UNSCAM UPDATE:

In his interim report on corruption in the United Nations’ oil-for-food program, Paul Volcker found there wasn’t enough evidence to prove U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan steered contracts to a Swiss firm that employed his son. That was enough for Annan to declare Volcker “has cleared me of any wrongdoing.”

That view isn’t universally shared.

“We did not exonerate Kofi Annan,” Swiss organized crime expert Mark Pieth, one of Volcker’s three investigators, told The Associated Press.

The Scotsman newspaper noted that Volcker faulted Annan for an “inadequate” inquiry when the oil-for-food scandal first broke.

“Under Mr. Annan, the U.N. allowed the food-for-oil program to degenerate into a corrupt empire in which Saddam Hussein bribed numerous U.N. and other diplomats to turn their backs while he looted his country and starved its people,” the Scotsman said in an editorial.

In an editorial headlined: “Report Spells the End of Kofi Annan,” the Montreal Gazette noted that Annan’s then executive assistant destroyed three years worth of files on Oil for Food the day after the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing Volcker’s inquiry.

“Just connect the dots,” the newspaper said. “What a damning picture it is. Its reputation already in tatters, the U.N. stands today weaker than it ever was. Only major governance reforms can save the world body now, and the first order of reform business needs to be finding a credible replacement for Annan.”

Volcker did his level best not to connect the dots.

Ouch.

STILL DIGGING for those hidden weapons.

DAVID BERNSTEIN has some thoughts on law school affirmative action, and who pays the cost.

BIG BROTHER MOVES TO THE SUBURBS: “Bellwood’s mayor said he welcomed the suggestion that his town might be considered something akin to a Big Brother-land. ‘I wish we could create that image. I would love that,’ Mayor Frank Pasquale said with a chuckle.”

JEFF SOYER IS SHOCKED to find the New York Times running a surprisingly positive story about civilian gun-carrying.

MICHAEL TOTTEN IS LANDING IN BEIRUT — and by a curious coincidence, Syria is bugging out. Heh. To paraphrase Yoda, they should be afraid . . .

THIS TELLS YOU WHAT THEY’RE AFRAID OF: And it’s free speech.

San Francisco wants to regulate blogs.

Of course they do.

UNSCAM UPDATE: Still more oil-for-food scandal news over at Roger Simon’s.

ON BEING “THE OTHER:” Another example of academia’s diversity problem:

“So what’s it like to teach in a uniform?” asked the Post-Colonialist as he turned ever so slightly, revealing UC-Whatever on his nametag.

“Gee, I guess I’ve never thought about it. You first; what’s it like to teach in jeans and Birkenstocks?”

Silence (and no more Camembert on the plate); he has no answer simply because there could be no answer to such an inane question. Obviously the Post-Colonialist links his professional persona to his teaching and his research, not to his wardrobe. Who among us does not?

But the professional activity of academics that teach at a military school always comes second — if at all — to curiosity about the institutional aspects of our positions, especially in juxtaposition with the accepted archetype of the American professor, molded by the political activity of the sixties and cultivated by the visibility of the left-wing power structure within higher education.

“I think it would be far too stressful for me to teach children of Republicans,” the Multiculturalist commented over cappuccino in Padua, after expounding on profiling as a bigoted, narrow-minded policy of Eurocentrists.

Yeah, we wouldn’t want to stereotype people or anything.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, never a man afraid to speak ill of the dead, remembers John Paul II less fondly than most.

UPDATE: Jon Henke, meanwhile, is not afraid to speak ill of Hitchens.

FRANK CAGLE looks at blogs and politics, and predicts a big role in 2006.

PUBLIUS: “Freedom House does an annual list of the world’s most oppressive regimes. To some of us, it doesn’t come as a surprise that six of the 18 nations on the list are members of the UN Commission on Human Rights.”

UNSCAM UPDATE: LOTS MORE OIL-FOR-FOOD NEWS at Roger Simon’s place.

USEFUL MANAGEMENT LESSONS over at Winds of Change.

