THE PRESIDENT: Stretch. Big Stretch. I'm sorry. (Laughter.)

Q I know you said there will be a time for politics. But you've also said you wanted to change the tone in Washington. Howard Dean recently seemed to muse aloud whether you had advance knowledge of 9/11. Do you agree or disagree with the RNC that this kind of rhetoric borders on political hate speech?

THE PRESIDENT: There's time for politics. There's time for politics, and I -- it's an absurd insinuation.

Q In that case, sir, can I follow up on something unrelated? (Laughter.)

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses. These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to our national security.

It's worth wondering what we all might be paying attention to this particular Sunday morning were it not for this "triumph of American intelligence." Most of us, of course, would be going about the course of our normal daily lives – holiday shopping, hangover nursing, child-minding, church, work. But at least some would have been riveted by a lower-profile but no less interesting news item, one that surely would have been a hot topic on "Meet The Press": the Halliburton overcharges.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, reached at his home on Sunday, said, “It’s great that they caught him. The man was a brutal dictator who committed terrible crimes against his people. But now we come to rest of story. We didn’t go to war to capture Saddam Hussein. We went to war to get rid of weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons have not been found.” Ray McGovern, senior analyst and 27-year veteran of the CIA, echoed Ritter’s perspective on Sunday. “It’s wonderful that he was captured, because now we’ll find out where the weapons of mass destruction are,” said McGovern with tongue firmly planted in cheek. “We killed his sons before they could tell us.”

Indeed, reality intrudes. The push for war before March was based upon Hussein’s possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 1,000,000 pounds of sarin gas, mustard gas, and VX nerve gas, along with 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, uranium from Niger to be used in nuclear bombs, and let us not forget the al Qaeda terrorists closely associated with Hussein who would take this stuff and use it against us on the main streets and back roads of the United States.

When they found Hussein hiding in that dirt hole in the ground, none of this stuff was down there with him. The full force of the American military has been likewise unable to locate it anywhere else. There is no evidence of al al Qaeda agents working with Hussein, and Bush was forced some weeks ago to publicly acknowledge that Hussein had nothing to do with September 11. The Niger uranium story was debunked last summer.

Conventional wisdom now holds that none of this stuff was there to begin with, and all the clear statements from virtually everyone in the Bush administration squatting on the public record describing the existence of this stuff looks now like what it was then: A lot of overblown rhetoric and outright lies, designed to terrify the American people into supporting an unnecessary go-it-alone war.

If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.

Conn. Governor Admits Lying

Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland (R) has a splendid little cottage on a lake in a tony section of the state, outfitted with a new kitchen, a cathedral ceiling and a hot tub with a water view.

But the Republican governor acknowledged last week that he did not pay for these improvements to his cottage. Instead, he relied on gifts -- of time and money -- from a prominent state contractor and several of his closest governmental aides. And he acknowledged that he lied when he claimed on Dec. 2 that he alone had paid for the improvements.

We live in a very dangerous world. And there are those who wake up every morning determined to destroy western civilization. Americans want a President who can face the dangers ahead. But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It's time for Democrats to think about that - and think about it now.

Who are the Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values? Their press secretary is Robert Gibbs, who, until recently, worked on John Kerry's campaign. Their Treasurer is David Jones, who used to raise money for Dick Gephardt. The president of the organization, Former Congressman Edward Feighan, was one of the earliest $2,000 contributors to Dick Gephardt's presidential campaign.

And as their press release says, they plan to air this ad in other early primary states, and they've bought over $400,000 of airtime in Iowa for ads focusing on Howard Dean's positions on the issues of guns, Medicare cuts and NAFTA.

Keeping Secrets
The Bush administration is doing the public's business out of the public eye. Here's how--and why

For the past three years, the Bush administration has quietly but efficiently dropped a shroud of secrecy across many critical operations of the federal government--cloaking its own affairs from scrutiny and removing from the public domain important information on health, safety, and environmental matters. The result has been a reversal of a decades-long trend of openness in government while making increasing amounts of information unavailable to the taxpayers who pay for its collection and analysis. Bush administration officials often cite the September 11 attacks as the reason for the enhanced secrecy. But as the Inauguration Day directive from Card indicates, the initiative to wall off records and information previously in the public domain began from Day 1.

Editorial: Plame's leaker / Lack of progress calls for an independent counsel

There is no indication that the Justice Department has made any progress in determining which Bush administration official blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame five months ago.

This, in spite of President Bush's assignment of the task to senior professionals at the department in September, although he added publicly Oct. 7 that he didn't know if the employee would be found out.

What someone in the administration is alleged to have done is a federal crime, a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law, passed during the administration of President Reagan, is intended to protect the identities and lives of covert agents such as Ms. Plame as they carry out espionage on behalf of the United States overseas.

...

When the matter first surfaced, this paper advocated putting the investigation first in the hands of nonpolitical Justice officials. Some members of Congress were calling for the appointment of a special independent counsel, given the possible conflict of interest created by a Justice Department headed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and the alleged involvement in the affair of Mr. Rove, an Ashcroft godfather.

Given the failure of the Justice Department to produce results in its investigation -- not even a grand jury subpoena so far -- we now recommend that an independent counsel be appointed, and that the Justice Department be required to turn over any information that has been found so far.

It's clear now that Mr. Bush's underlings heard his Oct. 7 message. The word in Washington today is that, indeed, the administration official won't be found.

That is unacceptable in terms of the implications for America's intelligence officers working in dangerous circumstances overseas. It must not be allowed to stand.

LizzzKing: Bob... I-84 is shut down... BNR bridge... Rte 9... everything
LizzzKing: DICK CHENEY WENT HUNTING.
JackFMRadio: what?
JackFMRadio: oh no
JackFMRadio: Must be rabbit season...no duck season...no rabbit season...no duck...
JackFMRadio: where's FA when America needs him?
LizzzKing: OHHHHHH... the tape will be a collectors' item... trust me
JackFMRadio: did he take the accounting people who discovered Halliburton was ripping off the Pentagon?
LizzzKing: This really pissed off the entire region... you have NO IDEA
LizzzKing: E-mail Hoffmania

...Stars and Stripes [Hoffmania note: Click here to read S&S] is blowing the whistle on President Bush's Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad, saying the cheering soldiers who met him were pre-screened and others showing up for a turkey dinner were turned away.

The newspaper, quoting two officials with the Army's 1st Armored Division in an article last week, reported that "for security reasons, only those preselected got into the facility during Bush's visit. . . . The soldiers who dined while the president visited were selected by their chain of command, and were notified a short time before the visit."

The paper also published a letter to the editor from Sgt. Loren Russell, who wrote of the heroism of his soldiers and then added: "[I]magine their dismay when they walked 15 minutes to the Bob Hope Dining Facility, only to find that they were turned away from their evening meal because they were in the wrong unit.

Prospect, the controllers union in the United Kingdom, says the flight broke international regulations, posed a potential safety threat and exposed a weakness in the air defense system that could be exploited by terrorists.

"The overriding concern is if the president's men who did this can dupe air traffic control, what's to stop a highly organized terrorist group from duping air traffic control?" asked David Luxton, Prospect's national secretary. Luxton said the flight was in "breach" of regulations against filing false flight plans set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, which he said should apply to a military aircraft using civilian airspace.

Luxton said that by identifying itself as a Gulfstream V instead of the much larger 747, Air Force One could have put itself and other airplanes in danger. The Gulfstream can climb faster and maneuver more nimbly than a 747, which means controllers could have assumed the president's plane was capable of a collision-avoiding maneuver that it couldn't actually do.

"The expenditure of U.S. dollars will reflect the fact that U.S. troops and other troops risk their life . . . ," Bush said. "It's very simple. Our people risk their lives. Coalition -- friendly coalition folks risk their lives. And therefore, the contracting is going to reflect that. And that's what the U.S. taxpayers expect."

Asked by a reporter to respond to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's suggestion that there might be some issues of international law involved, Bush said: "International law? I better call my lawyer. . . . I don't know what you're talking about, about international law. Better consult my lawyer."

Quinnipiac University Poll Dec. 4-8, 2003. N=1,071 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"
Approve 51%
Disapprove 43%
Don't Know 6%

One third of Iraq's new soldiers quitting army

Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq's new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the US-led occupation authority have quit, US defence officials said today.

