Abu Jamal

Havre de Grace. -- The first issue of the Standard, a political weekly magazine with the requisite deep-pockets sugar daddy and a stable of pedigreed conservative writers, appeared in mailboxes this week promising to be the new voice for the new era.No doubt some found this promise appealing, but it had seemed to me that the new era had entirely too many voices already, most of them all speaking at once. And I would have thought that Washington, where the Standard is published, needs another political magazine about as much as it needs another law firm.

The crisis Afghan fighters declared victory over al-Qaida troops in the Tora Bora region. A cave-by-cave search was on for Osama bin Laden. A group of al-Qaida prisoners, captured as they tried to leave Afghanistan, rose up against their Pakistani guards. Thirteen people were killed in the fight and about 20 of the 150 prisoners escaped. Maryland's share of the $20 billion federal anti-terrorism package is $39 million -- including $16 million for police expenses in Prince George's and Montgomery counties for relief work at the Pentagon.

PHILADELPHIA -- Chicago 1968 equals Philadelphia 2000? Probably not. But while Philadelphia most likely will not erupt in chaos and anarchy in the streets during the Republican Convention beginning July 31, the city will be awash in protesters. Organizations promoting a melting pot of social causes ranging from pro-choice, gun control, labor, environmental issues, gay rights, women's groups, supporters of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, and advocates for the homeless and the poor are likely to descend upon the city.

SO IN THE blink of an eye, the mouths of black America's liberal leadership have clamped shut tighter than the doors on Mumia Abu-Jamal's cell on death row. For a while there, we couldn't seem to shut them up. We had the Revvums Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton getting offended and criticizing jokes disparaging Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the movie Barbershop. Then we had Harry Belafonte -- a left-wing activist as well as a singer and actor -- dismissing Secretary of State Colin Powell as President Bush's house slave.

WHAT ARE the chances that the good Rev. Jesse Jackson will come to Baltimore and proclaim that Officer Brian Winder was the 78th American cop killed in the line of duty this year? Slightly less than you would have of getting a dead dog to roll over? About even with the odds of President Bush ascending the stage and giving a high-five to propaganda master Michael Moore at the 2005 Academy Awards? Don't hold your breath, in any case. Few of black America's so-called leaders, either national or local, have shown the passion and anger over the death of Winder that they showed for Nathaniel Jones in late 2003.

THE BOARD of directors of Guilt Trip Airlines convened on the Mall in our nation's capital this past Saturday to demand that every white American book a flight. Only whites are eligible for flights on Guilt Trip Airlines, you see, for those terrible things they did to all those poor black folks for all those years. And while you're on your flight, whip out your checkbook. The board of directors will get back to you on exactly how much money you should pay black Americans for the sins of slavery, racism, Jim Crow, lynching and other crimes your ancestors, not you, committed.

THE KEY PHRASE is "of color." Remember that, and you'll get some idea of the political leanings of the "journalists of color" who cheered Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry one day and cackled at President Bush's comments the next. It happened more than a week ago, at the Unity: Journalists of Color convention in Washington. African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American and Native American print and broadcast reporters, columnists, editors and commentators heard both candidates speak.

The supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal can work up a teeth-gnashing hate when they run across someone who isn't convinced that the convicted cop killer is the victim of a massive racist and political frame-up.The way they see it, if you don't accept their version of the truth, you are a white racist, a fascist, a fawning tool of the establishment, senile, feeble-minded, brain-dead, just plain stupid, or all of the above.It's almost like waking up and finding yourself back in the name-calling 1960s.

LOS ANGELES - As Bill Clinton prepares to say farewell to his party tonight, new polling shows Al Gore closing in on George W. Bush. Gore still trails the Texas governor, as he has for most of this year. But two new voter surveys released yesterday put Bush just 3 to 5 percentage points ahead, though a third showed Gore behind by double digits. The vice president is counting on a boost coming out of the Democratic National Convention, which opens here today. But he is also hoping for a popularity spurt like the one Bush enjoyed in the run-up to his party's recent gathering.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court cleared the way yesterday for states to grant tax credits as a way of channeling money to parochial schools without a direct public subsidy.Without comment, the court turned aside an Arizona case that has been watched closely for signals of the court's current view of parochial school aid, and perhaps for a hint of what the court might do on school vouchers.In another significant school case, from Tennessee, the court refused to protect public school teachers from having to take a drug test, even when there is no evidence of drug abuse among a school's faculty.