So, to figure out why our adversaries are sometimes allies, here is a good rule of thumb. They are members of the axis of evil when they endanger our geopolitical interests. But not when they endanger women's lives.

In pre-9/11 America, the legality of this would have been questionable. After all, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized."

"You have no right to hold us," Asher insisted.

"Yes, we have every right," responded one of the agents. "You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation."

The Treasury Department says the United States could face the prospect of not being able to pay its bills in late May unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, now capped at $6.4 trillion.

The bold plan for near-universal health care offered last week by Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri sent echoes across the entire Democratic presidential field. Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, who were campaigning in New Hampshire over the weekend, were asked at voter forums if they could match it -- which, at this point, they cannot.

The facts are these: On May 4, 1970, Kent State University students rallied to protest President Nixon's decision to expand the Vietnam conflict into Cambodia. Poorly trained Ohio National Guard troops were called to the campus, where, after some mild skirmishing with the students, they fired without warning, killing four and wounding nine. Only one of the casualties had been harassing the Guard; another had been on her way to class when she was shot and killed. The revulsion of those who thought the war wrong crystallized around a photo, widely disseminated then and often reproduced even now, of a dying youngster and the teenaged girl who knelt over him screaming.

The political logic of Kerry's attack is obvious. Dean is the only candidate with momentum and excitement, and he's the only big threat to Kerry in New Hampshire. Discredit Dean, win New Hampshire, and nobody else has the gas to pass Kerry.

But does Kerry's attack make sense on the merits? Not unless he's willing to disqualify himself as well.

Remember when the US was cool? It wasn’t that long ago, think back.

We were the fun, rich, good-looking, popular country. We drove the coolest car and had the tasty girlfriend with the big tits and the pool. We hung out with all the other cool countries, but still said hi to Mexico in the hallways (even though he smelled like a spicy sweatsuit). We were the best athlete and played guitar in a shitty band. We would get drunk and prank Russia and do coke on the away bus. We would kick somebody’s ass if they fucked with our friends and we would lend money if our friends were fucked. We were a superhero in the history of the world.

Read More

President Bush is giving his $15 billion global AIDS initiative a shove on Capitol Hill as lawmakers haggle over what emphasis the program should place on sexual abstinence.

With the Iraq war all but over, Bush's speech Tuesday on combatting AIDS worldwide was part of his renewed focus on the "compassionate conservative" items on his agenda. Bush feels "an absolute moral calling ... to help those in need in Africa and the Caribbean who have been ravaged by this," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

While his staff is quietly working with lawmakers on the details, Bush planned to tell an audience in the Rose Garden that the House is off to a good start. Bush was calling for swift action from Congress.

Conservatives are outraged over President Bush’s expected endorsement today of a House AIDS funding bill that they say is inconsistent with what he outlined as a top priority in his compassionate conservative agenda.

The bill, written by House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and ranking member Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), is opposed by conservative groups and lawmakers because it does not prioritize abstinence and monogamy over the use of condoms. The legislation cleared committee earlier this month with unanimous Democratic support, but conservatives on the panel voted against it.

They were shocked by news late last week that the White House would endorse the Hyde-Lantos bill because they were lobbying intensely to change it.

Moderator George Stephanopoulos says he will focus on areas of disagreement. They include the Iraq war, how the contenders would choose Supreme Court nominees and how they would cover 41 million uninsured Americans. The format, a round-table discussion followed by candidates questioning one another, is designed to promote interaction

PRINCE SULTAN AIRBASE, Saudi Arabia, April 29 --The United States said on Tuesday it was ending military operations in Saudi Arabia and removing virtually all of its forces from the kingdom by mutual agreement after the Iraq war.

If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturns a ban on homosexual marriage, traditional family supporters predict that activists will use the ruling as a wedge to force the rest of the country to accept legalization of same-sex marriage. A decision is expected this summer.

