To become part of the Constitution, the amendment must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by two-thirds of the states, a years-long process in which the text's meaning will be made abundantly clear, Musgrave added.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

[T]he Florida Democratic Party called for paper records for electronic ballots during their convention last November.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood said there are no certified methods of printing records of touchscreen votes, but she stressed that the machines are reliable and accurate and can't be tampered.

"We're working very hard to educate the voters, to build the comfort level and to get rid of some of the myths out there," Hood said. "I think these things are raised for political purposes and distractions. Any effort to undermine that public confidence is a tactic that is wrong and I believe it weakens our democracy by causing voters to doubt if their vote has been counted."

Hood said she would not object to paper records being created if a machine were developed, tested and was able to pass the state certification process, but she said it's highly unlikely that would happen before the November presidential election.

EDITOR’S NOTE: After publishing the Progress Report this morning, Fox News called to protest our description of Ann Coulter as a “Fox News contributor." Fox News said Ann Coulter "is not a contributor to this network" and "has not been a contributor the last couple of years." Though Fox News’ Sean Hannity described Ms. Coulter in December of 2002 as "a Fox News contributor," and despite Coulter appearing 50 times on Fox News since 2002, we regret any confusion this may have caused.

HANNITY: "But is he back co-opting the Republican agenda once again? We're joined by the author of the best-selling book -- no, it's not Al Gore's book -- "Slander" by Ann Coulter, also a Fox News contributor."

Saudi Arabia's religious authorities have ordered Muslims to shun the "pagan" holiday of Valentine's Day so as not to incur God's wrath, the local al-Riyadh newspaper said Friday.

"It is a pagan Christian holiday and Muslims who believe in God and Judgment Day should not celebrate or acknowledge it or congratulate (people on it). It is a duty to shun it to avoid God's anger and punishment," said an edict issued by Saudi Arabia's fatwa committee published in the Arabic-language daily.

[edit]

The kingdom, which implements a strict version of Islamic law, bans non-Muslim holidays and its morality police usually conduct raids to ensure shops do not sell gifts or ornaments on New Year, Christmas or Valentine's Day, which is named after a Christian saint.

About seven million foreigners live in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. Many of them are from Asian countries where Valentines' Day is celebrated.

Key parts of the Drudge story had already been denied, before Mr Kerry's radio interview. The web site claimed that General Wesley Clark, one of Mr Kerry's Democrat rivals, had set the ball rolling by telling a dozen reporters that Mr Kerry had an "intern issue" which threatened to "implode" his campaign.

General Clark's campaign yesterday called the report "utter rubbish", and let it be known that he was expected to endorse Mr Kerry's campaign today, having dropped out of the race himself.

Drudge, notorious for running gossip spurned by the mainstream media, has a mixed record. It broke the story of President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, but had to apologise to one of Mr Clinton's top aides for alleging that he beat his wife.

Drudge claimed that half a dozen news outlets were investigating the allegations against Mr Kerry, but most of them denied doing so last night.

Leonard Downie, executive editor of The Washington Post, mentioned by Drudge, said: "This is the first we've heard that we're working on a story that we're not working on."

A reporter with Time magazine, also cited by Drudge, said that the weekly magazine was as puzzled by the story as the rest of the world.

"Let me ask you this," Imus, a New York shock-jock, said about halfway through Kerry's 12-minute call-in.

"Is there anything. ANYTHING, that's going to come up? Now, for example. There's this Drudge Report about an intern, and I'm sure you've heard about it.

"Yeah," Kerry said.

"I don't know that it's been reported anywhere, but people are talking about it," Imus said.

"Well, there's nothing to report, so there's nothing to talk about," Kerry told Imus "I'm not worried about it. No. The answer is no."

Barely half -- 52 percent -- now believe Bush is "honest and trustworthy," down 7 percentage points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked, in March 1999.

How dare George W. Bush now claim he never said Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

Listen to this quote from 2002 on the danger posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction:

"I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."

Oops. Actually, that wasn't George W. Bush. It was John F. Kerry explaining why he was going to vote for the congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam's regime in Iraq.

In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that it planned to investigate whether White House officials exaggerated the Iraq threat or pressured analysts to tailor their assessments of Baghdad's weapons programs to bolster the case for war.

[edit]

The expansion was a victory for Democrats, who have argued for months that many of the claims made by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others were not backed up by the intelligence.

"We will address the question of whether intelligence was exaggerated or misused by reviewing statements by senior policymakers to determine if those statements were substantiated by the intelligence," said Sen. John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

In the briefing, Tenet and Cheney presented what one participant described as a "smoking gun": New intelligence showed Iraq had developed unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) that could deliver chemical or biological agents. In addition, Iraq had sought software that would allow it to produce sophisticated mapping of eastern U.S. cities. President Bush hinted at the evidence in a speech on Oct. 7, 2002.

And a year ago, when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made a lengthy presentation before the U.N. Security Council, he echoed the concern: "Iraq could use these small UAVs, which have a wingspan of only a few meters, to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or, if transported, to other countries, including the United States."

Since Powell's speech, however, investigations by U.S. weapons inspectors have determined that the UAVs, or drones, were not designed to spread deadly toxins but to fly unarmed reconnaissance missions.

Democrats are mounting the "dirtiest" presidential campaign in history, and the press is playing along, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie charged yesterday.

[edit]

Democratic activists have gone so far as to plant false accusations that Mr. Bush once paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion, Mr. Gillespie charged.

"We now know that sometime this fall Kerry campaign operatives intend to go into pro-life chat rooms on the Internet to spread a scurrilous story that President Bush drove a former girlfriend to an abortion clinic, and paid for her abortion, according to the New York Daily News," the RNC chief said.

The Daily News reported Monday that rock star Moby, a Kerry supporter, expressed hope of dampening Republican turnout in November by spreading anti-Bush gossip on the Internet.

