MICROSOFT OFFERS CASH FOR WIKIPEDIA EDIT

http://www.tinyurl.com/3y36ap

In today’s Post, Dan Balz helps spread a canard about Hillary Clinton:

WHY DEMS TALK DOWN THEIR OWN HOPEFULS: Reporting from darkest Cedar Rapids,
Dan Balz was playing the perfect dumb-ass. He had spoken with 14
Democratic “party activists.” One of them—a high
school student!—had made a familiar remark:

BALZ (1/29/07): But even those who want to see a woman elected to the
White House worry that Clinton may not be able to win a general
election, given her political baggage. “I think that it would be amazing to have her be our president,” said Hollyanne Howe, a high school student. “I fear that if she is nominated, she won’t be electable. I
would love to see her get elected, but my biggest fear is that it won’t
happen and we’ll get stuck with another President Bush or whomever
else.”

First off, it’s odd that the Post includes a high school kid when
it assembles a small group of Dem “party activists.” (They
also included a married couple. That was lazy too.) But don’t
worry! It’s also easy to find adult Dems
expressing inchoate fears about the “electability” of their
parties’ candidates. Balz closes today’s dumb-ass report
today with a second such comment, this time by an adult:

BALZ: “I really like Edwards,” said Ann Bromley, a retired city worker. “I think he’s intelligent and compassionate. I don’t think he’s electable, and I don’t know why. Something is missing.” Others nodded in agreement.

“Others nodded in agreement”—good God! Is anyone dumber than our Dem Party activists? In fact, even as these party stalwarts spoke, Newsweek released another national poll.
This poll, conducted last Wednesday and Thursday, showed Clinton
leading McCain by six points (50-44) and Edwards leading McCain by four
(48-44). In fact, it was the third straight Newsweek poll, in a
span of two months, which showed Clinton ahead of McCain; she also
leads Giuliani by three in this latest survey (49-46). But so what! Nothing stops
us liberals and Dems from reciting the types of defeatist points which
reporters then rush into national papers. Hillary Clinton is
unelectable! Because of “her political baggage!”
(Sometimes, we’re such perfect tools that we say it’s
because she’s “too polarizing.”) In short, the RNC
doesn’t need to exist. We liberals and Dems are now quite pleased
to recite their talking-points for them.

But then, the press corps is currently deeply involved in failing to
mention those national polls. Consider one exchange that occurred this
weekend on the Chris Matthews Show.
At one point, Andrew Sullivan shared his childish thoughts about
Clinton’s “cooties”—and the entire,
dumb-as-dust panel enjoyed a good, solid group laugh:

SULLIVAN (1/28/07): I think she’s been a very sensible senator. I
think—find it hard to disagree with her on the war. But when I see her again, all me—all the cootie-vibes resurrect themselves. I’m sorry—

PANEL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

HOWARD FINEMAN: That’s a technical term!

SULLIVAN: I must represent a lot of people. I actually find her positions appealing in many ways. I just can’t stand her.

Bless their hearts! The panel shared a good solid laugh at
Sullivan’s talk about Clinton’s cooties. Let’s face
it. If these pundits got any dumber, we’d have to feed and dress
them each morning. The Matthews Show would have one producer just to help tie their shoes.

But then, omigod! It semi-happened! Howard Fineman almost mentioned the relevant facts! And he did cite that latest Newsweek survey:

FINEMAN (continuing directly): In fairness to her, after, after the roll-out she had this week, the numbers in our poll—the Newsweek poll and others—were very positive, very powerful actually. Cooties notwithstanding.

In fact, Clinton led McCain by seven in the Newsweek poll
back in early December, long before last week’s events. And
Fineman didn’t say the thing it kills pundits to say; Fineman
didn’t specifically say that Clinton was ahead of McCain and Giuliani in
several major polls. Viewers were left to puzzle about what sort of
polls had been so powerful. But at least he made a first small step
toward interjecting some relevant information. Not that it made a bit
of difference to one ardent dumb-ass:

SULLIVAN (continuing directly): If you look at her polling all these years, it is absolutely dead straight-line. People who don’t like her are not going to change their minds. And they’re about, over 40 percent.

But Clinton’s polling isn’t straight line—although, to be perfectly fair to Sullivan, he’s probably too clueless to know that.

