Worried Yet?

I am. Two Saudi men boarded a school bus in Tampa.

TAMPA - Two Saudi men were arrested Friday after they boarded a school bus and rode to Wharton High School in New Tampa.

Students on the bus became alarmed, as did the bus driver, who called ahead. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies met the bus at the school and detained the men. No one was injured and nothing out of line occurred on the bus, deputies said.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, who lives in Apt. 302 in The Point apartments, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20 Monticello Gardens, Apt. 304-A, each were charged with trespassing on school property. Both remained in Orient Road Jail on Friday evening. Bail for each was set at $250.

"Both defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school," said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

"They said they wanted to go to Wharton to look around, and then they said they wanted to go there to have some fun, and then they said they wanted to enroll in the English classes there," Callaway said.

Despite the absolutely absurd reassurance from CAIR, this is not a "cultural difference". This is not a couple of innocent guys out for a little fun. The men told at least three completely different stories on why they had boarded the bus in the first place. They also tried to tell the police they were from Morocco before admitting they were Saudi.

We had all better be worried right now.

UPDATE: It seems that at least one person on the left thinks anyone who is concerned about this is overreacting. EL Frederick linked back from one such person. (Thanks very much, EL). Now, seriously, left or right, let me ask a couple of questions:

Have you ever heard of two grown men - from any country - getting on a school bus?

Have you ever heard of any men who got on a school bus lying about their country of origin?

Have you ever heard of any men who got on a school bus who gave three completely different explanations of why they got on the school bus in the first place?

Yeah. It must be baseless alarmism.

FBI Raid

The FBI launched a search of Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) last night. It looks like things are heating up in the corruption investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the unusual raid on a Congressional office began about 7:15 p.m., when agents entered Mr. Jefferson's suite of offices in the Rayburn House Office Building, and was being conducted as part of an "ongoing corruption investigation."

The statement offered no details of what was sought or of how long F.B.I. agents would remain in the building, which is across the street from the Capitol.

An F.B.I. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation, said it was the first time the agency had raided a lawmaker's office on Capitol Hill.

Vernon Jackson, a Kentucky businessman, admitted bribing Jefferson to the tune of close to $400,000 in exchange for help in securing contracts in Western Africa. The FBI has already raided Jefferson's home(s) and also searched the home of the vice-president of Nigeria. The House ethics committee has also opened an investigation.

UPDATE: Okay, if this report is true, the Democrats have to jettison this man at once if they want to keep any credibility. This is simply open corruption of the worst kind and even keeping Jefferson anywhere near the rest of the party slimes everyone.

Oh Heck

Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin went and won the mayor's race in New Orleans. Dang.

"This is a great day for the city of New Orleans. This election is over, and it's time for this community to start the healing process," Nagin said Saturday in a joyful victory speech.

"It's time for us to stop the bickering," he said. "It's time for us to stop measuring things in black and white and yellow and Asian. It's time for us to be one New Orleans."

Sorry, I wasn't pulling for Nagin. I think my candidate should immediately rise up and demand a recount. THAT would make some headlines!

UPDATE: Well, I have to admit, Ray Nagin just went up a bit in my opinion.

Surrounded by throngs of cheering supporters, Nagin acknowledged the antagonism he has aroused since Katrina and, to the surprise of many in the room, thanked President Bush.

"I want to thank you Mr. President. You and I have probably been the most vilified politicians in the country," he said. "But I want to thank you for moving that promise that you made in Jackson Square forward."

He cited the billions of dollars for housing and levee construction that Bush has supported, and then urged unity: "This election is over, and it is time for this community to start the healing process."

I think it was a good thing for him to acknowledge that a lot of aid has gone into New Orleans and not take a cheap shot and vilify Bush. There's been enough smear politics, it's nice to see someone honest enough to rise above it.

Mind you, I still want to see my guy rise up and demand a recount. But only because it would be very, very funny!

