Bill O'Reilly on Iraq War: "Win It!" - Mark Finkelstein (NewsBusters.org)
This morning on the Today Show, Katie Couric wanted Bill O'Reilly's view of the President's impending speech on Iraq, but she got more than she bargained for:  Couric: What is your biggest fear about a premature withdrawal of troops from Iraq?  O'Reilly: It's very simple. This is not a complicated issue. If we pull out of Iraq it turns into a terror state, just as Afghanistan before 9/11 was a terror state. The terrorists are going to do whatever they want there. Who's going to stop them? Iran, Syria? They're going to help them! An Iraq out of control is a direct threat to the United States because Al-Qaida gets in there and does whatever they want. Win the damn thing! That's what I want to hear. Win it. Stop the excuses, stop the carping, stop the sniping from the press. Win it!

The U.N. must not be allowed to destroy the Volcker investigation's archives - Claudia Rosett (OpinionJournal.com)
Paul Volcker's findings on Oil for Food have been widely received as the final word on the United Nations relief program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Far from it--as Mr. Volcker himself has admitted. In reporting that Saddam, along with his smuggling and oil graft, diverted $1.8 billion in kickbacks from U.N.-approved relief contracts under the program, Mr. Volcker underestimates, quite probably by billions, the amount the U.N. allowed Saddam Hussein and many of his favored business partners to graft out of Oil for Food deals for goods such as oil parts, milk, laundry soap and baby food. In low-balling the total, Mr. Volcker understates the negligence of the U.N., and overlooks some of the most potentially virulent links in Oil for Food.  The most urgent implication of Mr. Volcker's incomplete findings is that his huge and expensively assembled archives must be preserved intact well beyond the Dec. 31 deadline by which Mr. Volcker now plans to start disposing of them. Above all, they must not be handed back to the U.N., where too much related to the corrupt Oil for Food program has already vanished--including, to a fascinating extent, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's own powers of recollection. The former head of the program, Benon Sevan, alleged to have taken bribes from Saddam, was allowed to skip town, U.N. pension in hand. Mr. Annan is even now resurrecting, via a new $4 million U.N. program called the Alliance of Civilizations, the career of his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, who officially retired earlier this year after it came to light that during Mr. Volcker's investigation Mr. Riza had overseen the shredding of three years' worth of documents that might have better illuminated the oil-for-fraud shenanigans of the U.N.'s executive 38th floor.

"Holiday" returns to "Christmas" on Capitol Hill - Gary Emerling (Washington Times)
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has told federal officials that the lighted, decorated tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol -- known in recent years as the "Holiday Tree" -- should be renamed the "Capitol Christmas Tree," as it was called until the late 1990s.  The Capitol's senior landscape architect confirmed the name switch yesterday for The Washington Times.  "It was known as the 'Holiday Tree' for several years and just recently was changed back to the 'Capitol Christmas Tree.' This was a directive from the speaker," said Capitol architect Matthew Evans.  "The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.

Mary Mapes' fraud continues unabated - Scott Johnson (Weekly Standard)
Mary Mapes is back.  With her memoir, Truth and Duty: The Press, The President, and the Privilege of Power, the former CBS News producer is trying to write a second act for her career. Sadly, if her book is any indication, her second act is just a repeat of the first.  Mapes was the producer of the CBS 60 Minutes II segment on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard that aired on September 8, 2004. According to the segment, President Bush had received preferential treatment in being admitted to the Guard, and once in, had served dishonorably. The segment predicated the latter theme on four 1972 and 1973 documents from the "personal file" of Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, then-Lt. Bush's commanding officer in the Texas Air National Guard. CBS had obtained the documents from a confidential source. In the online version of the story, CBS posted PDF versions of the four documents.

Katrina: New Orleans disaster largely man-made - Lolis Eric Elie (Times-Picayune)
Late last month, while taking the bus tour of the Lower 9th Ward, Gwenith Fletcher remarked, "I came to see what God had done."  Fletcher's sentiment parallels that of many people who see Hurricane Katrina, and all of its devastation, as one of those God-ordained natural disasters that happen sometimes, and reside far beyond the control of mere mortals.  But the more I hear about the actions of our public officials in the years leading up to the hurricane, the more convinced I am that this was not a "natural disaster" in the usual sense of the phrase.

L.A. County D.A.'s response to Stanley "Tookie" Williams' petition for executive clemency (L.A. County District Attorney's Office)
When one person kills another, there is immediate revulsion at the nature of the crime. But in a time so short as to seem indecent to the members of the personal family, the dead person ceases to exist as an identifiable figure. To those individuals in the community of good will and empathy, warmth and compassion, only one of the key actors in the drama remains with whom to commiserate—and that is always the criminal. The dead person ceases to be a part of everyday reality, ceases to exist. She is only a figure in a historic event. We inevitably turn away from the past, toward the ongoing reality. And the ongoing reality is the criminal; trapped, anxious, now helpless, isolated, often badgered and bewildered. He usurps the compassion that is justly his victim’s due. He will steal his victim’s moral constituency along with her life.

Iranian revolution heats up on the 'Net - Lillian Swift (U.K. Telegraph)
Iran is fighting a constant battle against dissenters who are using the internet to voice criticism of the Islamic Republic and to push for freedom and democracy.  With the closure of most independent newspapers and magazines in Iran, blogging - publishing an online diary - has become a powerful tool in the dissidents' arsenal by providing individuals with a public voice.  An Iranian blogger known as Saena, wrote recently: "Weblogs are one weapon that even the Islamic Republic cannot beat."  There are an estimated 100,000 active blogs written by Iranians both within the country and across the diaspora. Persian ties with French as the second most common blogging language after English.
 

Tancredo puts policy over party line - Anne C. Mulkern (Denver Post)
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo wants to inflame people.  He speaks on talk radio and cable television as often as 15 times a week, warning that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs, destroying American culture and killing police officers.  With every word, the ex-schoolteacher son of Italian immigrants pours fuel on a grassroots brush fire.  Tancredo strives to agitate people enough that they demand change from Congress. As outraged citizens pressure lawmakers to follow Tancredo's lead, his power grows.

Russ Feingold: Hillary is "Republican lite" - Geoff Earle (New York Post)
Sen. Russ Feingold fired a warning shot toward Sen. Hillary Clinton and other Democrats who might run for president on a centrist platform.  "The Democrats need a bold, progressive agenda that does not look they're trying to be 'Republican Lite,' " said Feingold, (D- Wis.), who is exploring his own run for president.  "That's what I believe will win in 2008," he said, speaking on ABC's "This Week."

Europeans funding terrorists in Iraq - David E. Kaplan (U.S. News)
Who's funding the insurgents in Iraq? The list of suspects is long: ex-Baathists, foreign jihadists, and angry Sunnis, to name a few. Now add to that roster hard-core Euroleftists.  Turns out that far-left groups in western Europe are carrying on a campaign dubbed Ten Euros for the Resistance, offering aid and comfort to the car bombers, kidnappers, and snipers trying to destabilize the fledgling Iraq government. In the words of one Italian website, Iraq Libero (Free Iraq), the funds are meant for those fighting the occupanti imperialisti. The groups are an odd collection, made up largely of Marxists and Maoists, sprinkled with an array of Arab emigres and aging, old-school fascists, according to Lorenzo Vidino, an analyst on European terrorism based at The Investigative Project in Washington, D.C.

Exit strategies: Victory or defeat - Mark Steyn (Jerusalem Post)
Rumors of Abu Musad al-Zarqawi's death may be exaggerated. He was reported by several Arab TV networks to have been among eight terrorists who self-detonated in Mosul last Sunday. Still, whether or not he's sleeping with the fishes or the 72 virgins, he's already outlived whatever usefulness he had to the jihad.  Last Friday, the allegedly explosive "Arab street" finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qaida or its affiliates ever seen in the Middle East. "Zarqawi," shouted 200,000 Jordanians, "from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!" Also "the enemy of Allah" - which, for a jihadist, isn't what they call on Broadway a money review.  The old head-hacker was sufficiently rattled by the critical pans of his Jordanian hotel bombings that he issued the first IRA-style apology in al-Qaida's history. "People of Jordan, we did not undertake to blow up any wedding parties," he said. "For those Muslims who were killed, we ask God to show them mercy, for they were not targets."

Giving thanks to the soldier - Neil Cavuto (FOX News)
I always wonder what Thanksgiving must be like if you're not at home or not with your family.  If where you are it's not cozy, but rough and dangerous.  And the food isn't incredible, more like institutional — meant well, but not going down well.  I always wonder what Thanksgiving must be like if you're a soldier? Far from home. Very far from cozy. Very, very far from even safe.

Gen. Vines: U.S. pullout would be "destabilizing" - Rowan Scarborough (Washington Times)
The top tactical commander in Iraq says an abrupt pullout of U.S. troops would be "destabilizing" and labeled "disturbing" Washington's heated political debate that has some Democrats calling the war unwinnable.  Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who commands the Multinational Corps Iraq, said that 36 Iraqi battalions, about one-third of the total force, are now responsible for their own security sectors and can fight the insurgency. But they are not yet ready to operate totally independent of U.S. supply lines and tactical advice.  Because of that, he said, now is not the time for an American withdrawal.

"Well-qualified" (highest) ABA rating likely for Alito - Donna Cassata (AP)
The American Bar Association will grade Samuel Alito in the coming weeks. Alito is likely to receive the same rating that he did in 1990 when President Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, nominated him to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - unanimous well-qualified, the highest rating.  The ABA has rated candidates since the 1950s on integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament, a critical evaluation for the Senate as it fulfills its advice and consent role.  While the ABA relies, in part, on the testimonials of colleagues, an interview with the nominee and the assessment of academics, two law school professors have come up with what they believe is a more objective measure for judging judges.

Florida judge, Wayne Timmerman, favors female pedophile (FOX News)
A Florida reading teacher charged with having sex with a minor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior as part of a plea deal that does not include any jail time.  "I accept full responsibility for my actions," Greco Middle School teacher Debra Lafave, 25, said during Tuesday's trial in Tampa.  The deal provides that Lafave will not serve any jail time in connection with multiple sex acts with a 14-year-old student unless she violates the terms of the plea agreement, which includes three years of house arrest and seven years' probation.

ACLU: Plaintiffs wanted - Lee Duigon (MensNewsDaily.com)
Six months ago, a senior at Jonesboro High School, Arkansas, gave a graduation speech that included an invitation to audience members to use the moment to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As you can well imagine, the ACLU of Arkansas has its knickers in a twist.  The ACLU is frothing at the mouth to visit the Jonesboro school district with a hefty lawsuit, probably to the tune of millions of local taxpayer dollars. There's just one thing that stands in their way.  They can't find a plaintiff!

No hype needed; Saddam, al Qaeda linked - Victor Davis Hanson (Honolulu Advertiser)
As American casualties mount in Iraq, politicians at home now fight over who said what and when about weapons of mass destruction and the need for going to war. One of the most frequent charges is that President Bush hyped a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida — and that as a result, we diverted our efforts from finishing off the real terrorists to start a new and costly war to replace a secular dictator.  This charge is false for several reasons — and illogical for even more. Almost every responsible U.S. government body had long warned about Saddam's links to al-Qaida terrorists. In 1998, for example, when the Clinton Justice Department indicted bin Laden, the writ read: "In addition, al-Qaida reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al-Qaida would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al-Qaida would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."

Memo to Murtha - Cliff May (DefendDemocracy.org)
Before I say anything else, Congressman Murtha, let me thank you -- for your long public service in Washington and, before that, in Vietnam.  And let me commend you, too, for sparking an honest debate. Until now, what has passed for debate on Iraq has been mostly slander – for example, calling President Bush a liar and questioning his patriotism. Yes, questioning his patriotism: because anyone who would lie to get America into a war for reasons unrelated to national security would not be a patriot. He'd be a traitor.  I ask you, sir: Has such a vicious charge ever before been leveled at an American president in a time of war – or even a time of peace?

FOX News rejects factually inaccurate anti-Alito ad (AP)
Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect.  Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect.  The ad says that as an appellate court judge, Alito has "ruled to make it easier for corporations to discriminate ... even voted to approve strip search of a 10-year-old girl." Referring to a document Alito wrote in 1985 while seeking a job in the Reagan administration, it quotes him as saying that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."

Mass. Attorney General to do battle against businesses daring to open Sundays and holidays (AP)
Massachusetts' attorney general is launching an investigation into several supermarkets that stayed open opened on Thanksgiving in defiance of the state's Puritan-era Blue Laws.  The laws were passed in the 1600s to keep colonists at home or in church on Sundays. Parts of the laws, such as the ban on Sunday liquor sales, have been repealed, but a prohibition on most stores doing business on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, has not.  "If these stores want to open, there's a way to do it: Change the law," David Guano, a spokesman for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, told The Boston Globe. The office didn't say what sort of penalty the stores could face.
 

Vermont high school teacher gives anti-Bush vocabulary quiz (AP)
A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.  Bret Chenkin, a social studies and English teacher at Mount Anthony Union High School, said he gave the quiz to his students several months ago. The quiz asked students to pick the proper words to complete sentences.  One example: "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes." "Coherent" is the right answer.

How private health care is crminalized in Canada - Steve Lambert (Canadian Press)
A showdown over private health care is looming in Manitoba, where the NDP government is threatening to impose sanctions against the Maples Surgical Centre over its plans for a private magnetic resonance imaging machine.  Health Minister Tim Sale, who said Tuesday he would wait for federal direction on the issue, changed his mind Wednesday and said the clinic will contravene the Canada Health Act if it charges patients for medically necessary diagnostic scans.  "If it's medically necessary, then the provider cannot charge the patient," Sale said.  Sale said the province is willing to enforce the Canada Health Act with fines of up to $5,000 and more serious sanctions for subsequent offences.

Al Qaeda devastated by recent U.S. offensive (NewsMax.com)
The U.S. military's recent offensive in western Iraq has had a devastating impact on the al-Qaida-backed insurgency, with coalition forces killing over 700 terrorists and capturing 1,500 in the last two months alone.  "It's been very successful," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told a briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday, referring to a series of security offensives conducted by U.S. and Iraq forces in Anbar province since September 28.  Though media reports suggest recent U.S. casualties are due to deteriorating security conditions in Iraq as a whole, most were incurred during the new offensive - dubbed "Operation Steel Curtain."

Ohio imam to be deported for terrorist ties (AP)
Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.  Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.  That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.  Damra, 44, was arrested early Friday without incident, the immigration office said.

N.Y. judge to decide if spousal immunity applicable to same-sex couples (AP)
A gay man charged with helping his lover loot a wealthy school district has asked a judge to rule that state law protecting spouses from having to testify against each other also applies to same-sex partners.  Stephen Signorelli, fighting charges that he stole at least $219,000 from the Roslyn, N.Y., school district, is seeking to bar testimony by his longtime companion, Frank Tassone, the district's former superintenden.  Auditors say that in all, $11.2 million was taken from the Long Island district, and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has called the case "the largest, most remarkable, most extraordinary theft" from a school system in American history. Tassone pleaded guilty this year to stealing $1 million between 1996 and 2002. As part of his plea bargain, he agreed to testify against other defendants in the case, which meant he might have to take the stand in Signorelli's trial.

Three Mass. Democrat Congressmen try to weasal out of '02 war vote (AP)
Three years ago, Massachusetts congressmen Martin Meehan, Stephen Lynch and Edward Markey bucked their state Democratic colleagues and cast votes to give President Bush a green light to go to war in Iraq.  Since then, the three have renounced their votes and emerged as critics of the way Bush has handled the war.

The "extremism" of Judge Sam Alioto - Larry Elder (TownHall.com)
"Extreme: the most remote in any direction; outermost or farthest: the extreme edge of the field." (American Heritage Dictionary) Judge Samuel Alito, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, applied for a promotion while working in the Reagan administration. His 1985 application read, in part: "I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."  Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately pounced. These "extreme statements," said Kennedy, were "deeply troubling." Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said the application raised questions about Alito's "ideological" position. The New York Times followed up with an obligatory editorial also denouncing as "extreme" Alito's assertion that "the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion." When did opposition to quotas become "extreme"?

"Dirty bomber" Padilla indicted (FOX News/AP)
"Dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla has been indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on criminal charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas.  The indicment naming Padilla and four others was unsealed Tuesday and returned by a grand jury last Thursday. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a U.S.-based terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government's earlier allegations that he planned to carry out attacks in America. "We believe it is the appropriate thing to do," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said during a news conference in Washington Tuesday when announcing the charges.

I firmly believe that the most precious freedom all Americans share is the First Amendment right of freedom of speech. I am committed to working unceasingly to see that it is preserved for all WCCC students, faculty and staff. 

At the same time, there are existing state laws — as well as College policies and procedures — that must be followed to ensure that all members of our College are free and encouraged to exercise their right to free speech without fear of intimidation or retaliation. I am dedicated to protecting and preserving that freedom.

The recent dispute between two members of our College community — Adjunct Instructor John Daly and a student representing a new student club — speaks clearly to the complexity of addressing these issues in these difficult and controversial times.
           
