Through private donations and benefit events like the annual Grand Slam for Children concert, he has raised more than $23 million to build a campus in a neglected neighborhood in west Las Vegas neighborhood, which now includes a modern elementary school, a middle school and an arts and music building. Construction of a high school and a gymnasium is expected to begin next spring.

"The good news is that I've created an endowment fund that will pay for the school forever, so we'll never be going back to anybody just to keep the lights on," he said. "But I do understand that the longer I play, the better off I know that the school will be."

Way to go, Andre, studly off the court as well (and I refer to more than his long and gaudily successful amorous history).

Kerry Gets Permission to Drive 'Family' SUV
(2004-04-22) -- Just hours after telling reporters that he doesn't own an SUV but his family does, Sen. John Forbes Kerry announced today that he had gained permission from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, to drive the family's Chevy Suburban on brief trips to the grocery store or dry cleaner.

"I didn't ask to take it on the campaign trail because it gets lousy gas mileage which is bad for the environment," said Mr. Kerry. "But I was excited when Teresa told me that I could run out to the Piggly-Wiggly in the big rig."

Mr. Kerry's spokesman later explained that, "the family calls the SUV 'the big rig', not Senator Kerry, because it's not his vehicle, so he doesn't need a nickname for it. The SUV belongs to someone else in the family--in this case, his wife, but not the Senator."

President Bush could not be reached for comment because, according to his spokesman, "he's out hauling some lumber in his Ford F-250 Super Duty, four-door pickup truck."

38 Million Not Expected at DC Abortion Rights Rally
(2004-04-21) -- Although several hundred thousand abortion rights supporters are expected to march in Washington D.C. this coming Sunday, a spokesman for a major special interest group said its members would not attend the rally.

The American Association of Aborted People (AAAP), a political inaction committee, said none of its 38 million members would participate in the protest march.

"Since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, our ranks have swelled by about 1.4 million per year," said the unnamed AAAP spokesman. "So, we should be at the center of any debate about abortion. Unfortunately, none of our members could tear themselves away to attend the rally. But we'll be there in spirit, if not in body."

Rich was absolutely brilliant in the debate, personally winning and utterly compelling.

It was Rich's idea to invite anyone who wanted to pursue the discussion afterwards for beer, pizza and conservative fellowship at the Green Mill Brewery near St. Thomas. Twenty folks showed up, all fans who wanted nothing more than to draw Rich out further on the topics he had touched on in the debate.

Rich stayed until midnight, answering every question and indulging every whim. Suffice it to say that he is a fine person in addition to the other outstanding attributes we can deduce he possesses from his journalism. He has to get up in a few hours to catch the first plane back to New York. It has been our experience that successful conservative movers and shakers like Rich are among the nicest people in the world.

Russert also asks Kerry if he will pledge not to seek re-election in 2008 should he become president and fail to meet his goals of creating 10 million new jobs and halving the deficit. His answer:

"Well, it would depend on the circumstances. If I don't [succeed] because there's a war or something terrible happens, of course I'm not going to make that pledge."

From everything I've read about Vietnam, we could have, and should have, won. We retreated and gave up because of the public outcry. The public was against it because the media was against it and a large segment of the political leadership was against it. All of this is true of our current situation in Iraq, except for the retreating and giving up part. That will happen with a Kerry presidency (God forbid).

So let's speak a language that liberals can understand: Iraq is another Vietnam. Fallujah is another Tet. And that's exactly why our cause is just, necessary, and can succeed, so long as the Left doesn't create a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat -- just like it did...in Vietnam.

... The relentlessly downbeat coverage matters, because national will is important, and as in Vietnam, the consequences of failure in Iraq would be catastrophic.

... The humiliation in Vietnam also led to a broad retreat of American power.

So in these ways, at least, Iraq is indeed another Vietnam. All the more reason for sufferers from the Vietnam Syndrome to be more responsible in their rhetoric and in their history. Unfortunately, they are very skilled at disparaging a U.S. war effort. They learned to do it during Vietnam.