The children are called simply "the night commuters." About 15,000 young Ugandans trek every evening from more than 300 villages, some more than five miles away, into the safety of Gulu, about 175 miles north of the capital, Kampala. Other towns in northern Uganda, such as nearby Lira and Kitgum, also have their nightly flood of children.

Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, a guerrilla movement active in northern Uganda since 1987, raid villages at night, abducting boys and girls to fill the ranks of their army and to become sex slaves and porters. After the government launched an offensive two years ago, the kidnappings increased. Last year, an average of 30 children every day were snatched from boarding schools and homes, according to UNICEF.

Terrified of abductions, which almost always took place at night, the children began to sleep in the towns, where it was harder for rebels to attack. Parents stayed behind in the villages to watch over their possessions. They, too, have been the victims of rebel kidnappings, but children are the main targets. An estimated 34,000 children have been abducted since 1994.

Concerned about her son's safety, (Pene) Palifka recently spent $1,100 of her own money on armored chest plates to protect him and others from enemy fire.

"[By] purchasing something for my son, then that means hopefully somewhere down the line somebody else that's overseas will have adequate equipment," Pene Palifka said.

It's become an almost routine practice for deploying troops and their families. Despite efforts to produce more vests with the armored plates, the Pentagon says there still aren't enough, especially among guardsmen and reservists. All troops rotating out of Iraq are now being required to leave their vests behind so incoming troops can use them.

Many active-duty troops also are spending money on other equipment. One group of Marines due to leave for Iraq bought goggles, backpacks, magazine pouches and gloves. It's better than their issued equipment, they said, and worth their hard-earned cash .... Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced a bill calling for the government to repay the families of troops who buy their own gear.

"It's time to step up and do the right thing and reimburse all those individuals, who because of the care and concern that they have for our men and women overseas, their loved ones have gone into their pocket to assist them," Larson said.

Intrigue surrounds a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry .... A serious investigation of the woman and the nature of her relationship with Sen. John Kerry has been underway at Time magazine, ABC News, the Washington Post, The Hill, and the Associated Press, where the woman in question once worked.

A close friend of the woman first approached a reporter late last year claiming fantastic stories -- stories that now threaten to turn the race for the presidency on its head!

In an off-the-record conversation with a dozen reporters earlier this week, General Wesley Clark plainly stated: "Kerry will implode over an intern issue." [Three reporters in attendance confirm Clark made the startling comments.]

The Kerry commotion is why Howard Dean has turned increasingly aggressive against Kerry in recent days, and is the key reason why Dean reversed his decision to drop out of the race after Wisconsin, top campaign sources tell the Drudge Report.

"We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution that would require discrimination against any specific group of Americans. The Federal Marriage Amendment is a betrayal of the American principles of equality and fairness. We oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment."

Finneran produced a two-paragraph proposal to ban gay marriage but explicitly allow the Legislature to create civil unions at a later date, if lawmakers so chose. Finneran appealed to his House and Senate colleagues' anger over the Supreme Judicial Court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

"That is your jurisdiction, that is your domain, that is the reason you ran for office," Finneran said. "It is emphatically not the domain of the judiciary, unelected, unapproachable, unreachable."

... Gay-rights supporters blasted the move, saying Finneran and (Republican Gov. Mitt) Romney would probably block civil union bills after outlawing gay marriage.

"Do not be seduced by this piece of paper," said Representative Michael E. Festa, a Melrose Democrat. "We throw [same-sex couples] not even a fig leaf. We throw them half a piece of paper, and say, 'Trust us.' "

For the first time since 1958, the U.S. infant mortality rate is up. Experts attribute the reversal to older mothers, increased use of test-tube baby technology and fertility drugs and poor access to prenatal care.

According to preliminary data released Wednesday by Washington-based statisticians for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's infant mortality rate in 2002 was 7.0 per 1,000 births. That's up from 6.8 in 2001.

Health experts said they were shocked by the rise in the number and rate of infants dying. The United States already trails most industrial countries in infant mortality, a respected indicator of overall healthcare quality.

"We're perturbed," said Dr. Nancy Green, medical director of the March of Dimes, a New York-based children's health advocacy group. "It reflects a movement in the wrong direction in child health in this country. Infant mortality is a major indicator in child health."

An American citizen held incommunicado by the military for more than a year as an alleged al-Qaida supporter will be allowed to see a lawyer, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

But one of Jose Padilla's lawyers says the government says it will monitor any meetings at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

That arrangement ``would make it impossible to have an attorney-client conversation,'' said lawyer Andrew Patel.

No meeting has been scheduled.

Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix. In fact, Cleland could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman — or what Cleland sneeringly calls "weekend warriors." Luckily for Cleland's political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it while in Vietnam.

[edit]

Cleland wore the uniform, he was in Vietnam, and he has shown courage by going on to lead a productive life. But he didn't "give his limbs for his country," or leave them "on the battlefield." There was no bravery involved in dropping a grenade on himself with no enemy troops in sight. That could have happened in the Texas National Guard — which Cleland denigrates while demanding his own sanctification.

As has been widely reported in the Atlanta Constitution beginning in 1968, then-Capt. Cleland, an Army Signal Officer, volunteered for infantry service to relieve the stranded Marines and members of the Army's 1st Cavalry at the battle of Khe Sanh.

While disembarking from a transport helicopter, Capt. Cleland reached for a grenade he believed had become dislodged from his web gear. Later it was discovered that the grenade belonged to a young soldier new to the theater. That soldier had improperly prepared the grenade pin for easy detonation and had dropped it while coming off the helicopter. The grenade exploded and severely injured Capt. Cleland.

Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday that in an emotional thank-you to New Yorkers serving in Baghdad, he told them "the war began on Sept. 11 in New York, but we can end it on the streets of Iraq."

[edit]

"I did tell them this war began on Sept. 11 in New York and what they were doing was fighting to prevent that from happening again in New York or anywhere in America," Pataki said, recalling the horror of the 2001 terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers.