Late today, the Board was informed of Mr. Daly’s decision to resign his Adjunct position at WCCC effective immediately. In its meeting, the Board voted to accept the resignation agreement and instructed the administration to make certain that students in Mr. Daly’s class are offered the highest quality instruction in this interim period.

We have already moved ahead in finding a very able member of our faculty to conduct the remainder of Mr. Daly’s classes for this semester. We will also rededicate ourselves to a review of our current policies and procedures to make certain that we continue to foster an open and collegial learning environment at our institution. I personally pledge to see that tolerance training is included in our next faculty and staff in-service, and to consider a broad range of student input in its development

College Board Chairman, Edward Smith, added the following in a second statement:

At the request of Warren County Community College President, Dr. William Austin, the College’s Board of Trustees met tonight to review available facts concerning a recent dispute between an adjunct instructor at the College, Mr. John Daly, and a WCCC student and certain safety concerns that arose as a result thereof. The dispute revolved around, among other things, comments made in an e-mail from the instructor to the student who was representing a new student organization and other facts and circumstances that came to the Board’s attention subsequent thereto.

Tonight’s meeting of the Board was initially called to consider what if any  action would be taken.   As we prepared for that meeting, we received word from Mr. Daly that he had tendered his resignation from WCCC effective immediately. The Board has accepted his resignation.

Chris Matthews: Terrorists are "not evil, they just have a different perspective" (Edmonton Sun)
Years after 9-11 and the "crazy Zeitgeist" that permeated the United States, Americans have still not learned to know their enemies instead of just hating them, said American political journalist Chris Matthews yesterday.  In a speech to political science students at the University of Toronto, the host of the CNBC current affairs show Hardball had plenty of harsh words for U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as the political climate that has characterized his country for the last few years.  "The period between 9-11 and (invading) Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said."If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil. They just have a different perspective."

 

LYING JOURNALIST AWARD: CNN anchor, Jack Cafferty "reporting" on comments made by Dick Cheney in an address on Monday: Perhaps it was just his confusion from watching Vice President Cheney's Monday address on his own network--and maybe giggling over the way the Veep's head was being "X-ed" out..  Or maybe Cafferty is just one of those lying Liberal liars who just can't see past their Bush-bashing, conservative hatred long enough to know what is the truth. In yesterday's 4 p.m. edition of CNN's Situation Room, Cafferty decided that a lie is better than the truth any day. . .so long as it helps your cause: The Lie: JACK CAFFERTY (Situation Room):  It's getting ugly out there.  According to Vice President Cheney, if you question, if you dare question the use of pre-war intelligence, according to that speech this morning, you are dishonest and reprehensible. The Truth: V.P. DICK CHENEY (American Enterprise Institute address):  My remarks today concern national security, in particular the war on terror and the Iraq front in that war. Several days ago, I commented briefly on some recent statements that have been made by some members of Congress about Iraq. Within hours of my speech, a report went out on the wires under the headline, "Cheney says war critics 'dishonest,' 'reprehensible.'"  One thing I've learned in the last five years is that when you're Vice President, you're lucky if your speeches get any attention at all. But I do have a quarrel with that headline, and it's important to make this point at the outset. I do not believe it is wrong to criticize the war on terror or any aspect thereof. Disagreement, argument, and debate are the essence of democracy, and none of us should want it any other way. If Mr. Cafferty had the slightest interest in the facts and the truth, he would have actually read or listended to Cheney's speech, and known that Cheney never said that war critics--or as Cafferty puts it, those who question the use of pre-war intelligence--"are dishonest and reprehensible."  Without any question, Cheney said that a wire service report had the erroneous headline "Cheney says war critics 'dishonest,' 'reprehensible.'"  In the very speech to which Cafferty refers, Cheney says the dead opposite: "I do not believe it is wrong to criticise the war on terror or any aspect thereof." And Cheney's criticism of the wire service headline is right on the money.  The headline referred to an address made by Cheney on November 16, 2005, at the Frontiers of Freedom Institute 2005 Ronald Reagan Gala.  Rather than characterizing war critics as the headline suggests (or "those who question the use of pre-war intelligence," as McCafferty's lie goes), Cheney was being critical of charges being made by U.S. Senators that the President deliberately misled on pre-war intelligence.  Cheney's comments, in their fuller context follow: Most of you know, I have spent a lot of years in public service, and first came to work in Washington back in the late 1960s. I know what it’s like to operate in a highly charged political environment, in which the players on all sides of an issue feel passionately and speak forcefully. In such an environment people sometimes lose their cool, and yet in Washington you can ordinarily rely on some basic measure of truthfulness and good faith in the conduct of political debate. But in the last several weeks we have seen a wild departure from that tradition. And the suggestion that’s been made by some U.S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city. What we’re hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war. The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out. American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions and desert temperatures –- conducting raids, training Iraqi forces, countering attacks, seizing weapons, and capturing killers –- and back home a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie. The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone -– but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.

Just a "bug" in the system, CNN insists (Reuters)
CNN apologized on Tuesday and offered a rare explanation from its control booth for a technical glitch many viewers failed to notice -- a large "X" the network flashed over Vice President Dick Cheney's face.  The wayward graphic, which CNN said lasted for about one-seventh of a second, appeared during the network's live coverage of Cheney's speech on Monday addressing critics of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.  Word of the snafu quickly surfaced on the Internet, including still photos of the image posted by online columnist Matt Drudge, along with a story suggesting that some who saw the momentary "X" thought it might have been deliberate.  More ==> DrudgeReport

N.J. college prof who called for soldiers to kill their superiors may be canned (WorldNetDaily.com)
A New Jersey college's board of trustees has called for an emergency meeting tonight to discuss how to handle the controversy surrounding an e-mail by a professor suggesting soldiers in Iraq should kill their superior officers.  As WorldNetDaily reported, the e-mail by adjunct English instructor John Daly of Warren County Community College was a reply to freshman Rebecca Beach for her announcement of a campus program last Thursday featuring decorated Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter.  Daly wrote: "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors.  Daly said Sunday he was worried he would be fired tonight and already had been told not to show up for the three classes he was scheduled to teach today, according to Inside Higher Ed, an online news source.

Prof. John Daly's e-mail to Warren County Community College student, Rebecca Beach:  (SeanRobins.com)

I am asking my students to boycott your event. I am also going to ask others to boycott it. Your literature and signs in the entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive. Your main poster "Communism killed 100,000,000" is not only untrue, but ignores the fact that CAPITALISM has killed many more and the evidence for that can be seen in the daily news papers. The U.S. government can fly to dominate the people of Iraq in 12 hours, yet it took them five days to assist the people devastated by huricane Katrina. Racism and profits were key to their priorities. Exxon, by the way, made $9 Billion in profits this last quarter--their highest proft margin ever. Thanks to the students of WCCC and other poor and working class people who are recruited to fight and die for EXXON and other corporations who earning megaprofits from their imperialist plunders. If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the more than a million children who have died in Iraq from U.S.-imposed sanctions and war. Or the million African American people who died from lack of access to healthcare in the US over the last 10 years.

I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs--such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again.

CNN "covers" Cheney: "X" marks the Vice President  (SeanRobins.com) As first reported this evening on the Drudge Report, during its live coverage this morning of an 11:00 address from the American Enterprise Institute, CNN superimposed a large black "X" mark upon the head Vice President Dick Cheney, as the caption quoted Cheney as stating that "I do not believe it is wrong to criticize."  Drudge reports that the "X" appeared repeatedly, for a fraction of a second each time. Cheney was in the midst of a detailed discussion of the current barrage of media and poltical attacks being lobbed at the war effort, the administration and the President.  At about the time CNN chose to "mar" Cheney's appearance, he was stating: My remarks today concern national security, in particular the war on terror and the Iraq front in that war.  Several days ago, I commented briefly on some recent statements that have been made by some members of Congress about Iraq.  Within hours of my speech, a report went out on the wires under the headline, “Cheney says war critics ‘dishonest,’ ‘reprehensible.'" One thing I’ve learned in the last five years is that when you’re Vice President, you’re lucky if your speeches get any attention at all.  But I do have a quarrel with that headline, and it’s important to make this point at the outset.  I do not believe it is wrong to criticize the war on terror or any aspect thereof.  Disagreement, argument, and debate are the essence of democracy, and none of us should want it any other way.  For my part, I’ve spent a career in public service, run for office eight times -- six statewide offices and twice nationally.  I served in the House of Representatives for better than a decade, most of that time as a member of the leadership of the minority party.  To me, energetic debate on issues facing our country is more than just a sign of a healthy political system -- it’s also something I enjoy.  It’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed in this business.  And I believe the feeling is probably the same for most of us in public life.  * * * What is not legitimate -- and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible -- is the suggestion by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence. Some of the most irresponsible comments have come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein.  These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence materials.  They are known to have a high opinion of their own analytical capabilities.  (Laughter.)  And they were free to reach their own judgments based upon the evidence.  They concluded, as the President and I had concluded, and as the previous administration had concluded, that Saddam Hussein was a threat.  Available intelligence indicated that the dictator of Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and this judgment was shared by the intelligence agencies of many other nations, according to the bipartisan Silberman-Robb Commission.  All of us understood, as well, that for more than a decade, the U.N. Security Council had demanded that Saddam Hussein make a full accounting of his weapons programs.  The burden of proof was entirely on the dictator of Iraq -- not on the U.N. or the United States or anyone else.  And he repeatedly refused to comply throughout the course of the decade. The lack of impartiality and journalistic integrity on the part of the mainstream media is well-documented and understood, but the levels of partisan, leftist rancor to which outlets such as CNN are even yet capable of sinking, can still be astonishing.  Not even the pretense of professionalism remains when the media sinks so low as to employ such cheap, second grade tactics as X-ing out the head of the Vice President of the United States of America.  On a live, national broadcast. Appearing on Monday's evening's Hannity & Colmes, Matt Drudge, who first discovered the "subliminal" "X" imposed over the V.P., commented: "This is the vice president of the United STates.  It is rather serious to be putting black 'Xs' over his face. . . . I felt it rather alarming that this is subliminally being sent out over the airwaves. . . . I'm just knocked out." After refusing comment for several hours, CNN issued the following statement as its fairly improbable explanation: "Upon seeing this unfortunate but very brief graphic, CNN senior management immediately investigated. We concluded this was a technological malfunction, not an issue of operator error. A portion of the switcher experienced a momentary glitch. We obviously regret that it happened and are working on the equipment to ensure it is not repeated."

Cheney: Iraq withdrawal would cause "dangerous illusion" (AFP)
US Vice President Dick Cheney launched a blistering new attack on critics of the Iraq war, saying withdrawing troops would cause a "dangerous illusion."  He also said senators and others now accusing President George W. Bush of misleading Americans into war were guilty of "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety."  A respected Democratic congressman called last week for the 160,000 US troops in Iraq to be brought out, but Cheney said: "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."

DeLay's lawyer to argue this week actions alleged were not crimes in 2002 - R.G. Ratcliffe (Houston Chronicle)
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay returns to court this week for a pivotal hearing that could lead to the dismissal of the case against him on felony charges of violating state election and money-laundering laws.  The core issue before visiting Judge Pat Priest on Tuesday will be whether the crimes DeLay is accused of committing were actually crimes in 2002 when they allegedly occurred. DeLay and his co-defendants — Jim Ellis and John Colyandro — have proclaimed their innocence and are asking Priest to throw out the case.  "This could be the end of the case. Frankly, there's no crime charged and the law is on our side," said DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin of Houston.

GOP targeting Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in '06 - Michael Levenson (Boston Globe)
Last week, he introduced himself to 15 Republicans at Reading Public Library, 20 at ParkView Specialty Hospital in Springfield, and 12 assembled over slices at Caruso Pizza in Melrose. Thursday brought a welcome treat: 100 Republicans in a ballroom in Pittsfield, rapt and ready for his pitch.  No crowd is too small, no event too far-flung for Kevin P. Scott, Wakefield Republican on a mission. The former selectman and member of the town Board of Public Works has been barnstorming the state hoping to be more David than Don Quixote. Despite the odds, he wants to unseat US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Johnny Depp: France no longer such a great place to hide (ContactMusic.com)
Hollywood star Johnny Depp is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country.  The Finding Neverland heart-throb moved to Europe when life in Los Angeles became too violent.  He has since divided time between two continents - but he fears France will be scarred permanently by the current troubles.

Vatican: Intelligent design not science. . .it's religion - Nicole Winfield (AP)
The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.  The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.  "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." 

Half of all Americans OK with use of torture in war on terror (NewsMax.com)
Nearly half of all Americans think torturing terror suspects to gain information can be justified, according to a new survey, reports the Washington Times.  The survey, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press by, of 2,006 persons found that 46 percent thought torturing terrorists to gain important information was sometimes (31 percent) or often (15 percent) justified; 17 percent thought it was rarely justified; and 32 percent were opposed. By contrast, the study found that of 520 opinion leaders questioned on the issue, no more than one in four thinks that torture of terrorist suspects can be sometimes or often justified, Agence France-Presse reports.

Vietnam flashbacks: The hottest front in the Iraq war is now in Washington - Fred Barnes (Weekly Standard)
Many have forgotten how the United States lost in Vietnam, but not former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. When the last American military unit was withdrawn in 1973, the Viet Cong had been defeated and the North Vietnamese army checkmated. For the next two years, "South Vietnam held its own courageously and respectably against a better-bankrolled enemy," Laird writes in the current Foreign Affairs. "Given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself." Instead, "we grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory [in 1975] when Congress cut off the funding for South Vietnam that had allowed it to continue to fight on its own. . . . Without U.S. funding, South Vietnam was quickly overrun." It was a stunning and unnecessary defeat for America and for a free Vietnam. And the lesson is clear: A war can be won on the ground overseas and lost in Washington.

Springsteen: Not "Born to Run" says U.S. Senate (NewsMax.com)
Bruce Springsteen famously was "born in the USA," but he's getting scorned in the U.S. Senate.  An effort by New Jersey's two Democratic senators to honor the veteran rocker was shot down Friday by Republicans who are apparently still miffed a year after the Boss lent his voice to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Rep. Murtha, in the past 24 or so hours, has become the latest media "starlet" of the Democratic Party, garnering enthusiastic support of the media and the rabid kook elements of the party.  As a further demonstration of its lack of objectivity, and its obvious far left leanings, the mainstream media has cast Murtha as a rare hawkish Democrat, whose views on Iraq are particularly significant in view of his ardent, long-running support for the war.  According to the media, and others signing Murtha's praise as the Democrats' heir apparent to the John Kerry "war hero" throne, Murtha has staunchly supported the war, and his recent turnabout in position must mean that things are really going badly.  The stuff of such rhetoric is amazingly similar to a whitish substance that is often found littering the floor in a chicken coop. 

Far from being a hawk, Murtha has on several occasions since before Congress voted in October, 2002 to give the President the authorization to go to war in Iraq, spoken out forcefully against U.S. military action, and in 2003 and 2004, declared that the war effort in Iraq had failed.  The U.S. mainstream media, however, has conveniently omitted any reference to Murtha's real positions on the war in its coverage of his actions yesterday and today.

At one point in this evening's particularly acrimonious debate, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), relayed the comments of a Marine colonel, who serves in the Ohio legislature: "He asked me to send Congress a message," said Schmidt. "Stay the course.  He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message - that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

Ironically, Democrats opposed the initial vote to bring Murtha's bill to a vote, because they know all too well that their votes--yea or nay--are a losing proposition.  "Yes" votes by Democrats are an endorsement of Murtha's cut-and-run strategy, and will be viewed, rightly so, by Americans as calling for U.S. surrender in Iraq.  "No" votes by Democrats on the other hand, will be roundly condemned by the lunatic far left fringe, which has all but completely overtaken the power base of the Party, and will subject Democratic opponents of cut-and-run to ceaseless attack from within. 

In a move which, in saner times would be viewed as unbelievably bizarre, House Democratic leadership condemned as partisan trickery, efforts by the majority to place House members views as to Iraq policy on the record.  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the move to bring Murtha's resolution to a vote "disgraceful."  Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the 2nd-ranking Democrat in the House, declared the vote "the rankest of politics and the absence of any sense of shame."  The House completed its procedural vote and began debating the Murtha Resolution at 9:50 p.m. 

The open question at that hour is: Will Murtha vote for or against his own resolution?  He may want to check with Charlie Rangel about how he voted last year on his own bill to reactivate the draft.

At it again? Wash Post's Dana Priest reveals "secret Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers"  (SeanRobins.com)
In what seems to be an ongoing theme, the same Washington Post reporter, Dana Priest, who on November 2nd, blew the cover off of a covert CIA prison system, has now done the same thing for "counterintelligence centers" established by the Agengy in "more than two dozen countries where U.S. and foreign inteligence officers work side by side to track and capture suspected terrorists and to destroy or penetrate their networks,. . ."  Ms. Priest's prior (Nov. 2nd) leak has drawn sharp criticism, and calls for Congressional and criminal probes.  Today's leak should likewise be closely scrutinized, as the Post and Ms. Priest continue to show disdain for the sanctity of classified operations vital to our national security.
 

