Gov. Gray Davis' reaction to allegations that Arnold Schwarzenegger groped or inappropriately touched six women followed a well-worn campaign strategy: Don't stand in the way when your opponent is getting shot.

An Army unit in Iraq has been putting up posters with Saddam Hussein's face superimposed over the bodies of Elvis Presley, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rita Hayworth and the rock star Billy Idol (who is adorned with a crucifix). Other than offending Muslims by depicting scantily clad women and Christian symbols, what does this campaign hope to achieve?

Mr Bush said he did not make decisions based on polls.

Mr Bush said: "The report states that Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum, sophisticated concealment efforts, and advanced design work on prohibited longer range missiles."
But Mr Blix pointed out that none of this constituted the "serious and current threat" used by the British Government to justify war

But even allowing for that possibility, what seems clear is this: what the pollsters put forward as Howard's personal edge over Crean does not appear to translate into many votes at all for the Coalition.

Limbaugh could have said all kinds of things about McNabb on the radio and nothing would have happened.
After all, he has called Hillary Clinton a murderer, Tom Daschle the devil, and idly wondered why all post-office mug shots look like Jesse Jackson, with no regulation or retribution.

The families of British soldiers killed in Iraq have fiercely criticised Tony Blair's decision to attend a remembrance service for Britain's war dead.

Ex-Ambassador Wilson Has Flamboyant Touch
Before his wife's identity as a CIA operations officer became known, the 53-year-old Wilson, a dapper-dressing French speaker who sports cuff-linked sleeves and a breast-pocket kerchief, was perhaps best known as the last U.S. official to meet with Saddam Hussein before the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Wilson, now an international business consultant
mred -- nice slag piece newsday/ap

"I don't know anything about this particular incident but Arnie is a big flirt, as is Anna. Most presenters know how to handle him and understand he's just flirting."
mr ed - the funny thing about this whole groping thing, is that the OUI interview never seems to get mentioned...

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday he did not believe the U.S. administration actually believed that Iraq -- under Saddam Hussein -- had weapons of mass destruction.
It was sad that the Bush administration was prepared to make the drastic decision to attack Iraq, he said, killing so many people in the process and based on grounds that were not fully proven.

A recount can be requested only during a five-day window after the final result is certified.
Because a recall winner could be sworn in the day after the result is certified, a recount could be requested and could continue after a new governor takes office.
Any California voter may request a recount, and it must be carried out. The complication is that the person who requests the recount must pay for it, depositing the money each day before the counting begins for that day. A day of counting in Los Angeles costs $16,702

But many US politicians have accused the White House of failing to justify the high costs involved, and suggested the fees charged by the main US civilian contractors in Iraq, such as Halliburton - which used to be run by Vice President Dick Cheney - and DynCorp, should come under intense scrutiny.
The contracts uncovered by Senator Daschle's office include $3.6m for 400 handheld radios and 200 satellite phones - averaging $6,000 per item. The White House also wants to spend $10,000 a month per student on business school tuition - double the fees for Harvard Business School.
Another Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy, has alleged that the White House is secretly using part of these funds to "bribe" foreign leaders to send troops to Iraq. He said the Congressional Budget Office could account for only $2.5bn of the $4bn spent every month in Iraq.

On Wednesday the Iraqi council, in a testy exchange with the occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, challenged an American decision to spend $1.2 billion to train 35,000 Iraqi police officers in Jordan when such training could be done in Iraq for a fraction of the cost. Germany and France have offered to provide such training free.

He said Bechtel made all of its contract information available on its Web site and at offices in Baghdad and Basra. A check of the Web site on Friday found no information, only a notice that the site was "under construction."

"Mr. Mumm said there had been no kickbacks on the 105 subcontracts Bechtel had signed with Iraqi firms. "
mr ed- mumms the word - lol

Mr. Othman said, "I hope Congress knows what is going on, but if they don't know and we don't know, then God help everybody."

Lee Kuan Yew
Suicide bombers, like the one who blew up the UN head-quarters in Baghdad, confront the world with the most cost-effective of all terrorist weapons, designed to wreak psychological and physical havoc on enemies, attempting to make them capitulate. Saboteurs who want to fight and live, such as Saddam loyalists, are not difficult to defeat. But a suicide bomber fears neither capture, interrogation nor death.
"I'll be happy to die a martyr," he said. "After me, there will be a million more Amrozis."
Sentencing the Bali bombers to death is like killing off worker bees.
These followers believe that in return for their sacrifice they will become shahids ("martyrs"); that all their sins will be forgiven; and that they will have a place in shurga ("paradise"), where 72 houris ("virgins") await them.

mr ed - americants

coulter "But under cross-examination by Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel a few weeks later"

The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials. The administration now plays down the report's findings.

Mr. Bremer, in his remarks to legislators two weeks ago, said that for the next two years, whatever revenue was reaped from oil production would not exceed the cost of Iraq's day-to-day operating expenses. In 2005, he said, there would be a surplus of only $4 million to $5 million.

Around Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger is known almost as much for his philanthrophy as his film roles. After rioting in the city a decade ago, he began pumping millions of dollars into a non-profit organisation called Inner-City Games, which offers recreational opportunities to disadvantaged youth. With his backing, the program has spread to 15 cities across the US.
Schwarzenegger also has been a big financial contributor to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the centre, said the film star had called out of the blue, requesting it research his father's background. "We did, and we showed him that his father had been a member of the Nazi party," Hier said.

Schwarzenegger's supporters emphasize, though, that he has donated money to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and raised millions of dollars for the Holocaust Memorial Trust in Los Angeles. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which was established in 1977, is an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust.

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion ... and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us,' but he will say to you, 'Be silent: I see it if you don't.'" -- Congressman Abraham Lincoln, 1848

"It is not in the American national interest to establish pre-emption as a universal principle available to every nation." -- former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 2002

Each speech looks as if Bush had been beamed from his bed fast asleep. And he's willfully ignorant. On Fox News, Bush admits that he doesn't even read the newspaper: "I glance at the headlines just to kind of [sic] a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read [sic] the news themselves." All these takes on Bush boil down to the same thing: The guy who holds the launch codes isn't smart enough to know that's he's stupid. And that's scary.