WAS NIGHTLINE BAD FOR AMERICA? Michael Socolow looks at the program’s history and legacy:

The initial popularity of “Nightline” was due to the sensational nature of the Iranian hostage crisis. Throughout 1979 to 1980, the American public watched infuriating pictures from Iran on a daily basis. The video emphasized America’s global weakness; the crisis made the United States appear a helpless giant. . . .

The mob’s media savvy was so sophisticated that chants would be rendered in English, Persian and, occasionally, for the benefit of Canadian and French television, in French. The students clearly understood how to exploit the independent, non-governmental nature of American broadcasting. They also knew that reaching the American public was relatively easy, as there existed only three American broadcast networks, and all of them dedicated enormous time and resources to coverage of the story.

The Al Qaeda leadership has repeatedly emphasized this lesson to its followers. Reminding its followers of the Tet offensive, the Tehran crisis and the disastrous Somalia mission, Al Qaeda statements reveal the belief that it is far easier to demoralize Americans than to defeat its armed forces. For this reason, beheading videos have become an important strategic tool in Al Qaeda’s arsenal.

Yet America’s enemies fail to understand that the power of network journalism to structure the public sphere has been significantly lessened. The era of the big three network news divisions is over.

Perhaps that’s why we’re winning this war.

UPDATE: A somewhat contrary view here. And The Fearless Critic observes:

[J]ournalists should understand that this is how much of America views them — as a propaganda tool used masterfully by the enemies of our country.

Most journalists and academics I know think this is hogwash. Perhaps it is, but there’s nothing changing the fact that a good chunk of the population believes this to be true. We should start trying to figure out why.

That shouldn’t be hard.

SOME ADVICE ON WHAT TO LOOK FOR in news coverage.

MUCH MORE ON THE CANADIAN SCANDALS here, from Ed Morrissey.

UPDATE: Other Canadian scandals here. Extra credit if you can tie these together . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: More, including a helpful diagram, at the Canada Free Press.

MEGAN MCARDLE has thoughts on marriage.

POPE JOHN PAUL II HAS DIED, according to Fox News. (Via BNN, which reports that he declined further medical treatment last night).

UPDATE: Ann Althouse: “Such a well-lived life!”

The Anchoress has the whole story covered.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Teaching Company has made two lectures on the papal succession process available for free online.

Similar material in text form, here. (Via Hugh Hewitt).

Video of President Bush’s remarks, here. “The world has lost a champion of human freedom.”

MORE: Power Line’s John Hinderaker finds something truly amusing in the New York Times’ coverage — be sure to check out the screenshot he saved. Heh.

Johnathan Pearce: ” Pope John Paul II was one of the great figures of our age. However controversial a figure he may have been for his views on issues like abortion, birth control and capitalism, the late Pope was, in my eyes, a hero for playing a part in giving people in Eastern Europe the confidence to bring the Soviet Empire down.”

MORE STILL: Stephen Bainbridge, Jay Solo, and Gerard Van der Leun have posts.

So does Donald Sensing. And Arthur Chrenkoff.

From the comments at Tim Blair’s:

Final score for the 20th century:

Ordinary Poles, 2.
German intellectuals, 0.

Heh.

STILL MORE: Larry Kudlow has a long, and deeply personal, reflection.

HANG ON TO THAT TAMIFLU:

President Bush signed an executive order yesterday authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia.

The order is intended to deal with a type of influenza commonly referred to as bird flu. Since January 2004, an estimated 69 persons, primarily in Vietnam, have contracted the disease. But Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said he suspects there are more cases.

I hope we’ll dodge this bullet, but most experts seem to think it’s just a matter of when, not if, this strain of flu makes the jump to general human transmission.

UPDATE: It’s not directly related, but Angola’s outbreak of the Marburg virus (which inspired The Andromeda Strain) has now set a record for the number of fatalities.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A report on the progress of a bird flu vaccine, here, and more on Tamiflu and the avian flu here.

ZIMBABWE’S OPPOSITION IS CONTESTING THE ELECTION: Fraud by Mugabe? Who would have thought it?