Senate Iraq War timetable amendment defeated - Bill Sammon (Washington Times)
President Bush said yesterday that it was "a positive step" for the Senate to defeat a Democrat-led effort to establish a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.  "The Senate, in a bipartisan fashion, rejected an amendment that would have taken our troops out of Iraq before the mission was complete," Mr. Bush said during a press conference in Kyoto with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "To me, that was a positive step by the United States Senate."  Mr. Bush rejected a reporter's suggestion that he was embarrassed by the Senate's subsequent approval of a watered-down measure that requires the White House to give lawmakers regular progress reports on Iraq.

Jimmy Carter's dimentia on-the-move: Praises own presidency - Ben Johnson (FrontPageMagazine.com)
The only thing more painful than listening to Jimmy Carter lecture President Bush on how to conduct a successful presidency was living through his disastrous attempt to turn his advice into reality.  As I noted earlier this week, Carter has channeled his hatred of non-leftists, secular and religious, into a glut of slanders in his new bestseller, Our Endangered Values. He charges his opponents with, among other things, countenancing female circumcision, defending the murder of federal judges, torturing innocent Islamofascists, and forcing North Korea to manufacture nuclear weapons. Jimmy once again offers himself as the nation’s savior-by-acclamation, leading his errant people, like a latter-day Moses, to the Promised Land. Every time he flashes his toothy grin before an adoring interviewer, the American people should ask why they should listen to anything he has to say. Jimmy Carter’s presidency could be summed up by a Billy Joel couplet: “Ayatollahs in Iran/Russians in Afghanistan.” However, this would omit so much: “malaise,” the misery index, soaring interest rates, a “helpless giant” foreign policy, stagflation, gas lines, record deficits, and killer jackrabbits. The former president doesn’t ignore his record in his book; he lies about it.

House bill would end "catch and release" policy for illegals - Stephen Dinan (Washington Times)
The House Homeland Security Committee yesterday passed a border security bill that would expand expedited removal of illegal aliens across all U.S. land borders and boost funding for border enforcement and detention.  "Expedited removal" is an attempt to speed up the processing and return of illegal aliens to their home countries, which takes about 90 days under the old system, but has been cut to about 30 days under a limited Department of Homeland Security pilot program. The program allows immigration authorities more discretion to deport someone without a set of hearings, and cuts down on processing time for other countries to take back their citizens.  The bill, which passed by voice vote, also would penalize countries that refuse to take back illegal aliens and would end the current "catch-and-release" policy. Under that policy the Department of Homeland Security processes so-called OTMs, or "other than Mexicans," and then releases most of them into society with the hope -- usually dashed -- they would return in order to be deported.

House denounces (320-91) Ninth Circuit decision in parental rights case - Lisa Friedman (L.A. Daily News)
Lawmakers in the U.S. House overwhelmingly denounced the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday for tossing out a lawsuit by Palmdale parents furious that their children were surveyed at school about sex.  In a 320-91 vote, legislators passed a resolution demanding the court rehear the case and charging that it "declared parenting unconstitutional" when it rejected last month the Mesquite Elementary School parents' claim that they have the exclusive right to tell their children about sex.  The measure carries no enforcement or legal weight but is the latest in a string of congressional attacks on the 9th Circuit Court as the House nears a vote on a budget bill that may include a provision that would split the court. The Senate is expected to oppose that move.

Over 200 House members demand Able Danger testimony - Roxana Tiron (The Hill)
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) has gathered at least 202 Congress members’ signatures for a request that participants of an intelligence cell that may have identified some of the Sept. 11 ringleaders a year before the attacks be allowed to testify before Congress.  Weldon has been leading the crusade for months, but his colleagues, several of them prominent members of the GOP conference, now appear to be listening.  Weldon plans to send the letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the coming days requesting that he allow the participants in the cell known as “Able Danger” to testify in open congressional hearings.

FEC opines that web sites covered by "press exemption" of campaign finance laws (Federal Election Commission)
Draft Advisory opinion 2005-16, issued by the FEC on November 10, 2005, holds that "the costs. . .incur[red] in covering or carrying news stories, commentary, or editorials on. . .websites are encompassed by the press exemption" to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, "and therefore do not constitute 'expenditures' or 'contributions' under the Act and Commission regulations."  Although the draft adviory opinion is in response to specific inquiries made by the Fired Up political web sites (firedupmissouri.com, firedupmaryland.com, firedupwashington.com and firedupamerica.com), there does not appear to be any reason that the holding would not be applicable to other such news and opinion websites.

House Republicans respond to Murtha's call for U.S. to cut-and-run from Iraq  (SeanRobins.com)
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. And I'm joined by my colleagues today to make some comments regarding the recent congressional initiatives that would call for an immediate pullout of American forces from Iraq.  You know, American military operations have two phases. In the attack phase there's great patriotism, there's a groundswell of support for the troops and much flag waving..  The second phase is a more difficult phase. That's a time when you have casualties. That's the time when you make incremental gains. And it's a time when you sometimes see faltering political support. That always happens. And right now in the war-fighting theater in Iraq, we're in the second phase.

Deja vu Murtha: May 6, 2004 - Hans Nichols (The Hill)
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told his Democratic colleagues Tuesday that he feared the war in Iraq is unwinnable if the U.S. military does not dramatically increase troop levels, provide more ground support and seek significant international involvement.  But Murtha — a Vietnam veteran, an early Democratic advocate of President Bush’s authority to invade Iraq and one of Congress’s staunchest supporters of the military — expressed serious doubts that those remedies are even faint possibilities, given current military deployments, a lack of support from NATO allies and widespread outrage over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war.

Why did the 9/11 Commission ignore "Able Danger"? - Louis Freeh (OpinionJournal.com)
It was interesting to hear from the 9/11 Commission again on Tuesday. This self-perpetuating and privately funded group of lobbyists and lawyers has recently opined on hurricanes, nuclear weapons, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and even the New York subway system. Now it offers yet another "report card" on the progress of the FBI and CIA in the war against terrorism, along with its "back-seat" take and some further unsolicited narrative about how things ought to be on the "front lines."  Yet this is also a good time for the country to make some assessments of the 9/11 Commission itself. Recent revelations from the military intelligence operation code-named "Able Danger" have cast light on a missed opportunity that could have potentially prevented 9/11. Specifically, Able Danger concluded in February 2000 that military experts had identified Mohamed Atta by name (and maybe photograph) as an al Qaeda agent operating in the U.S. Subsequently, military officers assigned to Able Danger were prevented from sharing this critical information with FBI agents, even though appointments had been made to do so. Why?

Egos out of control: Sens. Specter and Harkin try to name buildings. . .after themselves  (DrudgeReport.com)
Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) named buildings after THEMSELVES in the Labor-HHS Appropriations conference -- which they oversaw!  The 2006 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee Conference Report (109-300) names two new buildings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the Chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, and Ranking Democratic Member, Senator Tom Harkin.  The building with the new visitors center would be named after Senator Harkin.

Better check 'em for hand grenades: Palestinian kids undergo heart surgery in Israel (YNetNews.com)
The lives of 100 Palestinian children have been saved under an EU- funded project carried out by the Save a Child’s Heart organization at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, the Delegation of the European Commission to Israel reported.  The project - The Heart of the Matter - provides Palestinian children with open heart surgery and other life-saving treatment. As part of this process the parents of the Palestinian children encounter the parents of Israeli children undergoing similar operations at the Wolfson Medical Center in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect that spreads to their broader communities,” the EU said in a statement.

Orange County, Florida NAACP head turns. . .Republican - Scott Maxwell (Orlando Sentinel)
For decades, Republicans have struggled to reach out to black Americans. But now in Orange County, the GOP has to reach no further than the NAACP.  As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP, has switched parties -- to become a Republican.  "I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."

Woodward could be a boon to Libby - Carold D. Leonnig & Jim VandeHei (Washington Post)
The revelation that The Washington Post's Bob Woodward may have been the first reporter to learn about CIA operative Valerie Plame could provide a boost to the only person indicted in the leak case: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.  Legal experts said Woodward provided two pieces of new information that cast at least a shadow of doubt on the public case against Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.  Woodward testified Monday that contrary to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's public statements, a senior government official -- not Libby -- was the first Bush administration official to tell a reporter about Plame and her role at the CIA.  More ==> Woodward's public statement | Walter Pincus on Woodward | Ben Bradlee on Woodward

Woodward on the ropes: Post newsroom snips away (MediaBistro.com)
The Post's internal critiques are proving to be a real opportunity for internal discussion -- and the critiques in the wake of the Bob Woodward controversy of this week are no exception.  Now in the wake of more revelations and debates over leaked information, the internal message boards are humming with a debate over, well, leaks from the message boards.  Today they're debating the propriety of the critiques, given that the more interesting ones often end up leaking outside the newsroom--and being posted on blogs, running in Washingtonian magazine, and even--horror of horrors--being quoted by Howard Kurtz in the paper itself.

Joe Wilson's nose resurfaces: Probe Woodward - Adam Entous (Reuters)
Joseph Wilson, the husband of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, called on Thursday for an inquiry by The Washington Post into the conduct of journalist Bob Woodward, who repeatedly criticized the leak investigation without disclosing his own involvement.  "It certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. He was taking an advocacy position when he was a party to it," Wilson said.  Woodward testified under oath on Monday to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that a senior Bush administration official casually told him in mid-June 2003 about Plame's position at the CIA. 

Ronnie Earle denied impropriety in procurement of DeLay indictment from third grand jury - Christy Hoppe (Kansas City Star)
After a month of silence, District Attorney Ronnie Earle filed court papers on Wednesday denying that prosecutors did anything improper before a grand jury to obtain a money laundering indictment against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.  Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin has requested that a judge throw out the indictment against DeLay, R-Texas, who had to step down as House majority leader after the grand jury acted.  DeGuerin, in court filings, has accused prosecutors of unlawfully participating in grand jury deliberations, trying to coerce reluctant jurors into issuing an indictment and violating secrecy laws by telling one panel about another's considerations.

You may be a liberal if. . . (FreeRepublic.com)
You are against the War on Terror, but are only too happy to make millions of dollars by making movies about it.  You preach about the evils of Capitalism from the comfort of your Beverly Hills estate.  You cry about "profiteering corporations", but still demand your weekly paycheck.  You think "rich people" are evil, but are willing to over-look the fact that Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, George Soros, Michael Moore, and Al Franken are "rich", as well.  You scream and shout when innocent civilians are accidentally caught in the cross-fire, but remain silent when terrorists kill them on purpose.

Woodward was told of Plame more than two years ago - Carold D. Leonnig & Jim VandeHei (Washington Post)
Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.  In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

Bridge to nowhere, going nowhere - Sam Bishop (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
Sen. Ted Stevens says earmarks for controversial bridges near Anchorage and Ketchikan will be removed from federal law under a proposal agreed to by members of a House-Senate team negotiating a transportation spending bill.  The $452.5 million earmarked for the bridges will still go to Alaska, but it won't be directed to the bridges, according to Stevens.  It's unfortunate that Alaska has been unfairly maligned in the press, and by some members of Congress, forcing the Appropriations Committee to take this drastic measure," Stevens said in a quote relayed by his spokeswoman, Courtney Schikora Boone.  More ==> Sierra Club press release | Daily Mining Gazette

U.S. Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) calls for change in GOP House leadership (N.H. Union Leader)
Five-term Republican Rep. Charles Bass said this week his party’s leaders in the House of Representatives are more concerned about their own pet projects than the GOP’s “fundamental principles."  Bass, co-chair of a group of about 35 moderate House Republicans called the “Tuesday Group,” is calling for new elections in leadership next year “so we have a fresh slate of officers outside of the speaker for the next session of the Congress." . . . Bass noted that he has expressed concern about the direction of the Republican Party in Washington “all along, but the difference is that Republicans are now down and everyone is listening to this sort of thing."

The more Democrats try to force the pre-war intelligence and decision to go to war issues into something politically advantageous to themselves, the more twisted they and their logic becomes, and the more trouble they keep causing for themselves.

The Sunday talking head shows can be fascinating, if you can keep your head from exploding while watching.  This Sunday's edition of FOX News Sunday, with Chris Wallace, was certainly no exception.  Watching Sen. Rockefeller--who was appearing with Republican Senator Pat Roberts, Chair to his Vice Chair on the Senate Intelligence Committee--trying to wriggle and slither himself out of the 2002 vote authorizing President bush to use force against Iraq, was an almost awe-inspiring sight to behold.

It is a positively slovenly new dance that Senate Democrats and their political and media allies are currently trying to perfect, known as the "I voted for the war in Iraq, before I voted against it" dance.  Never mind the crashing disaster that was the same line of reasoning  used by Senator Kerry in discussing his vote to fund the war.  ("I voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.")  In the case of Kerry's political turnabout on war funding, he actually did vote against the $87 billion in funding. . but when the going got tough during the run-up to the '04 election, the French-looking Senator from Massachusetts tried to have it both ways, and appear to be more hawkish than he really was.

In Rockefeller's case this Sunday, however--and in the case of oh so many Dems these days--in keeping with their new "strategy," they really did vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq.  (Go here for an exhaustive review of what many Dems have said and believed about weapons of mass destruction over the years.)  Specifically in Senator Rockefeller's case, on October 10, 2002, he told his Senate colleagues the following:

Senator Rockefeller is an extreme example, even among extreme examples of today's twisted-talking Democrats on the subject of their October 2002 votes to authorize the use of force against Iraq.  Rockefeller voted in the affirmative, in support of giving President Bush the authority to take the nation into war against Iraq.  And make no mistake about it, Rockefeller was not relying upon "16 words" in a State of the Union address that had not yet been spoken.  Nor was he predicating his vote upon some imagined urging of "imminence" from the President.  Rockefeller was basing his vote--as most Democrats who voted "yes" were basing their votes--upon the same intelligence reporting upon which the President was acting.  Rockefeller set forth his concerns clearly and succinctly: Saddam is a threat, he is working hard to obtain nuclear weapons, and we cannot await their definitive appearance or use to act in our own defense:

Who can argue with the Senator Rockefeller of October 10, 2002?  Answer?  The Senator Rockefeller of November, 2005, who appeared on FOX News Sunday.  After playing a portion of this speech to the Senator, host Chris Wallace asked Rockefeller about the concurrence of his (and fellow Dems) conclusions about the pre-war intelligence that President Bush did.  Almost like an animal caught in the grasp of the steel jaws of a trap, Senator Rockefeller's response to Wallace's questioning was almost akin to the animal gnawing off its own leg to escape:

Try hard as he might, there is little Rockefeller can do to avoid responsibility for his own conclusions of October 2002.  He can certainly deliver a litany of excuses--and that is what the present Democratic strategy is all about--but he cannot change the history of what he believed, and what he said, and how he voted in 2002.  The "excuse" strategy is not even a terribly dignified one for Democrats.  It requires the use of the argument, in essence, that they all were duped by President Bush, and "faulty intelligence," intelligence which President Bush didn't know was bad, bust should have known, but which Democrats shouldn't have known was bad.  "We was fooled"--best sums up the strategy.

Again, Wallace attempts to get Rockefeller on the record as accepting responsibility for his own vote, for this own decision.  But to little avail, as Rockefeller even states at one point that he is not responsible for his own vote:

Can anyone discern from all of this a single, principled basis upon which Rockefeller--or any of the others--should be relieved of responsibility for believing the same things that President Bush believed, and for acting upon the same intelligence that Bush acted upon?

Rockefeller must have been more surprised than even the rest of us when he said "No," that he wasn't responsible for his vote; but he quickly caught himself and changed tune to: "I'm responsible for my vote, but . . .," and then proceeded to attack Wallace, accusing him of not being "serious about this subject."  Wallace's interview, however, was completely, deadly serious.

Rockefeller's "turnabout and cover your rear" performance is not unlike numerous similar efforts being attempted by Democrats these days, in an effort--as President Bush said in his Veterans Day address--to rewrite the history of how the war began.  It's an interesting example, though.

Perhaps the most significant "nugget" that came from Sunday's appearance on FOX, was in response to Wallace's first jab at the start of the interview.  Wallace quips, based on the clip from Rockefeller's speech, that rather than President Bush asserting that the threat from Iraq was "imminent" (and as we all know, Bush never said "imminent" in his 2003 State of the Union address), it was Rockefeller who said the threat posed by Saddam was "imminent."

Rockefeller then proceeds to make a statement (let's call them the "59 words" in Rockefeller's interview), which appears, in its context, to be little more than another gratuitous slam against Bush's having long ago decided to attack Iraq, a "predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11."

The interesting bit is the revelation that Rockefeller, on his own, journeyed to three Middle Eastern nations, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria--each of which, to different degrees, has, shall we say, something less than the best interests of the United States at heart.  Each of which is or has been a state supporter of terrorism; Syria even more directly appears to have been, and to continue to be, a major participant and supporter of terrorist activities and, with respect to Iraq, may be complicit in efforts by Saddam's government to ferry WMDs out of Iraq, and stash them elsewhere (like Syria).