[edit]

"I looked at this sign and this is a New Yorker, a guy whose brother was a firefighter who was killed on Sept. 11," Pataki said. "I'd met him before. I'd met him a couple of times in New York. He works construction and is taking his three weeks vacation with this band, going around Iraq doing these concerts for the troops because he's proud of what they're doing--going after the terrorists who killed his brother."

The study, a rough-draft history of the war from the perspective of Iraqi leaders, offers a scathing history of a Stalinist, paranoid leadership circle in Baghdad that guaranteed its own destruction. The interrogations yielded a portrait of a government disconnected from reality in peace and in war, where members of Mr. Hussein's inner circle routinely lied to him and each other about Iraqi military capacities.

Dean told CBS News in an interview that will air Wednesday night that he believes Edwards would be the better candidate in the general election, even though Kerry has the advantage right now. "My fear is that [Kerry] actually won't be the strongest Democratic candidate," Dean told the network.

Asked about Dean's comment, Edwards told reporters: "I agree with that. I think that he is a very wise man. ... The truth is that this campaign to bring about change is working with independents and voters that we will have to get in order to win the general election."

... [Dean] said he would support the Democratic nominee, but Kerry would be the "lesser of two evils" in a race against President Bush.

Indian tribes are certainly governments, whether considered foreign or domestic (and, logically, there is no other form of government outside the foreign/domestic dichotomy, unless one entertains the possibility of extra-terrestrial states).

The government has not adequately addressed security and privacy concerns in its plan to use personal information to rank airline passengers as potential security threats, congressional investigators say.

The Bush administration wants to begin testing a new program this spring and put it in place during the summer. The findings by the General Accounting Office, contained in a draft report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, could delay thee Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II.

Congress said the government could not spend any money for testing or putting the program in place until the GAO reported that eight specific concerns were satisfied. Those include assurances the system is accurate, that the technology ensures privacy, that safeguards exist to prevent abuse and that passengers who think they were mistakenly identified as a threat have some recourse.

The investigators did not recommend whether the program should go forward, but said Transportation Security Administration "has not completely addressed" seven of the eight issues. The exception was creation of an oversight board to monitor the system.

The report said the agency "has not yet completed important system planning activities."

The war in northern Uganda is now entering its eighteenth year. Initially rooted in a popular rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, the conflict has since been transformed by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) into a brutally violent war in which civilians are the main victims. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, and tens of thousands ore have been killed, raped or abducted. At first glance, the persistence of the LRA over such a long period is incomprehensible: the majority of the force is made up of kidnapped children held against their will, the LRA is extremely unpopular among civilians because of its brutality and apparent lack of an overarching political agenda, and it operates in an environment without significant natural resources to sell for arms. Indeed, the conflict has not only continued for nearly 18 years, but in 2003 spread significantly east into the Teso and Lango regions.

Based on extensive interviews in Gulu, Kitgum, Lira and Soroti, with additional consultations in Kampala, Luwero, London and Washington, this report examines the structural causes that underpin the war, its current dynamics, the implications of the conflict spreading further east, and ideas for resolution. The report asserts that while people living in the north have deep-rooted grievances against the current government, Kony’s LRA is a poor expression of these and enjoys no popular support amongst the civilian population. The war is thus two conflicts in one: a multi-faceted northern rebellion against the NRM government whose root causes have never been fully resolved, and a war with an LRA that does not fit conventional models of political insurgency and is motivated by an Old Testament-style apocalyptic spiritualism.

In addition, the protracted nature of the war has created new conflict dynamics, with many of the war’s horrific consequences – such as mass displacement, a perceived war economy, and a military response that often fails to protect communities – having turned into reasons for its continuation. With the population blaming the conflicting parties for such suffering, the ensuing lack of trust has led to intense three-way tensions between the LRA, the civilian population and the government that has both compromised intelligence gathering, and turned the rebels against civilians. The recent spread of the war has also raised several new issues. The government-sponsored Arrow and Rhino militias in Soroti and Lira, while appearing successful in protecting the populations in their regions in the short-term, is of long-term concern: the arming of over 20,000 civilians may potentially threaten the security of the country. The report concludes with general recommendations for the way forward, addressing the three main strands of the conflict: root causes that continue to feed grievances in northern Uganda, the LRA conflict itself, and the consequences of the war that are interpreted as ongoing causes of the war.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is the subject of a soon-to-be-published biography by two Texas journalists, but he’s not likely to be sending any copies to colleagues and friends.

The book, titled "The Hammer: Tom DeLay: God, Money, and the United States Congress," is described by its publisher, Public Affairs Books, as “a lively, hard-hitting biography of the pro-business, pro-Jesus, anti-government, anti-environment House majority leader who is driving today’s congressional agenda.”

Co-authors Lou DuBose and Jan Reid “track the rise of Tom DeLay from owner of a pest control business to unremarkable, and hard-partying, Texas legislator (his nickname was ‘Hot Tub Tom’), to the congressional pinnacle of power,” the publisher’s spring catalog noted.

“It’s a critical examination of Tom DeLay and his rise to power, with the topics you would expect,” DuBose said Tuesday from Washington, where he’s been working since last September while Reid labors away in Austin. DuBose said DeLay “probably won’t enjoy reading it, but it’s basically an examination of his record.”

REPORTER: Scott, these are very hard to read, these payroll documents. Are you saying that every date listed on document five is a day that the President was actually -- showed up, he was suited up, he was flying planes -- that's what that means? Because there are, you know, points for active duty, points for inactive duty. What, exactly, are these?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, and that's why we put out the statement from Mr. Lloyd, so you could put that in context. He's someone with the technical expertise that understands those matters and can explain what those points mean. And I think that his statement does that. In terms of the payments, you are paid for the days on which you serve.

REPORTER: The days on which you serve, meaning he was actually there on these dates listed, he was actually there --

MR. McCLELLAN: You are paid for the days you serve.

