Wotan: You promised to find a way to get Freia out of this.

Loge: I promised to think about it. To find something that may not exist—who would promise such a thing?

President Bush used the first rally of his re-election campaign to cast Democrat John Kerry on Saturday as a serial tax-raiser who has voted for tax increases 350 times. He also mocked Kerry's claims of support from undisclosed foreign leaders.

Bush took note of Kerry's proposals to expand health care, education and other domestic programs while still cutting in half the deficit. Kerry, the president, said, has promised more than he can pay for.

"He's going to have to pay for it somehow," Bush told thousands of cheering supporters at the Orange County Convention Center. "It's pretty clear how he's going to fill the tax gap - he's going to tax all of you. Fortunately, you're not going to give him that chance."

Taxes are headed up.

That provocative prediction is likely to pan out, some economists argue, whether American voters reelect George W. Bush or choose John Kerry in this fall's presidential contest.

You certainly won't hear it from Mr. Bush on the campaign trail. And it's possible that Republican tax-cutting fervor could hold sway for some time, given enough electoral support.

But there's a new budget reality that even some conservative economists can't ignore. A massive and growing federal budget deficit now looks increasingly hard to tame without raising more government revenue. That's another word for tax hike.

"It's inevitable," says Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow at the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis in Washington.

Over six days in the fall and spring the television networks and newspapers gave mostly breathless accounts of a rogue agency ruining lives with abandon until [Senator William] Roth came to the rescue. The tens of thousands of words of testimony were reduced to sound bytes, devoid of nuance. The story: unnamed IRS agents falsely making unnamed people pay taxes they did not owe; dozens of criminal investigation agents, brandishing guns, entering peaceful offices and homes as if they expected armed drug dealers; agents issuing subpoenas for no purpose except to embarrass people. There was even testimony that an IRS agent held a gun on a girl, caught in a raid on her parent's home, and forced her to change her clothes while he watched.

There was one problem. Most of it wasn't true.

Struggling with rising workloads and stagnant staff levels, the Internal Revenue Service walked away from more than 2 million delinquent tax accounts last year, totaling nearly $16.5 billion, according to the Treasury Department.

[edit]

Last year, the IRS opted not to pursue 2.25 million tax cases, costing the government $14.1 billion in individual income taxes and $2.3 billion in corporate taxes, the Treasury document states.

[edit]

According to government budget documents, the amount of money the IRS knowingly left on the table last year equaled 1.8 percent of the total individual and corporate income tax take expected for 2003. It could have fully covered NASA's 2004 budget, the government's international aid programs, or the budgets of the departments of Commerce and Interior combined.

Former IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti said before his 2002 retirement that the agency needed 35,000 more workers to pursue just those cases it is aware of, a 67 percent increase over then-current employee levels.

Bush is pursuing an alternative -- private debt collectors.

Former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke tells Lesley Stahl that on September 11, 2001 and the day after - when it was clear Al Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attacks - the Bush administration was considering bombing Iraq in retaliation.

Clarke was surprised that the attention of administration officials was turning toward Iraq when he expected the focus to be on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," says Clarke.

"Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq....We all said, 'but no, no. Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan," recounts Clarke, "and Rumsfeld said, 'There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.' I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with [the 9/11 attacks],'" he tells Stahl.

"I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection [between Iraq and Al Qaeda] but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there, saying, 'We've looked at this issue for years. For years we've looked and there's just no connection,'" says Clarke.

"I'm sure I'll be criticized for lots of things, and I'm sure they'll launch their dogs on me," Clarke said. "But frankly I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something."

[edit]

Almost immediately after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Clarke said the president asked him directly to find whether Iraq was involved in the suicide hijackings.

"Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said, 'Iraq did this,'" said Clarke, who told the president that U.S. intelligence agencies had never found a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida.

"He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection,' and in a very intimidating way," Clarke said.

I have to say that I have been culpably naive about this administration on this issue. They led me to believe they weren't hostile to gay people, that they would not use anti-gay sentiment to gain votes, that they would not roll back very basic protections for gay federal employees. I was lied to. We were all lied to. But now we know.

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union

In the momentous step, which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course. [Note the obvious patterning on the Declaration of Independence, whose opening sentence said that "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" required the colonists to state their reasons].

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution [i.e., slavery], a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove.

The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory.

The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from France [i.e., the Missouri Compromise made most territory free, rather than slave, until Dred Scott struck it down].

The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico. [reference to another instance in which the U.S. acquired territory and prohibited slavery in most of it]

It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.

It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.

It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact, which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.

It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.

It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.

It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.

It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.

It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives. [a reference to abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia]

It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security. [a reference to the Northern reluctance to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and otherwise respect the constitutional compromise of 1787 in which the North agreed to allow the South to preserve the institution of slavery]

It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system.

It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause.

It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.

Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.

January 21, 1930

“Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the he temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed that the tide of employment had changed in the right direction.”

—News dispatch from Washington

March 8, 1930

“President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days.”

—Washington dispatch

October 2, 1930

“During the past year you have carried the credit system of the nation safely through a most difficult crisis. In this success you have demonstrated not alone the soundness of the credit system, but also the capacity of the bankers in emergency.”

—Herbert Hoover, Address before the annual convention of The American Bankers Association, Cleveland

October 18, 1931

“The depression has been deepened by events from abroad which are beyond the control either of our citizens or our government.”

—Herbert Hoover, Radio address at Fortress Monroe, Virginia

Dear Eugene,

When John Kerry went to West Virginia Tuesday to falsely claim our President didn't support our troops or veterans, Kerry found this new campaign ad waiting for him.

The ad was called "devastating" for exposing John Kerry as he really is: someone wrong on defense and wrong for America. It was supported by Bush campaign surrogates who showcased the President's outstanding record on veterans.

The Bush campaign's efforts were called "nimble" and "able to counterpunch even before Kerry opens his mouth." That counterpunch threw Kerry off-stride. Kerry responded saying, "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it." If you wanted one phrase to sum up Kerry's position, that's it.

MITCHELL: Now that is a complete distortion, Kerry would say, and anybody who really covered the $87 billion supplemental has to agree. A complete distortion.

MATTHEWS: Are those in there?

MITCHELL: They were in there, but he was voting against one part of the bill.

