The New York Times today offers two previews of tonight’s address to the nation by President George W. Bush. The first, “Bush to Tell Why He Sees a ‘Clear Path to Victory,’” by reporter Richard W. Stevenson, discusses the speech we probably will hear. The second, by Sen. John F. Kerry, “The Speech the President Should Give,” outlines the address a growing number of Americans would rather hear.

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When I heard the news Edgar Ray Killen was convicted by a Philadelphia, Miss., jury for the 1964 killing of three men, three civil rights activists, I hoped and prayed the judge wouldn’t allow Killen’s advanced age, 80 years, and poor health to affect his sentencing.

I was not disappointed.

Judge Marcus Jordan earlier today sentenced Killen to three consecutive terms of 20 years.

Better, upon issuing the sentence, Jordan said: “I have a job to do, to pass sentence on an 80-year-old with a serious injury. The law does not recognize a distinction of age.”

I should hope it wouldn’t, particularly since Killen went about his business for more than 40 years having escaped punishment for his heinous crimes.

Hell, if I were the judge I would have added another 40 to account for the discrepancy.

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From Salon (“Jenna? Barbara? Your War is Waiting”):

Scott McClellan was asked at a White House press briefing whether any members of the Bush family are currently serving in the Armed Forces.

McClellan didn’t know the answer [!], but unless the White House can drag up some previously unknown second cousin twice removed -- and stranger things have happened -- we’re betting that we do. First daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush seem to have plenty of time on their hands, but they haven’t seen fit to enlist just yet. Jeb Bush’s handsome young son, George P., would like fine in desert camouflage, but he hasn’t signed on. As for Jeb’s daughter, Noelle Bush? She might have a hard time getting through even the pretty lax standards enforced by some Army recruiters today.

I think the Virgin Ben’s phone is ringing.

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The news out of Colorado Springs, Colo., is disturbing (“Air Force Academy Staff Found Promoting Religion,” by Laurie Goodstein, the New York Times):

An Air Force panel sent to investigate the religious climate at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs found evidence that officers and faculty members periodically used their positions to promote their Christian beliefs and failed to accommodate the religious needs of non-Christian cadets, its leader said Wednesday.

It’s news like this that almost makes me embarrassed to call myself religious.

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It just kind of creeps me out when I imagine myself sitting on the Supreme Court (this does not happen often) and I find myself in this imagination voting with William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas as I did in Kelo v. New London. (See also the New York Times.)

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It happened again today: A friend offered the by now familiar observation that begins, “You know, you look like . . . ,” a refrain about which I’ve blogged in the past.

Today’s you-look-like? Actor Chad Allen.

The prompt came from my friend’s perusal of the catalog promoting the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, in which several photos of Allen appear on page 45.

If you have a copy, we’re looking at and talking about the third, the lowest, photograph on the page.

And, if you go to the festival’s web site, like right now, you will see on their home page that very same photo.

The resemblance is uncanny, if I must say so myself.

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Wow am I glad Michelangelo Signorile likes me. Or at least think he does. Last I checked he did.

I say that because I just read Mike’s latest, “Dear Bareback Andy,” a remarkable essay about Andrew Sullivan’s latest stupidity that I recommend highly for those Rittenhouse readers who can take its necessarily strong language, that of the sort not seen here.

You know, it doesn’t really matter whether Mike likes you -- or me -- or not, that’s not the point. Fair game is always fair game. It’s just that Mike demolishes idiocy better than anyone I know.

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If you live here, in Philadelphia, or are just hanging around in the area tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, please consider stopping by the main branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, 19th and Vine Streets, beginning at 7:00 p.m., for the institution’s scheduled talk by Edith Grossman, the supremely talented translator of the latest and best English edition of the world’s first genuine novel, Don Quixote.

Now, I’m just wondering what it says about me that I’m planning to attend Grossman’s talk tomorrow with my copy of her translation of Don Quixote in hand, hoping she, the “mere” translator, acting in place of the long since passed author, Cervantes, might give me just a moment to inscribe her signature on the title page.

Maybe it says that Grossman’s translation is so good that I feel like I’m reading Don Quixote, trite as this sounds, for the very first time, even though it’s my third crack at the work.

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I’m so glad to see President Pleather Chaps is keeping busy, and that he has a new hobby to supplement that enduring pastime, clearing brush, namely, beating dead horses.

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This just has to be good news, it just has to be.

Numerous news outlets, including the BBC (“Filipino Hostage Released in Iraq”), are reporting that Roberto Tarongoy, the Filipino businessman taken hostage in Baghdad on November 1, 2004, along with American Roy Hallums and four others, was released there earlier today.

Of the six hostages taken last November, only Hallums remains in captivity, with precious little news available about his fate, and still less notice having been given to his plight.

Hallums’s ex-wife, Susan Hallums, who has been working tirelessly on his behalf, including selling a home she owns to raise money for a reward, today wrote to Rittenhouse:

Thank you for . . . helping spread the word to help Roy. We have some good news today: that the Filipino, Robert Tarongoy, was released alive. He was taken with Roy and I hope he has information to help us lead to Roy’s safe release. What a wonderful miracle that would be.

Susan Hallums tells me tomorrow, June 23, is Roy’s 57th birthday.

Now, I’m not much of a “birthday person,” but I can’t think of a better reason or opportunity for all Americans to keep Roy in their thoughts and prayers. It’s long since time he came home, safe and sound.

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Sixteen Democrats deserve special commendation for having signed a letter calling upon President Sesame Street to fire Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the increasingly controversial and unabashedly right-wing chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

According to the New York Times, the signatories are: Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Jon Corzine (N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.), Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.).

I know. Only sixteen. It’s a start.

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Why do so many, even an increasing number of, Republicans detest people of faith who don’t share their party affiliation?

The latest case in point, just the most recent of a rapidly growing list: the heretofore and otherwise deservedly obscure Rep. John Hostettler, the right-wing Republican occupying the seat reserved for the eighth congressional district of Indiana, encompassing the southwest corner of the state.

Rep. Hostettler on Monday stood on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to charge Democrats -- writ large -- with “denigrating and demonizing Christians.”

To this specious lunacy the lawmaker added the accusation that there exists a “long war on Christianity in America [that] continues unabated with aid and comfort to those who would eradicate any vestige of our Christian heritage being supplied by the usual suspects, the Democrats.”

[Rep. Hostettler’s full “denigrating and demonizing” quote reads, according to the Washington Post (“GOP Congressman Calls Democrats Anti-Christian,” by Mike Allen, June 21): “‘Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians,’ he said.”]

In what non-existent alternative universe does this “long war on Christianity” exist?

Surely I’m not the only Christian who is sick and tired of these clowns and their bizarre persecution fantasies. Or am I?

If you haven’t been following Rep. Hostettler’s crazed antics, the Post’s Allen provides this helpful reminder:

Hostettler was in the news last year when he took a registered Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun to Louisville International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Washington. The congressman, who said he had forgotten he had placed the gun in the briefcase, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received a suspended sentence.

Hmm . . . that story sounds strangely familiar.

The first reader who can name the prominent cable news anchorman whose wife pulled a similar stunt, with the very same “I forgot” excuse, will win, well, whatever fame this little blog can bestow upon so astute a reader.

Your guess is welcome here.

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While walking across Center City Philadelphia Monday I noticed that a notable, almost notorious, void on South Broad Street, also (or, rather, never) known as the Avenue of the Arts, is soon to be filled.

Based on posters filling several of the recently covered windows on the ground floor of the building located on the northwest corner of Broad and Spruce Streets, the space previously occupied by Avenue B, one of tax-evading and till-tapping restaurateur Neil Stein’s several failures, has been taken by Ted’s Montana Grill.

Ted’s is an Atlanta-based chain of steakhouses owned by Ted Turner’s Turner Enterprises Inc., and even putting aside the worst aspects of Turner’s galling personality profile, I have to say I’m not sure what we here in Philadelphia are in for with this operation.

According to the chain’s web site, Ted’s is “an authentic turn of the century saloon” that offers “comfort food for the 21st century,” a juxtaposition of meaningless marketing lingo from which I can only infer that the “turn of the century” in question is that which took place just a few years ago.