REPORTER: Is that what document five is, the dates he served?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, there was a time period when he was in Alabama, and he recalls serving in Alabama. He was still a member of the Texas Air National Guard at that time. What he was doing was performing equivalent duty, because he was working in Alabama at the time. And he also remembers serving in Texas, as well.

REPORTER: Scott, so, for example, in January '73, the President served, according to this, on January 4th, January 5th, January 6th in either Texas or Alabama -- according to document five. Is that correct?

MR. McCLELLAN: You are paid for the days you serve. You have the documents right in front of you. These are documents straight from the Personnel --

REPORTER: Is that "yes"?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- straight from the Personnel Center in Colorado.

REPORTER: Is that "yes"?

MR. McCLELLAN: I said you are paid for the days in which you serve. And, again, we're talking about 30 years ago, Elisabeth.

Four crumpled pieces of paper smuggled last year out of North Korea have raised anew long-standing allegations that chemical weapons are being tested on political prisoners.

The documents are purported letters of transfer for inmates to be sent from one of North Korea's most infamous prison camps to a chemical complex in South Hamgyong province for "the purpose of human experimentation for liquid gas."

Kim Sang Hun, a respected South Korean human rights advocate, said he obtained the letters from a top engineer who was working at the chemical complex.

"I am absolutely convinced [the letters] are genuine, no doubt about it," Kim said. He carefully studied the paper and the handwriting and official seal on the documents before deciding to release them, he said.

[edit]

The engineer, 57-year-old Kang Byong Sop, was arrested last month in China along with his wife and son as they attempted to flee from North Korea to Laos. Their whereabouts are unknown. Another son, who had been working in Bangkok, Thailand, was assaulted Jan. 25 in an incident that human rights advocates said was linked to North Korean agents

[edit]

The gassing allegedly took place at one of North Korea's largest chemical complexes, the February 8 Vinalon Factory in Hamhung, which is believed to produce synthetic fibers, agricultural feed and insecticides as well as nerve gas and blistering and choking agents.

In his statement, Kang claimed to have been the chief electrical engineer, a position that gave him access to visit remote corners of the compound for emergency repairs. He said it was known that prisoners would arrive by trucks about twice a month and disappear into a secluded annex about four miles from the main complex. On one occasion, he was fixing a broken power line when he saw a chamber about the size of a large freezer.

"I saw human hands scratching a round glass window inside a chamber that was locked with a heavy metal door," Kang said in the statement.

Kang said that last July he was in a State Security Agency office that had stacks of documents referring to prisoners. He snatched a handful of papers off a desk, crumpled them into a ball and threw them into the wastebasket. He later took the basket and hid the papers in his clothing.

The documents were essentially form letters on which someone had written the names, dates of birth and addresses of prisoners who were being sent for experimentation with chemical weapons. They bore the seal of the No. 22 prison camp, a facility for dissidents in North Korea's far north, about 200 miles from Hamhung.

If people support Kerry because they think he's electable, he goes up in the polls, which makes him look more electable. The best way to filter out this distortion is to focus on the voters least likely to make their decisions in November based on electability. These happen to be the same voters who hold the balance of power in most elections: independents, conservative Democrats, and moderate Republicans. They aren't principally trying to figure out which Democratic candidate can beat Bush, because they don't necessarily want the Democratic nominee to beat Bush. They're trying to decide which Democratic candidate, if any, would be a better president than Bush.

Fed up with the large number of political donations that Democrats continue to receive from K Street, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is privately considering ways to pressure Republican lobbyists to contribute more of their own money to GOP campaign accounts.

After privately fuming for years, DeLay sat down with a group of his top lieutenants two weeks ago to figure out how to get GOP lobbyists to contribute the maximum $4,000 allowable to vulnerable Republican candidates, as well as giving the $25,000 limit to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“There has been a concern that not enough folks who are out there making money based on their relation to the Hill are giving enough of their own money to the Republican Party,” said one GOP aide on Capitol Hill.

[edit]

Though DeLay and other Republicans have not settled on a game plan for turning up the heat on K Street, several Republicans on Capitol Hill say they already keep close tabs on political contributions from lobbyists.

[edit]

By closely tracking contributions from lobbyists, their firms and their corporate clients, House Republicans believe they can collect millions of additional hard dollars for Congressional elections this fall and beyond.

“We’d always been good at looking for those niches — people who had not maxed out,” said one DeLay ally involved in the latest discussions. “Now, we want to be more like a vacuum cleaner.”

[Ehda'a] wanted to get out of Qut, the Baghdad satellite town where she was working and where educated, western-dressed women were under threat from resurgent Islamic militants.

The American administrators at the ministry did not want to know. But the sergeant in charge of security at the gate seemed pleasant and helpful. His name, as it turned out, was Sean Blackwell. ... (he had) signed up with the Florida National Guard (the equivalent of the Territorial Army) thinking it would be a question of "barbecue and beers" a couple of times a month, and free tuition.

"He was the first American I had the chance to meet," says Ehda'a in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "He was very handsome with very nice eyes. He was trying his best to help."

For their first date, Blackwell took Ehda'a somewhere he knew would take her breath away -- Saddam's palace. "It was a great day," says Ehda'a, in effusive English. ... They talked about their families and found out that they had both been abandoned by their fathers as toddlers, and both were anxious to build stronger families ... Ehda'a says simply: "We just fell in love. We couldn't help it. We are willing to do whatever we have to do."

That initially involved Blackwell arranging to see Ehda'a's mother and brother, asking their permission, and then converting to Islam in an Iraqi court. But the army was a tougher nut to crack. Blackwell's commanding officer in the First Armoured Division, Colonel Thad Hill, was not about to let him marry.

... (Blackwell said:) "I did get to speak to the sergeant-major prior to the wedding. His reaction was somewhat racist -'Have you thought about your lives together, what they eat, the clothes they wear, the way they worship' -- talking about Muslims." Blackwell told the sergeant-major he had already converted to Islam. "Oh Jeez, he just about fell out of his chair. It wasn't very well received and he basically told me that he battalion commander felt the same way."