MATTHEWS: But didn‘t he vote against the final? Didn‘t he voted against final?

MITCHELL: He did vote against final.

MATTHEWS: Then he voted against all those elements.

MITCHELL: He voted against those elements of the supplemental, but he was voting against it as a protest, he said, you know, again...

MATTHEWS: Well, that‘s what he said; that‘s his spin. I think...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: By the way, you said to me before we were on tonight, that was a tough ad.

MITCHELL: A very tough ad.

MATTHEWS: I think it‘s devastating.

White House political chief Karl Rove said Wednesday that President Bush had just begun to demonstrate the kind of targeted, multi-front campaign he plans against Democratic rival John Kerry.

Addressing a small group of conservative activists, Rove assured them that Bush planned a nimble campaign able to counterpunch even before Kerry opens his mouth. The White House adviser pointed with pride to the Bush camp's response Tuesday, when it got word that Kerry planned a national security speech to veterans in West Virginia.

There cannot be unity with the enemies of the people, enemies of the struggle and the enemies of our independence. Speak the same language, act the same acts, do the same things, think alike, walk
alike, dream alike.

The Zimbabwean government says the camps are job training centres, but those who have escaped say they are part of a brutal plan to keep Mugabe in power.

Former recruits to the camps have spoken to the BBC's Panorama programme about a horrific training programme that breaks young teenagers down before encouraging them to commit atrocities.

Members of the youth militia are warned never to tell of their experiences inside the camps, and many refuse to be identified when talking about their experiences.

The public was told the camps were places where youths aged 12 to 30 could learn job skills like carpentry or sewing. Mugabe called the project the National Youth Service Training Programme. It was in fact his master plan for gaining permanent control of Zimbabwe. Three years later the project has become massive and sinister. This is a camp in Zimbabwe south west. Below are formations of hundreds of children and youths across Zimbabwe are now at least six camps on this scale. It's estimated that 50,000 youths have already passed through them.

[edit]

This is a lesson taking place inside a camp. The youths are taught Mugabe's own version of history. The manual they learn from is written by the President himself. The lesson is simple and racist. Mugabe and his party Zanu, are the heroes of blacks. The opposition party, the MDC is backed by whites and is bad. Questioning this is forbidden.

[edit]

Every hundred days or so, around 10,000 youths graduate, they're ready to be sent out into Zimbabwe. But these thousands aren't enough for Mugabe. In the last few months he's doubled the camps' budget. Mugabe now plans to push every youth in Zimbabwe through the camps. He wants millions, a whole generation, and there's a reason why. The Camp Commander has already had his instructions. Zimbabwe has elections next year. The job of the youth militia is to ensure Mugabe wins.

Kisses - the sexy urinal, makes a daily event a blushing experience! This is one target men will never miss!

"... scores of Spaniards of both parties indicated that a number of things happened after the attacks that shifted the balance to the Socialists. Voters flooded the polls on Sunday in record numbers, especially young people who had not planned to vote. In interviews, [voters] said they did so not so much out of fear of terror as out of anger against a government they saw as increasingly authoritarian, arrogant and stubborn.

The government, they said, mishandled the crisis in the emotional days after the attacks. Voters said they were enraged not only by the government's insistence that the Basque separatist group ETA was responsible, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, but they also resented its clumsy attempts to quell antigovernment sentiment.

For example, the main television channel TVE, which is state-owned, showed scant and selective scenes of antigovernment demonstrations on Saturday night ... It also suddenly changed its regular programming to air a documentary on the horrors of ETA. That was the last straw for some Spaniards, who said it evoked the nightmare of censorship during the Franco dictatorship little more than a quarter of a century ago.

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar personally called the top editors of Spain's major dailies twice on the day of the attacks. In the first round of calls, Mr. Aznar said he was convinced that ETA was responsible.

"He said, 'It was ETA, Antonio, don't doubt it in the least,' " said Antonio Franco, editor in chief of the Barcelona-based El Periodico de Catalunya, in an interview.

Mr. Franco's newspaper published a special edition based on Mr. Aznar's call, then Mr. Franco published an editorial rectifying the mistake as new information came to light. "It was shameful to me that the whole world was taking precautions and debating about Al Qaeda except in Spain, where the attack occurred," he said.

REPORTER: "Do you have any questions about the prewar intelligence? Were you ill-served by the intelligence community?"

PRESIDENT BUSH: "Well, first of all, I've got great confidence in our intelligence community. These are unbelievably hardworking, dedicated people who are doing a great job for America. And, secondly, there is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a grave and gathering threat to America and the world. There is just no doubt in my mind."

Poland, which has about 2,400 troops in Iraq, was "misled" about the threat from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, its president said Thursday. The remarks by President Aleksander Kwasniewski were his first hint of such criticism directed at the United States and Britain, although he mentioned no country by name.

"I personally think that today, Iraq without Saddam Hussein is a truly better Iraq than with Saddam Hussein," Kwasniewski told a small group of European reporters. "But naturally I also feel uncomfortable due to the fact that we were misled with the information on weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Bush Ad May Violate Senate Regulations

The Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign has shown in recent days that it has done voluminous research on Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) record in the Senate. But it may not be as familiar with the chamber’s rules.

The campaign’s latest television ad, focusing on Kerry’s past votes on military issues, appears to violate Senate rules governing broadcasts of the body’s proceedings.

The ad, titled “Troops,” features a female narrator naming items such as body armor and higher combat pay, followed by an audio clip of a Senate clerk saying, “Mr. Kerry,” and the narrator intoning, “No.”

The ad also uses what appear to be quick video shots of the chamber floor.

Both those shots and the audio of the clerk appear to violate a rule in the Senate manual that states: “The use of any tape duplication of radio or television coverage of the proceedings of the Senate for political campaign purposes is strictly prohibited.”

The Bush campaign did not return several calls seeking comment. A campaign spokesman told ABC News, “The images and materials we use in ads is carefully examined and used appropriately.”

But even if the ad does violate the rules, procedural experts and Senate officials said there is no obvious way for the Senate to stop the campaign from running the spot.

One expert suggested that Vice President Cheney could be sanctioned for failure to follow the Senate rules because he is also president of the chamber.

