zawahiri is, but the disembodied voice of Osama has been spotted on a video tape (well, there's just audio from bin Laden, which has become his modus operandi on these tapes). No mention of the five year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and it refers instead to the cartoon jihad in Europe. Curious. Very curious.

Others noting Osama's tape include Jammie and Flap's Blog.

Rusty at the Jawa Report thinks that this is proof that Osama's dead because the cartoon jihad started two years ago, and there's nothing really new on point - and the lack of mention of Geert Wilders film despite its pending release suggests that Osama's seriously behind the times. He posits that the audio is from at least 2006 and the terror video producers at al Sahab didn't have anything else close to work with, so this is what we've got.

Jeremiah and Me: Obama's Experience

How is it that Barack Obama needed so many years to finally disown his religious and spiritual adviser, Jeremiah Wright (if you can call his speeches to that effect as sufficient to disown Wright), and yet we're supposed to believe that Obama is a leader with leadership qualities? He's flunked the leadership test on something as simple as denouncing his racist and hate-mongering religious leader and spiritual adviser for the past two decades.

Consider that in the past few days we've heard Obama say first that he hadn't heard Wright make those statements, only to admit that he heard some of them, but that they were taken out of context. Now, we hear that Obama disagrees with them. We hear that had Obama heard Wright say those things, he would have confronted Wright. We then hear Obama claim that Wright was justified to say those kinds of things because of the history of racism.

Yet, Obama jumped ugly on Don Imus just a week after he makes that statement? Figures. It's called jumping on a bandwagon to burnish credentials.

He's not showing leadership throughout the whole mess, and despite yesterday's speech, which some are hoping to call one of the greatest of our generation, the speech shows his shortcomings by failing to address Wright's racism, hate-speech, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism at every juncture until it was politically impossible to avoid. That doesn't show leadership in this area. It shows that he was incapable of dealing with the issues posed by Wright's outlandish and vile statements of hatred for two decades. How then, are we to believe that Obama could deal with issues of more significance as President of the United States. Where exactly are Obama's principles?

UPDATE:
I'm not alone in questioning Obama's ability to bring change to America. Ed Morrissey muses that if he couldn't bring about change to his own church - to rid it of the racist and hateful rhetoric used by Rev. Wright, how can he do so for all America? ABC News also reports that they've found contradictions between what Obama claimed in his speech and his prior statements about what he knew of Wright's venomous speeches. Those discrepancies serve to expose Obama for nothing more than a run of the mill politician.

Meanwhile, Jammie finds that Obama's received an unusual endorsement - from the New Black Panther Party.

And this foul stench is causing Obama to lose his once huge lead in polls.

Others blogging: Bob Owens.

UPDATE:
Well, it took them long enough, but the Obama campaign has taken down the endorsement from the New Black Panthers. Nice. Even better was their explanation.

Obama spokeswoman Tiffany Edwards said before the campaign removed the endorsement that that section of the Web site “has nothing to do with us.”

It's the Obama campaign website, so for them to say that it had nothing to do with Obama is beyond parody. It's cognitive dissonance.

The Sharpe James Experience: Name That Party

Once again, the Star Ledger runs a story about former mayor Sharpe James and his corruption trial, and omits a key detail that always seems to be included when a member of the other political party is involved.

A parade of witnesses from City Hall is expected today in the federal corruption trial of former Newark Mayor Sharpe James.

As federal prosecutors continue into a third week pressing their case against James and Jersey City publicist Tamika Riley, they plan to call two city council members, a municipal court judge and two members of James' former security detail to testify.

Among those expected to take the witness stand is Municipal Court Judge Joanne Watson, a former business administrator and corporation counsel in the James administration. Two members of the former mayor's security detail -- city police officers Derrick Foster and Robert Moore -- are also on the list, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Germano.

Councilmen Luis Quintana and Augusto Amador are also scheduled, she said.

Charged with conspiracy and fraud, James, 72, is accused of steering land deals to Riley, 38, who allegedly earned more than $600,000 by quickly reselling the properties without rehabilitating most of them as required by the terms of the contracts with the city. Riley is also charged with tax evasion.

For those who need a reminder, James is a Democrat.

UPDATE:
The Star Ledger isn't alone. Newhouse News Service also omits the party affiliation.

A Question of Access

This is an interesting lawsuit. A disabled person is suing the National Park Service (NPS) over a failure to adhere to the ADA. They can't access many of the trails, buildings, and features of national parks, including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The lawsuit is a test of the limits of the ADA

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, contends that the Park Service and its local administrators have “systemically discriminated against plaintiffs on the basis of their disabilities,” failing to make adjustments, required for decades, to assist people with restricted mobility, poor or no vision, hearing loss or other needs.