But Blackwell ignored the views of his superior officers and went ahead with his plans. He and Ehda'a arranged to marry in a small garden behind a restaurant ... His fellow soldiers stood guard with their rifles and a heavy machine gun.

... When Col. Hill found out about the marriage, he hit the roof, and threatened to court-martial Blackwell for putting his fellow soldiers in danger by giving away the time and place of the patrol. It is a charge the former sergeant fiercely denies. He argues that his daily patrol, checking on supplies at petrol stations, was already regular and predictable. He also says Ehda'a's family and the judge did not know the venue for the wedding until the last moment, when they were fetched by an interpreter...

The army has refused to comment on the case, but under press scrutiny it withdrew the most serious charges against Blackwell, and issued a watered-down reprimand instead. But while Blackwell was tussling with the army, Ehda'a had to deal with an increasingly violent and hostile atmosphere in her neighbourhood. Blackwell describes one incident in which she was approached as she left his base by taxi. "Some guys pulled her over and got out, and said if they ever saw her come out of our compound again dressed the way she was they would kill her," he says. There were more incidents like that, and he pleaded with her to lock herself in her house, but she insisted on continuing to work as a translator. Many of Ehda'a's friends have rejected her or tried to convince her to end the marriage.

Blackwell's experience has left him bitterly disullusioned with both the army and the politicians who sent him to Baghdad. For him, the lies he says the army told about his wedding mirror the ones the nation was told about the war. "When I first joined the military I planned to stay in for life, and I always knew the government would -- I don't want to say lie -- maybe exaggerate some things or stretch the truth a little but I always thought it was for the better good of the people," he says. "But in this situation I don't think it was."

In a case brought by voting rights activists from Washington [DC], the international human rights commission has ruled that the United States is violating international law by refusing to give residents of the nation's capital the power to elect members of Congress.

The ruling, issued on Dec. 29 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an agency of the Organization of American States, is not binding. But it brings the moral authority of a major international organization — one the United States belongs to and helps finance — to bear on Capitol Hill, which for 200 years has rebuffed proposals to give Congressional seats to Washington.

"No other federal state in the Western Hemisphere denies the residents of its federal capital the right to vote for representatives in their national legislature," the ruling said. The commission called on Congress to provide "an effective remedy" that would guarantee this city's residents representation in Congress.

[edit]

[S]everal Congressional officials said the ruling on voting rights in Washington would most likely be ignored.

The scope of sex abuse accusations against Roman Catholic clergy since 1950 appears to be much greater than previously estimated by victims' groups and the media, an Associated Press review of reports from dioceses has found. ... The AP contacted dioceses across the country and found that 1,341 clergy members have been accused of molesting minors, with more than half the dioceses yet to report.

"What it's really doing is showing us in black and white that the problem is much worse than any of us thought," said Sue Archibald, president of The Linkup, a Kentucky-based victim advocacy group.

Statistics have yet to be released by some archdioceses that have faced hundreds of allegations, including Boston and Los Angeles.

"When you serve, you are paid for that service. These documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served. And these documents also show he met his requirements," press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. "And it's just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this up."

The documents indicate Bush received pay for six days of duty between May and December of 1972 when he was assigned to temporary duty in Alabama. There is a five-month stretch at the start of 1972 when he was not paid for service. The records do not indicate what duty Bush performed or where he was.

The White House has not been able to produce fellow guardsmen who could testify that Bush attended guard meetings and drills. "Obviously we would have made people available" if they had been found, McClellan said.

AP reports that President Bush attacked the Democratic contenders yesterday. No, he did not use the words "feckless crapweasels." But he did note that any attempt to repeal the tax cuts is, by logical definition, a tax hike

His voice rising to a shout, President Bush lashed out at Democratic rivals who want to roll back his tax cuts as he defended his economic priorities Monday in a presidential primary state where his record has been harshly criticized.

"There are some in Washington that are going to say, 'Let's not make the tax cuts permanent.' That means he's going to raise your taxes," Bush said at a factory. "When you hear people say, 'We're not going to make this permanent,' that means tax increase."

To win support for the bill, its backers made much of the tax cut temporary, lowering its overall cost. For example, an increase in the child tax credit lasts two years and a cut in the capital gains tax lasts six years.

But Democrats and some Republicans have complained the move hides the bill's true costs because future members of Congress likely will accede to pressure to extend the cuts.

Alabama Christians are now more concerned than ever about electing bold Christians to these Supreme Court seats. All eight Associate Justices voted to remove the Ten Commandments, and all opposed the stand of Chief Justice Roy Moore. ALL. NONE STOOD WITH HIM, AND NONE STOOD WITH US.

1. Are you a born-again Christian? Please give your testimony.

2. In what church or other Christian ministries are you active? What are your areas of service in each?

3. Please describe your family situation.

4. What actions did you take about the display of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building?

5. What actions did you take regarding the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore?

6. If the special Supreme Court affirms the Court of the Judiciary's decision to remove Roy Moore as chief justice, will you support efforts to get Gov. Bob Riley to appoint Roy Moore as chief justice? Why or why not? What will you actually do either way?

7. What actions have you personally taken on the issue of pro-life?

8. Do you believe marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman? Please discuss. Have you actually done anything on this issue?

9. Would you describe yourself as a conservative Christian? What actions have you taken on conservative issues?

10. If you are endorsed by the League of Christian Voters, are you willing to have your campaign organization (not you personally) distribute hundreds of marked sample ballots with all the league's endorsed candidates marked, including yourself? If so, how many such fliers would your organization be able to distribute?

An American Airlines pilot made some passengers fearful when he urged them to make wise use of their flight time by talking to Christians, passengers said Monday. Passengers were "shocked," said Karla Austin, who had flown on Friday's Los Angeles to New York Flight 34. Some reached for their mobile phones and others used the on-flight phones, she said.