That premise is justified based on other information gleaned from the site, specifically, the reassuring contention that Ted’s is an “eco-friendly restaurant” because “[m]enus are printed using recycled paper, no plastics are used in the restaurant[,] and soft drinks are served in recyclable glass bottles.”

Let’s get real here. This century or that, it matters not: The contention that “no plastics are used in the restaurant” is simply unbelievable on its face. In what, may I ask, to pick merely one nit, are the eateries’ cleaning supplies stored?

And worse, there is no recognition at the grill’s web site of the indisputable fact that a menu so heavily beef-based is, by definition, not friendly to the environment. (Don’t jump all over me for that; I’m a beef eater myself.)

And Ted’s purported authenticity, at least as it relates to the house’s claim to reach back to the start of the 20th century, ultimately is undermined by this brief aside: “Ted’s Montana Grill is entirely non-smoking.”

Uh, no cowboys here, folks.

By the way, Ted’s has, or soon will have, some four dozen outlets in 17 states, including Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Notably missing from that roll call of states is, inexplicably, Montana, a painfully obvious void just crying out to be filled.

[Note: This item was published yesterday in slightly different form at TRR: The Lighter Side of The Rittenhouse Review. See what you’re missing?]

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This is not good news.

WCAU-TV (NBC 10), Philadelphia, reports there has been trouble at today’s demonstrations in response to the biotechnology industry’s annual conference here, Bio 2005:

Violence between biotech protesters and police in Center City Philadelphia has turned tragic. A Philadelphia police officer has died after a scuffle in Center City on Tuesday.

The officer, Paris Williams, 52, may have died from a heart attack but homicide is also investigating the case.

He collapsed near the end of a brawl between protesters and police that lasted for several minutes near 12th and Arch Streets. Some protesters were seen being taken away in handcuffs by police after the incident.

The fallen officer was taken away in an ambulance.

There’s no bad p.r. quite like an unnecessary, or untimely, death.

[Post-publication addendum (June 22): The Philadelphia Inquirer today reports (“Officer Dies at Biotech Protest,” by Anthony S. Twyman, Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., and Jennifer Lin): “Inspector William Colarulo said a routine homicide investigation would be conducted into Williams’[s] death. A high-ranking police official said last night that, among other things, police are investigating a report that Williams was kicked by a person wearing steel-tipped shoes during the melee. Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson and Mayor [John] Street rushed to the hospital, joining Williams’[s] son and daughter. ‘He died in the performance of his duties,’ Johnson said. ‘We’re not blaming anybody for what happened. Right now, the whole circumstances are being investigated.’” And the Philadelphia Daily News has (“Veteran Cop Dies After Protest Scuffle,” by Barbara Laker, David Gambacorta, and Ramona Smith): “No arrests have been made, but some protesters are being questioned. ‘Homicide is handling the investigation at this point . . . because they have the manpower and expertise,’ Johnson said. ‘There’s no indication the Police Department did anything wrong or anyone else did anything wrong. It appears he died of a heart attack.”]

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Self-styled “liberal,” “feminist,” “Democrat” Susan Estrich has an op-ed piece in today’s Christian Science Monitor, “A Liberal’s Defense of Fox News.”

I can’t help but wonder why the Monitor’s editors thought Estrich’s opinion on this matter would be worth anything since, as the professor herself admits in her first paragraph, she is an employee of the Fox operation. Monitor readers would have been served better by publishing supportive views of a liberal with no connection to the cable network, but, alas, we’re left with this, and a strange essay it is, one in which Estrich brags (I think):

Prior to working for Fox, I worked for ABC and NBC, spent a lot of time at CNN, and almost ended up at CBS. I worked for a bunch of local stations in Los Angeles and had a talk-radio show at KABC for six years.

I admit to not having followed Estrich’s career closely enough to know whether her chaotic resume indicates she has been much in demand or whether she just gets fired or quits a lot.

Regardless, the pundit follows up with this: “In other words, I’m fortunate enough to have been around, and Fox News is the best place I’ve ever worked.” And so begins Estrich’s mash note to her boss, which continues:

I also work there because of my respect for Roger Ailes, the man who created it, and hired me, and to whom I am extremely loyal for reasons having nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with integrity. The jabs have gotten stronger with success. No surprise there. When you get to No. 1 as fast and as impressively as Fox News has, it’s a bull’s-eye, and Mr. Ailes would be the last person in the world to expect his competitors to go gently.

Excuse me, Ms. Estrich, Fox News is the “No. 1” what? Later in the piece she writes, “Three times as many people watch Fox every day as watch CNN,” which really means nothing at all in the larger scheme of things, since there are precious few Americans who identify either outlet as their primary source of news.

It’s not only Ailes who commands Estrich’s undying respect and admiration; she shares her love with Fox News colleagues Neil Cavuto and Brian Wilson.

Revealing her nose for news to be afflicted by a massive sinus infection, Estrich defends the hapless Cavuto as follows:

Mr. Cavuto, a Fox News anchor, sat down to do an interview with George Bush last week on his business show. He didn’t discuss Iraq. Cavuto doesn’t cover Iraq. As far as I know, he had nothing new to ask him, nothing new to add, and no important new question to pose. In fact, the president had nothing new to say on the topic. There was no news to be made on Iraq. [Emphasis added.]

This little toss-off is an appalling defense of Cavuto, one that should have been self-evidently embarrassing to Estrich, both as a lawyer and a journalist. (A journalist of sorts; perhaps “employee of an opinion distribution operation” is more accurate).

Unwilling to leave pathetic enough alone, Estrich digs still deeper with this bizarre observation about Caputo and professional journalists:

For this, he’s been summarily beaten up by the press corps -- the same one that still can’t figure out why it got it all wrong about those weapons of mass destruction that justified the war.

Of course, if we were to apply Estrich’s own analytical standards to the question of alleged Iraqi weaponry, mushroom clouds and all, we would end with something like this: In fact, the president said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No need to ask the man any serious questions about that.

Laugh or cry at Estrich; it’s your choice.

[Post-publication addendum (June 22): If you liked this post, don’t miss Steve Gilliard’s take at the News Blog, “Fox Democrat = Honest Used Car Salesman,” nor TBogg’s post, “The Downward Spiral.”]

[Post-publication addendum (June 23): Roger Ailes, the admirable blogger, not the detestable toe-sucking slob, weighs in on the matter with “Estrich Marks.”]

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“I think about Iraq every day -- every single day -- because I understand we have troops in harm’s way, and I understand how dangerous it is there. . . . And so, you know, I think about this every day, every single day, and will continue thinking about it, because I understand we’ve got kids in harm’s way.”

-- President George W. Bush, June 20, 2005

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If you’re in the area, give some thought to spending the evening with the Philadelphia chapter of Drinking Liberally. The group’s regular and extremely relaxed gathering is tomorrow at Ten Stone, 21st and South Streets, Philadelphia, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

I understand Chuck Pennacchio, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, is planning to attend, providing a great opportunity to meet and speak with a future senator in an unusually relaxing environment.

[Post-publication addendum (June 21): Peter Baker of D.L.P. writes in an e-mail distributed this morning: “Drinking Liberally - Philadelphia welcomes Chuck Pennacchio, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, this Tuesday. He plans to arrive around 6 p.m., so get there early. Come with questions for Chuck; he’s looking forward to hearing from us. . . . I’ve heard from a number of people who aren’t ‘regulars’ that they’ve stopped by on Tuesday night, but don’t know who we are, where to sit, etc. I understand the confused looks you get when you ask strangers, ‘Are you Drinking Liberally?’ No sweat. Feel free to ask the staff at Ten Stone where the Drinking Liberals are; we've been there every Tuesday for about 8 months, so they know us! Several of us also wear our Official Drinking Liberally Buttons, so look for that too.”]

