Article & Journal Resources

Events on the world stage don't necessarily translate into the American political process but they can have a big impact. In December of 2003, Howard Dean appeared headed toward an easy walk to the Democratic nomination. That month, U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, a major development in a war Dean had based his candidacy on opposing. When Dean claimed that Hussein's capture had "not made America safer," a comment that drew criticism from his primary opponents who wondered aloud about the risk of nominating a governor from Vermont with little foreign policy experience and even less restraint.

A month later, voters in Iowa agreed with those criticisms and sent Dean into a tailspin with a third-place finish. Dean's remarks on Hussein weren't the only reasons for his campaign meltdown of course, but events did contribute to it. It's worth looking at how campaigns handled the news of yesterday's assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto – especially two Iowa front-runners.

Mike Huckabee, who vaulted into a strong lead in the caucus state last month, spent part of the day explaining what he meant when he first responded to news of the crisis. As CBS News' Nancy Cordes reports, Huckabee expressed his "sincere concern and apologies for what has happened in Pakistan" – a statement that led to questions about what exactly he was apologizing for. The Huckabee campaign clarified his remarks, saying that the candidate "intended to extend his deepest sympathies to the people of Pakistan when he used the word 'apologies.'"

And, when voicing his concerns about what may happen in Pakistan as a result, Huckabee indicated that he was worried about whether martial law in the country will be "continuing" despite the fact it has been suspended for almost two weeks. The campaign again responded, saying, "Governor Huckabee firmly believes that emergency rule/martial law in Pakistan, as a practical matter, should not be viewed as having been completely lifted until the restrictions imposed during that period on the press and judges are removed." It's a lot of parsing, perhaps, but in the last week of the campaign, nearly everything a front-runner says will be under a microscope. For a candidate with little foreign policy experience and almost no policy advisors, those words will be even more finely parsed.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, seemed to say all the right things. As he has throughout the campaign, he said that the war in Iraq has diverted the nation's attention to the dangerous situation in Pakistan. "It’s an indication that we are in a dangerous world," he said, "right now that we have to apply good judgment in our foreign policy." But Obama advisor David Axelrod took that argument a little further as it applies to Hillary Clinton. "I think people need to judge where these candidates were and what they've said and what they've done on these issues," Axelrod told reporters. "She was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit, was one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda, who may have been players in this event today, so that’s a judgment she’ll have to defend."

Axelrod later told CBS News' Chief Political Consultant Marc Ambinder that he was "in no way" implying that Clinton's position had anything to do with the assassination. "All I’m implying is [about] the policy that the war in Iraq that Obama said in 2002 was going to distract us from Afghanistan and Pakistan and Al Qaeda, and that they would regenerate themselves and that they would become more powerful and influential. He exercised good judgment. She’ll have to explain her position."

Obama himself addressed Axelrod's comments in an appearance on "Larry King Live" last night. "He was asked very specifically about the argument that the Clinton folks were making that somehow this was going to change the dynamic of politics in Iowa," Obama said. "First of all, that shouldn't have been the question. The question should be, how is this going to impact the safety and security of the United States, not how is it going to affect a political campaign in Iowa." He added, "he in no way was suggesting that Hillary Clinton was somehow directly to blame for this situation. That is the kind of, I think, gloss that sometimes emerges out of the heat of campaigns that doesn't make much sense."

Whether it makes sense or not, there are just six days left before Iowans weigh in on this presidential race. A day spent explaining what candidates or advisors meant to say isn't the most efficient use of that time.

Plus: Clinton, Huckabee lead in latest Iowa poll, Obama and Romney head fields in New Hampshire; Romney and McCain battle it out over the airwaves in the Granite State; Club for Growth expands Huckabee criticism to South Carolina; Giuliani defends use of 9/11 images in ad and most Republicans indicate they’re still willing to change their minds. In today's Horserace.

Friday, December 28, 2007

International rates
Prime rates
Latest Wk ago
U.S.
7.25 7.25

Canada
6.00 6.00

Euro zone
4.00 4.00

Japan
1.875 1.875

Switzerland
3.90 3.84

Britain
5.50 5.50

Australia
6.75 6.75

Hong Kong
8.00 8.00


Overnight repurchase
Latest Wk ago
U.S.
3.80 3.75

U.K. (BBA)
5.475 5.550

Euro zone
4.37 3.97




U.S. government rates
Latest Wk ago
Discount
[ Effective Date: 12/11/2007 ]
4.75 4.75

Federal funds
[ Effective Date: 12/11/2007 ]
Effective rate
4.17 4.32
Target rate
4.25 4.25
High
4.4375 4.5000
Low
4.0000 4.2300
Bid
4.0000 4.3750
Offer
4.2500 4.5000

Treasury bill auction
[ Auction Date: 12/28/2007 ]
4 weeks
3.040 2.750
13 weeks
3.280 3.000
26 weeks
3.490 3.280



Secondary Market

Freddie Mac
30-year mortgage yields
Latest Wk ago
30 days
5.90 5.97
60 days
5.93 6.00
One-year ARM
3.375 3.375



Fannie Mae
30-year mortgage yields
Latest Wk ago
30 days
6.110 5.962
60 days
6.130 5.988

Constant maturity debt index
Latest Wk ago
Three months
4.394 4.334
Six months
4.311 4.289
One year
4.017 3.993

Bankers acceptance
Latest Wk ago
30 days
4.70 4.93
60 days
4.80 4.94
90 days
4.80 4.94
120 days
4.74 4.86
150 days
4.70 4.82
180 days
4.65 4.78



Other short-term rates

Latest Wk ago
Call money
6.00 6.00

Commercial paper
Latest Wk ago
30 to 36 days
4.26 ...
37 to 59 days
4.28 ...
60 to 90 days
4.35 ...
91 to 122 days
4.33 ...
123 to 151 days
4.31 ...
152 to 180 days
4.30 ...
181 to 210 days
4.28 ...
211 to 241 days
4.26 ...
242 to 270 days
4.20 ...

Dealer commercial paper
Latest Wk ago
30 days
4.98 4.98
60 days
4.95 4.95
90 days
4.93 4.93

Euro commercial paper
Latest Wk ago
30 day
4.02 4.02
Two month
4.24 4.24
Three month
4.30 4.28
Four month
4.30 4.30
Five month
4.30 4.30
Six month
4.30 4.31

London interbank offered rate, or Libor
Latest Wk ago
One month
4.63125 4.86500
Three month
4.72875 4.85750
Six month
4.64875 4.72750
One year
4.29500 4.31750

Libor Swaps (USD)
Latest Wk ago
Two year
3.883 4.010
Three year
3.990 4.090
Five year
4.267 4.360
Ten year
4.747 4.825
30 year
5.081 5.160

Euro Libor
Latest Wk ago
One month
4.294 4.466
Three month
4.689 4.776
Six month
4.708 4.780
One year
4.754 4.779

Euro interbank offered rate
Latest Wk ago
One month
4.294 4.476
Three month
4.690 4.774
Six month
4.709 4.781
One year
4.754 4.777

Hibor
Latest Wk ago
One month
3.326 3.551
Three month
3.519 3.686
Six month
3.626 3.679
One year
3.579 3.627

Asian dollars
Latest Wk ago
One month
4.680 4.901
Three month
4.738 4.879
Six month
4.685 4.746
One year
4.338 4.356

Certificates of Deposit
Latest Wk ago
One month
5.000 5.000
Three month
5.000 5.000
Six Month
4.800 4.800

Merrill Lynch Ready Assets Trust
Latest Wk ago
Call money
4.490 4.500



Eurodollars (mid rates)
Offer Bid
One month
4.60 4.75
Two month
4.65 4.80
Three month
4.70 4.90
Four month
4.68 4.78
Five month
4.65 4.75
Six month
4.60 4.75



Freddie Mac
Weekly survey
Thursday, December 27, 2007


Latest Wk ago
30-year fixed
6.17 6.14
15-year fixed
5.79 5.79
Five-year ARM
5.90 5.90
One-year ARM
5.53 5.51

Specific performance. If those two words don't take you back to first-year contracts, we're not sure what will. (The pregnant-cow case, perhaps? Or Raffles v. Wichelhaus?)

Courts don't often grant specific performance in contract disputes -- i.e., enforcing a transaction against a party that doesn't wish to complete it. Rarer still: A judge who grants specific performance to enforce a billion-dollar M&A deal.

But that's exactly what Tennessee chancery-court judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle did yesterday, ruling that Finish Line must complete its $1.5 billion acquisition of rival retailer Genesco. She criticizes Finish Line and its UBS bankers for how they handled details of the merger. The judge concluded that Finish Line's contract was too solid to be broken by claims of material adverse changes at Genesco. (Law Blog Editorial Nugget: It's unfair that Delaware gets all the sexy corporate litigation. Isn't it nice to see states like Minnesota and Tennessee get in the mix?)

The WSJ points out that Finish Line could still wiggle its way out of the deal. UBS, which is financing the deal, has filed a separate lawsuit in New York state court arguing that it would be funding a merger that would create an insolvent company. If UBS can persuade the court of that, Chancellor Lyle said, she would "halt the merger." (Law Blog Trivia: Most states have merged chancery courts, or courts of equity, with courts of law. Four have not -- Delaware, Mississippi, Tennessee and New Jersey.)

The 43-page ruling is a big win for Genesco's lawyers, led by lead trial counsel Jim Denvir of Boies Schiller & Flexner and the Law Blog Moustache Society.

And if you're sorry to see this case and the United Rentals-Cerberus spat come to an end, have no fear. It looks like there will be plenty of sexy M&A litigation well into '08. Yesterday, private equity shop Platinum Equity sued PPG Industries in New York state court to terminate or renegotiate its $500 million deal for the company's auto-glass business, arguing that the business is in worse shape than PPG had indicated during negotiations. In the complaint Platinum called PPG's conduct "repugnant, wanton, and involved a high degree of moral turpitude." PPG said the claims are without merit.

