O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Illinois Attorney General candidate Stu Umholtz is in the news -- finally. Although an online search didn't find any campaign-related stories regarding Umholtz, he is making the news in his role as Tazewell State's Attorney, in a local controversy that's got it all: gambling, guns, corruption, and a no-kill dog shelter.

In his pre-Election campaign report, Umholtz reported having just $3,517.71 cash on-hand. He actually raised more in signs than he did in cash.

However, two weeks before the election, Umholtz reported $2,000 from Team Gidwitz. In case you're wondering, that $2,000 got Ron Gidwitz fourth place, with 624 votes, or 6%.

Please use this thread to report any Umholtz-related campaign activities. Or Bigfoot sightings.

This is Progress?

From The Economist:
(subscription required)

Murder is certain

Mar 23rd 2006 | BAGHDAD AND RAMADI
From The Economist print edition

Three years after America invaded, Iraq is as violent as ever

...The police, under the Ministry of Interior, are in a much worse state [than the army] —and it is they who are expected eventually to quell the insurgency. So far, 123,000 have been trained and equipped (a total of 194,000 has been authorised). But they are of wildly mixed quality, with some of them barely trained. Worse, the best units, including several paramilitary brigades, have been infiltrated by various brutish Shia militias, and have launched reprisal attacks against Sunni civilians.

In November, American troops freed 123 famished Sunnis, some of whom had been tortured, from an interior-ministry basement in Baghdad. Coalition troops have also been attacked by the boys in blue, with several especially lethal IED attacks against British troops in Basra believed to be the work of rogue policemen there. In western Baghdad last month, shortly after the bombing of a sacred Shia shrine in Samarra, two American soldiers were sliced into pieces by an IED laid, during a curfew, within 50 yards of a police checkpoint.

Another great article from The Economist, ironically the #1 read on Air Force One. If you're not a subscriber, you should be.