So Rockefeller, a serving United States Senator; Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee; not a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps; not having been dispatched as a representative of the U.S. government--a "mission" which would have to have been undertaken, if at all, through assignment by the President--just thought he would pay a few "courtesy" calls upon Middle Eastern heads of state with interests ranging from somewhat divergent from ours. . .to entirely opposite from ours.  So, he went to Saudi Arabia. . .to Jordan. . .to Syria. . .spoke with their heads of state. . .and informed them that the President of the United States (in Rockefeller's opinion) "had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq," and that he had done so right after the 9/11 attacks.

Even if true--but whether or not true--how can such actions by a United States Senator, who has sworn allegiance to this country, who has sworn to "support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic," and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same," and that he will "faithful discharge the duties of [his] office," be explained?

Article II, sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution, defines "treason against the United States" as consisting in "levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

So, why did Rockefeller go to the Middle East in January, 2002?  And why did he meet with the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria?  And why did he tell them that he believed that President Bush had, by that time--even earlier, right after 9/11--decided to go to war against Iraq?  That--should be the subject for the next Congressional investigation--and for the next independent commissions--and for the next special prosecutor: Whether this U.S. Senator has committed treason.

The Democrats' vendetta - Peter Lemiska (RenewAmerica.us)
As the President struggles to regain his footing, his supporters — and there still are a few — wonder why his job approval rating is so low. The economy is in good shape, home ownership is up, gas prices are coming down, we haven't suffered a terrorist attack in our country for four years, and our military might toppled a terrorist regime in a matter of weeks.  Besides showing off their ability to make sows ears out of silk purses, why are the Democrats so compelled to attack, not only the President's policies, but his character, as well, by accusing him of launching a war under false pretenses — a war that most of them once supported?

GOP has "sold out" conservatives on immigration - Paul Weyrich (RenewAmerica.us)
The thoughts I have offered in these columns on where the conservative movement needs to go have generally looked long-term, toward the time after the end of President Bush's second term. But there is one issue that will not wait, and that issue is immigration. We need to do something about immigration now.  Let me put this bluntly. On no issue have a Republican administration and a Republican House and Senate more blatantly or more cynically sold out the conservative movement and our country than on immigration.

Subverting the Constitution: 75 years of indefensible Supreme Court decisions - Henry Mark Holzer (FrontPageMagazine.com)
The retirement of Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor (contingent upon her replacement being seated), and the ensuing nominations of John G. Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito, exposed once again the ongoing moral, political, and legal schism between liberals and conservatives over such hot-button constitutional law issues as abortion, affirmative action, prisoners’ rights, establishment of religion, and the power of Congress.  Liberals were desperate to extend, or at least retain, their hegemony on the Court.  Conservatives saw an opportunity for the President to return the Court to a proper constitutional balance, where respect for federalism, separation of powers, and judicial restraint was not the exception but the norm.  Judge, now Chief Justice, Roberts dazzled the Senate Judiciary Committee and was easily confirmed.  Judge Alito will similarly impress the Committee, albeit in a more understated manner, and he too will be confirmed.

New Orleans Dems seek delay in local elections; Need more Dems to return to city - Melinda Deslatte (AP)
The state's elections commissioner is recommending that the February election scheduled for New Orleans be delayed because of the complications caused by Hurricane Katrina, which displaced thousands of the city's residents and demolished polling places.  "It would be too problematic. We're not ready," Commissioner of Elections Angie LaPlace told a House committee on Monday.  LaPlace said she will recommend to Secretary of State Al Ater, Louisiana's top elections official, that the Feb. 4 mayoral primary scheduled for New Orleans, which includes city council races and referendums, be postponed. If Ater agrees with LaPlace's assessment, the governor would have to determine whether to delay the election.

Who is lying about Iraq?  A campaign of distortion aims to discredit the liberation - Norman Podhoretz (OpinionJournal.com)
Among the many distortions, misrepresentations and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.  What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.  Nevertheless, I want to take one more shot at exposing it for the lie that it itself really is. Although doing so will require going over ground that I and many others have covered before, I hope that revisiting this well-trodden terrain may also serve to refresh memories that have grown dim, to clarify thoughts that have grown confused, and to revive outrage that has grown commensurately dulled.

Howard Dean goes ballistic. . .again (WorldNetDaily.com)
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean used some of his harshest language ever in a "Meet the Press" interview, charging President Bush deliberately lied and deceived the American people and Congress to lead them into the Iraq invasion.  In reacting to Bush's speech Friday, in which the president charged Democrats were sending the wrong signal to America's enemies with the focus on criticisms of pre-war intelligence and the nation's conduct in the war. . .

NBC Prez Wright on liberal radio: Forget about it (Broadcasting & Cable)
Symposiums can be snoozy affairs, but last week at the annual media gathering wrangled by former Hearst Entertainment President Ray Joslin at Trinity College in New York, NBC Universal President Bob Wright and the person interviewing him—MSNBC host Tucker Carlson—veered into some interesting territory.  Waxing nostalgic for the days when networks played current events “down the middle,” Wright lamented the over-the-top tone that cable-news channels are increasingly embracing. And, of course, he laid responsibility for it all at the feet of Fox News Channel.

Alito 1985 personnel document: No abortion right in the Constitution - Bill Sammon (Washington Times)
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.  I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.  The document, which is likely to inflame liberals who oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, is among many that the White House will release today from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Religious freedom in Saudi Arabia: 750 lashes and 40 months in prison for promoting "dubious idealogy": The Bible (Reuters)
A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.  Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.  He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer," the newspaper said.

Liberal attack groups to go after Alito on. . .everything? - David D. Kirkpatrick (New York Times)
Seeking to move beyond the focus on abortion rights, a coalition of liberal groups opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito is preparing a national TV advertising campaign accusing him of threatening rights through other areas, including police searches and employment discrimination.  The effort to turn the subject away from abortion -- which has dominated the discussion among supporters and detractors of the Alito nomination -- comes as Democrats are trying to dispel their party's image as too absolutist on the issue.

Suicide, it's never too late: Disabled Australians sue for "wrongful life" - Sharon Mathieson (The Australian)
The High Court has been asked to decide whether severely disabled children can sue over medical negligence which resulted in their birth rather than abortion.  In a landmark hearing, two disabled children, one now a young woman and the other a three-year-old girl, are seeking the right to sue their mothers' doctors for wrongful life.  One of the claims has been brought by Sydney woman Alexia Harriton, 24, who was born deaf, blind, physically and mentally disabled and not expected to live more than six months.  She now requires 24 hour a day care.

  (SeanRobins.com)

DNC fundraising under Dean: 2-1 behind Republicans - Chris Cillizza (Washington Post)
The Democratic National Committee under Howard Dean is losing the fundraising race against Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, a slow start that is stirring concern among strategists who worry that a cash shortage could hinder the party's competitiveness in next year's midterm elections.  The former Vermont governor and presidential candidate took the chairmanship of the national party eight months ago, riding the enthusiasm of grass-roots activists who relished his firebrand rhetorical style. But he faced widespread misgivings from establishment Democrats, including elected officials and Washington operatives, who questioned whether Dean was the right fit in a job that traditionally has centered on fundraising and the courting of major donors.  Now, the latest financial numbers are prompting new doubts. From January through September, the Republican National Committee raised $81.5 million, with $34 million remaining in the bank. The Democratic National Committee, by contrast, showed $42 million raised and $6.8 million in the bank.

The lie is the "Bush lied" - Norman Podhoretz (FrontPageMagazine.com)
Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.  What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what. . . . The main “lie” that George W. Bush is accused of telling us is that Saddam Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, or WMD as they have invariably come to be called.

The Clinton Administration's public case against Saddam Hussein (New American Century)
In June of 1997, Iraq officials had ratcheted up their obstruction of UNSCOM inspection efforts. They interfered with UNSCOM air operations and denied and delayed access of inspectors to sites. In September, they burned documents at sites while inspectors watched outside the front entrance. By mid-November, Saddam Hussein had demanded an end to U-2 surveillance flights over Iraq and called on American inspectors to leave Iraq.1 Iraqis also began moving equipment that could produce weapons of mass destruction out of the range of video cameras inspectors had installed inside key industrial facilities.  At first, the Clinton administration adopted a generally reserved tone toward Saddam's provocations. "We believe that he needs to fulfill all the Security Council obligations and that that is an appropriate way to deal with him," commented Secretary Albright at a November 5 press conference with the German foreign minister.  The next day Secretary Cohen held a ceremony unrelated to Iraq, but, citing "an unusual array" of journalists present, he also spoke on Iraq. "[I]t's imperative that Iraq comply with U.N. mandates," said Cohen, but "the task right now, however, is to persuade them to cease and desist from their obstruction." And when asked what would be the consequences should Saddam not comply, Cohen said simply, "it's important that we not speculate what those reactions might be."

Unilateral disarmament in the war on terror (OpinionJournal.com)
If Osama bin Laden is alive and looking for signs of flagging U.S. will to fight the war on terror, he need look no further than our national debate about interrogating his compatriots and others who would do us harm.  Post-9/11, after all, it is hardly far-fetched to imagine a scenario in which our ability to extract information from a terrorist is the only thing that might prevent a bioterror attack or even the nuclear annihilation of an American city. And we know for a fact that information wrung from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others has helped prevent further attacks on U.S. soil.  Yet according to many Bush Administration critics, the aggressive and stressful questioning techniques used successfully against the likes of KSM put the U.S. on a slippery slope to widespread "torture" and the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. John McCain (R., Arizona) has pushed an amendment through the Senate that would effectively bar all stressful interrogation techniques. The danger for American security is that this would telegraph to every terrorist in the world that he has absolutely nothing to fear from silence should he fall into U.S.

15 Nights and still counting - Elaine Ganley (AP)
The number of cars torched overnight in France climbed slightly over the previous night to 502 in a 16th night of unrest that took its heaviest toll on the French provinces, police said Saturday.  Security was boosted in the capital with some 3,000 police officers fanning out around strategic points to counter feared weekend attacks targeting Paris. Gatherings were banned from Saturday morning until Sunday morning. "We returned to an almost normal situation in Ile de France," said national police chief Michel Gaudin, referring to the Paris region. Arson attacks were counted in 163 towns around France, he said. The count of those detained overnight stood at 206, bringing to 2,440 the number of suspects picked up in just over two weeks of unrest.

Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader weign in on Terrell Owens; Please mind your own businesses (NBC10.com)
Add the Rev. Jesse Jackson to the list of famous people who want to get involved in Terrell Owens' suspension from the Eagles.  Jackson has joined another former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, in calling for the NFL to let Owens rejoin the Eagles or release him from his contract. This punishment is much too severe for the charge," Jackson said. "If (Owens) had been caught shaving points, selling drugs, carrying a gun or fighting some fans, who provoked him, and he had not shown sufficient restraint, we could understand the severe suspension."

The uranium Saddam did have (NewsMax.com)
Though President Bush didn't mention it in his speech yesterday rebutting critics of his administration's use of intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, experts say that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled enough partially enriched uranium to produce at least one full-fledged nuclear bomb. . . . Even Saddam's 500-ton un-enriched uranium stockpile, which he stored at the same nuclear weapons research facility where inspectors found his partially enriched stash, posed a potential threat. . . . "You have a warehouse containing 500 tons of natural uranium," Dombey wrote. "You need 25 kilograms of U235 to build one weapon. How many nuclear weapons can you build?The answer is 142 [nuclear bombs]," he said.

Converup continues in yet-to-be-released Clinton IRA report (NewsMax.com)
A three-judge panel overseeing Independent Counsel David Barrett's investigation into abuses by the Internal Revenue Service under the Clinton administration has ordered Barrett to make "discrete deletions" is the draft he submitted 15 months ago.  The deletion order "has stoked speculation that [it] has more to do with the next presidential campaign," reports the Wall Street Journal, noting widespread rumors that "the draft report contains information potentially embarrassing to another Clinton administration figure, former first lady and current New York Sen. Hillary Clinton." "The one Clinton official rumored to be implicated in the report is former IRS Commissioner Margaret Richardson, a friend of the former first lady," the paper said.

Senate curtails legal ability of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their status - Liz Sidoti (AP)
The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.  In a 49-42 vote, senators added the provision by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to a sweeping defense policy bill.  Under the provision, Guantanamo Bay detainees would be allowed to appeal their status as an "enemy combatant" one time, to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. But they would not be able to file petitions known as writs of habeas corpus, which are used to fight unlawful detentions, in that or any other U.S. court.

DeLay's lawyers demand documents from prosecutor's office - April Castro (AP)
Attorneys for Rep. Tom DeLay asked his prosecutor Thursday to provide any internal communications from the district attorney's office that had argued against indicting the former House majority leader.  The defense attorneys hope such documents would show that Democratic District Attorney Ronnie Earle went after the powerful Republican despite opposition from grand juries dealing with the case. That could bolster defense arguments that the money laundering and conspiracy charges against DeLay should be dropped.  Earle's office would not comment on the written request from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin asking for "internal notes, memoranda or documents which recommend against seeking an indictment against Tom DeLay."

House intelligence committee will probe Washington Post CIA prisons leak - Katherine Shrader (AP)
The House Intelligence Committee will look into a possible leak of classified information about secret CIA prisons but will not reopen its 2003 inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq.  As calls for intelligence-related reviews grow on Capitol Hill, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said Thursday his committee will study several specific leaks of classified information, including a Nov. 2 Washington Post story that discussed the existence of secret CIA prisons overseas.

Republican bedwetters on the Hill - Blanton (RedState.org)
According to sources on Capitol Hill, House Leadership still does not have the votes for the Deficit Reduction Act (H.R. 4241) but is working furiously to get them.  This is the biggest vote of the 109th Congress – period. It is the first time Republicans are attempting to seriously address out-of-control spending since 1997 by reducing its rate of growth by saving $50 billion over five years. However, this vote has become far more about symbolism than substance (although the substance is good), and it is now about the soul of the House Republican majority. Late in September, conservatives on the Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Reps. Mike Pence (IN) and Jeb Hensarling (TX), sent shock waves through their party with their Operation Offset and dared to assert what the base already knew – that federal spending is out-of-control. House Leadership, after initially balking, finally tried to ante up for their big spending ways and embraced a $50 billion savings package as a down payment to fully pay for the Katrina relief effort. The moderate Tuesday Group, catered to for years, took umbrage with the RSC's recent efforts and now refuses to give the RSC a victory. For the moderates, it has become us against them. Leadership even took drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf out of the package late last night to get their vote, and they still have not come around.

RINOs?: Growth of the Republican turncoat (Wall Street Journal)
Republican disarray on Capitol Hill reached self-ramming speed yesterday, as both the House and the Senate abandoned key policy priorities as they tried to pass a budget. Hide the children because this is getting ugly.  In the Senate, Maine's Olympia Snowe helped to scuttle even a single-year extension of the current 15% tax rate on dividends and capital gains that is due to expire in 2008. Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley was thus forced to postpone a committee vote on extending a tax cut that has been crucial to an economic rebound that since mid-2003 has been marked by 10-straight quarters of nearly 4% average growth. Tell us again why Republicans need 55 Senators.

Ukraine preparing to quit Iraq (RIA Novosti)
Ukraine will withdraw most of its military contingent from Iraq, leaving about 50 troops, the country's defense minister said Thursday.  In view of a proposal from the Iraqi government and coalition leaders, a presidential draft resolution is being prepared. If it is passed, in 2006 there will be a limited number of military personnel in Iraq," Anatoliy Hrytsenko said following his visit to Iraq.  The remaining Ukrainian troops will stay in the country for six months. Ukraine currently has about 1,000 soldiers posted in Iraq. The authorities previously announced that the troops would be withdrawn before the end of 2005.

Terrorists off Somali coast attack more ships - Daniel Wallis (Reuters)
Somali pirates [Ed.: Muslim terrorists] attacked five more ships this week after a failed attempt to seize a luxury liner, in a sharp rise of banditry apparently directed by a mysterious "mother ship" prowling the Indian Ocean.  Most vessels escaped, but one was commandeered, bringing to nine the number of vessels being held captive along with their crews by pirates working the lawless southern section of the failed state's coastline, Africa's longest.  Insecurity off the Somali coast has escalated sharply," Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator at the Kenyan Seafarers' Association, told Reuters. "It is very worrying."

Delaware homeowner defends self from intruders (2nd Amendment alert) - Al Novack (KYW 1060-AM)
Police in Roswell (New Castle County), Del. are investigating an overnight break-in at a home that ended in a gunfight between the home owner and the intruders.  Investigators say the incident began just after midnight at the home on South Woodward Avenue when the 60-year-old homeowner, who just happens to be a hunter and a good marksman, heard the men breaking into his house. He grabbed a gun and decided to investigate.  As he entered the room where the intruders were, they spotted him and opened fire. The homeowner was not hit, but he returned fire and hit both intruders, who fled into a nearby wooded area.