In March the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in Goodridge v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in which seven same-sex couples claim they have a fundamental, constitutional right to marry. Four of the couples are raising children.

The plaintiffs—eight women and six men—lost an opening round a year ago when Suffolk Superior Judge Thomas E. Connolly denied them a right to marriage licenses. The judge, citing the marriage laws and traditions of Massachusetts and the nation, said only the state legislature is empowered to make such profound changes. The couples appealed to the top Massachusetts court.

Matt Daniels is president of the Springfield, Virginia–based Alliance for Marriage, which supports traditional marriage. Daniels predicts that same-sex activists will prevail—if not in Massachusetts, then in similar cases pending in New Jersey or Indiana. "Once we lose, they will file suits in every state," Daniels said.

"Santorum?" Sen. Bob Kerrey once commented. "Is that Latin for asshole?"

I signed the civil unions bill because it was the right thing to do. Those of us who came of age during the civil rights movement have long understood that the strength of America lies in our commitment to equal rights under the law for everyone. Civil unions provide equal inheritance rights, equal hospital visitation rights, and equal insurance rights. Every legal right that I have as a married person, anybody in Vermont can have, including gays and lesbians. Today, Vermont is the only place in America where equal rights under the law means equal rights under the law for every citizen, not just for the people we like or the people we're comfortable with or the people who look like us.

President Bush's and Senator Santorum's remarks remind us that while laws may guarantee equal rights, laws alone do not create equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 guarantees equal rights for minorities in this country, but the law did not end racism and prejudice. The civil unions law guarantees equal rights for same-sex couples in Vermont, but the law did not end discrimination toward gays and lesbians.

Creating equality for all requires the personal responsibility of everyone. As Americans, we can no longer tolerate politics of division and still hope to achieve the promise of equality envisioned by our Founding Fathers. The dream of equal rights for all Americans will only be realized when all of us-whether in the corridors of power or in the hallways of our schools and offices-come together to create a community in which bigotry and hatred is cast out from the forum of public discourse. I believe equal rights can be achieved, but it will only be achieved when we have leaders in the highest offices of the land who stop pandering to bigots in exchange for a handful of votes.

A federal court denied a request to shut down Internet song-swapping services Grokster and Morpheus on Friday, handing a stunning setback to the record labels and movie studios that have sought to curb unauthorized downloading of their works.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson said the two services should not be shut down because they cannot control what is traded over their systems. Like a videocassette recorder, the software in question could be used for legitimate purposes as well as illicit ones, he said.

Is Bush taking lessons from Julius Caesar? Apparently so. When Caesar's short but bloody conquest of the Celtic tribes led to the founding of the Roman province of Gaul (modern France) in 52 B.C. he divided the country into three parts. Well-connected sources tell us that Bush plans to divide Iraq into three parts as well: Premium, regular and unleaded.
- Katrina vanden Heuvel

Demonstrating a significant shift in America’s nuclear strategy, the Bush administration intends to produce – not just research – a thermonuclear bunker-busting bomb to destroy hardened, deeply buried targets, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time.

The weapon – known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator – would be a full-power hydrogen bomb that would throw up enormous clouds of radioactive dust while wreaking large-scale damage and death if used in an urban area. It would be thousands of times more powerful than the conventional “bunker busters” dropped on Baghdad in an attempt to kill former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Ted Turner said on Thursday too few people owned too many media organizations and called rival media baron Rupert Murdoch a warmonger for what he said was Murdoch's promotion of the U.S. war in Iraq.

"He's a warmonger," Turner said in an evening speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco of Murdoch, whose News Corp. Ltd. owns the fast-growing Fox News Channel. "He promoted it."

A Woman's Place

The only time I saw Iraqi men entirely intimidated by the American-British forces was in Basra, when a cluster of men gaped, awestruck, around an example of the most astoundingly modern weapon in the Western arsenal.

Her name was Claire, and she had a machine gun in her arms and a flower in her helmet.