Touted as a key to Iraq's future, the 700-man battalion lost some 250 men over recent weeks as they were preparing to begin operations this month, Defence Department officials said.

"We are aware that a third ... has apparently resigned and we are looking into that in order to ensure that we can recruit and retain high-quality people for a new Iraqi army," said Lt Col James Cassella, a Pentagon spokesman.

Six Afghan Children Killed in U.S. Strike

For the second time in a week, the U.S. military admitted Wednesday that Afghan children were killed in attacks against Taliban and al-Qaida suspects, crushed under a wall at a compound stacked with a fugitive militant's weapons.

Both assaults were in the Pashtun-dominated southeast and risked further alienating the country's largest ethnic group, from which the Taliban emerged and still draws its main support.

A U.S. military spokesman said six children died when a wall fell on them Friday night at a complex in eastern Paktia province. U.S. warplanes and special forces had attacked the compound, setting off secondary explosions, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said.

Afghans were outraged by the latest killings, which they said damaged the Americans' image in a nation desperate for security.

Incoming [Canadian] Prime Minister Paul Martin told a news conference Wednesday that he found the ban "very difficult to fathom," adding that Canada has pledged $300 million in aid to Iraq. Deputy prime minister John Manley said the ban makes it "difficult for us to give further money for the reconstruction of Iraq."

U.S. violating human rights: Nobel winner

OSLO, NORWAY-- Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi of Iran Wednesday took aim at the United States for using the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the war on terror to violate the rights of Muslims.

"In the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of 11 September and the war on international terrorism as a pretext," Ebadi said in her acceptance speech in Norway.

"Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms, special bodies and extraordinary courts which make fair adjudication difficult and at times impossible, have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism."

Stop counting civilian dead, Iraqi officials told
Estimates gathered so far won't be released

Iraq's Health Ministry has ordered a halt to a count of civilians killed during the war and told its statistics department not to release figures compiled so far, the official who oversaw the count told The Associated Press today.

The order was relayed by the ministry's director of planning, Dr. Nazar Shabandar, but the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which oversees the ministry, also wanted the counting to stop, said Dr. Nagham Mohsen, the head of the ministry's statistics department.

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll Dec. 5-7, 2003. N=402 Democrats and Democratic leaners nationwide who are registered to vote. MoE ± 5.

"Next, I'm going to read a list of people who may be running in the Democratic primary for president in the next election. After I read all the names, please tell me which of those candidates you would be most likely to support for the Democratic nomination for president in the year 2004..."

Howard Dean - 25% (17% last month)
Wesley Clark - 17% (17%)
Dick Gephardt - 14% (13%)
Joe Lieberman - 10% (13%)
John Edwards - 7% (6%)
John Kerry - 7% (9%)
Carol Mosely Braun - 5% (4%)
Al Sharpton - 3% (5%)
Dennis Kucinich - 2% (3%)
Other/No Opinion - 10% (13%)

U.S. Defends Reconstruction Contract Policy

The White House, defending a new policy barring companies from nations that opposed the Iraq war from bidding on $18.6 billion in reconstruction contracts, said Wednesday that countries wanting a slice of that lucrative pie must participate militarily in the post-war effort.

Responding to the angry response from Germany, Canada and other U.S. allies, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the policy was "appropriate and reasonable."

The Pentagon policy prevents companies from countries that opposed war from bidding on reconstruction contracts because their governments opposed the American-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mr. Gore...

It's an honor to have the President-elect of the 2000 election joining forces with the campaign we've been with since early this year! (What kept ya?)

Thanks so much for your brave words over the last several months. America needs a change and needs it now...a change that we're certain would not be necessary had you been rightfully awarded the title of Commander-In-Chief which you were elected to be.

You're still on the good side of the issues and this proves it. Again, thanks for the endorsement. Welcome back into the fold of active politics. We needed you.

Hoffmania!

Governor Drops Plan for Groping Inquiry

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is dropping a plan to hire a private investigator to examine allegations that he groped at least 16 women over the last three decades, a spokesman said Monday.

The governor is busy with the state's budget crisis and doubts that such an inquiry would appease critics, said Rob Stutzman, communications director for Schwarzenegger. Because of that, he has decided not to look into the charges himself — as he promised to do in the final days of the recall campaign — Stutzman said.

"The governor, in talking with counsel and advisors, concluded that there was very little point to the investigation," Stutzman said in an interview. "The issue has become quite too political. He has apologized and continues to be sincerely sorry for anyone he has offended, but also thinks the time has come to move on."

Shortfall in Car Tax to Hit Home

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's promise to protect local governments from losing money as a result of the reduction of the state's car tax is set to fail its first test Wednesday.

Administration officials have notified cities and counties that the state will be $254 million short on the December car-tax payment to local governments, which originally was scheduled to be $381 million and is due midweek.

Moreover, local officials learned Monday that the pain will get worse next month, when payments to the locals go from a third of what they expected to nothing at all. From January through March, state officials plan to divert all remaining car-tax money away from local governments to pay $600 million in refunds owed to drivers who paid the higher car tax this fall.

Florida won't require printouts of touch-screen votes

California will require that its touch-screen voting machines provide paper printouts for each ballot cast, but Florida's top elections official says she does not favor a similar standard here.

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's recent paper-trail edict is scheduled to take effect by 2006. The action in the nation's largest state -- and America's largest market for new voting hardware -- hands a potentially precedent-setting victory to opponents of paperless electronic voting.

As manufacturers develop ballot printers to accompany touch screens, Florida will be "very open-minded" in reviewing any printers submitted to the state for certification, Secretary of State Glenda Hood said this week. If printers are certified, Hood said, counties would have the option of using them.

But Hood said making a paper trail a statewide requirement is not necessary because Florida has multiple safeguards to assure the accuracy and security of touch screens, which are used in Palm Beach County and 14 other counties.

Gore's epiphany

Tomorrow, someone will probably ask Gore why he assured the nation three years ago that Lieberman was the Democrat best qualified to serve in the Oval Office should any exigency befall President Gore -- but is today less worthy of voter support than the former governor of Vermont.

...his own politics have shifted since 2000, when the experience of losing the presidency he had won seems to have changed him radically. The most obvious evidence of this change during the past year came in his powerful speeches against the war in Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties.

Lieberman may feel betrayed by his ex-running mate's decision, but he and Gore simply have very little in common anymore. Agree with Gore or not, his endorsement of Dean is a principled, brave decision by someone with an intimate understanding of what has gone wrong with the political system to which he dedicated his life.

...he clearly realizes that the hard right poses a real threat to American democratic values. I suspect he also believes that the most effective defense is the kind of grass-roots movement that drives both the Dean campaign and MoveOn.

When he puts his arm around Dean, he may also wish that such an epiphany had occurred while he was still a contender.

Dissent in the Bunker

The military has been hitting hard lately in Iraq, using overwhelming firepower to kill the enemy in operations with videogame names like Iron Hammer and Ivy Cyclone II. But behind the scenes, some military experts, including high-ranking officers in U.S. Special Forces (Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and the like), are beginning to complain that America's strategy in Iraq is wrongheaded.

"THIS IS WHAT Westmoreland was doing in Vietnam," says a top Special Forces commander, referring to the firepower-heavy tactics favored by the military's senior commander in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, who lost sight of America's essential mission in that lost war: winning the hearts and minds of the people.

Sitting in his office in downtown Washington, Gingrich searched on his computer for the Web site of the Coalition Provisional Authority, set up in Baghdad to oversee the reconstruction and democratization of Iraq. "I'm told over there that CPA stands for 'Can't Produce Anything'," says Gingrich. His basic point: where are the Iraqi faces in the New Iraq? "Americans can't win in Iraq," he says. "Only Iraqis can win in Iraq."

"The real key here is not how many enemy do I kill. The real key is how many allies do I grow," he says. "And that is a very important metric that they just don't get."

Bush Numbers Virtually Unchanged by Thanksgiving Trip To Visit Troops in Iraq, New Zogby Poll Reveals

President George W. Bush's unannounced trip to have Thanksgiving Dinner with troops in Baghdad has had relatively little impact on his job performance rating, which remains relatively unchanged from Mid-October and early November polling.

