Dr. Dreyfuss musings

2009-08-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Another brilliant Kass piece>

www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-kass-09-aug09,0,2011958.column

chicagotribune.com

Tough queries unleash a terrifying alter ego

John Kass

August 9, 2009

For most of last week, Mayor Richard Daley was doing fine, calmly making pronouncements, issuing sweeping edicts, decrees and commands.

But then he released his inner Mayor Chucky.

And when the terrifying Mayor Chucky persona came out by week's end -- after a Tribune investigation about political insiders poised to cash in on Daley's plans of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games -- it wasn't pretty.

"I just saw it on TV," said a friend on the phone. "A reporter asks him a question about the Olympic land deal, and bingo. Mayor Chucky. Wow. It's scary."

Positively Chuckified.

Days earlier, Daley was publicly relaxed, almost like a normal person. He stood high above his metropolis, perched on a tiny sliver of glass, standing on the Ledge on the observation Skydeck of what I still call Sears Tower. He was master of all he surveyed, staring at the tiny humans on the street far below. The man looked happy.

And he didn't lose his cool when foolish Chicago Public Schools officials selected a popular singer as spokesman for the mayor's big back-to-school push, without telling him the singer's big hit is "Birthday Sex."

But it was inevitable that Mayor Chucky would pop out. On Friday, observers noticed the aggravated facial expressions, then the hand waving, great circular motions from the shoulder, then the sneering, the finger pointing, and finally, the angry lip curling.

It was more terrifying than that little killer doll in the horror movies. But this was no Hollywood fictional character on screen. This wasn't some demonic puppet with 12-inch legs and tiny overalls, scampering down a dark hallway, wielding a butcher knife, and shrieking for blood. No, this was the mayor of Chicago in real life, yelling and trying to bully reporters because he was asked about a Tribune investigation.

The Tribune reported Friday that developer Michael Scott Sr., an insider who is also the mayor's president of the Chicago Board of Education, quietly arranged to develop nearly 20 parcels of West Side real estate right near a planned Olympics site.

Scott also is on a Daley Olympic subcommittee that developed ethics guidelines about how politically connected insiders aren't supposed to cash in on Chicago Olympic gold.

As if.

The mayor didn't want to answer. All he wanted to talk about was how he was providing infrastructure developments for the good of the people. The Scott questions were considered "off topic" by the mayor. Many of you probably don't know that the mayor's office insists that reporters stay "on topic" at most of his public events.

"On topic" means that he'll talk about the stunt of the moment, so reporters can give oodles of coverage to the news managed out of the mayor's press office. Many days, the mayor's schedulers inform reporters he'll only accept questions "on topic." And then you see the stunt on TV, the ribbon cutting or the meet-and-greet with the children or the seniors, and you think you're actually watching the news.

But a few local reporters on Friday, including a young Tribune reporter named Dan P. Blake, figured they should act like reporters, not press agents. So they dared ask "off topic" questions about Michael Scott. That's when the Mayor Chucky came out.

"No," he said. "this is just gonna be on this."

Translation: Shut up. Stay on topic.

ABC-Ch. 7's Charles Thomas asked him, politely, why he would refuse comment on an important story.

"You know, I'm out every day, Charles," said Mayor Chucky. "I'm sorry I can't be feeding the machine every day for you. I have a job to do. ... I'm sorry I can't answer questions every day. Every day. I do it enough. ... You ask me all types of questions. Today, yesterday, you all had the opportunity. There will always be headlines, there will be another headline Monday, another Wednesday on something else, but that's not my job, to fill your headlines."

Another compliant reporter went back "on topic" hoping to appease the mayor, but then Blake politely asked a question:

"When do you think you'll be available next to talk about the deal reported about Michael Scott?"

"Oh, I do it every day," Mayor Chucky insisted. "You've been with me every day. NEVER insult me with that question! You're insulting me because every day I'm here, you're never here. And don't print that! So I know, you'll print it."

Huh? What? All Blake asked was a legitimate question about when the mayor would answer a legitimate question.

On Saturday, the mayor finally talked about Scott, but only long enough to deny, deny, deny and say reporters were making it all up just to hurt his feelings and ruin everything. "You come to conclusions, you're trying to hurt 2016. I don't know why. ...You come to conclusions!"

What will happen if Chicago actually wins the 2016 Olympics?

We'll have lots and lots of insider deals.

And we'll have lots of Mayor Chucky.

jskass@tribune.com

2007-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

This sums up how it works in Chicago.

John Kass

Vrdolyak always a good judge of power

Published May 11, 2007

The first time I met Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, I was a kid reporter on my first job for a small paper on the Southeast Side, assigned to cover Vrdolyak's big summer political bash.

Every year, Vrdolyak, then the 10th Ward alderman and de facto mayor of Chicago, would open his home to politicians, tough guys with funny nicknames such as "Ox" and "Crazy Joe" and neighborhood people.

It was the kind of party where bagmen would drink with iron workers and bankers. There were no lace curtain pretensions at these parties. They were for drinking and eating and politics, and I'd just been assigned the political beat.

"Want a beer?" Vrdolyak asked me at the door.

He knew that another reporter and I were investigating his role in kinky city scrap metal contracts that cost the city millions each year, but he turned on the charm.

"How about a beer?"

OK, I said.

Off to the side, near large tubs of iced beer, there were a few tired-looking gray men of middle age, in white shirts, attentive, leaning along the wall like waiters with sore feet. He gave one a look, and the old guy's face perked up, the way a dog's face perks up when told to roll over.

"Hey, judge," Vrdolyak told a fetcher. "Get the kid a beer. And make sure it's cold."

"Right away, Eddie," said the judge, who would later be sentenced to 15 years after fixing murder cases for the Outfit. "Right away."

Now Vrdolyak may be facing prison time if convicted on indictments announced Thursday by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, on bribery, wire and mail fraud charges related to an alleged North Side real estate kickback scheme.

Vrdolyak is old now, nearly 70, a grandfather. But age won't protect him from prison if he's found guilty.

His buddy, the corrupt former Chicago Police Department chief of detectives William Hanhardt, 78, was convicted in an unrelated case of running an Outfit-sanctioned jewelry heist ring. Hanhardt is now going crazy inside and demanding a new trial on the grounds he shouldn't have pleaded guilty in the first place.

Hanhardt's guilty plea spared Chicago a trial that would have gutted City Hall and the Police Department like a fish. A Vrdolyak trial could have the same effect on politics.