The New York Times profiles Rusty Hardin, the lawyer hired by Roger Clemens to defend him from claims he used steroids. Here's how one Texas writer described the high-profile Houston lawyer in a profile. "He is all things a great defender must be raconteur, showman, charmer, tactician, egotist and he has a ferocious charisma that a rival once described as slicker 'n deer guts on a doorknob.'"

Hardin has repeatedly lambasted the 400-page report on drug use in baseball prepared by another lawyer, George Mitchell. He accuses Mitchell of McCarthyism -- a phrase inspired by another lawyer -- in naming players without adequate proof of wrongdoing.

Very good, well-respected people are sometimes wrong, Hardin told the Times about Mitchell. They are wrong not through malice, not through intent, but they are wrong. None of us is beyond making a mistake." He added: "Theres this automatic assumption to believe what the Mitchell report says."

Scott Atlas of Weil Gotshal in Houston gives the Times an insightful quote that, in describing Hardin, really describes the traits of any good lawyer: He outworks everybody. And primarily he does his own investigation, pursues every lead, doesnt take anything for granted. I would say that is what really sets him apart from most lawyers. He will challenge every assumption people have to see what happened, and thats whats happening here.

After 15 years as a prosecutor, Hardin (Wesleyan, SMU Law) -- Go Cardinals! -- went into private practice in 1990. Rusty Hardin & Associates is a nine-lawyer firm specializing in trial work (check out the firm's fun bio page). He has successfully represented a stable of professional athletes who have found themselves in hot water. In 2002, he lost a six-week trial representing Arthur Andersen on charges it destroyed Enron documents.

Though on his Web site he says, "I worship at the shrine of juries," in his representation of Clemens he finds himself outside the courtroom. He tells the Times: "Were having to try this thing in the court of public opinion, where there are no rules."

But one Cleveland-area man hit the law books and fought off a foreclosure lawsuit for 11 years, without making a mortgage payment, before getting evicted earlier this year. It's believed to be the longest residential foreclosure case of its kind in Cuyahoga County.

Here's Law Blog colleague Amir Efrati's page-one article on Richard Davet in the WSJ.

Davet turned his foreclosure case into a full-time job, starting with trips to the library at Case Western Law. He flooded the court with motions, objections and affidavits, and he appealed the judge's rulings at every chance, which bought him extra years in his home.

The mortgage company that filed the suit, then NationsBanc Mortgage Corp., had so much trouble with the case that four years into it they brought in lawyers from Jones Day. (Law Blog readers: Have any of you at other big firms handled a single-family-home foreclosure case?)

Here's the latest twist: An argument Mr. Davet made when the case was filed -- that NationsBanc couldn't bring the suit because it didn't legally own his mortgage -- is the same red-hot legal theory now being embraced by judges and regulators in Ohio and elsewhere to help give homeowners a chance against foreclosure.

Relying on these recent rulings, Davet has made a plea to the Sixth Circuit.

Law Blog readers, check out the story, and tell us your take. Is this all about a legal system at work, or not working?

irst, there was the Journal's page-one story today, and Law Blog readers' excellent comments, about the Ohio fellow who staved off foreclosure for 11 years.

Now, a pro se tale from neighboring Indiana.

Laura and Scott Bell didn't like their children's school district's dress-code policy. So they sued the school in Indiana state court, claiming violations of their guarantee of a free education and their children's rights to free expression. To save money, they represented themselves. The school district had the case removed to federal court in Indianapolis, where the judge granted the school's motion to dismiss the case and ruled that the Bells had to pay the school's attorney fees -- $40,931.50.

"What in the hell are we supposed to do?" Laura Bell asked, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star. "It's flat ridiculous." Later, she answers her own question: "I'm not paying it, obviously."

Here's the story (Hat Tip: How Appealing). And here is the judge's order dismissing the case and the attorney's fees ruling, courtesy of the Indiana Law Blog.

"The court even gave them guidance on how to focus on the proper issues before the court," wrote the judge. "Plaintiffs were advised on more than one occasion that the losing party in this case may be required to pay the other side's costs, and even attorneys' fees." He added: "The court allowed them as pro se parties every latitude to pursue their claims, and encouraged them to obtain the assistance of counsel."

The Star story uses the Bells predicament to spotlight the risks of representing oneself in court. It says that more and more people are appearing pro se. Readers, here's a topic -- the pros and perils of pro se. Discuss.

Looking for some weighty weekend reading? Click here for a 102-page opinion handed down today by the Seventh Circuit. A split panel set aside a $156 million judgment awarded to parents of David Boim, a 17-year-old shot to death in Israel, allegedly by gunmen affiliated with the terrorist organization Hamas. (HT: How Appealing)

In Dec. 2004, federal magistrate judge Arlander Keys ordered three Islamic charities and a man accused of raising money for Hamas to pay $156 million to the Boims. Judge Keys had tripled the $52 million jury award. The Boims had brought suit under the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, which allows any American who is a victim of terrorism abroad to collect damages in United States courts. The Boims are represented by Richard Hoffman of Wildman Harrold.

The Seventh Circuit said that Boim's parents did not show a link between the contributions to Hamas and their son's death, ruling that the trial court erred in granting the plaintiffs' summary judgment motion and sent the case back down. Here's the rather dramatic money quote from the majority ruling by Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner:

Belief, assumption, and speculation are no substitutes for evidence in a court of law. However the plaintiffs might establish a line of proof connecting the defendants with the murder of David Boim, the law demands that they demonstrate such a nexus before any defendant may be held liable for David's death. We must resist the temptation to gloss over error, admit spurious evidence, and assume facts not adequately proved simply to side with the face of innocence and against the face of terrorism. Our endeavor to adhere to the dictates of law that this great nation has embodied since its founding must persevere, no matter how great our desire to hold someone accountable for the unspeakably evil acts that ended David

Back in March 2006, the Law Blog called the rise of Tom Goldstein "one of the more improbable stories in the recent history of Supreme Court advocacy." Goldstein seemingly came out of nowhere to become a player at One First Street NE. At his own firm he argued more than a more than a dozen cases in front of the high court. He also founded SCOTUSblog, an essential online Supreme Court resource. In May 2006, Akin Gump recruited Goldstein to co-head the firm's Supreme Court practice.

YouTube Video Of the Day: Now Goldstein has put together an entertaining video demonstrating his wicked-cool iPhone and, at the same time, his obsession with all things Supreme. Click here and enjoy.

Be Reasonable
By PEGGY NOONAN

By next week politically active Iowans will have met and tallied their votes. Their decision this year will have a huge impact on the 2008 election, and a decisive impact on various candidacies. Some will be done in. Some will be made. Some will land just right or wrong and wake up the next day to read raves or obits. A week after that, New Hampshire. The endless campaign is in fact nearing its climax.

But all eyes are on Iowa. Iowans bear a heck of a lot of responsibility this year, the first time since 1952 when there is no incumbent president or vice president in the race. All of it is wide open.

Iowa can make Obama real. It can make Hillary yesterday. It can make Huckabee a phenom and not a flash, McCain the future and not the past. Moments like this happen in history. They're the reason we get up in the morning. "What happened?" "Who won?"

This is my 2008 slogan: Reasonable Person for President. That is my hope, what I ask Iowa to produce, and I claim here to speak for thousands, millions. We are grown-ups, we know our country needs greatness, but we do not expect it and will settle at the moment for good. We just want a reasonable person. We would like a candidate who does not appear to be obviously insane. We'd like knowledge, judgment, a prudent understanding of the world and of the ways and histories of the men and women in it.

Here are two reasonables: Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. They have been United States senators for a combined 62 years. They've read a raw threat file or two. They have experience, sophistication, the long view. They know how it works. No one will have to explain it to them.

Mitt Romney? Yes. Characterological cheerfulness, personal stability and a good brain would be handy to have around. He hasn't made himself wealthy by seeing the world through a romantic mist. He has a sophisticated understanding of the challenges we face in the global economy. I personally am not made anxious by his flip-flopping on big issues because everyone in politics gets to change his mind once. That is, you can be pro-life and then pro-choice but you can't go back to pro-life again, because if you do you'll look like a flake. The positions Mr. Romney espouses now are the positions he will stick with. He has no choice.

John McCain? Yes. Remember when he was the wild man in 2000? For Republicans on the ground he was a little outré, if Republicans on the ground said "outré," as opposed to the more direct "nut job." George W. Bush, then, was the moderate, more even-toned candidate. Times change. Mr. McCain is an experienced, personally heroic, seasoned, blunt-eyed, irascible American character. He makes me proud. He makes everyone proud.

Barack Obama? Yes, I think so. He has earned the attention of the country with a classy campaign, with a disciplined and dignified staff, and with passionate supporters such as JFK hand Ted Sorensen, who has told me he sees in Obama's mind and temperament the kind of gifts Kennedy displayed during the Cuban missile crisis. Mr. Obama is thoughtful, and it would be a pleasure to have a president who is highly literate and a writer of books.

Is he experienced enough? No. He's not old enough either. Men in their 40s love drama too much. Young politicians on fire over this issue or that tend to see politics as a stage on which they can act out their greatness. And we don't need more theatrics, more comedies or tragedies. But Mr. Obama doesn't seem on fire. He seems like a calm liberal with a certain moderating ambivalence. The great plus of his candidacy: More than anyone else he turns the page. If he rises he is something new in history, good or bad, and a new era begins.

