I’ve received word that our glorious, dashing mayor Gavin Newsom will be proclaiming the day of my return to San Francisco, May 12, as official “Learn Shane-Thought” day.

I’ll be met with a red carpet exit from the first-class section of the United Airlines Boeing 747 I’ll be traveling on from JFK to SFO. From the airport I’ll be escorted by a cavalcade of black-and-white SFPD cruisers with flashing lights and sirens to Market Street, where a “Welcome Back to San Francisco Shane Hensinger” parade will begin. The day’s festivities will feature a grand finale at City Hall featuring performances by some of my favorite DJs and artists - including John Digweed, Joni Mitchell and myself reading from my latest work “Shane-Thought on International Jurisprudence” followed by a spectacular fireworks display. The party will end with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Handel’s “Messiah” to the assembled millions who have come to witness my return.

Please let me know if you can attend.

I’m sick of people using the word “elitist” as a pejorative.

There is nothing wrong with being elitist - with going to a top university or law school, with owning a nice car or living in a good area or vacationing in the Hamptons or Capri or making a lot of money. None of these things by themselves or in combination are “bad” although with the terribly misguided egalitarianism we’ve been fed in this country over the past 40 years one would think a person practicing any of them should be as vilified as a sex offender.

I’m thinking about this because Paul Begala called the WaPo’s columnist David Broder “elitist” for his (admittedly) stupid attack on Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. First of all - Begala is the epitome of the limousine liberal beltway-insider elitist. He’s got his head so far up the Bill Clinton’s ass I’m surprised he hasn’t expired for lack of oxygen. Yes Broder is a doddering old fool who hasn’t had a unique or worthwhile comment in decades but “elitist?” Coming from Begala that comment is the height of hypocrisy.

The “elite” in this country power our business, entertainment and political classes. If you don’t like it then break in and destroy it from within but stop fucking talking and acting like people who are successful are to be mistrusted. I always find the irony hilarious that most of the people who claim others are “elitist” are themselves from the very same class they claim to abhor. Give me a fucking break.

I’m so glad to be done with my African Cultures paper on debt-relief. I just finished writing and have been doing so for 9 hours straight. 12 pages done - paper due Wendesday, just in time

Internet radio stations are going to be forced to shut down next month because of a wrong-headed decision by the FCC. That means ALL Internet radio stations - house, religious, spoken-word etc…

Please go HERE to sign the petition and send letters to your senators and representative. Internet radio is one of the last options for listeners of niche music to hear their favorites, please help save it.

about the recent massacre at Virginia Tech. is I’ve become so inured to school/workplace shootings that I didn’t even think twice when I first heard about it. 33 people is a lot but I’m sure the next crazy will figure out a way to kill even more. I mean - records are meant to be broken, right?

What a terrible weekend for news and for weather.

I left Manhattan for DC on Friday so stay with friends for the weekend. Cleverly I had decided to take the train instead of fly because I hate the Department of Homeland Security. I also calculated that when I added in the cost of transportation to and from JFK and Dulles I could afford a Business Class ticket on Amtrak’s Acela for less. So the trip went well, the weather wasn’t bad Friday and Saturday but Sunday the storm hit and I saw a lot of flooding along the tracks as we moved North through Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania to New York.

The suicide bombings in Morocco have hit me especially hard. The American Language Center in Casablanca is where I did my orientation the first time I went to Morocco in 1988. It’s a short walk from there to the American Consulate where on my second day in Morocco we went to meet the American Consul as we were the very first high school students to have done an exchange in quite some time. The Moroccans were so happy to have us there and I was so lucky to have been on that trip and developed such close ties with people in Morocco, ties I continue to keep today.

So reading about the recent suicide bombings outside both establishments in combination with the terrorist attacks in 2003 have made me very sad. I see Morocco as almost my second country - a place I have traveled extensively, from the far North to the far South and all the way to the Sahara near the Algerian border. Never had I felt unsafe or threatened while in Morocco but I have a feeling I’ll never be able to return and move so freely as I once did. If I feel this way imagine how the Moroccans feel, it’s their country and stability on the line here. All-in-all a terrible, terrible situation that has been compounded by the Bush administration’s horrific mistakes in Middle Eastern foreign policy.

Another terrible mistake that has been compounded is the outrageous European policy of paying Taliban kidnappers ransom to release their citizens while at the same time abandoning the Afghan translators and employees kidnapped along with the Europeans to death. The past three months have seen this development spiral out of control after Italy paid a $2,000,000 ransom to the Taliban to release two Italians. The Taliban released the Italians but then slit the throat of the Afghan interpreter who worked with them and this past week kidnapped two more French citizens.