Curt Weldon: New info on Able Danger - intelligence and 9/11 commission coverups (Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN)
Interview of Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), of the House Armed Services Committee, interviewed by CNN's Lou Dobbs concerning Weldon's ongoing efforts to investigate the cover-up of Able Danger, a data mining operation that identified al-Qaeda operative, Mohamad Atta, as being in the U.S. a year before the attacks of 9/11.  DOBBS:  Simply irrelevant how Slade Gorton describes Able Danger, what's your reaction?  WELDON:  Unbelievable. Slade Gorton has never talked to any principle involved with Able Danger. And how he can go off and profess to know something about something that he's never talked to anyone about, is beyond me.  Slade Gorton is into what the 9/11 commission is doing, Lou. It's called c, y, a. Cover their butts, pretend it didn't happen.  How can you say something is historically insignificant that Louis Freeh just two weeks ago on national TV said Able Danger information was the kind of intelligence that could have prevented the hijackings.

GOP revolting revolt: So-called "moderates" abandoning conservatism? - Andrew taylor (AP)
House Republican leaders scuttled a vote Thursday on a $51 billion budget-cut package in the face of a revolt by moderate lawmakers over cuts to Medicaid, food stamp and student loan programs.  The episode marked a setback for Republicans on Capitol Hill. They had hoped to use the budget debate to burnish their deficit-cutting credentials with the public and their core political supporters, many of whom are disappointed with their party's performance on spending.  The decision by GOP leaders came despite a big concession to moderates Wednesday, when the leaders dropped provisions to open the Arctic National Refuge to oil and gas exploration, as well as a plan letting states lift a moratorium on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Jordanians mount furious protests against al-Zarqawi for bombings (CNN)
Three terror bombings that killed at least 56 people in Jordan's capital sparked furious protests against al Qaeda on Thursday after a Web site carried a claim that the group was behind the attacks.  Jordanians flooded Amman blaring car horns and waving the nation's flag to protest the suicide attacks at three hotels with Western connections.  Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the claim of responsibility was posted.

Judith Miller's farewell - Judy Miller (New York Times)
To the Editor: On July 6 I chose to go to jail to defend my right as a journalist to protect a confidential source, the same right that enables lawyers to grant confidentiality to their clients, clergy to their parishioners, and physicians and psychotherapists to their patients. Though 49 states have extended this privilege to journalists as well, for without such protection a free press cannot exist, there is no comparable federal law. I chose to go to jail not only to honor my pledge of confidentiality, but also to dramatize the need for such a federal law. After 85 days, more than twice as long as any other American journalist has ever spent in jail for this cause, I agreed to testify before the special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's grand jury about my conversations with my source, I. Lewis Libby Jr. I did so only after my two conditions were met: first, that Mr. Libby voluntarily relieve me in writing and by phone of my promise to protect our conversations; and second, that the special prosecutor limit his questions only to those germane to the Valerie Plame Wilson case.

Political castration; GOP drops ANWR drilling provision from budget bill (AP)
House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.  They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium. . . . The decision to drop the ANWR drilling language came after GOP moderates said they would oppose the budget if it was kept in the bill. The offshore drilling provision was also viewed as too contentious and a threat to the bill, especially in the Senate.

Texas strangulation killer put to death for 1993 slaying - Zeke Minaya (Houston Chronicle)
Charles Daniel Thacker, convicted of fatally choking a schoolteacher during an attempted sexual assault, was executed Wednesday.  Thacker, strapped onto a gurney and in a slightly quivering voice, thanked his two witnesses, volunteer prison ministers. "Jack and Irene, I love you guys. Tell my family I love them. I am sorry for the things I have done. I know God will forgive me."  Thacker did not acknowledge the only witness for the victim, the brother of Karen Crawford, who died two days after the attack in April 1993. Steve Crawford, of Illinois, at times looked away during the procedure.

Levees investigation: Pilings shorter than designed, much shorter than needed - Bob Marshall (Times-Picayune)
Sheet piling supporting the failed floodwall on the 17th Street Canal extends just 10 feet below sea level, 7 feet shorter than the Corps of Engineers has maintained, a team of investigators said Wednesday, strengthening earlier findings that faulty design and construction played a role in the canal breaches that flooded much of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.  An LSU forensic engineering team, working in conjunction with the state attorney general's office, began examining the levee foundation with ground sonar Wednesday. The first reading was taken about 150 yards south of the break that allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to inundate the city. . . . Soil borings the corps consulted as it designed the walls in the early 1990s indicated pilings would have to be driven at least 40 to 50 feet deep before reaching soil strong enough to support the wall, investigators have said.

Criminal probe launched into faulty design and construction of New Orleans levees (AP)
Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the levee failures that swamped New Orleans, looking into the possibility of corruption in the design, construction and maintenance of the flood barriers.  U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday that his office began the investigation the week after Hurricane Katrina.  "The scope of our interest is very broad," he said.

French riots: A gift from the open borders lobby - Kamal Nawash (FrontPageMagazine.com)
For the last two weeks, France has experienced riots the likes of which it has not seen in decades.  In terms of destruction, the unrest is France's worst since World War II.  More than a thousand cars have been burned along with several buildings and hundreds have been arrested.  For the most part, the riots are being carried out by the children of poor immigrants most of whom are Muslim.  Since the riots began, many have given their two cents as to why France is burning.  Some say this is a result of years of discrimination and deprivation, some say the riots are a function of a jihad whereby Muslims are trying to turn Europe into a Muslim continent, and yet others conclude that the riots are a function of decades of failed policies by France and other Western Nations.  While there is no one cause for the French riots, none of the "experts" have considered decades of failed immigration policies as the cause of the riots.

Australia to Muslims: You want Islamic law? Then get out (AAP)
Treasurer Peter Costello said radical Muslims would not be allowed to turn Australia into an Islamic state.  Mr Costello said Muslims who wanted to live in a country governed by sharia law, which imposes strict limitations on freedoms, would be better off living elsewhere.  "If you are somebody who wants to live in an Islamic state governed by sharia law you are not going to be happy in Australia, because Australia is not an Islamic state, will never be an Islamic state and will never be governed by sharia law," Mr Costello said.

France to deport foreign rioters (BBC News)
Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of taking part in the riots that have swept France for 13 nights.  He told parliament 120 foreigners had been found guilty of involvement and would be deported without delay.  Police said overnight violence had fallen significantly - although trouble still flared in more than 100 towns. . . . Mr Sarkozy told MPs that non-French nationals - "not all of whom are here illegally" - had been convicted of taking part in the attacks.  "I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa," he said.

Vallely "outs" Wilson on nationaol television (WorldNetDaily.com)
Calling it "a potentially explosive development in the CIA leak investigation," Fox News analysts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes grilled retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely tonight about his claim that Ambassador Joseph Wilson "outed" his wife as a CIA agent in 2002, a year before her identity was exposed by a political columnist.  "There's no personal vendetta here," Vallely told the pair, "I want to make that clear. It all came about questioning why the special prosecutor did not include in his inquiry bring under oath Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame or anybody in the CIA as far as we know, so the question is out there to be answered."  More==> Watch the Hannity & Colmes segment with Vallely

Patrick Fitsgerald ignored witnesses who contradicted Wilson (NewsMax.com)
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's Leakgate investigation is coming unraveled, as witness after witness steps forward to challenge a key premise of his controversial probe.  Was the identity of Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame really a deep dark secret before she was "outed" by columnist Robert Novak in July 2003?  The number of witnesses now saying "No" has climbed to four - and none of them have apparently been interviewed by Fitzgerald's investigators.

Of pardons and coincidences  (SeanRobins.com)
Democratic Senator Harry Reid and his gang of irrelevants have lobbed a pre-emptive strike against the possibility that President Bush (how dare he) might pardon I. Louis "Scooter" Libby in the event that he is convicted on any of the five counts of the recent indictment.  Reid has "challenged" the president to commit to not pardoning Libby, and has also demanded that Bush state publicly whether anyone from the White House has even discussed the topic.  Leaving aside the contemptible nerve that such demands exhibit, and the fact that the pardon power bestowed upon the Executive by the Constitution is utterly beyond review by any authority--has everyone simply forgotten the 140 eleventh-hour pardons Bill Clinton inked on his last morning in office as he slinked out the back door?  (More on the Clinton pardons in an upcoming post. . .and on the despicable braying of Harry don't-pardon-me Reid.)  Today's interesting tidbit, however, is an amazing little coincidence.  Reid & Co.--Democrats--are demanding that President Bush not pardon Libby.  The biggest pardoner in recent memory--about whom no Democrat ever complained--was, of course, Bill Clinton.  Among the worst of the worst of those pardoned by Clinton, was billionaire financier, Mark Rich who, prosecuted on tax charges, fled the country.  Guess who represented Rich from 1985-2000, while he was "on the lam" because of the tax prosecution?  None other than "Scooter" Libby.  An interesting little circle of political life, which brings the Dems face-to-face with the man who represented Bill Clinton's most notorious "pardonee."  As to the Rich pardon, the Dems were silent and compliant with their boy Bill's pronouncement.  But as to the man who represented the man who was pardoned by the Great Pardoner, its too much to bear.

Voters soundly reject election changes in Ohio (AP)
Promoters of four ballot issues that would have changed the way Ohioans vote took a solid hit on Election Day, but expect the Legislature to make changes on their own anyway.  And one of the most vocal critics of the issues is ready to accommodate them.  The issues would have opened absentee balloting to all voters, lowered the cap on individual campaign contributions and put boards, instead of elected officials, in charge of drawing legislative and congressional districts and overseeing the state's elections.

San Franciscans vote to ban handguns and the military (AP)
approved ballot measures to ban handguns in San Francisco and urge the city's public high schools and college campuses to keep out military recruiters.  The gun ban prohibits the manufacture and sale of all firearms and ammunition in the city, and makes it illegal for residents to keep handguns in their homes or businesses.  Only two other major U.S. cities - Washington and Chicago - have implemented such sweeping handgun bans.

Latest NJ governor polls  (SeanRobins.com)
With the race for New Jersey governor in its final hours, the lead held by Democratic Senator John Corzine has contracted to no more than five points, in two of the final polls issued on this last full campaign day.  Both the Marist and Rasmussen polls put Corzine at +5 points over Republican candidate, Doug Forrester.  Marist has Corzine at 51-46%, and Rasmussen gives the Democrat  39% to Forrester's 44%.  Five points represents Corzine's smallest lead in the Rasmussen poll, in which at his peak, Corzine led Forrester by as much as 12 points in July.  The last two weeks has seen particularly effective tv and radio spots by the Forrester campaign, one in which Forrester's wife asks voters to look past the falsehoods being told by Corzine; and the other in which Corzine's ex-wife warns New Jersians that as Corzine let his family down, so too would he let New Jersey down.  (Corzine left his wife and family shortly after his 2002 election to the U.S. Senate, and is believed to have engaged in affairs with one and perhaps two women.)  In a scandal-ridden state with few equals, New Jersey remains a liberal bastion, but one in which Republicans such as Forrester have begun making significant inroads.

Vallely demands apology from Wilson - Art Moore (WorldNetDaily)
Threatened with a lawsuit for "slander," retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely is turning the tables on Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, calling on the man at the center of the CIA leak controversy to offer a public apology for accusing him of lying.  As WorldNetDaily reported, Vallely claimed Wilson revealed wife Valerie Plame's employment with the CIA to him in a casual conversation the year before she allegedly was "outed" by columnist Robert Novak.  Vallely said he brought up Wilson's disclosure last week because he saw Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the alleged leak as unfinished.

French officials continue battle insurrection with half measures (AP)
President Jacques Chirac declared a 12-day state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in nearly four decades. Meanwhile, police said the nightly rioting that began Oct. 27 ago was showing signs of abating.  "The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared with nearly 300 the night before. . . . Curfew violators face up to two months imprisonment and a $4,400 fine, the justice ministry said. Minors face one month in jail.

Discredited ex-CBS producer, Mapes: Still on the story - Brian Ross (ABC News)
In her first interview since being fired, former CBS News producer Mary Mapes maintains that her controversial "60 Minutes II" story on President Bush's National Guard service was "true" and that "no one has proved that the documents were not authentic."  Mapes was fired after an independent panel found her basic reporting was "faulty."  In her interview with ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, to be broadcast Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Mapes says she is unrepentant about her role. "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't," she says.

Poor petit babies: French feelings hurt by news coverage (Reuters)
A barrage of critical world media reporting on the violence in its rundown suburbs is rubbing nerves raw in France, which is more used to hearing praise for its food, its countryside and its opposition to the Iraq war.  In tones ranging from outrage to rueful agreement, French media are now reporting daily on the harsh terms that foreign television stations and newspapers choose to describe the unrest among France's angry youths of Arab and African origin.  France laughed off "freedom fries" -- as French fries were renamed in Washington -- and other anti-French sentiment in the United States at the start of the Iraq war in 2003, but its reaction to the riot reporting carries a between-the-lines admission of hurt pride.

French P.M. threatens curfews and arrests - Susan Bell (The Scotsman)
Dominique de Villepin, the French prime minister, said last night curfews would be enforced wherever they were needed to quell the riots on the streets of France, hours after it emerged the violence had claimed its first fatality.  The country's worst civil unrest in decades continued for a 12th night, as rioters in the southern city of Toulouse set fire to a bus after sundown and pelted police with petrol bombs and stones. . . . With no sign of the violence abating, Mr de Villepin said curfews would be used and 9,500 police officers and gendarmes deployed to stop the rioting, which has spread across France. "Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to put in place a curfew under the authority of the interior minister, if they think it will be useful to permit a return to calm and ensure the protection of residents. That is our number-one responsibility," Mr de Villepin said last night.

Roots of a riot: France reaps what it sows (Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader)
France has riots all the time, but seldom like this one. Whether it is the beginning of a widespread conflict between Muslim immigrants and native Europeans remains to be seen, but it certainly traces back to the way France has treated these immigrants and their children. The failure of France to assimilate these immigrants and their descendants is obvious.  French culture tells these people in no uncertain terms, "You will never beFrench."  That's a great way to create a permanent, hostile underclass.

Leaders fiddle as France burns - Colin Randall (U.K. Telegraph)
France was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.  Despite an assurance from Philippe Douste Blazy, the foreign minister, that France was "not a dangerous country", the spread of violence prompted the Foreign Office in London to warn travellers that trouble could break out "almost anywhere". Dominique de Villepin, the beleaguered prime minister, announced that officials in riot-hit areas would be authorised to impose late-night curfews "wherever it is necessary" in a bid to halt the disturbances.

Paris burning: How empires end - Patrick J. Buchanan (Human Events)
The Romans conquered the barbarians—and the barbarians conquered Rome.  So it goes with empires.  And comes now the penultimate chapter in the history of the empires of the West.  This is the larger meaning of the ritual murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland, the subway bombings in London, the train bombings in Madrid, the Paris riots spreading across France.  The perpetrators of these crimes in the capitals of Europe are the children of immigrants who were once the colonial subjects of the European empires.  At this writing, the riots are entering their 12th night and have spread to Rouen, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Dijon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Cannes, Nice.  Thousands of cars and buses have been torched and several nursery schools fire-bombed.  One fleeing and terrified woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

Beware a "Digital Munich" - Norm Coleman (Wall Street Journal)
It sounds like a Tom Clancy plot. An anonymous group of international technocrats holds secretive meetings in Geneva. Their cover story: devising a blueprint to help the developing world more fully participate in the digital revolution. Their real mission: strategizing to take over management of the Internet from the U.S. and enable the United Nations to dominate and politicize the World Wide Web. Does it sound too bizarre to be true? Regrettably, much of what emanates these days from the U.N. does.  The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet.

Frustrated Fitzgerald used Libby to justify fruitless probe - Donald Lambro (Human Events)
Is it possible there is less to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s CIA leak investigation than anyone is willing to admit?  From the beginning, conventional wisdom said that laws prohibiting the outing of intelligence agents were broken and that White House officials told reporters the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson—who criticized the intelligence used to justify the Iraq invasion—worked for the CIA in an effort to punish him.  But after two years of exhaustive investigation, Fitzgerald couldn’t find evidence of any top-level grand conspiracy “to lie” us into war. The special prosecutor’s case has come down to this: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, allegedly lied about his recollections of a number of conversations with several reporters.

Michael Steele calls critics racist (NewsMax.com)
Michael Steele wishes Maryland Democrats would live up to Martin Luther King’s standard of judging people by their character and not the color of their skin.  Steele, currently Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor and a black Republican running for the United States Senate to fill the seat to be vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes, has been the victim of multiple slanders by Democratic politicians and activists in Maryland.

French Founding principle called into question - Jon Henley (U.K. Guardian)
The government cannot admit it, but more and more voices in France are being raised to say that the country's worst urban unrest since the student uprising of 1968 reflects the failure of a whole model.  "The crisis is total," one leading sociologist, Michel Wievorka, said yesterday. "This is a structural problem that neither the right nor the left have dealt with for 25 years. France cannot cope with the shortcomings of its republican model. The whole system needs to be rethought." The modèle républicain d'intégration is based on perhaps the most sacred article of all France's grand republican creed: that everyone is equal and indistinguishable in the eyes of the state. No matter where they come from, all French citizens are identical in their Frenchness.