Where do Dem voters, including Iowa “party activists,” get
the idea that Clinton can’t be elected? In part, from endless TV
propaganda, and from reports like Balz’s. People who watched the Matthews Show
heard a pundit aggressively say that Clinton’s polling has been
“dead straight-line;” no one in the panel managed to say that she’s has been ahead of McCain for months.
This is how a nation of voters gets the press corps’ preferred
ideas in their heads. This is how our “party activists” end
up reciting the RNC’s points.

Indeed, let’s return to that Balz report. At least twice, his
tiny gang of “party activists” told him that our current
nominees weren’t “electable.” There is no sign that
Balz then asked them why they thought such a thing, in light of the
current national polls—and he didn’t mention the national
polls as he typed up their comments. Result: Balz’s readers heard
again, from two “party activists” (one of them a high
school student!), that Clinton and Edwards can’t be elected.
Thanks to Balz, they didn’t hear that these unelectable losers are ahead in the national polls.

We offer the following thohughts, first about the Balz report, then about the liberal web:

RE Balz: When reporters speak to “the man on the
street,” they hear a wide array of comments. Endlessly, the
“main on the street” will say things which are false or
grossly misleading. And we’re sorry, but reporters shouldn’t print
remarks which are false or misleading without including the relevant
contrary information. In this case, the doubts which Balz managed to
hype three times are hard to reconcile with national polls. In his
focus group, Balz should have mentioned these polls to these
“activists.” But he certainly should have mentioned the polls in reporting the things these dumb-asses said.

RE the liberal web: Again, we see one of the major spins which
liberals and Dems should be challenging. And we’re going to see
it again and again until we force them to stop! Sorry, kids: In
performing our press critique, it isn’t enough to call Chris
Matthews “Tweety” a couple of times par semaine. And
it isn’t enough to say “Read it and weep” when we
present the Sunday line-up—without explaining what libs should be
weeping about. We have to educate readers about specifics—about specific spins which are harming our candidates. Hillary Clinton is unelectable
is one the RNC’s favorite spin-points. We ought to be teaching
readers how to respond when this spin-point gets pushed through the
land.

We’ll discuss other spins this week and next, including the utterly matchless spin-point: Hillary Clinton is soooo polarizing. But then, we’ve even seen major Dem Party strategists repeat that bromide on the air! Could we possibly get any dumber? Could our “leaders” be any more clueless?

Why do Dems talk down their own candidates? In part, because we are so inept on the web! Rest assured—the leadership won’t come from our “liberal journals,” or even from the Dem Party itself. It’s time to let our web readers know specifics about the way our hopefuls get harmed. And it’s time for us all
to scream, loud and long, when reporters and pundits, like Balz and
that panel, keep spreading this bull-roar around the country. Hillary Clinton/John Edwards is unelectable! We’re being harmed by that counterfactual spin-point. It’s time to fight back, long and loud.

THE FULL MONTY: Full disclosure: In that latest Newsweek poll, Clinton, Obama and Edwards are all ahead
of Saint John McCain. Clinton and Obama are ahead of Saint Rudy;
Edwards trails him by one point. In short, absent some sort of extended
argument, Clinton and Edwards are plainly “electable.”
Voters deserve to hear these facts when they’re exposed to spin
and opinion—even if the trumpeted spin, in the Washington Post,
comes from a high school kid.

VISIT OUR INCOMPARABLE ARCHIVES: Reporters can spread any
bullshit they want once they start quoting the “man in the
street.” Why not visit our incomparable archives?

In April 2000, Ceci Connolly went to a Gore rally—but weirdly, she could only find Gore critics to quote! Apparently, no one favorable to Gore had attended! Isn’t life grand when you can choose who to quote? See THE DAILY HOWLER, 5/4/00.
In July 1999, Bill Sammon wanted to print a false fact about
Gore—so he simply quoted a “man in the street” who
had made the bogus statement in question. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/30/99.

Yes—this is how these idiots work. We need to inform our liberal readers—and they need specifics.

AND GOOD RIDDANCE: One bit of news this week was just flat-out
positive. It concerned the Washington Post’s Sunday
“Outlook” section:

WASHINGTON POST (1/27/07): John Pomfret, a prize-winning reporter and
foreign correspondent…was named yesterday to become editor of The
Washington Post’s Outlook Section….