"I have made mistakes during my time in the White House. I frittered away months trying to convince the United Nations that it should free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator who never fulfilled the terms of surrender from the Gulf War and who continued to fire upon Coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone.

It was an error in judgment to think that the U.N. Security Council would ever do anything more than talk in moralistic platitudes. My desire to build an international coalition from nations like France and Germany only served to delay the inevitable liberation of Iraq. I apologize to the people of Iraq and others in the Arab world, yearning to breathe free, who have placed their hopes in the only superpower that has the will and the way to set them free.

This confession is good for the soul, so I would also like to admit that it was a mistake for me to keep Bill Clinton's counter-terrorism chief on my staff. I know now that Richard Clarke's presence in the White House was a knife hovering behind the shoulder blades of not only my staff, but of the American people who would later be betrayed by Mr. Clarke's desire for self-aggrandizement. I'm sorry for that.

I'd also like to admit that it was a mistake to think that I could make friends with the Democrats by pouring funding into their top political agency, the National Education Association, or by creating a huge new medicare prescription drug entitlement. I can see now that no matter how often and how much you feed an alligator, he's always looking past the food in your hand and hankering for your arm, your heart, your head. My mistake...and I'm truly sorry.

One last thing: In hindsight, it appears that I was premature in declaring an end to major combat operations in Iraq. I thought we had toppled the dictator. But as long as vermin like al-Sadr seek to glorify themselves, using false religion to oppress the people, the dictator lives on. He lives on in the hearts of the radical clerics who killed and then mutilated the bodies of Americans as surely as if their own hands were stained black from the charred flesh. I'm sorry that my statement caused some to believe that the war in Iraq had ended. It has continued for more than a decade and will not end until evil men like al-Sadr are purged and the cowl of fear is lifted from the face of the Iraqi people."

West Indies captain Brian Lara became the first man to score 400 in a Test innings as the home side took a stranglehold on the third day of the fourth and final match against England in Antigua.

Lara, who had earlier passed Matthew Hayden's world record individual Test score of 380, swept English off spinner Gareth Batty for a single to backward square leg to reach 400, then declared at the end of the over on 5 for 751.

A tired-looking England side then stumbled to 5 for 171 at the close of play, still 381 runs short of the follow-on target.

"We simply wanted to know why our husbands were killed. Why they went to work one day and didn't come back."

The U.S. military will withdraw most if its forces from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this year, an official announced today.

The withdrawal means the United States will no longer have combat troops anywhere on the DMZ except at Panmunjom, where a U.S.-Korean battalion, commanded by a U.S. army lieutenant colonel, remains on guard in what is known as the Joint Security Area.

Therefore South Korea, which has a 600,000-member military, will face North Korea's armed forces, the world's fifth largest with 1.1 million soldiers, most of whom are concentrated near the DMZ.

"We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger," the ad reads.

Cassell howled in pain during an early timeout after bending one of his fingernails. Teammate Ervin Johnson grinned at him and said, "Man, you need a pedicure or something."

And while some of the Marine Corps' finest were taking gunfire and dying, back at home, Sen. Teddy Kennedy wandered from his palatial Senate office on Capitol Hill to the plush and friendly surroundings of the Brookings Institute, a liberal Washington think tank, to unleash a verbal carpet bombing on the president of the United States.

... What is truly unfortunate is that those who hear the "echoes" of such pessimistic Pooh Bahs are the terrorists who are emboldened by it. It is also heard by young Americans who toppled a brutal dictator and liberated the people in "that unfortunate, miserable country" from an evil regime.

The murder of those four defense contractors was planned and phoned in to the Arab media beforehand so that the pictures broadcast around the world might have the same effect that the train bombing in Madrid had on the Spanish elections -- to instill fear and generate calls for retreat. Thus terrorists in Iraq who use bullets and bombs have now added a public relations component as another asset in their quiver. And their latest offensive, which combined murder and its broadcast on television, has apparently worked on people like Ted Kennedy and Bob Byrd.

Isn't it strange that on a weekend in which I'd thought about this man and his widow for the first time in a long time, and even felt moved to pray for her, that she wrote me out of the blue for the first time since the fall of 2001? Makes one wonder what goes on around us and between us, unseen.