The wrong argument, at the wrong place, at the wrong time - David Horowitz & Ben Johnson (FrontPageMagazine.com)
False charges that presidents lied us into war are nothing new, nor are the recriminations leveled against President Bush’s Iraq war the most outrageous on record. The toxic allegation that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor in advance and deliberately allowed the Japanese to destroy the Pacific fleet to get reluctant Americans to join the war was the subject of a congressional investigation at the time, the subject of a book by America's leading historian Charles Beard (President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War) and wild accusations by Clare Boothe Luce and others. Recent scholars like John Toland and Robert Stinnett have repeated the charges.  Today, these are generally regard as fringe accusations just as the left's present mania will seem as such when future generations look back on the conspiracy-theorist opponents of the war for freedom in Iraq. Naturally, the evidence weighs against the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory, but even if it were true would it change one iota the way Americans feel having gone to war against the fascist Axis? Americans would not demand we apologize to Emperor Hirohito, nor question the way we imposed constitutional democracy on the Axis powers after a prolonged (and bloody) military conflict and years of occupation.

France's intifada - Phyllis Chesler (FrontPageMagazine.com)
In 1973, the French novelist Jean Raspail artfully predicted in the form of fiction the very real Palestinian-style intifada that now rages on the west bank of Europe: France. Ten years after the book's publication, Raspail described the "vision" he had, portrayed in the book, which lasted for ten feverish months:  "They were there! A million poor wretches, armed only with their weakness and their numbers, overwhelmed by misery, encumbered with starving brown and black children, ready to disembark on our soil, the vanguard of the multititudes pressing hard against every part of the tired and overfed West. I literally saw them, saw the major problem they presented, a problem absolutely insoluble by our present moral standards. To let them in would destroy us. To reject them would destroy them."

French riots spread to 300 towns - Angela Doland (AP)
Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight, and a 61-year- old man hurt in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest that has shocked the country, police said Monday.  After sundown, rioters in the southern French city of Toulouse set fire to a bus, then pelted police with Molotov cocktails and rocks, a local official said.  The rioters stopped the bus and ordered the driver to step out, then set the vehicle afire, said Francis Soutric, chief of staff at the regional prefecture in Toulouse. No passengers were inside. Clashes broke out when riot police arrived on the scene, and officers responded with tear gas bombs, he said.

Newspaper circulation bloodletting accelerates; SF Chronicle in freefall, down over 16% - Seth Sutel (AP)
Average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent during the six month-period ending in September in the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business, an industry group reported Monday.  Sunday circulation also fell 3.1 percent at newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America.  The declines show an acceleration of a years-long trend of falling circulation at daily newspapers as more people, especially young adults, turn to the Internet for news and as newspapers cut back on less profitable circulation.  More ==> Audit Bureau Top 20 List

Should Bush fire Rove? (Of course not) - William Kristol (Weekly Standard)
Last Friday, a memo to White House staffers was issued (and released to reporters): Time to go back to class! All White House staffers with security clearances were instructed by the president to attend ethics briefings, including on "the rules governing the protection of classified information," beginning this week. A senior White House aide told the Washington Post that the decision was arrived at in a meeting involving the president, chief of staff Andrew Card, and White House counsel Harriet Miers, who will be conducting the mandatory classes. Also on Friday, the president refused to comment on deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's future, pending the outcome of what he called "a very serious" and "important" investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

Radical Islam fanning French riots - Eve Torjman (Jerusalem Post)
Rioting French Muslims' violence may "remind us of the intifada," but anti-Semitism does not appear to be playing a key part in the current riots, according to Yves Azeroual, editor of the Tribune Juive.  He added that an attack on a synagogue in Pierrefitte outside Paris was simply part of general rioting.  "This isn't connected to anti-Semitism. No one has brought up the Jews as an issue, so for now, it's not an issue for Jews," said Azeroual, who arrived Sunday and witnessed the violence in the Paris suburbs.

Russert joins Bush-haters; participates in blatant propaganda (Oregon Magazine)
It started with (hurricane) Katrina," he said to the early morning NBC anchor.  Then, according to Tim, there were the problems with the CIA agent leak.  Added to the truthfulness problems about WMD which Bush used to justify our attack on Iraq, it explains why the Bush White House is in trouble, with job disapproval/trust ratings in the negative sixty percent range.  Before he left office -- in fact, if memory serves, on the day he was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives -- Bill Clinton sent missles to bomb Baghdad.  Of late, those who recall that sort of thing have been researching poltical speech by famous liberals from Clinton to Kerry, and have located literally dozens of examples of claims by Democrats that Hussein was working on weapons of mass destruction.  The irony here is that in the speech where Bush made that claim, he didn't.  What he actually said was that he couldn't wait until the possibility became a virtual near-term certainty. We had, he said, to attack before the risk became a reality.  Before, not after.

  (SeanRobins.com)

The media immediately attributed their deaths to their need to flee the police.  Then, when there didn't appear to be any evidence that police were actually chasing them, the media changed the story: the boys had been stopped in one of France's routine and notorious identity checks, and felt it best to beat it.  (Could it be that they were "illegal" immigrants in France?  Hardly seems likely in a country which exercises even less judiciousness over the incoming hoards than even Canada does.)  More-->

John Corzine: Did affair with staffer lead to abortion? - Matt Drudge (DrudgeReport.com)
New Jersey Public Radio & Television aired a report Friday night in which New Jersey Democratic Candidate for Governor Jon Corzine was grilled about whether a staffer he allegedly had an affair with -- had an abortion.  NJN News’ Michael Aron reported Friday: “The press is interested right now in personal conduct. Corzine was asked about a persistent rumor that he had an affair with a staffer whom the reporter identified by name."

Investigate the CIA: Plame's "outing" was the result of either incompetence or an effort to undermine the White House - Victoria Toensing (OpinionJournal.com)
In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats last week demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct that led inexorably to Ms. Plame's unveiling. When the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was being negotiated, Senate Select Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater was adamant: If the CIA desired a law making it illegal to expose one of its deep cover employees, then the agency must do a much better job of protecting their cover. That is why a criterion for any prosecution under the act is that the government was taking "affirmative measures" to conceal the protected person's relationship to the intelligence agency. Two decades later, the CIA, either purposely or with gross negligence, made a series of decisions that led to Ms. Plame becoming a household name.

Former U.S. Army general, Paul Vallely, says Joe Wilson "outted" his own wife in 2002 - Art Moore (WorldNetDaily.com)
A retired Army general says the man at the center of the CIA leak controversy, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, revealed his wife Valerie Plame's employment with the agency in a casual conversation more than a year before she allegedly was "outed" by the White House through a columnist.  Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told WorldNetDaily that Wilson mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts.

Wilson and lawyers demand Vallely retract assertion that he "outted" his wife in 2002 - Joseph Farah and Art Moore (WorldNetDaily.com)
Ambassador Joseph Wilson's attorney is demanding Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely retract a statement he made to WND that the man at the center of the CIA leak case "outed" his own wife as a CIA employee in conversations more than a year before her identity was revealed in a syndicated column.  A demand letter was sent by Christopher Wolf, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel for Wilson, to both Vallely and WND tonight.  It disputes Vallely's claim that Wilson mentioned Valerie Plame's status with the CIA in conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington as they waited to appear as analysts.

Nine Totenberg: Justice Ginsberg "a pretty conservative liberal judge) - Noel Sheppard (NewsBusters.org)
On NBC’s “Meet The Press” this morning, host Tim Russert stocked his panel with three left-of-center journalists – Nina Totenberg of NPR, Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, and David Gregory of NBC News – to discuss the events of the week. When they got to the nomination of Samuel Alito to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Russert mentioned that when Bill Clinton was president, both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, despite obvious Liberal leanings, were approved by a strong majority of both Democrats and Republicans. “And they say, ‘Why can't we have the same courtesy to conservative jurists under President Bush?'"  In response, Totenberg said: “If you look at the Ginsburg nomination, for example, she'd been a judge, I think, for 12 years.  She'd been, actually, a pretty conservative liberal judge, if you can be such a thing.” This could be the first time that anyone has referred to the former general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union as being “pretty conservative."

French rioting worsens; 1,300 cars torched, 300 arrested on 10th night (AFP)
Arsonists torched 1,300 cars and police arrested 300 people across France as the urban violence which has rocked the country for 10 nights reached a new peak.  Police deployed helicopters and stepped up their arrests of youths responsible for the street violence, as troubles flared for the 10th consecutive night in suburbs around Paris on Saturday and spread to other French cities. 

The mystery of the NBC zombies; plus, has Russert caved? - Mickey Kaus (Slate.com)
The Mystery of the NBC Zombies: When you think about it, isn't it a bit incredible that NBC could go through an entire Meet the Press episode about the Libby case, and a whole CNBC show, and innumerable newscasts, telling its viewers that in a crucial conversation Libby had called NBC's Tim Russert "complaining about a report he had been watching on MSNBC" without, as far as I can see, telling its viewers the extremely relevant information that the MSNBC report in question was about Joseph Wilson and his trip to Niger, if that's in fact what it was about (something that the NYT, among others, has suggested)? If it was about Wilson, after all, that makes it much more plausible that Libby and Russert at least came close to talking about Wilson's wife's role in arranging the Niger trip.

The best election Corzine can buy - George Will (RealClearPolitics.com)
Sen. Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat, brings his characteristic grandiosity even to his buyer's remorse. In 2000, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs pulled $60.2 million from his wallet to buy a U.S. Senate seat. But just four years after the most expensive Senate campaign in American history, he decided to escape from that seat -- for which he paid $27,489.03 a day, prorated over six years -- and try to become governor.  His Senate colleagues, their feelings injured, may wonder, ``Was it something we said?'' New Jersey should wonder whether some future Corzine whim might make him flee from Trenton, the pleasures of which might pall on someone of his restless ambitiousness.

For NY City Democrats,  a grim future could last long beyond Tuesday - Patrick D. Healy (New York Times)
As Democrats pursue an uphill battle to recapture City Hall on Tuesday, this year's mayoral campaign has already exposed the long-term fracturing of Democratic power in the city, from splinters in the black and Hispanic vote to defections in liberal bastions like the West Side.  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's popularity and his $66 million in campaign spending are two pressure points as the campaign winds into its final phase this weekend. Yet it is the permanent structural changes in New York politics - such as term limits, campaign finance reforms and evolving demographics - that are really shaking the once-dominant party and seem bound to hamper it for years to come, leading Democrats and political consultants say.

Its "jihad," say some of spreading French riots - Christopher Dickey (Newsweek)
Word of the deaths spread quickly through Clichy-sous-Bois, a grim collection of housing projects an hour by train and bus from the center of Paris. Two teenage boys had been electrocuted while trying to hide near a transformer the night of Oct. 27. Rumor said they were running from police. Soon, dozens of angry young men came from the soulless high-rises looking for cops to fight and cars to burn on streets named, as it happens, after heroes of French culture: boulevard Emile Zola, allee Albert Camus, rue Picasso. Dead white men. "It's Baghdad here," the rioters shouted. Night after night last week, rage spread through the ghettos that ring Paris, then beyond to every corner of France. When a tear-gas canister exploded near a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois on the fourth violent evening, a new cry went up. "Now this is war," said one of the vandals. Others cried "jihad."

Rioters now targeting police, in expanding French violence (Reuters)
Rioters fired shots at police in an 11th night of riots in France on Sunday, injuring 10 policemen, two of them seriously, police said.  Some 200 youths were lobbing stones and other objects at police in Grigny, south of Paris, a police spokesman said, adding that some of the rioters had fired at officers with shotguns, hitting 10 policemen.  Two officers were being treated in hospital, one with lead shot wounds to the throat, the other with wounds to a leg,  . .  . "The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear," Chirac said after a domestic security council met to respond to the violence in which thousands of cars have gone up in flames.

Ex-Marine, Massey, concocted web of lies about Iraq "atrocities" - Ron Harris (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
For more than a year, former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey has been telling anybody who would listen about the atrocities that he and other Marines committed in Iraq.  In scores of newspaper, magazine and broadcast stories, at a Canadian immigration hearing and in numerous speeches across the country, Massey told how he and other Marines recklessly, sometimes intentionally killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians. . . . News organizations worldwide published or broadcast Massey's claims without any corroboration and in most cases without investigation. Outside of the Marines, almost no one has seriously questioned whether Massey, a 12-year veteran who was honorably discharged, was telling the truth.  He wasn't.

L.A. Times: Volcker caved to Annan pressure to reword report about son (Web India)
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had asked Paul Volker, probing the scam in Iraq's oil-for-food programme, to change the language about the business dealings of his son as he thought it could force his father's resignation.  The UN Chief and his lawyer asked Mr Volcker to change the words about the business of Kojo Annan just hours before the publication of the draft in September, the Los Angeles Times reported.  He agreed as he thought it was merely a part of the due process, the daily quoted him as saying.

Ten in a row: Worst night yet for France (AFP)
Arsonists torched 1,300 cars and police arrested 300 people across France as the urban violence which has rocked the country for 10 nights reached a new peak.  Police deployed helicopters and stepped up their arrests of youths responsible for the street violence, as troubles flared for the 10th consecutive night in suburbs around Paris on Saturday and spread to other French cities.  . . .  The disorder also spilled into central Paris itself, where a petrol bomb set alight four cars near a major square, Place de la Republique, while half a dozen vehicles went up in smoke in the northwest 17th arrondissement, or district/  Despite calls for calm Saturday, 1,295 cars were torched overnight compared with 897 the previous night, while arrests totalled 312 up from 253.

Hillary Clinton supports burning of ties to fuel electric generators - Darren M. Allen (Rutland Herald)
If New York environmental officials choose to disregard Vermont's opposition to plans by International Paper Co. to burn up to 72 tons of shredded tires at its Ticonderoga, N.Y., paper mill for a two-week test, Vermont will likely take the matter to court.  Gov. James Douglas and his administration, in cooperation with the Vermont Attorney General's Office, are prepared to exercise every legal avenue at their disposal, the governor's press secretary said last week.  "Gov. Douglas has asked the Agency of Administration to include a substantial appropriation in the fiscal year 2006 budget act for the sole purpose of pursuing our legal options in opposition to the potentially toxic tire burn," Jason Gibbs said. 

French riots reach Paris city (CNN)
Protesters in France expanded their arson rampage into the capital city of Paris and along Mediterranean resort communities as the nation's Interior Ministry predicted the violence would grow by daybreak Sunday.  Police helicopters flew over Paris and other locations in an effort to identify and stop the vandals, French radio said.  The latest violence, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in suburban Paris, spread west to the Normandy region and south to the Mediterranean. In the resort cities of Cannes and Nice, where arson was reported.

Evidence of Detroit voter fraud; City clerk stripped of absentee voter duties (WDIV-TV)
A judge ruled Friday afternoon that City Clerk Jackie Currie would be replaced as head of Detroit's absentee voter program.  The ruling followed testimony from Secretary of State election monitor Susan McRill, who said she discovered evidence of voter fraud.  Judge Mary Beth Kelly, of Wayne County Circuit Court, ordered Thursday that McRill and another monitor oversee Currie and her election workers, or ambassadors, specifically for the handling of absentee ballots.

McCain: No matter what's at stake, "no torture" (NewsMax.com)
Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the U.S. was wrong to "torture" al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiek Mohammed, saying that torture shouldn't be used against suspects even if they have extensive knowledge of terrorist operations planned against the U.S.  Asked "if you could save American lives" by threatening a terrorist like Mohammed with torture, McCain told "Fox News Sunday": "If you decide to torture him you probably don't get the right information, because torture doesn't work."

Press pushes sex charges in wild New Jersey governor's race (Editor & Publisher)
With the help of reporters and their newspapers, the once-sleepy New Jersey governor's race turned into one of the seamiest in memory this weekend. On Friday reporters carried charges of extramarital affairs back and forth between the two major candidates, Sen. John Corzine, the Democrat, and Republican Douglas Forrester.  Both candidates had to rebut allegations of sexual affairs, a day after the release of a television commercial that quoted Corzine's ex-wife. She has accused Corzine of having an affair with an aide, among other charges.  Then Forrester denied he had an extramarital affair, which was reported in a New York Daily News gossip column that attributed the allegation to an e-mail it received.

Voters need 3rd (and 4th) options - Tammy Paolino (Courier Post)
If ever there was a time to reconsider this nation's two-party system, the lackluster race between gubernatorial candidates Jon Corzine and Doug Forrester is it.  Many people I've talked to in the weeks running up to Tuesday's election have either said they are still undecided or they have reluctantly settled on the candidate they feel is "the lesser of two evils."  Push aside for the moment Corzine's questionable relationship with an ex-girlfriend union boss and cozy connections with some of Jersey's big-time Democratic bosses, and disregard for now Forrester's lack of political experience and less than progressive record with respect to the health-care crisis.