In his new role, which starts the first week in April, Pomfret succeeds
Susan Glasser, who is assistant managing editor for national news.

Regarding Glasser’s departure from “Outlook,” we’ll say two things: Good-bye—and good riddance.

As editor, Glasser maintained the tradition of terminal dullness
inherited from her predecessor, Steven Luxenberg. But when she
isn’t returning her readers to dreamland on Sundays, she fills
her section with the sort of garbage she offered in yesterday’s
“Outlook.” This piece by Linda Hirshman is about as dumb
(and nasty) as “analysis” gets—and Glasser balanced
it off with this sad apologia by the hapless Dinesh D’Souza.
Meanwhile, last week’s lead story examined a burning question: Is
it possible that Jeb Bush will still seek the White House, perhaps as
early as 08? S. V. Date began with this clownish portrait of how great
things might have been:

DATE (1/21/07): Tuesday would have marked his sixth State of the Union address—and it might have been his best yet.

The nation is in great shape, President Jeb Bush would have reported:
record tax cuts propelling the economy to greater heights; a
revolutionary school-vouchers program for the first time granting
low-income parents real education choices; and, five years after the capture of Osama bin Laden, the final 20,000 U.S. troops returning home from Iraq.

The president would break into his fluent Spanish and wave at
his Mexican-born wife, Columba, gazing at him from the balcony. The
cameras would settle on their eldest, George P. Bush, 30, and
commentators would speculate on whether the dashing lawyer would soon
run for Congress and carry on the Bush dynasty.

Yet contrary to the best-laid plans of the Bush family, it won’t be John Ellis “Jeb” Bush addressing the nation this week…

Good God—what absolute nonsense! It could have been so great, we’re now told. We just picked out the wrong Bush!

Only at the mossback Post would an editor consider such perfect
nonsense to headline her pre-State of the Union Sunday section. And
only Glasser would follow up with yesterday’s astonishing piece
by Hirshman—a piece which strives to help us see how dumb women
are when they vote. Hirshman’s idea of supporting evidence? Men listen to more talk radio! What sort of editor would even dream of printing such consummate nonsense?

But we’re really glad to see Glasser go because of
her work during Campaign 2000. In July 1999, she co-authored
back-to-back, front-page putdowns of Gore—reports which were,
most simply put, blatant acts of journalistic malpractice. We’ll
try to revisit those articles later this week, to help you get a better
idea of the sorts of people who are behind the scenes, running your
mainstream press corps. But suffice to say: In any other American
profession, a person who offered work like that would come in for
professional sanction. (See: Nifong, Michael—Durham, N.C.) Yep!
In real professions, the Nifongs get charged. In “journalism,” the Glassers get promoted.

Glasser’s the kind of creepy crawler who lurks, unnamed, behind
the scenes in our major mainstream news orgs. Her departure from
“Outlook” is simple good news; her departure from
journalism would be that much better. Final note: Glasser is the wife
of Post reporter Peter Baker. (As we’ve long told you, this
cohort is deeply intermarried.) It’s too perfect! They fell in
love while covering Lewinsky, this sad capsule profile once said.

STICKS, STONES AND THE WASHINGTON POST: The Post deserves praise
for the way it continues to challenge a pair of campaign slimings
(their term). Yesterday, ombudsman Deborah Howell offered this rebuke to a recent, front-page Post report which falsely implied wrong-doing by John Edwards. Right next to it, the Post offered this lead editorial, rebuking some of those who have tried to slime Barack Obama in recent weeks. Here’s how the editors started:

WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (1/28/07): IT’S BECOME a fad among some conservatives to refer to the junior senator from Illinois by his full name: Barack Hussein Obama. This would be merely juvenile if it weren’t so contemptible.
Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers, on “Hardball,” was one of the early
adopters of this sleazy tactic. “Count me down as somebody who
underestimates Barack Hussein Obama,” he said. Radio host Rush
Limbaugh, demonstrating his usual maturity, got a chuckle out of the
senator’s allegedly oversized ears, calling him “Barack Hussein
Odumbo.” And Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council issued this
e-mail alert: “Joining an already glutted field of hopefuls, Sen.
Barack Hussein Obama (D-Ill.) announced his candidacy for the 2008
Democratic nomination yesterday.”

