King of Fools

“If it looks like war, then it does not look like the United Nations,” said Kenneth Allard, a retired Army officer and professor of military history at Georgetown University.

Allard was dismayed that the administration had reached a point where it had no recourse but the United Nations. “I look on this as a very clumsy piece of American statecraft,” he said.

It was the United Nations that was kicked around by insurgents in Somalia a decade ago, with a U.N. combat force pinned down at the Mogadishu airport until American Marines arrived. And it was a U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia that in 1995 was overrun by rampaging Serb troops who took some peacekeepers hostage, then stormed down the road into Srebrenica — which was under official U.N. protection — and massacred some 8,000 Muslims.

U.N. forces often come from desperately poor nations like Bangladesh and Guatemala, which earn hard currency for “renting out” their soldiers. And often the troops show up with no gear — not even underwear, in the case of some Guatemalans assigned to peacekeeping duties in Haiti in 1994.

There are women's bodies scattered in Bunia's main market place; a baby's body on its main road; two priests' bodies inside one church. Last week, a burning corpse was tossed on to the main UN compound's lawn, to show 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers what they were missing while they cowered under fire behind its razor-wire perimeter, unauthorized to intervene in the latest massacre of Congolese civilians.

Whitmire, D-Houston, broke ranks with fellow Democratic senators earlier this week by announcing he was quitting a Senate boycott. He said he would return to Austin from Albuquerque, N.M., in an effort to negotiate a deal to end a stalemate in the congressional redistricting battle with Republicans.

Whitmire's staff announced the news conference without booking the Lieutenant Governor's Press Conference Room.

But Senate spokesman Mark Miner said that unless he pays his fines, Whitmire will be told he cannot use the room when he shows up.

'The press conference room is not available,' Miner said.

Senate Republicans passed a resolution last month issuing fines and sanctions against 11 Democrats who fled the state July 28 to break the Senate quorum and kill a Republican congressional redistricting plan.

The resolution specifically banned the missing Democrats from booking news conference rooms until after they had paid their fines for deadlocking the second special session.

'No reservations for conference rooms, press conference rooms or meeting rooms will be allowed,' according to a letter Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw sent to the boycotting senators Aug. 15 after the Senate vote.

'We do not deal with the opposition in a militaristic manner but through dialogue,' Abbas told a key meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

An Israeli soldier was also killed and four wounded in the operation in the city of Nablus, which ended when soldiers blew up an apartment building where Mohammad al-Hanbali had been holed up, making 28 families homeless.

If that happens, expect a decline in local populations of small mammals, waterfowl, birds and farm-raised ducks and chickens, said Ruth Milner, a district biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The mink were released Monday morning from the Roesler Brothers Fur Farm when someone cut through a fence and opened numerous cages. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group classified as a domestic terror organization by the FBI, has claimed responsibility in an e-mail to the media.

His withdrawal should embarrass Republicans who have been outwitted on judgeships by Ted Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are orchestrating the first filibusters of appellate-court nominations in American history. Democrats have paid no political price for raising the "advice and consent" standard for Senate confirmation to 60 votes from a simple majority.

At night the streets are full of pedestrians, many families with children. I am at a loss to reconcile what we see on the ground with what is being reported.

The "regular people" are much better off than they were. Security has improved with Iraqi police everywhere, telephones are starting to work, electricity, while off and on, is relatively stable, the stores are full of food, and, little by little, people are getting jobs back.

Pensions have been paid on time. The schools are working and people for the first time have hope and a future.

When I was here before the war what was most awful for people was that they had no future -- nothing to look forward to. For us who have never experienced that situation, it is difficult to understand, but it is akin to being in prison without the possibility of parole.

They would look at me and say, "Sure we have food, a place to live, a job. But can you understand what it is to live with no tomorrow? It is like living in prison."

Now -- for the first time in 35 years -- they have a hope and a future. What most impressed me was to see Iraqis really hustling. They are thinking of starting companies and importing goods.

'After being in my district for five days, I have concluded my constituents are opposed to redistricting, but they also believe the fight should be on the Senate floor,' Whitmire said before heading back to Texas.

Whitmire complained that Democrats lacked 'an exit plan.'

His return increased pressure for Democrats to end their 38-day standoff in Albuquerque.

It will take just one of the 11 boycotting Democrats to return to the Legislature to create a quorum necessary for the Senate to return to business.

"He has indicated he desires to go home. All of us want to go home. But for us, representing our people's future is more important," Shapleigh said.

   'You can't win without a vision, and that means working with allies.'

Why? I would like to read Gen. Clark's explanation of why without allies, there is no vision.

'Then, I showed it to my friends, and they started whipping through the sections. Then, they asked me where they could pick it up, too. So, it's definitely cool.'

Ashley's friend Nancy agreed. For her first and second years in high school, Nancy attended Rochester Adams High, where she said once in a while people treated her like a geek because of her faith. This fall, Nancy is joining her friend Ashley at Oakland Christian School in Auburn Hills where Bibles are not only accepted -- they're required.

Nancy said she wishes she'd had Revolve last year at Adams. 'You wouldn't look completely ridiculous pulling this out at lunch. It's not like some big, black Holy Bible you're pulling out. It's a magazine. A lot of people read magazines.'

Hanson was charged only with a misdemeanor because of the late-night time of the incident, and the fact that the freezer was in a back area with no one inside, District Attorney David Roger said.

'The only victim in that case was a lobster, and Nevada statutes don't provide for attempted murder of a lobster,' Roger said.