Hillary Clinton? No, not reasonable. I concede her sturdy mind, deep sophistication, and seriousness of intent. I see her as a triangulator like her husband, not a radical but a maneuverer in the direction of a vague, half-forgotten but always remembered, leftism. It is also true that she has a command-and-control mentality, an urgent, insistent and grating sense of destiny, and she appears to believe that any act that benefits Clintons is a virtuous act, because Clintons are good and deserve to be benefited.

But this is not, actually, my central problem with her candidacy. My central problem is that the next American president will very likely face another big bad thing, a terrible day, or days, and in that time it will be crucial -- crucial -- that our nation be led by a man or woman who can be, at least for the moment and at least in general, trusted. Mrs. Clinton is the most dramatically polarizing, the most instinctively distrusted, political figure of my lifetime. Yes, I include Nixon. Would she be able to speak the nation through the trauma? I do not think so. And if I am right, that simple fact would do as much damage to America as the terrible thing itself.

Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and Bill Richardson are all reasonable -- mature, accomplished, nonradical. Mike Huckabee gets enough demerits to fall into my not-reasonable column. John Edwards is not reasonable. All the Democrats would raise taxes as president, but Mr. Edwards's populism is the worst of both worlds, both intemperate and insincere. Also we can't have a president who spent two minutes on YouTube staring in a mirror and poofing his hair. Really, we just can't.

I forgot Rudy Giuliani. That must say something. He is reasonable but not desirable. If he wins somewhere, I'll explain.

Because much of the drama is on the Democratic side, a thought on what might be said when they win or lose. If Mrs. Clinton wins, modesty is in order, with a graceful nod to Mr. Obama. If she loses -- well, the Clintons haven't lost an election since 1980. For a quarter century she's known only victory at the polls. Does she know how to lose? However she acts, whatever face she shows, it will be revealing. Humility would be a good strategy. In politics you have to prove you can take a punch. I just took one. (On second thought that's a bad idea. She might morph at the podium into Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull" and ad-lib the taunt: You didn't knock me down Ray! I'm still standing!)

For Mr. Obama: a lot of America will be looking at him for the first time, and under the most favorable circumstances: as the winner of something. This is an opportunity to assert freshly what his victory means, and will mean, for America. This is a break with the past, a break with the tired old argument, a break with the idea of dynasty, the idea of the machine, the idea that there are forces in motion that cannot be resisted . . . But what is it besides a break from? What is it a step toward, an embrace of?

Good luck, Iowa. The eyes of the nation are upon you.

Cold War classics for an age of a resurgent Russia.

BY ERNEST LEFEVER

1. "The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919-1939" by E.H. Carr (Macmillan, 1939).

Published in 1939 just before Hitler invaded Poland, "The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919-1939" was one of the first modern books on world politics in the classic tradition of Thucydides and Machiavelli. During the long weekend between the two world wars, says British scholar E.H. Carr (1892-1982), there was in the English-speaking world an almost "total neglect of the factor of power." Like Reinhold Niebuhr, whom he often quotes, Carr believes that a balance of power among states is the starting point in foreign policy but that morality is an essential consideration. Utopian "superstructures such as the League of Nations," he said, were not the answer. Carr's critics point to his early pro-Nazi stance and his muddled thinking about communist Russia. He once wrote that "the Russian Revolution gave me a sense of history" and it "turned me into a historian." That said, this book remains a seminal work on the realism that instructed U.S. and British Cold War statesmen.

2. "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler (Macmillan, 1941).

Born into a learned Jewish family in Budapest, Arthur Koestler (1905-83) was educated in pre-Nazi Germany. He became a Communist, served as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War and later visited the Soviet Union--experiences that led him to conclude that both fascism and Marxism were evil political religions. Fluent in five languages, he wrote the novel "Darkness at Noon," one of the 20th century's most stirring anticommunist works, in English. He said that his characters in "Darkness at Noon" were fictitious but that "their actions are real," a composite of Stalin's "so-called Moscow Trials" and its victims, several of whom he knew personally. This intimacy with real victims enabled Koestler to make vivid the torture, brainwashing and forced confessions of uncommitted crimes. With consummate skill he underscored the vital moral issues of the Cold War, indeed of the human drama.

3. "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness" by Reinhold Niebuhr (Scribner, 1944).

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), born in St. Louis of German parents, was the best-known American moral philosopher of his time. Following his pioneering "Moral Man and Immoral Society" (1932) and his monumental "Nature and Destiny of Man" (1942), this slim volume, with its primer-like title, may seem like a trivial afterthought. But it is a profound analysis of man and history, and of democracy, then under siege by Hitler and Stalin. Calling his book "a vindication of democracy and a critique of its traditional defense," Niebuhr argues that "man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."

4. "The Super-Powers" by William T.R. Fox (Harcourt, 1944).

William T.R. Fox (1912-88), a Yale scholar, is generally credited with coining the word "superpower" with the publication of this book. Writing even as World War II rages, he invokes classic concepts such as the balance of power to explain the dynamics of the coming postwar world. A morally sensitive realist, Fox castigates dreamers like the Federal Council of Churches executive who in 1942 declared bluntly that "alliances and balances of power . . . are destructive of world peace," and he disabused his readers of any thought that the nascent United Nations would be able to maintain peace and order.

5. "The True Believer" by Erich Hoffer (Harper & Row, 1951).

Six years after Hiroshima, as the Cold War was revving up, this slender volume by self-educated longshoreman Eric Hoffer (1902-83) came off the presses to immediate acclaim. In idiosyncratic prose, Hoffer offers his "thoughts on the nature of mass movements," from early Christianity to the rise of modern totalitarian states. He condemns with equal fervor Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Western intellectuals seduced by their own guilt-ridden longings for utopia. Throughout his days as a blue-collar worker, Hoffer said, he "read indiscriminately everything within reach," and he quotes just as freely, from the Bible, Milton, Dostoevsky, Tocqueville, Thomas a Kempis and Yeats. Hoffer, an unabashed American patriot, championed honesty, integrity and the work ethic.

Mr. Lefever, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is the author of "The Irony of Virtue: Ethics and American Power" (1998) and "America's Imperial Burden" (1999).

The first contest of the Presidential election season is finally upon us with Thursday's Iowa caucuses, and for our money it comes both too early and too late.

Iowa arrives too early this cycle in that it comes a full 10 months before the general election next November. We think the public was better served when the first primaries didn't begin until much later. In 1976, Ronald Reagan barely lost to President Ford in New Hampshire in February, but he was still able to make a contest of the nomination by winning the North Carolina primary in late March. That the Iowa home stretch is taking place this year when most families are preoccupied with the holidays is especially silly.

But Iowa comes late because the truncated nature of this primary season means the candidates have already been campaigning for more than a year. As Karl Rove wrote on these pages, both parties need to think about changing a nominating process that has turned into a two-year marathon yet could still yield nominees the public barely knows. There has to be a better way. Our own suggestion would be for primaries that began in the late spring and played out over three months, culminating in the nominating conventions close to Labor Day. Either that, or bring back the smoke-filled room.

This time we are nonetheless stuck with what we have, and at least Iowa will begin to cull the field. This year the state's caucuses seem especially important to the Democrats. Barack Obama and John Edwards need a victory to show they can challenge the Hillary Clinton juggernaut. Mr. Edwards has invested heavily in the state, and if his message of "two Americas" can't win amid the liberals who dominate Iowa's Democratic caucus-goers, it's not going to win anywhere.

With his recent rise in the polls, Mr. Obama has the new burden of higher expectations. Mrs. Clinton can afford to lose and fight on with her money and organization. As the upstart, Mr. Obama has to show he can put together enough of an organization to defeat her in Iowa and develop momentum to overtake Mrs. Clinton's lead in New Hampshire and beyond.

At least Mr. Obama has begun to challenge Mrs. Clinton on her central claim that her candidacy represents a return to the Age of Pericles, a k a the 1990s. The Clinton candidacy--everyone knows it is a her-and-his affair--is at its core an appeal to selective nostalgia. We are supposed to remember the lack of a hot war, not the "holiday from history" as al Qaeda gained strength. We are supposed to recall the late-1990s boom, not that it began only after the GOP took Congress and repudiated many Clinton policies.

And we are supposed to forget entirely about Travelgate, Whitewater, lost billing records, the Rose law firm, the Lippo Group, Johnny Chung, Harold Ickes, miraculous cattle-future winnings and lying under oath. So selective is our memory supposed to be that we are asked to credit Mrs. Clinton as a kind of co-President during her husband's eight years, while her husband blocks public access to his Presidential records that might let us examine her actual contribution.

Mr. Obama's agenda is conventionally liberal. But his personal charisma and message of uniting the country seem to fit the public desire for change better than does Mrs. Clinton's transparent triangulation. He has nonetheless been reluctant to tell Democrats openly about the electoral risks they are taking if they nominate Mrs. Clinton. This week he began to sound those notes, but if he loses we suspect it will be because he feared taking on the Clinton legacy as forthrightly as the moment demands.

As for the Republicans, Iowa may do little more than knock out the minor players. The rise of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the favorite of many social conservatives has complicated Mitt Romney's strategy of betting on early state victories to catapult him into the lead elsewhere. A second place finish would be a blow to Mr. Romney, who spent heavily in the state trying to prove he's a social conservative and tough on immigration. Mr. Huckabee's campaign of one-liners and religious symbolism has worked in the caucus state but may not in other parts of the country. He remains, if we can put it this way, a leap of faith for GOP voters who still know little about him.

Iowa is also Fred Thompson's chance for a breakthrough. The former Senator has many good ideas but has only recently shown the energy that voters expect in a candidate for the nation's highest office. Both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have downplayed Iowa, so their first big tests will come in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Among the striking facts about the Presidential race so far is how little ideas seem to have mattered. The debate in both parties has been more about biography, resume and records than about what the candidates want to accomplish if elected. This may change as the campaign unfolds--and we hope the contest continues long enough so that the voters have more than a news cycle or two to assess these potential Presidents.