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More On Ed Klein
Anyone laboring under the impression that former gossip columnist Edward Klein was working alone while preparing his hatchet job against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), The Truth About Hillary, should read Dick Polman’s latest piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer (“A New Mission for Sen. Clinton’s Antagonists,” June 20), in which the reporter, a full-time political analyst for the paper, provides the background information on Klein’s close ties with full-time Hillary hater John LeBoutillier. A brief excerpt:

Over the phone [LeBoutiller] said: “She’s a damn good candidate, and a lot of Republicans are underestimating her. What I intend to say a lot is that she’s a hard-core hard-left-winger, a Jane Fonda in the Senate.”

He paused for a moment.

“I don’t know if that argument works anymore,” he said. “We may have used it up.”

No stuff, Sherlock.

George Allen Flies the Flag
Here’s a quick footnote to the controversy over Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s outrageous handling of the U.S. Senate’s recent resolution on lynching that deserves more attention than it has received thus far. Stacey Burling of the Philadelphia Inquirer today reports (“Apologies Come Fast and Furious”):

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s . . . saw the resolution, in part, as a way for one of its sponsors, Sen. George Allen (R., Va.), to buff his image before running for president. Allen, a former Virginia governor, has a “very mixed record on race,” Sabato said, that includes declaring April Confederate History and Heritage Month in Virginia and displaying a Confederate flag at his home.

Fearing the Intern
Read “Quick Summer Job at the White House,” by Steve Goldstein (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20) to learn just how threatening the Bush White House found one summer intern, in this case Jessica Smyth of the University of Pennsylvania, a young woman who was allowed to work for no remuneration in the Office of Presidential Correspondence -- for all of one day.

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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As I write this the U.S. Senate is voting to end debate on the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.

The Keystone Kops, also known as Sen. Tweedledum and Sen. Tweedledee, also known as Sen. Rick Santorum (R) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R), respectively, predictably have voted to invoke cloture.

[Post-publication addendum: The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 54 to 38. It’s not over yet. President What’s a Constitution? is expected to send Bolton to New York through a recess appointment, the last refuge of scoundrels and a route to high office that any self-respecting public servant ought to reject out of hand.]

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I’m not sure if readers will find Corey Kilgannon’s story in today’s New York Times, “12 Are Accused in Mob-Run Betting Scheme,” funny or sad:

The authorities hauled a dozen men into a Queens courtroom yesterday and charged them with participating in a mob-run gambling and loan-sharking operation.

They called the men chiefs, soldiers and associates in the Bonanno crime family, but to one defense lawyer, Mathew J. Mari, they looked more like “the Geritol generation.” […]

As the men were brought in, some cursed at news photographers. They slumped into the front row of the courtroom, rattling their shackles against the wooden benches.

Michael G. Postiglione, a lawyer for Anthony Rabito, 71, of Brooklyn, remarked that the procession resembled “an old-folks-home chain gang.”

Some of the defendants have arrest records going back to the 1960’s, prosecutors said. When prosecutors requested high bail, the defense lawyers argued that their clients had difficulty leaving their homes, much less skipping town.

One by one, they lifted themselves gingerly off the bench and shuffled slowly in front of the judge, with the help of court officers showing the delicacy of home attendants.

Queens prosecutor, Catherine Kane, said that [David] Treccagnoli [age 76] had earlier gambling arrests and might be a flight risk.

“I don’t think he could outrun anybody,” [his attorney John] Scarpa said.

Mr. Treccagnoli, who maintained his innocence, was released without bail. Outside court, he said, “I’m living on borrowed time,” and pointed to his heart and neck.

“I got what they call a cabbage down here, a shunt here and another shunt here,” he said. “I’m blind in one eye from my diabetes.”

He said that detectives raided a veterans’ club on Metropolitan Avenue in Greenpoint where he spends time with other aging friends.

“Half of these guys got one foot in the grave,” he said. “The cops come in the club and the sergeant says, ‘Go block the back entrance so no one runs out.’ Run out? Half these guys couldn’t walk out.”

There’s no escaping this: The mob just ain’t what it used to be.

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Readers following the ruckus over former journalist and gossip columnist Edward Klein’s new and dishonestly titled book, The Truth About Hillary (and if you’ve missed it all so far, I’m not necessarily recommending you jump into this squalor), should take interest in two articles from this week’s New York Observer.

The first, by Sheelah Kolhatkar, “Clinton-Reviled Author Ed Klein Becomes An Issue,” appears on the front page, begins with this passage and becomes no kinder:

This week Edward Klein, brandishing his credentials as the former editor of The New York Times Magazine and the former assistant managing editor at Newsweek, became the pariah of the world that made him -- in an era when media villains aren’t hard to find.

There were still only hints on the eve of the book’s release at the sort of reading experience one can expect from The Truth About Hillary, scheduled to hit bookstores on June 21. A carefully managed series of leaks about Mr. Klein’s forthcoming book about Hillary Clinton were meant to hype it up.

But that very campaign met with indignation from journalists far afield of Mr. Klein’s own august alma maters. On June 10, readers were able to find a rebuttal to Mr. Klein’s reported account of Mrs. Clinton’s college-age lesbian exploits in no less a gossip haven than the New York Post’s Page Six.

Outrage over some of the claims purportedly made in the book -- and carried on the Drudge Report -- were so problematic for editors at the very publications where Mr. Klein had worked for so long that they opted not to reprint the claims at all.

In the same issue, Joe Conason takes on Klein in his Observer op-ed column, this week entitled “Klein’s New Low In Hillary Bashing,” which similarly begins on a strong and deservedly critical note:

Despite all the heavy-breathing hype generated to promote the forthcoming “attack biography” of Hillary Clinton by Edward Klein, citizens hoping to discover anything new about the famous junior Senator from New York shouldn’t waste their time or money on his unoriginal and unreliable rant. […]

Only the latest in an ever-expanding catalog of bad books claiming to tell us the “truth” about the former First Lady and potential Presidential candidate, Mr. Klein’s poisonous invention reveals far more about its author -- and its publisher -- than about Mrs. Clinton.

Even the most fanatical Hillary-haters will be disappointed if they’re expecting to wallow in fresh sewage. Almost all of this crud floated through the pipeline long ago.

To anyone who, like me, has been required to read previous entries in this subliterary genre, The Truth About Hillary emits a strong smell of toxic mold. Its 250-plus pages are padded out with the same old tales and the same old innuendoes, recounted by the same old parade of discredited or unnamed sources. Even the cover bears a startling resemblance to Joyce Milton’s The First Partner, upon which Mr. Klein leans more heavily than that flimsy work can bear.

His clichéd writing soon achieves a predictable rhythm, with page upon page of rehashed material punctuated by a juicy quote or sensational allegation from someone unnamed. In the ultimate form of junk recycling, his footnotes cite books that relied upon anonymous sources. Among computer scientists, this method is called “garbage in, garbage out.” […]

Near his conclusion, Conason picks up a phrase usually applied by right wingers talking about the allegedly liberal New Republic that fits well in this context:

Even Page Six, the New York Post’s Clinton-bashing gossip column, derided the book as a “hatchet-job” and the author as “error-prone.” The tabloid mocked Mr. Klein for identifying a happily married former classmate as Mrs. Clinton’s rumored lesbian lover. He never spoke with this lady -- who denied the smear to the Post -- and he repeatedly misspells her surname, which he evidently copied from another book. The New York Times management must cringe whenever Mr. Klein’s former employment there is cited as his main journalistic credential.

I’m not so sure about that last sentence -- not these days anyway, what with the likes of David Brooks and John Tierney occupying such valuable real estate twice a week -- but we all know what Conason means, and the sentiment, at least, is just right.

[Post-publication addendum: Here’s a shocking bit of information from Kolhatkar’s piece: “Later, Mr. Klein began writing the ‘anonymous’ gossip column in Parade magazine, called ‘Walter Scott’s Personality Parade,’ for a salary that was reported to be around $300,000 at the time.” Emphasis added, though I’m sure that number knocked you over as quickly and painfully as it did me.]

