Tom Watson

Have You Ever Seen a Hangman Tie a Hangknot?

If there's one blog post you take the time to read today, it should be this one by Ezekiel Edwards on the DMIblog. Here's how it begins, but please read the whole thing. It's a stunner.

I am going to tell a brief story. Tell me whether you think it takes place in 1957 or 2007.

There is a small town of under 3,000 people. There is a high school in the town. There is a tree at the school known as the "white tree", because only white kids sit under it.

A black student asks school officials for permission to sit under the "white tree".  The student receives permission.

A group of black students then sit under the "white tree."

The next day, three nooses, in school colors, are hanging from the "white tree."

Read it all.

I'm the King of Torture (No I'm the King of Torture)

Last night in South Carolina, eight middle-aged white men - including a couple of Jesus-loving Bible-thumpers - fell over each other trying to let Republicans know that they've got that true 24 mentality.

You know, they'd go pretty darned far like that handsome, gritty Jack Bauer character, if American citizens ever found themselves in a far-fetched comic book scenario obviously dreamed up between refills from Roger Ailes' Scotch decanter high above Sixth Avenue.

The sneering curl that is Brit Hume's upper lip was wet with some kind of spook-driven desire for action when he laid things out: simultaneous attacks on three U.S. shopping malls (oh, please spare Build-A-Bear, Mr.Terrorist) rock the nation as a coordinated caravan of munitions-laden Mercedes GL-450s infiltrates underground parking garages, piloted by terrorists disguised as JC Penney shoppers (I may be misremembering a detail or two). A terrorist with detailed knowledge of another imminent and deadlier attack had been captured and taken to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. OK, Republican old men - how far would you go?

Not one of them pointed out that this Foxy scenario was awfully close to the 2002 epic Collateral Damage, starring the nation's most prominent and popular Republican who cannot be President. But most of them responded with some version of the movie's hooky tagline: "The Act Itself Wasn't Personal...HIS VENGEANCE WILL BE."

Mitt Romney: Close Gitmo?! Hell, I'll double Gitmo!

Rudy Giuliani: "Every method" that can possibly be construed as not being the T-word.

The Other Guys Nobody Knows: "I as President will authorize extreme measures." [Roughly paraphrased].

With two notable exceptions, they all did the manly-man dance of faux toughness. Tom Tancredo, the immigrant-bashing fencing contractor, actually said he was "looking for a Jack Bauer."

The exceptions to the torture bandwagon were the actual torture victim and the actual conservative. Andrew Sullivan:

Some issues really are paramount moral ones. Two candidates opposed it clearly and honorably: McCain and Paul. All the others gleefully supported it - including Brownback. He's a born-again Christian for torture. Giuliani revealed himself as someone we already know. He would have no qualms in exercising executive power brutally, no scruples or restraints. Romney would double the size and scope of Gitmo, to ensure that none of the detainees have lawyers, regardless of their innocence or guilt. That is in itself a disqualification for the presidency of the United States. A man who has open contempt for the most basic rules of Western justice has no business being president.

Then there was Mike Huckabee's canned one-liner about John Edwards and his expenses at the "beauty parlor." How subtle. Edwards is not a manly Republican type because he spends money on his coif. Say effete elitist. Whisper "gay." This as his obviously beloved wife is dying. So much for Mike Huckabee's aw-shucks nice guy conservative pose.

The Republicans with their failed national leader, their deadly pointless war, their domestic incompetence, and their endless scandals don't have much to grapple on to. The insightful Digby:

It was quite interesting watching the Republicans debate down in South Carolina tonight. I think it's clear that this group has come to fully understand that winning the GOP nomination is all about the codpiece. These guys have just spent the last fifteen minutes of the debate trying to top each other on just how much torture they are willing to inflict. They sound like a bunch of psychotic 12 year olds, although considering the puerile nature of the "24" question it's not entirely their fault.

This debate is a window into what really drives the GOP id. The biggest applause lines were for faux tough guy Giuliani demanding Ron Paul take back his assertion that the terrorists don't hate us for our freedom, macho man Huckabee talking about Edwards in a beauty parlor and the manly hunk Romney saying that he wants to double the number of prisoners in Guantanamo "where they can't get lawyers." There's very little energy for that girly talk about Jesus or "the culture of life" or any of that BS that the pansy Bush ran ran on.

