The lead within the Department rests with its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which has reached out extensively to Muslim leaders and organizations. Led by Dan Sutherland, who is well known for his work in this area, his Office has held numerous meetings and round tables with Muslim leaders throughout the country.

(You know, just like all those meetings and round tables the Justice Department must have had with the German American Bund in 1940.) Sutherland has been described as "a wonderful breath of fresh air from Homeland Security" by Kareem Shora, legal policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Jim Zogby's old outfit.

I think there's a parallel here with Linda's recent activities -- just as she has attempted to curtail speech on the immigration issue out of fear of offending Hispanic organizations (La Raza has expanded on her effort here), Sutherland is working to curtail speech on the threat of radical Islam, so as not to offend Muslim organizations. The common point here is not the specific connection between mass immigration and the Islamic challenge (which is much closer in Europe in any case), but rather that the same loss of self-belief, the same fear of self-assertion, the same PC paralysis plays out in both policy areas, and is an important part of the problem in successfully responding to both challenges. Both are examples of what Diana West's column today calls the "Oslo Syndrome," where a people under siege come to identify with its opponents.

Again, I think Tom is shaky on the science. "Our evolution came to an end when we developed speech?"  Huh?  What brought it to an end? Not only is there no known process to stop it, not only is there clear evidence that our evolution has continued down to the present day, some geneticists have recently argued that it is actually accelerating.

And "language is an artifact … a human construct"? What, with no biological substratum? I'd like to see Tom argue that point with Steven Pinker.

And I never understand what people mean by "we are not machines." (Though that was Peter, not Tom.) I think what they mean is that we are machines, but that there has to be a ghost in the machine to make it work.

Well, that's what Apaches thought about the locomotive. The Apaches were wrong. Our own ghost-in-the-machine speculators may not be: it's an open question. "Open" means we don't know. To pretend that we know is presumptuous. And given the simply terrible historical record of "ghost" explanations for observed phenomena — earthquakes, eclipses, illness, and everything else under the Sun, and indeed for the Sun itself — "ghost" explanations are probably not the way to bet.

Again, Tom agrees with Peter that "the human mind explains status" … then goes on to mention status among social animals! Status rankings are all around in the higher animals. It's natural that once humans acquired speech, they incorporated it into their status-achieving toolbox. This doesn't tell us anything about human particularism.

Other questionable remarks, too: It wasn't 19th-century psychologists who doubted the ghost in the machine, the idea goes back at least as far as Hobbes. Someone better versed in philosophy than I am could probably trace it to the Ancients. "Nowadays it [models of brain function] is all computers." If Tom can find a neuroscientist who agrees with that, I'll buy them both dinner at Shun Lee. (If he can find me one who believes in the ghost in the machine, same deal.)

None of this matters much. Great novelists don't come along often, and we should cut them pretty near as much slack as they want. I shall be first on line for Tom's next book. I hope he won't mind my saying, though, that he needs to get up to date on his mind science. It's not really hard work, there are lots of good popularizers out there: Pinker of course, and John Horgan for starters. Tom's next book will be a fun read in any case, but a tad more fun if he gets the science right.

Oh (going back to one of the earlier segments). it's not the case that Darwin would be forgotten if he hadn't written Origin. The earlier (by 20 years) Voyage of the Beagle was a bestseller. Just for that, he'd be remembered as a minor early-Victorian travel writer and naturalist.

In his interview with NRO, Romney also addressed the pope’s recent visit to the White House. He said, “I appreciate the fact that we have a president who acknowledges the role of faith in America and is not embarrassed or shy about showing our appreciation for religion. We have a long history as a nation of revering those who serve our Creator, so I was delighted that the pope came, and delighted that the president received him in the way he did. I can imagine that there would be other presidents for whom such a meeting would have been very uncomfortable indeed.”

ME:    Henry Luce famously called the twentieth century “the American century.”  Will the         twenty-first century represent a second American century?

