CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Ex-Fugitive Put Up Homes to Spring Rezko. “The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae — a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 — are part of a long list made public in Rezko’s case Friday following a Sun-Times request. Six of the other individuals who pledged property to get Rezko out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center on April 18 are current or former state employees.” Hmm. (Via Newsalert).

IT’S A FAR CRY FROM “OBAMA GIRL,” but this viral video thing works both ways:

(Via Ann Althouse.)

ALT-ENERGY LOOKS A BIT MORE REAL: A reader sends a link to this solar sale at Amazon. My guess, though, is that it’ll be disaster-prep people who are most interested.

ROGER KIMBALL: Grasping at Straws: The NY Times on McCain.

A LOST-AND-FOUND RECORDING of a Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey reunion.

BILL MOYERS pitching softballs. Or maybe whiffleballs. Whatever.

UPDATE: Gerard Van Der Leun emails: “Waffleballs.”

AT CHICAGOBOYZ, a contest on eating cheap. The Insta-Wife’s chicken soup yesterday, made from the leftover Insta-Chicken, worked out to about a dollar a head. People are beating that, though.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AMERICA’S SWOLLEN PRISON POPULATION? Bill Stuntz says it’s pretty much everyone: “The best answer is probably: everyone in a position of political or legal authority over the last thirty years. But I’m pretty sure one common answer—we have a huge, disproportionately black prison population primarily because of the policy choices made by conservative Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush—is wrong. The political right plainly contributed, and contributed a lot, to the generation-long run-up in our prison population. But the political left probably contributed even more.”

Read the whole thing. Including this: “Criminal justice works badly when the voters whose preferences govern the system are not the voters who feel the effects of crime and punishment most directly.”

HILLARY HAS OBAMA WHERE SHE WANTS HIM on the whole debate question, according to Ann Althouse.

THE TALIBAN SOLD OUT: For peanuts.

DAVID MOREL took his Nikon D300 with him to a University of Tennessee rugby game. He got these shots.

THIS ISN’T PARTICULARLY REASSURING: An airbase inside a mountain is the latest sign that North Korea, whose links to Syria’s nuclear programme came to light last week, is cranking up its military machine.

YES, THIS IS REALLY A STORY FROM THE BBC: “Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life. . . . I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns. . . . It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream.”

An armed society is a polite society.

LACK OF SEASONING SHOWS AGAIN: Obama Calls Bloggers Liars for Accurately Reporting His Words.

ALASDAIR PALMER: Destroy Iran’s Nukes to Save Our Cities.

James Joyner doesn’t see that happening.

GUY HERBERT:

The distinction between the legal order in Western democracies and the tyrannies of Stalinist Russia or modern China or the Arab gulf states, is often thought to be stark. In Britain in particular, we are complacent that 800 years of the common law will protect us against the overreaching power of state functionaries.

Today comes a case that shows this conceit to be ill-founded.

Read the whole thing.

I THINK THIS WOULD BE A BIGGER STORY if he were a Republican:

Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor asked pastors and citizens Friday to don burlap sacks and ashes Friday in an Old Testament-style sign of biblical repentance.

Mayor Larry Langford said his “sackcloth and ashes” rally at Boutwell Auditorium was inspired by the Book of Jonah, where residents of the ancient city of Ninevah wore rough fabric and ashes as a sign of turning away from sin.

A pastor who helped organize the rally said Langford purchased 2,000 burlap bags that will be handed out at the event. . . . Since he took office last year, Langford has held three prayer rallies as a way of addressing crime and violence. Bibles were handed out at one of the events.

“This city needs to humble itself,” said Langford, a professing Christian.

Instead, his party isn’t mentioned. You have to go to Wikipedia to find out that he’s a Democrat.

At any rate, this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn’t that Birmingham isn’t humble enough. The problem is that it’s got thugs on the streets that it’s not controlling. That doesn’t call for self-abasement by the community, though the Mayor and the Chief of Police might consider dropping to their knees and begging forgiveness — from the community, not God — for failing to do their jobs.