See, there's nothing there to run on - so it's all slogans about slogans about 9-11 about slogans. As Jim Wolcott said (while inching his thumb toward the channel marker on the remote):

"Some of these candidates are convinced that the US can stay indefinitely in Iraq (retreat equals defeat) and confront Iran and reduce the price of gas for the average American family on their Sunday drive to the church or synagogue of their choice."

Maybe next time, the moderators will invent a better scenario - one that requires more thought. I liked the what-if dreamed up by Britt Peterson over at The Plank:

I keep imagining an alternate scenario: Chris Wallace asking, "So, if your plane had crashed on a remote island that might or might not be purgatory and/or a big science experiment and/or a figment of your imagination, and on this island, along with a lot of improbably beautiful women, some polar bears, a smoke monster, and an army of natives who are constantly trying to kidnap your women and children, was a former member of the Iraqi Army who (let's just say) knew how to use 'enhanced techniques' to get information -- and if also on that island was a conman who had stashed all the medicine that was on your plane and was refusing to give it up to a girl having an asthma attack -- and if you were a world-class surgeon with daddy issues who really, really wanted to save the day -- would you sic the Iraqi torturer on the conman in order to get the girl's inhaler? Now would you, sir?"

That's almost better than a rerun of Gilligan's Island. Almost.

Where's New Orleans?

Easter Weekend 2007, originally uploaded by codyaya.

Two long debates, 18 candidates, four hours of naked ambition. No discussion of the great domestic failure of our times - the ongoing tragedy of the official national abandonment of New Orleans.

You would expect this from the Republicans; they posed as if angling for the mantle of Reagan at his tacky and Disneyesque "library" - all that's missing is the gruesome Leninesque attraction at the center - but they're really jockeying for the legacy of George W. Bush. They want the nomination of a failed political party, one that will have to be rebuilt from scratch after its fully disgraced leader finally leaves office.

The posed as "conservatives" but more or less spewed the same tired talking points that didn't seem conservative at all (excepting Ron Paul) and aimed their manly goodness at the mythical "Daddy Party" primary voters of clueless Beltway Bubble Babushkas like Maureen Dowd.

You might expect the cold Republicans to pass on an issue that their fearless leader has actually handled less competently than the war; after all, its religious right wing reacted to the destruction with statements like this one from Repent America director Michael Marcavage [tip Americablog]:

Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge.

Sure, they wouldn't actually say it, but the GOP candidates (four of whom bragged that they don't believe in evolution) embrace people like this because they know exactly how they'll vote if lied to in just the right tone.

Malign neglect is to be expected from the modern Republican Party, but where were the Democrats?

Why wasn't New Orleans front and center for the Democrats; why isn't a central issue on the campaign trail? Why don't all the candidate websites contain a plan, a proposal, the account of some working being done on behalf a great American city that is being allowed to die.

Here's a sad truth: American Idol did a better job in its recent fundraising campaign of highlighting the ongoing horror of southern Louisiana than did Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, and that talkative guy from Alaska in their nationally-televised first debate.

You know - Iraq is easy. The war is lost; it could never have been won in the first place. The troops will be coming home, and the chapter has basically be written. Iraq is a softball for the Democrats, even those who voted for authorization of force. It's an international calamity that will be felt for a generation, and we need a serious grown-up to clean up the mess. That's a quick story to tell voters.

New Orleans is much more difficult to campaign on. Yeah, the performance of the Bush Administration was criminal - but in this race, criticism on the left also demands solutions, demands results, demands collaboration and a plan. No progressive Democrat can merely run on Bush's failure in Louisiana - the base incompetence and the images of death and political abandonment have no shelf life; and Bush is not running.

Americans expect...check that...hope that Democrats can provide solutions, especially on a domestic issue. This is what we say we're good at.

My point is this: prove it.

New Orleans is failing, stagnant, dying. The do-gooders have left, the news crews have long-since packed the choppers and camera trucks. FEMA is auctioning off the trailers, some of which were never occupied. It's yesterday's news. New Orleans has half the population it did before Katrina. The drug trade has returned stronger than ever, and murders are surging. Basic health care is faltering, breaking down. the city's education system is being redrawn from the bottom up (this may be a good thing). Thousands of buildings remain abandoned. They're still pushing tourism and music (you can take a Katrina bus tour), but as RJ Eskow said this week: "It's a theme park in the middle of apocalypse." The media has moved on. The only time it shows up in a New York paper is when the Mets option a player to their Triple-A affiliate there.

