Even as I know White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen won’t be fired for calling Sun-Times man Mariotti a fag (trust me), I also have this to say: If he is fired for anything but losing ball games, I promise to go into hock to buy a season ticket to the Cell, as near home plate as possible, and spend every game, all nine or more innings, booing.

Another thing: I will contribute to the sensitivity sessions which Mariotti will be forced to attend to cure his exquisite self-absorption. As for why self-a in his case, consider today’s column.

Chi Trib today, hard copy, front section has three questionable stories:

1. The LA times piece exposing a major counter-terrorism technique, for which see also NY Times.  It’s tapping into bank accounts used by Al Quaeda, our enemy who has to be sniffed out in such manner.  But LA and NY Times, and camp-following Chi Trib, find in this news that fits, even if it compromises the war effort.

In tracking terrorists, U.S. taps bank data

By Josh Meyer and Greg Miller
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published June 23, 2006

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by reviewing confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.

Imagine that!  Secret effort vs. terrorists.  How dare they? 

2. LA Times story about (guess) what kind of warming that serves to warm the cockles of faithful readers who love to hear about things they hate? 

Panel affirms rising Earth temperature U.S. scientific body studied warming data  
By Thomas H. Maugh II and Karen Kaplan, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times

June 23, 2006

After a comprehensive review of climate change data, the pre-eminent U.S. scientific body found that average temperatures on Earth have risen by an average of about 1 degree over the last century, a development that “is unprecedented for the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia.”

The report from the National Academies of Science also concluded that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”

Pre-eminent indeed.  But have Maugh and Kaplan cherry-picked to make the point they hold close to their hearts?  On the other hand, the news is there: official Wash. is leaning towards g-warming in the Gore mode?  It’s hinted at:

Coupled with a report last month from the Bush administration’s Climate Change Science Program that found “clear evidence of human influences on the climate system,” the new study signals a growing acceptance in Washington of widely held scientific views on the causes of global warming.

But not till ‘way at the bottom do we hear a negative word, and it’s in the shape of a Congressional, not scientific investigation, which is typical: Drape your position in noble positives, relegate negative to political sniping. 

One attack came from Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who last year launched an investigation of Mann and his colleagues. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee demanded information about their data and funding sources–an effort widely viewed as an attempt to intimidate the scientists.

That’s it, fourth-to-last paragraph.  Except this last ‘graph, which makes one wonder what else did they say?

The report also said the panel was “less confident” that the 20th Century was the warmest century since 1000, largely because of the scarcity of data prior to 1600.

3. Typically, a big Republican story tending to justify the Iraq war gets told only in context of Dem response and in effect from Dem point of view:

WMD IN IRAQ
By Naftali Bendavid
Washington Bureau

June 23, 2006

WASHINGTON — Democrats on Thursday ridiculed comments by two leading congressional Republicans that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.

What about the comments that elicited ridicule?  Had Trib run them?  No, but it has on its site an AP story in which about halfway down we read:

To counter criticism that no weapons of mass destruction turned up in Iraq even though that was a key argument for going to war, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., released a newly declassified military intelligence report. It said that coalition forces had found 500 munitions in Iraq that contained degraded sarin or mustard nerve agents, produced before the 1991 Gulf War.

Democrats downplayed the intelligence report, saying that a lengthy 2005 report from the top U.S. weapons inspector contemplated that such munitions would be found. A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the weapons were not considered likely to be dangerous because of their age.

This is Al-AP, remember, as Rush Limbaugh calls it.  Anyhow, Naftali Bendavid read it and got its gist as far as he was concerned.  As for the new info about WMD, there would have been more for NB to say about it if he had looked around.  For instance, Rumsfeld’s saying the newly found weapons were dangerous:

QUESTION [in news conference]: Mr. Secretary, there has been a lot made on Capitol Hill about these chemical weapons that were found and may be quite old. But do you have a real concern of these weapons from Saddam’s past perhaps having an impact on U.S. troops who are on the ground in Iraq right now?

RUMSFELD : Certainly. What has been announced is accurate, that there have been hundreds of canisters or weapons of various types found that either currently have sarin in them or had sarin in them, and sarin is dangerous. And it’s dangerous to our forces, and it’s a concern.

So obviously, to the extent we can locate these and destroy them, it is important that we do so. And they are dangerous. Anyone — I’m sure General Casey or anyone else in that country would be concerned if they got in the wrong hands.

They are weapons of mass destruction . They are harmful to human beings. And they have been found. And that had not been by Saddam Hussein, as he inaccurately alleged that he had reported all of his weapons . And they are still being found and discovered.

The canisters “may be quite old,” said the reporter.  Oh?  “In From The Cold,” a retired intelligence agent (he says), has another understanding entirely:

You’d think the discovery of 500 chemical weapons in Iraq would be a big story, even if they are leftovers from Saddam’s arsenal in the 1980s. This discovery confirms that WMD remained present in Iraq, despite the old regime’s proclamation that such weapons had been destroyed, and fruitless searches conducted by U.N. inspectors, and later, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG). These weapons, which include artillery shells and rockets, were filled with mustard gas and nerve agents of varying toxicity. The discovery of these weapons suggests (surprise, surprise) that Saddam planned to retain at least a portion of his WMD capability, and would have likely resumed full-scale development and production, had UN sanctions been removed.