The most recent Zogby America poll of 1,002 likely voters chosen at random was conducted December 4-6, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.

Bush's Job Performance:
Positive: 49% (up from 48%)
Negative: 50% (down from 51%)

Gore to Endorse Howard Dean for '04 Presidential Nomination
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Al Gore, the former vice president who narrowly lost the presidency in 2000, has decided to endorse the presidential campaign of Howard Dean, a move that Democrats said would provide a huge boost to Dr. Dean's candidacy.

Mr. Gore is expected to announce his endorsement of Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont and one of nine Democrats running for president this year, at events in Harlem and Iowa on Tuesday, according to Democrats familiar with the decision.

"This is huge," said Donna Brazile, who was Mr. Gore's campaign manager in 2000. "It gives Dean what Dean has been missing most: Stature. Gore is a major league insider, somebody with enormous credibility that Democrats respect, who can rally the grass roots, and who's been speaking very strongly in the last few months about the direction he wants to take the country in."

Mr. Gore and did not respond to requests for comments.

Mr. Gore's decision, while a boost to Dr. Dean, was a devastating blow to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was Mr. Gore's running mate in 2000. "It probably wipes Lieberman out of the race," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the Democratic candidates. "It's going to clear the deck."

Afghan villagers shattered by attack

The peace of Hutala village has been shattered.

US military helicopters, take off and land, throwing up dust devils.

Villagers, sitting on their haunches, watch impassively.

They are huddled around a heap of hats and shoes, which have been ripped by shrapnel.

Marbles are scattered across the ground.

Nine children and one man died here on Saturday morning, when two US-military planes, targeting what a coalition spokesman described as a "known terrorist", opened fire with rockets and bullets.

Picking up a dusty hat, villager Sarwar Khan says: "This is all that remains of one of my boys".

His two sons and one of his nephews were killed.

Patches of dried blood, and the pitiful pile of hats and shoes, are the only evidence that remains of a bombing raid that went horribly wrong.

----------------

This village nestled in jagged mountains, in a remote area of the Pashtun heartland, will never quite be the same again, but the pain this attack has caused is being felt across the country, particularly by other Pashtuns.

The majority ethnic group is already deeply disenchanted with the new political dispensation in Afghanistan, and the interim government's perceived closeness to the United States.

Events like this only serve to alienate the population yet further, driving, it could be argued, yet more young men into the hands of the militants.

Afghans understand deaths - U.S.

(CNN) --Afghan villagers are "understanding" but "not happy" following the apparent deaths of nine children in an American airstrike, a U.S. military spokesman has said.

The children and a man were found dead in the central Afghanistan village of Hutala after the A-10 airstrike intended for a suspected Taliban terrorist, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said Sunday.

Hilferty, based at Bagram Air Base north of the capital Kabul, said the villagers in Hutala were calm as they participated in "several long talks" with military officials and representatives from the provincial governor's office.

"They're pretty understanding," said Hilferty, who was among the U.S. officials who traveled to the village, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Kabul. American military representatives later attended an outdoor service at a mosque for the children who died.

"They've been through years of war. They're not happy, but I think it meant a great deal to them that my commander, Gen. [Lloyd] Austin, came out and personally expressed his condolences."

Anger in Afghan village where American warplane killed playing children

The United Nations called for an investigation. And the Afghan government urged the U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters to make sure such an accident is never repeated.

In Hutala on Sunday, a line of fresh graves marked the tragedy, and village men stood quietly by a stream in a dusty field where the children had been playing. They seemed as bewildered as they were angry.

"First they fire their rockets. Then they say it was a mistake," Haji Amir Mohammed told The Associated Press, as dozens of American soldiers sent to investigate the incident offered condolences or lay in the warming winter sun. "How can we forgive them?"

Rumsfeld Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to this northern Iraqi city Saturday to gauge the pace of progress toward stabilizing the country and defeating the insurgency. The trip also marked the first time Rumsfeld has visited Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields.

Meanwhile, a funeral north of Baghdad for two Iraqis killed in a firefight with U.S. troops turned violent, with mourners killing a security officer and chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans over his body.

Bush visits Baltimore to raise cash, speak on economy at Home Depot

BALTIMORE (AP) — President Bush mingled with campaign donors during a wet, wintery storm here, raising another $1 million for his re-election before heading to a Home Depot nearby where he highlighted a rebounding U.S. economy.

Sitting on a stage in front of stacks of plywood and paint, Bush noted that November's jobless rate, announced on Friday, slipped to 5.9% — its lowest level in eight months — as employers added new jobs for the fourth month in a row.

Home Depot has several ties to the Bush administration. Home Depot employees and the company political action committee have contributed $31,000 to the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, according to a check of donations by the Center of Responsive Politics.

The Photos We'll Never See

I am no photo editor. But this is the time when we begin to see roundups of the best news photos of the past year. And just running the loop of the year's most memorable pictures in my head, a funny thing happens:

I keep seeing staged photos.

For those who are sticklers for definition, I am defining "staged" as any photo arranged through the efforts of the person pictured, or arranged to reflect that person's world view.

There's that photo, for instance, of President George W. Bush making his tailhook landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln. That is a shoo-in for the top 10 list, and a classic of staged photography.

There's Bush again, taking turkey with the troops during his lightning visit to Baghdad last week. That's sure to be included, too.

Then there's the big one - the picture of Saddam Hussein's statue being pulled down with ropes by American soldiers in Baghdad. That will have to be the No. 1 news photo of the year 2003.

You say that one wasn't staged. But I say "staged" would include any photographic opportunity that has been facilitated by 140,000 American and British troops entering a country uninvited and bringing with them a few thousand members of the media. (continued)

Cartoons act like cocaine

A search for the mind's "funny bone" has shed new light on the mysteries of merriment, revealing that the reason humour is addictive is that it activates "reward centres" in the brain.

Sophisticated brain imaging techniques were used to look at activity in specific brain regions when Dr Allan Reiss of Stanford University and colleagues presented people with cartoons considered funny or unfunny.

Amusing cartoons activated a region of the brain, called the nucleus accumbens, that has previously been linked with happiness and with cocaine- and amphetamine-induced euphoria.

Markets Take a Hit

Once again, Wall Street wasn't satisfied with how the economy is doing.

Today's Labor Department report on employment delivered only 57,000 new jobs last month -- barely one-third of what economists were counting on.

While President Bush proclaimed that the decline in the unemployment rate to 5.9 percent from 6.4 percent during the past few months and steady -- if slow -- growth in payrolls showed his economic policies are working, Wall Street wasn't buying it.

Conservatives want Reagan to replace FDR on U.S. dimes

Conservative Republicans angry over an unflattering television movie about Ronald Reagan want to put his image on the dime in place of Democratic icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Democrats are just as determined to keep FDR's profile in coin purses.

Study links light drinking, brain shrinking

Low to moderate drinking may cause a loss of brain tissue in middle-age people, a study found.

Molly Ivins: The winner is...

AUSTIN, Texas -- No one has been waiting with bated breath for me to make up my mind about the Democratic presidential candidates, but I have, and you might be interested in how I got there. I'm for Howard Dean -- because he's going to win.

--------------------

For a while, I fretted over Dean being angry, or at least appealing to the political anger that is normally manipulated by right-wing radio jocks. Anger makes liberals uncomfortable: We prefer peace, reason and gentle persuasion. Beloveds, it is way past time for us to get mad -- social, economic and political justice are being perverted by the Bush administration.

Dean gives a hell of a speech -- even if you're Republican, you should go and hear him just for the experience. But I fretted about Dean on TV -- TV is so important. How could anyone poker up on Margaret Carlson of PBS, not one of the world's toughest interviewers? But then I saw Dean laugh his way through a Chris Matthews interview (which he should have done with Tim Russert, who was hell-bent on gotcha questions), and I know the guy can take care of himself. So he fights back if you get in his face -- that's not all bad.

I know, he's even less of a liberal than Bill Clinton was, but I don't think Dean is a moderate centrist. I think he's a fighting centrist. And folks, I think we have got ourselves a winner here.