Vrdolyak's lawyer, Mike Monico, said the feds have no real case against his old friend and client. "It's a shame the government has seen fit to bring this case," Monico told me. "It's a sad day. The allegations will not withstand the scrutiny of a trial. Ed Vrdolyak is not guilty."

The feds say they can't put the money in Vrdolyak's hand, but I'm told they have tape in which he reportedly schemes. Apparently, Vrdolyak forgot his own advice: "Always assume everything you say is taped."

Fast Eddie has no angels fluttering around him in Chicago, like those hovering over the head of Robert Sorich, the convicted patronage boss of Mayor Richard M. Daley who has been compared in Bridgeport to Christ, though Christ never tossed out hundreds of qualified city job applications to put the mayor's stooges on the payroll.

If Vrdolyak has an angel, it's Mephistopheles, the tempter. He always has reveled in that role, always the dark lord of politics, a guy who gets a kick out of ordering judges to fetch kid reporters a cold beer from deep in the ice, offering a lesson in how Chicago really works.

Virtue is supposed to win out in the end. But this is Chicago, and Mephistopheles has always been the better story and Vrdolyak has been one of its great stories.

So here's what people will write: about the attempted murder charge and the alibi that he was in law school, the screaming matches with the late Harold Washington, his switch from Democratic Party boss to Republican dealmaker and all his time as grand poobah in Cicero, the town of the Spanos and the Infelices. Spanning politics and the tough guys, low-profile for years, Vrdolyak is an archangel of the Illinois Combine that runs things.

He always has worn the black hat, and deservedly so at times because of his style, so abrasive and combative and too slick by half, and that habit of his of always snickering when he wins.

Still, when it came to Chicago politics, Vrdolyak was a brilliant short-term tactical alley fighter, funny and intensely loyal to his friends and family. But he was a lousy long-term strategist, having led the white-ethnic group of 29 aldermen against the city's first black mayor.

Washington didn't consider him a racist. The late mayor used race and so did Vrdolyak. But the scribes paint Fast Eddie as some kind of racist, and that's how he's remembered.

"He's not a racist. He's a bully," Washington was quoted as saying in a book by his press secretary, Alton Miller. "He'll use race, hell, he'll use anything. He'll use his own grandmother to get what he wants, but that doesn't make him a bad guy in my book. Amoral, yes. Racist, uh-uh."

Fast Eddie has been on the edge for so long that I figured he'd take up space in the trunk of a car before he'd ever take up space in federal court. I always thought he was too smart to get caught, too quick, too fast.

But it looks like they finally got him.

----------

jskass@tribune.com

2006-11-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

2006-11-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

2006-11-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Ford to Get $18 Billion in Financing

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. said Monday it plans to get about $18 billion in financing to help fund its restructuring and help make up for anticipated losses in its automotive operations over the next two years.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker also said the financing -- with its domestic plants and other automotive assets used as collateral -- will help protect against a recession or other unanticipated events.

Analysts said it makes the possibility of Ford selling its finance arm less likely but could support bigger restructuring efforts.

Ford said a new five-year senior secured revolving credit facility of about $8 billion is intended to replace Ford's existing unsecured credit facilities of $6.3 billion. A senior secured term loan will total about $7 billion, and unsecured capital market transactions will total about $3 billion.

The revolving credit and term loan will be secured by liens on U.S. manufacturing facilities, substantially all of the company's other domestic automotive assets, certain intellectual property, stock in certain subsidiaries -- including Ford Motor Credit Co. and Volvo -- and up to $4 billion in cash.

Ford spokeswoman Becky Sanch said it was the first time the company had used assets such as plants to secure financing. Earlier this month, Ford had said it was near an announcement on such a deal.

Ford shares fell 20 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $8.32 in Monday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Following the transactions, Ford said it will have about $38 billion at year's end to fund automotive operations. That includes cash, cash equivalents, loaned and marketable securities and available credit facilities.

"The additional liquidity should be sufficient to give Ford the ability to fund itself for several years, even with considerable negative cash flow," Rod Lache, an analyst for Deutsche Bank, said in a note to investors.

Dearborn-based Ford lost $7 billion during the first nine months of the year and has said it won't return to profitability until 2009.

The company has offered buyouts and early retirement packages to all 75,000 U.S. production workers and plans to shutter 16 plants to reduce manufacturing capacity to match lower demand for its products as part of its "Way Forward" restructuring plan.

Some Wall Street analysts have questioned why the sale of part of Ford Motor Credit wasn't part of its restructuring update announced in September. Ford has said it didn't plan to sell its finance arm.

At least two analysts said Monday that using assets such as Ford Motor Credit to back the secured loans makes it less likely that Ford will sell the credit arm.

Ford expects the transactions to close before Dec. 31. The senior secured credit facilities will be arranged by Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs Credit Partners L.P. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

2006-08-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Toyota overtakes Ford in monthly US vehicle sales
Aug 01 7:28 PM US/Eastern

Toyota has accelerated past another road marker on its way to becoming the second largest automaker in the US vehicle market, as its July sales overtook rival Ford's for the first time.

The Japanese carmaker announced Tuesday that it had posted a 16.2 percent sales gain in July as sales struck 241,826 units, surpassing the Ford Motor Co.'s 241,339 sales pace, and marking the first time Toyota has surpassed Ford on a monthly sales pace.

Riding smoothly on the strong launch of its Yaris small car and continued strong demand for the Corolla, Toyota said its year-to-date passenger car sales have risen 12.5 percent to 846,561 units while light truck demand has spiked 8.4 percent to 618,807 units.

Ford, meanwhile, continues to lose ground as its profit-rich truck sales lagged 16.2 percent at 1,103,520 units last month, and passenger cars are running a mere 3.5 percent ahead at 689,329 units on a year-to-date basis.

George Pipas, Ford's sales analyst, blamed the fall off in demand on a strong sales pace set a year ago when the US automaker initiated its "employee pricing for all" incentive plan.

Combine the lack of the employee pricing plan with rising gasoline prices and higher interest rates, and the climate looks pretty tough, according to analysts.

"Last July, we had the highest monthly sales in Ford history. What comes around, goes around," Pipas said.

Sales of Ford's profit-rich volume leader F-Series pickup truck were off 45.6 percent during the month and are 12.3 percent lower on a year-to-date basis.

