News we might have missed while watching the funeral(s):
1. Bush welcomes Ukrainian president, and Bush says he supports Ukraine joining NATO
NATO membership is by invitation of the member states, and requires guarantees of political, military and economic openness. For Ukraine, joining NATO would mean taking more decisive steps away from Russian influence and cleaning up systemic corruption.
2. Yesterday I commented that the Star Ledger got a Pulitzer in spite of sitting on information (as opposed to investigating) about McGreevey. Claudia Rosett, who’s done some serious, ground-breaking investigating of the UN didn’t get a Pulitzer. By now, it’s beginning to look like the Pulitzer Committee moonlights for the Nobel Peace Prize Committe, which awarded Yasser Arafat a Peace Prize. Just look at some photographers who got a Pulitzer: NJ blogger Tigerhawk says,Shame on the Pulitzer Board
The Pulitzer Board just gave its coveted prize for a photo taken by a photographer with — at a minimum — privileged access to the insurgency, which we know consists of elements of the old Ba’athist regime and al Qaeda. If in 1943 the Associated Press had hired, say, one of Joseph Goebbels’ photographers to take a picture of an SS trooper executing a French civilian in the head, would the Pulitzer Board have awarded its prize? If the idea shocks you, then why is this no less outrageous? Distinguish the two cases, please, and if you can’t then consider the transporting decadence of the Associated Press and the moral confusion of the Pulitzer Board.
3. Dems Showed Soros Secret Rove Plan
After the presentation, Soros said he wanted to think about it overnight. But he didn’t take long to decide. “By the end of the weekend, it was clear that he was in,” Steitz said. And in in a big way: Malcolm told me that she and Rosenthal walked away with commitments for a total of $23 million from Soros, Lewis, and a few others at the meeting. Within weeks, Soros began writing checks to ACT. First came $1 million on August 19. Then $2 million on September 12. Then another $2 million on December 23. And then $4.55 million to the Joint Victory Fund, an umbrella organization that then distributed the money to ACT, on April 15, 2004. In the beginning, Soros had pledged $10 million to ACT and other Democratic 527s. Then the number became $15 million. Then $20 million. Then $25 million. And then more. The 527s had never seen that amount of money come in from one person at one time. Soros would become the biggest donor in history.
Expect him to remain as such.
4. Kurd leader named Iraq president
His deputies will be former President Ghazi Yawer, a Sunni Arab, and Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who is Shia.
6. Iran agrees to continue freeze on uranium enrichment. At least that’s what Muhammad Khatami told Jacques.
7. Via Belmont Club, Andalusian nationalists in Spain now claim that Islam is “The real identity of Andalusia”. I say, the Romans are. Maybe Seville’s natives should give up flamenco and bullfights and start speaking old Latin and sponsoring gladiatorial fights. Togas would look great in the hot Andalusian summers. That should do for “roots”.