Dean is probably not the McGovern of Democratic establishment fears

It's an open secret that most establishment Democrats and liberals in the news media are waiting for someone - anyone - to dethrone former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as the party's presidential frontrunner.

Dr. Dean may or may not be the answer to the party's prayers. But well-connected and well-heeled Democrats should take another look at him, at least for long enough to see what his candidacy says about the electorate and the coming election...

...Democratic establishment types warn that Dean is unelectable. Yet new arrivals to the Dean bandwagon, including labor leader Gerald McEntee, side with him precisely because they think he can defeat Bush. To the party establishment, Dean is the glass half empty, never to be filled. Others think that, having exceeded expectations thus far, Dean has enough juice to carry the general election.

In recent years, few Democratic presidential candidates except Bill Clinton have gotten people excited. But Dean is one of them. Instead of trying to put him back in his bottle, Democrats should work on bottling what he's got.

Bush's Party Takes Direct Aim at Howard Dean

President Bush's Republican Party took direct aim at former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean on Wednesday in one of the party's strongest attacks on an individual Democratic candidate for president this campaign season.

In a speech in New Hampshire, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie fired back at Dean for a speech the Democrat gave accusing Bush of not understanding what it takes to defend the United States.

"This is the same critic who earlier in the year told Americans that we should prepare for the day when the United States 'won't always have the strongest military' -- former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,'' Gillespie said in a speech at St. Anselm College in Manchester. "He is wrong about our military and his charge that the president was going to cut the combat pay for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is completely at odds with all facts."

The attack on Dean suggested a sharpening Republican focus on the former Vermont governor, who is leading in the polls over eight rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The candidate has said that his comment, made in April, was that the United States will not have the strongest military if it does not "begin to use diplomacy as part of our foreign policy.''

Rocket attack as Rumsfeld visits Kabul

A ROCKET exploded outside the United States Embassy in Kabul yesterday on the day the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, visited in a bid to dismiss widespread concerns over Afghanistan’s spiralling insecurity.

The attack came hours after an Afghan aid worker was killed and 11 others wounded in an ambush, amid fears of a Taleban resurgence in the south of the country.

425 million-year-old penis found

A 425-million-year-old fossilised penis, the oldest one yet recorded, has been discovered by scientists.

It belongs to an ostrocod, a tiny animal like a water-flea which is still common today, even in suburban ponds.

The fossil was found preserved in volcanic ash at an undisclosed site in Herefordshire, which was once part of an ancient ocean.

Warrants: Limbaugh Was 'Doctor Shopping'

Investigators who raided the offices of Rush Limbaugh's doctors said in search warrants filed Thursday that the conservative radio commentator engaged in illegal drug use and "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers.

Limbaugh denied any wrongdoing to listeners on his radio show earlier Thursday and accused prosecutors in Palm Beach County of going on a "fishing expedition."

"No, ya can't have this. It's my photo prop."

The Bird Was Perfect But Not For Dinner

President Bush's Baghdad turkey was for looking, not for eating.

In the most widely published image from his Thanksgiving day trip to Baghdad, the beaming president is wearing an Army workout jacket and surrounded by soldiers as he cradles a huge platter laden with a golden-brown turkey.

The bird is so perfect it looks as if it came from a food magazine, with bunches of grapes and other trimmings completing a Norman Rockwell image that evokes bounty and security in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

But as a small sign of the many ways the White House maximized the impact of the 21/2-hour stop at the Baghdad airport, administration officials said yesterday that Bush picked up a decoration, not a serving plate.

White House officials do not deny that they craft elaborate events to showcase Bush, but they maintain that these events are designed to accurately dramatize his policies and to convey qualities about him that are real.

"This was effective, because it captured something about the president that people know is true, that he really cares about the soldiers and gets emotional when he sees them," Mary Matalin, a former administration official, said about the trip to Baghdad. "You have to figure out how to capture the Bush we know, even if it doesn't come through in a speech situation or a press conference. He regularly rejects anything that is not him."

Australia adds to terror warnings

Australia advised its nationals Thursday to avoid Saudi Arabia, saying it had received new information that possible terror attacks were being planned against residential compounds in Riyadh. The warning, in an updated travel advisory from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, followed similar warnings this week from the United States and Britain.

Program on International Policy Attitudes/Knowledge Networks Poll. Nov. 21-30, 2003. N=712 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.7.

"If the upcoming election for president were held today and the candidates were Republican George W. Bush and the Democratic nominee for president, for whom would you vote: Republican George W. Bush or the Democratic nominee for president?"

Bush: 42% (down from 45% in July)
Democrat: 48% (up from 44%)
No Answer: 10% (down from 12%)

Changing a Story on the Fly

Washington - The White House has changed one aspect of its account of President George W. Bush's surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad: the spotting of Air Force One by a British Airways pilot.

Initially, according to accounts by journalists on the trip, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the British pilot had radioed, "'Did I just see Air Force One?'" and that the pilot of Air Force One had replied, "'Gulfstream Five,'" a much smaller aircraft.

Yesterday, after British Airways had denied that account, the White House said the radio conversation actually took place between the British pilot and the control tower in London. The tower's response was apparently based on false flight plan information given to protect the secrecy of the trip.

A British Airways spokesman told The Associated Press that none of its pilots has come forward to acknowledge either making or overhearing the purported conversation.

LaHood: Hussein's capture imminent

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart and said, "We're this close" to catching Saddam Hussein.

Once that's accomplished, Iraqi resistance will fall apart, said the five-term Republican congressman from Peoria who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

A member of The Pantagraph editorial board -- not really expecting an answer -- asked LaHood for more details, saying, "Do you know something we don't?"

"Yes I do," replied LaHood.

Echinacea found to have little value for colds

Echinacea does nothing to treat children's colds, according to a US study of more than 500 children.

Researchers from the University of Washington gave half the children, aged two to 11 years, an Echinacea purpurea juice supplement and the other half an inactive placebo. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, were that the popular herbal remedy did not reduce the severity or duration of colds and was associated with a skin rash in some children.

The researchers conceded that if root parts or other species of the herb had been used or if children had been given supplements earlier their results may been more positive.

A conservative group based in Washington, Judicial Watch, plans to file a lawsuit, perhaps as soon as this week, to gain access to the records [of then-Governor Howard Dean], which were sealed under the executive privilege exemption to the Vermont Public Records Act and include reams of correspondence with the state staff.

"He has been acting like he has something to hide," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie on Tuesday went to Vermont — Howard Dean's home state — for the first time and criticized the Democratic presidential candidate for his stance on the war, comments about military pay and refusal to open his records.

No bodies found after Iraq gunfight

THE US military has said it believes 54 insurgents were killed in intense exchanges in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra on Sunday but commanders admitted they had no bodies.

The only corpses at the city's hospital were those of ordinary civilians, including two elderly Iranian pilgrims and a child.

I've seen and read dozens of attacks on Bush for going to Baghdad over Thanksgiving, but I've not seen or heard one negative word about Queen Clinton's trip. The president's job is to lead this country; going to the troops living and dying in a dangerous land is part of that responsibility. Clinton's trip was the photo op everyone is unjustly claiming for Bush. She has no business over there (most military people are Republicans and didn't want to see her anyway). She wasted the taxpayers' money by going.

Frank Gant
La Mirada

Iraq's Shiites Insist on Democracy. Washington Cringes

For seven months, the United States has tried to finesse two crucial questions about the future of Iraq: How much control will the country's Shiite majority have over the drafting of a constitution? And how Islamic will that constitution be?

The answers could determine whether Iraq becomes a multiparty democracy, an Islamic theocracy, or even slides into civil war.

Last week, those questions took on a new urgency. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most important Shiite religious leader in Iraq and probably the most powerful local leader of any kind, said he opposed the American plan to turn over power to an Iraqi government next year without direct elections.

Ayatollah Sistani has vast influence over Iraq's 15 million Shiites, and so far he has urged them to show patience with the occupation. But he has insisted that delegates elected by popular vote write Iraq's constitution and approve its new government.

STEWART: Clearly an incredible amount of logistics and foresight had to go into all of this.

COLBERT: Yes, Jon, this visit was an extremely well-coordinated operation. And the Bush team has learned a lot from the success of this mission that they can now apply to the rest of their work in Iraq. For instance, when it comes to planning - DO SOME.