U.S.-backed broadcasts remain the ultimate in "soft power."

BY MATTHEW KAMINSKI

PRAGUE--Can radio change the world? It used to. On the walls at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty here hang pictures of Solidarity rallies in Poland and a smiling Vaclav Havel. The message isn't subtle, or inaccurate: This legendary U.S.-funded broadcaster helped win the Cold War.

The glory days are past at RFE/RL, and for American public diplomacy as a whole. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, when history ended and freedom triumphed (or so it seemed), Munich-based RFE/RL landed on the chopping block. It was saved, on a threadbare budget, partly thanks to then Czech President Havel. In gratitude, he offered cheaper digs in a communist-era eyesore here in Prague that previously housed the Czechoslovak Parliament. Yet in the public mind, the station founded in 1950 by the likes of George Kennan and John Foster Dulles might as well be gone.

"We're trying to revive it," says Jeffrey Gedmin, the broadcaster's new president. Doing that, and making the station a valued tool of U.S. foreign policy again, won't be easy.

The neoconservative expert on Germany, and longtime denizen of Washington's think-tank world, makes an energetic pitch. In his nine months in office, Mr. Gedmin has told anyone who'll listen that government-funded, robust "surrogate broadcasting"--a stand-in where the real thing is missing--matters as much as ever. "Massive evidence suggests that it irritates authoritarian regimes, inspires democrats, and creates greater space for civil society," he says.

The mission at RFE/RL, a pioneer in U.S. international public broadcasting, didn't end in 1989. It merely moved further east and south. (The Europe in its name is an anachronism; the original Central European stations were shuttered years ago.)

RFE/RL broadcasts in 28 languages to some of the highest-priority and most difficult countries for U.S. foreign policy today. It's the most popular station in Afghanistan (with a 67% market share in a country where radio is the main source of information), and one of the last free broadcast outlets in Russia, Central Asia and Belarus, and the American voice in Persian in Iran.

But there are several strikes against them. The first is the new "media rich" environment. With so much competition from the Internet, podcasts, widespread satellite television and radio--none of which existed in Cold War days--the surrogate stations, such as RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia or Radio Marti for Cuba, are struggling to hold on to listeners and influence, along with the rest of old media.

In addition, the "surrogates" suffer from an existential crisis of their own. The nine-person Broadcast Board of Governors, the federal agency responsible for all government-supported international stations, is bipartisan, but deeply politicized and with a reputation for micromanagement. Recent years saw the division blurred between surrogate (epitomized by RFE/RL's stations) and traditional public diplomacy broadcasting that had been the preserve of the Voice of America, which as the name suggests is tasked with explaining U.S. policies to the world.

The board experimented with different approaches, pushing a commercial radio model on the stations intended to win young listeners with music and playing down the old staple of serious programming about politics, the economy and culture. Old timers were aghast. "The war of ideas has been demoted to the battle of the bands," noted one participant at a McCormick Tribune Conference earlier this year on the future of U.S. international broadcasting.

The quality and professionalism of the stations have come under attack as well, most notably at Radio Farda, the Iranian service, until recently run jointly by RFE/RL and Voice of America. Alhurra, the television broadcaster to the Arabic-speaking world, got into political trouble earlier this year for airing interviews with terrorists. Its director resigned.

The final strike is structural. Government-run agencies tend to be bureaucratic and inertia-bound; in other words, wholly ill-suited for the fast-paced media world. Marc Ginsberg, an Arabic-speaking former U.S. ambassador, says "public diplomacy needs to evolve" and tap the best of America's private sector expertise in Hollywood or on Madison Avenue.

Mr. Ginsberg co-founded a nonprofit television production company, Layalina, which makes shows that are then sold to Arab-language networks in the Middle East. Its "On the Road in America," which followed four Arabs on a 10-week trip across the U.S., was one of the most popular shows in the Arab world this year.

Mr. Gedmin, 49, spent a chunk of his career at the American Enterprise Institute and then ran the Aspen Institute Berlin before taking his current job in Prague. He agrees with a lot of this criticism. Early on he shuffled personnel and pushed RFE/RL back toward its original "surrogate radio" role with the caveat, he says, that when appropriate, the stations shouldn't shy from trying to explain America to a world so rich with anti-Americanism.

"Our mission is news," he says. "It's not psy-ops, it's not U.S.-G [government] line, it's news. But we tell [local staff] two things. It has got to have a purpose--to be promoting democratic values and institutions. We also tell them to shoot straight. It's indispensable for credibility in our markets. The moment that any country like Iran thinks that we are a front for the Bush administration or for U.S. policy we will lose credibility."

He acknowledges some people in the U.S. won't like it. Aware of the political damage done by Alhurra to the reputation of U.S. international broadcasting, Mr. Gedmin quickly adds that anti-Americanism isn't tolerated and dares anyone to provide proof of it at his shop. But émigré-run stations are prone to factionalism and to broadcast what sometimes sounds strange to American ears.

"You've got to create space to let them find their own voice to talk to their own people," Mr. Gedmin says. "It is not my voice. My voice doesn't translate well into Persian."

Radio Farda is the priority fix. He wrested full control over the station from Voice of America upon taking office, and put in new Iranian management. Next he looked at the programming.

"The editorial content was very weak, and very underwhelming, and in some cases just downright misguided," Mr. Gedmin says. "When I came they thought, 'Oh my gosh, Washington, Bush, neocon.' All I did was I sat down with them day after day and said, 'What kind of groups do you want to reach inside Iran?' And they said, 'Labor, students, women--a political class open to political change.' And I said, 'Do we do that?' 'Not really,' they said. 'Ok, so what are the issues [they care about]?' I asked." The response: "Economy, corruption are very big. Human rights."

Radio Farda has moved to push these different kinds of stories more forcefully. Its news and commentary is now supposed to be geared at an elite audience.

There as elsewhere, the idea behind surrogate broadcasting is to inform as well as to start a conversation and encourage critical thinking inside those countries by injecting independent news and ideas unavailable in the local media. Mr. Gedmin cites the coverage of fuel rationing this summer in Iran, which the state-run broadcasters avoided.

"We sent reporters to gas stations who went up to people who said, 'I've been waiting for five hours in my car and this government is giving my money to Hezbollah. I'm furious.' We put it on the Web site, we put it on the radio. We had about three hundred calls."

Mehdi Khalaji, a former Farda staffer now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who put out a critical report about the station just before Mr. Gedmin took over, says quality control and training remain a problem. "[Mr. Gedmin] needs to hire impartial journalists to monitor Radio Farda," he says. Mr. Gedmin says attracting top journalists to Prague, and on contracts paid in the sinking U.S. dollar, is a challenge. But he says the station is now on the right track.

Most of the region covered by Prague-based stations is on the wrong track, marked by rising authoritarianism (and anti-Americanism), particularly in Russia. Prague has, reprising the role played by Munich, become one meeting point for people interested in championing the free press and democracy in Russia, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia.

In October, the station marked the one year anniversary of the assassination of Russia's best-known journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, with a large conference. A small research team, though a shadow of its Cold War self, looks at media and political trends in its new region. It's probably too small. The McCormick Tribune report notes "substantial analytical research capability" is a "prerequisite for fully effective 'surrogate' broadcasting."

Mr. Gedmin says the radio needs to push further into cell phone texting, podcasts and other new technology to deliver its programming. He hired a new editor for its dowdy Internet site.

With the crackdown on independent voices in Vladimir Putin's Russia, the Russian-language Radio Liberty will have to find new ways to broadcast radio, television and written news and analysis into the country through the Web. "The Russians are kicking us off the air," Mr. Gedmin says. "Pretty soon we're going to have to go to an Internet strategy. If we get it right, it could be the refuge for liberal thought in Russia."

It's effect is hard to gauge and a source of dispute--in the target countries and in budget battles on Capitol Hill. Radio Farda is listened to by about 13.5% of the radio audience, according to telephone surveys. For all 28 services, the average is 10%. "We care about audience size," Mr. Gedmin says. "Never misunderstand me. But you can't measure our success by audience size alone."

As far as its importance goes, Mr. Gedmin cites all the efforts made by governments to jam the radio signal, block the Web site and publicly denounce RFE/RL. Its journalists, as others in repressive countries, take considerable risks to do their jobs. This year, two RFE/RL reporters have been killed and one kidnapped (and freed after two weeks) in Iraq, two went missing for several weeks in Turkmenistan, two fled Russia, one was detained in Iran for eight months, and two Afghans were threatened with beheading by the Taliban and one kidnapped.

A 26-year-old reporter for the Uzbek service was shot and killed in October in front of his office in Kyrgyzstan. He had told colleagues in Prague that he had been followed by Uzbek security.

Skeptics notice the early changes. "Jeff's the best thing to happen to RFE/RL in a decade," says Enders Wimbush, a vocal critic who headed Radio Liberty in 1987-93 and currently works at Washington's Hudson Institute.

Yet the outcome of Mr. Gedmin's battle to convince Congress that American taxpayers ought to pick up more of the tab won't be known for a while. Its budget, at $77 million this year, is down from $230 million in 1995, when the U.S. cashed the "peace dividend." None of Mr. Gedmin's successors managed to get Capitol Hill to commit any new resources in 12 years.

How to put American public diplomacy in support of democracy back in high gear is an immediate challenge, no matter who ends up living in the White House. Mr. Gedmin wants to get international surrogate broadcasters back into the discussion. "At a time when everybody is arguing 'soft power' is so important, this kind of broadcast is the ultimate in soft power," he says. "It costs peanuts. And it has a measurable impact of success."

Mr. Kaminski is editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe.

By Ira Robbins

Ronnie The Autobiography By Ronnie Wood Illustrated. 358 pages. $25.95. St. Martin's Press.