Meanwhile, Toyota is gearing up to launch an all-new Tundra pickup later this year.

"Ford is just beginning to experience the tip of the iceberg. They will continue to decline this year," said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting at IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Merkle said he is concerned about Ford's future product portfolio, which he said will lack any "quality" for "the next three to four years."

Along with Ford, DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group posted a 35 percent decline in its overall sales, ending the month at 150,349 units, as consumers balked at buying gasoline-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

Truck demand plummeted 40 percent during the month to 121,081 units, while passenger car demand declined 20 percent to 29,268 units, as Chrysler continued to work through launch problems with its new Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass small cars.

"Fuel prices continue to have an effect on vehicle sales, as well as increases in interest rates and mortgage rates," Steven Landry, a Chrysler vice president, told reporters during a conference call.

General Motors Corp. also reported lower sales of 410.332 units for the month, although its 19.5 percent decline was better than its cross-town rivals.

Through the first seven months of the year, GM's sales were weaker by 14.1 percent at 2,477,289 vehicles, with truck demand sliding 16.5 percent and passenger car demand weaker by 10 percent.

"July was a slightly stronger month than we expected," Paul Ballew, a GM executive director of market and industry analysis, told reporters optimistically during a conference call.

Still, a number of factors continue to cause headwinds for the industry, according to the IRN's Merkle.

"We expected to see a slowdown in the second half. This has everything to do with what the Fed (Federal Reserve central bank) is doing with interest rates, as well as rising gas prices. These are some pretty strong headwinds," he said.

Merkle expects consumers to remain on the sidelines when it comes to new vehicle purchases, especially as borrowing costs continue to rise on credit cards, home equity loans and mortgages.

2006-07-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings
What a way to govern a state>

Gaming halls close as budget crisis leaves state inspectors unavailable

TRENTON — As southern New Jersey dealt with the economic damage of a casino shutdown, Assembly Democrats sought Wednesday night to finally vote on a budget that is six days past deadline. The Assembly Budget Committee will vote this morning on a series of alternatives to offset Gov. Jon S. Corzine's $1.1 billion proposal to increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. Among them are a $45 million extension of casino taxes set to expire this year and an expansion of the sales tax to include computer services, magazines and other items.

The Assembly budget also would eliminate the tax of hospital beds and the proposal for rural towns to pay $24 million for State Police patrols. It cuts $57 million from the budget, but reduces payments to the public employees pension fund by $200 million.

“This is a balanced budget that does not push our current obligations into a drawer and does not increase the sales tax,” said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden.

The Budget Committee also approved legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, that would deem casino inspectors essential, allowing casinos to reopen without a budget agreement. The committee amended the bill to include all state workers as essential. The legislation must still be approved by the Senate before it can head to the governor's desk, where more than likely it will be rejected.

Though the evening committee hearing finally moved the budget process along, it did not necessarily bring the state any closer to a budget agreement. In a morning address to the state Legislature, Corzine dismissed the alternatives under consideration by Assembly Democrats as “an unknown list of several dozen proposals, many of which have never been vetted, several of which have never been tried, and most of which are highly speculative or known to be economically depressive.”

A red-faced Bob McDevitt, the president of Local 54 of UNITE-HERE representing casino workers, told the Assembly budget committee its delay in passing a budget had already cost his members more than a sales tax would.

“We already paid the (sales) tax,” McDevitt said. “Tomorrow, we're in the red. … This game of chicken that everybody's been playing, you lost. You both lost.”

With repercussions from the shutdown mounting, Corzine was considering spending his own money on a television ad to pressure Assembly Democrats to pass a budget. The former Wall Street CEO addressed the Legislature at the start of the day and in a press conference afterward questioned whether Assembly Democrats were moving with enough urgency.

“I don't think there was an all-night meeting of the budget committee,” Corzine said. “I don't think the people did the work necessary to put a bill on my desk. There is not a willingness to sit at the table and talk about this.”

The budget stalemate boils down to a test of political wills between Corzine and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden (a look at Joe Roberts, Page A6).

Roberts insists his caucus will not support Corzine's plan to increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. Corzine insists the revenue is the most painless way to tackle a chronic budget deficit.

A lynchpin of southern New Jersey's economy is now caught in the middle of the debate. The casinos have been shutdown because state inspectors are considered nonessential.

“We are curious to see where all the legislators are on any casino tax,” said Joe Tyrell, vice president of government relations for Harrah's. “You can't go back to us every year.”

Not that the casino industry is happy with the Corzine administration, either.

“The governor called us non-essential,” Tyrell said. “We're funding prescription drugs for seniors. We're being used as pawns in this whole process, and it's the workers who are suffering.

Whelan, facing pressure from casino worker unions to side with Corzine, released a written statement accusing the administration of using the casinos as a budget-negotiation tool.

“It is unconscionable that hard-working people are losing their paychecks so the Governor can raise the sales tax,” Whelan said. “State workers reportedly will be paid for time lost due to the shutdown, but who will look after the casino workers who now are out of work?”

State Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Atlantic, introduced a similar bill three years ago. He chided Democrats for not allowing the bill to move until now, but said Corzine Chief Counsel Stuart Rabner assured him the bill would receive consideration.

“I waited three years for them to take action,” Gormley said. “Then to cover themselves politically, after they failed, after 45,000 people are laid off, they try to do this. They don't care, and when it counts they don't deliver.”

Legislation to keep casinos open could not come soon enough for southern New Jersey. Union officials estimate the number of employees temporarily out of work could reach 30,000 as soon as today.

“I just feel helpless because the state is totally in control of the casinos,” Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy said. “They need to do what they are elected to do.”

Aside from casinos, also closing Wednesday were state parks, historic sites, two state beaches and state-owned horse-racing tracks. Hundreds from a group of 45,000 furloughed state workers spent the day in the Statehouse, further crowding hallways jammed with lobbyists, legislators and the media.

Casino workers represented by Local 54 of UNITE-HERE will join the mix today with a rally in Trenton. Local 54 backs Corzine in the budget stalemate and has paid for radio ads criticizing three Assembly Democrats: Roberts, Whelan and Jeff Van Drew of Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

Corzine and Roberts — the two key players in the stalemate — met once in the afternoon and again in the evening but failed to reach an agreement. With no deal in sight, Corzine held a 30-minute afternoon meeting with his cabinet to prepare for the continuation of a shutdown.

State Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, Commissioner Lisa Jackson said her department managed to get campers and other visitors out of state parks without any incidents. She said DEP is worried, however, about potential abuse of state environmental laws during the shutdown.

Assembly Democrats, meanwhile, worked on a new spending plan. Whelan said the caucus came up with 27 ideas totaling $3 billion and jettisoned a proposal to raise payroll taxes. The budget stalemate left him frustrated and embarrassed, he said, but he rejected charges that Assembly Democrats are to blame for not introducing a budget until July 5.

“The fact that there's not a physical document, I think we're splitting hairs,” Whelan said. “The hope was that out of the conversations, you could cobble together ideas and reach a compromise.”

Corzine is expected to address the Legislature this morning for a third straight day. He sounded increasingly frustrated Wednesday.

“It is deplorable that the people of this state are left in such a painful position,” Corzine said in his morning address. “The people of New Jersey have every right to be angry.”

2006-06-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

2006-05-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings
Another Brilliant John Kass take on how Chicago really works.

John Kass
Quiet guy lifts the lid off hiring machine

Published May 26, 2006

Picture a red beet in a suit perched in the witness box in federal court, and you can see Jack Drumgould.

He's a quiet little guy who worked at City Hall for almost 30 years and who, on Thursday, explained how Chicago really works.

From the witness stand in the patronage corruption trial, with Mayor Richard Daley's underlings staring at him, Drumgould was established as an expert in the hiring business.

How do you become a hiring expert at City Hall so you can retire with a $6,000 monthly pension? You do what the mayor's office wants you to do when it comes to hiring some people and not hiring others.

You hire the guys they want you to hire and give them a good rating score. And you downgrade others after interviewing them because that's what the bosses want, even if those downgraded are more qualified.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Julie Ruder wanted to know about the hundreds of people he had interviewed for the jobs of truck driver and laborer. She asked: Didn't the interviews matter?

"No," he said. "Because the interviews are not going to decide who is going to receive the position."

In an earlier exchange, she asked why he bothered with the interviews.

"Because the union contracts required it," he said.

But what about the rating forms?

"The rating forms were irrelevant to who got the position," Drumgould said.

What was relevant?

"The list of names from IGA," he said.

IGA means the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. But it really means the mayor's office of patronage and machine politics, and Drumgould acknowledged as much.

He spoke in a little voice, but what he said was devastating to Daley underlings Robert Sorich, Patrick Slattery, Tim McCarthy and John Sullivan.

Every city worker understands. They're made scapegoats by those TV news exposes that shriek about three men on a shovel. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars in asphalt and trucking contracts go out the back door.

The aldermen ignore the big stuff because the aldermen are afraid. But they're brave when it comes to ginning up phony racial issues involving the naming of streets for dead Black Panthers, the better to boil the blood and get out the vote.

And they've stopped the selling of goose liver pate in gourmet restaurants. That's good government in Chicago: Defend the rights of geese while taxpayers get butchered.

Yet aldermen can always be counted on to cause a media distraction, as with their newly proposed $20,000 pay increase, to compete with bad news out of the federal building. They happily play the bobo.

In court Thursday, Drumgould sat there chatting, a political survivor who worked in Streets and Sanitation as a clerk of sorts, never sweating, wearing a tie. He testified that he retired to take a union job, then came back to City Hall on his own time to help phony up a few hundred more job applications.

He's out of the 19th Ward Democratic Organization. The boss of Streets and San for years was Eileen Carey, sister-in-law of one of Daley's political brains, 19th Ward boss Jeremiah Joyce, king of airport concessions, building supplies, lots of stuff.

Drumgould said he would get names from Sorich or others and make sure the employment forms were rigged. Those favored by the mayor's office always got the highest scores, he said.

It's the way it is here. There are always guys like Jack Drumgould who make sure the paperwork matches up for political hires. And other Drumgould types who made sure the paperwork matched for what I figure are untold tons of missing asphalt.

Under cross-examination, Cynthia Giacchetti, representing Sullivan, went after Drumgould, making him out to be a rat for testifying to save himself. She accused him of fudging his testimony, of not closely reading job applications. But he kept shooting back the theme of this trial so far: Politics trumps qualifications every time.

"I did not read the applications because I knew the applications had nothing to do with who would fill the position," he said, again and again.

The Daley underlings perked up during the cross-examination phase. Sorich sat straighter, as did the others. Their family members and friends sitting behind them seemed encouraged.

What do you tell them? Do they honestly believe that Rich Daley would fall on his sword for his underlings, as they're falling, now, for him?

During the lunch break, out on State Street, I ran into a man who knows the mayor extremely well and has made millions of dollars on political deals. I asked about the Daley underlings falling on their swords.

"They're fools," he said. "They're lackeys, taking orders and it's too bad."

I asked: Will Rich Daley help them?

He laughed, waved off the question and drove off. He knows the mayor is a one-way street.

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jskass@tribune.com

2006-05-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A speech by Vice President Dick Cheney strongly critical of the Kremlin marks the start of a new Cold War that could drive Moscow away from its new-found Western allies, the Russian press said on Friday.

In shocked reaction to the harshest U.S. criticism of Moscow for years, commentators said Washington had created an anti-Russian cordon of Western-aligned states stretching from the Baltic almost to the Caspian Sea.

The Kremlin, in a reaction within hours of Cheney's delivery in Vilnius, said the speech, which was full of accusations that Moscow was limiting human rights and using its energy riches to blackmail the world, was "completely incomprehensible."

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declined to comment directly on Friday when asked about Cheney, but said the meeting of former communist satellites that the vice president had addressed appeared to be "united against someone."

The Russian press agreed, comparing Cheney's words to a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri, when he said Europe was divided by an "Iron Curtain."

"Enemy at the Gates. Dick Cheney made a Fulton speech in Vilnius," said business daily Kommersant's front page headline.

"Vice President Dick Cheney made a keynote speech on relations between the West and Russia in which he practically established the start of the second Cold War ... The Cold War has restarted, only now the front lines have shifted," it said.

Washington and Moscow have largely ignored differences since the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. buildings in September 11, 2001 and concentrated on joint interests in the fight against international militant groups.

But ties between the former rivals have cooled recently.

Cheney's harsh criticism injected fresh tension that is likely to be still felt when Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts President Bush and other world leaders at a summit of the G8 club of rich nations in St Petersburg in July.