He has more more more that reeks with detail and apparent knowing what he’s talking about.  Chi Trib’s Wash. bureau doesn’t think it’s a big story, however.  It’s, ah, world view gets in the way.  They are more interested in outing counter-intelligence activity.

Mike Downey of Chi Trib wakes up some mornings and thinks White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen “is going to be the one [between him and loser Baker of Cubs] who gets fired or quits.” 

Eh?  He should have more wholesome thoughts on arising.  O-Z quit?  Won’t happen, say I, whose sports column has been running in his head for 60–plus years.  Gets fired?  Please.  Why?  Because Rick Garcia of the local gay anti-defamation league writes a letter?  How many World Series has Rick Garcia won?

The flap is about Ozzie G. calling Sun-Times columnist Mariotti a fag.  If he had said dastardly cad, would that have done it?  I don’t think so, regardless of M’s sex orientation, which I do not think is the issue nor do I have any interest in. 

But while Downey’s at it, why not predict Mariotti’s quitting or being fired?  He was rusticated once some years back by the Sun-Times for I don’t know what reason.  (I’ll bet Downey knows.)  And he is (a) ridiculously untrustworthy as to predictions of failure for ChiSox, (b) driven on daily basis to report sensationally what’s wrong with everything (waking up, he has very unwholesome thoughts), and (c) apparently a dastardly cad.  That should do it for getting fired.

We hear much about health care — how bad it is.  Here’s good news from Wall St. Journal via The Market Center Blog:

Monday, June 19, 2006 ~ 8:55 a.m., Dan Mitchell Wrote:
American health care is much better for the genuinely sick. The US health care system is a mess, thanks to excessive government spending, foolish tax preferences, price controls, and onerous regulations. But some market forces still are allowed to operate, which is why ill people are better off in America. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, a doctor explains:

If we look at how well it serves its sick citizens, American medicine excels. Prostate cancer is a case in point. The mortality rate from prostate cancer among American men is 19%. In contrast, mortality rates are somewhat higher in Canada (25%) and much higher in Europe (up to 57% in the U.K.). And comparisons in cardiac care — such as the recent Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada study on post-heart-attack quality of life — find that American patients fare far better in morbidity. Say what you want about the problems of American health care:

For those stricken with serious disease, there’s no better place to be than in the U.S. Socialized health-care systems fall short in these critical cases because governments strictly ration care in order to reduce the explosive growth of health spending. As a result, patients have less access to specialists, diagnostic equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economist David Henderson, who grew up in Canada, once remarked that it has the best health-care system in the world — if you have only a cold and you’re willing to wait in your family doctor’s office for three hours.

But some patients have more than a simple cold — and the long waits they must endure before they get access to various diagnostic tests and medical procedures have been documented for years. Montreal businessman George Zeliotis, for example, faced a year-long wait for a hip replacement. He sued and, as the co-plaintiff in a recent, landmark case, got the Supreme Court of Canada to strike down two major Quebec laws that banned private health insurance.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115033718636680826.html?mod=opinion &ojcontent=otep (subscription required)

“I have four votes to get rid of you any time I want.”

Here’s how the Illinois vote went today in the House favoring 256-153 the Iraq war resolution that “rejects setting a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq, labels the Iraq war part of the global fight against terrorism and praises American troops,” with X denoting those not voting.

Democrats — Bean, Y; Costello, Y; Davis, N; Emanuel, N; Evans, X; Gutierrez, X; Jackson, N; Lipinski, Y; Rush, N; Schakowsky, N.

Republicans — Biggert, Y; Hastert, Y; Hyde, Y; Johnson, Y; Kirk, Y; LaHood, Y; Manzullo, Y; Shimkus, Y; Weller, Y.

The Senate creamed a Dem-inspired contrary resolution — calling for withdrawal by year-end yesterday, 93-6.  It was Kerry’s idea. He did not want it voted on, however. 

Documents found since Zarqawi took on room temperature 

stressed the need to manipulate Moslem and Western media. This was to be done by starting rumors of American atrocities, and feeding the media plausible supporting material. Al Qaeda’s attitude was that if they could not win in reality, they could at least win imaginary battles via the media.

They know how to win hearts and minds.  Rush Limbaugh has taken to calling AP “al-AP.”  It’s full of useful idiots, or so the Big Z and friends thought.  There’s more.

In this morning’s New York Post, Ralph Peters writes on “Terrorist Defeatism.” Drawing on captured al Qaeda documents, Peters exposes the closely-guarded secret (closely guarded by the western media, anyway) that we are winning in Iraq, where al Qaeda says its situation is “bleak.” And that was before its leader was killed, and nearly 1,000 more killed or rounded up.

