Bill Rochelle and Bob Willis write at Bloomberg:

The states most affected by the housing recession, including California, Nevada and Florida, were among those with the largest increases in bankruptcies.

The American Cause And The Robert Taft Club Present A Panel on: Russia: Friend or Foe?

Srdja Trifkovic, Igor Zevelev, and Nicolas Gvosdev

When: Monday April 7 7:00-10:00 PM — Reception with light fare and pay bar at 7:00, program begins promptly at 8:00
Where: The Boulevard Woodgrill 2901 Wilson Blvd *Arlington, VA 22201
Parking and Directions
Free and open to the public, but a donation of $10 dollars is reccomended

Both the establishment Right and Left believe that Russia poses a threat. Hillary Clinton said Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have a soul,” while John McCain has complained that Russia is “opposed to the principles of the Western democracies” and has urged that they be kicked out of the G8 and a “league of democracies” be formed to counter their influence. Is Russia an authoritarian threat, a potential ally, or simply a re-emerging world power who we need not antagonize. To offer some unconventional wisdom our speakers will be:

Nikolas K. Gvosdev is Editor of The National Interest and a Senior Fellow of Strategic Studies at The Nixon Center. Dr. Gvosdev is a frequent commentator on U.S. foreign policy and international relations, Russian and Eurasian affairs, and developments in the Middle East. He received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. Dr. Gvosdev is the author of six books, and most recently the co-author of The Receding Shadow of the Prophet: The Rise and Fall of Political Islam. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
Srdja Trifkovic is director of The Rockford Institute’s Center for International Affairs and foreign-affairs editor for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. He has worked for the Institute since 1999. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling Sword of the Prophet: Islam, History, Theology, Impact on the World. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Southampton and is the co-founder and executive director of the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies. Prior to joining the Institute, he held a variety of posts including broadcaster for BBC World Service and for Voice of America, correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, and lecturer at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He has been published in, among others, the Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Igor Zevelev is currently Washington bureau chief for the Russian media outlet Novosti. He was previously a professor of Russian studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and chief researcher at the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow. He was a fellow at the United States Institute of Peace during 1997–98.

Contact Marcus Epstein for more information.

Jon Henke, [email him] who was blogging for Megan McCardle while she was away, writes a post in the Atlantic’s high-class blog:

Most Southerners have a relationship with the Confederate flag that has nothing whatsoever to do with slavery.

Well, no kidding, Sherlock! You see, no living white Southerner has ever owned a slave. Whereas for many of the people who grew up in the South in the last 50 years or so, it was the state flag. In some case, it was changed to reflect the centennial of the Civil War, which, if you recall, abolished slavery over a hundred and forty years ago.

There’s more at the Atlantic’s blog about what Henke calls the “revolting history” of the Confederacy, but I’ll let it pass. The point is that the evil of the Confederate flag is a fairly recent discovery–it was no problem for the “Dukes Of Hazzard” to have a car called the General Lee with a Confederate flag on the roof from 1979 to 1986, but it did become a problem in the movie remake in 2005.

What happened in between? A sustained campaign of hatred against Southern heritage symbols, punctuated by whining, griping, and economic boycotts.

In the meantime, if you want actual symbols of slavery, remember that Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery, (officially) in 1962, and they still treat migrant labor like slaves. If you want a symbol of slavery, which still exists throughout the Muslim world, what about all those people dressed in headscarves and burnooses?. I have it on good authority that Saudi Arabians appear in public in white sheets,

Saudi women dress in black, but wear Klan-style hoods. (Apparently the anti-Klan laws intended, not unreasonably,  to prevent people from appearing in public in masks, do not apply to Muslim ladies.) So if you’re looking for symbols of slavery and hate, check out the Arab and Muslim symbols that are becoming increasingly common in Western society, not the symbols of “good ol’ boys, never meanin’ no harm.”

On April 4th, a group of Latin American pop stars gathered in Miami, Florida (called “the Capital of Latin America”) to promote an Interamerican Development Bank development program called “Yo Amo América“. [Ellos Aman a América, el Siglo de Torreon, April 5th, 2008]
As I’ve explained before there is a difference between what Americans call “America” and what Spanish-speakers call América . They use the latter to refer to the entire Western Hemisphere.
As for the “Yo Amo América“. event, an article in the Mexican media pointed out that, among the assembled pop stars, none was Mexican.
Nevertheless, Colombian rock star Juanes was in Miami. In an earlier blog entry I reported on Juanes’ promotion of the Hispanic vote in the U.S.A.