"I'm a bit of a novelty here," she said, laughing. The Iraqis flinched.

In the aftermath of the Iraq war it's time to re-examine the ban on women in American front-line forces.

Q And what about the Iraqi information minister? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: He's my man, he was great. (Laughter.) Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic.

When a family without health insurance suffers illness, the results are often catastrophic — either serious conditions go untreated or the family faces financial ruin. Our inadequate insurance system is one important reason why America, the richest country in the world, has lower life expectancy and higher child mortality than most other advanced nations.

So why should tax cuts take priority over health care? I know the party line: tax cuts for high earners are the key to economic growth, and a rising tide lifts all boats. But there's not a shred of evidence supporting that claim. More than two decades after the supply-siders launched their tax-cut crusade, ordinary workers have yet to see a rising tide. The median real wage is only 7 percent higher now than it was in 1979, with all of that increase achieved after Bill Clinton raised taxes for the top bracket.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush's remarks were based on information from at least one Iraqi scientist who has led coalition forces to materials used in the production of weapons of mass destruction and who has said some weapons were destroyed before the war, others perhaps afterward.

Deconstructing Santorum is no easy matter. His logic is Euclidean, his analogies Limbaughian, and he has, I must add, a stern countenance that in no way bespeaks the resolute voice for inclusion he really is. But he does, I think, raise a profound question that he ought to answer himself: If you have the orientation of a moron, do you still have to talk like one?

BLITZER: Let's move to another subject that you raised earlier today, you called on Republican Senator Santorum, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania to step down because the comments he made about gays.

Tell our viewers precisely what your position is?

DEAN: The Republican party is dividing us by race or income or gender or religion, in this case sexual orientation. Gay people are people first and gay second. And most people's fears about gays is not understanding anything about gays. Gay people are people. There are gay people in Iraq now fighting for the United States of America, they deserve to be treated with the same respect that every other American deserves to be treated with. And I'm tired of having the right wing Republican party make hay by beating up on various minority groups so they can feed their right wing base.

BLITZER: Well, listen to how he responded, he basicly said if you have a problem with him, you have a problem with U.S. Supreme Court, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: To suggest that my comments which are the law of the land and were the reason the Supreme Court decided in 1986 is somehow intolerant, I just would argue that it is not. It is simply a reflection of the law. Obviously, I can't represent everybody's viewpoint. I mean, there are a variety of different viewpoints in the room. My job is to respect everybody's viewpoint, and I do. I respect your point of view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was speaking directly to a gay person in the audience who complained about his comments. Go ahead, governor.

DEAN: I don't think this has to do with point of view. I think it has to do with basic respect. Until every single American is equal under the law in this country, then I don't think the country is as great as it could be. Just ask people, you know, almost everybody in America knows someone in someone's family who is gay. And all appeal for is a little bit respect and tolerance in understanding. When you come to know people they're people first and whatever category they might fit into later on.

I think Senator Santorum and the administration have done this country a disservice by, again, dividing us, whether it's by race, as the president did by using the word, quota, which wasn't true or whether it's by sexual orientation or gender or whatever it is, they've got to stop that. We have got to bring the country together as a community, and you don't get there by making intolerant comments that single out particular minorities.

With her five-year-old daughter Andrea on her lap, Christine Mains of Spanish Lake sits next to the road, about a football field away from the other protesters and that much closer to the plant. It is a tiny act of defiance, tolerated by police, who take no action when she refuses an officer's request to join the other demonstrators. "I refused to move and I stood my ground and I sat right there and I told him if he wanted to move me, he would have to move me physically," Mains later recalls. "I'm standing on my convictions and my First Amendment rights. I had a right to be there. I was on public property."

Suddenly the protesters head back toward the plant. The police follow along, making no attempt to stop the marchers until they try crossing McDonnell Boulevard to reach the entrance to Boeing administrative offices. The cops stop them on a narrow concrete median in the middle of the street.

