Amer G. Zahr is opening Cafe Oz, Ann Arbor’s first hookah cafe, in the old Webelite building on Fifth Street, although the Ann Arbor news article about it quickly devolves into some sort of moralizing crusade against teen smoking. I wonder if they subjected La Dolce Vita to the same treatment when they opened. Just before the end of the article the rerporter squeezes in this quote:
“”This (cafe) has nothing to do with the tobacco industry that he’s talking about,” counters Zahr. Some hookah tobacco does contain nicotine, the ingredient which leads to addiction, he says, but the brands he will offer do not. Also, says Zahr, Cafe Oz will not allow cigars or cigarettes.”
> AANews: “Cafe Oz brings hookah experience to Ann Arbor”

The University has announced that Evan H. Caminker will replace Jeff Lehman as dean of the U-M law school, effective August 1. From the press release linked below: “Caminker, who has taught in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, and federal courts, has received the ACLU Distinguished Professors Award for Civil Liberties Education.”
>AANEWS: “U-M chooses law school dean”
>UMPR: Evan H. Caminker recoommended as Dean of the Law School

The 40th anniversary of Detroit’s massive 1963 “Walk to Freedom” down Woodward Avenue will be held next week.

Did you know 40% of the U.S. Senate are millionaires?
See “Millionaires populate U.S. Senate”. The House isn’t much better, with our own John Dingell high in the running. From “Pelosi among wealthiest Democrats in House.”:
“Rep. John D. Dingell, Michigan Democrat, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the longest-serving House lawmaker, reported 37 mutual funds owned alone or with his wife, Debbie. He did not list the salary of his wife, who works for General Motors, but did say she has $1 million to $5 million in GM stock options and $500,000 to $1 million in a GM Savings-Stock Purchase Program.”

Censorship in Iraq
“Iraq’s lethal peace could yet change American minds” editorializes London’s left-leaning Guardian, pointing out that: “Almost unnoticed outside Iraq, the senior US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has issued a proclamation outlawing any “gatherings, pronouncements or publications” that call for the return of the Ba’ath party – or for opposition to the US occupation.”
> A quick Google news search shows they are indeed correct – it seems mostly foreign news sources are running information about the speech ban that was announced June 12.

Also, This Guardian columnn seems to summarize the current situation in Iraq particuparly well:
… The anti-democratic and flagrantly colonial nature of the new power in Iraq is undisguised. While Iraqi political parties are pressing for a broadly-based conference to elect a transitional government, the new US proconsul, Paul Bremer, is only prepared to tolerate a hand-picked Iraqi advisory council, while his occupation authority ploughs ahead with shaping the free market, pro-western order the US plans to impose on the ruins of an independent Iraq.

this Australian newspaper doesn’t pull any punches: “US forces lost an attack helicopter to enemy fire as they mounted a massive military campaign in central Iraq against what some officials are calling an organized resistance against the American occupation.”

Meanwhile, the official count of U.S. casualties is up to 229. (During Gulf War I, the ‘official’ count was hundreds off the true number of dead.)

United Press Internantional has released this analysis of the U-M case interviewing Peter Kirsanow, appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; and Marvin Krislov, the University’s general counsel.

Kirsanow predicts Rehnquist, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas and O’Connor voting to overturn Bakke – ruling diversity is not a compelling state interest: “Why take a politically charged case like this,” Kirsanow asked, “if (the court) is not going to make a bright-line ruling?” He disagrees with the brief filed by President Bush – that argues diversity is a compelling state interest but the U-M policy constitutes quotas.

Krislov says he is “cautiously optimistic” the court will uphold the “Bakke principal,” although declining to predict how the U-M policies will fare. He also highlights an interesting factoid – according to studies submitted in the case “without the affirmative action programs, minorities would have made up only 4 percent of the [U-M Ann Arbor] population in 2000, instead of the 14 percent that was achieved.” And the University already has the socio-economic affirmative action trumpeted by conservatives.

As a note of explanation, the thing below my archives in the left column is an advertisement. Blogs of War has bought the first ad for t-shirts and other stuff celebrating Senator Orrin Hatch’s comment that he would support technology, if it existed, that would destroy the computer of users who violated copyright law. (See this wired story for the details.) If you would like to place an ad (currently $5/week, $15/month) click here. And don’t worry – you won’t see ads for Starbucks here anytime soon – I have complete editorial control.