But the Senate Ethics Manual states, “The [Ethics] Committee has determined that the vice president, although a constitutional officer with the duty of presiding over the Senate, is not a Member, employee or officer of the Senate as those terms are used in the Code of Official Conduct.”

Man Thought He Was Running Over Bin Laden

MONTPELLIER, France - A French artist allegedly traumatized by last week's Spain bombings was convicted of trying to run over a pedestrian he mistook for Osama bin Laden and ordered to pay the man $615.

The 35-year-old defendant, identified as Pierre, was sentenced Tuesday by a court in this southern France city to a three-month suspended prison term. The man he tried to run over was unharmed.

Pierre's lawyer, David Mendel, said his client was the "victim of a hallucination" while driving Monday through Montpellier's historic center.

"If it was (bin Laden), we would have won $5 million," Mendel said, referring to a reward.

The latest issue of Shukan Bunshun was removed from newsstands Wednesday after the Tokyo District Court ordered a temporary injunction barring the sale of the Japanese-language weekly magazine.

The flap was over an article on the divorce of Diet member Makiko Tanaka's eldest daughter.

[snip]

According to the Shukan Bunshun article, which it billed as an "exclusive," Tanaka's daughter married despite her parents' fierce opposition, divorced a year later and returned to Japan from Los Angeles, where her ex-husband works.

The lawyer said the injunction request was filed because the article violates the daughter's privacy.

Even though she has a politician and public figure for a mother, she "deserves the right to privacy, and the district court's decision in that sense is reasonable," the lawyer said.

[snip]

Of the nation's 47 prefecture-run libraries, 12 plan to either ban or restrict access to the latest Shukan Bunshun issue, according to a Kyodo News survey [Japan is divided into prefectures, which are sort of like U.S. counties--nothing in the Japanese governmental structure is really analogous to states].

Some libraries said they would prevent visitors from reading the article on Tanaka's daughter by stapling the pages together.

Reactions from Shukan Bunshun readers were mixed.

"The article may be going too far, but I think it is acceptable," said Toru Ogasawara, a commuter at JR Shinbashi Station in Tokyo.

Magazine publishers will have trouble carrying sensitive articles if courts issue injunctions, he said.

Nobuaki Ito, a construction worker in Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, said he reads Shukan Bunshun every week but supported the court order. "I can understand (the magazine taking up) issues concerning the lawmaker herself, but it should not carry stories about her children."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said during his regular daily news conference in the morning that the media should respect the privacy of family members of politicians.

"The family members are independent human beings, and they are not politicians. Common sense dictates that (the media) should consider them as separate," Fukuda said.

Tanaka, the daughter of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, is widely known as an outspoken politician, and served as foreign minister in the first year of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration until she was ousted in 2002 following a standoff with bureaucrats.

Central African Republic faces a "humanitarian catastrophe" caused by political instability and a collapsing health service unless nations meet a U.N. appeal for nearly $17 million in aid, an envoy for the world body said Wednesday.

So far, the United Nations has collected just $700,000 of the $16.8 million it asked for in November, said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, a special envoy for the troubled nation. That shows a "lack of serious engagement by the international community," he said.

The money is needed to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria, cholera, measles and meningitis and to tackle malnutrition, which affects at least 14 percent of the nation's children, he said.

A black box found last week in a UN filing cabinet apparently was not on the aircraft that crashed in Rwanda a decade ago, the crisis blamed for triggering that country's 1994 genocide, the United Nations said yesterday.

The cockpit voice recorder, shipped to UN headquarters from Rwanda in June 1994 and subsequently filed away, was opened and its tape played for the first time Tuesday at the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, said UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard.

"Nothing heard so far on the tape links the cockpit voice recorder to the aircraft crash on the sixth of April 1994 in Rwanda," Eckhard told reporters.

Some have already changed their minds. [Gerald] Prunier is revising sections of his book that glossed over reports of RPF revenge massacres, something that he now says was "a mistake".

He estimates that the RPF massacred up to 450,000 Hutus - almost two-thirds of the genocide death toll - in Rwanda and Congo in the wake of the 1994 slaughter. He said: "I used to think there were good guys and bad guys in this. Now I am 100 per cent convinced there are only bad guys."

The first hint of change came without much fanfare or publicity last month as the Department of Homeland Security quietly proposed sweeping changes in the handling of political asylum cases. But as word trickled across the country, dozens of battered women seeking refuge in the United States felt the first stirrings of hope.

There has been much attention given to the case of Ms. Alvarado, a
Guatemalan woman who suffered years of horrific abuse at the hands of her husband, and whose government did nothing to protect her from such abuse, which included repeated rape, severe beatings, knocking windows out with her head, attempting to chop her hands off with a machete, threats and humiliation, sodomy, and beating her unconscious in front of her children. Ms. Alvarado actively sought the protection of her government, but in every instance protection was denied. Ms. Alvarado fled Guatemala and sought safety in this country because she could not find it in Guatemala.

Granting Ms. Alvarado asylum, as recently recommended by the Department of Homeland Security, would protect a very narrow class of women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution. The experience of Canada, which has recognized gender-based persecution as a basis for refugee status since 1993, demonstrates that such recognition does not lead to a proliferation of such claims. Canadian government data reveal that gender-based claims consistently constitute only a tiny fraction of overall asylum claims - never more than two percent of the total - and that such claims have actually declined since 1994. DHS has done the right thing but now Attorney General Ashcroft has the power to make the final decision on whether or not to grant Rodi Alvarado asylum.

By granting Rodi Alvarado asylum we will protect a very narrow class of women and girls fleeing the very worst gender-related violence
including: domestic violence, sexual trafficking, sexual slavery, rape,
honor killing, coercive family planning, female genital mutilation, and
honor killings.

In a videotaped message, the al-Qaida "military commander" for Europe claimed credit for the bombings, saying that the terrorist attack was meant to punish Spain for supporting the war in Iraq. The message came as a total shock to liberals who have been furiously insisting that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with al-Qaida.

Apparently al-Qaida didn't think so. After the Madrid bombings, it looks like liberals and terrorists will have to powwow on whether there was an Iraq/al-Qaida link. Two hundred dead Spaniards say there was.