If you're a top tier candidate for the Democratic nomination, you've got a big platform. You're allowed to parachute in and make some noise. You're allowed to call people out, to make bold proposals, to drag the sleepy, hung-over press corps with you.

My message to Senators Clinton, Obama, and Edwards (and you can throw in Biden and Dodd, if you'd like) is simple - this ain't the Senate. Go out and smack some people around on New Orleans. Blow off the inevitable photo opps, and start a few political fires. If a talented and deep pool of Democratic candidates for President cannot summon the political will to change the course of that wonderful city, who can?

Further, if the Democrats who want the Oval Office more than oxygen or water or sunlight can't expend their well-financed political capital to help save a dying city, to hell with 'em - for to hell, they certainly will belong.

Oxford - Turl Street

Oxford - Turl Street, originally uploaded by Tom Watson.

This was the view last evening as I took a short stroll after the opening session of the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship here in Oxford. I'm blogging the conference at onPhilanthropy, where I'm the publisher. Some tremendous ideas and personalities, so please tune in.

Meet Matthew Shepard's Mom

Over at the day job, I interviewed Judy Shepard, mother of murdered gay student Matthew Shepard, whose killing became a leading cause in the gay rights movement - check that - the civil rights movement. Here's a key quote from Judy, who mourned her son's death on a Wyoming road and then started a major foundation with her husband in his name:

 The world has changed and for the better I think.  Unfortunately, that is not what we read in the press.  At the grassroots level there is a greater understanding and a desire to make things right - especially among young people.  If I were to say more tolerant, I would be conceding that tolerance is all we are looking for.  It is acceptance that is needed.

The article discusses how Judy Shepard built the foundation, raised money and consciousness, and where she intends to take it from here. A very strong, committed woman - another modern times everyday hero.

George Bush's Noose

So the line grows of Iraqis volunteering to hang Saddam Hussein. You may assume this will be a rare act in the new Iraq, a singular national death sentence, an extraordinary happening. You'd be wrong. The regime supported by American lives, by American blood, by American treasure is a massive machine of civil murder. In short, our billions tie the hangman's noose for hundreds of Iraqis convicted in courts reconstituted by American lawyers. On the jump of Kirk Semple's Hussein piece in the Times today:

The death penalty in Iraq, which applies to a range of crimes including terrorism and certain categories of murder, was suspended in 2003 by the American occupation authorities but reinstated in August 2004. Since then, 51 people — men and several women — have been hanged and about 170 are currently on death row awaiting execution or the outcome of their appeal, according to Hashim al-Shibli, Iraq’s justice minister.

Those are the official numbers. The high-ranking government official involved in the executions process said the actual number of hangings was far higher, though fewer than 100, because of three sets of hangings that took place between December 2005 and March 2006 and were never publicized.

Human rights groups have questioned the transparency of the criminal justice system in Iraq and the ability of defendants to get a fair trial.

Hangings. Paid for by Americans. By the dozens. This is the new democracy?  We're hanging one barbarian, while another sits in the justice ministry - presumably standing up while we stand down. Do the neocons approve of this:

Death is supposed to come instantly — a doctor is on hand to certify it — and the bodies are removed to a cooler where they are held before being handed over to the victims’ families. The entire process is recorded by a photographer and a video cameraman and the images are stored in a government archive.

But the hangings have not always gone smoothly.

Until the new gallows were built, the Iraqi government used an apparatus and an old rope left over from Mr. Hussein’s government, said the high-ranking government official. The rope had become so elastic that it would sometimes take as much as eight minutes to kill the convicted person.

On Sept. 6, the Iraqi authorities planned to hang 27 people. On the 13th hanging, according to an official who was there, the rope snapped and the convicted man plummeted 15 feet through the trap door onto the concrete floor. “God saved me!” the man cried. “God is great! I did not deserve this!” For an hour, he lay on the ground praying and shouting while prison guards and the executioner debated whether this constituted divine intervention and, if so, whether the man’s life should be spared. Once a new rope was rigged, however, the man was forced up the stairs once again and successfully hanged.