"You have one of two choices: Go back across the street or be arrested," Jackson says. Most turn around and head toward a nearby parking lot where the cops say they can stay. But Mains remains on the median.

"You're blocking a street," Jackson warns. "You're also endangering the welfare of a child." Mains sits down, her arms around Andrea as a half-dozen officers move in. Patience on both sides has expired.

An officer snatches Andrea from her mother's arms and carries the child to a squad car. She's bawling, as is her mother. "No!" Mains screams. "She's five years old!" Mains goes limp as the cuffs go on, forcing officers to carry her to a patrol car while her daughter, tears streaming, is sped away. Mains will spend the next six hours in police custody. She goes home facing charges of failure to comply with a lawful order, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child and peace disturbance. The cops, she says, originally tried citing her for blocking a street but changed the charge to peace disturbance because police had already closed the street in preparation for Bush's appearance.

The complaint against Suntra alleges he fondled the breasts and buttocks of the victims, claiming he was doing a breast examination, when the women had come to the office for back and neck pain.
....
This is the second time in three years a Madison County doctor has been charged with battery involving patients. A Bethalto doctor was convicted of those charges three years ago.

The Republican Party: Come for the racism…stay for the homophobia™.

Yesterday, I called on President Bush and the Republican Party leadership to condemn Senator Rick Santorum for his deeply offensive remarks comparing homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery. As additional reports have come to light, revealing a disturbing history of inflammatory, anti-gay rhetoric by Senator Santorum, the deafening silence of President Bush and his party has become inexcusable.

Sen. Santorum has refused to apologize for his repugnant remarks, calling his comments "a legitimate public policy discussion." Gay-bashing is not a legitimate public policy discussion; it is immoral. Rick Santorum's failure to recognize that attacking people because of who they are is morally wrong makes him unfit for a leadership position in the United States Senate. Today I call on Rick Santorum to resign from his post as Republican Conference Chairman.

Once again, I call on President Bush to repudiate Sen. Santorum's remarks. The President of the United States must represent all Americans, regardless of race, gender, class or sexual orientation. In a nation dedicated to equality under the law, everyone must be equal under the law. By refusing to stand up for gay Americans under attack by members of his own party's leadership, this President sends a message that intolerance and bigotry is acceptable. That is not acceptable.

Woodward has eliminated Fred Fielding, my former deputy. I know this because Fred told me Woodward did so when he was being considered for appointment as White House counsel for President Reagan. He got the job, and -- unfortunately for those interested in Iran-Contra -- they had not hired Deep Throat.

Fielding had access to FBI reports because of his close relationship to former White House special counsel John Dean. Dean spent time in prison for his own involvement in Watergate. Dean has written an e-book narrowing the list of Deep Throat's suspects to four former Nixon aides: speechwriter Raymond Price, special assistant to the president Pat Buchanan, administrative assistant Stephen Bull, and press secretary Ron Ziegler. Fielding has never made his list.

"Dean doesn't know Fielding had all of this information," Gaines said. "He knows Fielding and said it couldn't be him because he was always honest."

The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.

The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home.

I don't know what happens next, but I do want to add my voice to those who think that the Dixie Chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-American one to boot. I send them my support.

Bruce Springsteen

I have no problem with Republicans; I have a problem with Republican acts... I have nothing, absolutely nothing, against anyone who's Republican. If that's their orientation, then I accept that, and I have no problem with someone who has other orientations. The question is, do you act upon those orientations? So it's not the person; it's the person's actions.

"Rick Santorum, the Senate's third-ranked Republican who is under fire from gay-rights groups and Democrats, says he has 'no problem with homosexuality – I have a problem with homosexual acts.'"

Boy, that oughta make everyone feel better. Kind of like saying you have no problem with disabled folks, it's just those blasted wheelchairs.