RUSSIAN SELF-CONFIDENCE

Commentators said the speech was an answer to Russia's new self-confidence, which has stemmed from high oil prices and a shortage of energy supplies giving it new influence.

Cheney was addressing a group of former communist and ex-Soviet states including Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova which have infuriated their former master by turning toward the West.

Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP), Russia's top-selling daily, showed what the meeting meant to Moscow by coloring in the states that met in Vilnius to show a purple cordon separating Russia from the rest of Europe.

Reaching for another historical analogy, it compared the meeting to that between the anti-Nazi allies Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin in the Soviet town of Yalta in 1945, at which they divided up the map of Europe.

"Yesterday in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, like in Yalta in 1945, the map of Europe was redrawn," KP said, raising the specter of Russia being isolated from the mainstream.

"What can Russia do? It would appear it will have to strengthen ties with Belarus and Central Asia. And get close to China, to balance this Western might."

Commentators said Russia was being expected to knuckle under and follow the U.S. lead.

"At the same time, Moscow's partners are not prepared to sacrifice anything, keeping their "correct" patriotism and their own policies," said official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta in a lengthy commentary.

2006-05-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, this>

Bush says fight against terror is 'World War III'
May 05 6:07 PM US/Eastern
Email this story

US President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of "World War III."

In an interview with the financial news network CNBC, Bush said he had yet to see the recently released film of the uprising, a dramatic portrayal of events on the United Airlines plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

But he said he agreed with the description of David Beamer, whose son Todd died in the crash, who in a Wall Street Journal commentary last month called it "our first successful counter-attack in our homeland in this new global war -- World War III".

Bush said: "I believe that. I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III.

"It was, it was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognize the danger and save lives," he said.

Flight 93 crashed on the morning of September 11, 2001, killing the 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers, after passengers stormed the cockpit and battled the hijackers for control of the aircraft.

The president has repeatedly praised the heroism of the passengers in fighting back and so launching the first blow of what he usually calls the "war on terror".

In 2002, then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer explicitly declined to call the hunt for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group and its followers "World War III."

2006-05-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Wow, the US looks like a banana republic compared to Canada>

Maybe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

A country with 10 years of fiscal surpluses, booming growth, a trade surplus with the world, a national health-care system, a strengthening currency, billions of dollars in proposed new tax relief and in transfers from the federal government to the provinces, and only token entanglements abroad--no Iraq malaise.

Sound good? Maybe the next mass demonstrations will be Americans marching on the streets of Canadian cities, asking to be welcomed.

The principal stock index at the Toronto Stock Exchange has returned 50 percent in the last 12 months, in U.S. dollars, compared with 15 percent for the U.S. benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index.

The Canadian currency on Tuesday broke above 90 cents per U.S. dollar for the first time since 1978. (That makes it better when we come back to the states to shop.)

On Tuesday, Jim Flaherty, Canada's minister of finance, proposed $20 billion Canadian in tax breaks for individuals, as well as a new "universal child care" benefit of $100 per month per child under the age of 6.

The Canadian story is almost too good to believe right now. There's a simple explanation.

"Canada is the world's commodity producer par excellence," said Peter Frank, senior foreign exchange strategist at ABN Amro in Chicago.

From oil and natural gas to gold, silver and industrial metals to meat and lumber--"It's a bit of everything," said Frank.

"Global growth, particularly from Asia, looks to be expanding at a faster rate," he said. "You see a lot of shortages of supply of commodity goods, pushing up energy and non-energy prices."

Unlike the greenback, the Canadian dollar, known as the loonie, is in short supply as well.

"There's no government debt," Frank said. "The world is not awash in Canadian dollars. There is hardly any to go around."

Like the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada has been raising interest rates steadily to pre-empt inflation. Higher rates have done little to stall the economy and have made the Canadian dollar even more attractive.

"What's not to like about the country, unless you're a [Canadian] manufacturer. Then you're in trouble because interest rates are going up, and the Canadian dollar is going up," said Andrew Busch, foreign exchange strategist at Bank of Montreal/Harris Bank in Chicago.

"I would imagine that the manufacturers up there are going to scream bloody murder."

Busch said that in past years the Bank of Canada appeared to fight unwanted currency strength by reducing interest rates.

Maybe so, but higher rates and a stronger currency are the byproducts of commodity-based prosperity, and there's no sign that demand for commodities will slow anytime soon, Frank said.

Bush and Frank predict that the U.S. dollar will fall to $1.05 Canadian by the end of the year from $1.106 Canadian.

"We're trying to figure out whether the Bank of Canada makes any change in its monetary policy based on the much stronger currency," Busch said.

"If the Bank of Canada keeps matching the Fed [rate hikes], we'll go to [dollar] parity very easily."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0605030048may03,1,6715751.column?coll=chi-navrailbusiness-nav

Bill Barnhart

2006-04-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

4 Democratic Party workers sentenced to jail for tire slashings

Tossing aside a plea agreement that called for probation, Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Michael Brennan sentenced four Democratic Party workers today to jail for slashing the tires of 25 vans rented by Republicans to take voters to polls for the 2004 presidential election.

(Sowande Omokunde (right) hugs his motherm U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, during a break in the sentencing proceedings Wednesday in front of another defendant, Lewis Caldwell)

Calling the vandalism more than harmless hijinks, Brennan admonished the four men, including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee politicians, for disenfranchising voters. The judge said he had received letters from Milwaukee County citizens upset over the crime.

"They see you tampering with something they consider sacred and that's the ballot box," Brennan said during a two-hour sentencing this morning.

Michael Pratt, 33, and Lewis Caldwell, 29, were each sentenced to six months in jail while Lavelle Mohammad, 36, got five months and Sowande Omokunde, 26, got four months. Each was also fined $1,000. They will be eligible for work release and were allowed to surrender to begin their sentences within two weeks.

Pratt is the son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt and Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.)

A plea deal was reached in January as a jury appeared deadlocked in a case that received national attention. Four of the five defendants agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanor charges instead of the original felony property damage counts. A fifth Kerry-Edwards staffer accused of crippling Republican vans, Justin Howell, 21, turned down the last-minute deal and was acquitted by the jury.

At the time of the plea deal, Assistant District Attorney David Feiss said that if the defendants paid a collective $5,317.45 restitution by today – which they did - he would recommend all four get probation. Misdemeanor property damage carries a possible maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.