Yossarian came to him one mission later and pleaded again, without any real expectation of success, to be grounded. Doc Daneeka snickered once and was soon immersed in problems of his own, which included Chief White Halfoat, who had been challenging him all that morning to Indian wrestle, and Yossarian, who decided right then and there to go crazy.

‘You're wasting your time,’ Doc Daneeka was forced to tell him.
‘Can't you ground someone who's crazy?’
‘Oh, sure. I have to. There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy.’
‘Then why don't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger.’
‘Clevinger? Where is Clevinger? You find Clevinger and I'll ask him.’
‘Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am.’
‘They're crazy.’
‘Then why don't you ground them?’
‘Why don't they ask me to ground them?’
‘Because they're crazy, that's why.’
‘Of course they're crazy,’ Doc Daneeka replied. ‘I just told you they're crazy, didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not, can you?’

Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. ‘Is Orr crazy?’
‘He sure is,’ Doc Daneeka said.
‘Can you ground him?’
‘I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule.’
‘Then why doesn't he ask you to?’
‘Because he's crazy,’ Doc Daneeka said. ‘He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to.’
‘That's all he has to do to be grounded?’
‘That's all. Let him ask me.’
‘And then you can ground him?’ Yossarian asked.
‘No. Then I can't ground him.’
‘You mean there's a catch?’
‘Sure there's a catch,’ Doc Daneeka replied. ‘Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy.’

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22 which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

‘That's some catch, that Catch-22,’ he observed.
‘It's the best there is,’ Doc Daneeka agreed.

Vote 376: To provide an additional $322,000,000 for safety equipment for United States forces in Iraq and to reduce the amount provided for reconstruction in Iraq by $322,000,000.

Vote 378: To authorize the award of the Iraqi Liberation Medal as a campaign medal for members of the Armed Forces who serve in Southwest Asia in connection with Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Vote 379: To provide emergency relief for veterans healthcare, school construction, healthcare and transportation needs in the United States, and to create 95,000 new jobs.

Vote 396: To ... shift $600 million from the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund to Defense Operations and Maintenance, Army, for significantly improving efforts to secure and destroy conventional weapons, such as bombs, bomb materials, small arms, rocket propelled grenades, and shoulder-launched missiles, in Iraq.

The county that was the site of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" over the teaching of evolution is asking lawmakers to amend state law so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.

The Rhea County commissioners approved the request 8-0 Tuesday.

Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the measure, also asked the county attorney to find a way to enact an ordinance banning homosexuals from living in the county.

"We need to keep them out of here," Fugate said.

Robinson said company officials might do well to visit this remote farming area in southwest Florida, to "go out at four in the morning at the start of a working day" and see the horrendous conditions workers must suffer. She said it might lead the company to re-examine its "purchasing strategy" that relies on cheap labor.

"This is a real human rights issue -- a fundamental human rights issue," Robinson said Monday. Yum!, which owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell, has "great purchasing power and they use it to buy the cheapest products, and the burden of that is falling on the workers," she said.

A Taco Bell spokeswoman said the company is not hardhearted, but it can't ensure a penny increase in price will be passed on to workers.

"In the flush of his reelection victory, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that he would work to build democracy, civil society and the rule of law in Russia during the next four years. Few in the outside world are likely to put much faith in such a pledge ... But if he'd like to bolster his flagging credibility in the West, there is one step Mr. Putin can take quickly. He can free Arjan Erkel.

"Mr. Erkel, a 33-year-old Dutch national, headed the mission of Doctors Without Borders in the Russian republic of Dagestan until Aug. 12, 2002, when he was kidnapped by gunmen. To this day the humanitarian group, renowned for its work in troubled areas around the world, is not sure who abducted Mr. Erkel or why. But it does know that he was being shadowed by Russian security forces in the days before his disappearance; that two officers of the Russian FSB agency, successor to the KGB, were at the scene of his abduction; and that the FSB has since shown, by producing videos and photos of Mr. Erkel, that it knows who is holding him, and probably where.

"This is also widely known: Doctors Without Borders has been helping refugees from Mr. Putin's war in Chechnya ... and has spoken out against efforts by his government to force those refugees to return home. Mr. Erkel's disappearance was convenient for the FSB: It led Doctors Without Borders to suspend operations in Dagestan.

"For many months the international agency worked quietly to free Mr. Erkel. But it has learned that his health has taken a life-threatening turn for the worse -- he reportedly suffers from a pulmonary infection -- and it has also been warned that Mr. Erkel's captors may have decided to kill him. Appeals to Russian authorities by the group and its many Western supporters, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, have met with the same stonewall answer: We are doing our best. ... In fact, Mr. Erkel is a prime example of how Mr. Putin and his fellow KGB alumni have declined to apply the rule of law in Russia. If they really intend to do so now, his case is the right place to start.

President Bush commemorated Law Day by talking about the important role that the federal judiciary plays in protecting our rights and preserving our values. President Bush highlighted the vacancy crisis that is currently facing the federal judiciary, and called on the Senate to hold prompt hearings and votes on all his 100 judicial nominees.

The judicial confirmation process is broken, and the consequences for the American people are real. Because of the Senate's failure to hold timely votes, the number of judicial vacancies has been unacceptably high during my Presidency and those of President Bill Clinton and President George H.W. Bush. The Chief Justice has warned that the high number of judicial vacancies, when combined with the ever-increasing caseloads, leads to crowded courts and threatens the administration of justice. When understaffed, the Federal courts cannot act in a timely manner to resolve disputes that affect the lives and liberties of all Americans. The courts cannot decide constitutional cases promptly, which harms people seeking to vindicate and protect their rights, and the courts cannot rule on commercial cases efficiently, which hurts the economy, businesses, and workers. Our system of equal justice under law administered fairly and efficiently is at risk.

Judge Heyburn noted that the President’s budget proposal allows for a 0.5 percent growth rate in fiscal year 2005 for all functions not related to defense or homeland security. If this growth rate is applied to the federal courts, court operating expenses will have to be cut by 50 percent and an estimated 3,800 court employees – nearly 20 percent of the workforce in probation and clerks’ offices – will have to be let go.

Federal courts nationwide already have taken steps to cut back wherever possible, Judge Heyburn said. The number of court support staff in September 2004 will not only be less than the number in 2003, but will be lower than the level funded in fiscal year 2001. To cope with the fiscal year 2004 funding level, most vacant court positions are not being filled. Several hundred positions will be eliminated through buyouts and early outs, and over 2,600 (out of 21,000) court employees will be furloughed for an average of more than a week each.