I may be a bit naive, and it has been a while since I served on active duty, but I can't recall ever sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at 6:00 AM. Air Force One touched down at Baghdad International Airport, under cover of darkness, at 5:20 AM Baghdad time. Bush was on the ground for two and a half hours, his plane departing Baghdad at around 7:50 AM. Considering that it likely took some 30 minutes for Bush to disembark from Air Force One and travel by a heavily secured motorcade to the hangar where the troops were assembled, that means our military men and women were downing turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and non-alcoholic beer at a time when most people would be eating eggs, bacon, grits, home fries, and toast.

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600 American troops were said to be "shocked and awed" by Bush's surprise appearance. I would have thought most of the troops, many of whom are support personnel who work relatively normal working hours, would have been more surprised when they were ordered to get up before sunrise to eat Thanksgiving dinner between 6:00 and 7:30 A.M.

And the abysmal and sycophantic Washington and New York press corps seems to have completely missed the Thanksgiving "breakfast dinner." Chalk that up to the fact that most people in the media never saw a military chow line or experienced reveille in their lives.

HOWARD DEAN PROMISED THAT IF HE IS ELECTED PRESIDENT, THE UNITED STATES WILL NO LONGER SUPPORT ISRAEL THE WAY IT HAS IN THE PAST UNDER BOTH DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS. IN HIS OWN WORDS HE WILL INSIST THAT THE UNITED STATES BE "EVEN HANDED" . THIS IS A TERM REGULARLY EMPLOYED BY ARAFAT AND HIS COTERIE OF ADHERENTS THAT MEANS TO BE ANTI-ISRAEL!!
GOVERNOR DEAN MADE THESE COMMENTS ON CNN ON SEPTEMBER 10,2003 ON THE WOLF BLITZER SHOW. HE HAS REPEATED THOSE WORDS SINCE.
IN THIS WERE NOT ENOUGH, GOVERNOR DEAN ON THAT SAME SHOW CHARACTERIZED THE HAMAS TERRORISTS AS "SOLDIERS". FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 9/11 WE HAVE SOMEONE RUNNING FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CALLING TERRORISTS SOLDIERS.
I URGE YOU THAT IF YOU HAVE ANY LOVE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL YOU SHOULD NOT AND CANNOT VOTE FOR HOWARD DEAN FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT.
THIS COMING ELECTION MAY VERY WELL BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT IN DECADES.
PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO AS MANY OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AS YOU CAN.

In addition to having a number of family deaths among them, the Democrats' other big idea - too nuanced for a bumper sticker - is that many of them have Jewish ancestry...Howard Dean: Married to a Jew.

Fatter Than the Average Bear, Thanks to Junk Food

A study of black bears in the Sierra Nevada found that those living in urban areas and gorging on garbage weigh as much as 30% more than bears in the wild and are about a third less active. Researchers concluded that they also are less likely to spend time in winter dens, and that they change their sleeping habits to allow for nocturnal dumpster diving.

Look at the faces of the soldiers around Bush in your front-page photo. They say "Why didn't you stay home?" I couldn't find one smile except for the female soldier the president has his arm around. One picture tells it all.

Mary Jacobs
Los Angeles

Afterglow fading on Bush's PR coup in Iraq

WASHINGTON — A triumphant trip to Baghdad doesn't guarantee President Bush soaring poll ratings, the permanent defanging of his opponents or an end to his problems.

Bush's stealthy visit to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops generated front-page headlines and positive reviews. Even Democrats running for their party's presidential nomination praised him. "I thought it was terrific," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said.

But by Sunday, the afterglow had started to fade. The news from Iraq was grim. Two U.S. soldiers were killed. A total of 79 Americans died in combat in Iraq in November, making it the bloodiest month of the war. Criticism resumed.

Bush's visit highlighted his concern for troops there. But his quick, secret trip to Baghdad's airport also underscored the lack of security. "Iraq is very unsafe, very insecure," Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN on Sunday.

[S]ome Republicans worried that the 10-year, $400 billion Medicare bill was a betrayal of their party's traditional commitment to fiscal discipline. "Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Fox. Nine Republicans voted against the legislation, including McCain.

U.S.: Iraq Ambushes Won't Stop Coalition

At the end of the bloodiest month for coalition forces since the war began, U.S. officials said Sunday that the coalition won't be cowed by roadside ambushes that increasingly targeted U.S. allies.

Iraq deaths prompt S Korea review

On Saturday, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver were shot dead on Saturday, also near Tikrit, an anti-coalition centre.

President Roh is holding a meeting of his National Security Council to discuss policy after Sunday's ambush, which left two more South Koreans seriously wounded. An official said that the meeting of the NSC would try to decide whether the attack was specifically targeted against South Koreans.

He has committed South Korea to sending a 3,000-strong contingent of troops to Iraq, building on the 675 South Korean medical and engineering troops already deployed since May in the south, around Nasiriya. However, he has yet to decide whether to include combat troops in the deployment and correspondents say Sunday's killings could have major political ramifications.

Rebel attack turns into massive firefight in northern Iraq; insurgents target U.S. allies

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) In the deadliest reported firefight since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. soldiers fought back coordinated attacks Sunday using tanks, cannons and small arms in running battles throughout the northern city of Samarra. The troops killed 46 Iraqi fighters, and five Americans were wounded.

Innocents killed in Samarra bloodbath

US troops in the Iraqi town of Samarra have admitted to perpetrating a bloodbath, with one occupation spokesman confirming nearly four dozen people were killed. Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald told journalists on Sunday that all the 46 were killed when troops fought off multiple attacks on military convoys.

But local residents said US troops killed innocent bystanders when they opened fire on anything that moved around midday. Workers at a nearby pharmaceutical plant said at least two colleagues were killed and many wounded as they walked out of the factory gates at the end of their shift, downed by a US tank shooting randomly in all directions.

Roy Disney resigns, urges Eisner to follow suit

The vice chairman of the Walt Disney Co., Roy E. Disney, resigned from the board of directors Sunday, citing his "serious differences of opinion" with the chairman, Michael D. Eisner, "about the direction and style of management in the company."
Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, also called for Eisner's resignation. In addition, Disney stepped down from his position as chairman of the feature animation division.

The resignation lays bare a sharp conflict in an entertainment and media company that has called its theme parks "the happiest place on earth."

"You well know that you and I have had serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management in the company in recent years," Disney wrote to Eisner. "For whatever reason, you have driven a wedge between me and those I work with even to the extent of requiring some of my associates to report my conversations and activities to you. I find this intolerable."

President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004.

Bush's campaign has an e-mail list totaling 6 million people, 10 times the number that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has, and the Bush operation is in the middle of an unprecedented drive to register 3 million new Republican voters. The campaign has set county vote targets in some states and has begun training thousands of volunteers who will recruit an army of door-to-door canvassers for the final days of the election next November.

The entire project, which includes complementary efforts by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and state Republican parties, is designed to tip the balance in a dozen-and-a-half states that both sides believe will determine the winner in 2004.

"I've never seen grass roots like this," said a veteran GOP operative in one of the battleground states.

Dean, a former governor of Vermont, has made major strides in organizing a grass roots-based campaign in a bid for his party's nomination. His advisers say it is the largest in the history of presidential politics.

While saying he is not familiar with all the details of Dean's grass-roots and Internet efforts, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said, "Our goal is for the largest grass-roots effort ever."

GOP Puts Its Mark on Congress and Deficit
By Janet Hook
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 30, 2003

A full year of Republican dominance of government has left a legacy rich in conservative triumphs: cutting taxes, building a muscular defense, restricting abortion.

But the year has also brought an extraordinary expansion of government power and spending that showed Republicans were willing to deep-six their party's traditional commitment to fiscal conservatism and limited government.

The Republican-controlled Congress has passed the third tax cut in as many years, an enormous Pentagon budget, a costly experiment in nation-building in Iraq and a vast expansion of Medicare — all at the request of President Bush. Their actions have left the federal budget swimming in the largest deficits in history.

As one lawmaker heard from a Republican friend, "Democrats are the party of 'tax and spend'; Republicans are the party of 'don't tax — and spend.' " That is the ironic product of the first full year since 1954 that Republicans have controlled the White House and Congress.

