“A CULTURE OF COVER-UP” at the European Union: It’s amusing to me that people who are unhappy with corporate influence on American governance hold the E.U. up as a shining example, when in fact it seems to be far more bought-and-paid-for. It’s like Enron, everywhere.

I SAID A WHILE BACK that Democrats who want to win elections could learn a lot from Phil Bredesen’s successful come-from-behind campaign to win the governorship in Tennessee, where Democrats have not recently done well in statewide races.

As Bill Hobbs — who supported Hilleary, not Bredesen, in the election — notes, a lot of people could learn a lot from how Bredesen is handling the budget, too. Maybe even some Republicans. . . .

UPDATE: SKBubba thinks he’s doing a good job, too.

DANIEL DREZNER can’t believe that I haven’t commented on a New York Times Magazine story. But I don’t have to. He has.

SIRHAN SIRHAN was denied parole again.

I DIDN’T SEE IT, but the Clinton/Dole point/counterpoint segment on 60 Minutes is getting pretty brutal reviews.

PEOPLE ARE EXCITED about the world’s largest Cheeto. Well, yeah.

DRUDGE cites this poll as indicating growing support for war in Iraq. That’s basically right, with a few qualifications.

Meanwhile Stephen Green has comments on timing.

I DON’T THINK ERIC ALTERMAN knew who he was dissing, when he dismissed Jeff Jarvis. Jeff, of course, responds like a gentleman.

But poor Eric doesn’t realize that he missed out on the chance for wealth and power beyond his wildest dreams. Instead, he’ll probably wind up like the last guy to dis Jeff Jarvis. And, as you’ll see if you follow the link, that’s not pretty at all. . . .

HEY — thanks to all the folks who hit the Paypal and Amazon buttons over the weekend. I appreciate it.

THE FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION is releasing guides to student rights on campus. Very timely, I’d say.

IT’S A TRENT LOTT MOMENT FOR THE DEMOCRATS:

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, March 10, 2003; 3:22 PM

Jewish organizations condemned Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) today for delivering what they said were anti-Semitic remarks at an anti-war forum in Reston, in which he suggested that American Jews are responsible for pushing the country to war with Iraq and that Jewish leaders could prevent war if they wanted. . . .

Moran has labored to emerge from a string of personal financial problems and ethics controversies over his acceptance of loans from parties with interests before him. Jewish activists said the episode threatened to make Moran the Democratic Party’s Trent Lott, referring to the former Senate majority leader from Mississippi who was deposed this winter for saying that the country would have been better off electing a segregationist for president in 1948.

Moran’s relationship with pro-Israel organizations and American Jewish leaders has steadily worsened in recent years over his pro-Palestinian stands in the Middle East conflict, interpretation of Israeli history and acceptance of campaign cash from individuals sympathetic to the terrorist organization Hamas or under investigation for terrorist ties.

Then there’s this guy. No question about it. Anti-semitism is on the rise.

At least Democrats are distancing themselves from Moran:

State Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), an 11-year incumbent from Reston, said Moran’s remarks were “inexcusable and intolerable.”

“For the congressman to scapegoat and blame the Jewish community for the impending war is intolerable. Whether we suport or oppose the war, we must respect all religious communities,” Howell said. “There is no question that responsible Democratic leaders should distance themselves from him.”

At the very least.

UPDATE: Ted Barlow distinguishes this from the Lott case, though not in a way that helps Moran.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Armed Liberal has more on Moran. He’s not happy. Neither is Dan Gelfand.

APPARENTLY BUSH PULLED THE RUG out from under Chirac today.

SCRAPPLEFACE GETS SERIOUS: With an invitation for readers to post comments supporting our troops.

MAX BOOT WRITES that the United States should not let itself be tied down by “Lilliputians.”

Personally, I think it’s time that somebody tried appeasing us for a change.

DECLAN MCCULLAGH: “Revealed: Indymedia’s government links, ties to Bush administration.” Heh.

SOME IRAQIS AREN’T OVERJOYED at the thought that they may face a female administrator, postwar. (Via Third Hand).

On the other hand (would that be a fourth hand?) here’s a report that Iraqis are downing statues of Saddam Hussein. The beginning of an internal revolt?

UPDATE: Justin Katz has comments on the first item.

JAMES LILEKS WRITES about war movies and Chrissie Hynde.

HAD AN INTERESTING LUNCH with U.T. Law faculty and a visiting scholar from Bulgaria. We actually have a pretty well-established connection there, started when one of my colleagues was observing elections a few years ago, but most of what I know about Bulgaria actually comes from reading Sofia Sideshow. Lots of interesting discussion about Bulgarian politics and diplomacy.