"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."

-- President Ronald Reagan, in 1984, joking around before his weekly radio address began (or, at least, that's what he thought)

"Vaya conazo que he soltado!" ("What a load of crap I've just delivered!")

-- Spanish prime minister Jose Maria-Aznar in 2002, after delivering a positive report to the European parliament about the accomplishments of the Barcelona summit.

"Don't tell me they're just letting the audience f------ stand out there. "We kicked a little a-- tonight."

-- President George Bush, then vice president, after a 1984 debate against Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale's running mate, Geraldine Ferarro.

"It's an outrage. It's a dirty, double-crossing, back-stabbing thing to do. For him to do this to me … is an act of absolute dishonor."

-- President Bill Clinton, during the 1992 presidential race, when he learned Jesse Jackson was endorsing a rival candidate. The remark, caught on video, was used in campaign ads by Clinton's rivals.

"Rummy used to get even with guys in the White House by leaking stuff to [Dan] Rather that didn't have any basis in fact. … [Rather was] factually wrong a lot of the time because he was Rummy's vessel."

-- NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, about Dan Rather's reporting during the Nixon administration. ("Rummy" is Donald Rumsfeld, an official in the Nixon White House.) Brokaw's remark, made just before a live report from the 1996 Republican national convention, was picked up on satellite feed and made a splash in the national media.

"I did not wash my hair last night because I felt a certain amount of stiffness was probably healthy. What do you think? OK, OK, the question is whether or not to wash it for tomorrow, but we'll make that decision as we go along, I guess."

-- Dan Rather to a CBS news producer, preparing to go on air with a report from Soweto, South Africa. The live feed was picked up by satellite viewers.

"What a f------ idiot."

-- Bryant Gumbel, then a CBS Early Show host, immediately after an interview with a representative of the conservative Family Research Council.

"You," Rumsfeld said to host Bob Schieffer, "and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'immediate threat.' I didn't; the president didn't." Despite that, "it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened."

So New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, not previously known as a folklorist, pulled out a Rumsfeld quote from 2002. "Right here it says," Friedman said, " 'Some have argued' -- this is you speaking, 'some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons; I would not be so certain.' " Friedman said that was "close to imminent."

"Well, I've tried to be precise," Rumsfeld said, "and I've tried to be accurate."

"'No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people,' " Friedman quoted Rumsfeld as telling Congress in September 2002, " 'and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.' "

"Mmm, ah, my view of the, the situation," Rumsfeld said, "was that he, he, had -- we believed, the best intelligence that we had, and other countries had, and that we believe, and we still do not know, we will know."

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda yesterday accused France of direct responsibility for the 1994 genocide of at least 800,000 people in the central African country.

His remarks reignited a bitter diplomatic row between Rwanda and France and threatened attempts to mark the 10th anniversary of the killings with dignity.

M Kagame claimed that the French government supplied weapons, logistical support and even senior military planners to the regime of militant ethnic Hutus responsible for the slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Diplomats and witnesses to the genocide have often accused France of tacit involvement, but Mr Kagame's comments are the most explicit statement of the allegations.

[edit]

Mr Kagame, an ethnic Tutsi, flatly denied any involvement in Mr Habyarimana's death and launched a blistering counter-attack against France in an interview given to RFI, the French state-run radio station.

"The French supplied weapons; they gave orders and instructions to the perpetrators of genocide," he said.

"The French were there when the genocide took place. They trained those who carried it out.

"They had positions of command in the armed forces who committed the genocide.

"They also directly participated in operations by putting up roadblocks to identify people by ethnic origin, punishing the Tutsis and supporting the Hutus."

[edit]

"In '91 or '92 I was in Paris at the invitation of the authorities and an official said to me, 'If you do not stop the war, by the time you arrive in Kigali you will all be dead'.

"I never forgot those words which are proof of the involvement of the French government, or of certain elements."

Journalists who covered Rwanda in the early 1990s reported that French peacekeepers appeared to side with the Hutu government and against the Tutsi-based Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Mr Kagame, which had been responsible for an armed incursion into Rwanda in 1990 from exile.

In at least one case, French troops moved United Nations peacekeepers away from a college where they were protecting 2,000 Tutsis. After the peacekeepers were moved, the Tutsis were slaughtered.

Stanislas Hategekimana stares at the ground as he recounts how he danced and sang while he killed Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and admits that he killed so many, he can't put a number to them.

"In the killing groups that I took part in starting in 1992, we killed so many people that I can't count them," says the former member of the Interahamwe militia, a Hutu group held largely responsible for the 100-day spree of violence, sentenced two years ago to life in prison for his role in the massacres.

From April to July 1994, up to one million people were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide, most of them ethnic Tutsis, but also Hutus who tried to shelter them.

Stanislas, now 36, is serving his sentence in Ruhengeri, in northwest Rwanda. He has admitted to having bludgeoned to death two elderly men and a child.

"They loaded us into vehicles to take us to the hills to kill people. We sang and danced," he said, his voice hardly a whisper and unable to control a nervous twitch that sent spasms through his legs, clad in the pink prison garb of Rwandan genocide prisoners.

"It was practically a party. We killed cows for food, the authorities bought our drinks for us," he said.

The House Budget Committee is moving toward making it harder for Congress to increase spending but not to cut taxes, spelling a likely election-year clash between the GOP-run House and Senate over President Bush's planned tax reductions.

Last week, Democrats joined by four moderate Republicans forced the Senate to approve a provision requiring that any tax cuts or spending increases for benefits like Medicare be paid for with other budget savings.

But Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, said he wants to push a bill through his House budget panel on Wednesday that would clamp that restriction only on spending increases, not tax cuts.

"They pay for themselves" by strengthening the economy, Nussle said of tax cuts in a brief interview Tuesday. "We shouldn't have to pay for tax cuts" by finding offsetting savings from elsewhere in the budget.

Driven by deficits expected to hit nearly $500 billion this year -- a record -- many lawmakers say they want Congress to approve legislation creating procedural roadblocks against bills that would worsen the red ink.