Paying ransom is a cowardly and morally bankrupt policy, especially when the European states paying the ransom have troops in Afghanistan who will be killed or injured by the weapons used against them which were in all likelihood purchased with the European ransom money in the first place! The policy also encourages further kidnappings and sheds light on the racist European policy of paying to release their own citizens but not giving two-shits about the Afghan employees who then end up dead.

It’s really quite amazing the world has turned its eyes away from this when Europe is constantly bleating about American racism and how much more “sensitive” it is to Muslim concerns. Yeah right - sensitive with words but when it comes to concrete actions Europe will abandon you to have your throat slit while it’s freed citizens sip wine and eat fois gras in Europe.

We had a fascinating discussion tonight in my International Organizations class on human rights: where the concept began, how it has evolved and why nation-states, always supremely self-interested, have pledged to respect them.

Listening to several of my classmates, some of whom are vehemently anti-American, I crystallized my role thoughts on the role of the United States in International Relations (IR): I don’t view the United States as the source of the world’s problems - I view US policy under the Bush administration as the source of these problems. This administration will be out of power in less than two years - opposition to the Bush administration can’t take the place of policy and of good governance, so we need to start advocating real solutions and be ready to put those into practice the minute after a Democrat takes power in 2009.

There will be a time when we Democrats will be back in the White House and all the institutions currently under attack by opponents of US multilateralism - the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, the IMF, Gatt - will once again serve their purpose of maintaining peace and harmony in the world. I don’t like discussions about how to reduce the power of the United States in IR because I’m an American and I regard my country as a source of good in the world (the last 7 years notwithstanding.) And that separates me from those who view the US as a malignant force dragging the world through hell because of its own imperialist, militaristic desires.

The Democratic Party is gradually coming together around a classic liberal view of IR - multilateralist, respectful of our allies, faith in international institutions. This is where I stand and that’s why I’ll continue to work with the Democratic Party to implement a platform that works to improve the position of the United States in the world through a strong belief in the Grotian tradition in IR.

I’ve recently become enamored of Kiva.org. This is an excellent site where you can loan money to an entrepreneur in the third-world, the money is paid back gradually and the recipient maintains an on-line diary where you can keep track of their progress. All loans are distributed through an NGO in the country of origin and have a repayment rate of over 98%.

This, my friends, is an amazing example of one positive and concrete benefit of the Internet and the ability of people to connect using this resource. It’s also an example of how small-scale targeted aid is probably far more effective in eliminating poverty than structurally-based aid provides through Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a classic liberal in the Grotian tradition and a supporter of the IMF, GATT and the World Bank. But encouraging the movement of capitol from the First to the Third worlds through a mechanism like Kiva is something the World Bank or IMF were never designed to do.

So far I’ve loaned $225 total to 5 entrepreneurs in Togo, Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, Afghanistan and Ukraine. I’ll be eagerly watching to see how their plans develop over the next 12-18 months.

Did I mention I’ve lost 30 pounds over the past three months?

Huh? No one’s noticed? It’s because I look so good no matter what I weigh.. And yeah bitches I am the same weight I was when I was 23 and I am now 36…

Learn it….

The Boston Globe has an interesting article today on how the Justice department has been seeded with Republican “sleeper cells.” These cells aren’t designed to carry out physical subterfuge in case of an enemy invasion but rather to sabotage the Justice department (and probably many other departments as well) in the event the Democrats take power in 2008.

It also turns out that attorneys used to be hired for the Justice Department based on law school ranking and grades but now they’re being hired based on ideological loyalty - and they’re being chosen from right-wing Christian-based law schools like Pat Robertson’s Regent University. Forget Stanford, NYU, Yale and Berkeley - these top four law schools are considered “ideologically suspect.”

In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people’s civil rights.

“When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was ‘maddening,’ I knew I correctly answered the question,” wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division’s housing section — the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.

In addition it appears that the politicization of the professional civil service is far, far worse than we every suspected. All layers of our nation’s government workers have been thoroughly politicized and chosen for their positions based not on professional qualifications but for their loyalty to the Republican Party and the President.

This is horrible. What we’re seeing is rank, unfettered corruption that has polluted the professional civil service whose loyalty previously was to the Constitution. This is worse than many of us every suspected and is on-par with nations like Zimbabwe, where to get a job with the government one is required to prove their loyalty to the governing party.

Remember one thing - no one, not the President nor the Vice-President nor any cabinet, sub-cabinet or administration member is immune from prosecution due to illegal actions while in office. Someone is going to pay for this, I guarantee it.