In his fourth decade as a Rolling Stone, Ron Wood is still "the new boy" - as close as anyone alive to the band's surviving core, but never an equal member. As he puts it in "Ronnie," his entertaining memoir of a career divided between rocking and painting, he is the "little brother" and "sparring partner" to Keith Richards, which leaves his insider's perspective something of an outsider's tale. He's up there all right, a jolly passenger on the Stones' superstar ride, but he never conveys a substantial sense of steering the ship, or even of being certain where it's headed.

In the generous and sincere tone of a speechmaker at a retirement party, Wood recounts the earning and spending of several fortunes, copious cocaine and alcohol intake, women he's loved, the great musicians and celebrities he's known and farcical scrapes with the law, drug dealers and other nefarious businessmen - none of which he takes too seriously. But what could have been the saddening diary of a dissolute scoundrel finds its charm in his unabashed enthusiasms for his second wife, Jo; snooker; thoroughbreds; the television show "CSI"; and Ireland. The balance of mischief and decency seesaws comfortably until the coda, which lards on the happily-ever-after clichés in praise of sobriety, art and family.

Wood writes extensively about the rigors and comforts of touring, and describes the characters and conflicts of other Stones, but doesn't say much about the music. He runs quickly through prior parts of his rock career, with Rod Stewart in the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, where he had a much stronger creative voice than in the Stones; his solo albums are ticked off like signposts on a road. Evincing at least as much pride in his artwork as in his music, Wood includes 30 of his own illustrations along with handwritten epigrams.

The stories here are amusing, with some minor revelations. Wood boasts of a fling with George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd before she ran off with Eric Clapton. He once emptied Tony Curtis's wine cellar, has had to remind Mick Jagger and Richards how to play songs they wrote, and was first considered for membership in the Stones in 1969. In a dubious recollection that contradicts the historical record, Wood says he was asked to join Led Zeppelin before Jimmy Page. (Page instigated the band's creation.) Otherwise, considering the understandably blurred memories of his lengthy fast-lane life, Wood seems to have a detailed and realistic grip on names, events and places. There is one serious omission - the death of his first wife - and a few misapprehensions and typos, but the story feels truthful and carefully observed.

Like any good memoirist, Wood is shamelessly honest and devoted to his own irresponsibility. And like any good addict, he has a huge blind spot.

If alcohol has had a "tricky role" in his life, then the Stones are a promising little combo.

Explaining that he thought about cleaning up for a Stones tour in the early 1980s, he writes, "I knew it was dope and drink messing me up and clouding my judgment. . . I'm not sure at that point I even wanted to stop"; he then pivots into a story about stealing cocaine from a dealer sleeping in his house. Much farther down the road, without having mentioned any grave concerns about his physical condition, Wood admits that he "came close to being left out" of a Stones tour in 2002 because of his drug and alcohol use.

Instead, he got sober (temporarily, as it happens). "Now I was taking the music seriously," he exults. Well, it's about bloody time, mate.

Ira Robbins, a music journalist and the editor of TrouserPress.com, is completing a novel about 1960s radicalism.

LONDON (AFP) — An all-British title fight between Enzo Maccarinelli and David Haye has been confirmed for March 8, promoter Frank Warren announced on Friday.

The contest between WBO world champion Maccarinelli and newly crowned WBC/WBA world champion Haye will take place at a venue to be decided.

Maccarinelli last fought on the Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler undercard in November, stopping Mohamed Azzaoui in the fourth round.

"I'm delighted that Haye has finally put pen to paper and the fight is happening. There is nothing like a big fight between the top two British fighters in the division to get the public excited," said Maccarinelli.

"I believe that this will rival, if not better the Nigel Benn-Chris Eubank epics. We are both big punchers but I believe that I am the hardest hitter out of the two of us. Once I drop Haye he won't be getting up."

Haye had to get up from the canvas to sensationally stop Jean Marc Mormeck in the seventh round and claim the WBC and WBA titles in November.

Maccarinelli has stopped 21 of his 29 opponents with 16 coming inside the first three rounds, while Haye has halted 19 of his 21 opponents early with 14 inside the first three rounds.

Posted by George James Malik


Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock suggested that he'd have to "be careful" in wording his approval of the fact that he's headed to the All-Star Game in Atlanta as the Western Conference's coach thanks to the Red Wings' tremendous first-half record. Babcock deflected praise to the Wings players, who've ensured that no team will match the Wings' record before the cut-off date on January 5th:

December 28, Detroit News: "What it means is, you coach good players that are professional and enjoy coming to the rink and find a way to win," said Babcock, passing the credit to the players. "You go there (the All-Star Game) but it's the team that has done it. You have to represent them over there."

Babcock was planning a skiing vacation at Boyne Mountain with his family that weekend. Now, they'll get together in Atlanta.

"We'll have a good time in Atlanta," Babcock said. "I don't know what we'll do but we'll do it together, I can tell you that."

2 days ago

BEIJING - Most venues for the Beijing Olympics have been completed according to plan with the only outstanding project - the 91,000-seat National Stadium - scheduled to be finished by March, an official said Friday.

Construction for the Games that begin Aug. 8 have hummed along, with workers labouring around the clock. Unlike Athens in 2004, there will be no last-minute scramble to finish venues.

"This year, venue construction was under way according to plan. All the new venues were finished as scheduled by the end of the year," said Jiang Xiaoyu, spokesman and executive vice-president for the Beijing Games.

Though he did not give specifics, 36 of the 37 competition venues were to be finished by Dec. 31. The National Stadium, nicknamed the "Bird's Nest" because of its exterior lattice work of enormous twisted beams, was expected to be finished by March.

Next to the "Bird's Nest" is the "Watercube," the swimming venue that is covered by a translucent, blue-toned skin that makes it look like a cube of bubbles.

"As for the Water Cube, it has been completed. There is a test event next January and we are making preparations for the test event now. If there wasn't this event we might not fill the pool now, but because of the event of course we have to fill the pool," Jiang said.

Beijing is spending an estimated US$40 billion to modernize for the Olympics.

Grantley Bernard

THE spirit and legend of Helbert Frederico Carreiro da Silva lives on. Make no mistake.

That is because the ghost of Fred, as the Brazilian attacking midfielder is better known, has hovered over Melbourne Victory throughout its poor A-League season and not many, especially fans and critics, have been prepared to exorcise it.

Such is the power of that lingering ghost that it has spawned an imposter. A man purporting to be Fred's brother has been contacting the media and the club claiming Victory is going to sign him and that Melbourne erred badly in its negotiations with Fred.

Using the name Tiago, the man has been exposed as not even a relative of Fred, who has three younger brothers, none of whom live in Melbourne.

It is another outrageous example of the legend of Fred, which may have grown so large that his departure for DC United in the US Major League Soccer is considered the one and only reason for Victory's slump.

That Victory has gone from a premiership-championship double to fighting to avoid the wooden spoon is due to more than Fred not being in the navy blue shirt he wore for 20 of 24 games last season.

Those reasons have been well-documented, with injuries and suspensions major factors in Melbourne's struggle this year.

But was all that down to hard-running Fred and his four goals and nine assists, four of which were supplied to Archie Thompson during the 6-0 grand final thrashing of Adelaide United?

Can it simply be said that because Fred has gone, Thompson and fellow striker Danny Allsopp are nowhere near last season's combined 27 goals or that captain Kevin Muscat has not been as clinically effective in midfield?

What might be hurting Victory most is the perception it did not try hard enough to keep Fred -- that he was allowed to leave because club officials did not add a little extra cash to his contract.

If Fred was so eager to stay, as he publicly stated, why did he not take up the new offer that was put on the table in November and rejected in March?

The bottom line is, Fred thought that after his good season Victory would offer him an enormous contract to stay.

With the A-League's salary cap and Thompson as Victory's marquee player who is paid outside the cap, that was never going to happen.

So with DC United offering a deal said to be at least $350,000 per season plus a car and a house, it cannot have been too difficult a decision. Especially after Fred and his Brazil-based agent Marcio Bittencourt declined an offer from an A-League rival to make Fred its marquee player for 2008.

It is worth revisiting a post on the Victory internet forum from Bittencourt, which read in part: "I indicated to (Victory football operations manager) Gary Cole that the offer had to be higher and he worked hard to make the offer better, which he did, but unfortunately with A-league salary cap restrictions, they could not go higher.

"When an official proposal came finally from an American club and a Brazilian (first) division club, they were two to three times more than Victory.

"Fred is 28-years-old, and had to make a decision based on his future and his family's. It was too hard for him to refuse."

The memory of Fred carving up Adelaide United like a Christmas turkey in the grand final is one for all Victory fans to cherish.

Keep the memory, but it is time for the ghost of Fred to be released.

Ron Reed

THE MCG has learned to love Andrew Symonds - and he certainly likes it.

The dreadlocked one kept the crowd of 36,265 entertained for an hour and quarter yesterday, which was a more welcome contribution than might be discerned from the scorebook.

He made only 44, but on a day played out to a predictable script - Australia was always going to spend the day accumulating an unchallengeable lead, thus consigning the contest to an inevitable outcome - Symonds at least provided some light and shade.

There might have been an unspoken but satisfying sub-plot in the mix, too.

Certainly, Symonds' big bat seemed to say something very loudly when Harbhajan Singh entered the fray, his first delivery instantly disappearing into the Members' Stand.

Harbhajan had replaced skipper Anil Kumble, who had received the same rough treatment.

Harbhajan was one of the prime aggressors when the sledging was in full swing during the one-dayers in India recently, with Symonds returning fire freely.

The Queenslander was also on the receiving end of monkey taunts from the crowd, which has inspired an anti-racism crackdown at this match. You wouldn't want the job of policing this one.