How British charity was silenced on Iraq
Kevin Maguire
Friday November 28, 2003
The Guardian

One of Britain's most high-profile charities was ordered to end criticism of military action in Iraq by its powerful US wing to avoid jeopardising financial support from Washington and corporate donors, a Guardian investigation has discovered.
Internal emails reveal how Save the Children UK came under enormous pressure after it accused coalition forces of breaching the Geneva convention by blocking humanitarian aid.

Senior figures at Save the Children US, based in Westport, Connecticut, demanded the withdrawal of the criticism and an effective veto on any future statements blaming the invasion for the plight of Iraqi civilians suffering malnourishment and shortages of medical supplies.

Uncovered documents expose tensions within an alliance that describes itself as "the world's largest independent global organisation for children" but which is heavily reliant on governments and big business for cash. (continued)

Bush's panic visit is like of a thief that comes in the night
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The head of state of the strongest nation on earth will normally not make a sneaky and panicky visit to a country which is wholly occupied by his troops, unless he is terrified and unsure of his own safety.

That was what US President George W. Bush did when he sneaked into Baghdad to try and lift the morale of his soldiers there by sharing their celebrations on Thanksgiving Day as claimed by the US Administration.

But the trip was counter-productive because Bush appears to have demoralised his troops, as the visit was surrounded by lies from the Administration. In doing so, Bush has confirmed the Arab saying: "Trying to improve it, he spoilt it."

Lied to the public

According to news reports, Bush flew 27 hours non-stop to spend just two and a half hours with his troops. His Administration, like the previous ones, lied when it said two days before the trip that Bush planned to spend Thanksgiving Day with his family and that he would send a telephone message to his troops in Iraq.

Instead, all of the sudden, he turned up in Baghdad. It means that the American people are being lied to by their own Administration and government. This of course had nothing to do with security arrangements for the trip because there is a difference between lying and keeping something secret.

But let us now forget about the lying issue because we already know the US habitually lies through Bush himself, his defence secretary, national security adviser and the rest of the Likudish gang in the Departments of State, Defence and other institutions.

We tasted their lies as they prepared for the war against Iraq and as they launched that war. Our focus here will be the scared President's trip to a country which is entirely occupied by his forces. (continued)

Troop Families Go to Iraq on Peace Mission
Relatives of Service Members Embark on Peace Mission to Iraq to Bring Message of Friendship

SAN DIEGO Nov. 29 — Relatives of U.S. service members said they were nervous but hopeful Saturday as they embarked on a private peace mission to Iraq, where they will bring their message of friendship and doubts about the war.

The leader of the 10-member group, Fernando Suarez del Solar, said it is important for Iraqis to realize that not all Americans support the U.S. military presence in Iraq. His son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, 20, was killed in Iraq eight months ago when he stepped on an unexploded American cluster bomb.

"The regular Americans like peace," Suarez del Solar, 48, said in a telephone interview a few hours before the group's scheduled departure. "The enemy is not the people from America.

Experts: Iraq war taking resources from terror war
By WARREN P. STROBEL
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A growing number of counter-terrorism experts are challenging President Bush's assertion that Iraq is a major battle in the war against terrorism and are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Experts who have served in top positions in both Republican and Democratic administrations are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al-Qaida.

They note that the presence of U.S. troops in an Arab homeland is serving as a major recruiting tool for signing up and motivating new jihadis, or Islamic holy warriors.

After surprise visit, Bush says troops' morale is high in Iraq

"I'm pleased to report back from the front lines that our troops are strong, morale is high and our military is confident we will prevail," he said in his weekly radio address, taped today at his ranch near this tiny Texas town.

"My message to the troops was clear: your country is thankful for your service, we are proud of you, and America stands with you in all that you are doing to defend America," he said.

I am proud to serve in the Army, not because I agree with the reasons we came over, but because we're doing what we have been ordered to do...You may hear that morale is low, and that we complain about being over here instead of home. This perception is accurate.

In Senate testimony last week, Pentagon officials acknowledged reports of morale problems in some units serving in Iraq, and said the Army Reserve had fallen short of its goals for re-enlisting existing members.

"We are very excited to bring such a historically significant piece to the market", said Bob Zafian, spokesman for Moments in Time and agent for the seller. "I have never come across a piece with such provenance; police reports, fingerprint documentation, letters from the District Attorney, it goes on and on."

Many Iraqis on Friday angrily dismissed President Bush's brief cloak-and-dagger Thanksgiving Day visit as a political stunt to boost his ratings at home, and others said he squandered an opportunity to meet with Iraqis and see first hand the problems they face.

"He came for only two hours. He didn't see how the Iraqis are living and suffering," said Fatima Star, 38, a housewife. "He doesn't care about the Iraqi people. He only cares about his troops."

"He wants to gain political favor from people in the United States before the elections," said Mathil Aziz, 26, a teacher. "He cares more about his own personal interest than the Iraqi people."

Gov. Paroles Second Killer

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed Wednesday to parole a woman who killed her husband's mistress in 1987 — marking the second case in a week in which the newly elected governor has granted parole to a convicted murderer and a notable departure from the policy of his predecessor, Gray Davis.

One of the hallmarks of Davis' five years as governor was his repeated refusal to grant paroles approved by the state's Board of Prison Terms.

Of 294 paroles agreed to by the board in murder cases, Davis blocked all but eight, following his professed belief that extenuating circumstances should not be used to justify homicide. He twice rejected parole for Rosario Muñoz, the woman Schwarzenegger has now agreed to free.

Schwarzenegger appears to be taking a more liberal stance and providing an early indication of his overall attitude toward criminal justice issues.

Aides to Schwarzenegger have also said the governor is considering cuts in the state prison budget, which Davis protected against reductions.

Neil Bush deals detailed in divorce records

Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, detailed lucrative business deals and admitted to engaging in sex romps with women in Asia in a deposition taken in March as part of his divorce from now ex-wife Sharon Bush.

According to legal documents disclosed today, Sharon Bush's lawyers questioned Neil Bush closely about the deals, especially a contract with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a firm backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, that would pay him $2 million in stock over five years.

Marshall Davis Brown, lawyer for Sharon Bush, expressed bewilderment at why Grace would want Bush and at such a high price since he knew little about the semiconductor business.

The Bush divorce, completed in April, was prompted in part by Bush's relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago.

The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and engaged in sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.

Repatriation ceremonies are conducted to honor the sacrifice made by those individuals whose remains have been recovered. As a sign of respect, the remains are placed into an aluminum transfer case and draped with a U.S. flag. Veterans, community members and local active-duty military often attend the ceremonies to pay their respects as the remains are transported from a U.S. military plane to JPAC's CIL.

GOP Hopes to Pass Massive Spending Bill
Republicans Hope Congress Will Approve $373 Billion Spending Bill When Lawmakers Return Next Month

...Limits on how large television networks can grow were raised even though lawmakers had agreed last week not to do that. The administration which had threatened vetoes on at least three issues also prevailed in fights on overtime pay, federally financed private school vouchers for District of Columbia students, food labels, gun background checks and other issues.

The measure has increases for Bush's plan to aid countries embracing democratic reforms and for helping states update local election systems.

In the last hours before the bill was approved, GOP bargainers accepted language sought by the National Rifle Association to shorten to 24 hours the time the government keeps background check records on gun buyers. The period is now 90 days.

The bill would let networks own television stations viewed by up to 39 percent of Americans, up from the current 35 percent but below the 45 percent ceiling the administration wanted. This will help Viacom Inc., which owns CBS and UPN, and News Corp., owner of Fox, which both exceed the current 35 percent limit because of mergers and acquisitions.

CHYRON: Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?"
CHYRON: Some call for us to retreat, putting our national security in the hands of others.
CHYRON: Call Congress Now
CHYRON: Tell them to support the President's policy of preemptive self-defense.

The AARP and the GOP

This time, leading Democrats on Capitol Hill (who had gratefully welcomed the organization's endorsement of the1994 Clinton health care plan) condemned the AARP for "being in the pocket of the House Republican leadership," and much worse, because the AARP endorsed and went to work in behalf of the GOP-crafted Medicare prescription drug bill.