SANTORUM: In this case, what we're talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We're not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We're talking about a basic homosexual relationship. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a a perfectly fine relationship as long as it's consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that's fine, you would assume that you would see more of it.

Rosenthal (DA, Harris County, TX): Texas has the right to set moral standards and can set bright line moral standards for its people. And in the setting of those moral standards, I believe that they can say that certain kinds of activity can exist and certain kinds of activity cannot exist.

Justice Breyer: Could they say, for example, it is against the law at the dinner table to tell really serious lies to your family?

Rosenthal: Yes, they can make that a law, but there would be no rational basis for the law.

Breyer: Oh, really. It's very immoral. I mean, I know there's certainly - it's certainly immoral to tell very serious harmful lies to your own family under certain circumstances and around the dinner table, some of the worst things can happen.

[Laughter]

But - the - the - so Texas could go right in there and any kind of morality that they think is just immoral or bad, cheating, perhaps. What about rudeness, serious rudeness, et cetera?

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," the Pennsylvania lawmaker said in a recent interview, fuming over a landmark gay rights case before the high court that pits a Texas sodomy law against equality and privacy rights.

He and his wife, Karen, have seven children including, as Santorum puts it, "the one in Heaven." Their fourth baby, Gabriel Michael, died in 1996, two hours after an emergency delivery in Karen Santorum's 20th week of pregnancy. The couple took Gabriel's body home to let their three other young children see and hold the baby before burying him, according to Karen Santorum's book of the ordeal, "Letters to Gabriel."

But let's examine Santorum's quote in the best possible light, shall we? An optimistic interpretation would be that he is making a constitutional point about judicial restraint. That's fair enough. It's a perfectly debatable proposition whether there is a right to privacy in the Constitution, and it doesn't involve anyone's views of homosexuals, abortion or any other matter. But Santorum must also know that such a right to privacy is now settled constitutional doctrine: It underpins the right to abortion and even the right to practice contraception. If he wants to abolish it, he must surely hold out the possibility of the government once again policing some of the most intimate sexual and reproductive matters imaginable, regulated by nothing but majority opinion. Santorum's position is therefore that there should be no constitutional restraint on the power of government to regulate sexual morality -- even within your own bedroom. The only restraint -- especially against any sexual minorities -- would be mandated by majority decisions.

Santorum is chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate, third in his party's leadership, behind Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Frist declined comment.

The silence with which President Bush and the Republican Party leadership have greeted Sen. Santorum’s remarks is deafening. It is the same silence that greeted Senator Lott’s offensive remarks in December. It is a silence that implicitly condones a policy of domestic divisiveness, a policy that seeks to divide Americans again and again on the basis of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation.

It is a policy that must end, and it is a policy that will end with a Dean Presidency. This Saturday, April 26th, marks the third anniversary of the signing of the Civil Unions bill in Vermont. I signed that bill because I believe no human being should be treated with less dignity than others simply because that person belongs to a different category or group. I also believe that, as Americans, it is our duty to speak up when others are treated wrongly—especially when others are treated wrongly by a member of the Senate leadership.

I urge all Americans, and members of both parties, to join me in condemning Sen. Santorum’s remarks. They are unacceptable, and silence is an unacceptable response. By standing up against such divisive rhetoric—whether one is gay, lesbian, or straight—we can begin to achieve the American ideal of equal rights for all people.

As an outdoorsman, I have experienced the incredible power of the natural world. I am horrified by what the Bush Administration is doing to our land, our air, and our water. The United States must play a leading role in combating climate change and the ongoing loss of the world's diversity and natural heritage.

We need an energy policy, and President Bush has none-unless you consider drilling and destroying the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge an energy policy. We need to bring the public back into public lands, instead of making decisions with special interest groups behind closed doors... Read More

On Earth Day, our country needs real leadership on many critical issues: safeguarding the water our children drink, preserving our national parks and forests, and achieving energy independence while addressing dangerous climate changes are just a few. But on a day when thousands gather outside to celebrate conservation, it's disappointing to find the Bush administration working behind closed doors to weaken our clean air laws.