TOM WOLFE:  I believe we’re on the edge of about 800 more years of American centuries.  The biggest problem is all the people who see a problem.  It’s very fashionable to think that the end is near.

Eight hundred more years.  At that moment, I confess, I could have leaned over and planted a big wet smacker right in the middle of Tom Wolfe’s forehead, white suit or no.

Tom Wolfe, journalist, author—and patriot.

It is one thing for other leaders to defer to the U.S. in the crucial peace negotiations, but the world must not stand idle while innocent people are treated cruelly. It is time for strong voices in Europe, the US, Israel and elsewhere to speak out and condemn the human rights tragedy that has befallen the Palestinian people.

An ex-President of the United States seems to be saying that the "strong voices" of the world should oppose the lead of his own country in pursuing a long bipartisan policy of peace negotiations. This reminds one of Carter's harsh criticism of his own country prior to the 2002 Nobel Prize deliberations, in which even one of the judges acknowledged that the award was happy payback for his antiwar stance -- reminsicent of his earlier letter to the Security Council to try to stymie the first George Bush's efforts to isolate Saddam Hussein and get him out of Kuwait.

It is hard to think of any ex-President in our history who has written and done so much to counter the official policies of his own country abroad. Of all the countries one could blame for human rights violations -- Iran, Syria, the Palestinians and Hamas, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cuba, Libya, etc. -- why would he single out the only liberal democracy in the Middle East?

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision. “We don’t mind – actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will [win] the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

So we are to believe that John Kennedy was to Palestinian terrorists—a "great man with great principle"? If so, why then did Palestinian terrorist Sirhan Sirhan murder his brother Robert, and for years became a cult figure on the West Bank and Gaza for it?

A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too "confrontational" and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.

The Wolfe interview is fascinating - answers *and* questions.

Though I do find it a bit painful, or perhaps sad is better, when I hear
someone I admire and whose intellect I respect admit to disbelief in
God. Belief seems to me to be the only logical answer remaining (per
the Holmesian syllogism). Apparently faith is truly a gift.

Of course I still enjoy reading Derb, too. So I carry on.

Me: Precisely the right approach.

Yesterday, when Wolfe mentioned the 7 or 8 thousand, ahem, "moments" happening at any given second, you said you were "smiling" but didn't want to because you didn't want your children to see you smiling at such a remark. [Tom was arguing, impishly, that, thanks to Dr. Freud, there is a great deal more--how shall we put this?--physical intimacy taking place at any given moment than would otherwise have been the case.]

You may have been suppressing a smile, Mr. Robinson. But you were also blushing.

I have a husband--naval officer, owns several fire arms, e.g. a very macho type of guy--who would have the same reaction, and who would also think of his children's seeing that reaction in like circumstances. And I thought, "I'm glad my children have a Dad who would blush."

So, good for your kids, too.

I've especially enjoyed the last few interviews you've done and the
Tom Wolfe piece is fascinating. As I watched today I thought about how
this is what is going to replace TV eventually and how enjoyable it
was to be able to view at my own time and place. What a great way for
the quality of your work to shine through. Do you ever put all the
pieces together to watch uninterrupted?

Thank you for your interview (for the first four parts, at any rate, and looking forward to the fifth) with the author of A Man In Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons. I deeply love both those books, and this is the first interview I’ve seen (sheltered life and all that) with the author. What a pleasure to see him and hear him.

Could you somehow post your prior interview with him, I think from 10 years ago per your remarks?

First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.

We have all become familiar with Senator Obama's new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.

It is important to focus on what Senator Obama is attempting to do here: He is trying desperately to delegitimize the discussion of issues that raise legitimate questions about his judgment and preparedness to be President of the United States.

Through their actions and words, Senator Obama and his supporters have made clear that ANY criticism on ANY issue -- from his desire to raise taxes on millions of small investors to his radical plans to sit down face-to-face with Iranian President Ahmadinejad – constitute negative, personal attacks.