“To some extent it’s a money issue,” said Laurence Paradis, a lawyer and the executive director of Disability Rights Advocates, the public interest law center leading the legal challenge. “But to a larger extent, there is a lack of commitment to the overall concept.”

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is not the only park with barriers to access in the system, which comprises 400 parks, trails and monuments.

But Mr. Paradis, who uses a wheelchair, said it was a good candidate for the federal challenge, in part because the San Francisco Bay Area is considered the birthplace of the disability rights movement.

The Golden Gate recreation area is also the second most popular national park, with over 14 million visitors in 2007, more than the visitors to Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined.

Spokesmen for the National Park Service and the United States attorney’s office in San Francisco, which is representing the federal park, would not discuss the lawsuit.

A spokesman for the Golden Gate recreation area, Rich Weideman, said administrators had been meeting with Mr. Paradis and other disability rights advocates since 2006 to discuss the park’s physical barriers. The park service, Mr. Weideman said, has invested millions of dollars to correct problems at Bay Area attractions and elsewhere. He pointed to Alcatraz Island, where special vehicles move people from the dock to the cell house, accessible to all visitors since 1988. The coastal trail at Lands End was upgraded for $3 million, he said.

The first obstacle to making many locations more accessible is the lack of funds to make it happen. The NPS has many competing needs, and ADA compliance has to struggle against capital construction, including repairs to existing national park facilities. A similar suit against the California state park system resulted in changes that totaled more than $100 million. There's no indication how much this will cost nationwide, but I'd expect that the costs will be passed on to the public who views the sites - in the form of higher entrance fees.

Some of the changes will definitely enhance the experience for not only disabled visitors but all visitors - improved bathrooms and more paved trails and/or railings to allow visually impaired visitors to travel without worrying about falling off steep slopes. However, it could also mean that the NPS may decide to close certain facilities or areas rather than try to make them ADA compatible.

For example, does it mean that the NPS has an obligation to make the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon ADA compliant? What about the Angels Landing Trail in Zion? You can repeat that question for many of the more famous trails around the country, some of which are extremely rugged and are unpaved and transit severe slopes. It's an interesting question, and one that is being tested by this suit.

Hillary Clinton's Papers Going Public

Well, it's about time. I can't wait to see what they reveal about Hillary's time as First Lady:

Thousands of pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton 's schedules as first lady are being released to the public after months of pressure and criticism that the Clintons were delaying the disclosure.

The National Archives, which operates former President Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, announced Tuesday it would release 11,046 pages of Clinton's daily schedules at the Little Rock facility and online Wednesday morning.

Clinton has faced criticism from fellow Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republicans over the number of White House documents from her husband's administration that have not been made public.

The documents to be released include schedules for 2,888 days and are the files from Patti Solis Doyle, who was the former first lady's scheduling director. Doyle served as manager of Clinton's presidential campaign but stepped down in February after a series of losses to Obama in the Democratic nomination battle.

The archives said 4,746 pages of documents have parts blacked out, mostly to protect the privacy of third parties, including their Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and home addresses.

In addition, schedules for 19 days before Bill Clinton was inaugurated and his wife began as first lady on Jan. 20, 1993, are closed to the public under the Presidential Records Act.

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clark, who wrote far too many science fiction stories for me to begin to recount, died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90. His most famous novel was 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick and featured some of the most innovative interpretations of the near future that we've seen.

Along with Heinlein and Asimov, Clark was one of the giants of science fiction. He will be missed.

It's expected that a screen adaptation of Rendezvous With Rama may be released next year.

The Supreme Court Hears Heller

The US Supreme Court heard the Heller case (transcript here) today, and while Instapundit thinks that the sentiment on the Court appears to be leaning towards striking down the District of Columbia's gun ban and that it would actually be a bad thing for the GOP and McCain, I actually have a slightly different take.

The Heller case shows what putting conservatives on the Supreme Court can do to controversial cases and actually could burnish the GOP chances in the fall if McCain plays this right. Big "if". I know.

Conservatives like Alito and Chief Justice Roberts have started to push the court to the right, and the next President will likely get to nominate two or three more justices to the court. That makes a world of difference, and if Stevens and/or Ginsberg leave the court, you could seriously tip the balance to the right. Now, many cases might have Kennedy running as the swing vote, but if one or two conservatives are elevated to the Supreme Court, you will have a solid bloc on the right of five or even six justices (CJ Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia, plus the one or two new justices). It could be transformative in how the court approaches various legal disputes. However, if either Clinton or Obama wins, they would likely only be able to replace existing liberals on the Supreme Court with other liberals - holding the ideological line on the Court.