UPDATE: Ok, this one is starting to get very strange. If this report from Drudge is true, Howard Dean just did an enormous amount of damage. I'm not saying Drudge has been totally accurate in the past - because he has not. But, if he is on this one, this is radioactive for the Democrats. If Dean actively tried to unseat a black mayor using out-of state white donors, he has seriously damaged the party with one of it's core constituencies. I'd say that would be judged a really, really bad move in the long run.

UPDATE: Drudge is more-or-less retracting the story without actually retracting it. Which I really don't think is a good thing and have said so elsewhere. That's a 0:2 record for Drudge stories.

Rehabilitating Gore

Todays New York Times carries yet another article on Al Gore. The article discusses the problems defeated candidates in general have within the Democratic party.

If Mr. Gore runs for president again — and he says he won't, though not quite definitively — he would come rested, battle-tested and, given how Democrats have treated their losing nominees, deeply stigmatized.

As a general rule, it can be an unpleasant career move for a Democrat to run for president, streak to primary victories, win his party's nomination and, ultimately, fall short. For his troubles, he will automatically be consigned by large sectors of his party to a distinctive Democratic pariah status — his campaign ridiculed, second-guessed and I-told-you-so'd endlessly by insiders and operatives who bemoan how "winnable" his election was and "unlikable" his personality is.

They will reflexively lump the runner-up into the party pantheon of losers and hope he stays away. "We tend to treat our losing nominees like Superfund sites," said Bob Beckel, a longtime Democratic strategist who ran Walter F. Mondale's presidential campaign in 1984, a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan.

This is quite true of the Democrats, they really have shunned losers and have done so for many years. Republicans tend to bear their losing candidates no ill will. Robert Dole wasn't shunned after losing to Clinton, was he?

Republicans are more disposed to a corporate or military model in which retired executives or generals are often kept around, brought back as advisers or re-deployed in times of crisis. "Democrats tend to tire faster of people than Republicans do," said Frank Luntz, a Republican communications consultant who has conducted focus groups on presidential candidates of both parties. "A conservative nature is a more patient nature."

Mr. Luntz says the influence of television in modern campaigns only heightens the impatience of Democrats. He suggests that Adlai Stevenson — the last losing Democrat to be renominated, in 1956 — would likely not be afforded a second chance today. "We demand instant gratification now, in our lives and our politics," he said.

Yet this article, along with a recent rash of other ones is addressing things like this in an apparent attempt to rehabilitate Gore. It would be rather an amusing turn of events if it were to happen. The primaries would be fascinating.

An Iraqi Mayor In Colorado

The Rocky Mountain News has an article on the return ceremony for the 3rd Armored Cavalry in Colorado Springs. The mayor of Tal Afar, visiting the US for the first time, was asked to speak at the ceremony. He spoke only two words of English.

"Thank you".

An Iraqi mayor stood before troops lined up on the lawn at Fort Carson on Friday morning and said only two words in English.

But those two words brought the crowd to its feet.

"Thank you."

It was a telling gesture from Tal Afar Mayor Najim Al Jibouri, who spoke for about 20 minutes in his native tongue praising the 3rd Armored Cavalry for saving his city from certain ruin.

It was his first trip to the United States, arriving via Washington, D.C., then coming to Colorado Springs with his wife and son.

The mayor was invited as a part of a welcoming ceremony at Fort Carson for those who had just finished another tour in Iraq.

After the ceremony, the mayor was surrounded by well wishers and people who just wanted their picture taken with him. He told the reporter that he worries about waning support for the war.

The mayor said afterward through a translator that he worried about fading support for the war in Iraq and urged Americans to remember what it was like before U.S. forces arrived.

"One year ago today, not even a bird used to be inside the city of Tal Afar because of all the shooting that happened continuously," he said. "All of the schools were closed and all the government facilities were closed completely. Killing and murdering was allowed - even of the children."

He said mistakes have been made - he did not specify them - but Al Jibouri said he believed troops might need to stay for another two to three years. He said there is still a lot of work to do.

Nobody who attended that ceremony will ever forget what Najim Al Jibouri had to say to them.

UPDATE: More about Tal Afar at Mudville Gazette.