The Herald Sun reported yesterday that some Indian fans were offended by chants of "show us your visa" and there was some surprise that nobody got thrown out, booked or banned because of it.

At the risk of under-estimating the problem, it will be a dismal day when something as harmless as that is deemed punishable.

Symonds probably didn't enjoy the Indian experience much but neither does he seem to be the type to let stuff like that get to him. He is a relaxed cricketer these days and it shows in his batting.

That's what happens, of course, once it becomes apparent that you've done the hard yards and proved to yourself and the sceptics - of which there were many, this column no exception -- that you can cut it in the big time.

For Symonds, the breakthrough came at the 'G against England last year when he made a powerful 156, much to his unconfined joy.

The previous year, with his fledgling career under even more pressure, he narrowly avoided the sack with an aggressive 72 and five wickets against South Africa.

Now he's an established player who even admits to captaincy aspirations and says his piece publicly in a newspaper column. Things have changed quickly and comprehensively.

Yesterday he looked perfectly at home on the Australian game's grandest stage, even if the gods were called on to lend a hand.

Well, if not the gods then at least Billy Bowden. Symonds was on eight when the flamboyant New Zealand umpire - are we right in thinking he has toned down the theatrics? - reprieved him with a no-ball call when paceman Zaheer Khan disturbed the stumps.

Another such call negated a good lbw shout from the same bowler.

Symonds responded with a classic cover-drive for four and then a perilous edge between wicketkeeper and slip, both to the boundary. His repertoire is nothing if not eclectic.

Khan finally got his man, but by then Symonds and Michael Clarke had added 82 and the last fragments of hope that the Indians could fight their way back into the contest had disappeared.

Khan's regular no-ball transgressions - 21 for the match - were profligate for a bowler of his experience, and helped create the distinct impression that India is in the trouble it is because it is simply less professional than the Australians.

It shows most clearly in its sub-standard ground fielding, which betrays a middle-aged weariness.

Australia has plenty of 30-somethings, too, but they work hard at it. The Indians apparently do not, perhaps because there is no coach cracking the whip. Recently appointed South African Gary Kirsten has plenty of work ahead.

One of the worst offenders yesterday was Yuvraj Singh, who is only 26, but appeared to be uninterested, perhaps even sulking after his petulant response to being given out for a duck the day before.

For all their star quality, the tourists can ill-afford to have anyone pulling less than their weight, but the reality is that only their two most accomplished players - Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar - have been able to take the game to the Australians.

The upshot is they are condemned to certain defeat, perhaps with a day to spare. That's great for Australian cricket, not nearly so alluring for the fans who have been hanging out for a competitive summer.

Lenny Ann Low

IF THERE IS one thing cabaret vixen Meow Meow will never tire of, it is love. Fresh, raw, old, lost, obsessive or dangerous, love fires her every waking moment. "Love is harsh, it is a battlefield," she says melodramatically.

Adorned with bejewelled tulle, white feathers and gold-and-pink satin, she is posing for photographs. Skip back 30 minutes and Meow, doing her make-up and adjusting her lithe figure into a long, slinky and shiny red dress backstage at the tiny Pilgrim Theatre on Pitt Street, is having trouble applying her crimson lipstick. "I'm finding it hard to concentrate, I'm getting all excited about love," she says.

Meow is only preparing to be photographed yet her vivacious and lippy demeanour is already a performance. Not once does she drop the vampy, comic, sexy and slightly deranged Eurotramp-chanteuse character that has cajoled and unnerved audiences in Berlin, New York, Shanghai, Paris, Sydney and every nook and cranny of the Famous Spiegeltent as it toured Edinburgh, Adelaide and Melbourne. The glamorously manic diva was personally selected by David Bowie for High Line, a New York festival he curated in May, which also featured Ricky Gervais, Laurie Anderson and Arcade Fire on its inaugural bill.

Any questions about who might lurk behind the velvet-voiced one are met with a delicate smile and a gracious warning. "I'm very lucky if there is someone behind me," she says, coating one eyelid in shimmering blue glitter. "And in front of me, I must say. I'm not that choosy these days. Desperate, some might say. So, yes, I'm afraid the person behind me should just move away, they might get kicked … " Meow fixes me with a sweet but steely gaze, " … hard."

She points down to her feet with a make-up brush. "You've seen, of course, my beautiful Givenchy shoes?"

One long, fishnet-clad leg is swung up to reveal a weighty black high heel, its ankle buckle glimmering in the dressing room mirror's lights. "They were given to me by a fantastic man, known as Tsar Stefan, in New York. He called out during one of my shows, 'What is your shoe size?' and then I received these wonderful things. He's a great supporter of the arts and, certainly, he's supporting my legs very well."

Meow's brand of performance art has been likened to "a punk-cabaret artist and shambolic showgirl", "an iron fist in a velvet glove" and a "grade-schooler trapped in a woman's body". A recent collaborator, the original Hedwig of the musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch, filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell, described her as "a beautiful old Art Deco building that's just been condemned", a description that delights Meow.

Her extraordinary voice can move from a wailing blend of gravelly opera to velvety seduction and furious squeals, as if an angry and orgasmic dolphin is within. Songs by Jacques Brel, Bertolt Brecht, Dolly Parton, Kurt Weill along with Chinese courtesan tunes are up-ended with a wild, sensual and melodic vigour.

At High Line, Meow sang Bowie's Rock'n'Roll Suicide while screaming at crowd members to get out of her way, "I'm a professional", descending a staircase and crowd surfing to the stage where a chorus of children dressed as mini-Meows finished the song.

In Portland she blindfolded audience members and made them suck lollipops to the beat of burlesque tunes.

In the Famous Spiegeltent, as in most venues she steamrolls through, Meow conjured up and contorted 1920s Berlin by belting, screeching and growling old-time cabaret tunes in Chinese, German, Polish and French. Patrolling the mirror tent, with the crouched and crotchety air of a broken-down cabaret trouper, she ordered patrons to unzip her skin-tight trousers and jacket then straddled their grouped shoulders - her legs, arms and groin careening wildly - breaking into song and using other crowd members as microphone holder and sheet music stand.

"It is all about the voice but I will use whatever gymnastic means I can, be that vocal chords or inner-thigh muscles, to get some kind of reaction," Meow says.

There is a sincere purpose behind Meow's turbulent and extreme deconstruction of traditional cabaret. She is passionate about live music and theatre, about the old songs and their role and importance in the world.

"I would be completely indulgent if I thought I could change the world through theatre," she says. "But I do think I can hit a couple of people over the head with my ideas and also make people laugh. And maybe end up with an extra pair of Givenchy shoes at the end."

Hearing this makes it easier to believe that beneath the one-liners and sequins and violently backcombed dark wig is Melissa Madden Gray, an Australian contemporary opera singer with blonde hair, a thesis in performance art and pornography, a law-fine arts degree and an extensive stage, film, music and multimedia repertoire. Madden Gray, who is from Melbourne, will feature alongside Susan Prior in Venus And Adonis, a Bell Shakespeare production, in 2008.

For now, however, she is irrefutably Meow Meow, readying to perform her new show, Insert The Name Of The Person You Love. The show is directed by Rodney Fisher and will be part of Sydney Festival 2008. Inspired by a magazine article about scientific research into the brain mechanics of falling in love, Meow will merge her famed kamikaze cabaret methods with a compendium of love experiments performed each night.

"I am always obsessed with heartbreak and love and, obviously, torch singers," Meow says. "Those songs are usually the most beautiful and applicable. Mixing that with the science of discovering that the place in the brain that has passionate love in it is the place of hunger and addiction, that's very interesting to me.

"This will be quite a serious piece in a way, not a concert but an intimate piece about love. So there are songs and fishnets and all of those things but it's half laboratory experiment as well."

Should audience members prepare to be guinea pigs in the name of love?

"It's a secret how we will do it but expect contact," she says. "I'd be lying if I said anything else. Although, with me I might just sit on the floor and cry. That's part of love, that's part of the beauty of the malleable concert format."

With Calcio taking a two week break, Carlo Garganese takes the opportunity to pick the best all-time elevens from the top teams. The second in the series are AC Milan...

Lorenzo Buffon (1949-59) – Buffon made his debut at the age of just 20 and won four Scudetti during a decade with the Rossoneri. He played an important role in Milan’s first great team, a squad that included the Gre-No-Li Swedish trio. Buffon, who is related to the current Juventus and Italy No.1 Gianluigi Buffon, won 16 caps for the Italian national team.

Franco Baresi (1977-97) – Arguably the greatest ‘libero’ in the history of the game along with Franz Beckenbauer and Gaetano Scirea, Baresi (pictured above in the 1993 European Cup final) was voted as Italy’s Player of the 20th Century. Like Maldini, he was a one-club man, playing for Milan for his entire career. He won six Scudetti and three European Cups, and when he hung up his boots the Rossoneri retired his iconic No. 6 shirt. Also played 81 times for his country, captaining the Azzurri to a runner-up spot at USA 94’.

Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (1965-74) – Brilliant blonde-haired defender, who is perhaps most famous for scoring the last-minute equaliser in normal time for Germany in their 4-3 ‘match of the century’ semi-final defeat to Italy in the 1970 World Cup. In nine years at Milan he won one Scudetto, one European Cup, two Cup Winners’ Cups and three Coppa Italia’s.

Paolo Maldini (1984-) – One of the game’s all-time legends, Maldini has been playing at the top of European football for almost a quarter-of-a-century. He made his debut for the club in January 1985, and has since become the most capped player both in the history of the club and Serie A. Has won seven Scudetti and five European Cups among a host of honours, and is also the record appearance-maker for the Italian national team with 126 caps.