Senator Obama is hopeful that the media will continue to form a protective barrier around him, declaring serious limits to the questions, discussion and debate in this race.

Senator Obama has good reason to think this plan will succeed, as serious journalists have written of the need for 'de-tox' to cure 'swooning' over Senator Obama, and others have admitted to losing their objectivity while with him on the campaign trail.

Today, Senator Obama is complaining about comments John McCain made about a senior Hamas advisor stating that Hamas would welcome Senator Obama's election as president. Indeed, on April 13th, senior Hamas political advisor Ahmed Yousef said, 'We don't mind – actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance.'

The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas' agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.

Just today, the president of Iran, whom Senator Obama wants to meet with unconditionally, called the state of Israel a 'stinking corpse.' Iran is the paymaster and state sponsor of Hamas.

In his victory speech this week, Senator Obama stated that 'wisdom' is meeting with our enemies, including  Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim Jong Il, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Raul Castro. John McCain couldn't disagree more. Rather than giving tyrants and dictators the prestige of meeting with an American president, John McCain will instead meet with the champions of human freedom around the world and opposition leaders fighting for liberty .

We understand why Senator Obama doesn't want to engage in a debate over leadership and judgment with John McCain, but the American people demand that debate take place.

These are serious times that call for a serious debate on the profound issues facing our future. John McCain is ready for that debate and we hope Senator Obama will one day get serious and join it.

When asked about the endorsement, Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, was flattered that Hamas compared his candidate to JFK: "We all agree that John Kennedy was a great president, and it's flattering when anybody says that Barack Obama would follow in his footsteps."

"[The Reagan economic] program," Jim Manzi writes, "was focused on two things: sound money and deregulation...." It was also focused, with considerable intensity, on a third thing: cuts in personal income tax rates. Reagan himself insisted on this. In 1983, as the recession deepened and the deficit began growing, Jim Baker, Dick Darman, David Stockman and others persuaded Reagan to raise certain taxes, in effect taking back part of his 1982 tax cuts. But on personal rates, Reagan just wouldn't budge. (When Arthur Burns pestered him, Reagan famously replied, "Arthur, never mention a tax hike in my presence again.")

And here are the reader's comments:

Shouldn't the year of the first Reagan tax cut be 1981 (although they actually didn't go into effect until 1982)? Were they not signed at the little round table in the patio at Rancho del Cielo, maybe shortly after he was shot?

This is important to me because my biggest disagreement with the entire eight years was the TEFRA tax increase, agreed to in August 1982, where Reagan's diaries show he actually supported more than the "let Reagan be Reagan" supporters (and I) ever realized....

But cutting marginal income tax rates, and the incentive that produces, absolutely was a major component of economic recovery and growth.

The reader is right and I am wrong. When I wrote "1983" I should have written "1982," and where I wrote "1982" I should have written "1983."

If there's anyone out there who'd like to send me a fresh note of praise about that Tom Wolfe interview, well, don't hold back. I'd really much rather end the day with a pat on the back.

Clinton picked people for her team primarily for their loyalty to her, instead of their mastery of the game. That became abundantly clear in a strategy session last year, according to two people who were there. As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified — and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories.

It's also notable that when embarassing recriminations like this start making their way to the press, it's pretty much the surest sign your campaign is over.

Dear Mr. Robinson,
 
All of your interviews have been first-rate, but Tom Wolfe's has simply blown me away.  I love the guy and your interview is a classic.  Today...today, was astonishing.  He knowledge of current brain studies coupled with his deft understanding of human nature leads him to expound (unfortunately) briefly on many interesting points today.  I am saddened that it will end tomorrow....

Again, a fabulous interview with a fabulous person.

See the fabulous interview with a fabulous person for yourself. 

According to [Cindy] Crawford and the “Thirsty for Change” Web site, Americans use 50 billion water bottles a year.

“Fifty billion in America and only 50 percent are recycled,” Crawford said. “So that’s like 38 billion that aren’t recycled.”