Forget all the purple prose comparing the AARP, unfavorably, to Benedict Arnold or Judas Iscariot. As John Feehry, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., put it, "The AARP is the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval when it comes to seniors' issues."

This is also a major political coup for the Bush administration, congressional Republicans and for Hastert, who according to colleagues, has for two years been courting the seniors' organization.

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As the president of the AARP said in explaining his organization's support for the GOP drug legislation, "Our interests are what is best for our members and all older Americans." Sorry, no room in there for anybody else but old number one.

Still, if these strange political bedfellows -- the AARP and George Bush's GOP -- can in collaboration produce a long-sought law to provide prescription drug coverage to senior citizens, the political fallout will be profound. And any way you look at it, the immediate and inescapable verdict will be a Republican victory and a Democratic defeat.

...the Democrats have discovered a surprise campaign issue: It turns out that several of them have had a death in the family. Not only that, but many Democrats have cracker-barrel humble origins stories and a Jew or lesbian in the family. Dick Gephardt's campaign platform is that his father was a milkman, his son almost died and his daughter is a lesbian. Vote for me!

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In the current campaign, Gephardt has taken to spinning out a long, pitiful tale of his son's near-death three decades ago. If a lingering family medical tragedy is the main qualification for becoming a Democratic presidential candidate, what's Michael Schiavo waiting for?

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John Edwards injects his son's fatal car accident into his campaign by demanding that everyone notice how he refuses to inject his son's fatal car accident into his campaign.

If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those "Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident" bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent's criminal record for partisan political advantage. I absolutely refuse to mention the name of my dearly beloved and recently departed son killed horribly in a car accident, which affected me deeply, to score cheap political points.

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Howard Dean talks about his brother Charlie's murder at the hands of North Vietnamese communists. Bizarrely, after working on the failed George McGovern campaign, Charlie Dean went to Indochina in 1974 to witness the ravages of the war he had opposed. Not long after he arrived, the apparently ungrateful communists captured and killed him. Hey fellas! I'm on your s-- CLUNK!

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In addition to having a number of family deaths among them, the Democrats' other big idea - too nuanced for a bumper sticker - is that many of them have Jewish ancestry. There's Joe Lieberman: Always Jewish. Wesley Clark: Found Out His Father Was Jewish in College. John Kerry: Jewish Since He Began Presidential Fund-Raising. Howard Dean: Married to a Jew. Al Sharpton: Circumcised. Even Hillary Clinton claimed to have unearthed some evidence that she was a Jew - along with the long lost evidence that she was a Yankees fan. And that, boys and girls, is how the Jews survived thousands of years of persecution: by being susceptible to pandering.

New government rules will let America's 152 million cell phone users take their current cell numbers with them to a new carrier. They must, however, switch to a carrier also serving their local area. The rule goes into effect for consumers in the top 100 markets.

33 Years Later, Draft Becomes Topic for Dean

In the winter of 1970, a 21-year-old student from Yale walked into his armed services physical in New York carrying X-rays and a letter from his orthopedist, eager to know whether a back condition might keep him out of the military draft.

This was not an uncommon scene in 1970, when medical deferments were a frequently used avenue for those reluctant to take part in the unpopular war in Vietnam. And this story would have little interest save that Howard Dean was the name of the young man. Now, 33 years later, he finds himself a leading Democrat in the quest for the party's nomination to be president of the United States.

US warns more Qaeda attacks worldwide

Highlighting the "recent terrorist attacks" in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the US state department has issued a worldwide warning that the Al Qaeda network may stage new attacks, designed to be more "devastating" than the September 11 strikes.

In a "worldwide caution" against attacks and plane hijackings, the state department has warned that "US citizens may be a target of terrorist actions." Deeply concerned about the security of American citizens overseas, the alert, issued yesterday, cautioned them to "maintain a high level of vigilance, to remain alert and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness".

"We expect Al Qaeda will strive for new attacks designed to be more devastating than the September 11 attack, possibly involving non-conventional weapons such as chemical or biological agents. We also cannot rule out that Al Qaeda will attempt a second catastrophic attack within the US", the alert said.

RIAA smells victory

A federal judge in San Francisco said Friday she is leaning toward a ruling that would give the recording industry a key victory in its quest to seek out and sue individuals who allegedly are illegally sharing music on the Internet.

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Nov. 18-19, 2003. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Considering how things are today, would you say that the U.S. is generally headed in the right direction, or is it off on the wrong track?"

Right Direction: 40% (down from 54% in June)
Wrong Track: 47% (up from 33%)
Not Sure: 13% (same)

The ad shows George W. Bush giving his last State of the Union address, and then the screen flashes with the words that “some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists.”

This is the same State of the Union address in which Bush misled Congress and the American people with the false claim that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Africa -- the famous sixteen words that helped drive our country into an unnecessary war. And the war with Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorists who attacked the United States on 9/11.

The ad urges viewers to tell Congress “to support the president's policy of pre-emptive self defense."

Seniors have become swing voters. Swinging seniors! Who knew?

You know what happens to swingers. Their partners leave them. This week, the AARP endorsed the Republicans' Medicare reform bill.

----

Back in 1989, the AARP supported catastrophic insurance coverage under Medicare.

Seniors objected to paying a new tax for something most of them already had. They went into revolt. Remember the famous photo of angry seniors attacking House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski in his car?

That's the risk the AARP is taking by endorsing this bill.

"Go out there. Buy cars," Schwarzenegger implored a few hundred disciples at Galpin Ford on Roscoe Boulevard in North Hills.

New car, used car, any car. Just buy a car, said the governor, and enjoy the benefit of the vehicle tax reduction he enacted Monday, his first day in office.

It was a swell show, but it was a curious way to put an end to special-interest politics, a Schwarzenegger mantra.

Galpin owner H.F. Boeckmann and his wife, Jane, pumped $42,400 into Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign, and Mr. Boeckmann kicked in an additional $10,000 for his inaugural.

Auto dealers statewide funneled roughly half a million dollars to Schwarzenegger. Then, on his first day in office, Schwarzenegger dumped DMV chief Steve Gourley, who had a reputation for cracking down hard on auto financing scams.

"I got a call at about 3:10 in the afternoon" from a Schwarzenegger staffer, said Gourley, who was asked to clear out his office by the end of the day. Gourley, who was having throat surgery the next day, said he didn't know if he could get his things together on such short notice.

"Stay late," he was told. Then make yourself history.

Gourley, a lawyer and former Culver City mayor, told me he expected to get dumped at some point, as gubernatorial appointees usually are after a change in command. But he had offered to help with the transition through December, and had no clue he'd be sent packing just hours after the inauguration.

"I'm buying trash bags to put my belongings into," he said when I reached him by cell phone Thursday, the day he moved out of his Sacramento apartment.

The Boston Globe: "If the producers had dug up Ted ["Dr. Seuss"] Geisel's body and hung it from a tree, they couldn't have desecrated the man more."

The Rocky Mountain News: "...if the author of the Dr. Seuss books (Theodor S. Geisel) isn't turning over in his grave, he's at least stirring."

The Contra Costa Times: "...a gross corruption of the 1957 original, painfully padded with crude, humorless humor, a multitude of piercing shrieks from child actors and the tired antics of Mike Myers, who characterizes the Cat in the Hat as a cross between the Cowardly Lion and Fat Bastard."

The Denver Post: "I do not like 'The Cat in the Hat,' I did not like it one bit."

The New York Post: "...this atrocious hairball of a film, a nauseating splat of gaudy production design with a distasteful central performance by Mike Myers..."

Dayton Daily News: "The Cat in the Hat promises mischief and fun / but you’ll be wishing him gone well before the film is done / Yet another attempt to cash in on Dr. Seuss’ verse / it’s like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, except much, much worse."

Times-Picayune: "Dr. Seuss surely is spinning in his grave over the latest insult to his memory..."

Toronto Star: "...tasteless and unfunny ."

Boston Herald: "...the comedy in "Cat'' is either lewd, tasteless or mirthless. As Dr. Seuss might say, I would not see it with a friend. I could not stand it to the end."

What's your take on the situation in Iraq?