Time's special report two weeks ago detailed a surge in hangings by our partners in the new Iraq:

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the government plans to execute "two or three more batches of 14 or 15 each" in the coming months...."From the Iraqi point of view," says al-Maliki's adviser, "they don't like to see a lot of people get killed every day and have a low number of executions."

Who built the Iraqi gallows? We did:

Hangings are conducted in secret, at a heavily fortified location in Baghdad built by an American contractor.

In short, one of the most horrible postscripts in this horrible war is the assembly line of hangings we've helped to create in Iraq. I guess it will make a nice exhibit in the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Research Center.

Amendments of Failure

Gay Marriage Protests, originally uploaded by jvadnais.

Some pundits took the passage of seven out of eight state initiatives banning gay marriage as a sign of the socially conservative cast of the American electorate, and a warning to those wild-eyed, man-on-dog Democrats to move quickly to the center. I took it a different way. To put it simply, the social conservatives are running low on ammunition.

The bigoted anti-homosexual streak through America has grown ever narrower in my lifetime, but it's still enough to get some folks all bothered, still enough to put silly amendments denying civil rights on the ballot, and still enough to prop up the dying far right religious party that used to be the GOP since Reagan.

But the all-in throw of the gay marriage haters - indeed, Mitt Romney's pathetic fliperoo to try and become the David Duke of sexual orientation - is, to me, a clear sign of desperation.

Fear-based, biblical legislation is a total flop in this country of late. And demographics are the reason. The boomer generation is beginning to move from pure money-making to society-changing mode, windmilling their arms like 60-something Pete Townshend as they get back into the activist business - this time without the tie-dye and acid, but with every bit of the pure confidence in their mission they once displayed on campus. It's a socially liberal generation, by and large; economics, foreign policy and other matters are more disparate.

Then too, the young people on the way up also display a pure form of tolerance that bordered on bored disinterest (this thrills me, frankly). When my kids are my age they'll look back and laugh at the ludicrous idea of constitutional amendments against gay marriage. Dad, were you crazy?

Finally, there are the libertarians to contend with. In the still-smoldering wreckage of the Republicans of Reagan, a small band of constitutionalists remains. They abhor government injection into private life more than almost any other action by the public sector and they're in direct opposition to the interventionist religionistas. Question is: when do they speak up?

No, these lame amendments (and let's pause for a cheer for the great state of Arizona, which rejected the proposition) were one of the last big gasps of the intolerance agenda. I believe they'll be relegated to an annoying and vocal minority. Let's work for it.

Return of the Nativist

The history of Irish immigration to America is grand indeed, but the chronicle of overcoming adversity and bigotry has always been marred by the flare-ups of our own version of arriviste nativism. Predominantly Irish rioters rampaged through the streets of New York in 1863, as blacks become the scapegoat for Irish anger over the Civil War draft. In the 1870s Irish American immigrants attacked Chinese immigrants in the western states, driving them out of smaller towns. Immigrant Denis Kearney led a mass movement in San Francisco in 1877 that threatened harm to railroad owners if they hired any Chinese. For immigrants so recently and flamboyantlhy deined their own rights, these episodes are a black mark on the long struggle of Irish Catholics in America.

And then there's Jim Gilchrist.

Gilchrist, whose name in Gaelic means "servant of Christ," is an Irish Catholic American who sends me emails urging support for his Minuteman Project.

The ironically-surnamed Gilchrist founded the Minuteman Project two years ago, with the aim of stemming the flow of illegal immigrants from across the border in Mexico. Gilchrist and his band spread a thin veneer of law enforcement and grassroots political credibility across their organization, but the Minuteman Project is nothing short of a return of the Nativists, that know-nothing, last one in shut the door bunch of haters that opposed European immigration a century ago. And sadly, the Minutemen - and one Jim Gilchrist - are the direct descendants of the haters who lynched the blacks and the Chinese in the 19th century.

That this movement is led by another Irish Catholic, the child of an immigrant culture that faced ethnic and religious persecution on these shores, is both sad and horrifying to this Irish Catholic.