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Schultz emails:

I am a pretty conservative, evangelical Christian (and a pastor). Thanks for your words on the “sackcloth and ashes” stunt by Birmingham’s mayor.

Repentance might be appropriate for a community-wide spiritual response to the community’s injustice and oppression, but not for a crime wave. The people who repent are supposed to abase themselves. Are the burlap sacks for the thugs? And who in our culture even understands the imagery of sackcloth and ashes? And even if there was wholesale revival in Birmingham, why is it the Mayor and not the religious leaders calling for this?

As you rightly point out, “…this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn’t that Birmingham isn’t humble enough. The problem is that it’s got thugs on the streets that it’s not controlling.”

As I said, I’m an evangelical Christian, and I find this embarrassing, stupid, and pointless.

No argument here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hmm. Seems like Langford has a lot more sin on his soul than just other people’s crimes:

Two private charities controlled by Larry Langford collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen and companies he approved for government work as Fairfield mayor and Jefferson County Commission president, records show. . . . Langford’s financial arrangements with bankers, lobbyists and others who received government business with his help have come under scrutiny from federal investigators. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers began digging in 2004 into bond deals, many championed by Langford, that since have led the county to the brink of bankruptcy.

SEC investigators asked Langford last year about charitable contributions he solicited from county vendors, including those involved in the bond deals.

It’s like all this God stuff is just a smokescreen to cover up his own sins. Do you think it’s possible?

CINDY SHEEHAN FILES to run against Nancy Pelosi. “I’ll represent everyone in San Francisco, not just the corporate elite.”

AL SHARPTON VOWS TO close New York City.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Friedman emails: “This cannot help Obama or Hillary. The more anti-police, anti-white rhetoric, the more the unwashed bitter people flock to McCain in November.” That’s probably right. As with Jeremiah Wright, it’s almost as if Sharpton is trying to hurt Obama.

ANOTHER UPDATE: TigerHawk: “The elevation of Barack Obama to the presidency would vastly diminish the influence of leaders who have built up their power by stoking, rather than alleviating, the grievances of African-Americans. The era of the ‘civil rights’ leader would be over, perhaps sooner by decades than if Barack Obama loses. Even if Al Sharpton believes that would be a good thing — and that is surely looking on the bright side of Sharpton — it has to be unnerving for him. It is not a great stretch to suppose that Sharpton is rationalizing his way to public eruptions that frustrate Barack Obama’s need to win votes from the vast American center.”

MORE: A reader who (understandably) prefers anonymity emails: “I agree with Edward Friedman. Same with Bill Ayers, come to think of it. Don’t these people have the sense to stop digging?” Apparently not. Or they’ve got an agenda that makes digging the sensible thing.

CAR LUST: Driving very fast in the Ariel Atom. “It is one of the very few cars that can make the Caterham Super Seven look like a safe, sedate, practical family car. . . . You can even carry a passenger–great for those first dates if your date is the type of person who prefers roller coasters to fine French dining.” Video at the link.

UPDATE: Reader James Fuerstenberg writes: “A friend gave me a ride in one at Blackhawk Farms race track…holy crap!…an amazing car. I own two race cars…neither is as fast as the Atom. The cornering and braking are more impressive than the acceleration. You need a neck brace due to the g forces.”

RON ROSENBAUM on the Bell verdict and the tragic folly of vice squads.

RON ROSENBAUM on the Bell verdict and the tragic folly of vice squads.

TAXPROF: Tax Problems Threaten Al Franken’s Senate Candidacy.

WASHINGTON POST: “The Democratic presidential candidates have some big plans — with big price tags attached. By our calculations, using figures supplied by the campaigns, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has proposed new spending and tax breaks that would amount to almost $265 billion a year when fully implemented, while the initiatives proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) total nearly $333 billion.”

How about a 10% across-the-board cut in discretionary spending and a freeze on entitlements, instead?

FIGHTING BLEEDING with nanoparticles.