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The Republicans & Their Marbles [*]
Have you ever noticed that Republicans can’t even be relied upon to play marbles like your average seven-year-old? Here’s the latest evidence of the party’s “If we don’t play our way, we’re talking every last agate, cat’s eye, and shooter home!” mentality (from “GOP Committee Targets International Red Cross,” by Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times):

Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee, which advances the views of the GOP Senate majority, said in a report that the international humanitarian organization had “lost its way” and veered from the impartiality on which its reputation was based. […]

The congressional criticism follows reports by the Swiss-based group that have faulted U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. […]

The Senate Republicans’ report called on the Bush administration to ask the Government Accountability Office to review Red Cross operations, noting that the U.S. funds 28% of the group’s budget and has contributed $1.5 billion since 1990. The International Committee of the Red Cross is separate from the American Red Cross, which has no say in how the international committee is run. […]

The decision to investigate the ICRC was sparked by a series of articles in the conservative National Interest magazine as well as by critical Wall Street Journal editorials, a senior aide to the policy committee said. […]

The ICRC is the only organization mandated by international treaty to monitor the observance of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners, and it has the right to visit prisoners. But the GOP report charges that the group has exceeded the bounds of its mission by trying to “reinterpret and expand international law” in favor of terrorists and insurgents; lobbying for arms-control issues that are not within its mandate, such as a ban on the use of land mines; and “inaccurately and unfairly” accusing U.S. officials of not adhering to the Geneva Convention.

Here’s the part of the story that really kills me:

The Senate aide denied that the report, released Monday, was motivated by a desire to punish the ICRC for embarrassing the United States on its treatment of prisoners.

Yeah, right.

Who’s Afraid to Vote Against Lynching?
This is just appalling, and yet not very surprising. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the goods on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). In “Critics: Frist Vetoed Roll Call,” by Scott Shepard, the paper reports:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist . . . refused repeated requests for a roll call vote that would have put senators on the record on a resolution apologizing for past failures to pass anti-lynching laws, officials involved in the negotiations said Tuesday. […]

As dozens of descendants of lynching victims watched from the Senate gallery, the resolution was adopted Monday evening under a voice vote procedure that did not require any senator’s presence.

The resolution was adopted under what is called “unanimous consent,” whereby it is adopted as long as no senator expresses opposition.

But the group that was the driving force behind the resolution had asked Frist for a formal procedure that would have required all 100 senators to vote. And the group had asked that the debate take place during “business hours” during the week, instead of Monday evening, when most senators were traveling back to the capital.

Frist declined both requests, the group’s chief counsel, Mark Planning, said Tuesday evening. […]

Bob Stevenson, Frist’s chief spokesman, said Tuesday evening the procedure the majority leader established was “requested by the sponsors.”

The chief sponsors of the resolution, Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and George Allen (R-Va.), disputed that assertion.

Landrieu said Monday before the resolution was adopted she would have preferred a roll call vote but had to accept the conditions set by Senate leaders.

When Stevenson was informed of Landrieu’s statement, he amended his comments to say “at least one of the sponsors” had requested adoption on a voice vote and in combination with a resolution related to Black History Month.

Allen press secretary David Snepp took issue with Stevenson. “I don’t know why Bob Stevenson would characterize it that way,” he said.

Snepp said Allen, since agreeing to sponsor the resolution, had insisted that he preferred a roll call vote.

Planning agreed that Landrieu and Allen “made every effort” to have the resolution debated during the day, when it would attract the most attention from the public, and with a formal roll call of the senators.

“We were very perplexed” that Frist would not agree to that, Planning said.

Jan Cohen, the wife of former Defense Secretary William Cohen and one of the key figures in the Committee for a Formal Apology, expressed outrage over the lack of a roll call vote.

“America is home of the brave, but I’m afraid there may be a few cowards who have to cower to their very narrow-minded and backward, hateful constituency,” Cohen told ABC News. “They’re hiding out, and it’s reminiscent of a pattern of hiding out under a hood, in the night, riding past, scaring people.”

Sounds like Sen. Frist learned nothing from the Lott Affair, or maybe just a little too much.

Argentina Military to Face Justice
The Supreme Court of Argentina, in a 7-1 decision, declared unconstitutional two amnesty laws dating from 1986 and 1987 that shielded hundreds in the military and police forces from prosecution during the country’s “dirty war.” The Los Angeles Times reports (“Argentine Court Voids Amnesty in ‘Dirty War,’” by Héctor Tobar) the decision could lead to new charges against as many as 300 defendants, most of them retired military and police officers.

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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Late last night I heard from Carrie Hallums Cooper, daughter of American hostage Roy Hallums, regarding the Scripps Howard News Service report of June 10 about which I posted a brief blog item yesterday.

According to Cooper, the $40,000 reward is not being offered by her sister, Amanda Hallums, as was reported by Scripps Howard. Rather, the reward has been funded by their mother, Susan Hallums, Roy’s ex-wife, through the pending sale of a home Susan owns in Memphis, Tenn.

The flyer currently being distributed in Iraq can be viewed at Roy’s Home Page, a site maintained by Cooper, by clicking here.

[Post-publication addendum: In related news, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. is reporting that Douglas Wood, held hostage in Iraq for more than six weeks, has been rescued in a joint Iraqi-American military operation and “is now under the protection of the Australian emergency response team in Baghdad.”]

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Is there a new Village Idiot in the blogosphere?

One, that is, to replace “Mac Diva” of the blog, which may or may not still exist -- And what do I care? -- “Mac-a-ronies”?

Perhaps so. If you’re curious about the matter, check in on Sadly, No and that site’s contretemps with that which goes by the name of “Sondra K.”

She’s got my vote.

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I know you think you know everything there is, or that you need, to know about Terry Schiavo, but whether you’re on the left or the right, and since you’re reading this you’re probably one of those smug, “the right wingers and, worse, those crazy, creepy, ignorant Catholics, just went nuts about Schiavo” types, hold your tongue, particularly when it comes to speaking with me about the subject, unless and until you’ve read “The Case of Terry Schiavo,” by Joan Didion, the, for so many, incredibly inconvenient analysis of the case published in the June 9 issue of the New York Review of Books.

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Opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or Cafta, an expansive group that includes this writer, have taken to pointing out that the gross, gross domestic product of the six Cafta nations is roughly equivalent to that of the long and highly depressed city of New Haven, Conn., population 123,626.

With that in mind . . . Why not a New Haven Free Trade Agreement? A NewHafta, as it were? I’ll bet all 123,626 of them, New Havenites all, and those living in the city’s environs, would appreciate that.

Perhaps something similar for any number of other regions in the United States experiencing long-term, structural economic dislocation, oft-times the result of the very same sort of “free trade agreement” we’re being peddled once again?

How about a Pennsylvania Free Trade Agreement, let’s call it Pafta, to aid the cities and workers of Allentown, Altoona, Bethlehem, Easton, Erie, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Reading, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre?

Or an Upstate New York Free Trade Agreement, UNYFTA for lack of something better, to provide a much needed boost to such locales as Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, Kingston, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, Troy, and Utica?

I could go on. And while I don’t mean to get all nativistic about this, really, come on now. Priorities, people.

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Today is not only Flag Day, it’s my bulldog Mildred’s eighth birthday.

Naturally that means there’s big -- and I mean that -- stuff going on here. Cards are arriving in the mailbox. Well, one did. (With cash! Australian cash. From Rittenhouse reader H.F.) And Mildred already has scarfed down the Greenie I’ve been hiding for the last month or so. That took about six minutes. Later today she’ll have a marrow bone. Just one. I swear.

Here’s the kicker, though, and one that demonstrates what I’m dealing with: Late last night I caught Mildred on the PC while she was adding some of her favorite treats and maybe something else to the Rittenhouse Wish List, a note of interest to the gift-buying sort among you. (Mildred would add, however, that tip-box hits -- see the PayPal link near the top of the sidebar at right -- also are welcome, even if, as is likely, funds may be directed to a badly needed visit to the veterinarian.)

How could you say no to that face?
I know I can’t.

Happy birthday, Mildred. And many, many more.

[Post-publication addendum I: I’m in big trouble. Big, major, heavy, hungry birthday-bulldog trouble. Super Fresh, my local supermarket, has no marrow bones in stock today. I’ve got to break the bad news to Mildred. Not to worry . . . too much. I have time. She’s asleep.]