Let's see... 50 Billion x 50% = 25 Billion, subtract the loss factor, add in the safety margin, carry the missing supermodel brain cells... yep, 38 billion!

Ed Kilgore makes a stronger case for the ticket. But I'm not convinced. It seems to me that there are other Democrats who could help Obama with most of the demographic groups that are going for her, without her drawbacks. (I can think of at least two just in Virginia.) Interesting, though, that Kilgore seems to be worried about the Clintons' potential to make trouble for a ticket in which they aren't invested.

Of course, University of Michigan professor Juan Cole will translate this tomorrow as "Israel will produce excellent top soil and is on its way to rebirth."

U.S. economist John Lipsky, who is the first deputy managing director of the IMF, is giving a speech today before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that warns of the spread of global inflation. Lipsky says, “This inflation speed-up must be taken seriously, as it creates potentially significant challenges to economic stability that could undermine prospects for restoring the combination of solid growth and low inflation that prevailed earlier in this decade.” He goes on to say, “To put the issue starkly, inflation concerns have resurfaced after years of quiescence.”

Lipsky, a former Wall Street economist and periodic Republican advisor, fingers the commodity boom as the main inflation culprit. I have written that since last autumn, I have become worried about inflation for the first time in ten years. The CPI has increased by 4 percent over the past five months. And I will finger the run on the dollar as the chief inflation culprit.

Along with the Fed’s excessive interest rate cutting, the emergence of the U.S. peso is the biggest driver of rising commodities and inflation.

Dick Fisher of the Dallas Fed has suggested that the central bank’s target rate should have stopped at 3 percent, not 2 percent. I agree. And the weak dollar has forced world central banks into the over-creation of liquidity.

So again I come back to my theme of the need to restore King Dollar. The U.S. neglect of the dollar is causing global inflation and an unnecessary commodity-price boom -- especially oil, but also food prices. Oil has become a substitute for the cheap dollar. Of course, so has gold.

Speaking of gold, its rise in recent months has been corroborated by the spike in the CPI. A simple gold forecast model of future inflation has only missed by three-tenths of 1 percent over the past six years as the CPI has roughly doubled from 2 percent to 4 percent.

What’s ahead? The model predicts nearly 6 percent inflation in 2008 and 7.5 percent inflation in 2009 and 2010. After that, inflation falls back to 6.5 percent in 2011 and 5.5 percent in 2012.

The point is, the inflation outlook is worsening. Let me say again: We need to revive King Dollar. It’s gonna be a big election-year issue.

Sen. McCain, are you listening?

[T]he "floor" below which nobody in the U.S. can reach, no matter a person's energy choices, turned out to be 8.5 tons, the class found. That was the emissions calculated for a homeless person who ate in soup kitchens and slept in homeless shelters.

As our own Steve Hayward pointed out in his recent WSJ piece, to reduce American emissions by 80 percent by 2050 with a reasonable guess at population of 400 million, that would mean an individual emission limit of 2.5 tons.  And you know what?  Switching over to twisty lightbulbs and driving Priuses isn't likely to acheive that for the homeless...

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #666 in Books

Wilson and Rep. Steve Pearce (R) are battling it out in New Mexico in what is the only truly competitive GOP Senate primary of the year. Both hope to replace Sen. Pete Domenici (R), but either would face an uphill climb in preserving the seat for the GOP. Early voting started this week. Pearce is the conservative candidate, Wilson is decidedly more moderate, although not a liberal. 

Derb —

A few more Johnson quotes that could easily relate to the current campaign.

• Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
  
• We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
  
• Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade.
  
• Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
  
• The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

[Me]  The trouble with old Sam is, he's too quotable. If you read him in early adulthood (in my case courtesy of Mona Wilson's excellent Harvard selection, which I got for pennies at a library clearance sale, and have somehow held on to for close to forty years -- may I have it buried with me, please?), and Boswell's Life, and Mrs Thrale's Anecdotes, then for the rest of your life pretty much anything brings a Johnson quote to mind. You have to keep swallowing them unless you want to become a Johnson bore. That man had a grasp on the human condition few have matched.