Dem says Corzine $2.5 million donation quid pro quo-ism - Charles Webster (Trentonian)
Corzine Donation Alert!: Seems Democrat Jon Corzine dipped into his back pocket last year and found $2.5 million for the collect baskets of black churches in New Jersey.  Corzine got an endorsement from the black clergymen who benefited from his generosity.  And It Does Look Good To The Black Community: "Blatant quid pro quo-ism," Democrat Walter Fields, Jr., former political director of New Jersey’s NAACP told The First it was half-million dollar loan to his girlfriend Carla Katz - which he later forgave after they broke up. Her state workers union endorsed him. And now it’s $2.5 million in the collection basket for the endorsement of black clergymen. Johnny Appleseed didn’t plant this much seed money. 

Chris Wallace "hammers" father, Mike Wallace, on media bias on his show today (NewsMax.com)
"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace says he "hammered" his father Mike Wallace on the bias at CBS News during a taped interview set for broadcast on his own show Sunday morning.  "I hammer my father about the mainstream media," Wallace told WRKO Boston's Howie Carr on Friday. "I hammer him about Dan Rather and the fake memos.

  (SeanRobins.com)

Let us all be careful not to get too caught up in pitying the poor Senate Democrats, like minority leader, Harry Reid, who last Tuesday pulled the "closed door session" stunt, which he characterized as a last ditch effort to get somebody, anybody, to listen to their plaintiff pleas to please get the pre-war intelligence investigation back on track.  "They've done nothing, nothing substantive," Harry ranted, obviously having run out of his Thorazine the previous week.

The session was meaningless, and served only to further highlight the utter incapacity of the Democratic Party to pursue an agenda that even the Dems cannot define.  It was nothing more than a cheap parlor trick that fooled just about no one, not even, astonishingly, the mainstream media, which seemed for once to understand that this was just nonsense.  More-->

Fight back, Mr. President - William Kristol (Weekly Standard)
Last week, I suggested that the Bush administration's second-term bear market had bottomed out. Since then, we've been pummeled by polls showing Bush in continued decline. Perhaps my bullish call on Bush was a bit early. Or perhaps it was wrong. Which is it?  That's up to the Bush administration. Over the next few months, the Bush team will put this bad year behind them, and regain their footing. Or it will be a long 39 months--a very long 39 months--for Bush and his supporters.

Ex-wife's ad hurts Corzine - Owen Mortiz (New York Daily News)
Sen. Jon Corzine's ex-wife is campaigning against him and polls indicate her attack has taken a huge toll on what was Corzine's 13-point lead in the New Jersey governor's race.  Joanne Corzine, who was divorced from the Democratic senator in 2002 after 33 years of marriage, was featured in TV commercials this week saying Corzine "let his family down and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too." The ads are being run by Corzine's Republican opponent Doug Forrester.

Behind closed doors - Stephen F. Hayes (Weekly Standard)
When Senate minority leader Harry Reid abruptly took the Senate into closed session last Tuesday, he sought to portray the move as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to force intransigent Senate Republicans to complete the second phase of an investigation into the use of intelligence before the Iraq war. The procedural move is rare, one of the few things a minority party can do to seize the agenda--and the spotlight--from the Senate's majority. . . . It was not a strong performance. As the session ended, Reid was asked about a statement from Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Roberts had spoken of the work already completed by the Republican staff on the Intelligence Committee. Reid was dismissive. "They've done nothing, nothing substantive. And that's been the problem. Nothing substantive.

French riots: 9 days and counting; spreads through the country - Jamey Keaten (AP)
Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, with youths torching an ambulance and stoning medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 250 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest.  Bands of youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and nearly 900 cars overnight as the violence spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport through the affected areas.

Journalists in Wen Ho Lee case lose again (AP)
A divided federal appeals court for a second time has rejected four journalists' appeal of a judge's order directing them to testify about their confidential sources as part of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee's lawsuit against the government.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused, by a 4-4 vote, to grant a rehearing of the journalists' case before the full court. A majority of the court's 10 judges was required to grant a rehearing; two judges recused themselves.

Some feel McCain "too old" to run in '08 - Robert Novak (TownHall.com)
The January scheduling of Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, instead of December as desired by President Bush, was caused in part by political needs of Republican senators facing opposition for re-election.  Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Mike DeWine of Ohio are supporters of Alito. But each wanted to get home in December to prepare for strong Democratic challenges. . . . Sen. John McCain, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, has gotten a tepid response to a New York City fund-raiser Monday for his "Straight Talk America" political action committee.  . . . Many New York contributors to McCain's 2000 presidential campaign were reluctant to attend this year's event. The fact McCain will be 72 years old for the 2008 presidential campaign was cited to explain lack of enthusiasm, as was the senator's support for the Iraq war.

N.J. governor's race enters final weekend amid heightened negativity - Angela Delli Santi (AP)
With the New Jersey governor's race reaching new levels of acrimony in the home stretch, the two major candidates faced off on live television Saturday night, addressing the sleazy turn the campaign has taken.  Sitting across a small table from each other in the WNBC Channel 4 studios, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and businessman Doug Forrester were asked right off to talk about the ugly tone of the contest. 

  (SeanRobins.com)

Priest reveals, based upon information obtained from unnamed "U.S. and foreign officials," that "[t]he secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents."  Notes Priest, "the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites."   More -->

The real global virus; The plague of Islamism keeps on spreading - Victor Davis Hanson (National Review)
Either the jihadists really are crazy or they apparently think that they have a shot at destabilizing, or at least winning concessions from, the United States, Europe, India, and Russia all at once.  Apart from the continual attacks on civilians by terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the West Bank, there have now been recent horrific assaults in New Dehli (blowing up civilians in a busy shopping season on the eve of a Hindu festival), Russia (attacking police and security facilities), London (suicide murdering of civilians on the subway), and Indonesia (more bombing, and the beheading of Christian schoolgirls). The loci of recent atrocities could be widely expanded (e.g., Malaysia, North Africa, Turkey, Spain) — and, of course, do not forget the several terrorist plots that have been broken up in Europe and the United States.

New polls have Corzine losing ground; one shows dead heat - Jeffrey Gold (AP)
Two polls released Friday have Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jon S. Corzine losing some ground to Republican Doug Forrester, with one putting the race in a dead heat with the election just four days away.  The erosion of support for the Democratic U.S. senator appears to coincide with a harsh ad featuring comment from his ex-wife, although nearly eight in 10 registered voters told one poll the ad made no difference to them.  A Fairleigh Dickinson University-PublicMind poll found the race was too close to call and that favorable ratings of both candidates declined from prior polls.

Tuesday's "closed session": 1st time called without consent of other party - Noel Sheppard (NewsBusters.org)
As reported by NewsBusters, there was a lot about the closed session held in the Senate on Tuesday that the media chose to ignore.  However, now that the damage has been done, and public opinions of this issue have been formed, the Washington Post today decided to share some of the facts with its readers.  First, the decision to have a closed session is normally made with the consent of both parties:  “The rule's existence was widely known, and closed sessions had been held by bipartisan agreement as recently as 1999, regarding President Bill Clinton's impeachment. But the notion of one party springing the rule on the other party without warning was so alien that senators could not cite a previous example.”

Paris continues burning as the chickens come home to roost - Robert Spencer (FrontPageMagazine.com)
Riots have now continued for eight days in and around Paris. Thursday night, November 3, Muslim rioters burned 315 cars. In the previous week, they torched 177 vehicles and burned numerous businesses, a post office, and two schools. They have rampaged through twenty towns and shot at police and firemen. In an episode that summed up the failure of France’s efforts to create a domestic, domesticated Islam, when moderate Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Paris mosque, tried to restore calm, his car was pelted with stones and he had to rush away.  The riots began on October 27 when two Muslim teenagers ran from police who were checking identification papers — why they ran is as yet unclear. The police did not chase them, but evidently the teenagers thought they were being chased; they eventually hid in an electrical power sub-station, where they accidentally electrocuted themselves. That night young Muslims took to the streets for the first time, throwing rocks and bottles at police, burning cars, and vandalizing property.

Senate panel recommends perjury prosecution of Galloway - David R. Sands (Washington Times)
A Senate panel yesterday formally referred to U.S. and British legal authorities its finding that British lawmaker George Galloway lied under oath when he denied taking secret payoffs under the Iraq oil-for-food program.  Investigators with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations said Mr. Galloway faces charges of perjury and obstructing a congressional inquiry for his flamboyant May 17 testimony, in which he categorically denied any wrongdoing and called the Senate probe "the mother of all smoke screens." Subcommittee Chairman Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, and ranking minority member Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, said their findings have been sent to the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and the district attorney for New York County.

Michael Moore owned Halliburton, defense stocks - Jim Meyers (NewsMax.com)
Filmmaker Michael Moore has made a career out of trashing corporations and said he doesn't own any stocks due to moral principle.  How then did author Peter Schweizer uncover IRS documents showing that Moore's very own foundation has bought stocks in some of America's largest corporations – including Halliburton, other defense contractors and some of the same companies he has attacked?

U.N. agency honors anti-Semitic composer, Mikis Theodorakis (AFP)
UNESCO awarded its International Music Prize 2005 to 'Zorba the Greek' composer Mikis Theodorakis for his contributions to understanding between cultures and the advancement of peace.  The 80-year-old known to most Greeks simply as "Mikis" accepted the award in the western city of Aachen saying he "could never have been anything else but a musician". He was chosen among 40 nominees for the prize, initiated in 1975.  [Editor's Note: In 2003, Theodorakis commented that Jews were "the root of all evil."]

Washington Post profits dip precipitously (AP)
Newspaper publisher Washington Post Co. said Friday its third-quarter profit fell 19 percent, weighed down by hurricane-related charges and lost revenue at its cable division.  Earnings after preferred dividends fell to $66.3 million, or $6.89 per share, in the three months ended Oct. 2 from $82.2 million, or $8.57 per share, last year. Revenue rose 7 percent to $873.7 million from $820 million.

Sen. Levin: Al-Jazeera critic not suitable for Pentagon (OpinionJournal.com)
Donald Rumsfeld wants Dorrance Smith to be confirmed as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs--but there's a hitch. Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) has latched on to an op-ed about reporting in an age of terrorism that Mr. Smith wrote for this newspaper on April 25 and pronounced him unfit for the Pentagon job. Mr. Smith's alleged sin? To summarize Sen. Levin's complaints at an Oct. 25 grilling of the nominee: "Unfair labeling."  You decide. In the course of his op-ed (which you can read here), Mr. Smith criticized the U.S. media's habit of routinely broadcasting terrorist statements and tapes obtained from the Arab-language broadcaster al-Jazeera and raised questions that many Americans have asked themselves: By airing such footage--of insurgents in Iraq holding hostages or attacking U.S soldiers and of al Qaeda officials promising death and destruction--do TV networks effectively (if unwittingly) enter into a propaganda partnership with terrorists?

The enemy on our airwaves - Dorrance Smith (Orig. publ. Apr. 25, 2005 - Wall Street Journal)
On April 11, Jeffrey Ake, an American, was taken hostage in Iraq. Video of him in captivity was shown on al-Jazeera on April 13. A short time later six American networks--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC--aired the same video, a vivid example of the ongoing relationship between terrorists, al-Jazeera and the networks. Last week, al-Jazeera showed video of a helicopter being shot, bursting into flames and trailing smoke as it fell to the ground. It also aired video of the lone survivor being forced to walk on a broken leg and then being shot by the terrorists, one of whom said, "We are applying God's law."  As the war continues, more hostages will be taken and acts of murderous violence committed--leading to more videos for al-Jazeera and the networks. Isn't it time to scrutinize the relationship among al-Jazeera, American networks and the terrorists? What role should the U.S. government be playing?

Ratherate bloggers honored with investigative journalism award - Roger Aronoff (AccuracyinMedia.org)
In memory of Reed Irvine, founder of Accuracy in Media, AIM is awarding its first annual Reed Irvine Investigative Journalism award to two of the bloggers responsible for exposing Rathergate—Dan Rather's use of forged documents to smear President Bush. This episode was a milestone in the history of journalism.  Former CBS and current CNN executive Jonathan Klein derided the bloggers as people "sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing." No matter what they wore, however, they did the research that Rather didn't.  They made Rather, the "veteran" journalist, look like a fool.  One is an Atlanta lawyer, Harry MacDougald, who writes under the name "Buckhead" on FreeRepublic.com. He was the first to raise questions about the authenticity of the documents that CBS posted on its website the night of Dan Rather's report on 60 Minutes Wednesday two months before the presidential election last year. From having read a manual explaining the computer program Microsoft Word shortly after it came out and was acquired by his law firm, he knew that the CBS documents couldn't have been typed back in 1972, the year they were purported to have been written, because typewriters from that time weren't capable of proportional spacing the way Microsoft Word does it automatically.

Dangerous appeasement of terrorism by England's House of Bishops - Joseph Loconte (OpinionJournal.com)
Peacemaking has always been a major theme in Christianity, and pacifists a strong voice within the Christian tradition. The founder of the faith, after all, is hailed by believers as the Prince of Peace. Yet modern pacifists, for all their citations of Scripture, seem miles away from the moral insights of biblical religion.  Nowhere is this gulf more striking than in their posture toward terrorism. Despite the record of gruesome violence since 9/11, many Christian leaders still refuse to confront the radical evil of militant Islam. Just last month, for example, England's House of Bishops released a report--"Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post 9/11"--that managed never to mention the horrific intentions of Osama bin Laden in the course of its 100 pages.  More ==> Read the Report

Black Democrats slow to criticize racist attacks on Michael Steele - S.A. Miller & Brian DeBose (Washington Times)
U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday pledged not to use racially tinged attacks in his campaign for U.S. Senate but stopped short of repudiating fellow Maryland Democrats who have said such tactics are acceptable against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele because he is a black conservative Republican.  "I have never in my entire life brought race into what I do in life, and it is not going to come in now, at this stage," said Mr. Cardin, a 10-term congressman who could face Mr. Steele in the contest to replace retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. "I don't think race has any place in this campaign."

Republicans considering ending "birthright" citizenship - Stephen Dinan (Washington Times)
House Republicans are looking closely at ending birthright citizenship and building a barrier along the entire U.S.-Mexico border as they search for solutions to illegal immigration.  A task force of party leaders and members active on immigration has met since the summer to try to figure out where consensus exists, and several participants said those two ideas have floated to the top of the list of possibilities to be included either in an immigration-enforcement bill later this year or in a later comprehensive immigration overhaul.  "There is a general agreement about the fact that citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, who is participating in the "unity dinners," the group of Republicans trying to find consensus on immigration.

Paris-area riots gain dangerous momentum - Jamey Keaten (U.K. Guardian)
A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state.  Facing mounting criticism, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, highlighting the frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to many North African immigrants.

Dick Morris points the finger of levee failure at Mary Landrieu (WAFB-TV)
It's not the first time someone has criticized the way money from Congress was not used appropriately to shore up the levee system that failed during hurricane Katrina. But on Nine News Thursday morning, the former advisor to former president Bill Clinton named names.  Dick Morris says over the last few years, Washington funded hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen the levee system, but some of our senators spent it on something else.

Dems stunned at anti-abortion Jimmy Carter - Ralph Z. Hallow (Washington Times)
Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday condemned all abortions and chastised his party for its intolerance of candidates and nominees who oppose abortion.  "I never have felt that any abortion should be committed -- I think each abortion is the result of a series of errors," he told reporters over breakfast at the Ritz-CarltonHotel, while across town Senate Democrats deliberated whether to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. because he may share President Bush and Mr. Carter's abhorrence of abortion.  "These things impact other issues on which [Mr. Bush] and I basically agree," the Georgia Democrat said. "I've never been convinced, if you let me inject my Christianity into it, that Jesus Christ would approve abortion."

It was a lovely summer's afternoon...the Calla Lilies were in bloom...uh, er...something or other... As we drift back in time to the lazier daze of Billy-Boy Clinton's youth, ... a fog enshrouds our consciousnesses--at least it did those in attendance yesterday--listening closely to Bill's voice, as his words seep into our minds, we enter the liberal coma that his words invoke:

I remember as if it were yesterday that fateful day 50 years ago. I was a nine-year-old Southern white boy who rode a segregated bus every single day of my life. I sat in the front. Black folk sat in the back. When Rosa showed us that black folks didn't have to sit in the back anymore, two of my friends and I who strongly approved of what she had done decided we didn't have to sit in the front anymore.

Now, let's see.  Nine years old?  Its 2005, minus fifty years, makes it 1955.  A quick Wikipedia check confirms that Billy-Boy was born in 1946.  Add nine years to 1946 gets us up to 1955.  Okay, that part of the story seems to check out.  Fifty years ago, Bill Clinton was nine years old.  He talks about hearing of and being inspired by word of Rosa Parks' famous act of civil disobedience, when on December 1, 1995, she disregarded the law requiring that she sit in the back of a Montgomery, Alabama transit bus, rather than the front, and was arrested.  Again, okay, the year checks out.