Anyone who has watched this president cut his own education plan by $1 billion this year alone and still call it "Leave No Child Behind" knows better than to trust a name like the "Clear Skies Initiative"... Read More

Earth Day serves as a clear reminder that we need a new president in Washington who puts the environment first every day. President Bush said he cares about the environment. Yet he opposed the Kyoto global warming treaty, tried to drill for oil in our precious natural lands, undermined a partnership with the auto industry to develop more fuel-efficient cars and has set about dismantling federal clean air and water protections.

I've got news for the president, the vice president and the oil companies they used to run: there is no path to oil self-sufficiency. We can't drill our way there, no matter how many public lands we despoil... Read More

Dangers from the environment are creating a national environmental health crisis that needs to be addressed. No community - of any income or any race - should have their children endangered. And it is wrong when communities that don't have the economic or political power carry an unjust burden of pollution. For too long, poor and minority communities have been overlooked when it came to the environment. For too long, they've felt they didn't have the power to fight back. And for too long, polluters thought they could get away with breaking the law as long as it was in someone else's back yard. Read More

Friday, March 21 5:40 p.m. As war broke out in Iraq, people gravitated downtown. "Plaza is packed," an officer informed HQ.

6:17 p.m. Following "multiple reports of protesters hitting vehicles with signs, food, jumping on cars parked at 9th/G," officers waded into the swirling energy on the Plaza. Cops hung out till homeland security improved.

6:48 p.m. Alcohol helped kindle moral outrage in inflaming one Plaza protester's passions, police believe.

6:56 p.m. Things got a little pushy-shovy between the lord of a Frederick Avenue manor and a room renter, but it was the landlord who called police from a neighbor's home. Prosecution and assistance was declined, but the tenant got 30 days notice.

9:06 p.m. A patient who left the emergency room against medical advice wasn't hard to spot. Naturally, he sported the mandatory dark pullover sweatshirt, accessorized by a sports bag and an IV tube attached to his arm. Found near the school next door, he returned to the hospital and agreed to stay for the duration of the drip.

10:51 p.m. In an incident cloaked in ambivalence, a person either suffering with or enjoying a state of "elevated behavior" was reported either screaming or yelling.

Not one illegal warhead. Not one drum of chemicals. Not one incriminating document. Not one shred of evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction in more than a month of war and occupation.

Stewart has a keen eye for Bush's hypocrisies. After Baghdad had fallen, he showed excerpts of Bush's television address to the Iraqi people. "You are a good and gifted people," the President intoned unctuously. "You deserve better than tyranny and corruption and torture chambers." Stewart, sticking out a cocked forefinger as if he were chucking a toddler under the chin, cooed in a high voice, "Yes you do, yes you do, you're a very good country, ga, ga, ga, goo goo."

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

I have two advantages in this race. One of which I share with Bob Graham. I'm a physician and I'm a former governor. We've heard a lot of great things and I would be very happy to support the nominee of my party and I intend to do that vigorously... because I expect it to be me. (laughter) But the advantage of a doctor is that I know what happens when people don't have health insurance and we put health insurance in our state for everybody under 18 and I know how to do that for the United States. The advantage of a governor is that we home-visit 91% of the kids in our state, we've reduced the child abuse rate by 43% and those kids are going to go to college instead of prison 10 years from now.

You know, I want to thank my liberal friend Marian Wright Edelman. People have often called me a liberal too and I appreciate it. Because if being liberal means balancing the budget, which no Republican president has done that in 34 years, then you may call me a liberal. If being liberal means figuring out a way to have health insurance for every single american and joining every other industrialized country on the face of the earth then you may call me a liberal. If being a liberal means investing in early education, which we have done, and subsidizing child care for working people, which we have done, and making sure that child abuse is down and college attendance is up then you may call me a liberal.

