But O'Fallon sergeant Tom Otten is far from satisfied by the punishment. "What does a suspension do? It does nothing. That shows a horrible lack of character and moral judgment"[sic]

If the deejays aren't fired, Otten vows to write and call his fellow officers to have them contact the KATZ advertisers, and urge them to remove their ads.

• 60% meetings
  of the cabinet and president or the president and someone or someone and staff. Includes 4 pages spent on a "tension-breaking" anecdote about flatulence and its counter tension-breaking 3-page story of misunderstaken lesbianism. The characters loved these particular stories, breaking up in laughter I, the reader, didn't share. Most of the rest of these meetings involve various cabinet members debating the stakes of the plot.
  
  
• 12% character sketches
  thrown in simply because the author went through the trouble of creating them. The life story of the minor character of the Chief of Staff? Hey, we've got the material, throw it in!
  
  
• 4% action,
  presented in riveting cut scenes of short length and of pointless peril. Whoa, the helicopter of SEALs almost got shot down by an Iraqi MiG! That was close. Considering that they don't do a fallujin thing in the book, it's wasted space.
  
  
• 8% miscellaneous exposition.

Presidential Theme

• Zachary, Taylor
• John, Adam
• Rutherford, Hayes
• Chester, Arthur
• James, Monroe
• James, Garfield
• John, Tyler
• James, Madison
• Jimmy, Carter
• Franklin, Pierce

• William, Henry, Harrison

Musical Theme

• Paula, Abdul
• Bryan, Adam
• Rick, Astley
• Lindsey, Buckingham
• Garth, Brooke
• Mariah, Carey
• Alice, Cooper
• Bob, Dylan
• Celine, Dion
• Missy, Elliot
• Aretha, Franklin
• Radney, Foster
• Peter, Gabriel
• Lou, Graham
• Billy, Joel

• Billy, Ray, Cyrus
• Terence, Trent, Darby

He said he has received thousands of dollars in donations, as well as some ominous death threats. One warning came in a handwritten letter mailed to Weisburd's house. Another letter on a Web site declared that he should be beheaded and it listed his address. For his protection, Weisburd keeps a loaded 38mm pistol in the house.

This is no frivolous enterprise. There are plenty of legitimate, practical business reasons why the Cards are mulling a change. Yet in this parochial old baseball town that clings to routine like a pit bull gnawing on a bone, change is a strange and scary place. That is a quirky little characteristic of the Midwest, where the insular mood is to keep things just the way they always are.

Tradition, the bedrock loyalists call it. Inflexibility, the mystified outsiders mock it.

As a deterrent, at least, they were a failure. Civil libertarians fear these cameras, with some reason (my guess is that they'll be used more to catch parking scofflaws and to dig up dirt on political opponents than to reduce crime or terrorism) but the real story is their ineffectiveness. Every cop sitting in a control room, eating doughnuts and watching monitors, could be out on the street, looking at things with his or her own eyes and in a position to do something about what he or she sees. Nonetheless, the response to the London bombings will probably include a call for more, not fewer, cameras.

That's a mistake. As Jeffrey Rosen wrote in a superb essay published just after 9/11 (but sadly no longer available online), London's "ring of steel" camera network never caught a terrorist...

A University of Alberta professor I know sent me a lengthy article he's trying to get published, entitled: "Let's get while the getting's good."

In it, Leon Craig, professor emeritus of political science, lays out a case for Alberta to declare unilateral independence. And he lays it out well.

Craig makes no bones about it.

Alberta, he says, should go it alone.

Almost overnight, we would become one of the most prosperous nations in the world.

But -- and this is his key point -- the main reason to secede is not because Albertans would have more money. Not that there's anything wrong with money.

More importantly, we would create a country that reflects our own political and social beliefs, values and traditions, and our understanding of the common good.

Canada, says Craig, has been so badly governed since the Trudeau era, it has doomed itself to a Third World, banana republic fate.

Aristophanes is not your name
I know what you're up to just the same

• Matt Blunt Balances Budget On Backs of Hobbyist Farmers
  
  
• Matt Blunt: Liar or Dupe?

• He's conservativish.
  
  
• He's making all the right people mad by cutting numerous state programs to fit the budget.
  
  
• Because a Generation X president would bypass all the things the Boomers still can do to us.

Click for full size

Good with children, favorite toy is a blanket and

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich put the Pentagon on formal notice Monday that he will not approve its proposed move of F-16 fighter aircraft from the 183rd Fighter Wing in Springfield to Indiana.

In a letter sent to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the governor argued that under federal law if he does not consent to the realignment, the change can not legally be made.

City Councilman Barry Greenberg was the only city official who attended the meeting. Good for him. On the other hand, it was awkward to see the relationship the people have with the councilman. They had to restrain their anger. He has the power to ruin them. He will be voting for or against the development plans.

I have a duty to look at these plans, he said solemnly.

Why? That's what I wondered. Since when do local officials have the responsibility to decide whether to use eminent domain to let developers take away homes and businesses? By the way, ideologically, this seems to be an equal opportunity crime. It was the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court that recently declared local governments have that right, but the mayor of Maplewood is a former radio executive who yanked the Dixie Chicks off his station when they criticized George W. Bush. It's as if both sides of the political spectrum have come together to agree on one thing: Money rules.

Kevin Johnson, the suspect sought in the shooting death of a Kirkwood police sergeant, was arrested without incident in north St. Louis County on Friday afternoon, police said.

Johnson, 19, was the subject of an intense manhunt after Tuesday's shooting of police Sgt. William McEntee. McEntee was responding to a call in Kirkwood's Meacham Park neighborhood just before 8 p.m. when he was shot several times.

Johnson surrendered at the Ventura Village Apartments on Jacobi Drive and Nemnich Road, police said.

Northwoods Police Chief Greg Moore said Friday night a detective in his department received a call from one of Johnson's family members just after 5 p.m. Friday.

Moore said Johnson "wanted to turn himself in without any fanfare and without being harmed."

The detective who received the call and another officer drove to pick up the family member, then headed to Ventura Village Apartments, Moore said.

When they arrived, the relative directed them to an apartment near the back of the complex. Moore said another relative greeted them at the door.

Johnson was sitting on a couch in the apartment with his hands in front of him, Moore said.

Moore described Johnson's demeanor as "humble and cooperative" as he was taken into custody.