SCOTUSblog has more in depth coverage of the Heller case.

Palestinians Pushing Propaganda

The latest anti-Israel agit-prop was proffered by the Palestinians today.

The Palestinian Authority is planning to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary by calling on all Palestinians living abroad to converge on Israel by land, sea and air.

The plan, drawn by Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah operative and Deputy Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, states that the Palestinians have decided to implement United Nations Resolution 194 regarding the refugees.

Article 11 of the resolution, which was passed in December 1948, says that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”

The initiative is the first of its kind and is clearly aimed at embarrassing Israel during the anniversary celebrations by highlighting the issue of the “right of return” for the refugees.

Entitled “The Initiative of Return and Coexistence,” the plan suggests that the PA has abandoned a two-state solution in favor of one state where all Arabs and Jews would live together.

“The Palestinians, backed by all those who believe in peace, coexistence, human rights and the UN resolutions, shall recruit all their energies and efforts to return to their homeland and live with the Jews in peace and security,” the plan says.

Jews can't return to their homes in the rest of the Arab Middle East because they were expropriated by the Arabs, and the Palestinians have yet to recognize a two-state solution. They seek to supplant Israel altogether.

The Palestinians have yet to show that they can live in peace alongside Israel from 1993 onwards.

When Oslo was announced, it was promptly met with an intifada, where Israelis died in suicide bombing attacks and all manner of violence perpetrated by the terrorists - Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Fatah (including it's wholly owned subsidiary al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade).

In 2000, on the heels of Camp David where Israel promised a two-state solution to Arafat, it was promptly met with an Intifada, complete with suicide bombing attacks and all manner of violence perpetrated by the terrorists - Hamas, PIJ, and Fatah (including it's wholly owned subsidiary al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade).

In 2005, Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and left it in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, which was vested with the power under Oslo to administer Palestinian controlled areas, including Gaza, Jericho, and much of the West Bank. What happened next? Suicide bombing attacks were mostly averted, but the terrorists switched to a new tactic - the kassam attack and have fired more than 4,000 kassams into Israel, hoping to cause mass carnage and all manner of violence. These too were perpetrated by the terrorists - Hamas, PIJ, and Fatah (including it's wholly owned subsidiary al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade).

So, what's changed since the peace process started?

Well, other than Gaza being a terrorists' haven, nothing. Palestinians still call for Israel's destruction and the terrorists have the run of Gaza and look to carve away more from Israel to call their own. They want to replace Israel with their own terror regime.

UPDATE:
It's kind of tough for the Palestinians to not let their hatred of Israel and Jews shine through. Mere Rhetoric has the details. Simply put, the Palestinians want to see lots more dead Jews, and the pollster traces this to an Israeli airstrike that killed dozens of Palestinians, although it ignores the thousands of rockets fired at Israel prior to that event, each of which was intended to kill and maim Israelis.

Israel continues targeted attacks against the terrorists, wounding five in an airstrike. This comes as a Palestinian stabbed a 49-year old rabbi in the neck right by the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

There are also reports that the Palestinians may attempt terrorist attacks during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

This also comes as the kassam rockets continue slamming into Israel.

Egypt's Mubarak, who's trying to play negotiator between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, issued a statement saying that no occupation lasts forever. Well, that's pretty rich for Mubarak to say given that the modern incarnation of Mubarak's own country is only slightly older than Israel itself. It's tough to call the situation an occupation when Israel isn't occupying Gaza, and has largely ceded much of the West Bank to Palestinian civil administrative control. The use of the word occupation has a specific meaning, and it's designed to undermine Israel's rights to Jerusalem and other areas under its dominion, captured in 1948 and thereafter.

The Sharpe James Experience: Name That Party!

Care to name that party? It seems that when you've got a GOPer who's committed a criminal act, engaged in corruption, or other such unethical conduct or lapse in moral judgment, the party affiliation is prominently displayed. It's often in the headline or even in the opening paragraph.

Meanwhile, if you're a Democrat, you get a free pass.

Just ask Sharpe James, whose coverage omits his party affiliation. Again.

Manischewitzville

HT: Mrs. Lawhawk's mom.

Paterson's Dalliance[s]

Within 48 hours of taking office as the new governor of New York, Democrat David Paterson has admitted to having an extramarital affair, as has his wife, during a difficult patch in 2001. They've since gone to counseling and patched things up.