The final bit of his story is just a little bit more problematic.  This is where Bill's story falls apart.  Clinton relates the defiant, if only symbolic, act of three Southern white boys (himself and two friends), in solidarity with Rosa Parks, choosing to forgo the privilege of sitting in the front of the bus, and taking their seats in the back.  Only problem: Does anybody remember that lil' ol' U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education?  It was the 1955 case which held that "separate" was not actually "equal," and therefore, segregated public schools were unconstitutional.   Yes, Bill did kinda get the year right...well, sort of.  1955 was the year of that the Supreme Court ruled that blacks and whites should be educated in the same schools.  However...and it is a big however.

Local officials, in states like Arkansas, didn't take so kindly to the Court's "interference," and refused to voluntarily desegregate their schools.  Remember the Little Rick Nine?  A handful of black high school students who attempted to attend the previously all-White Little Rock Central High School.  The governor sent in the National Guard to prevent their attendance.  And President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock to enforce the order of the Supreme Court.  The feds trumped the state, the kids went to school, and the rest is history.  Unfortunately--for Bill's little story--this happened in 1957--not 1955.  It was not until the federally forced desegregation of the Little Rock high school--in 1957--that black and white school students attended school together--or rode the bus to school together.

In other words--for anyone who isn't yet "in the picture"--in 1955, Bill Clinton would not have been in the position of sharing a bus ride to school with black children, and simply could not have made the symbolic gesture of sitting in the back of such a racially-segregated bus.  Ironically, it would not have been until the advent of school desegregation, that black and white children would have had any reason to have been on the same segregated bus.  As usual, Bill Clinton's little story is an utter fabrication.  How pathetic.  As well, those who so willingly fall for the lying lies of Bill Clinton.

Harassing Mama Alito - Matt Drudge (DrudgeReport.com)
The DRUDGE REPORT has learned from exclusive sources that Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s 90 year-old mother Rose has become a prisoner in her own Hamilton, NJ home because of a barrage of media requests.  The quiet neighborhood Mrs. Alito has lived in for over 50 years has been turned upside down all week by a swarm of national reporters who have phoned and shown up at the doorstep of not only her but many of her neighbors.

Paris area rioting spreads to 20 towns - Jamey Keaten (AP)
Rampaging youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns.  Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.

How Democrats lie about "he lied us into war" (OpinionJournal.com)
Harry Reid pulled the Senate into closed session Tuesday, claiming that "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this Administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq." But the Minority Leader's statement was as demonstrably false as his stunt was transparently political.  What Mr. Reid's pose is "really all about" is the emergence of the Clare Boothe Luce Democrats. We're referring to the 20th-century playwright, and wife of Time magazine founder Henry Luce, who was most famous for declaring that Franklin D. Roosevelt had "lied us into war" with the Nazis and Tojo. So intense was the hatred of FDR among some Republicans that they held fast to this slander for years, with many taking their paranoia to their graves.

Russert's denial contradicted by Andrea Mitchell (NewsMax.com)
NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert told Leakgate probers that he had no idea Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA employee before her name surfaced in Robert Novak's fateful July 14, 2003 column, and that he was stunned upon learning that Lewis "Scooter" Libby claimed he got that information from him.  But an account by senior NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell raises questions about whether Mr. Russert may have known about Plame's employment well before the Novak column.

Al Franken exposed: Almost never hires blacks (NewsMax.com)
Liberal radio yakker Al Franken is threatening to sue the author of a bestselling new book that alleges he doesn't practice what he preaches when it comes to affirmative action, according to the author.  Peter Schweizer, author of "Do As I Say, Not as I Do," told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly Wednesday night: "Before the book came out, his agent, Jonathan Lazear, called my editor at Doubleday and said they consider the material in the book to be 'legally actionable.' They then followed up with a letter demanding to know where I got all this, 'private information' on Al Franken."

Parisian rioters complaint: More and better welfare (Reuters)
Young rioters set fire to at least 50 vehicles in an eighth night of unrest in the impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris as exasperated local officials criticized politicking by national leaders.  Rioting erupted again late Thursday despite hopes that festivities ending the fasting month of Ramadan would calm rioters, many of them Muslims of North African origin protesting against race bias they say keeps them in second-class status.

Senate proponents of ANWR oil drilling win vote - H. Josef Herbert (AP)
Senate opponents to drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge failed Thursday to strip the measure from a massive budget package as supporters of exploration argued that the oil is needed to help break America of its import habit.  Environmentalists, who believe strongly the refuge should continue to be off limits to oil companies to protect the area's wildlife, had acknowledged that it was a long shot to get the provision killed and now are concentrating on defeating the overall budget bill.  A vote on the budget measure, which includes a myriad of spending cuts from food stamps to welfare funds, was expected later in the day.

Danny Rather: Scared of the "New Media" (NewsMax.com)
Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather on Tuesday delivered a pointed message to an audience of young people at the University of Maine.  "News is something people need to know which someone, somewhere, doesn’t want them to know,” Rather said. "All the rest is advertising."

Legal sniping continues in DeLay case; Admin judge recuses self from new judge appointment - April Castro (AP)
Two days after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay won a fight to get a new judge in his case, prosecutors on Thursday succeeded in ousting the Republican jurist responsible for selecting the new judge.  Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub recused himself after District Attorney Ronnie Earle filed a motion asking for his removal from the case.  Schraub said he will ask the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court name a judge to preside over DeLay's conspiracy and money laundering trial.

Google's massive hold-up - Pat Schroeder & Bob Barr (Washington Times)
You're probably reading the byline above and wondering, "What could these two, from opposite sides of the aisle in Congress, possibly have in common with each other?"  The answer is when it comes to Google's Print Library Project we have much in common: We're both authors and both believe intellectual property should actually mean something. 

Samuel Alito: Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on his nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals - April 5, 1990 (U.S. Senate)
Available here, the entirety of Judge Alito's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, from his 1990 nomination to a seat on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  Here, he is questioned by Sens. Kennedy and Specter.  Said Kennedy at the time: "You have obviously had a very distinguished record, and I certainly commend you for long service in the public interest. I think it is a very commendable career and I am sure you will have a successful one as a judge."   Also: Read Judge Alito's responses to the Senate questionaire, submitted in support of his nomination to the Third Circuit - Feb. 24, 1990.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg: Floor speech on nomination of Samuel Alito for Third Circuit Court of Appeals - April 27, 1990 (Congressional Record)
Mr. President, I rise in support of the nomination of Samuel Alito , Jr. to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Sam Alito is an accomplished and distinguished lawyer. He has dedicated himself to Government service and he has excelled.  He is a graduate of Princeton University. He was a member of phi beta kappa. He attended the Yale Law School, where he contributed to the Law Journal.

Folly of French socialism, political correctness, exposed by week-long riot spree (AP)
Menacing youths smoked cigarettes in doorways Wednesday and hulks of burned cars littered the tough streets of Paris' northeastern suburbs scarred by a week of riots that left residents on edge and sent the government into crisis mode.  In a seventh consecutive night of skirmishes, young people threw rocks at police Wednesday in six suburbs in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris . . . Some said the unrest — sparked by the accidental deaths of two teenagers last week — is an expression of frustration over grinding unemployment and police harassment in the communities, where many North African immigrants live.

Why Paris is burning - James Graff (Time)
Officially, the French state doesn't recognize minorities, only citizens of France, all of them equal under the law. But that republican ideal has seemed especially hollow over the past week as the children of impoverished, largely Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa fought running battles with police throughout the banlieues, or suburbs, to the east and north of the French capital. On Sunday night, tear gas from a police canister filled the air in a Muslim prayer hall, sending worshipers out into the street gasping for air—and enraged at an act of desecration for which the police denied responsibility. By Wednesday, after five nights of violence, more than three dozen arrests had been made as the rioting spread from community to community—one official even warned that it threatened to become an "insurrection." And France's political class was embroiled in a fierce debate over how best to put a lid on their boiling banlieues.

McClellan: Dems should look at their own pre-war statements (AP)
The White House is wading into the congressional spat over the run-up to war in Iraq. A day after Democrats forced a surprise closed-door Senate session, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Democrats might want to check their own notes from the pre-war years.  "If Democrats want to talk about the threat that Saddam Hussein posed and the intelligence, they might want to start with looking at the previous administration and their own statements that they've made," McClellan said Wednesday. He said the Clinton administration and fellow Democrats "used the intelligence to come to the same conclusion that Saddam Hussein and his regime were a threat."

On Exhibit: The contemptuousness of the Democratic Party (TownHall.com)
When even Chris Matthews--leftie jibber-jabberer of MSNBC's Hardball--finds himself disgusted with the Democrats, you have to know that something really bad is afoot.  In this case, the Dems have been circulating a "not for attribution" slime sheet which, among other things, insinuates that Judge "Scalito" threw a prosecution--actually, what may have been the longest federal criminal prosecution in history--of a bunch of Italian gangsters.  The slander sheet quotes Alito as concluding: "you can't win them all."  A truly disgusting display, by a bunch of losers, who don't have the courage of their "unatributed" convictions.  However, according to research on RedState.org, the metadata contained within the original Microsoft Word file (see it here), identifies the author of this liberal hit piece as one "C. Prendergast," believed to be Chris Prendergast, an employee of the Democratic National Committee.

Dems seek to delay the inevitable: Alito's confirmation hearings - Daivd Espo (AP)
Senate Democrats pushed on Tuesday for a 2006 date for hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, challenging President Bush's call for confirmation by year's end.  "There's no way you can do an honest hearing by the end of December, or a fair hearing," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  In a jab at the White House and the Senate Republican leadership, Leahy said he and the panel's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter could likely agree on a date for confirmation hearings if left to themselves.

Breaking ranks: Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson looks favorably upon Alito - Jesse J. Holland (Washington Post)
A centrist Democratic senator complimented Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Wednesday as a jurist who won't "hammer away and chisel away" existing law.  While Sen. Ben Nelson did not endorse President Bush's latest nominee for the high court, he did say he was impressed by what he heard from Alito during his introductory visit.  The Nebraska Democrat, who was Alito's first senatorial host Wednesday, told reporters that he got assurances that Alito would not be "judicial activist" or "take an agenda to the bench" if confirmed to succeed Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.

The left got what it asked for - Wesley Pruden (Washington Times)
California is as far from the reality where the rest of us live as you can get and still keep your feet dry. Californians think Geena Davis, the star of the new television fantasy "Commander in Chief," really is the commander in chief.  So when the ground shifted yesterday with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court -- a solid 7 on the Richter scale -- nearly everyone here wondered why that nice, sensible President Davis would have done something like that. . . . The early action in Washington is media skirmishing, as the players jostle and jiggle for position against the day when it will be time to lock and load. The high priests of secularism are desperate to protect the rite of abortion, which is to the noisily devout of the left what the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is to orthodox Christianity.

Alito had peaceful confirmation hearing - Jesse J. Holland (AP)
Fifteen years ago, Samuel Alito told senators at his confirmation hearing that judges shouldn't "step over the line" into lawmaking or "try to pigeonhole the case or to import a judge's own view of the law into the law," records showed Monday.  President Bush has nominated Alito, a federal appeals court judge from New Jersey, for the Supreme Court seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Alito would replace White House counsel Harriet Miers, who withdrew her nomination last week amid opposition from conservatives.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner: Statement of nomination of Alito - October 31, 2005 (U.S. House of Representatives)
President Bush today nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court an outstanding and accomplished jurist in Judge Samuel Alito. Judge Alito has earned widespread respect for his judicial intellect and for his respect and dedication to the law. Prior to his fifteen years of distinguished service on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Alito served in numerous high-level positions at the Justice Department, including arguing a dozen cases before the Supreme Court. Judge Alito’s qualifications and characteristics led to his unanimous confirmation vote by the Senate to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has been recognized as a fair-minded and top-notch judicial scholar. In short, no one can question whether Judge Alito is Supreme Court material.

Sen. Mitch McConnell: Floor Speech on Alito Nomination - October 31, 2005 (Congressional Record)
Mr. President, this morning the President of the United States nominated Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. We are beginning to learn that Judge Alito has an extremely impressive career. He is an alumnus of Princeton, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from Yale Law School where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal, and he clerked for Judge Leonard Garth on the same court where Judge Alito now sits.  Judge Alito has devoted his professional life to serving our country. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the appellate division and as a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He served as an assistant to the Solicitor General where he argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court. For the last 15 years he served as a Federal appellate judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sen. Patrick Leahy: Floor Speech on Alito Nomination - October 31, 2005 (Congressional Record)
Mr. President, on Friday, the President formally withdrew from the Senate his nomination of Harriet Miers to be Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, he announced his intention to nominate Judge Samuel Alito to that same position. To those who are keeping count, this will be the third nomination to fill the seat vacated by the future retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made by the President.  Justice O'Connor is still there. Three people have been nominated to fill her seat. I am concerned that the nomination may be a needlessly provocative nomination.

Sen. Bill Frist: Statement of Frist on nomination of Alito - October 31, 2005 (U.S. Senate)

Senate shut down by Dems in "stunt" over old Iraq intelligence questions - Liz Sidoti (AP)
Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.  "They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why," Democratic leader Harry Reid said.  Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.  "The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas," the Republican leader said.

One for DeLay: "MoveOn.org" judge removed from case (AP)
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay will get a new judge to preside over his criminal case after his attorneys successfully argued Tuesday that the judge's political donations created a conflict.  State Judge Bob Perkins, who has made campaign donations to Democrats, will be replaced by another judge, said C. W. Duncan, the judge deciding the recusal motion by DeLay. That judge was not named Tuesday.  "This is the wrong case for Judge Perkins to judge because of his perfectly permissible activity as a Democrat and as a partisan and as a supporter of Democratic causes," DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin said after the four-hour hearing.

Sen. DeWine foresees vote to abolish filibuster if need be on Alito vote (AP)
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is "clearly within the mainstream" and shouldn't be filibustered, declared a Republican who helped fashion a plan limiting parliamentary roadblocks for judicial nominees.  Sen. Mike DeWine , who met with President Bush's latest high court choice Tuesday, warned Democrats he would side with GOP leaders to eliminate the judicial filibuster if the minority party uses it against the New Jersey judge.  "It's hard for me to envision that anyone would think about filibustering this nominee," said DeWine, an Ohio Republican who sided with 13 other Republicans and Democrats earlier this year to end a Senate stalemate over judicial filibusters.

Abortion after reversal of Roe v. Wade - Jane Roh (FOX News)
The two vacancies on the Supreme Court have abortion activists on either side sounding the death knell of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling overturning state laws that criminalized abortion.  But some legal scholars who support abortion rights say that may not be such a bad thing.  "Roe was terribly reasoned," said Scott Powe, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. "I think there's some requirement under the Constitution that if you cannot explain a decision and its relationship with legal materials, it's not a valid decision."

Both parties prepared for "armageddon" over Alito nomination - Charles Hurt (Washington Times)
Senate Democrats and Republicans -- along with interest groups both for and against Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination -- fell into formation yesterday to begin the battle they've been expecting for more than a decade.  "This one is going to be Armageddon," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, acknowledged that the fight will be tough, but predicted confirmation before the end of the year.  "In 1990, a Democrat-controlled Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Alito as a circuit judge," Mr. Frist said in a statement dispatched 27 minutes before President Bush announced his selection. "I hope that my colleagues will give his nomination a fair opportunity this time as well."

Alito nomination sets stage for idealogical battle - Peter Baker (Washington Post)
President Bush nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court yesterday, rallying his estranged Republican base back to his side and triggering a torrent of liberal attacks that could foreshadow a bruising ideological showdown over the future of the judiciary.  In effect relaunching the nomination four days after Harriet Miers withdrew under fire, Bush selected a long-standing New Jersey judge with an extensive record of conservative rulings on abortion, federalism, discrimination and religion in public spaces. If confirmed to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the swing vote in recent years, Alito seems likely to shift the court to the right.

"RatherGate" co-conspirator, Mary Mapes, seeks to revise her image (Editor & Publisher)
In the upcoming December issue of Vanity Fair, Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer who lost her job after the disputed "60 Minutes II" Bush/National Guard report, writes, "I must answer the bloggers, the babblers and blabbers, and the true believers who have called me everything from 'feminazi' to an 'elitist liberal' to an 'idiot."  "If I was an idiot, it was for believing in a free press that is able to do its job without fear or favor. ...I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign." . . . In a statement released Monday, CBS News said: "Mary Mapes' actions damaged CBS News as an organization and brought pain to many colleagues with whom she worked. As always, revisionist history must be tested against the facts." It pointed to its independent panel's 200-page report, adding: "We believe those facts speak for themselves."

Newspaper journalism a sinking ship - Ross Fadner (Media Daily News)
It's official, 2005 will be the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely." In particular, national advertising has under-performed, remaining essentially flat this year, as has the retail category, the report said--while classified, both print and online, has shown positive gains so far this year, up 4-5 percent.