Decides that Iraq shall provide UNMOVIC and the IAEA immediate, unimpeded, unconditional, and unrestricted access to any and all, including underground, areas, facilities, buildings, equipment, records, and means of transport which they wish to inspect, as well as immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted, and private access to all officials and other persons whom UNMOVIC or the IAEA wish to interview in the mode or location of UNMOVIC's or the IAEA's choice pursuant to any aspect of their mandates

RUMSFELD: Well, the U.N. inspectors were not in there. The U.N. inspectors were out.

Bush: The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in.

Bush: It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in.

Sen. Pat Roberts: But, in regards to Saddam Hussein, if in fact he didn't have them, why on earth didn't he let the U.N. inspectors in and avoid the war? That is a real puzzlement to me.

During the 2000 presidential election, the campaign of Ralph Nader, nominated for president by the Green party, produced and aired a political advertisement modeled on MasterCard's "priceless" ads....Nader's ad likewise displayed a series of items reflecting Nader's criticism of the campaign funding system. These items, like those in the MasterCard ads, were accompanied by amounts. At the end, the message displayed was "Finding out the truth: Priceless. There are some things that money can't buy."

MasterCard filed suit against Nader and his campaign, alleging trademark infringement and false designation of origin, trademark dilution, and copyright infringement.

[MasterCard] claims that because there is nothing in the Nader Ad which "comments on or refers to MasterCard or its Priceless Ads" ..., it cannot be classified as a parody. However, the Supreme Court in Campbell stated "[p]arody serves its goals whether labeled or not, and there is no reason to require parody to state the obvious (or even the reasonably perceived)."

Ralph Nader's Political Ad attempts to show various ways different Presidential candidates can be bought in the "big-money arena of Presidential politics" ... and contrasts the "priceless" truth represented by Ralph Nader as the remedy for the bought and paid for positions of others. Through this depiction, Ralph Nader argues that he not only sends across his own message, but that he wittingly comments on the craft of the original, "which cloaks its materialistic message in warm, sugar-coated imagery that purports to elevate intangible values over the monetary values it in fact hawks." ... This commentary "may reasonably be perceived." The message need not be popular nor agreed with. It may be subtle rather than obvious. It need only be reasonably perceived. Ralph Nader's Political Ad is sufficiently a parody for the purposes of a fair use analysis....

Washington has been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, in 2002, America paid more than a million dollars to those political groups in what it claims is an ongoing effort to build democracy and "strengthen political parties". Mr Chavez has seized on the information, telling Washington to "get its hands off Venezuela".

The revelation about America's funding of Mr Chavez's opponents comes as the president is facing a possible recall referendum and has been rocked by a series of violent street demonstrations in which at least eight people have died. His opponents, who include politicians, some labour leaders, media executives and former managers at the state oil company, are trying to collect sufficient signatures to force a national vote. The documents reveal that one of the group's organising the collection of signatures - Sumate - received $53,400 (£30,000) from the US last September.

[edit]

The funding has been made by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) a non-profit agency financed entirely by Congress. It distributes $40m (£22m) a year to various groups in what it says is an effort to strengthen democracy.

But critics of the NED say the organisation routinely meddles in other countries' affairs to support groups that believe in free enterprise, minimal government intervention in the economy and opposition to socialism in any form. In recent years, the NED has channelled funds to the political opponents of the recently ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide at the same time that Washington was blocking loans to his government.

I am not sure I agree with the slant. Funding for NED is not secret-- it's public record, contained in the appropriations bills, and published in NED's annual reports. We fund programs all over the world on political party building, political participation, strengthening democracy, etc.

SUMATE is politically neutral (by its mission statement, anyway). It's aim is to provide the techincal infrastructure and mechanisms (signature gathering and verification) for a recall. One could argue that the very nature of a recall is anti-Chavez-- but SUMATE's position is that it is providing the means to allow Venezeulan's to say whether they want Chavez to stay or go. (support for political processes) In fact, Chavez initially recognized the organization as neutral, but changed is tune when his prospects for fending off a recall began to look grim. (began to call them anti-chavista, etc).

Personally, I don't think a recall is going to happen. I think that the Chavistas will continue to be throw up barriers, masked as technical issues, until time runs out (in Aug). Clearly, it's in their interested to do so- but the hypocracy (since Chavez adimantly endorsed a recall during the time of the strike, as written in his new and improved constitution) is disheartening.

The action was filed in Kentucky because Noga sought to seize assets of the Russian Federation located there, including highly enriched uranium located at a United States Department of Energy uranium processing facility, to satisfy the Phase I Award. The uranium was held pursuant to a 1993 agreement between the United States and the Government concerning the disposition of highly enriched uranium extracted from nuclear weapons. In June 2001, President Clinton issued an executive order blocking Noga’s seizure of the uranium.

Health experts on Tuesday warned Asia's bird flu could still spark a deadly human influenza pandemic and urged all countries to step up readiness.

Vaccines and anti-virals would be in short supply in the early stages of any global flu pandemic, when measures from quarantines to travel warnings could save lives, they added.

... "If the virus acquired full capacity human to human transmission, we should expect a pandemic with huge morbidity and mortality," Hitoshi Oshitani, head of WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office, told the opening session.

The virus killed more people than any other single outbreak of disease, surpassing even the Black Death of the Middle Ages. Although it probably originated in the Far East, it was dubbed "Spanish" flu because the press in Spain ... were the first to report extensively on its impact.

The virus caused three waves of disease. The second of these, between September and December 1918, resulting in the heaviest loss of life. It is thought that the virus may have played a role in ending the [First World War] as soldiers were too sick to fight, and by that stage more men on both sides died of flu than were killed by weapons.

The cowardly reaction of Spanish voters in response to their 9-11 is a stern reminder that America someday might just have to stand alone in the War on Terror. President Bush realizes this and places his obligation of defending America above his desire that other countries like us, approve of our actions or are willing to join us in the effort. John Kerry has made clear that he doesn't get it any more than the Spanish voters.

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday that the Democratic party should move its convention from the FleetCenter to a new convention center in South Boston, but convention leaders say they're staying put.

The FleetCenter poses significant security concerns because it's on top of a train station, across the street from a subway stop and is adjacent to several major roadways. The new $600 million waterfront convention center is located south of downtown Boston ...