Insight magazine managed to further degrade the public discourse
with a scurrilous “report” alleging that Mr. Obama, as a child in
Indonesia, attended a radical Islamic madrassa. In fact, Mr. Obama
attended a public school in Jakarta that was predominantly
Muslim—no surprise given that Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim
country. Insight, whose piece was eagerly touted by Fox News Network,
might have learned this if it had bothered to check its story…

The headline: “Sticks, Stones and Mr. Obama/Misleading aspersions
about the senator’s background only make the perpetrators look
bad.”

We’re thrilled to see the editors doing their job. But we offer some basic reactions.

First: In its opening sentence, the Post attributes the
“contemptible” treatment of Obama to “some
conservatives.” It then names Ed Rogers, a GOP honcho, as
“one of the early adopters” of this “sleazy
tactic.” As usual, the corps is protecting its own. As Media Matters
has importantly shown, it was really Chris Matthews (good God—who
else?) who took the lead in putting Obama’s middle name on the
air (just click here).
But then, as we reminded you just last Friday, this mainstream press
corps always does this; they always obscure their own members’
misconduct. They always say it was “late night comedians”
or “Republican operatives” who have engaged in such slimy
tactics, even when it was their own mainstream cohort which drove the bullshit in question. The mainstream press corps is deeply involved in hiding the sins of its own.

Second: One quick note on the Post’s headline. According
to the Post, “[m]isleading aspersions about the senator’s
background only make the perpetrators look bad.” That’s a
pleasing, feel-good statement—but of course, it’s utterly
bogus. Over the past fifteen years, Democratic leaders have
been endlessly made to “look bad” when
“perpetrators” have cast such “misleading
aspersions.” It feels very good when the Post says different. But
the editors’ statement is cosmically wrong, as the editors of
course understand.

Mainly, though, this editorial made us picture the Ghost of False
Aspersions Past. As we noted last week, this is the type of editorial
which was never written
during the press corps’ astonishing war against Candidate Gore
during Campaign 2000. The editors refused to write such a piece during
Campaign 2000—which explains why George W. Bush is now president,
and why the U.S. is stuck in Iraq. Here’s the editorial the
editors failed to type at this stage eight years ago. We work closely from Sunday’s text, which arrived about eight years too late:

WHAT THE WASHINGTON POST SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN (4/99):

STICKS, STONES AND MR. GORE
Misleading aspersions about the vice president’s background only make the perpetrators look bad.

IT’S BECOME a fad among some journalists to pretend that Vice President
Gore has been lying—or is even
“delusional”—about his personal family background.
This would be merely juvenile if it weren’t so contemptible. Sadly, our
own Michael Kelly has been one of the early adopters of this sleazy
tactic. Kelly wrote an op-ed column, “Farmer Al,” which
seemed to suggest that Gore was lying in statements he recently made in
Iowa—statements in which Gore accurately described the part of
his early years which was spent on his family’s farm.

In fact, Mr. Gore spent about a third of each year on the family farm
as a youth—no surprise, given his parents’ modest Tennessee
backgrounds. Kelly, whose misleading column has been eagerly touted,
might have learned this if he’d bothered to check past the
Post’s past reporting about the vice president’s personal
history. Or Kelly might have checked his own past
work; in 1987, he wrote a detailed profile of Gore for the Baltimore
Sun. In it, he described all the youthful activities he now seems to
suggest that Gore has been lying about.

When the attacks on Gore were debunked by Bob Zelnick’s new
biography—it describes Gore’s youthful life on the farm in
detail—Mr. Gore’s slimers didn’t even have the decency to
slink away. They continue to pretend that Gore has been lying about
that part of his early life, and they add silly, embellished complaints
about a fleeting remark Gore once made about the film Love Story. Those complaints against Gore have been debunked too, by Love Story author Eric Siegal and by Time’s Karen
Tumulty. But the attacks continue. Mr. Gore’s slimers seem to think
such name-calling can score points with the American people.