There is, of course, an anti-Johnson school. Macaulay's essay, though affectionate overall, scored some hits; and don't ever praise Johnson in Roger Scruton's presence. I once did — see these scars.

T he requests, demands and suggestions started coming in after my first column on the relationship between the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Barack Obama. They multiplied after the cool, collected candidate broke with his red-hot crackpot pastor, and I asked what took so long. Why did it take 20 years for him to denounce Wright's hate-filled, anti-American ravings?

"I'd really like to read your take on the relationship between John McCain and Rev. John Hagee," read one of the more civil ones. This one is from the snarky variety: "So here's your big chance! I look forward to your next column, which will naturally" analyze "McCain's own embarrassingly hate-filled pastor." Happy to oblige.

Let's start with an indisputable fact. Hagee is not McCain's pastor and never has been. Nor has the pastor of San Antonio's Cornerstone Church been McCain's mentor or spiritual adviser. Not for 20 years. Not for two seconds. Hagee's Texas address should be the giveaway here. It's tough to have a pastor-mentor-spiritual adviser who lives in Texas when you live in Washington, D.C., or Arizona. Except in the imaginings of folks who need McCain to have his very own Reverend Wright.

Beyond all this, McCain didn't have his children baptized by Hagee. Or donate thousands of dollars to Hagee's church. Or name Hagee to a prominent position in his campaign. In sum, McCain did none of the things that would make for an apples-to-apples comparison to the Obama-Wright connection.

Is there any kind of McCain-Hagee "relationship"? Well, the Texas evangelical did endorse McCain, and McCain did seek his endorsement. Is this a "relationship"? If so, does it say anything about McCain?

The answer to both questions: No.

It's been very sad to watch the man's life fall apart gradually since then, and now quite suddenly this week. Based on his statement, I really think he's run his last race for Congress, although he has much bigger things to deal with than that.

Further details for ticket ordering here. Just mention K-Lo at National Review Online sent you for the discount.

North Carolina (May 2): Bush 78.6%  (vs McCain's 74% in 2008)

Indiana (May 2) : Bush 81.1%  (vs McCain's 77% in 2008)

Nebraska (May 9) : Bush 78%

West Virginia (May 9): Bush 79.5%

Idaho (May 23) : Bush 73% (19% Keyes!)

New Jersey (June 6): Bush: 84% (!6% Keyes!)

South Dakota (June 6) : Bush 78%

The cyclone that has laid waste to much of Burma, then, is not only a natural disaster. It is a calamity partly of human design--the result of deliberate moral ambiguity and quiet complicity with terror. Such problems will linger long after the relief organizations have completed their work. 

Sadly, thanks to the disgusting opportunism of that blowhard Al Gore, people will think that the human design in this tragedy was mankind's contribution to global warming.  He was weaselly enough to admit that we can't blame any one storm on global warming, but still the impression he left -- and presumably meant to give -- was that 100,000 people would be alive now if we didn't use fossil fuels.  The fact is (and I will post the full list on Planet Gore), of the 20 deadliest cyclones ever seen in the Indian Ocean, 19 of them happened before the purported onset of anthropogenic global warming.

On a related point, I recommend Roger Pielke Jr's recent posts on how everything seems to be "consistent with" global warming predictions.  This is sophistry, and it needs to be called out.

Through May 1, the Democratic presidential field has suctioned up a cool $5.7 million from the more than 4,000 donors who list their occupation as “CEO.” The Republicans’ take was only $2.3 million. Chief financial officers, general counsels, directors, and chief information officers also break the Democrats’ way by more than two-to-one margins. The Democrats’ advantage among “presidents” is a less dramatic but still significant $7.2 million to $6.1 million. And this isn’t new: In 2004 all but one of these categories of top corporate officers broke just as dramatically for the Democrats, the “presidents” being the exception.