Make no mistake, the Minuteman Project is a project of hate. While it describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border" - "white Martin Luther Kings" in Gilchrist's words - their actions tell another story.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a well-respected civil rights organization, white supremacists and neo-Nazi's are prominent Minutemen. At the group's rally last April kicking off a month of volunteer "patrols" along the border, members of the racist National Alliance were in action:

Prominent among the demonstrators were two men who confided that they were members of the Phoenix chapter of the National Alliance — the largest neo-Nazi group in America. One of the two, who sat in lawn chairs throughout, held a sign with arrows depicting invading armies of people from Mexico — a sign identical to National Alliance billboards and pamphlets, except without the Alliance logo.

In fact, National Alliance pamphlets were distributed in Tombstone and this predominantly Hispanic community just two days before the Minuteman Project got going. "Non-Whites are turning America into a Third World slum," they read. "They come for welfare or to take our jobs. Let's send them home now."

Then there was Minuteman volunteer Joe McCutchen, carrying his .38 snub nose automatic. Here's his take on the immigrants:

"A lot of these people coming in, they're diseased. They've got tuberculosis, leprosy. I mean, you don't even want to touch them unless you're wearing gloves. So why the hell should we pay our taxes to cure them? ... They're turning our country into a Third World dumping ground. We're losing our language to them, losing our culture. They're taking over, and if we don't stop [immigration], our society will not survive. That's why I'm here."

On their so-called patrols, the Minutemen say they will peaceably detain illegals and call local law enforcement. But during one incident last year, members of the group physically assaulted a young Mexican and forced him to be photographed wearing a T-shirt with a Minuteman slogan on it - you know, just for laughs.

Gilchrist knows the language of the haters of the far right, the quasi-David Duke code words, the kind of language that might pass Pat Buchanan muster. Here's what he told Fox News host Alan Colmes last year:

Alan, there are supremacist groups out there of all races, colors and creeds. It's not just white supremacists. Why are you picking on them? There are brown. There are purple. There are red.

Yeah, those purple supremacist groups are a real threat to our way of life. A month ago, a group of students from my alma mater rushed the stage when Gilchrist was booked to speak at Columbia, and fought a brief, pitched battle with his handlers. Reading what Gilchrist has said over the past few years, they would have been far more effective in their goal of marginalizing his views by letting him speak.

With an election only five days away, Gilchrist was hitting the send button big-time this week, penning this little missive from one Irish Catholic to another:

"We aren't taking anything for granted. We know the American people agree with us, by a large majority, a super-majority, but we are continuing to work with pro-security candidates to get our message out. If Americans who care about border security don't get out to vote this election, we can kiss the United States Constitution goodbye - but I believe we will see a great turnout, and it will be because no true American wants to lose his country for lack of border security."

Haters like Gilchrist hide behind "security" and immigration quotas, but always manage to slip that little "culture" thing in there, as if American culture wasn't polyglot, an ever-shifting amalgam of rich influences from everywhere on the planet. Funny, that's exactly what white Protestants said about Gilchrist's kind a hundred or more years ago: these Irish will change our culture, and for the worse. Perhaps Jim Gilchrist should peruse some of the literature of the day, it reads like a Minuteman's diary, substituting Mexican for Irish, of course. [Does he even realize that 75% of Mexican immigrants are Catholics? Does he see any hypocrisy?] From an 1854 short story:

"I can't imagine, Carrie, why you object so strongly to a Roman Catholic."

"Why, Edward, they are so ignorant, filthy, and superstitious. It would never do to trust the children alone with one, for there is no telling what they might learn."

One of the candidates this proud Irish-American touts for Congress next Tuesday is Republican Randy Graf of Arizona, who is for the open 8th CD against Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Graf doesn't just support the Minutemen - he is a Minuteman [that's him on the left "on patrol" in the fight for freedom of the borders]. The district is 84% white and on the border with Mexico, so my guess is Gilchrist's gang and Graf's campaign believed an anti-immigration push would keep the seat in GOP hands. Here's what they say:

You can help strike a blow against the powerful groups in Washington that continue to condone the massive violation of our national borders. You can be a part of taking Minuteman Project to the next level by helping  Randy Graf get elected to Congress where he will serve alongside Rep. Tom Tancredo and work for you to stop the border invasion.

Not happening. According to Real Clear Politics, a fairly conservative site, Giffords is dominating Graf by an average of 10 points in the cumulative polling. Graf is losing despite the very public endorsement of Mr. Straight Talk, John McCain, who clearly will do anything to try and get the conservative base behind his craven White House bid. Graf is being laughed out of Arizona.