The Dems are looking like toast in November.  Viva Bush & Rumsfeld.

Chicago’s Humboldt Park is in danger of being overrun by Yuppies, say some Puerto Ricans in today’s Chi Trib — a story, by the way, visible only among print-edition stuff and reachable only using the search window, meaning it’s gone from on-line items as such, maybe because late-arriving higher-up editors don’t like it. 

[This is wrong, web editor Charles Meyerson informs me:  “You, sir, are wrong.  . . .  The story has been played prominently on the Web site all morning — featured as one of the lead items in the chicagotribune.com front page Business section.”  Yes, moved to business-technology half-way down the screen shot, nowhere near as visible and eye-catching or space-taking as in p-1 hard copy, where it’s 13 by 7 1/2 inches, just below the logo, with two big color photos and two more on back page front section, where it has 12 by 8 inches to roll around in.  Believe me, it’s a play to die for in what the man threw on my walk this morning, vs. what’s reachable by not only the search window, as I say incorrectly — sorry about that — but otherwise only by careful scrutiny of web page.  THAT’S NO EXCUSE: I SHOULD LOOK HARDER!

[Moreover: Meyerson is senior producer of the Trib site and asks that I

excise that whole “late-arriving editor” fantasy, or at least correct it in context.

[I can do that: A long time ago, newspapers had night editors who, while in touch with the main editors by telephone, could be countermanded by the 9–5 (or later) editors, probably in their morning meeting, dubbed a “circle jerk” by one young city desk man who later became city editor.  At these meetings, sometimes influenced by the newspaper’s owner-publisher who heard something last night at a party, stories rose and fell.  Once I was a winner here, not a loser: something I’d called in got overlooked by the night man but given nice play for home-delivery Red Flash.  Continue now with this fascinating account.]

I saw a story shrink once.  It was about black Christians celebrating wildly in church — authentic as hell, full of speaking in tongues and shaking and swaying, but my Chi Daily News editor, the late Daryle Feldmeir, was embarrassed by it.  It confirmed too well what some whites thought about blacks, he told me when I entered his office to inquire what was happening.  This was in the days of seven editions, and the Red Streak final had reduced the front section’s back page, full of John White photos, as I recall, to a column or two.  This was white liberal protection of minorities, 1970s-style.  It still happens, of course.

“It’s taken 40 years for us to establish where we are today,” said Enrique Salgado, who heads the local Chamber of Commerce. “Once this is gone, you lose the concentration of the Puerto Rican community in Illinois.”

So what?  Does this Salgado think PR’s can’t manage cultural permanence on their own without him and other xenophobes? 

It’s gotten nasty, in fact:

Developer Anthony Zaskowski said he felt pressured to give in to community protests over a project to build condominiums near North and Artesian Avenues that would have blocked a mural featuring Pedro Albizu Campos, a hero in Puerto Rican history.

After a land swap with Zaskowski in 2004, the lot is now a small urban park.

“We were forced to settle this thing,” Zaskowski said. “We lost a lot of money.”

This is a picture, of course, of a community so unsure of itself it needs clout to survive.

Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) said he is fulfilling residents’ wishes “for the culture to remain alive.”

Citing a ward policy that forces developers to set aside a third of their projects for affordable housing, Ocasio said, “If you take a look at what’s happening, you have a plan that is able to allow people who want to stay, to stay.”

Whenever you see “affordable housing,” look out.  It means low-cost housing, for one thing, and government interference in the economy, for another, with resultant screwing things up, including killing of prosperity for all concerned.

Good story by Antonio Olivo, by the way, who if he wonders what happened on-line can probably look to late-arriving editors, the 9–to-5 ones who sit in big offices.

Army Gen. John Craddock, the leader of U.S. Southern Command, said the men were not among detainees seeking U.S. court reviews of their cases and had not yet appeared before controversial military trial panels. Craddock insisted that the three, although not accused of any crimes, were enemy combatants and terrorists.  [Italics added]

But as many detainees pass their four-year mark in captivity without formal charges, human-rights activists and defense attorneys said the prisoners have grown despondent over being detained without charges and without imminent prospects of a court hearing.  [Take that, Craddock and Harris, you Bush pawns.]

 

“People have been indefinitely detained for five years without any prospect of ever going home of ever seeing their families or ever being charged or having any resolution,” said Jumana Musa, an advocacy director for Amnesty International in Washington. “There is no question serious psychological trauma comes from that.”  [Jumana Musa said that?  Well that’s another story.]

[Adm] Harris said one [of the suicides] was part of a Taliban uprising at the Qala-I-Jangi prison in Afghanistan, where CIA operative Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed in 2001, becoming the first U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan. Another was a member of Jamat al Tabligh, an Islamic group the military considers a terrorist organization. The other was a “mid- to high-level” Al Qaeda operator, he said.

A “stench of despair” hangs over the Guantanamo Bay prison where three detainees committed suicide this weekend, a defense lawyer who recently visited the U.S. jail in Cuba said as calls increased Sunday to close the facility.