Republicans do somewhat better further down the corporate food chain, but still lose the competition for contributions from executive vice presidents, vice presidents, and managers.

Wall Street firms, long a symbol of American elite accomplishment, also tilt decisively toward the Democrats. Employees in storied Wall Street institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley have all favored the Democratic field by a large margin. Even both sides of the recent Bear Stearns/JP Morgan Chase deal choose Democratic candidates over Republicans by two-to-one margins.

Democrats also enjoy enormous fundraising advantages among well-educated professionals — lawyers, teachers, accountants, journalists and writers. They carry practitioners of the hard sciences, winning solidly among physicians ($8 million to $4 million), biologists, chemists, physicists, and plain old scientists. Republicans must settle for a slender advantage among rocket scientists.



Not surprisingly, universities offer Democrats a hotbed of support. Professors favor Democrats over Republicans by a nine-to-one margin ($3.7 million to $430,000). Their students, though presumably struggling with sky-high tuition bills, nevertheless sacrificed enough late-night pizza and chips to send $4.1 million to their professors’ favorite candidates and another $1.4 million to the GOP. The “objective” media — reporters, journalists, publishers and editors — also breaks heavily for the Democrats. But no listed occupation gives the Democrats a greater edge than the unemployed. These presumably idle folks have dropped over $14.6 million into the laps of the Democrats. Their idle Republican neighbors, in contrast, have unburdened themselves of a mere $9,775. Go figure.

Who favors the Republicans? The Democratic field, after all, enjoys an overall fundraising edge in excess of $200 million, so any pocket of Republican strength is noteworthy.

In this upside-down campaign season when populist GOP campaigners like John McCain and Mike Huckabee surprised the pundits with their primary victories or, in the case of Ron Paul, their fundraising prowess, it almost makes sense that the party of the country club set has been winning the fundraising race among the common man. That’s right. The white-shirt/red-tie brigade of Republican presidential aspirants holds a nearly three-to-one edge among janitors, custodians, cleaners, sanitation workers, factory workers, truckers, bus drivers, barbers, security guards, and secretaries. While Democrats command the financial loyalty of architects, Republicans successfully woo contributions from the skilled craftsmen who turn their blueprints into reality — specifically, contractors, hardhats, plumbers, stonemasons, electricians, carpenters mechanics, and roofers. This trend extends to the saloons, where the Democrats carry the bartenders and the Republicans the waitresses. The GOP field even secures more financial support from teamsters, steelworkers, bricklayers, and autoworkers.
 

Ross Douthat, not surprisingly, finds all of this very telling, and I don't disagree with him. But here's one point I think neither Ross nor Michael give enough consideration: The Democrats are in power in Congress and most people are betting they take the White House in '08 and expand their control of Congress. In other words, at least some of this support has less to do with ideology and more to do with good old fashioned rent-seeking and favor-seeking by opportunistic business leaders and professionals. I don't necessarily dispute many of the demographic and ideological trends Franc and Douthat  are illuminating, but I don't think the picture is quite that clear, at least by the light of these data.

Then, on May 20, I'll be speaking at the Heritage-UCLA First Principles and Public Policy extravaganza. This costs money to attend, but you get a lot more than just a speech from me.