[Post-publication addendum II: A great big bulldog thank you to the readers who sent Mildred, and me, gifts from the Rittenhouse Wish List, and to those (well, one person) who sent funds through PayPal. Your generosity is greatly appreciated and, upon my edification of who exactly you are, will be appropriately acknowledged. A special note of thanks to Rowhouse Logic for hosting that wonderful photograph of the birthday Mildred.]

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Beware of extremists; always, and particularly when it comes to smoking.

The already kind of irritating township of Cherry Hill, N.J., just across, and thankfully so, the Delaware River, today outlawed smoking on all public property, including parks and playgrounds, even open spaces of any kind, KYW News Radio (1060 AM) reports.

Meanwhile, here in Philadelphia, where the mayor and City Council are still trying to come to some kind of agreement banning smoking in the workplace, including in most bars and restaurants, a measure I could support in some form (if only because Susie Madrak pounded the merits thereof into my feeble brain), there’s another type of extremism at work, that in the personage of at least one businesswoman who I suspect will go along with such a prohibition, should it emerge, only with the proverbial kicking and screaming.

You see, earlier this afternoon I stopped in at a small shop on South Street where I was greeted by the image, and rather gray visage, of the proprietor sitting behind the register puffing a long one.

I knew it was a long cigarette because Madame Defarge was balancing about an inch and a half of ashes on the end of that thing, in the way only women of a certain age, all of them smokers of considerable duration, can manage consistently.

Now, we’re not talking here about some breezy, al fresco-ish eatery, nor about a chic little boutique with the doors and windows tossed open to bring in the fresh air (it is, after all, something like 94 degrees here today), but a tiny corner store, a poorly stocked little bodega, with no circulation to speak of whatsoever, a place of business where, I admit, I stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Even I thought it was disgusting.

[Post-publication addendum (June 15): For more about the Cherry Hill ban see “Smoking Banned on Town Property,” by Kristen A. Graham, Philadelphia Inquirer.]

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Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), acting through Friends of John Kerry, today sent a rather misguided e-mail to Democrats that reads, in relevant part:

With George Bush coming to Pennsylvania today, Republicans across the state think it’s their big day.

But, if we act quickly, you and I can actually make this an outstanding day in Bob Casey’s Senate campaign to defeat [Sen. Rick] Santorum.

Bush is coming to Pennsylvania today to stand with one of his best friends in the Senate. Let’s take advantage of Bush’s trip to send a powerful message that Pennsylvania wants positive change.

At this point in the message Sen. Kerry provides a link for contributions to the Casey campaign.

Sen. Kerry continues:

Bush will use his fundraising prowess to fill Santorum’s coffers with campaign cash. Let’s use our grassroots power to help State Treasurer Bob Casey fight back.

Bob Casey was there for us and Pennsylvania Democrats in 2004. Let’s do it for him in 2006.

If we want change in Washington -[-] more focus on health care, on the economy, on job creation and a secure future for Medicare and Social Security, we need new voices in the U[.]S[.] Senate.

Another prompt to contribute to Casey.

Today Bush will join with Pennsylvania Republicans to hold another staged event trying to peddle their failed Social Security plan.

Join the johnkerry.com community in Pennsylvania as we kick off a special one-day campaign to give Bob Casey a strong grassroots boost.

Bush and Pennsylvania Republicans think this is their day in Pennsylvania. Let’s prove them wrong. By the time Bush leaves the state tonight, let’s get thousands of Pennsylvanians to commit to positive change in the Senate -- starting with you.

Yet another appeal to click the link to Casey.

Please pass this message along to everyone you can think of in Pennsylvania. In the next 24 hours, let’s go big for Bob Casey.

You know what? Not so fast, John.

There’s a better option for Pennsylvania Democrats, for all Pennsylvanians: Chuck Pennacchio, a declared and very active candidate seeking the party’s nomination to take on Sen. Tweedledum.

I recently had the honor and pleasure of meeting Pennacchio for a second time, to hear him speak passionately about the future of this country and make his very strong case that despite considerable odds he can win both the primary and the general election.

Rarely have I been so impressed by a candidate for public office. Pennacchio’s principles and strategy are not unlike those of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, and if that’s all you learn from me today my work will be done, at least for now.

Maybe instead of contributing to the Casey campaign, which at this point in the race, given Casey’s unwillingness to talk to anyone outside the party hierarchy, is like giving money to a ghost, Democrats could spend a little time learning more about Pennacchio, because, really, there is a choice, and no one, not even Sen. Kerry, can take that away from you.

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Amanda Hallums, the younger daughter of American hostage Roy Hallums, a man held in captivity in Iraq since November 1, is circulating a flier in Baghdad offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to his release.

The Scripps Howard News Service reports:

Hallums . . . said Friday that she resorted to the public appeal to the streets of Iraq because she remains confident her father, Roy Hallums, 56, is still alive.

“I still have hope,” she said. […]

Ms. Hallums said she asked for help in drawing up the flier from Nabil Bayakly, a Muslim imam and chairman of Muslims in Memphis[, Tenn.]. It’s now being circulated by military personnel in Baghdad. […]

The flier . . . offers pictures of Roy Hallums, gives his physical description and offers the $40,000 reward. Then it makes a case for his release.

“Also, there is a plea in it from an Islamic standpoint: That innocent people should not be harmed, according to the Sharia, or Islamic holy law,” Bayakly said. “If they have any sense of Islamic values, that should be honored.”

After more than seven months, the Hallums family surely deserves a break in the case.

[Post-publication addendum (June 15): Please see today’s post clarifying this report.]

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Oh for crying out loud:

About 40 percent of Americans say they consider talk show host Bill O’Reilly a journalist -- more than would define famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward the same way, according to a poll conducted this spring.

O’Reilly is on the Fox News Channel, offering his often tart conservative opinions, while Woodward has spent a career writing news stories and books.

Only 30 percent of those polled said Woodward was a journalist, while 53 percent said they didn’t know, despite the fact that Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story that ultimately led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

More than a quarter said talk show host Rush Limbaugh was one, while one in five said they considered newspaper columnist George Will to be a journalist.

There’s the silver lining in this: most of them got those last two right.

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As I write this President Disassembled is in nearby Bryn Mawr, Pa., attending a luncheon at the home of real-estate developer Mitchell Morgan to raise money for the lesser, by a hair, of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, Rick Santorum (R).

The minimum donation is $500, for “sandwiches and beverages”; $10,000 garners a photo with the big cheese.

Protesters are expected to attend, or at least to hang out somewhere nearby, probably surrounded by a fence or something.

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Jim McLaughlin’s Houston-based blog, A Skeptical Blog, has reached the ripe old age of three years. McLaughlin, noting the occasion, writes (hyperlink added):

Three years is a long life for a blog and it seems only yesterday that I was reading Andrew Sullivan and thinking “I could do this better than this guy.” Unfortunately I came to find out a blind monkey could write a blog better than Sullivan, and it would make more sense.

A common sentiment, that.

Congratulations, Jim, and keep up the good work.

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For a while things were sort of quiet, improving even, on the subject of Philadelphia public schools, these days headed quite effectively by Paul Vallas, who since July 2002 has carried the title “chief executive officer” of the School District of Philadelphia.

But the School Reform Commission, with Vallas’s blessing, opened a can of worms last week by announcing that, beginning with September’s freshman class, all Philadelphia public-school students will have to take a separate course in African and African American history in order to graduate, the first such mandate in the country.

The reaction has been predictable.

If you’re into the whole culture wars in education thing -- and it’s a veritable cottage industry, particularly on the right -- you can catch up on the situation through the following links from the local newspapers:

“Phila. School Mandate: African History,” by Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9.

“African Study Plan Stirs Debate,” by Susan Snyder and Dale Mezzacappa, Inquirer, June 10.

“Forces Behind History Mandate,” by Susan Snyder, Inquirer, June 12.

“African American History: Learning the Right Lesson,” an Inquirer editorial, June 13.