Paterson also denied rumors that he had a love child with another woman. Well, that's just peachy.

The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about the difficulties in their marriage in response to a variety of rumors about Paterson's personal life that have been circulating in Albany and among the press corps in recent days.

They spoke in the governor's office even as scores of friends, family members and political supporters were celebrating in the corridors of the Capitol his ascension to the state's highest post.

Given the call-girl scandal that erupted last week and forced Spitzer's stunning resignation, Paterson conceded that top government officials are bound to come under closer scrutiny for their personal actions.

The governor flatly denied what he called a "sporadic rumor in Albany that I had a love child" by another woman. "That's just not true," he said.

"Don't you think he'd take care of a child if he'd had one?" Michelle Paterson said, in obvious disgust over that persistent rumor.

The romantic relationship he did have, Paterson said, lasted until sometime in 2001. He did not identify the former girlfriend.

As this was a private matter between Paterson and his wife, I don't think there's much to this story. However, were it ever to surface that he used campaign contributions or state funds for his hotel rooms or transportation to meet with this other woman, then Paterson could find himself in the same position as Spitzer - an ex-Governor.

UPDATE:
Make that dalliances because Paterson has admitted to having several affairs.

Obama's Hope For Changed Circumstances

It appears that Barack Obama's hope to change America needs to be scaled back to hope that enough people think that his views about his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, have changed sufficiently to enable him to continue his run for the White House.

He's got to not only disavow his church's positions on race, which if the tables were turned would surely force Obama from the campaign, but has to do a far better job of distancing himself from his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright (who polling finds to be just this side of evil). His statements to date fall short, despite his protestations to the contrary.

So, this is what he's come up with:

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The truth is not what Obama says either. He's got to know what his church's foundation documents contain, having been a member ever since Rev. Wright married him and Michelle, and baptized their two children.

Obama would like people to believe that the reason that his campaign is faltering is because of the pundits and blogosphere. The fact is that anyone who bothered to look any more deeply at the Obama campaign and Obama the man would see serious problems that this speech did nothing to address. Trying to blame the current mess on cherry picking of selected comments might curry favor with his core constituency on the left, but it's not going to generate a whole lot of support among independents and moderates, let alone conservatives.

Ross Douthat thinks that Obama's long association with Wright isn't all that significant because he doesn't think that Obama shares his views (how exactly are we to know what Obama truly believes and what he doesn't given that Obama has been a member of Wright's church for as long as he has). He thinks that this is a big problem for Obama because it undercuts Obama's promises to transcend politics as usual.

Here's the thing. Obama isn't any different than any other politician. He's a product of Illinois politics, including the sex scandal that sent him to Congress as a complete unknown and empty slate who was better known for voting present in the Illinois legislature than actual achievements.

Rev. Wright's statements are troubling indeed. Obama's church website is a veritable treasure trove of anti-Semitism, racism, and hate-based faith. Throw in the fact that the Church is pulling its hate-based faith videos, and you've got yourself some real issues that Obama's speech and claims to lofty rhetoric fail to address. Of course, the speech wasn't just addressed at the general public, but at the superdelegates who might find that their meal ticket was rotten to the spiritual core.

As Bob Owens notes, why exactly has Obama chosen this church and this pastor for spiritual guidance and leadership, and how could he have not known what Wright had been saying all these years - 20+ years.

UPDATE:
The Politico notes that the speech didn't pander. Well, it also failed to explain why Obama would stick with a church whose leader would make repeated racist, biased, and ugly statements that no amount of context could ever make right.

Don Surber notes that Obama is the only person on the national stage who can have a discussion about race. Well, unfortunately, Obama hasn't gotten past that to explain why he stuck with this church. Talking about race and seeking to heal a racial divide is one thing, but ignoring the 800 pound gorilla that is his spiritual adviser for 20 years is another.

James Joyner weighs in with a very measured and insightful post, which notes the good and not so good moments from the speech. He also notes that most people will not listen to the speech or read the speech in its entirety and will instead rely on the media, which will provide only snippets of the speech that are most likely to favor Obama.

Others weighing in: Hot Air, AJ Strata, Stop the ACLU.

Back in the Saddle

Well, sorry about the short hiatus, but this is our anniversary weekend (St. Patrick's Day), and we managed to get away to the Long Island wineries for some R&R. I'll post some of my observations and food reviews over the next few days, along with some photos taken out at Orient Point (the furthest point on the North Fork).