Nils Liedholm (1949-61) – Perhaps the most legendary of football anecdotes regards this great Swede. A magnificent passer of the ball, it is said that Liedholm went two seasons without misplacing a pass. When he finally did give the ball away he received a five-minute standing ovation from the San Siro crowd. Liedholm formed one third of Milan’s famous Gre-No-Li – the Swedish triumvirate that also included Gunnar Gren and Gunnar Nordahl. He won four Scudetti at the club and later coached them and Roma to the Serie A title.

Frank Rijkaard (1988-93) – A fantastic holding midfielder, who was just as world-class playing in defence, Rijkaard never received the recognition that his fellow Dutchman in the Milan team, Gullit and Van Basten got. He won two Scudetti and two European Cups with the Rossoneri, scoring the winner against Benfica in the 1990 final. Also had an eventful international career, winning Euro 88’, however he blotched his copybook by infamously spitting at Rudi Voller at Italia 90’.

Roberto Donadoni (1986-96 & 1997-99) – Over the years Italy have not been blessed with too many world-class wingers but Donadoni was certainly one of them. Milan beat Juventus to Donadoni’s signature in 1986 and over the next decade he won every major club honour in the game. A skilful and tricky wideman with brilliant technique, he also played 63 times for Italy, but is sadly most remembered for missing a crucial penalty in the semi-final shoot-out defeat to Argentina at Italia 90’.

Gianni Rivera (1960-79) – ‘The Golden Boy’ made his Serie A debut for hometown club Alessandria at the age of just 15. This prompted Milan to snap him up and in the next 19 years, he won three Scudetti and two European Cups among a host of other honours. His display in the 4-1 final victory over Ajax Amsterdam in 1969 is regarded as one of the best individual performances of all time. It led to him winning that year’s Ballon d’Or, however like another ‘Golden Boy’ of today, Alessandro Del Piero, he never had the same impact at international level.

Jose Altafini (1958-65) – Many regard Altafini as the greatest Brazilian to have ever played in Serie A. He scored 168 goals in 248 matches for the club and won trophies galore during his seven seasons. The forward’s most prized moment came in the 1963 European Cup final when he scored both goals as Milan came from behind to beat Eusebio’s Benfica 2-1 at Wembley. He later moved on to Napoli and Juventus, where he also enjoyed great success. Finally left Serie A at the age of nearly 38 after 18 years in the peninsula.

Marco Van Basten (1987-93) – One of the game’s most complete forwards, Van Basten was the final piece of the famous Dutch triad. He won the Ballon d’Or and the Scudetto three times respectively, the European Cup twice and scored 108 goals in 168 matches for the club. He was also a star for Holland, scoring a memorable goal in the final of Euro 88’. Retired at the age of 29 due to injury.

Gunnar Nordahl (1949-56) – With a quite incredible record of 210 goals in 257 games, Nordhal is not only the top goalscorer in Milan’s history, but also second highest in Serie A behind Silvio Piola. He finished Capocannonieri five times, won the Scudetti twice, while he also scored 33 goals in 43 games for the Swedish national team.

Formation: 3-4-3:



Buffon



Schnellinger Baresi Maldini



Rijkaard Liedholm

Donadoni

Rivera



Altafini Van Basten Nordahl




Carlo Garganese

The administration of justice has always been a source of simmering anger for the public and editorial writers alike.

In 2007, a number of high profile cases brought that anger to a roiling boil.

The deaths of Crystal Taman and Phil Haiart focused attention on a justice system many say favours the rights of offenders over victims.

Other cases highlighted below paint a sobering picture of a city seemingly aground in drugs and violence.

1. PLEA BARGAIN UPROAR

No other court story this year sparked more public anger than the case of former city cop Derek Harvey-Zenk, who was driving home after a night spent partying with fellow officers when he plowed into the back of Crystal Taman's car, killing her. A slipshod investigation into the February 2005 crash resulted in a controversial plea bargain that saw Harvey-Zenk agree to plead guilty to dangerous driving causing death in exchange for a conditional sentence. The public furor prompted the provincial government to announce it would hold a formal inquiry into the matter.

2. HEIST HAS LINKS TO TERRORISM

It had all the elements of a Hollywood thriller: Millions in stolen swag, an international rogues gallery with links to Middle Eastern terrorism, and a purloined Austrian gem. Winnipeg-born bank thief and swindler Gerald Blanchard was sentenced in November to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to a host of audacious crimes, including the theft of more than $500,000 from a city bank and possessing a historic gem stolen from an Austrian castle. At Blanchard's sentencing, it was revealed he worked for a mysterious London "boss" who used some of the illegal profits to fund terrorist activities in Iraq.

3. HELLUVA YEAR FOR HELLS ANGELS

Full-patch bikers Ian Grant and Jeff Peck received hefty jail sentences this year thanks to evidence from a police informant, while a trial is underway for former president Ernie Dew. It got worse for the Hells: a similar police sting netted the arrests this month of new president Dale Donovan and several associates.

4. HAIART MURDER CONFOUNDS

In November, Corey Spence was sentenced to life in prison for a murder that shone a spotlight on the city's violent drug world. Phil Haiart, 17, was walking near a McGee Street crack house in October 2005 when he was caught in the crossfire of a gang turf war. A jury convicted Spence of second-degree murder, finding that he had ordered another man to shoot at rival gangsters. The alleged shooter, Jeff Cansanay, was acquitted earlier in the year after Amyotte, Abdullah, and another witness, Jammal Jacob, refused to testify at his trial and Justice Morris Kaufman refused to accept their videotaped police statements as evidence. The Crown is appealing Cansanay's acquittal and Spence is appealing his conviction.

5. PILOT CONVICTED FOR FATAL CRASH

He was praised as a hero in the days following a dramatic plane crash on a busy Winnipeg street five years ago. But there was no talk of heroism in November when a judge convicted former Keystone Air pilot Mark Tayfel of one count of criminal negligence causing death, four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of dangerous operation of an aircraft in the 2002 crash. Tayfel, who now lives in Calgary, is still awaiting sentencing.

6. EX-SOLDIER CALLS SEX ASSAULT VICTIM AT HOME

A landmark case involving a former soldier acquitted of sexual assault after he argued he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder took a strange turn in November when the man was re-arrested for allegedly phoning the young victim's home. Roger Borsch, 35, is accused of breaching a court order he not contact the teenage victim and has been returned to custody. In September, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial after the Crown argued the sentencing judge erred in accepting the testimony of defence psychiatrists without evaluating the credibility of Borsch's claims.

7. A CHOICE OF LIFE OR DEATH

In a case still before the court, a judge is being asked to consider whether religious faith or medical ethics should guide a decision to withdraw an 84-year-old man from life support. Samuel Golubchuk, an Orthodox Jew, has been on life support at Grace Hospital since early November. Doctors say Golubchuk has only minimal brain activity and no hope of recovering. His family is fighting to keep him on life support, arguing it would be a sin to hasten his death.

8. MAN CONVICTED IN TOT'S DEATH

Veter an cops de scrib ed it as one of the most brutal cases of abuse they had ever seen. Sixteen-month-old baby Amelia was savagely assaulted and allowed to suffer for more than two days before she died in hospital. In November, her attacker, 24-year-old Alexandro Suazo, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

9. CROWN ATTORNEYS THREATENED

A pair of high profile incidents brought home the dangers Crown attorneys can face putting away criminals. Convicted robber Patrick Noble threatened to kill a Crown attorney one day before her home was raided by violent thugs. Noble, 25, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of uttering threats and was sentenced to two more years in prison. A month later, police arrested another man after he allegedly disrupted a trial and followed a female Crown attorney home from work.

10. METIS LAND CLAIM TOSSED

In December, a judge dismissed a mammoth Metis land claim that threatened to put the provincial and federal governments on the hook for billions of dollars in compensation. The Manitoba Metis Federation-led lawsuit was seeking cash or compensation for 560,000 hectares of land it says Metis people were promised in the Manitoba Act of 1870.

In the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a meeting with political leaders today to discuss the situation in Pakistan.


The all-party meeting is expected to assess the possible impact of the Pakistani developments on India.

The meeting comes a day after Leader of Opposition L K Advani called up the Prime Minister and sought an early meeting to discuss the "worrisome" developments.

Advani said "Talibanisation of Pakistan" is a threat to India's security, and the recent developments in that country needed to be deliberated upon.

During the telephonic conversation with Advani, Singh, who was in Goa, agreed to hold the meeting.

I want to reference a story I have mentioned on the Bears' beat several times this season: Kevin Everett. The Bills tight end initially was paralyzed from the neck down after suffering a spinal cord injury in the Buffalo's season opener. Bears tight end Greg Olsen, a teammate of Everett's at the University of Miami, expressed how tragic it was to see his friend suffer such a devastating blow. Olsen's sadness turned to joy after learning Everett was up and walking again, returning to the Bills' locker room on Sunday. Everett's story should make us all appreciate life a little more.

In a disappointing season, the Bears still managed to show a flair for the dramatic. No game was more exhilarating than the 37-34 overtime triumph over the Broncos, a game that featured two jaw-dropping touchdown returns by Devin Hester. Visions of Hester leaping over ex-Bears punter Todd Sauerbrun still dance in my head.

My story that got the most reader response

Have to call it a three-way tie: Brian Griese being named the starter over Rex Grossman; Grossman regaining the job over Griese; and then Kyle Orton getting the call. Posting those stories on our Huddle Up blog generated plenty of responses that cannot be repeated in print.

Play of the year

Griese's 15-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad to beat the Eagles. It's still unclear who was responsible for the play-calling, but that last-minute drive was memorable, regardless.

Best interviews

Alex Brown and Tommie Harris. When either player enters the locker room, media members swarm as if they were lining up for the pregame meal. Brown is likely to give the opposing team bulletin board material, and you never know when to take Harris seriously.