I’VE LISTENED TO THE NEW WEBB WILDER CD, and here, as promised, is a brief review.

In short, it’s classic Webb. If you like Webb already, you won’t be disappointed in this — he hasn’t lost his touch in the too-many years since the last album. In fact, I’d say that his songwriting and vocal chops have only improved.

If you’re not familiar with Webb, well, you’ve missed something. When I moved to Nashville to clerk for Judge Merritt after law school, I had an idea of the kind of music I hoped to hear — rock and roll with plenty of twang and tremolo, and a none-too-serious attitude. I was literally walking past the Exit/In one night when I heard Webb’s music coming out of the door, and said ‘yeah, that’s it!”

I became a regular fan (you can hear me screaming in the background on some of the live cuts on It Came From Nashville) and I’ve followed him since. If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d like, you should check it out.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Elliott emails:

We are simpatico, my friend; Webb Wilder rules! Seen him many times at the Rock Island Brewing Company (Hey, Rock Island, IL. Isn’t that’s where Jake Blues is from?). Shared a brew or two with him and HE is the real thing. He is the “Webb-ster”, the “Webb-instein”, the “Webb-omatic”.

He is Webb Wilder. Lesser musicians/ artists, behold Him and tremble.

Yes. And many live by his simple, yet affecting credo. He also offers advice that should be taken to heart in the blogosphere: “You’re never too small to hit the big time.”

WILL FRANKLIN has more on Zimbabwe.

WILL THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT FALL? There’s a scandal, kept quiet by a publication ban. But some people, Kate McMillan reports, are publishing anyway.

More here:

The possible collapse of the Liberal minority government is once again a hot topic on Parliament Hill, fuelled by reports of explosive new testimony at the sponsorship inquiry.

Although exact details of the testimony cannot be revealed due to a publication ban, there are reports its disclosure would prove so devastating that Paul Martin’s Liberal minority could fall if it became public.

Watching developments in Ottawa Friday night, CTV’s Mike Duffy says the capital is buzzing with speculation the opposition will confront the Liberals with some of that testimony next week.

“It’s probably going to be raised here on Monday by the opposition,” Duffy told CTV News.

“Because MPs have privilege on the floor of the House of Commons it is conceivable that the Bloc Quebecois could get up and run some information from behind the closed doors” at the Gomery inquiry, he said.

A publication ban. How . . . Canadian.

UPDATE: Canadian reader Patrick Brown emails:

I think you may have the wrong impression about the publication ban on evidence at the Gomery inquiry in Canada – the one where apparently Liberal-damning evidence may be given next week. The inquiry is generally open, and televised, and one of the most-watched programs in Quebec, where the corrupt practices were concentrated. 3 men facing multiple criminal counts of fraud and conspiracy asked the Judge running the inquiry (Judge Gomery) for a publication ban on their upcoming testimony and the testimony of other witnesses that may bear on their conduct until after their criminal trials which begin the week of May 2nd and will last about 4-6 weeks.

In a ruling that has been hailed by a National Post editorial, Judge Gomery agreed to a partial publication ban, on the testimony of the 3 men, but not of any other witness, until the moment their juries are sequestered. Television
images of the testimony will be captured and sent to the media room as usual, but not published until the ban is lifted. The decision is available here:

Link

I am no fan of the Liberal government and it looks like there is plenty of corruption to be found, but Judge Gomery is doing a good job with this inquiry and I am confident that the delay in publication will be short and is justified. This is not a case of a pet judge being given the job of whitewashing the government. It probably doesn’t even matter what his final report says – the proceedings are televised and the banned material will be also at some point. People are making up their own minds in Quebec, and the polls show it’s costing the Liberals bigtime.

Okay, I stand corrected if I gave the wrong impression. But the notion of a publication ban that’s good against the world — which is how the order reads — seems quite consistent with Canada’s reputation as a “pleasantly authoritarian country.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: “Time for a ‘Maple Leaf Revolution,’ eh?”

ACADEMIC DIVERSITY and a baseball analogy: Some thoughts from K.C. Johnson in Inside Higher Education.