The Arab street doesn't know that Kennedy's a partisan hatchet man. All it knows is what it is told — which in this case is that one of America's most revered senators and the brother of JFK has declared that Iraq is the equivalent of Vietnam and that the violence in Iraq means Bush should go. If that's not a signal to our enemies that America is losing its resolve and that continued violence is worthwhile, I'm not sure what is.

... the best way to guarantee that Iraq turns out to be a failure is to act as if it's a failure.

The North Vietnamese "won" the Tet offensive and ultimately Vietnam because they forced America to lose its nerve. That's what al-Sadr and bin Laden have been counting on from the beginning as they try to persuade Muslims to kill Americans. And I'll bet they think Ted Kennedy's whistling their tune.

AS violence in Iraq dominates the news, imagine a Middle Eastern country in which the government works in simple offices and spends its money on education, a state in which the prime minister still lives in his parents' home and builds libraries instead of palaces.

How about a Middle East in which young men and women study together at a university where no political party rules the campus, freedom of speech is encouraged and internet access is unrestricted.

Try, if you can, to imagine a Middle Eastern population that regards America with respect and gratitude.

It isn't a dream. It's a reality.

Welcome to free Kurdistan.

Things have been busy here. You know I can't say much about it. However, I do know two things. One, POTUS has given us the green light to do whatever we needed to do to win this thing so we have that going for us. Two, and my opinion only, this battle is going to have far reaching effects on not only the war here in Iraq but in the overall war on terrorism. We have to be very precise in our application of combat power. We cannot kill a lot of innocent folks (though they are few and far between in Fallujah). There will be no shock and awe. There will be plenty of bloodshed at the lowest levels. This battle is the Marine Corps' Belleau Wood for this war. 2/1 and 1/5 will be leading the way. We have to find a way to kill the bad guys only. The Fallujahans are fired up and ready for a fight (or so they think). A lot of terrorists and foreign fighters are holed up in Fallujah. It has been a sanctuary for them. If they have not left town they are going to die. I'm hoping they stay and fight.

This way we won't have to track them down one by one.

This battle is going to be talked about for a long time. The Marine Corps will either reaffirm its place in history as one of the greatest fighting organizations in the world or we will die trying. The Marines are fired up. I'm nervous for them though because I know how much is riding on this fight (the war in Iraq, the view of the war at home, the length of the war on terror and the reputation of the Marine Corps to name a few). However, every time I've been nervous during my career about the outcome of events when young Marines were involved they have ALWAYS exceeded my expectations. I'm praying this is one of those times.

Team, GB, Record
1. x-Sacramento, - , 53-23
2. x-Minnesota, - , 54-24
3. x-L.A. Lakers, ½, 53-24
4. x-San Antonio, 1½, 52-25
5. x-Memphis, 4, 49-27
6. x-Dallas, 5, 48-28
7. Houston, 11, 42-34
8. Denver, 13½, 40-37

9. Utah, 13½, 40-37
10. Portland, 14, 39-37

Team, GB, Record
1. x-Sacramento, -, 52-23
2. x-Minnesota, ½, 52-24
3. x-L.A. Lakers, -, 52-23
4. x-San Antonio, 2, 50-25
5. x-Memphis, 3½, 48-26
6. x-Dallas, 5, 47-28
7. Houston, 9½, 42-32
8. Utah, 13, 39-36

9. Portland, 13, 39-36
10. Denver, 13½, 39-37

Wash @ Minnesota
Phoenix @ Memphis
San Antonio @ Utah
LA @ Seattle

Sacramento @ Houston
San Antonio @ LA
Memphis @ Minnesota

Team, GB, Record
1. x-Sacramento, -, 52-22
2. x-Minnesota, 1, 52-24
3. x-L.A. Lakers, 1, 51-23
4. x-San Antonio, 2½, 50-25
5. x-Memphis, 4, 48-26
6. x-Dallas, 6, 46-28
7. Houston, 9½, 42-31
8. Utah, 13½, 39-36

9. Portland, 14, 38-36
10. Denver, 14, 39-37