But in an unusual move, Brennan disregarded the agreement and said a stiffer punishment was needed.

“This case has to be an example of what happens if you interfere in voters’ rights,” said Brennan.

Outside the courtroom Marvin Pratt shook his head and mentioned the three fired Milwaukee police officers recently acquitted in the Frank Jude Jr. beating.

“Isn’t it funny - in the city of Milwaukee you can beat a man half to death and get exonerated and here you’ve got four men who committed a property crime” and are sentenced to jail, said Pratt said.

Brennan said Pratt and Caldwell got longer terms because they have prior criminal convictions – Pratt was convicted in 1996 in a hazing incident while he was a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student and Caldwell was convicted of causing injury by drunken driving. Omokunde received the lightest punishment, Brennan said, because of his remorseful remarks to the judge during sentencing.

Omokunde told the judge that the 2004 presidential election sharply divided America but that no matter how divisive the election, no one had the right to commit vandalism.

“As a child I was taught honesty by my family and by my teachers. Your honor, I crossed the line,” Omokunde said, as his mother watched from the front row of the courtroom gallery.

2006-04-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Minutemen Gaining in Immigration Debate
Apr 26 2:04 PM US/Eastern
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By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press Writer

IRVINE, Calif.

Laurie Lisonbee worried about illegal immigration but figured it was somebody else's issue _ until she saw hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters marching across her TV screen.

Soon, Lisonbee had recruited several friends to attend a demonstration by the Minuteman Project, a volunteer group that patrols the border to keep out illegal immigrants. Now, the 51-year-old art professor checks the group's Web site daily and plans a summer trip to the Mexican border to help build a fence.

Minuteman organizers say this spring's marches have proved to be an unexpected recruitment tool for Americans who feel uneasy about the burgeoning immigration movement but may have considered the organization a pack of gun-toting vigilantes.

"We're not trying to be more mainstream _ mainstream has found us," said Stephen Eichler, the group's executive director. "They're saying, 'These guys actually have teeth, they don't all chew tobacco, they don't all have a gun rack in the back of their truck.' They're saying, `They believe what I believe,' and they're joining us."

Lisonbee, a registered Republican, said only one issue matters to her now.

"My vote will go to the candidate who's the toughest on immigration, whether they're Democrat or Republican," she said from her home in Orem, Utah. "Before, we were pretty much the types of people who would call our congressmen and not take to the streets. But that's all changed now."

The Minuteman Project first gained attention last year when Orange County resident and former tax accountant Jim Gilchrist helped lead its first 30-day patrol of the border in Arizona. The group has added mainstream political tools, including a network of local chapters and e-mail lobbying campaigns.

In December, Gilchrist, a former Republican, ran as a third-party candidate in a special House election in Orange County, Calif., finished a respectable third with 25 percent of the vote.

Since this spring's huge pro-immigrant rallies, 300 people nationwide have applied to start local chapters, according to Eichler. The group's goal is 500 chapters by December and a membership of 1 million within 1 1/2 years, Eichler said.

Eichler claimed the organization's membership has climbed to more than 200,000.

But Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors the Minuteman Project for racist rhetoric, said that estimate appears to be ridiculously high. She offered no estimate of her own.

"At the border during this last outing, they had maybe 50 people. If they have 200,000 people, it doesn't seem right," she said.

Beirich also questioned the premise that pro-immigrant rallies will help the Minuteman Project. She said many recruits may attend one or two rallies, but leave after they discover what she called the group's extremist attitudes.

"They get in there and they're like, `My God, I didn't sign on for this,'" she said.

In the coming weeks, the Minuteman Project plans to set out in a caravan from Los Angeles to Washington, with stops in 13 cities, including President Bush's vacation haven of Crawford, Texas. It is also raising money to build a private fence along parts of the California-Mexico border.

Increased security along the border is a popular idea on Capitol Hill, where the immigration debate will soon resume. How to treat the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants now here is where Congress splits _ a House bill would criminalize the immigrants, a Senate bill would offer guest worker status and a potential path to citizenship.

David S. Meyer, a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine, said the growing Minuteman movement has "stiffened the spine" of conservative politicians who might otherwise be wary of publicly identifying with the organization's views.

He said the recent workplace crackdown at a pallet manufacturer that resulted in 1,100 arrests at 40 U.S. sites was part of an attempt by the Bush administration to appease the Minuteman Project and its congressional supporters. Bush supports a guest worker program.

"The debate has kind of come to them, and they're clever enough politically to realize that," Meyer said. "People in mainstream politics who are not associated with the Minuteman Project are essentially voicing their position, which is a victory itself."

2006-04-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

China is rising fast and is expected to eclipse the United States economically in the future - its gross domestic product is tipped to overtake that of America by 2045.

2006-04-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Dusty Baker Not Worried About Cubs' Hot Start

April 13, 2006 | Issue 42•15

CHICAGO—Despite their impressive 4-2 start and the fact that their pitching and offense appears to be clicking on all cylinders, Cubs manager Dusty Baker said Wednesday that he has "no doubt" that his team will be able to turn things around in time to miss the playoffs.

"I know things look good right now, and you hate to see Cubs fans get encouraged early, but I'm certain that things will straighten themselves out and we'll be in third place by early May," Baker said at a press conference Wednesday. "With the talent and drive we lack, it's foolish to think that this team can continue playing at this rate all year."

"If it's September and we're still atop the division standings? Then we'll start panicking," Baker added.

In their disappointing series sweep of the rival Cardinals last weekend, the Cubs did all the little things right, winning ballgames with a combination of solid pitching, good defense, and timely hitting—fundamentals that Baker says his team will eventually ignore as the season goes on.

"The guys are in a bit of a groove right now, but they'll snap out of it," Baker said. "It's early yet. There's still plenty of time to get back off track and give the fans the kind of season they've come to know and expect."

"I'd love to go out there and lose all 162 games for this city, but both the players and the fans know that's not possible no matter how bad you are," he added.

Longtime Cubs fans have echoed Baker's sentiments, saying that, despite the emergence of Derrek Lee as a triple-crown threat and the acquisition of a top leadoff hitter in Juan Pierre, they still have complete faith that the Cubs have what it takes to make it all the way to October without ever factoring into the playoff picture.

