safire: As Americans seek to export democracy, we should draw a clear lesson about power and freedom from the troubling success of the cult of Putin: concentration of power in media, as well as control of money in politics by a government in office, enables a political clique to concentrate its power. We have to resist that everywhere. Freedom finds safety in numbers; democracy does best by protecting diversity.

mred: re dean, im not really following the demmocrat 'race'. it all seems kinda mute. the only interesting thing is watching how the GOP media tries to divide and conquer the democrat vote... my guess is that polls will keep reorganising the order 'until' the dems are indistinguishabe from james brown - and we will continue to be told that hillary has 50% and the other 8 have 6.25% each. and the attention will be willshe/wontshe until she finally doesnt run, and then she'll be blamed for not allowing anyone else to come to the fore.

theres a guy called chris wallace (who i dont know) who just started a new show on Faux on Sunday. his first guest was andy card - i wonder why he's beeing wheeled out - the next was Dean. the first question he was asked: "why do you think you're able to defy, so far, the laws of political gravity?" and later: "the conventional wisdom is the Democrats are going off a cliff" if Dean is the nominee, and that Dean would be "another Mondale, another McGovern, another Dukakis." and "Governor, do you really not see a moral purpose to the president's foreign policy?"
dean did a reasonably good job. (as did andy card given his lack of practise)

"-- Though Dean has a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth and for being slow to apologize, his supporters don't seem to care. "

and then this: dean: "The most interesting theory that I've heard so far -- which is nothing more than a theory, it can't be proved -- is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is?"
wallace blabbered back: "how can you call that interesting?"

as proof that we live in a morewellian world - this will be deans downfall. even tho he specifically refers to it as a theory, and even tho he specifically says he doesnt think its true, and even though gwb *was* specifically warned - if not by the sauds, then definitely by the russians and the germans and i think also some others. oh yeah - and the 911 commission is totally being stonewalled - having to subpoena documents.

this is a cute one from nixon speechwriter william safire: "If you want the Clinton Restoration to the White House in '08, the only way to make it happen is to stay the course with Bush in '04." followed by this odd statement "A dirty trick? Undoubtedly. I disavow any connection to it." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/08/opinion/08SAFI.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fWilliam%20Safire

the only interesting questions for me are constitutional issues circa 2008 - whether the 2term limit will have been removed. whether the foreign-born actors are allowed to be president. whether martial law will be imposed by then. (and whether jeb will be prez)

this is safire today:
"By taking over the mass media and seizing the political opposition's source of funds, Vladimir Putin and his K.G.B. cohort have brought back one-party rule to Russia.
As Americans seek to export democracy, we should draw a clear lesson about power and freedom from the troubling success of the cult of Putin: concentration of power in media, as well as control of money in politics by a government in office, enables a political clique to concentrate its power. We have to resist that everywhere. Freedom finds safety in numbers; democracy does best by protecting diversity."
no ironing.

" formal quarantine order"
mred - i fear we'll hear these words more frequently...
"Because SARS is considered transmissible only once someone has developed symptoms, the families of those quarantined at home were not considered to be at risk."
mr ed - can someone explain why these people need to be under house arrest then?

Months after he confessed to all of the Washington-area sniper shootings last year, Lee Malvo told a psychologist that his confession was a lie intended to protect the actual gunman, John A. Muhammad, the psychologist testified on Monday.

That training included learning how to use high-powered rifles, playing stalking games on shooting ranges, playing sniper-style video games and watching war movies.

Mr. Muhammad also taught Mr. Malvo his brand of black nationalism drawn from the teachings of the Nation of Islam, Dr. Cornell said. He required Mr. Malvo to read speeches by black separatist leaders and even played recordings of those speeches to Mr. Malvo while he slept.

mr ed - odd that they dont specify wot those speeches are. they specifically mention the Matrix - but not the speeches.

There were conflicting reports on Monday about whether a group of South Koreans working on an electrical transmission line had quit the country after two of their colleagues were killed and two others were wounded in an ambush on Nov. 30.

After deadly attacks, workers for the United Nations, along with many diplomats and foreign aid workers, have left Iraq in recent months. Mr. Senor, a spokesman for the United States civilian authorities, said the attackers should not be rewarded with any hint that they could disrupt reconstruction in Iraq. "Over all, the broader question is clear," he said. "As they withdraw because of intimidation by foreign terrorists and former regime elements, the terrorists win. The foreign regime elements win."

"In Samarra, a city hostile to American soldiers about 70 miles north of Baghdad, troops seized $2 million after a raid in which they searched for a man believed to be financing attacks on Americans, General Kimmitt said. The man sought was not there, he said, but the soldiers arrested a second man, who led them to the cash. "
mr ed - this sounds like a lie.

Moscow police said they were looking for another suspect who may have taken part in the attack and had the features of a person from the Caucasus

mr ed-do i get any points for predicting a chechnya takeover? or is that like taiwan? i wouldnt sleep very well if i was in any country that has ever been described as 'breakaway'. who are the others? e.timor for one. how bout china's 'second system'? aceh? quebec? texas?

A military spokesman, who would not be named, said the OH-58D Kiowa observation helicopter from the 82nd Airborne Division made a "controlled landing" at 2.30pm (local time).
mred - im seeing this anonymity everywhere - for the weirdest things.
and heres the entire byline: "From correspondents in Baghdad"

Two other helicopters with red crosses painted on the sides landed nearby a few minutes later, the reporter said.
mred - who uses this language? "with red crosses painted on the sides" indeed - our troops are safe. phew. no threat here - nothing to see - move along. and guess where the attack was: "the dangerous Sunni Triangle". who'da thunk?

"an A-10 Thunderbolt II was seen overflying the site"
mred - who uses this language? only if u were lying im sure.

Asked whether the bombing was a suicide attack, Ismael nodded.
mr ed - thats the end of the story. i thought crims had to state things explicitly.

The survey, which Gallup plans to release today, asked 1178 Baghdad residents in August and September whether a member of their household had been executed by the Hussein regime.
According to Gallup, 6.6 per cent said yes. The pollster took Baghdad's population -- 6.39 million -- and average household size -- 6.9 people -- and calculated that 61,000 people were executed during Hussein's rule. Most are believed to have been buried in mass graves.
mred - mass graves blah blah. if this poll was the slightest bit true, then surely you'd extend the total to all of baghdad - even hypothetically. baghdad is a quarter of iraqs population, therefore you might hypothesise that 240,000 were 'buried in mass graves'

"The US-led occupation authority in Iraq has said at least 300,000 people are buried in mass graves in Iraq. Human rights groups put the number closer to 500,000, and some Iraqi politicians estimate more than 1million were executed. "
mr ed - altho: "Amnesty International said that over the past 20 years it has collected information about 17,000 disappearances in Iraq"

"Scientists told the Associated Press they had confirmed 41 mass graves at a list of 270 suspected sites."
mr ed - does this sentence make sense?

"Homosexuals who would have to live "discreetly" to avoid persecution in their home country might be entitled to refugee status in Australia, the High Court found in a landmark judgment yesterday. The decision puts gay asylum-seekers fleeing sexual persecution on a par with people fleeing religious or political persecution. "
mr ed - wouldnt the ams luv that? they'd have to take over australia as well as canada. ill expect to see a bunch of men in uniform on the streets - being asked and telling.