“Studying Africa: First Step to a Bigger World for Philly Schools,” a Philadelphia Daily News editorial, June 13.

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently hosted a casual party to celebrate the nuptials of his daughter, “casual,” it is clear, being in the eyes of the beholder, as revealed in an article in Sunday’s New York Times (“A Backyard Casual Feast for a Bloomberg Wedding,” by Campbell Robertson [hyperlinks and bolding added]):

It is important to note here that casual does not always translate into downscale. The wedding of Emma B. Bloomberg, 26, the eldest daughter of Michael R. Bloomberg, to Christopher P. Frissora, 25, is an interesting case study in the meaning of casual, when the father of the bride is a billionaire several times over and the mayor of the capital of the world [sic].

First of all, there is the meaning of “backyard” in the phrase “backyard barbecue,” which is how Ms. Bloomberg described the reception to [t]he Daily News last week. In this case, it refers to Gotham North, Mr. Bloomberg’s 20-acre horse farm in North Salem, N.Y. A huge white tent was set up for the event, which began yesterday evening with a ceremony at 5 p.m. Shuttle buses had been dispatched for many of the 400 guests, as the couple encouraged people to leave their cars at home. It was so casual, in fact, that representatives of the news media were asked to stay at home, too. […]

Following last night’s ceremony was the cocktail hour, then an informal dinner arranged by Feast and Fêtes, the catering arm of the restaurant Daniel on the Upper East Side. The informal part was primarily in the execution, with self-service stations instead of a sit-down dinner. While the grown-ups were provided tables, the younger crowd sat on sofas and at low-lying tables as if at a nightclub.

As for the menu, well, this is where the definition of informal might stretch a little thin, at least beyond traditional associations like pizza and Budweiser. There was the tapas station with lobster and mushroom cannoli; the barbecue station with miniversions of the DB burger, the chef Daniel Boulud’s unceremonious sandwich of sirloin filled with short ribs, foie gras[,] and truffles; the carving station with Guinea hen terrine; the seafood station with Scottish salmon; and even a homemade ice cream station. For extra measure, Nobu threw in assorted sushi rolls.

After dinner came the dancing. The Easy Star All-Stars, a 10-piece band known best for its 2003 album, “Dub Side of the Moon,” a reggae interpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” was planning to play reggae covers for their first set. When the reception officially ended and the after-party unofficially began, the band was to play the album in its entirety. The dancing was to last, according to the couple’s Web site, until sunrise or “whenever you get tired.”

Sort of makes one long for the days of Ed Koch, doesn’t it? Naw, scratch that. Fiorello LaGuardia, anyone?

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The Philadelphia Inquirer today published a letter to the editor from city resident Bob Allen responding to the paper’s June 6 report, “Bush Shifts Focus to Latin America,” by Ron Hutcheson, an article that received passing notice here on the same day.

Allen’s letter to the Inquirer is worth reading:

At the recent Florida conference of the Organization of American States, the Bush administration stepped up its hostile rhetoric against Venezuela with the charge that the country is “undemocratic.” The Inquirer supported that allegation with its June 6 “Democracy in Latin America” map that designated four countries as undemocratic: Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

The smear of Venezuela is the most outrageous. A few months ago, the world witnessed one of the most well-publicized popular elections in Latin American history, the referendum on Hugo Chavez’s presidency. The U.S.-funded opposition challenged him with a referendum demanding a midterm dissolution of his elected government. Chavez not only allowed the referendum but embraced it as a measure of popular support for his political program. In a vote widely acknowledged by international election monitors to be fair and free of irregularities, Venezuelans overwhelmingly rejected the opposition. To this day, the hostile Bush administration and American press cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the outcome of this democratic process.

Nice work. Now if only a bit of Allen’s argument will sink in somewhere.

[Post-publication addendum: By the way, if you want to read an absolute (and informed and informative) evisceration of Hutcheson’s article, see “Missing the Story: Bush, Chavez, the OAS, and Lazy Reporting,” by Richard Cranium, the All Spin Zone, June 7.]

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Thousands of Germans presumably are scouring attics, basements, and warehouses after the Associated Press reports on a startling find in Weimar:

A previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered in a crate of 18th-century birthday cards removed from a German library shortly before it was devastated by fire, researchers said yesterday.

The two-page aria for soprano and string or keyboard accompaniment was composed for a German duke’s birthday.

Researcher Michael Maul of the Bach-Archiv foundation found the composition last month in the eastern city of Weimar. The Leipzig-based foundation said there was no doubt about the authenticity of the handwritten score, which was dated October 1713.

What are the odds?

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What’s a city to do when more than a million people are expected to show up for a free concert to be held on a weekend already packed with musical and other events? When it comes to Live 8 and Philadelphia, the answer appears to be plan, plot, strategize, pray, and hope someone picks up part of the tab, according to “Sorting Through Live 8 Logistics,” by Jennifer Lin and Marcia Gelbart in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer.

Elsewhere, Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times addresses the Spice Girls chatter in “Musically Saving the World: The Dos and Don’ts of Live 8.”

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I didn’t get around to the newspapers, or any news at all, yesterday, and so it wasn’t until late this morning that I learned the news. Why does it seem more shocking, somehow sadder, to learn of a noted person’s passing one day after the fact? That’s how I feel today.

Anne Bancroft (née Anna Maria Louisa Italiano), New York, stage, television, and film actress, wife of Mel Brooks: 1931-2005.

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You can almost set your clocks, or calendars, by it: Once, just once, in an American president’s first or second term, but never in both, the man in the Oval Office will “discover” Latin America, offering the beleaguered region a few days in the spotlight, days filled with correspondingly condescending media coverage, of which “Bush Shifts Focus to Latin America,” by Ron Hutcheson (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 6), is but a single example, and a particularly egregious one at that, adopting as it does, the party line about the purportedly fragile democracies of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, while giving similarly short-shrift treatment to Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile.

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Roy Hallums, the American civilian businessman abducted in Baghdad on November 1, 2004, is still missing.

A long time missing.

Never heard of him? I’m not surprised. Nor is Hallums’s family.

But maybe you have, since regular readers likely have taken notice of the days-in-captivity count I’ve been keeping in honor of Hallums at the top of the sidebar in the right-hand column of this blog for the last several months.

This tally, you may have surmised, is a deliberate recollection of the tragic score-keeping propagated by the likes of those much greater and more influential than I, throughout the Iranian hostage crisis (1979-1981), including Walter Cronkite and Ted Koppel, journalists whose day-to-day persistence was so relentless it has been credited by some historians with helping to unseat then-incumbent U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Remarkably, the Orange County Register today broke the mainstream media’s near silence on the Hallums story, offering readers “Devoted Daughter,” by Zaheera Wahid, an 1,100-word article about the tireless efforts of Hallums’s daughter, Carrie Hallums Cooper, joined by his other daughter, Amanda, and his ex-wife, Susan Hallums, to remember and gain the freedom of the family patriarch.

The Hallums family’s frustration with the country’s fleeting attention span, the readiness of the media and the public to issue a collective shrug of the shoulders, come through loudly and clearly, and with considerable justification. Wahid writes:

For one day, Roy Hallums was front-page news.

He led TV news broadcasts, and the world watched as the worn and haggard man pleaded for his life in a video released by Iraqi insurgents holding him hostage.

His daughter, Carrie Cooper, and ex-wife, Susan Hallums, did the New York talk-show circuit, begging for help to find him.

But just as quickly as Hallums became the day’s top story, his desperate situation was overshadowed by the next day’s news. And since Jan. 25, the day the video was released, no one has heard about Roy Hallums.

But Cooper, the focus of the Register’s piece, a woman who has not seen her father since last summer, doesn’t give up easily:

The once-unknown name [of Roy Hallums] now garners 13,200 hits on Google, thanks in part to Cooper’s efforts to get the word out about her dad.

Every day is a struggle, but prayer has helped her. And she’s sure that her dad is also calling on his Christian faith to get through his days, wherever he is.

A few weeks ago Cooper attended a parade of heroes, where her dad was honored.

