I know you don't like to talk politics, but I feel like it's important now, considering it's the election season. I really feel like it's imperative to know who you think will be the best president — who can get us out of this mess?

The Republicans, with the exception of Ron Paul, say the war is working. They are all only talking about Iraq and have forgotten about Afghanistan. McCain seems to be the moderate choice while Obama and Clinton are in a cage fight for the Democrats. I am worried about them all and what type of a team they will pick. Considering how bad Rumsfeld turned out it's a real concern.

Behind the scenes, EU splits over Kosovo

The Ottomans brought Islamisation with them, particularly in towns, and later also created the Vilayet of Kosovo as one of the Ottoman territorial entities. Kosovo was taken by the Austrian forces during the Great War of 1683–1699 with help of 5,000 Albanians and their leader, the Catholic Archbishop Pjetër Bogdani. In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch of Peć Arsenije III, who previously escaped a certain death, led 37,000 families from Kosovo to evade Ottoman wrath, since Kosovo had just been retaken by the Ottomans. The people who followed him were mostly Serbs, but they were likely followed by other ethnic groups. Due to the oppression from the Ottomans, other migrations of Orthodox people from the Kosovo area continued throughout the 18th century. It is also noted that some Serbs adopted Islam, while some even gradually fused with other groups, predominantly Albanians, adopting their culture and even language, essentially leaving a predominantly Islamic presence in Kosovo.[citation needed]

In 1766, the Ottomans abolished the Patriarchate of Peć and the position of Christians in Kosovo was greatly reduced.

FBI Wants To Build Huge Biometric Database

We just found out that the White House has chosen not to staff the official "Privacy Board" that is supposed to make sure gov't surveillance doesn't infringe on American citizens' privacy. That came right after National Intelligence Director, Mike McConnell, announced that he's hoping to get the rights to monitor all internet traffic. Since news tends to come in threes (well, so says the urban legend) now comes the news that the FBI is looking to put together a huge biometric database containing info on fingerprints, palm prints, iris recognition mug shots and scars of anyone they can gather this info on. This seems like a typical reaction from a gov't agency, and with the announcement comes all the typical political doubletalk about how this is for safety, claiming that the database is "important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in." However, as has been made clear countless times, these types of databases always get abused.

Who's Blogging

Mariss Jansons may be the best conductor in the world. This is hyperbole, certainly, in an age that includes such real and putative lions as Lorin Maazel, Simon Rattle, James Levine, Yuri Temirkanov, Gustavo Dudamel and others, but it is hyperbole with a foundation in demonstrable fact.

Fact: a track record at orchestra-building, notably in 22 years spent turning the Oslo Philharmonic from a relatively unknown body into an internationally competitive ensemble. Fact: powerful recordings such as his complete Shostakovich symphony cycle, preserving performances that tend to be at once forceful and straightforward, penetrating to the music's heart. Fact: that he is now chief conductor of two of Europe's leading orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, with whom he will play Strauss and Mahler at the Kennedy Center this afternoon.