"Just given the history of what's happened on planes in this country, anything can happen at this point. So we weren't sure if something was going to happen at takeoff, if he was going to wait until JFK (John F. Kennedy) to do something," Austin said. "But there was definitely implication there that we felt that something was going to happen."

Passengers complained to the flight attendants, who relayed their concerns to the cockpit and who then reassured them they had nothing to worry about, Austin said.

"We were just at the beginning of our flight. The pilot came on to greet everyone and give his comments for the morning, and he said he'd recently been on a mission trip, and he'd like all the Christians to please raise their hands," said passenger Jen Dorsey.

[The pilot] said, 'If you are a Christian, raise your hand.' He said, 'If you are not, you're crazy,'" said Austin. Dorsey nodded her head in agreement that the pilot had called non-Christians "crazy."

... Austin said no passengers raised their hands. The pilot then asked passengers to look around at each other and use the flight wisely or "just sit back and watch the movie," Dorsey said.

About 45 minutes into the flight, the pilot apologized -- but his apology focused on the crew, not the passengers, Dorsey said.

"He came on and said, 'I want to apologize for my comments earlier. I think I really threw the flight crew off a little bit, and they are getting a lot of flack for the things I said. So I want to apologize to my flight crew,' " she said.

Wagner said the pilot offered to speak after the flight with anyone who wanted to discuss his comments.

On her way out, Austin said she told [the pilot] that "he should be ashamed of himself."

"He just nodded and looked to the ground, and that was it," she said.

In the spring of 2000, Cheney’s two worlds—commerce and politics— merged. Halliburton allowed its C.E.O. to serve simultaneously as the head of George W. Bush’s Vice-Presidential search committee. At the time, Bush said that his main criterion for a running mate was “somebody who’s not going to hurt you.” Cheney demanded reams of documents from the candidates he considered. In the end, he picked himself—a move that his longtime friend Stuart Spencer recently described, with admiration, as “the most Machiavellian fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

House Republican leaders support the measure, which passed 52 to 48 after a half-hour of floor debate. Twelve Republicans joined 36 of the 37 House Democrats in voting against the bill, which now goes to the state Senate.

Virginia law requires that most gatherings of state or local officials be open to the public and announced in advance. There are exceptions that allow closed-door sessions for personnel and legal discussions.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), chief sponsor of the bill, said his party is attempting to protect the constitutional rights of the legislature to determine the rules by which it operates.

Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams has landed an exclusive television interview with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his wife, Christine, that’s generating a bit of controversy before it’s even aired.

The couple opened up their Sugar Land, Texas, home for the first time to television cameras and were mostly greeted with softballs by Williams, whose interview was focused on the couple’s crusade to help foster children.

But the Majority Leader got tripped up — and was even admonished a bit by his wife — when he answered a question about the plague of absentee fatherhood.

“I have seen these liberal psychologists and sociologists talk about there is no need for the man in the family. The woman can take care of it,” DeLay said.

“A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can’t provide stability, I am not saying that,” DeLay added.

Christine DeLay quickly realized that her hubby was treading on dangerous territory. “Let’s edit this out,” she said. “This is not a good thing for you to be saying. And you don’t mean it anyway.”

“It does take a father, though,” said the Congressman, according to a transcript provided to HOH by Williams.

“Not to supply structure,” interjected his wife. “I mean I had the structure there when you weren’t there. But I think, absolutely, [a] two-parent family is the best.”

The show will feature a lighter side of DeLay. The leader discusses the fact that he always makes coffee for his wife and notes that he had vacuumed the house just before Williams arrived.

DeLay also jokes about his wife’s good influence on him: “I would probably be in prison today, if it weren’t for her.”

Accounting professor Frank Selto would not allow his students at the University of Colorado to prepare a budget that purposely left out a $50 billion expenditure.

"If my students did that," he said, "I'd have them redo the work or penalize them with a bad grade."

That's because Selto, an expert in internal budgeting and cost analysis, "can't think of anyone who would accept it as a prudent practice."

The president of the United States has asked the American people to do just that.

The federal budget Bush presented to Congress last week contains no line item that reflects the costs of the wars against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The costs of that effort are estimated at upwards of $50 billion -- something approaching a billion bucks a week.

Pornographer to Sell Whitehouse Web Site

The Whitehouse.com Web site, one of the best examples that the Internet isn't always what it seems, is getting out of the pornography business. Its owner says he's worried what his preschool-age son might think.

"He'll be going to kindergarten next year," said Daniel Parisi, who started the Web site in 1997 that is frequently confused with the official government site, www.whitehouse.gov. Parisi, 44, said he worried that his son's classmates might taunt him about the family's business.

[edit]

Parisi said he doesn't know yet how much the names will fetch; he claimed the Whitehouse.com site--it advertises pictures of "hot interns" and once included a "first ladies" section--earns more than $1 million each year in revenues and said he's invested more than $7 million since 1997.

The site currently features a picture of Democratic front-runner John Kerry with the message, "Our candidates are better looking."

Nine months from election day, twice as many Wisconsinites favor returning Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold to office as want to see "someone else" elected to his seat.

More than half of Wisconsin residents, or 52%, said they would like to see Feingold re-elected, compared with 26% of those who favor electing another candidate and 22% who don't know, the survey found. Of the two-thirds of respondents willing to give an opinion about Feingold, 46% said they had a favorable view, while 16% said they viewed him unfavorably.

We have given extraordinary cooperation with Chairmen Kean and Hamilton. As you know, we made an agreement on what's called "Presidential Daily Briefs," so they could see the information the CIA provided me ...

Members of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks warned the White House on Monday that it could face a politically damaging subpoena this week if it refused to turn over information from the highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports given to President Bush before 9/11.

The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and the former governor of New Jersey, said through a spokesman that he was hopeful an agreement would be worked out before the commission's next meeting, on Tuesday. Commission officials said that negotiations continued throughout the day on Monday and into the evening with the office of Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel.