Mr. Gore has never tried to distort his past or his family’s
history. Those who take pains to pretend that he has are trying, none
too subtly, to stir up scary images of Bill Clinton’s
misstatements concerning Monica Lewinsky. But these matters are
completely unrelated. The critics who make these claims about Gore
embarrass only themselves.

Sunday’s editorial was so obvious that it virtually typed itself.
That said, the editors still deserve our thanks for having written it.
But the same editorial should have been written when it was Gore whom
the press corps was sliming. The Post’s editors have done the
right thing—but they’ve done it eight years too late. They
should crawl on their hands and knees to beg forgiveness for their past
silence. And who knows? Maybe E. J. Dionne could even get involved in
fighting the conduct which has transformed our politics—and
changed our nation’s history. Maybe Dionne will even challenge
the slimers—and stand up for American values.

Inside Baghdad: A city paralysed by

fear

By Patrick Cockburn

Published: 25 January 2007

Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running
into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes
may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong
religion. Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is
mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair.

Black smoke was rising over the city centre yesterday as American and
Iraqi army troops tried to fight their way into the insurgent district
of Haifa Street only a mile north of the Green Zone, home to the
government and the US and British embassies. Helicopters flew fast and
low past tower blocks, hunting snipers, and armoured vehicles
manoeuvred in the streets below.

Many Iraqis who watched the State of the Union address shrugged it
off as an irrelevance. “An extra 16,000 US soldiers are not going to be
enough to restore order to Baghdad,” said Ismail, a Sunni who fled his
house in the west of the city, fearing he would be arrested and
tortured by the much-feared Shia police commandos.

It is extraordinary that, almost four years after US forces captured
Baghdad, they control so little of it. The outlook for Mr Bush’s
strategy of driving out insurgents from strongholds and preventing them
coming back does not look good.

On Monday, a helicopter belonging to the US security company
Blackwater was shot down as it flew over the Sunni neighbourhood of
al-Fadhil, close to the central markets of Baghdad. Several of the five
American crew members may have survived the crash but they were later
found with gunshot wounds to their heads, as if they had been executed
on the ground.

Baghdad has broken up into hostile townships, Sunni and Shia, where
strangers are treated with suspicion and shot if they cannot explain
what they are doing. In the militant Sunni district of al-Amariyah in
west Baghdad the Shia have been driven out and a resurgent Baath party
has taken over. One slogan in red paint on a wall reads: “Saddam
Hussein will live for ever, the symbol of the Arab nation.” Another
says: “Death to Muqtada [Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist Shia cleric]
and his army of fools.”

Restaurants in districts of Baghdad like the embassy quarter in
al-Mansur, where I once used to have lunch, are now far too dangerous
to visit. Any foreigner on the streets is likely to be kidnapped or
killed. In any case, most of the restaurants closed long ago.

It is difficult for Iraqis to avoid joining one side or the other in
the conflict. Many districts, such as al-Hurriya in west Baghdad, have
seen the minority – in this case the Sunni – driven out.

A Sunni friend called Adnan, living in the neighbouring district of
al-Adel, was visited by Sunni militiamen. They said: “You must help us
to protect you from the Shia in Hurriya by going on patrol with us.
Otherwise, we will give your house to somebody who will help us.” He
patrolled with the militiamen for several nights, clutching a
Kalashnikov, and then fled the area.

The fear in Baghdad is so intense that rumours of even bloodier
battles sweep through the city. Two weeks ago, many Sunni believed that
the Shia Mehdi Army was going to launch a final “battle of Baghdad”
aimed at killing or expelling the Sunni minority in the capital. The
Sunni insurgents stored weapons and ammunition in order to make a
last-ditch effort to defend their districts. In the event, they believe
the ultimate battle was postponed at the last minute. Mr Bush insisted
that the Iraqi government, with US military support, “must stop the
sectarian violence in the capital”. Quite how they are going to do this
is not clear. American reinforcements might limit the ability of death
squads to roam at will for a few months, but this will not provide a
long-term solution.

Mr Bush’s speech is likely to deepen sectarianism in Iraq by
identifying the Shia militias with Iran. In fact, the most powerful
Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, is traditionally anti-Iranian. It is the
Badr Organisation, now co-operating with US forces, which was formed
and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In the Arab world as a
whole, Mr Bush seems to be trying to rally the Sunni states of Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to support him in Iraq by exaggerating the
Iranian threat.