One point that he made was the great value of U.S. assistance in anti-corruption efforts via USAID and other agencies. I’ve heard this from quite a few people from various places. It’s the sort of thing that does a lot of good, but doesn’t get much attention. I don’t know if efforts along that line are getting more assistance now, or if they’re being turned into stepchildren because of the general focus on anti-terrorism. If the latter, then someone’s making a big mistake.

ST. LOUIS KURDS ARE RALLYING IN FAVOR OF WAR — but without Turkey. (Via No Watermelons.)

CONFESSIONS OF A WEARY WAR-BLOGGER: Over at GlennReynolds.com. But though my head is weary, it remains unbowed.

JUST HOW MANY SMOKING GUNS DO WE NEED?

United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq have discovered a new variety of rocket apparently configured to spread bomblets filled with chemical or biological agents over large areas, United States officials say.

The reconfigured rocket warheads appear to be cobbled together from Iraq’s stockpiles of imported or home-built weapons, some of which Iraq has already used with both conventional and chemical warheads. Iraq insists it has destroyed all its old chemical warheads, a claim the inspectors have not verified.

But, no doubt, Saddam will promise not to do it again and that will be enough for some people.

JOHN KERRY IS CALLING BRITAIN, AUSTRALIA, SPAIN, ET AL. a “trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted.”

Is a man who aims such crude insults at our allies capable of being a successful President?

UPDATE: Jason Rylander emails that he thinks I’m being unfair here:

When I went to the article, it was clear he was referring not to the nations generally but the fact that we have to bribe, coerce and extort them to join us in the war effort. That’s very different than what one glea[n]s from a reading of your post, isn’t it?

I don’t think so. After all, it’s a lie — and hence an insult — to suggest that those countries are only with us because they’re bribed, coerced or extorted. Does Kerry really think that’s why John Howard and Tony Blair, for example, are standing by us?

Of course the notion, implicit in Kerry’s statement, that one should never use bribery or extortion in putting together an alliance bespeaks either more dishonesty — if Kerry knows better — or a dangerous naivete regarding diplomacy, if he doesn’t.

There’s just no way to spin this so that Kerry looks good. Unless, of course, you think that a good Presidential candidate should live in “Pilger world,” a place where “doing anything because it’s American-inspired is proof of perfidy while surrender is nothing short of virtuous.”

CATERINA FAKE NOTES Saddam’s personal history with torture.

HERE IS A PAGE OF PHOTOS from a pro-America rally in Pittsburgh over the weekend. For more along these lines, go here, and here. Also here.

HERE’S A HEARTWARMING STORY:

KAKUMA, Kenya — The engines rumbled and the red sand swirled as the cargo plane roared onto the dirt airstrip. One by one, the dazed and impoverished refugees climbed from the belly of the plane into this desolate wind-swept camp.

They are members of Africa’s lost tribe, the Somali Bantu, who were stolen from the shores of Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania and carried on Arab slave ships to Somalia two centuries ago. They were enslaved and persecuted until Somalia’s civil war scattered them to refugee camps in the 1990’s. . . .

Over the next two years, nearly all of the Somali Bantu refugees in Kenya — about 12,000 people — are to be flown to the United States. This is one of the largest refugee groups to receive blanket permission for resettlement since the mid-1990’s, State Department officials say. . . .

In Somalia, the lighter-skinned majority rejected the Bantu, for their slave origins and dark skin and wide features. Even after they were freed from bondage, the Bantu were denied meaningful political representation and rights to land ownership. During the Somali civil war, they were disproportionately victims of rapes and killings.

I think it’s going to be quite an adjustment for them, and no doubt there are people (nearly all non-Bantu) who are outraged that their traditional ways are going to have to change in the process. I suspect, though, that they’ll do better here than they would in, say, France.

The New York Times, however, can’t help but make a hash of the story by including this passage:

The refugees watch snippets of American life on videos in class, and they marvel at the images of supermarkets filled with peppers and tomatoes and of tall buildings that reach for the clouds. But they know little about racism, poverty, the bone-chilling cold or the cities that will be chosen for them by refugee resettlement agencies.

They know little about racism or poverty? Read your own freakin’ story — they’ve been enslaved because of their skin color, and they’re living in refugee camps! They’re encountering running water and flush toilets for the first time! Jeezus. To a certain class of writer, “racism and poverty” can only exist in America, and have no meaning anywhere else.