"Sure, other teams may look just as awful on paper, but the Cubs have all the intangibles—the inability to play as a cohesive unit, management that always seems to make the wrong moves, a storied history of crushing, tragic defeats despite favorable odds," said Chicago-area resident Matt Grant. "No winning streak can get that lose-at-any-cost mentality out of our Cubbies' heads."

"This is the year," Grant added. "This is the year we extend our World Series drought to 98 years."

Baker cited several other reasons he thinks the Cubs will work into a slump and quickly get back under .500, including his inexperienced pitching staff returning to their usual form, his plan to rush injured stars Mark Prior and Kerry Wood back to action in time to inflame their injuries and cause enough arm damage to make them miss the entire season, and the fact that his son Darren is now older and larger than he was in the 2002 playoffs, and therefore capable of more effectively obstructing the basepaths while his team is trying to score.

Although his harshest critics say that the Cubs appear to be doing everything right so far, Baker points to Tuesday's 9-2 drubbing at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds as a clear indication that his team is moving in the right direction.

"Tuesday's loss was a prime example of the kind of baseball this team is capable of playing on a regular basis," Baker said of the game in which the Cubs managed to score only two runs while leaving 15 men on base and allowing six home runs. "The key is that this was a balanced attack against us. Any team can allow a big inning—as we did in the five-run sixth that featured a grand slam—but the Reds also scored a run in each of the first four frames. If we can consistently take that kind of well-rounded beating—and if any team can do it, it's us—I truly think we can lose 90 games."

Baker said that, although the box scores show that the Cubs won four of the first six games, in reality, they had the opportunity to lose "any or all of them."

"Unfortunately, we just happened to get some lucky breaks, some good bounces, and had some calls go our way—over the course of a long season, that's gonna happen to any team a few times," Baker said. "We'll be fine, though."

He added: "Talk to me in June."

2006-04-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Jack Ohman by Jack Ohman	previous date \| no next date

2006-04-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

We have a tie for asshole of the week.
You decide who gets the award?

Coach disciplined for distributing flier at school
Instructor urged Latino students to attend rally on immigration
By JENNIFER RADLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Rudy Rios was stripped of his duties as junior varsity baseball coach at Chavez High School last week after using a district copying machine to make a flier encouraging Latino students to attend a rally protesting restrictions on illegal immigration.

Rios, who still retains his duties as an English-as-a-second-language teacher, (wtf) was copying and distributing a flier that read:
"We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic)," according to district officials.
(Sounds like a real great 'English' teacher...)

"Mr. Rios used taxpayer-funded school equipment to copy and distribute to children an offensive statement," said Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott. "The principal exercised his authority to remove Mr. Rios as junior varsity baseball coach, and it certainly was an appropriate decision."

Chavez Principal Dan Martinez made the decision, but referred questions on the issue to Abbott. Rios could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

According to district records, Rios has been with HISD since August 2002. He earned about $42,000 a year.

Last week, Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello was disciplined for putting a Mexican flag below the U.S. and Texas flags that fly at his school.

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said many educators are struggling to keep their opinions on the controversial changes to the immigration laws out of the classroom.

"It's a very tough one for a lot of the teachers because it's a highly emotional issue," she said. "A teacher's role is to be informative, but not persuasive. They need to talk to students. They need to make sure they know the issues, but like any other political issue, their role is not to express a specific opinion."

Teachers would be allowed to demonstrate on their own time, including during duty-free lunches, she said. "A teacher is a citizen. A teacher has every right to — on their own time — be as public as they want, no matter how popular or unpopular their views," she said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/3771915

Schakowsky ire phony as kited checks>

Published April 7, 2006

Every time Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky mentions "Republicans" and "scandal" and "accountability," she'll be sticking her husband's foot in her mouth.

The foot I'm talking about belongs to her spousal unit, Robert Creamer, the noted champion of the poor and the downtrodden and Democratic political organizer.

"More than anything, I am proud of who Bob is ... He has been a constant crusader," Schakowsky said the other day.

She said this after her constant crusader had been sentenced for a criminal check-kiting scheme and a tax fraud charge. For those of you who are unfamiliar with check kiting, here's how it works:

When you run out of money, you write a bad check. Then you write another bad check to cover the first one, and another, and millions of dollars later you might be convicted, like Creamer, the champion of the poor and the downtrodden. But when it comes to sentencing, you might run into a problem, if you're you, and not Creamer.

If you're yourself, regular old you, a taxpayer who's not married to a highly connected liberal Democrat who shrieks about how the little guy is always getting screwed by those evil Republican money grubbers, you'll go to prison for a very long time.

At least taxpayers know something about taxes: Every time taxes are raised, a liberal gets his wings. It's kind of like the bells for angels in "It's a Wonderful Life," only this one comes on April 15 and it doesn't ring. It tolls. It tolls for thee.

And since you're not Creamer, you probably won't have scores of prominent Democrats--like U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and a host of other progressive politicians--writing glowing letters to a federal judge about how wonderful you are.

Creamer's judge was U.S. District Court Judge James Moran, the former Democratic state legislator from Evanston. Moran's son-in-law is Democratic political consultant Peter Giangreco, who has worked politics with Creamer and Schakowsky and had a seat on the board of one of Creamer's many organizations.

Judge Moran says he thought about recusing himself from the trial, but the defense and the prosecution didn't ask him to leave. So he stayed.

A federal judge with a conflict of interest as glaring as that shouldn't wait to be asked. He should have walked away on his own. But he didn't.

This week, Moran gave Creamer 5 months in prison, which means he'll do about 4 months and change. And another year of home confinement, which in Creamer's case is a five-bedroom home in Evanston, said to be worth seven figures.

Five months isn't even a slap on the wrist. It's more like a lick on the wrist, or a kiss, but even a lick or a kiss involve contact and so might cause bruising. Think of Creamer's punishment as a breath on the wrist.

In his arguments for mitigation, Creamer portrayed himself as something of a saint, a fellow who fought against racial discrimination--although what that has to do with check kiting is beyond me.

His lawyers argued that he made no personal fortune off his check kiting, and that it was paid back. In essence, he gave himself zero-interest loans to keep his politics afloat, and though it was wrong, it was noble.

But they forgot to mention that the money was paid back only after he got caught, and that the feds warned him about this in 1990 and gave him a break then, but he kept doing it anyway.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Ferguson said Creamer "casts himself as a sort of latter-day, white-collar Robin Hood," but that he "seems not to appreciate that Robin Hood was a crook."