But other members of the commission said that without an immediate resolution, they would call for a vote on Tuesday on issuing a subpoena to the White House for access to information in the documents. The papers are known as the President's Daily Brief, the intelligence summary prepared each morning for Mr. Bush by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Senate Democrats who were briefed Monday about an investigation into how Democratic strategy memorandums dealing with judicial nominations ended up in the hands of Republican staff members said they now believed the problem was far more extensive than previously thought.

[edit]

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee's ranking Democrat, told reporters after the 90-minute meeting that it appeared to him that Mr. Pickle's investigation would lead to a criminal investigation. Mr. Leahy said he would not comment further because he did not want to jeopardize any prosecution. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, similarly said he believed a crime had been committed by one or more people.

[edit]

Democratic staff aides who were briefed on Mr. Pickle's presentation said senators were stunned to learn that more than 3,000 documents had been improperly read by Republicans. In addition, one aide said Mr. Pickle said the breach in security was the result of a person "hacking," or working to gain entry into the Democrats' files. After that initial hacking, the documents were easily available on the network.

In testimony last week to the House Appropriations subcommittee in Washington, The New York Times reports that Margaret Tutwiler, in her first public appearance as the State Department official in charge of public diplomacy, acknowledged that America's standing abroad had deteriorated to such an extent that "it will take us many years of hard, focused work" to restore it.

"Unfortunately, our country has a problem in far too many parts of the world," she said, "a problem we have regrettably gotten into over many years through both Democrat and Republican administrations, and a problem that does not lend itself to a quick fix or a single solution or a simple plan."

Ms. Tutwiler said she agreed with the main findings of an independent panel that American outreach to the rest of the world has suffered from budget cuts and neglect since the end of the cold war. The findings mentioned by Tutwiler were the result of a bipartisan panel headed by former US ambassador to Israel and Syria, Edward Djerejian. Mr. Djerejian, speaking after Tutwiler, told the committee that the "bottom had fallen out" of support for the US abroad. The sub-committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who had asked for the report (which was released last October and entitled "Changing Minds, Winning Hearts" to be done, said the administration's overall response to it was "lackluster" and "disappointing."

RUSSERT: If the Iraqis choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that? And would that be better for the United States than Saddam Hussein?

BUSH: They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing.

They're not going to develop that, because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.

For the past four decades, Iraqi women have enjoyed some of the most modern legal protections in the Muslim world, under a civil code that prohibits marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce and male favoritism in child custody and property inheritance disputes. Saddam Hussein's dictatorship did not touch those rights. But the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council has voted to wipe them out, ordering in late December that … such issues placed under the jurisdiction of strict Islamic legal doctrine known as sharia.

I remember speaking to Mr. al-Hakim here, who is a fellow who has lost 63 family members during the Saddam reign. … He obviously was concerned, but he -- I said, you know, I'm a Methodist. What are my chances of success in your country, in your vision? And he said, It's going to be a free society where you can worship freely. This is a Shia fellow.

And my only point to you is these people are committed to a pluralistic society. And it's not going to be easy. The road to democracy is bumpy ..."

Mr. (Abdel-Aziz al) Hakim is a leading member of the Governing Council, which was appointed by the US to do some of the daily business of running Iraq. Recent experience has shown that the council is unwilling to act against the Ayatollah's edicts.

"At least 18 people have been killed since armed opponents of (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide began their assault Thursday, setting police stations on fire and driving officers from the northwestern city of Gonaives -- Haiti's fourth-largest city ...

"Anger has been brewing in Haiti since Aristide's party won flawed legislative elections in 2000. The opposition refuses to join in any new vote unless the president resigns; he insists on serving out his term, which ends in 2006.

"... In the bloodiest fights of recent days, 150 police tried to retake control of Gonaives on Saturday, but left hours later after meeting fierce resistance, witnesses said. At least nine people were killed, seven of them police officers, in gun battles with rebels hiding on side streets and crouched in doorways.

"Crowds mutilated and beat the corpses of three police officers. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete and a woman cut off the officer's ear. A police officer was lynched and stripped to his shorts, and residents dropped large rocks on his body."

RUSSERT: In light of not finding the weapons of mass destruction, do you believe the war in Iraq is a war of choice or a war of necessity?

BUSH: I think it's -- that's an interesting question. Please elaborate on that a little bit. A war of choice or a war of necessity?

I mean, it's a war of necessity. We -- in my judgment, we had no choice when we look at the intelligence I looked at that says the man was a threat.

And, you know -- we'll find out about the weapons of mass destruction that we all thought were there. That's part of the Iraqi Survey Group and the group I put together to look at.

But again, I repeat to you -- I don't want to sound like a broken record -- but David Kay, who is the man who led the Iraqi Survey Group, who has now returned with an interim report, clearly said that the place was a dangerous place.

When asked if President Bush had made the right decision, he said yes. In other words, the evidence we have uncovered thus far says we had no choice.

Republicans clearly want to quarantine the issue of Bush's service and have it labeled as outside the bounds of acceptable public discourse. With good reason: If the story takes root it could do real damage to Bush's reelection run, which is anchored on his image as a trusted leader in America's war on terrorism.

... Bush supporters routinely cite the president's honorable discharge as the ultimate proof that there was nothing unbecoming about his military service.

But experts say that citation does not wipe away the questions. "An honorable discharge does not indicate a flawless record," says Grant Lattin, a military law attorney in Washington and a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel ... That's because of the extraordinary leeway local commanders within the Guard are given over these types of issues. Lattin notes that the Guard "is obviously very political, even more so than other military institutions, and is subject to political influence."

