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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DOUG H who wrote (262195)	6/8/2002 7:04:02 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

What a Prince War Emblem's owner is a Saudi Prince and a perfect example of the character of our ally Saudi Arabia. by Stephen F. Hayes 06/07/2002 10:00:00 AM Stephen F. Hayes, staff writer FOR ANYONE who has ever been to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, the giddy, chaotic moments after the Kentucky Derby linger in the mind like the dull, bitter taste after hours of drinking bourbon and sugar water on an empty stomach. Those memories are brief, kaleidoscope-flashes of color--pink and yellow and black, mostly. This year, at that happy time, Big Hats outnumbered victory celebrations by 100 to 1. It was obvious that a long-shot had won. Anytime a long-shot wins a horse race, the crowd buzzes with excitement, much of it the din of whispered curses and second-guessing. At this year's Kentucky Derby, that electric murmur came when 20-1 War Emblem shocked everyone with an easy victory. How fitting. War Emblem sweeps to an easy Derby win as the United States trounces the Taliban in the war on terror. A second wave of hushed enthusiasm came when the crowd began to realize that the exacta--which paid a whopping $1300.80--also had a patriotic theme: War Emblem, first; Proud Citizen, second. How appropriate. And how frustrating. Those of use who fancy ourselves "experts" were once again out-performed by amateurs. No doubt anyone who had a War Emblem-Proud Citizen exacta had it not because of bloodlines, speed figures, trainers, jockeys, or past performances. No, it could only have been luck--the super-patriots who picked horses based on their names were cashing huge tickets. Jerks. And then, when the owner and trainer gave interviews that could be seen on the mini-TVs in the clubhouse boxes, the crowd hummed with surprise. "This is not just for me, it's for all the Saudis and our great friends, the Americans," declared Prince Ahmed bin Salman, a Saudi royal who had purchased War Emblem just weeks before the Derby. "I am the first Arab to win it, by the way." Prince Ahmed is the nephew of Saudi King Fahd. He owns several Arabic news outlets--some of which are less-than-supportive of the United States. And Prince Ahmed's family funds anti-American madrassas. As fellow horse breeder Jim Squires wrote about Ahmed in the New York Times: "Educated in California and owner of a horse farm there, the Prince is always careful to say in winner's circle interviews how much he likes America. Some fans wonder why his newspapers and magazines back home don't express the same opinions." War Emblem not only won the Derby, but now has captured the Preakness, too. Tomorrow, he will run in the Belmont stakes hoping to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. That alone has much of the racing world backing the three-year-old. Throw in the fact that he has gone from unknown to near-legend in just eight weeks, and the groundswell of support should be huge. But the prince? Asked his thoughts on winning the Derby some eight months after September 11, the prince took a pass. "I am a businessman, not a politician," he said. "I leave these questions to our politicians and your politicians. There are bad people everywhere. What has happened in the past has happened." There is no disputing his last two assertions, of course. And one of the reasons so many turn to sports is to distract them from the harsh realities of day-to-day life, especially the worry--however faint--that with another attack, June 8 or June 9 or June 10 could become our new September 11. Couldn't Prince Ahmed muster something a little more sympathetic than "What has happened in the past has happened"? The owners of Proud Citizen, the Derby runner-up who took third in the Preakness, have launched their own patriotic campaign, pledging $100,000 to the Twin Towers Fund, no matter where their horse finishes. The beautiful colt was photographed this week with a blanket emblazoned with the FDNY logo. It's great, of course, that the money will go to help the victims' families. But it smells like cheap PR. "The press is writing that everyone is rooting for War Emblem and another Triple Crown winner," said Proud Citizen owner Bob Baker, in an interview with the New York Times. "We think that what we've done in giving our share of the purse to the Twin Towers Fund will have a whole lot of other people rooting for Proud Citizen and it'll just help to add to the interest of the event." The prince has made no such pledge, though a spokesman for his Thoroughbred Corporation hints that he, too, might be open to such a donation. But even more than that, should the prince and War Emblem be lucky enough to capture the elusive Triple Crown, how about a few words of condolence? The prince says he is not a politician. That's fine. Can't a businessman feel sorry, too? Stephen F. Hayes is staff writer at The Weekly Standard. weeklystandard.com.

To: DOUG H who wrote (262195)	6/8/2002 7:05:23 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769667

Re-Post: Census Shows Fewer Americans Remembering Old Country Ancestors Friday, June 07, 2002 WASHINGTON — The nation of immigrants is again reshaping its identity. While Hispanic immigration surged in the 1990s, new census figures show a decline in the number of people identifying themselves as Irish, German and other European ancestries. More people are simply calling themselves "American." "When I was younger, my parents explained that you are an American citizen but your heritage was from Ireland," said Jim Donohue, a New York City investment banker who has dual citizenship. Some of Donohue's ancestors came to America as early as the 1860s. While he has grown closer to his Irish roots in recent years, he said, "I'm definitely an American first." Demographer Martha Farnsworth Riche, a former head of the Census Bureau, said, "The longer you are here, the more it makes you American." Many Americans are descended from Europeans who arrived in the 1800s or early 1900s. The data come from the 2000 census long form distributed to about 20 million households. One question asked people to write in up to two ancestries that defined their background. Overall, while the U.S. population rose 13 percent over the decade to 281 million, the total ancestry responses — based on a sample — declined from 296 million in 1990 to 287 million in 2000. Results for a select number of ancestries from the most recent release showed declines mainly in European heritage. — Nearly 43 million people, or 15 percent of the country, reported being "German" in 2000, down 23 percent from nearly 58 million in 1990. — "Irish" or "Celtic" decreased from 38 million (16 percent of the total) to 30 million (11 percent), while "English" decreased from 32 million (13 percent) to 24 million (9 percent). Census Bureau analyst Campbell Gibson pointed to several reasons for the change. Many residents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s died in the 1990s. Also, the question requires write-in answers, which could distort the results since some may be influenced by the examples of several ancestries provided with the question, or write in any response on a whim, Gibson says. Others may ignore the question entirely. Some ancestries did see increases, including "Arab" and "sub-Saharan African." More information on Hispanic and Asian ancestries will be released starting later this month, and they are expected to show an increase. As for U.S. residents born overseas, the 2000 census showed that over half came from Latin America, while 16 percent came from Europe. While not directly comparable because of differences in data collection, the 1990 census showed 44 percent of the foreign-born were from Latin America, and 23 percent from Europe. The number of people writing in "American" for their ancestry increased from 13 million in 1990 to 20 million in 2000. Those who are generations removed from immigrants may simply be more comfortable with "American," Gibson said. Manfred Schnetzer, vice president of the German-American Citizens League in Cincinnati, agreed. About 25 percent of Ohio residents said they were German or part German in 2000, down from 38 percent in 1990. "Most of the younger (German-Americans) are not learning the language at all. The parents don't teach them," said Schnetzer. The tendency to report an ancestry was highest in the Midwest and Northeast, and lowest in the South. More than one in five people in Kentucky classified themselves as being of American heritage, the highest rate in the nation. Nora C. Sheehan, a Milwaukee lawyer born in New York, is 100 percent Irish and says she would have answered "Irish" had she received the long form. But Sheehan says she understands why the change is occurring. With more interracial marriages and people becoming further removed from their roots, "traditions die out and people don't recognize themselves as anything other than American." foxnews.com