And she’s planning a candlelight vigil on the beach for his 57th birthday on June 23.

Cooper’s sister recently got a friend to help draw up a flier in Arabic offering a $40,000 reward for Hallums’[s] return, and they arranged for military friends in Iraq to distribute the information.

It is obviously not an easy effort. Perhaps not surprisingly, but too sad nonetheless, some deranged people decided to take out their demented anger (about who knows what) on Hallums, that a web site Cooper created to promote her father’s safety, security, and well-being. According to Wahid, “Not knowing where he is, whether her efforts are reaping any rewards, and dealing with the sometimes cruel messages left in her online guest book (one person wrote, ‘I can’t wait to see your dad’s head cut off’) all take their toll.”

It’s hard to hear that kind of thing, that much even I know (read my in-box some day), but for Cooper, her mother, and her sister, it’s far worse and compounded by the collective indifference of the media. Wahid reports:

Add to [the insults] the lack of media interest, and Cooper turns angry.

She’s thankful and appreciative for the outpouring of support she’s received personally and online, but watches angrily as Michael Jackson, the “runaway bride” and “American Idol” attract hours and hours of TV coverage and wonders where the country’s priorities lie.

“In other countries there’s outrage and protests and vigils (over hostages). In our country, their picture is up there one day and then it’s gone,” said Cooper, her frustration evident.

Exactly what the U.S. government is doing to secure Hallums’s freedom is not clear. With some, but I would suggest not complete, justification, the family (and the American public) are being kept in the dark. Wahid writes: “The government doesn’t ‘tell us a lot because they don’t want to jeopardize the investigation,’ said Cooper, adding that she’s been told people are looking for him. She’s also been in touch with the Saudi Arabian company her dad worked for but declines to say much about it.”

Some 70 Americans were held hostage in Tehran; Hallums is but one man. I know that, and Cooper and her family surely know that. No one paying close attention to Hallums’s plight would draw a direct comparison between the two circumstances. All anyone, including, I think, Carrie Cooper, is asking for is some proportion, an occasional public acknowledgement that there are people in government who care, and the emergence, at least now and then, of a media willing to hold the administration to account for conditions on the ground that put Americans so unnecessarily at risk.

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TBogg and World O’ Crap are much better equipped than I to handle the feverish spewings of National Review’s Meghan Cox Gurdon, but today’s piece, “Snapshots From the End of the School Year,” warrants at least passing attention for featuring not just one but two Paris Manly Moments.

Here’s the first PMM:

A boy in a blue zip-up shoulder-to-knee sun-blocking bathing suit intercepts his mother half-way up the stairs. “I’m Oceanic Man!” he cries through the blue ski mask that obscures his features. “I can break tidal waves in half . . . with these!” And he holds up his hands, instruments of death, and tears dramatically at an invisible tsunami. “Snerggh!”

And later, still worse, we find a second PMM, this one timed to coincide with the requisite cameo appearance of Mr. Meghan Cox Gurdon:

My husband and I are dutifully admiring them when Paris strides in wearing a large deerskin vest, khakis, and brown belt slung over his shoulder, bandito-style. “What are you,” I remark, “the dirt fairy?”

Ouch. Come on, mummy, leave the boy alone would you?

[Post-publication addendum (June 4): World O’ Crap weighs in with more on Mrs. Gurdon.]

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An irregular look at some of the unusual searches that brought recent visitors to The Rittenhouse Review:

the sterling Philadelphia review
You’ve come to the right place.

what is Vera Wang’s husband’s name?
Arthur Becker. I thought everyone knew that.

Courtney Love flashing
Pass. Quickly.

what city and state does Connie Francis live in?
I don’t know, but New Jersey is as good a guess as any.

Suzy Wetlaufer bio
Edits stuffy business journal. Interviews C.E.O. with out-sized ego and inflated reputation. Sleeps with him. Destroys a marriage. Loses job. Laughs all the way to the bank. Blah, blah, blah.

my 8 year old girl has body odor
Assuming proper hygiene, there could be a metabolic disorder at work. See a specialist. For the benefit of all concerned.

yellow armpit stains
Possibly from the same person as above. I can only hope.

Wednesday’s child is full of woe
And Thursday’s child has far to go. Trust me, I know.

Philadelphia hair stylist reviews for thin hair
I have no idea why, but I get a lot of searches having to do with hair salons. Regardless, about “thin hair” I know absolutely nothing.

I hate sandals
I do too. And flip-flops? Forget about it!

my child wants to join the school band or orchestra what instrument should he play
Steer him clear of anything too honky -- like the clarinet, saxophone, or oboe -- and away from instruments that are scratchy -- such as the violin -- and don’t even think about the flute, because there is nothing more irritating than the sound of a flute.

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The Villaraigosa Tour
Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor-elect of Los Angeles, seems to have some star power working in his favor. The Los Angeles Times reports (“Villaraigosa Wins Over Crowds in Nation's Capital,” by Patrick McGreevy):

Los Angeles' new political celebrity, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, took his victory tour to the nation's capital Wednesday, receiving rave reviews for appearances that included a national conference of Democratic activists and a lunch with some of the nation's most influential Latinos.

The city councilman does not take office as mayor until July 1, which limited the substantive opportunities in his daylong swing but not the reaction he earned. Everywhere he went, supporters fawned, many of them asking him to autograph their copies of this week's Newsweek magazine, which bears his smiling face on the cover.

Our Man in Uzbekistan
Lawrence A. Uzzell, president of International Religious Freedom Watch, takes to the op-ed pages of The Christian Science Monitor to excoriate the human rights record of Bush administration pal Islam Karimov. A pull quote from “The dangers of being Uzbekistan's best friend (May 31): “The Andijon atrocities follow years of repression that have increasingly alienated the Karimov regime from its own people. The regime makes no serious effort to distinguish between Islamic extremists and moderates, imprisoning thousands on trumped-up charges of "terrorist" activity. Karimov's secret police are champion users of torture in investigative proceedings -- reportedly including the torture of foreign captives delivered by the CIA.”

California Republicans Block Gay Marriage
The California State Assembly yesterday voted against a bill that permitting same-sex marriages in that state. Horrified sound bites from the right: "This has nothing to do with discrimination. It has everything to do with the destruction of the moral fiber of this nation," said Assemblyman Jay La Suer (R-La Mesa); "They want my children to be taught that this is OK, that it is natural. I'm here to tell you that it's not OK. It's not natural. I will not have my children taught that," said Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia); and "All these arguments here should be brought before the people. That's the place to change their minds, not to use some sort of technical arguments to change the law. The people have spoken," said Assemblyman Mark Wyland (R-Del Mar).

Impeach Bush?
A group of Philadelphians is seeking support for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and will stage a demonstration to that effect on June 14, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Federal Building at 6th & Market Streets, Philadelphia.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may face a Democratic primary challenge in his quest for the governor’s mansion. The New York Times today reports Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi is considering entering the race (“Nassau Leader Considers Run Against Spitzer, Pleasing G.O.P.,” by Patrick D. Healy and Bruce Lambert).

According to the Times, Suozzi “recently confided to prominent party members that he is preparing to run, arguing that his profile as a suburban Italian Catholic moderate and reform-minded Albany outsider would make him a strong candidate in both New York’s cities and suburbs.”

Some Democrats, including former New York State Comptroller Carl McCall, are trying to dissuade Suozzi from running for the state’s top office. Former governor Mario M. Cuomo, a friend of the Suozzi family, appears more equivocal: “Tom is extremely ambitious and is doing just about everything he can to move up the ladder beyond Nassau, that’s for sure. If Eliot Spitzer remains as popular as he appears to be at the moment, there’s not much sense in Tom challenging him, but anything can change. You never know when a candidate is going to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing.”

There are other concerns. The Times reports:

A polished speaker and telegenic campaigner, Mr. Suozzi also has a volatile temper and a tendency for overkill. Fellow Democrats in the Nassau County Legislature have complained in the past of roughshod treatment. […]

Displaying political muscle to challenge the entrenched incumbency of state legislators, Mr. Suozzi sponsored a Democratic primary in his home district last year in which his candidate, Charles Lavine, ousted Assemblyman David Sidikman. The move infuriated some state party leaders, but Mr. Suozzi built good will among others by giving thousands of dollars to a successful Syracuse Democrat for State Senate.