Military and Security

• General Ja'fari, Commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, says the threat against Iran is not only military, but also cultural.
• Acting minister of interior Pour-Mohammadi says (audio file) the explosion at the Hosseiniyeh of Shiraz which left 12 dead and 200 wounded was an act of "sabotage," and the minister of intelligence says the perpetrators of the bombing have been arrested.
• The Security Council, chaired by the minister of interior, had earlier said the explosion had been due to exhibition of explosives commemorating the Iran/Iraq war.
• The Interior Minister blames "The enemies of the great Iranian nation, who [act] in the name of monarchism and with support from countries who claim they support human rights, the rights of nations and wage war against terror."
• The minister of intelligence on the other hand says the terrorist group behind this act has "relations with America and England, and the Foreign Minister earlier protested against them, but no attempt was made to stop their terrorist acts, and on the contrary, they [the terrorists] enjoyed more support."
• According to ISNA, the Minister of Intelligence says the Unknown Soldiers of the Imam of the Era have arrested the perpetrators of the Shiraz bombing.
• Terrorists assisted by U.S, Britain (English).
• According to Entekhab News Agency, the latest findings with regard to the bombing in Shiraz increase the possibility of the dismissal of the governor of Shiraz, who has earlier firmly claimed there has never been a bombing in the city.
• Abdol-Majid Moadi-Khah discusses the early revolutionary terrorist organization Forghan [Furqan].
• Deputy commander of Popular Formations for Amr-e be Ma'rouf va Nahy az Monker [the morals police] in Isfahan province says one of the major schemes of this institution is tazzakkor-e lesani [oral warning] against patients in the waiting rooms of doctors. According to Seyyed Mohsen Mortazavi, the morals police are organized in the neighborhood mosques and the squad is formed by members of the Basij of the mosque, the Friday prayers leader of the mosque, and the local area police station.

#more#Politics

• Hojjat al-Eslam Kazem Sediqi says "if it was not because of the benevolence of the Imam of the Era, this government would have collapsed."
• Meeting a number of Basij commanders says "the regime has hitherto been preserved thanks to divine blessings." 
• Contradicting his earlier remarks, former Iranian president Khatami says he has retired from government office, but can't withdraw from politics.
• Former president Khatami cheered at Tehran International Book Fair.
• Supreme Leader Khamenei to deliver speech in Larestan.
• Following the travel of the Supreme Leader, the government holds a cabinet meeting in Shiraz.
• Bahonar, vice speaker of the Iranian parliament, says the parliament is seeking jobs for "those parliamentarians from the seventh parliament who failed to get elected at the parliamentary elections." Bahonar assures there will be jobs for them in the public sector. 
• Rouhollah Hosseinian talks about the murder of intellectuals in the 1990, which he considers the work of the "reformists."
• Tabnak reports extensive lobbying for Ali Larijani's bid to become speaker of the parliament. 
• Audio of a month-old speech by Ahmadinjead in Mashhad broadcast recently on Iranian national television (see May 7 Iran News Round Up for background).

Religion, Culture, and Society

• Deputy head of the Literacy Movement, Ebrahimian says "28 million people among the country's population are illiterate."
• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking in Shiraz, praises the Shi'ite mausoleums in the city and the pre Islamic archeological ruins, but stresses that it is in the post-Islamic art in which the talent of Iranians blossom.
• Agah-Sazi and Alef news agencies twist the Supreme Leader's words to praise Persepolis in their headlines, as does the Fars News Agency.
• Same is the case with Fars News Agency.
• Reformist Participation Front arranges a meeting praising imprisoned religious innovator Hadi Qabel.
• Members of the Iranian parliament deliver a note of warning to the minister of Culture and Islamic guidance because of Kayhan's polemics against Grand Ayatollah Sane'i.
• An unnamed official from the ministry of education says private schools in Iran teach "deviant beliefs such as the culture of Bahaism, beliefs of groups critical to the regime, and also false Sufism."
• Tabnak News Agency ,close to former commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai, quotes an article from Tehran Mossavvar claiming the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Shah, was disturbed by "the activities of the Bahai's," and adds "unlike his son."
• A Chinese citizen converts to Islam in Arak.