Until the last two days the mainstream media has routinely ignored or downplayed the issue. Slate columnist Michael Kinsley took euphemism to new heights when he wrote in a Dec. 5 column that Bush was "lackadaisical" about fulfilling his Guard requirement. On Jan. 17, the Associated Press, recapping the "deserter" controversy, did Bush a favor, erroneously reporting that his absent-without-leave time lasted just three months in 1972, instead of the 12-18 months actually in question. And on Feb. 1, ABC News, suggesting Democrats might turn off voters by attacking Bush's military service, reported Bush simply "missed some weekends of training."

Contradicting the (Boston) Globe's account of Bush war service, the paper reported that Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett "pointed to a document in Mr. Bush's military records that showed credit for four days of duty ending Nov. 29 and for eight days ending Dec. 14, 1972, and, after he moved back to Houston, on dates in January, April and May."

The document cited by the Times is apparently the mysterious torn paper that appeared in Bush's records in 2000. That document, a "Statement of Points Earned," tracks when guardsmen have served, and whether they have fulfilled their annual duty...

...The Times did not inform its readers that the document is badly torn, undated, and unsigned; does not have Bush's name on it (just a wayward “W”); and has a redacted Social Security number.

"The Times got spun by Dan Bartlett," (reporter Walter) Robinson at the Globe told Salon. He and others note that if the documents provided by the Bush campaign proved he did Guard duty upon returning to Houston in January and April of 1973, then why, on Bush’s annual effectiveness report signed by two superiors, did it say, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of the report," which covered the dates between May 1, 1972, and April 30, 1973?

Senior Pentagon managers have repeatedly ordered the department's widely read clipping service to exclude articles critical of the military and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to officials familiar with the practice.

Staffers at the Early Bird, whose service is devoured by Pentagon brass, lawmakers, journalists and military personnel around the world, were told to eliminate all newsmagazine articles last October -- four days after the publication of a Newsweek cover story on Iraq that included "Rummy's New Headaches" and a Time piece titled "Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?"

"It comes down to the fact that they don't like these magazine articles," said a Pentagon official who declined to be identified and believes the Early Bird should not "censor" what is reported by major news organizations. The argument made against the offending articles, the official said, is that they are dated or inaccurate.

But the Pentagon press office, which oversees the Early Bird, has waived the magazine ban for some articles that senior managers deem positive. These have included the Time package on the American soldier as Person of the Year (which included a Rumsfeld interview) and two U.S. News & World Report pieces last week -- one on civilian efforts in Iraq and an officer's column defending the ban on coverage of deceased soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base.

Democrats have minds that do it through talking points, and Republicans have minds that do speeches. (Mr. Bush has given a dozen memorable speeches already; only one of his Democratic challengers has, and that was "I Have a Scream.") And the reason--perhaps--is that Democratic candidates tend to love the game of politics, and Republican candidates often don't. Democrats, because they admire government and seek to be part of it, are inclined to think the truth of life is in policy. How could they not then be engaged by policy talk, and its talking points?

Republicans think politics is something you have to do and that policy is something you have to have to move things forward in line with a philosophy. They like philosophy. But they are bored by policy and hate having to memorize talking points.

RUSSERT: Mr. President, this campaign is fully engaged. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terence McAuliffe, said this last week: I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard. He didn't show up when he should have showed up.

BUSH: Yes.

RUSSERT: How do you respond?

BUSH: Political season is here. I was -- I served in the National Guard. I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge. I've heard this -- I've heard this ever since I started running for office. It's a -- I put in my time, proudly so.

I would be careful to not denigrate the Guard. It's fine to go after me, which I expect the other side will do. I wouldn't denigrate service to the Guard, though. And the reason I wouldn't, is because there are a lot of really fine people who have served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq.

The Politics of Persuasion

The intelligence community's overestimation of Iraq's WMD capability is only part of the story of why we went to war last year. The other part involves how the Bush Administration handled the intelligence. Throughout the spring and fall of 2002 and well into 2003 I received numerous complaints from friends and colleagues in the intelligence community, and from people in the policy community, about precisely that. According to them, many Administration officials reacted strongly, negatively, and aggressively when presented with information or analysis that contradicted what they already believed about Iraq. Many of these officials believed that Saddam Hussein was the source of virtually all the problems in the Middle East and was an imminent danger to the United States because of his perceived possession of weapons of mass destruction and support of terrorism. Many also believed that CIA analysts tended to be left-leaning cultural relativists who consistently downplayed threats to the United States. They believed that the Agency, not the Administration, was biased, and that they were acting simply to correct that bias.

When Russert asked Bush about his unpopularity abroad, Bush answered, "I'm not going to change, see? I'm not trying to accommodate. I won't change my philosophy or my point of view. I believe I owe it to the American people to say what I'm going to do and do it, and to speak as clearly as I can, try to articulate as best I can why I make decisions I make. But I'm not going to change because of polls. That's just not my nature."

No, it isn't. Bush isn't Clinton. He doesn't change his mind for anything, whether it's polls or facts. And he always tells the truth about what's in his mind, whether or not what's in his mind corresponds to what's in the visible world.

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It probably means little now to Howard Dean but CNN's top executive believes his network overplayed the infamous clip of Dean's "scream" after the Iowa caucuses.

[edit]

"It was unfair," said Joe Trippi, Dean's former campaign manager, who lost his job in the fallout. "It was totally unfair. I don't think there was any question about it."
Trippi accepts that the footage was newsworthy, but he figured it was a one-day story.

Instead, the cable and broadcast news networks aired Dean's Iowa exclamation 633 times — and that doesn't include local news or talk shows — in the four days after it was made, according to the Hotline, a Washington-based newsletter.

[edit]

[Paul] Slavin [senior vice president of ABC News] said his only regret was not airing an intriguing Diane Sawyer report on the coverage earlier. Sawyer reported that Dean was using a special microphone that night that filters out crowd noise to heighten his voice; other videotapes taken illustrate that his "scream" was barely audible to his live audience.

To Trippi, Sawyer's report felt like a Super Bowl referee admitting — after the game — that he blew a call that decided the outcome.

"Unfortunately, no one ran that 633 times," he said. "ABC, to its credit, did it once."