See, the thing to remember about the Nativists and the Know-nothings and the Klan, and all the various leagues of hatred and prejudice, is that they failed in the end. Such will be the failure of the Minutemen on Tuesday. And this Irish American will be staying up late to watch another Irish American get buried politically.

My Favorite Blogger

Mukhtaran Bibi, the inspiring human rights advocate from Pakistan, has a blog. I can't read it, and chances are you can't either. It's in Urdu, hosted by the BBC's Urdu language news service. And it has already become a center within the Urdu diaspora for thos who battle against Medieval laws and violence against women. From the BBC UK feature story on Mukhtar Mai's blog:

"Mostly I talk about incidents which are cruel and painful. I try to discuss only the most serious things in my blog: the poor treatment of women, sometimes leading to killing," she says.

Mukhtar Mai's blog is unique. Although she cannot read or write, she tells her stories to a local BBC journalist, who types it up as a web diary.

And it provides an insight not only into the crimes committed by men against rural women, but also the hardships of their daily lives.

"I sometimes talk about my childhood memories - events that take place at my schools; or perhaps just about the household chores.

"I don't think that the people in our village know what it's all about and what I am writing. But I've received a few e-mails from other places - people who have been reading my blog on line and who encourage me to continue."

When Mukhtar Mai says her blog has prompted a few emails, she does herself a disservice. Scores of emails have flooded into the BBC Urdu site, in response to her diary. Mostly they are from men and mostly they have been encouraging.

"Mukhtar Mai, you have begun a wonderful thing. Such crimes as the one committed against you will continue to happen if the powerful continue to harass the weak," says one man.

"May God grant you the power to continue your endeavour. For the illiterate people of the village, it's not easy to bring these thugs to justice," says another.

Long-time readers of my blog know that Mai's story moved me deeply when the NYT's Nicholas Kristof first brough it to the world's attention two years ago. The survivor of a court-ordered gang rape in rural Pakistan, Mukhtar Mai refused the traditional path of suicide and shame to fight her attackers (and their protectors in the Pakistani government). She won a settlement and opened schools to teach young people to read and write - and to understand tolerance.

Below are some links to a few of the long series of posts, in case you're interested in the background. I haven't written about her in a while, but she remains one of the great heroines of our age - a living symbol of courage. Now she's my favorite blogger.

Mukhtaran Bibi, Hero
Mukhtaran Bibi Speaks
Blogs to the Rescue
Musharraf = Coward
Rape and Public Relations
Truth to Power
On Consulate Row
Mukhtar Mai, I Bow to You
Misogynist Allies
World Watches Mukhtar Mai

Visiting the Border

My son and I took a short trip to the border this weekend, a place where anyone with anything to say about American immigration should spend an hour or two in silent contemplation. I'm talking about Terminal Four at JFK, the best place in New York to get a clear picture of the magnetism of these United States in under 60 minutes.

While we waited for my brother's plane (he was returning from a month in Africa with his girlfriend in the Peace Corps), we sat quietly on a luggage cart and watched the arrivals.

Even as Washington argues immigration policy, the real battle is about culture - the smiling Pat Buchanan face on Republican politics that chuckles like your favorite right-wing uncle while slipping American society the deadly shiv of "Anglo culture" and "Judeo-Christian tradition."

The scowling, pinstriped Lou Dobbs crowd finds an economic argument they like amid a huge field of better arguments they don't, and they talk about the rule of law. But they're really grasping for the America they grew up in - a place where the browns, and blacks, and grays knew their place.

"Why does everyone want to come here, Dad?" asked my 11-year-old at the airport as we split a pack of Twizzlers. He'd watched tearful reunions, huge rolling carts piled with cases, men exchanging dual-cheeked kisses, and chattering in Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, German, Japanese, and languages neither of us could identify. "Because it's the place to be," I said - a quick, slangy answer but I meant every syllable.

It is the place to be. And while competent security is vital, an open source America must endure. Despite our problems, we're like honey to an aspiring world. Immigrants are our strength. Just spend an hour in Terminal Four.

Oh and meanwhile, check out Andrea's first column - on immigration and Mr. Dobbs - in the Daily News. She's gonna be a regular.