Diplomacy

• Iranian Jews condemn Israel’s anniversary.
• Chairman of the Expediency Council, Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says Iran is ready to raise the trust of the international community.
• Former president Khatami retracts his words on differences between Khomeini and current supreme Khamenei's different methods of "exporting the revolution," and says Khamenei’s current policies are continuation of Khomeini’s.
• Khatami says that he supports the foreign policy of Iran throughout the entire existence of the Islamic Republic, does not believe Iran has intervened in the internal affairs of other countries, but is also proud of the fact that the Constitution of the Islamic Republic enables Iran to intervene in the internal affairs of other stays as long as its interference is an act of support for the downtrodden and the meek.
• Iranian parliamentarian Mousa Ghorbani-Far says Khatami has been punished enough by the public for his statements on peaceful methods of export of the revolution.
• Baran Foundation, close to Khatami, says his words have been abused.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, chairman of the Professors and Scholars at the Elmiyyeh Theological Seminary in Qom, says Khatami's claim that Khomeini never intended to export the revolution by violent means is very true.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Reza Ashtiyani, member of the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Iranian parliament, says the enemy has been strengthened in her claims regarding Iranian intervention in Iraq as a result of Khatami’s speech.
• Foreign Ministry spokesman Hosseini strongly condemns the British court's ruling on the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.
• Egyptian foreign minister says Egypt will dispatch a diplomatic delegation to Iraq to investigate claims of Iranian breach of territorial integrity of Iraq.
• Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations: "Is at all possible that the Iranian leadership is unaware of weapons export from Iran to Iraq?"
• A group of members of the Iranian parliament demands Tehran Municipality withdraw its donation for reconstruction of Beirut.
• Hosseinian, spokesman of the foreign ministry, demands Iraq change her rhetoric on the three disputed islands of the Persian Gulf. More. In English.
• According to Jahan News, 15 Iranian citizens have been arrested in Japan, charged with belonging to a narcotic distribution gang.
• Jonathan Beth Kelia, representative of the Assyrian Christian community in the Iranian parliament, says "the Zionist regime has reached the final days of its life."
• Fars News Agency claims State Department official warns Bush administration against consequences of striking Iran.

Nuclear Issue

• The Islamic Republic of Iran reveals her own "incentive package" in the nuclear dispute.
• Hadi Hagh-Shenas, member of the Line of the Imam faction in the Iranian parliament, says "if we want nuclear energy we also have to be ready to pay the price..."

Human Rights and Labor

• May Day and union update (English, pdf)

Trade

• Iran's chambers of commerce urge the authorities to reduce risks for investment in Iran.
• The Islamic Republic petroleum minister: "$200 per barrel oil is not out of reach."
• Ahmadinejad, meeting the Turkish minister of trade: "Through cooperation, Iran and Turkey could become economic giants."
• More on Iran-Turkey trade, here.
• Turkish Trade Minister comments on "400 percent increase in trade with Iran" see here.
• Minister of Trade defends the policies of the Ahmadinejad government in the face of vote of no confidence in the parliament.
• Trade Minister fighting for his political life: "There is no such a thing as a mafia which pushes the prices up...Let's calm down the atmosphere, just like the Supreme Leader's advise not to beat on the drums of conflict...The rising food prices has to do with world market prices which started last year, and today we experiencing it."

Economy

• Abrar publishes a major article on the rice crisis in Iran.
• Minister of Trade says public servants and those covered by the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee will soon receive rice rations.
• Donya-ye Eqtesad reports on the catastrophic state of affairs in Iran's textile industry.
• Iran ranked fifth highest inflationary economy in the world.

Media

• According to Alef News Agency, Fars News Agency is currently the most widely seen news agency in Iran, and also reports the forthcoming arrival of a new news agency, Jam-e Jam.

Photo of the Day

•  Ahmadinejad visits Tehran book fair.

[Fukudome] has also spawned a cottage industry outside the ballpark, where you can buy bandanas with Fukudome's name spelled in Japanese characters or T-shirts with shout-outs such as FUKUDOME IS MY HOMIE. (The Cubs, though, did have to pull one unlicensed T-shirt from the outdoor marketplace because it featured their bear logo with slanted eyes and Harry Caray glasses, over the words HORRY KOW.)

Reminds me of this.