Iraqis also wonder what will happen in the rest of Iraq while the US
concentrates on trying to secure Baghdad. The degree of violence in the
countryside is often underestimated because it is less reported than in
the capital. In Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north-east of
Baghdad, US and Iraqi army commanders were lauding their achievements
at a press conference last weekend, claiming: “The situation in Baquba
is reassuring and under control but there are some rumours circulated
by bad people.” Within hours, Sunni insurgents kidnapped the mayor and
blew up his office.

The situation in the south of Iraq is no more reassuring. Five
American soldiers were killed in the Shia holy city of Karbala last
Saturday by gunmen wearing American and Iraqi uniforms, carrying
American weapons and driving vehicles used by US or Iraqi government
forces. A licence plate belonging to a car registered to Iraq’s
Minister of Trade was found on one of the vehicles used in the attack.
It is a measure of the chaos in Iraq today that US officials do not
know if their men were killed by Sunni or Shia guerrillas.

US commanders and the Mehdi Army seem to be edging away from all-out
confrontation in Baghdad. Neither the US nor Iraqi government has the
resources to eliminate the Shia militias. Even Kurdish units in the
capital have a high number of desertions. The Mehdi Army, if under
pressure in the capital, could probably take over much of southern Iraq.

Mr Bush’s supposedly new strategy is less of a strategy than a
collection of tactics unlikely to change dramatically the situation on
the ground. But if his systematic demonising of Iran is a precursor to
air strikes or other military action against Iran, then Iraqis will
once more pay a heavy price.

1/24/2007, 5:30 p.m. ET By M.R. KROPKO The Associated Press   CLEVELAND (AP) — Two election workers in the state’s most populous county were convicted Wednesday of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough review of the votes. A third employee who had been charged was acquitted on all counts. Jacqueline Maiden, the elections’ coordinator who was the board’s third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. Maiden and Dreamer also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty. Both were acquitted of five other charges. Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board’s ballot department, was acquitted of all seven counts of various election misconduct or interference charges. The felony conviction carries a possible sentence of six to 18 months. There was a gasp in the courtroom gallery, which included some relatives and friends of the defendants, when a “not guilty” verdict was announced on the first charge. The courtroom went silent when a “guilty” verdict was returned. The defendants sat near each other silently as the 21 verdicts were read. Ohio gave Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the close election and hold on to the White House in 2004. Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter, who was brought in from Erie County to handle the case, did not claim the workers’ actions affected the outcome of the election — Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county’s recount. But Baxter insisted the employees broke the law when they worked behind closed doors three days before the public Dec. 16, 2004, recount to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand so they could avoid a lengthier, more expensive hand recount of all votes. Ohio law states that during a recount each county is supposed to randomly count at least 3 percent of its ballots by hand and by machine. If there are not discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be recounted by machine. A full hand-count is ordered if two random samples result in differences. Grier, the worker who was acquitted, was the only defendant who commented following the verdicts. “It has all been very stressful,” said Grier, 54. “Yes, I’m very relieved. But, none of us should have been in this courtroom today. These charges should not have been brought against any of us.” Defense lawyer Roger Synenberg said in his closing argument that the 2004 presidential election was the most publicly observed ever in Cuyahoga County and the workers were simply following procedures as they understood them. Baxter said he intends to speak with Maiden and Dreamer before their scheduled sentencing on Feb. 26 to see if they wish to make any statements that might influence the sentence. “We’d like to listen to them if they had anything to say, if anyone else was involved with this. We still haven’t been able to determine that,” he said. A message was left Wednesday with elections board director Michael Vu. The board released a statement saying the convictions highlight the importance of changes it has made since 2004 “and the critical need to aggressively pursue additional reforms.” “The board’s goal is to fully restore the public’s confidence in the election process in Cuyahoga County,” the statement said. Maiden’s attorney, Robert Rotatori, said he expects appeals will be filed for his client and Dreamer. The case comes as elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election. That’s when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court became involved. Cuyahoga also has been under the microscope following numerous problems with elections in bellwether Ohio. Cuyahoga County is a Democratic stronghold where about 600,000 ballots were cast in 2004. Statewide, Bush won by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million cast. Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik sought the recount and complained about its procedure. ___ On the Net: Cuyahoga County elections board: http://www.boe.cuyahogacounty.us

BRUSSELS, Dec. 31 (Dow
Jones/AP) — The year 2006 was the deadliest for journalists and
news media workers worldwide, with at least 155 killings and
unexplained deaths, the International Federation of Journalists said
Sunday.

