Michael Daly nails it with today's op/ed piece. From It's an emotional issue, but blocking the Ground Zero mosque is just what the terrorists want:

Even now, after all our mistakes, after we let Bin Laden slip away in Afghanistan and lost our focus going into Iraq, Al Qaeda is still more a gang than an army.

It is still so small that its new operations chief, Adnan Shukrijumah, met personally with the knuckleheads who planned to bomb the subway last September.

When the previous operations chief, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured, he was not surrounded by a host of terrorists. He had nary a bodyguard when he was rousted from bed in his underwear at the house where he was hiding out like what he was, a murderer on the run.

We have since built him into a figure of such awesome evil that we are afraid to try him in downtown Manhattan like what he is, a murderer who has been caught.

We have glorified Al Qaeda in the same way, but to reach its ultimate goal, it still needs us to convince the majority of Muslims that the war on terror is really a war on Islam.

We are only helping the bad guys if we declare that the religious freedom at the core of our democracy does not apply to a mosque too close to Ground Zero.  read more »

From At Ramadan Iftar dinner, Obama supports new mosque on private property near Ground Zero :: Top of the Ticket :: Los Angeles Times:

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

We must never forget those who we lost so tragically on 9/11, and we must always honor those who have led our response to that attack --from the firefighters who charged up smoke-filled staircases, to our troops who are serving in Afghanistan today. And let us always remember who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for. Our enemies respect no freedom of religion. Al Qaeda%u2019s cause is not Islam --it is a gross distortion of Islam. These are not religious leaders --these are terrorists who murder innocent men, women and children. In fact, al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion --and that list of victims includes innocent Muslims who were killed on 9/11.

Full Text of the speech:  read more »

On Monday at noon, George Pataki will finally, blessedly, get out of the way. This state can then at long last breathe a sigh of relief and get back to actual governance.

He is not, however, going away entirely, caught up as he is in the desire to cast wider the nets of his failure by running for President. On the one hand, that's a remarkable leap of faith on his part; on the other, one has to be strangely fascinated by the fact that he believes in himself so strongly that this quest of his hasn't been aborted by the incredulous derision it inspires.

George Pataki leaves behind a state that neither loves nor hates him. If he inspires any reaction, arguably, it's boredom, the kind you get from an uncle whom you like at some level, but who can't stop yapping about golf. Your relief when this uncle finally leaves your Thanksgiving dinner is precisely what New Yorkers are feeling as the Pataki era draws to a close. Pataki is Calvin Coolidge, without the excitement.

Pataki's legacy is, in fairness, mixed. He preserved more open space than any of his predecessors. He championed the cleanup of the Hudson. Until he started running for President, he supported gay rights and a woman's right to choose. He also cut taxes, especially in his first term, and took some steps to shrink state government, notably the sale of the World Trade Center in 2001. He even managed to deliver an on-time budget two years in a row. By the low standards set by contemporary republicans, he was not as bad as he could have been, which, I suppose, translates into a gentleman's C, politically speaking.  read more »

I've been invited to pose questions at an event being put on by DMI on Monday, at the ungodly hour of 8:00 to 10:30 AM at the Harvard Club. The event headline is very timely: "Increasing accountability for economic development subsidies".

On September 18, 2006 the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy will host the latest installment of its 'Marketplace of Ideas' series featuring Senator John Hottinger of Minnesota.

Senator Hottinger sponsored Minnesota’s groundbreaking law instituting new standards of transparency and accountability for state and local economic development subsidies. The 1995 law and its subsequent enhancements required that companies who receive public subsidies but fail to reach job creation goals repay the subsidy with interest. The legislation also mandated increased corporate disclosure, wage standards for the jobs created, and public hearings before large subsidies could be granted. The law is credited with recouping millions of dollars in state funds and increasing civic engagement around issues of economic development.

I call this event timely for several reasons. Most importantly, this state will have a Democratic governor come January, one who is running on the slogan "On Day One, everything changes". If we're lucky, or more to the point, if we work very hard, Eliot will also have a Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature, clearing the way for the much-needed, oft-deferred reform of the state government. In short, the macro environment of governance in this state is about to change drastically.  read more »

If we do, here's a fantastic reminder created by National Geographic and made available to the public through www.video.google.com :

I agree with the National Trust for Historic Preservation : Don't build anything until all details for preservation are sorted out.  read more »