Creamer's defense argued that "Up until the present day, Bob Creamer spends nearly every waking moment focused on how he can serve the public interest--the interest of average working citizens, consumers, the elderly and the underprivileged."

Creamer and Schakowsky were probably focused on the underprivileged--when the underprivileged were serving them at the Four Seasons resort at Punta Mita, Mexico, in January. It was one of those congressional junkets paid for by a private organization, a six-day stay worth $7,045, part policy wonk navel-gazing, part fun in the sun. Think they tipped?

"There's no question it's a nice place," Schakowsky said in a Tribune article. "But it's very important policy work. It's serious."

A few days later, they flew back from their serious work at the resort and Schakowsky joined a crowd of Democrats scolding those Republicans about ethics. She looked extremely serious about ethics up there on the podium.

I'm not challenging her criticism of Republican weasels--personally, I'd like the political head of Republican White House Rasputin Karl Rove on a pike. And I'm not criticizing her for standing by her husband.

But she'll keep pontificating about political accountability, though her husband received only 5 months in the federal can. And the Washington media is probably too polite to call her on that spousal left foot in her mouth.

So I'll say it. Jan? Please put a sock on it.

By John Kass, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/premium/printedition/Friday/chi-0604070150apr07,1,3...

2006-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings
I AM DRYFUSS DAMMIT!

2006-04-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Killing Bin Laden will inspire 10 more: Dalai Lama
Mar 31 10:57 PM US/Eastern
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The Dalai Lama says that were Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden killed that hatred would cause another 10 like him to spring up, in an interview with a British newspaper.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told The Daily Telegraph that terrorists should be treated humanely.

He also revealed the workings of his relationship with US President George W. Bush, said Westerners had become too self-absorbed and repeated his opposition to homosexuality in a wide-ranging interview.

The Dalai Lama said modern terrorism was born out of jealousy of Western lifestyles.

"Fundamentalism is terrifying because it is based purely on emotion, rather than intelligence," the 70-year-old monk said at the seat of his government-in-exile in the northern Indian hilltop town of Dharamsala.

"It prevents followers from thinking as individuals and about the good of the world.

"This new terrorism has been brewing for many years. Much of it is caused by jealousy and frustration at the West because it looks so highly developed and successful on television. Leaders in the East use religion to counter that, to bind these countries together."

Terrorists, he warned, must be treated humanely.

"Otherwise, the problem will escalate. If there is one Bin Laden killed today, soon there will be 10 Bin Ladens. Awesome. Ten Bin Ladens killed, the hatred is spread; 100 bombed, and 1,000 lose members of their families."

Although he appeared not to approve of the war in Iraq, he was admiring of Bush.

"He is very straightforward," said the monk.

"On our first visit, I was faced with a large plate of biscuits. President Bush immediately offered me his favourites, and after that, we got on fine. On my next visit, he didn't mind when I was blunt about the war.

"By my third visit, I was ushering him into the Oval Office. I was astonished by his grasp of Buddhism."

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 when Beijing crushed an anti-Chinese uprising there.

He is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the West and has been accused of being obsessed with the trappings of fame there.

"I never asked people like (US actor) Richard Gere to come, but it is foolish to stop them," he told the Telegraph.

"My attitude is to give everyone some of my time. If I can contribute in any way to their happiness, that makes me happy."

He told the broadsheet that Westerners had become self-absorbed, burdened with too much choice.

"It is fascinating. In the West, you have bigger homes, yet smaller families; you have endless conveniences -- yet you never seem to have any time. You can travel anywhere in the world, yet you don't bother to cross the road to meet your neighbours," he said.

"I don't think people have become more selfish, but their lives have become easier and that has spoilt them. They have less resilience, they expect more, they constantly compare themselves to others and they have too much choice -- which brings no real freedom."

2006-03-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

Dr. Dreyfuss musings

Odd story of the day.

BULL VALLEY - McHenry County Sheriff's police are investigating a Monday chase that ended with police firing 13 shots at a car that officers say was violently driving toward one of them.

McHenry County Undersheriff Eugene Lowery said he was confident that the investigation of the incident, which resulted in no injuries, would determine that officers used appropriate force. Lowery did say police are encouraged to fire at a moving vehicle only as a last resort.

Robert J. Raycraft, 34, of 5219 N. Richmond Road, McHenry, has been charged with reckless conduct, reckless driving, and attempting to flee and elude police in connection with Monday's incident.

Raycraft argued that he never intended to injure police, and that police did not need to shoot.

"What happened was completely ridiculous," Raycraft said.

The two officers who fired shots, Bull Valley Police Chief Norbert Sauers and McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy John Eppley, will remain on duty while the investigation continues, Lowery said.

Lowery said Sauers noticed a suspicious vehicle outside a Saddle Creek Road home about 2:10 p.m., Lowery said.

Sauers, who was out of the office Thursday, could not be reached for comment.

Sauers tried to approach Raycraft, who was standing outside the home, Lowery said. Instead, Raycraft entered his 1991 Ford Bronco and began a 10- to 20-minute chase through Bull Valley, Lowery said."It wasn't at high speeds," Lowery said. "I would say they never really got over 50 mph."

Raycraft said that he stopped at the Saddle Creek Road home to fix the Bronco he was driving. He said that after Sauers asked him to get out of the car he got upset.

"So I just took off," he said. "I just didn't want to deal with them. I knew I wasn't going to get away, but I was hoping to make the chase last a little while."

Raycraft then drove into a large property at 314 N. Valley Hill Road and began driving through the grass, Lowery said. Raycraft eventually turned his Bronco toward Sauers and his squad car and started driving directly at him, Lowery said.

"There was a perceived threat of life," Lowery said.

Raycraft said he never intended to hurt the officers, and he never aimed his vehicle at any of them.

"I was just trying to find a way out," Raycraft said.

Eppley fired eight shots at Raycraft's truck and Sauers shot five times, Lowery said. Raycraft was not hit with any bullets, but his vehicle was hit several times, Lowery said.

Raycraft continued to drive for a short time until his vehicle got stuck, police said. He then left his vehicle and attempted to run away, but police arrested him, Lowery said.

Raycraft was released from the McHenry County Jail Wednesday after posting $400 bond. If convicted, he could face up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Lowery said that after the investigation is complete, police would give their reports to the McHenry County State's Attorney's office as a matter of procedure.

2006-03-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

2006-03-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Dr. Drey is watching you.