The group, which represents half a million journalists in more than 100 countries, said in its annual report that Iraq
continued to be the most dangerous place to work; 68 media staff
members were killed there in 2006, bringing the total since the war
began in March 2003 to 170.

The federation also pointed to continuing attacks on journalists in Latin America, where 37 media staff members were killed. Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela stood out.

Thirteen journalists died in the Philippines, pushing the total of such deaths in Asia up to 34, the federation said.

The federation counts among the deaths all people who were employed
by media organizations and who died performing their duties, whether
reporters, photographers, interpreters or drivers.

Other press freedom groups use more restrictive criteria.

Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, said in an annual report,
also released Sunday, that 2006 was the deadliest year for journalists
since 1994, with 81 journalists and 32 media assistants killed. A dozen
years ago — the year of the Rwanda genocide — it counted 103 reporters killed.

For the fourth consecutive year, Iraq was the world’s
deadliest nation for media professionals, with 64 journalists and media
assistants killed, up from 29 in 2005, the group said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists,
a United States group that also uses stricter definitions, said earlier
in December that 32 journalists were killed in Iraq in 2006.

The federation saw a hopeful development in the United Nations Security Council’s
unanimous approval on Dec. 23 of a resolution condemning all attacks on
journalists in armed conflicts and urging combatants to stop singling
out members of the media and respect their professional independence.

Reporters Without Borders also said at least 56 reporters in a dozen
countries were kidnapped in 2006. Iraq led the ranking, with 17
journalists seized. The Palestinian territories, where 6 were
kidnapped, came in second.

“All those seized in the Palestinian territories were freed,
but six in Iraq were executed by their captors,” the group said.

Eyewitnesses: Man Ran Into Cheney’s Knife

Vice President Cheney accidentally killed a man during a previous
hunting trip, the White House reluctantly confirmed today after denying
the incident several times. During a deer hunting expedition on a
friend’s eight billion dollar ranch, a man “ran into Cheney’s knife”
several times while Cheney was gutting and dressing a deer, wealthy
Republican Party donors and eyewitnesses said.

The man who died was Willford Buchs, a Bush family accountant who
“took care of the books” for the Bushes and several Bush companies, and
was later appointed Director of the Texas Accounting Commission after
the previous commissioner was dismissed for revealing irregularities in
the accounting practices of Buchs’s clients.

Buchs’s death was ruled a suicide by Sen. Dr. Bill Frist, who
examined Mr. Buchs by polaroid. Cheney’s involvement with the death has not previously been disclosed,
although it occurred a little more than a year ago. The incident was
uncovered by the press after reporters discovered Buchs’s mummified
carcass on the ground last week and began asking questions.

Questions have arisen as to why the White House failed to report the incident
to the press or the authorities for more than a year. “The Vice
President’s office deferred to the people who owned the knife that he
borrowed for the expedition,” said Candy Ricks, a spokesman for the
Veep. “It really was up to them.” Ricks also maintained that it was not
necessary to report the incident to the authorities because the Vice
President and his party were authorities, “and very powerful and influential ones, too, I might add.”

Ricks denied that Mr. Cheney needed to exercise more caution during
hunting trips. “Mr. Cheney is every bit as careful with hunting as he
is with civil liberties, foreign policy and democracy,” she said.

http://tomburka.com/archives2/2006_02.php#000901

Full pdf

Crooks and Liars 

Libby is dreamy over Scientology
By: John Amato

According to the CIA briefer Craig Schmall at the Libby trial today, while Scooter Libby was so busy with hugely important issues like, oh. I don’t know—the outing of an undercover agent—he was also fascinated with listening to Tom Cruise and his very own Penelope complain about Germany’s treatment of Scientology. He got really excited too. That’s our boy—-to hell with national security issues and remembering who you’re calling on the phone. No sir. Nobody messes with the Church of Cruise (full pdf)