Celtics center Kevin Garnett is the leading vote-getter for the 2008 NBA All-Star Game with 1,186,690 votes.

Cavaliers star LeBron James, the leading vote-getter last year, had the second-highest total in the NBA with 1,005,733 votes. Guards Dwyane Wade of the Heat and Jason Kidd of the Nets, and Magic center Dwight Howard also were in position to start for the East in the Feb. 11 game in New Orleans.

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was the leading Western Conference vote-getter with 941,716, followed by Rockets center Yao Ming (813,305) and Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony (767,722).

Spurs forward Tim Duncan and Houston guard Tracy McGrady also were among the West leaders.

* McGrady will miss the Rockets' next two games to rest his ailing left knee. McGrady is the NBA's 10th leading scorer, averaging 22.8 points per game.

* Heat center Shaquille O'Neal and point guard Jason Williams were listed as day-to-day Thursday, after both had nagging injuries checked out by Miami team doctors. O'Neal got treatment on his achy hips. Tests performed on Williams' sore left knee did not reveal any major problems. ... Spurs guard Brent Barry will miss up to two weeks after tearing a muscle his left calf against the Bulls.

Azzurri boss Roberto Donadoni has finally hit back at French national coach Raymond Domenech after months of criticism.

Domenech is public enemy number one in the Italian peninsula after repeated outbursts against Calcio.

During this time Donadoni has always kept a dignified silence, however he has now chosen to finally hit back.

“Domenech is good with words, but probably not as good when it comes to playing. If he wants, one day we could play a game and see who wins,” said the former AC Milan star.

Domenech has been particularly critical of Italy’s defensive tactics, saying that they played for a draw against France back in September, and predicting that they would tie their crucial qualifier with Scotland last month, a match they eventually won 2-1.

“In Scotland we had the perfect approach. Abroad they like to say we are a defensive team, but we didn’t look like that in Glasgow,” he continued.

“It was great to reach the finals of Euro 2008, but now we need to forget about the qualifiers. We have no reason to complain about ending up in a difficult and complicated group with France, Holland and Romania.”

“We have shown we are a balanced team and will do our outmost to honour the Azzurri shirt.”

Donadoni was finally asked for any hints on who would be in his final 23-man squad for Austria and Switzerland.

“I will be following all the players in their games and then I will make my mind up. I just hope they won’t suffer any injuries,” he concluded.


Anthony Sormani

Hockey
Penguins forward Sidney Crosby and the Detroit Red Wings are looking good as voting for the NHL All-Star Game winds down. The 20-year-old Crosby leads the league with 445,144 votes and Detroit is set to have three starters in the Jan. 27 game in Atlanta with balloting ending Wednesday. Crosby's total is more than twice as many as the next Eastern Conference forward, Vincent Lecavalier of Tampa Bay with 198,953. Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom maintained his lead in the Western Conference with 420,436 votes, and teammates Henrik Zetterberg (291,952) and Pavel Datsyuk (262,619) were the conference leaders among forwards. Vancouver's Roberto Luongo leads all goaltenders with 228,583 votes. Martin Brodeur of New Jersey leads Eastern Conference goalies with 185,003 . . . Joe Sakic will undergo hernia surgery today, and the Colorado Avalanche captain will be out of action for up to three months. Sakic has been out since Nov. 30, missing 12 games . . . New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro has a sprained left knee, but might miss only one game . . . Tuukka Rask stopped 23 shots and Pascal Pelletier scored twice as the Providence Bruins downed the Albany River Rats, 3-1, at the Times Union Center to improve to 25-5-2 . . . Hayley Wickenheiser, who led Canada to the women's world hockey title, was voted her country's female athlete of the year by The Canadian Press. She is the first hockey player to capture the honor since its inception in 1933.
more stories like this

* Conklin, Crosby help Pens top Sabres 2-0
* Hockey returns to outdoor roots to start New Year
* Gonchar finds net in overtime
* Flyers snap six-game skid with win over Leafs
* Comeau gets first goal as Isles top Pens
*

Continued...
Basketball
Marbury plans to return after holiday
Guard Stephon Marbury informed the Knicks he plans on returning to the team after the new year, the club announced. Spokesman Jonathan Supranowitz spoke with Marbury after Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said at practice that he did not know if Marbury would return to the team. Marbury has missed eight of the Knicks' last 12 games as he grieves the death of his father, Don. Earlier this season, Marbury left the team after a dispute with Thomas and was fined nearly $200,000 . . . Tracy McGrady will miss Houston's next two games to rest his ailing left knee. McGrady played a total of 50 minutes in Houston's last two games, a win in Chicago Dec. 22 and a loss to Detroit Dec. 23. An MRI performed Monday revealed swollen tendons in the knee but no structural damage. The Rockets play Memphis tonight and Toronto tomorrow . . . Spurs guard Brent Barry will miss up to two weeks after tearing a muscle in his left calf against Chicago Wednesday night . . . LSU senior forward Sylvia Fowles, the leading scorer (17.4 points per game) and rebounder (9.7) for the No. 8 Lady Tigers, will miss 2-4 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on her right knee.

Players unlikely to appear at hearing
Representative Christopher Shays, a member of a congressional panel probing the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, said there is little to be gained by calling players to testify at hearings scheduled for next month. "If we went back to every player, we would have to do research every morning, noon, and night," said Shays, a Connecticut Republican. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled a Jan. 15 hearing featuring former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, author of the recent report linking more than 80 baseball players to the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs . . . Free agent outfielder Darin Erstad signed a one-year contract worth $1 million plus incentives with the Houston Astros . . . The New York Yankees finalized a $3.75 million, one-year contract with LaTroy Hawkins, strengthening their weak middle relief with the veteran righthander. Hawkins, 35, was 2-5 with a 3.42 ERA last season for the Colorado Rockies . . . Catcher Miguel Olivo, the Florida Marlins' primary catcher the past two seasons, signed a one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals . . . Former major league player and longtime Atlanta Braves coach Jim Beauchamp died of leukemia. He was 68.
more stories like this

Miscellany
Goolagong finishes long climb to No. 1
Evonne Goolagong finally made it to No. 1, although the honor was 30 years late in coming. The Australian tennis star was told by the WTA Tour that she should have been top-ranked for a two-week period in 1976. That was a stretch in which she was in the middle of winning six tournaments, including the Australian Open and the season-ending Virginia Slims Championship. But when some tournament records were transferred to a computer in 1976, all of Goolagong's points were not entered and she never received the top ranking, the WTA said. The WTA has amended its records, making Goolagong the 16th No. 1 player since the introduction of tour computer rankings in 1975. Two weeks ago, the 56-year-old Goolagong received a trophy from the WTA that is now displayed in her oceanside home. "I'm very proud of the achievement," Goolagong told the Associated Press. "I was on a roll for that stretch in 1976. It was a great surprise to hear after all these years." . . . The governing body of men's tennis confirmed that Italians Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali bet on tennis matches, and the players had no excuse for not knowing this was a rules violation. Starace, ranked 31st, was suspended for six weeks and fined $30,000. Bracciali, ranked 258th, was banned for three months and fined $20,000. Both suspensions begin Monday . . . Sydney yacht Wild Oats XI became the first yacht in nearly 60 years to win the Sydney to Hobart race three times in a row. Wild Oats, skippered by Mark Richards, finished the 723-mile race today in 1 day 21 hours 24 minutes. British yacht City Index was expected to finish about 30 minutes behind.

With Benazir Bhutto's murder, Pakistan has yet another martyr for democracy. During a storied political career, including two stints as prime minister, Bhutto was a charismatic, courageous champion of rule-by-the-people who risked everything challenging generals and mullahs who felt they knew best. She embodied Pakistan's recent hope of breaking with military rule and countering the religious fanaticism that threatens to tear apart her fragile country.

Bhutto made history in 1988 as the Muslim world's first woman prime minister. She followed her late father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister before Gen. Zia ul-Haq deposed him in 1977, then hanged him. She again won office in 1993.

"It's a passion for me, to save my country," she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. She also wrote, presciently, that her patrician life reflected Pakistan's "turbulence, its tragedies and its triumphs."

Her assassination yesterday clouds Pakistan's future, deprives her Pakistan People's Party of an imperious and polarizing but forward-looking and able leader, even as it demoralizes progressives and destabilizes the nuclear-armed nation of 165 million.

Yet the attack in Rawalpindi that killed Bhutto and many others cannot legitimize another long night of military rule. However President Pervez Musharraf may seek to exploit the situation, Canada, the Commonwealth and the world must send a blunt message that the democratic transition must survive this attack, and continue.

Musharraf is utterly discredited, after having imposed an unjustified state of emergency Nov. 3 to secure his own re-election, firing the Supreme Court and jailing civil libertarians. Now the promised Jan. 8 election has been subverted. Bhutto's party is in disarray. And former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League, is threatening a boycott. Yet credible elections must be held once this trauma is past. Anything less would reward murderers.

Whatever the failings of Pakistan's corrupt, family-dominated, feudal political system, rule by junta has never been a good alternative. Pakistan's current turmoil proves it. For all his talk of "managed democracy," Musharraf has not reformed and strengthened politics, cleansed the army of extremists, suppressed terror or stabilized the country. The death of one woman has plunged the nation into crisis.

Some will reflexively turn to Musharraf and the army as guarantors of stability. But as news spread yesterday of Bhutto's death, protesters chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog," and demanded he resign. For many, Sharif included, one-man rule is the problem, not the remedy.

Bhutto, in contrast, would have placed her faith in the people, civil institutions and the rule of law. After Pakistan's three days of national mourning are over, leaders of all the secular parties should press for the swift restoration of credible civilian rule through free and fair elections. That is the best way to honour a brave woman's memory, and serve the country she had a passion to save.