zenpundit.com

ISRAEL THREATENS TO DESTROY IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Via Milt’s File, which is becoming a daily read for me much like I enjoy Dr. Rosenberg’s radio program at WGN Extension720.

Evidently, Israel is pressing the IAEA to implement a genuinely tough inspections regime in Iran and not the window dressing version that prevailed under Hans Blix that allowed Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il to press forward with their respective nuclear bomb programs.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION PUSHES SHEVARDNADZE OUT OF POWER IN GEORGIA

USA TODAY is reporting that Secretary of state Colin Powell was instrumental in convincing Georgian president and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze to resign rather than use force to confront opposition protests. Shevardnadze had come to power after the democratic but increasingly paranoid regime of Zviad Gamsakhurdia was overthrown.

Apparently this was a an application of joint Russian-American pressure on Shevardnadze, a sign that the United states and Russia have moved closer on foreign policy questions as Putin has consolidated power in his own hands and is no longer vulnerable to internal criticism on his political right.

That mass bloodshed was avoided in Georgia is positive but the administration needs to follow up by putting out diplomatic pressure for democratic and anti-corruption reforms in the Caucasian republic lest Trans-Caucasia become the new bananna republics of Eurasia.

Addendum

Analytical article from CACI

I WAS GOING TO POST ON ISLAMISM, THE EU AND LEE KUAN YEW

But Geitner Simmons beat me to the punch. Read him instead.

NOT A VERY GOOD WEEK FOR IRAN’S MULLAHS

First they were forced to issue a most likely false denial on harboring the world’s most wanted master terrorist after Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah’s sometime operational chief Imad Mughniyah. Then the UN moved to condemn Iran’s human rights record. Lastly, the Europeans, whom the Khameini-Rafsanjani hardline clique need to appease in order to stall investigations that might lead to sanctions for Iran’s illegal nuclear programs, have moved one step closer to the Bush administration position in an IAEA compromise.

THE FUTURE OF ANY STATE IS THE EDUCATION OF ITS YOUTH

I realize things have been quiet in terms of posting lately but one reason for the dearth was that I was attending a seminar with a premier educational theorist and consultant, Dr. Roger Taylor. I left thoroughly impressed with his ability to synthesize and aggregate a number of research proven methods with a very rich degree of content depth – E.D. Hirsch or William Bennett would have nothing to complain about in looking at Dr. Taylor’s system yet paradoxically neither would an academic on the other end of the spectrum like Howard Gardner.

Now educational consultants are a dime a dozen – heck, I’ve been an educational consultant on more than one occasion – and the fact that city school districts or state boards of education have hired Taylor alone doesn’t mean his system is valid. Nor does the interest of the Gates foundation or McDonald’s corporation in funding his pilot projects justify my recommendation to you to go check out his website and view his sample programs. Here’s what impressed me – he walks the walk.

* Roger Taylor has taught in an inner city Chicago High School for the last 18 years- for free

* 100 % of his students are classified as Title I. Most are eligible for free breakfast and lunch – meaning that many are quite poor. Some are orphaned, technically homeless or in group homes.

* 88 % percent of Taylor’s students this year – the same students who we hear are unteachable, distracted, lost, at-Risk – passed the prestigious and very tough AP exams. Some will go on to the nation’s finest universities in the fall.

This pass rate is, by the way, a national record.

Dr. Taylor has refused to sell his website or program to commercial entities even for an offer in the seven figures, opting instead to remain a nonprofit and pursue the grant funding required to eventually be able to give away his materials to any school who desires them for free.