Chafee beats Laffey in Rhode Island. The Republican establishment can heave a sigh of relief this morning, but it may not help them in the end, as Sheldon Whitehouse won the Democratic nomination (as expected) and he will be a formidable candidate, especially since some Laffey supporters will almost certainly choose to sit the general election out. Unless he stumbles badly on the trail, I expect a Whitehouse win in Rhode Island.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state's school funding law was unconstitutional, and gave the Legislature 9 months to fix the problem. It is deja vu all over again as the state faced the same situation back in the mid-90s. With not enough support or time to get a constitutional amendment passed, the legislature will certainly fight their way through the process and come up with something that will probably be unsatisfactory to almost everyone, and objectionable to some. Since Governor Lynch knows that he cannot support an income tax and get re-elected I expect that, in the end, they will go back to some property tax based system which will stick it to some towns and help others.

Bernard Lewis says the West may lose the war on terrorism.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad has requested a visa to enter the U.S. in order to give an address to the United Nations in New York. The Jerusalem Post says the U.S. and the U.N. ought to confront Ahmadinejad legally as he continues to advocate genocide against the Jews and the destruction of a U.N. member nation - Israel. The fact that a head of state of a member nation of the U.N. can get away with advocating the destruction of another member state without facing any kind of sanction whatsoever is a clear indictment of the United Nations as an effective body.