"It would clearly be easier if this convention were being held in the new convention center," Romney said. "But it's not my choice. It's the choice of the Democratic National Committee ..."

... Even if Democrats wanted to move, there would not be enough time. The Macworld technology conference is scheduled to be in the new convention center from July 12-14, and the Democrats need a month to set up, said Peggy Wilhide, communications director for the convention committee. The Democratic convention is July 26-29.

[Embedded] suggest that Tim Robbins, whatever his other virtues, is not a man to be trusted with facts -- something already clear from "Cradle Will Rock," which plays fast and loose with all sorts of well-known facts. And since the purpose of "Embedded" is to persuade its viewers that Gulf War II was a cynical scam foisted on gullible Americans by a cabal of Leo Strauss-worshipping neocons, it further suggests that Mr. Robbins's "contribution" to the Iraq debate can safely be written off as the paranoid ravings of a quote-twisting boob who regards Lyndon LaRouche as a reliable source.

What we have here...is a quasi-religious ritual of self-congratulation, an opportunity for progressives to join together in celebrating the life of a fearless defender of the true faith, while simultaneously chipping in to fight the good fight. A note in the program states that "a portion of the proceeds will benefit People for the American Way." It strikes me that the producers might also want to consider making a similar donation to the families of the 20 million Soviet citizens who died at the hands of the murderous regime Dalton Trumbo esteemed so highly and for so long. I'm not counting on it, though.

Former President Clinton, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Democratic congressional leaders are trying to raise $10 million for presidential nominee-to-be John Kerry in 10 days.

The United Nations has recognized polygamy, a common practice in the Islamic world, as a legitimate form of marriage and permits employees to divide their benefits among more than one wife. But the decision to expand that right to same-sex partners has fueled intense opposition.

Iran's representative, Alireza Tootoonchian, speaking on behalf of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said there was "no justifiable basis" for awarding benefits to same-sex couples. ... The OIC is "seriously concerned about extending the scope of the family definition for the purposes of entitlements," he said.

A Vatican envoy, Joseph Klee, said recognition of same-sex unions runs counter to the Roman Catholic Church's concept of marriage and the family. "For us, marriage is a union between a man and a woman and is the foundation of the family," he said.

"Nap time needs to go away," Prince George's County schools chief André J. Hornsby said during a recent meeting with Maryland legislators. "We need to get rid of all the baby school stuff they used to do."

Hornsby wants to convert his pre-kindergarten classes into a full-day program. If he secures the funding to begin that next fall, there will be no mats or cots allowed, he said. In Anne Arundel County, where full-day pre-kindergarten is in place, Superintendent Eric J. Smith also has opted not to build nap time into the schedule.

Educators including Hornsby and Smith find themselves under growing pressure to make school more rigorous -- even in the earliest grades -- in the belief that children who are behind academically by age 6 or 7 have a difficult time catching up.

[snip]

Typical 4- and 5-year-olds need 10 to 12 hours of sleep, and if they don't get that at night they will likely fall asleep during the day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

[snip]

Nia Baker, 4, wakes up around 6:30 every morning to get ready for day care and later spends almost three hours in pre-kindergarten at Seabrook Elementary School in Prince George's, said her mother, Aisha Baker. Then she goes back to day care until 6 p.m., when Baker, a single mother and a cashier at a D.C. restaurant, picks her up.

The rest of Nia's evening usually goes like this: She eats dinner, reviews what she learned in school for about 20 minutes, plays a little, then watches TV for 10 minutes. Bedtime is 7:30 p.m.

"You get tired," Nia said, reflecting on her schedule.

[snip]

Seabrook Principal Marvel Smith is more supportive of Hornsby's move to eliminate naps. "They can't be babied," she said. "These are young minds. We have to take advantage of this early stage when they grasp everything."

A week ago Sunday, somebody drove a white Jeep Cherokee over the curb in front of the Eagles Lodge in Anderson.

The Jeep then pushed over the 6-by-4-foot limestone marker bearing the Ten Commandments -- shattering it into about 12 chunks.

Déjà vu, anyone?

In Indiana, destroying or vandalizing the Ten Commandments has become almost as much a state pastime as downing Ding Dongs or attending tractor pulls.

If history is an indicator, the usual suspect in this caper would be Stephen M. Schroeder, 42, Indianapolis. Indeed, he did damage this particular marker five times when it was on the Statehouse lawn, refusing to pay a $2,500 fine on principle and serving 90 days in jail.

[snip]

Schroeder did not hate the marker because he hates God. He doesn't. He hates pagans, and he maintains this marker was a sneaky pagan plot.

It did not include the commandment cautioning against graven images. That means it was Catholic, and therefore, he says, bad.

Also, it bore a hideous graven image, he says. "Right above the proclamation 'The Lord my God is One God' was a breasted sun god, a triangle with a crescent moon on top, an all-seeing eye with breasts. It was the same graven image on altars in Carthage." In other words, it was pagan all the way.

Schroeder contends the image was a Masonic symbol. Free Masonry, he says, is the biggest pagan religion there is. That's what offended him so about the marker.

[snip]

Anderson police say Schroeder is not a suspect. The Jeep was filled with young white males, says Lt. Michael Reed. Schroeder drives a silver Camry.

Still, what went down in Anderson provides an opening for Schroeder to continue his longtime expose of Indy's pagan symbolism. Did you know, he asks, that the entire Downtown is teeming with diabolic images on public buildings? He will present his views at 1 p.m. March 27 at the House Cafe in Glendale Mall.

His seminar's title is "In Diana Pan Opolis." Translation? Only in Indiana.

Ten short days ago, he could do no wrong. Surrounded by hundreds of fervent supporters on the steps outside the State House, Michael Heath was witty and charming and, dare we say, intoxicated by the applause that washed over his every utterance on the perils of same-sex marriage.

Now, like the drunk who awakes the next morning wondering how the heck this lamp shade got on his head, Heath finds his reputation in shambles. And what's left of his political career hangs by a thread.