And here’s the perspective of the Empire State’s Republicans:

Whatever Mr. Suozzi is up to, Republican leaders love it. For some time, party officials around the state have been saying that a Suozzi candidacy would show that Mr. Spitzer is not invincible, and have been making mischief for Democrats by arguing that Mr. Suozzi has the good looks, cockiness and experience to be a serious candidate for governor.

Time will tell.

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I’m back with another request for help from readers willing to assist with a book I’m writing.

I don’t want to spill the beans about the project, but if you’re reading this and you live in or near Madison, Wis., and can take a couple of photographs, in digital or traditional format, of a certain building in that city, please let me know.

By the way, I’m still looking for a reader in or near Lexington, Mass., who might be able to do the same.

As previously noted, I can offer little more than my gratitude and a mention in the future book’s acknowledgements section.

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Cool book idea: Take a photograph of every single thing you eat over the course of the year, and then write about it.

Cool book book: Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth.

Cool book author: The almost unbearably good-looking Tucker Shaw, profiled in today’s Philadelphia Daily News in “1 Man, 1 Stomach, 1 Year,” by April Lisante.

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Bush administration cover girl Priscilla Owen is a religious woman. We knew that. An Episcopalian, in fact. Some of us knew that. But not a very good one, Too Beautiful reveals.

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A brief item in today’s New York Times:

Strawberry Field, the Liverpool children’s home immortalized by the Beatles in the John Lennon hit “Strawberry Fields Forever,” closed yesterday after 69 years of looking after poor youngsters. The Salvation Army said that all the children had left the home and that child care had ended, though some administrators would stay for a couple of months. No decision has been made on the fate of the home or its iron gates. As a boy, Lennon, who modified its name for the song, used to play with friends on its grounds.

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Get out your calculators. Or, better, do it in your head.

Let’s see . . . He tutors . . . For about $400 an hour . . . Takes in roughly $100,000 a year . . . There are 52 weeks in a year . . . He works an average of how many hours a week?

Answer: 4.8.

Correct?

As they say: Nice work if you can get it. (To be fair, Adam Fisher sounds like one helluva teacher.)

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Perhaps no less weird than the Felt family’s desire to cash in on pater’s “Deep Throat” fame is the reminder of what a crazed anti-Semite -- and anti-Catholic -- was former President Richard M. Nixon.

As Todd S. Purdum reports in today’s New York Times (“‘Deep Throat’ Unmasks Himself as Ex-No. 2 Official at F.B.I.”):

The Watergate tapes disclosed that Nixon [Ed.: A Quaker.] himself had singled out Mr. Felt for special suspicion, once asking his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman [Ed.: A Christian Scientist.], “Is he a Catholic?” Mr. Haldeman replied that Mr. Felt, who is of Irish descent, was Jewish, and Nixon, who often liked to see Jews at the root of his troubles, replied: “It could be the Jewish thing. I don't know. It’s always a possibility.”

You know, the still stranger thing is that Nixon probably had a similar conversation with Henry Kissinger, and based on previously released White House tapes it’s safe to assume Kissinger -- who, believe it or not, to this day walks the streets of Manhattan a free, and very wealthy, man -- nodded and grinned and rubbed his hands together and called Felt “a heeb,” or something like that.

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Please tell me I’m not alone in thinking this is one of weirder aspects of the whole W. Mark Felt/“Deep Throat” Revealed story (“‘Deep Throat’ Unmasks Himself as Ex-No. 2 Official at F.B.I.,” by Todd S. Purdum, New York Times, June 1):

In encouraging her father to tell his own story, Mr. Felt’s daughter, Joan, spoke of the money it might make to help pay tuition bills for her children.

That’s the American Dream, I suppose: Cash in!

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Philadelphia restaurateur par kegscellance Neil Stein made the New York Times today. Sure, the notice was brief -- in a section topped “National Briefing,” no less -- and not flattering, but somehow I suspect Mr. Stein was rather pleased nonetheless.

Coverage closer to home includes “Stein Pleads Guilty in Tax Case,” by John Shiffman in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and “Neil Stein Guilty of Tax Fraud,” by Ramona Smith in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Web readers of the Daily News will catch Smith’s textual depiction of Stein -- “tanned and fit in a gray suit with a subdued magenta-striped shirt” -- but will sadly miss the photograph that appeared in the print edition of the newspaper, about which I have but one question: What the hell is up with that stupid necklace?

[Note: This item was posted previously at TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse.]

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Your links to local coverage of “Live 8,” the great big hoo-haw concert in Philadelphia on July 2:

From “On the World’s Stage,” by Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer (hyperlinks added here and infra):

The Philadelphia show is a non-ticketed free daytime concert, with bands performing by the Art Museum steps. “We didn’t want to limit it” to a confined space such as Lincoln Financial Field, said concert promoter Larry Magid. “We didn’t want to have a lottery and say only 50,000 people can come. That doesn’t feel right.”

Bob Geldof, the Live Aid organizer and former Boomtown Rats singer who’s also the force behind Live 8, said the goal is to influence President Bush and other leaders to provide debt relief and aid to poor African nations.

“We don’t want people’s money, we want them,” Geldof said in a news conference simulcast from London to City Hall in Philadelphia, attended by [Dave] Matthews, Mayor [John] Street and former Philadelphia 76ers center Dikembe Mutombo. Matthews is from South Africa; Mutombo -- noting that U2’s global crusader Bono “is a good friend of mine” -- is from Zaire.

Other cities were considered for the U.S. portion of Live 8, but Philadelphia had the inside track, said event producer Tim Sexton.

“There’s the legacy of Live Aid. You can’t think about poverty without looking at the streets of Philadelphia, where that’s an issue. And there’s [Electric Factory Concerts chief] Larry Magid, who’s the preeminent concert promoter in America.”

“There was talk about other cities, but we really didn’t have a hard time selling Philadelphia,” which signed on about two weeks ago, Magid said.

Also in today’s Inquirer: “Trickiest Act: Logistics,” by Joseph A. Slobodzian and Michael Currie Schaffer.

And then there’s “Bloggers Doleful Over Live 8 Lineup,” by Daniel Rubin of Inquirer blog Blinq, an article most notable for its inclusion of, well, ME.

And in today’s Philadelphia Daily News we find: “‘Live 8’ Coming to the Parkway,” by David Gambacorta; “Things to Know About Live 8,” also by Gambacorta; and “Concert Poses Challenge for Parkway,” by Michael Hinkelman.

Not to be missed in the Daily News is today’s lead editorial, “Elton, Ruben, Will[,] and Some Cents,” from which these excerpts were pulled:

The musical confluence of Sunoco Welcome America! and Live 8 this summer is a great opportunity to sell Philadelphia as the place to be for the July Fourth holiday.

In fact, that was the theme Sunoco Welcome America! organizers had for this year's celebration. “Philly First on the Fourth,” they called it. But that was before yesterday's official announcement by Bob Geldof, the musician Midge Ure, and Dave Matthews that Philly would be a Live 8 concert site.

Now we’re really whistling a happy tune. […]

The Sunoco Welcome America! Festival, in its 13th year, runs June 26 to July 4. Its 30 free events include concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra, gospel great Donnie McClurkin, “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard, singer Stephanie Mills, Salsa on the Parkway, Opera on the Square, and the Freedom Concert with Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Bryan Adams, and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. […]

Sounds like we're shamelessly plugging Welcome America! Well, we are. And in good conscience, for we believe the festival does wonders for the city's image, and instills pride in its inhabitants.

As a shameless and tireless promoter of all things Philadelphian, here, at TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse, and in going about my daily business, I couldn’t agree more. The stars truly are aligning for Philadelphia. God, please, let us not mess it up.

[Post-publication addendum (June 2): See also “They Really Should Call it ‘Why 8’,” by Will Bunch of Attytood]

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