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Post your short news items, issues of interest, links, and so on. All who advance the Cause are welcome.

LET'S ROLL!!!

Open message to the Europeans - when it reaches 100, we can talk.

Did you sleep better last night?

Good morning!

Heads up Chair.......you have a tornado warning just posted for Southern Fairfax County.

Mr. Chairman, a couple things to report:

Had a tour last night, UK folks, which I always enjoy. The Euros always get a kick out of my Capitol speech which defines the American experience in the Freedom statue atop. In that the statue was originally built with a "liberty cap," and that then Sec-War Jeff Davis ordered it replaced with an indian war-headdress, we have therein part of the struggle over the meaning of the Declaration's, "All men are created equal." Sec. Davis didn't appreciate the symbolism of the liberty cap, which the Romans gave to freed slaves. Better still is that Freedom stands upon a globe. This one I love to point out to the Euros. They're all about America's arrogance and pride, blah, blah, blah, and with this statue I can show it to 'em for real. Freedom is for all the world, and in that she faces East, the sun never sets upon her. There are some other elements on and in the building that symbolize America's manifest destiny for all the globe, and all of history.

[Actually, that the building's form, especially as originally built, is all about Rome and Athens, there you have an even bolder statement of America's self-perception: we are Athens, we are Rome.]

I got to chatting with a few of them about Blair. The general view was that he's "gone Thatcher" and is upon a hubristic fall. (The dictionary generally calls hubris "excessive pride," but it's real meaning is excessive pride that leads to ruin, coming from the Greek stories of men who tried to better the gods.) They also feel that the Euro will have to go for a referendum and it will fail, at least through the first few tries. While they are upset about the lack of WMD finds, and thereby feel the war was not justified, they are dead-set pissed at the French. The franco-prussian opposition to the war may well lead to salvation of the British sterling. I dunno the truth to these statements, but it was a generally shared feeling among the group.

Elswhere, I listened today to Condi Rice's speech from Thursday about the Middle East. Talk radio's skirt is showing these days on this subject. I can't listen to it, from all sides. The only side that is relevent is the President's and what he wants to do. Ms. Rice laid it out with precision and confidence, from Abbas to Hammas & Arafat to Iraq and Syria. These folks play ball, while our earstwhile conservative commentators shout from the bleechers, tossing empties and insult.

Nobody was listening to the President's speech of May/02, and he is going about it earnestly. The Administration is not stupid, and that's what I hear it being called. Terrorism must be eradicated, and that is the goal. In Isreal it will not be eradicated for a long time. However, it will be isolated. By empowering even a recalcitrant Palestinian state, terrorism will become as much and later more of a problem for Palestine as for Isreal. Comparisons to Ireland come to mind, but that's due a larger study. The essential thing to recall is that in the 1920s England and Ireland did not go to war over it, and the problem was isolated henceforth. It remained and remains a problem, but a much smaller one.

Anyway, if anyone has a chance to hear it, do check out Condi's speech at Los Angeles last Thursday. If you heard it, please tell me your thoughts.

Regards to all!
-Nicollo

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Hope everyone enjoys their special day.