So, the PP knew that their antiterrorist policy (against ETA) was one of its main winning cards, and they didn't hesitate to blatantly manipulate the 11-M attack, suppressing information, calling people to demonstrate against ETA, knowing all the while that the Antiterrorist Information Brigade had as good as discarded ETA authorship a few hours after the attack. The antiterrorist police heads even threatened to resign at the madness of it all, and this was leaked to the opposition and the press. And all the while the state TVE showing documentaries about ETA activities right until late Saturday night, on the eve of the election, and failing to report live on Minister Acebes informing about the Al-Q line of investigation which he had been forced to acknowledge - forced by his own angered police heads and by the media which had all the information but was withholding it just long enough for the Minister to do the decent thing. This heartless manipulation of the dead for political gain clinched it - it was the last straw, it galvanised a portion of apathetic socialist voters who would have otherwise abstained, galvanised first-time voters, and galvanised Izquierda Unida voters (which include communists) who opted for heaping their vote on the PSOE for a higher chance of defeating Aznar (IU lost 5 seats because of that). In Spain, government change has always been heralded by a higher participation of voters. In a nutshell, many Spaniards felt badly abused, and acted accordingly. So, yes, 11-M influenced the vote, but not because we are overcome by fear, or because we think that we can avert further attacks, but because we will only put up with so much lying and manipulation, and especially not when it is the dead and their families that are being heartlessly and shamelessly manipulated.

The ever precise Marty Lederman writes: "The Easterbrook opinion technically is not a dissent but instead an opinion 'dubitante' (i.e., expressing doubts). Basically, Easterbrook writes that he has no way of deciding the question one way or the other....Of course, he has the luxury of being able to file an 'I have no idea' opinion because he's the third vote."

1. We antiwar types (which included a majority of the Spanish electorate) said that attacking Iraq would not make us safer from terrorism, and would in fact heighten the risks by distracting us from higher priorities (e.g., al Qaeda) and enflaming anti-western sentiment;

2. We, with Spain at our side, attacked Iraq;

3. Spain then suffered a horrific terrorist attack, for which al Qaeda has claimed "credit," near the anniversary of the Iraq war; and

4. The majority of the Spanish electorate kicked out the party that had invaded Iraq, which invasion had at least appeared to lead to precisely the dire consequences the peaceniks had predicted.

"Appeasement and shame, they name is Spain. This people lives an ocean away from us. Yet they have brought shame on all of us. How would Americans react to terror here on the eve of our next election? Not like the Spanish, I'll wager."

and

"Does anyone know the Spanish word for "coward?""

"God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear."—Los Angeles, Calif., March 3, 2004

We're really here to talk about miracles. And they happen in all kinds of ways in our society, if you really step back and take a look. I talked to some people who I think would say, my life is changed because of a miracle. God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear. It's a powerful message. And it's a message that a lot of people can spread.

The role of government is limited, because government cannot put hope in people's hearts, or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That happens when someone puts an arm around a neighbor and says, God loves you, I love you, and you can count on us both.

No government policy can put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is done when someone, some good soul puts an arm around a neighbor and says, God loves you, and I love, and you can count on us both.

What the faith-based programs say, time after time after time, is that miracles are possible. When somebody puts their arm around a neighbor and says, God loves you, I love you, and you can count on us both. Faith-based programs work.

WE KNOW that long before September 11th, indeed from its first days, the Bush Administration was planning for war with Iraq and the subsequent occupation of the country. That decision having been made, the president ran a campaign of misinformation, of cherry-picking and distorting intelligence, of hype and hysteria that led America into an unnecessary war. For all these reasons, Congress must censure George Bush. Ignoring reports from weapons inspectors, overriding objections from our allies, overruling the dissenting views of his intelligence agencies, George Bush relentlessly led us into a war that has cost 500 American lives, left 3,000 seriously injured, and has already cost more than $100 billion.

For all these reasons, Congress must censure George Bush. Before the war, the president was repeatedly told there was no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He knew Iraq was not a nuclear threat. He knew there was no Iraq connection to 9/11. Iraq posed no imminent danger to the United States. There was no case for a pre-emptive war. There must be consequences when a president misleads the American people, and the Congress, with such disastrous results. An independent commission can deal with failures at the intelligence agencies. Congress should deal with the failures at the White House. Censure the president.

In doing this, William Jefferson Clinton has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

The major U.S. networks paid scant attention as the Rwanda genocide unfolded in 1994, but they were absorbed by the tawdry spectacle of skater Tonya Harding and her role in hiring a thug to club the knees of rival Nancy Kerrigan.

That damning comparison was made yesterday by retired lieutenant-general Romeo Dallaire in a keynote address at a conference in Ottawa examining the media's role in the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in fewer than 100 days.

"There was more coverage of Tonya Harding during the three-and-a-half months of the Rwandan genocide than there was of the genocide," Lt. Gen. Dallaire said.

REPORTER: Is the President offering any new proposals on marriage promotions, part of the welfare reform reauthorization? Or is he going to continue to press the program that he outlined in 2003?

McCLELLAN: One, the President has always been strongly committed to strengthening families and encouraging healthy marriages. And so I think that's what you're referring to. He did make some proposals previously in this administration. We remain committed to those proposals, and he will continue to work under the welfare reauthorizations to implement these proposals ... He will continue to promote responsible fatherhood, to encourage fathers to be actively involved in the lives of their families. And he will also continue to work for some -- what are principally demonstration projects to encourage healthy marriages ...

REPORTER: Didn't [President Bush] say at one point that if necessary -- and a related question -- if necessary, he was for broader efforts, perhaps even constitutional amendments, to preserve the sanctity of marriage? And has he made --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think we're talking about some different things here. One, the welfare proposals --

REPORTER: I understand that.

McCLELLAN: -- are something that we've previously talked about, that he talked about during the campaign, that he's proposed in previous budgets, that he's worked on since the beginning of this administration. Now you're talking about the sanctity of marriage issue.

The (Bush) officials said they believed that the measure was especially timely because they were facing pressure from conservatives eager to see the federal government defend traditional marriage, after a decision by the highest court in Massachusetts. The court ruled in November that gay couples had a right to marry under the state's Constitution.

"This is a way for the president to address the concerns of conservatives and to solidify his conservative base," a presidential adviser said.

Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.

The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8.

The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.

[edit]

The government also prepared scripts that can be used by news anchors introducing what the administration describes as a made-for-television "story package."

In one script, the administration suggests that anchors use this language: "In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details."

The "reporter" then explains the benefits of the new law.