One word: Disaster. And when the secretary of defense puts out a memo to his top staff and says we don't have the metrics to determine whether we're winning or losing the war on terrorism? If the secretary of defense does not understand that we're losing our rear end in Iraq in order to save our face, he ought quit being secretary of defense. Because all you have to do is ask any Pfc. out there. They're sitting ducks with targets on their backs; they're getting blown up. The question more and more is, for what? And, when are we coming home?

The president is trying to find a reason, now that there's no weapons of mass destruction, no yellow cake coming from Niger, no connection with al-Qaida and no immediate threat to the United States, we now have a war of choice. I'm telling you we're in a mess. It's a disaster.

Do you regret your vote last fall in favor of the resolution authorizing war?

I do. Because I sensed it was a political ploy rather than a ploy to genuinely protect the United States. It was just an attempt to get any resolution passed so the administration could say, just like Lyndon Johnson [with Vietnam], 'We got the approval of Congress.' And then, just like Lyndon Johnson, they went ahead and did whatever they wanted to do; massive buildup, putting the military on thin political ice, getting a bunch of kids killed.

Rush Limbaugh apparently still suffering from the effects of his addiction to painkillers chose to talk today about the going-ons at NCAI. Limbaugh adjusted his chair to stimulate his brain waves and then his lips moved. Rush theorized that Democratic Presidential candidates got down on their knees to ask for casino money from rich tribes. Limbaugh needs to go to a 12 step program on lying.

Now that he's been in the valley, would he use his power to help pull others out?

Of course not.

Why should he? He's doing just fine. He still has his radio show. He still has his $24 million oceanfront mansion. He still ranks right up there with 1 percent of the wage earners in this country.

Is he a hypocrite? Probably not, because addicts don't see themselves as addicts.

As any addict would tell you, when people are abusing drugs, they are always hiding their real selves. How would I know that? Well, to be honest, I've dealt with enough addicts in my own family to know their moves. There's not much difference between addicts who snort, shoot up or pop pills, although many of us would like to see it that way.

All addicts are notorious liars. They have to be in order to hide their sickness from people who care about them -- not to mention those who don't give a darn.

Accusers claim Limbaugh used his former maid as a drug mule to make his buys. If that's true, he should be treated like other small-time drug dealers. Maybe after he gets out of prison, listeners would really see a changed man.

Palm Beach County officials have said that Limbaugh's drug use is still under investigation, and fair-minded people in that town ought to make sure those officials don't flush the toilet on this one.

I don't expect Limbaugh to come clean about how he acquired illegal drugs for eight years, but police officials should go after this drug conspiracy as aggressively as they go after other drug conspiracies.

And I don't expect Limbaugh to change his tune. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter was arrested for obtaining anti-anxiety drugs, and the governor didn't jump on the reform bandwagon, either. When it comes to narcotics, the punishment never seems to be as harsh for the rich and prominent as it is for the poor and powerless.

Dead man's phone rings inside coffin

ANTWERP - The family of a dead motorcyclist are pressing charges against bungling Antwerp undertakers after the man's mobile phone began ringing in his coffin as they sat beside it in a chapel of rest.

Marc Marchal, 32, was killed when his motorbike collided with a tractor near his home town of Rochefort. Mr. Marchal was so badly mutilated in the accident that undertakers advised his family that the coffin should remain closed as they said their last farewells.

The family gathered for a private remembrance service in the undertakers' premises the night before Mr. Marchal's funeral and were horrified when his mobile phone began ringing from within the coffin.

Some of the relatives were so shocked they ran into the street, while undertaker staff rushed to remove the cell phone from the dead man's clothing, the Gazet van Antwerpen reported.

The family are pressing charges against the undertakers firm for negligence in their preparation of Mr. Marchal's body for burial.

Radiohead Frontman Protests Bush Visit To London

Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke is at the forefront of protests surrounding President George Bush's visit to London this week, with Yorke calling Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "liars," according to NME.com. The singer emailed NME after learning that London police were planning to create a three-mile "exclusion zone" to keep protesters away from Bush, because of concerns over alleged threats of terror attacks against the American leader.

When asked why he chose to speak out, Yorke said, "To make Blair squirm over his decision to take us into a illegitimate war (in Iraq) and follow this religious lunatic (Bush) toward a dangerous future for the whole planet...both of these men are liars. We have the right to call them such, they are putting our children's future in jeopardy. They are not controlling the terrorist threat, they are escalating it.."

Former Air Force chief backs Dean candidacy
Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak of Lake Oswego helps bolster the presidential hopeful's military credentials

Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff who endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, has left the Republican fold and is backing Democrat Howard Dean in the 2004 race for president.

McPeak, who lives in Lake Oswego, joins a small but growing list of top military veterans who have parted ways with the president at least partly because of the war in Iraq. McPeak's decision could be an important boost for Dean because critics have accused the former Vermont governor of lacking the experience and knowledge needed to be the nation's commander-in-chief.

McPeak, who headed the Air Force during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, criticized the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq before the invasion in March. He also said he has become disenchanted with the president's economic policies.

"I don't think the younger Bush has put a foot right since he entered the White House," said McPeak, who changed his registration from Republican to independent in April.

Bush, Blair Condemn Bombing in Turkey

President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair stood united Thursday on the war on terror and condemned a bombing in Turkey that killed more than two dozen people.

Blair, speaking after a meeting between the two leaders, called the blasts that shattered the British consulate and the London-based HSBC bank in downtown Istanbul "the latest terrorist outrage."

Blair said the attacks should not lessen "in any way" the two countries' commitment in Iraq.

With the attacks sure to refocus attention on the continuing danger of terrorism, Bush and Blair warned against complacency and used the bombings to justify their troops' continued presence in Iraq despite rising death tolls there.

Blair, who has seen his approval ratings sink amid broad opposition here to the war, called the process of ensuring a stable, democratic Iraq "an essential part in defeating this fanaticism and extremism" that is killing innocents in attacks around the world.

CALLER: "I hope Gray Davis has a good proctologist! He'll need it after we take all the problems he created and put 'em where the sun don't shine!"

HOST: "HAHAHAHAHA!"

Fourteen thousand police on the streets, God knows how many gun-toting Yanks and a mass demonstration yelling insults at the United States President is stark admission that Blair has blundered over this state visit.

The only happy chappies in and around London will be the criminal fraternity. With all those policemen looking after Dubya, it will be paradise for the car jackers, muggers, drug dealers, burglars and pickpockets.

Why should it be that the head of state of a leading democracy, to whom we owed a great deal in and after the Second World War, gets the raspberry while others, tyrants, have been met on state occasions with no protests, or fairly low-key activity?

There is more than a touch of anti-Americanism around, which would be there even if Bush had not captured Blair after 9/11, and then led him by the nose into an illegal war.

Schwarzenegger challenges Legislature to pass plan

SACRAMENTO — Arnold Schwarzenegger took command of his first full day as governor Tuesday and exhorted Californians to demand that the Legislature take no more than three weeks to pass his plan to solve the state's budget crisis.

...there is a growing sense of inevitability among many political observers that, barring some unforeseen event or revelation, Dr. Dean will win the Democratic nomination. The former governor of Vermont got a boost last week from two major union endorsements, and from his announcement that he will forgo the federal limits on fundraising and try to go head to head financially against President Bush - a show of confidence that his supporters will write more checks and push the send button on more Internet donations.

In the wider Democratic universe, however, the prospect of a Dean nomination has sent some party members into paroxysms of private hand-wringing. Not only do they see him losing badly to Bush, they also see Dean hurting Democratic candidates further down on the ticket...

"LOVE?" pondered British actor Hugh Grant yesterday, is "loving someone no matter what their faults in a blind and unconditional way, such as the love Tony Blair has for George Bush."

Howard Dean continued his long walk from the "who's he?" candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination to the choice of party insiders yesterday when he picked up the formal endorsement of two of the nation's most politically savvy and powerful labor unions.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) joined forces to back Dean, arguing that he is best positioned — financially and organizationally — to defeat President Bush in 2004.

New York Post publisher Lachlan Murdoch has dug into his own pocket to support President Bush.

In a move that many other publishers might shy away from, Murdoch has given $2,000 - the maximum for an individual - to Bush's reelection campaign, Federal Election Commission records reveal.