I am tired of living in a country that's divided by race. I am tired of living in a country that's divided by income. I am tired of living in a country that's divided by gender. I am tired of living in a country that is divided. I want to be a president that brings this country back together. Where we admit again that we are responsible for each other and to each other. Where it's not only important for my kids to have health insurance but for my neighbor's kids to have health insurance. Where it's not only important for my kids to go to good schools but for my neighbor's children to go to good schools.

If you want to help us... deanforamerica.com (laughter).

Thank you very much.

What we're gonna do, we're gonna give young people a reason to vote again in this country. Let's go to it.

The presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) announced yesterday it will return $10,000 to employees of a Little Rock law firm after a law clerk said she expected her boss to reimburse her for a $2,000 donation.

Announcer: Baghdad has only just fallen. And yet, already, candidates are throwing their hats in the ring to be the President of Iraq. But how many of them are only doing it simply because they have a lust for power? Just one.

Uday Hussein: Hi! I'm Uday Hussein! My father ruled Iraq for a long time! And he was a fantastic murderer in his day! But.. unfortunately.. he is probably dead by now. So.. it might be time for a change! It's true that my opponents say I am a violent lunatic! But what they don't tell you is that I know all the hot spots and discotheques! I've got tons of jewelry and cars, and I'm addicted to sex! Elect me! I'm like a fun-time playboy! I'm a club-hopping, jolly fun cat! Come on! Now.. I know what you're thinking: "Why elect the less competent son of a former president?" Well.. you guys did it!

Announcer: Uday Hussein. A name you can trust.

Which brings to mind the punch line of that old Lone Ranger and Tonto joke ("Well, Tonto, it looks like we're surrounded by Indians"): "What do you mean, 'we,' Kemosabe?" What am I to Halliburton? What is Halliburton to me? Misdirected national emotion is turning into a theme of the Bush II years. We're filled with righteous anger at Osama bin Laden, so we go and pummel Saddam Hussein. We're filled with gratitude toward the soldiers who fought this war and with self-satisfaction as the citizens who will pay for it, so we give a teary hug and a big wet kiss on the mouth to a company practically all of us have nothing to do with.

What do rock star Joan Jett, actor Michael Douglas and "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David have in common? They all gave to the presidential campaign of Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont who is now seeking the 2004 Democratic nomination.

Some 300 Palestinian minors have been rounded up by the Israeli army over the past year and are being held in crowded lockups, some of them without charges or trial, human rights monitors say.

Coinciding with the Bush administration's tough talk about Syria, a senior Israeli official Monday exposed a smoking gun. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Tel Aviv newspaper Maariv: ''We have a long list of issues we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and it would be best done through the Americans.''

Syria has introduced a draft United Nations resolution to rid the Middle East of any nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Syria - the only Arab nation on the Security Council - urged the US to back the resolution which it said was intended to promote peace and stability in the Middle East.

I have begun to notice small things. A recruiter for a large company calls to ask about a student who is being considered for a job. "Does she plan to have a family?" he inquires, innocently enough. "Is she really -- er -- serious about a career?" It is not the first time such a question has been put to me about a female student, but it is the first time I hear it clearly, for what it is.

A male colleague is critical of a young woman assistant professor: "She’s not assertive enough in the classroom," he confides. "She’s too anxious to please -- doesn’t know her own mind." Then, later, another colleague, about the same young woman: "She’s so whiny. I find her very abrasive." It is possible, of course, that she is both diffident and abrasive. But I can’t help wondering if these characterizations more accurately reflect how my two colleagues feel about women in general -- their mothers, wives, girlfriends -- than about this particular young woman.

At a board meeting of a small foundation on which I serve, the lone woman director tries to express doubts about a pending decision. At first, several loquacious men in the group won’t give her a chance to speak. When finally she begins to voice her concern, she is repeatedly interrupted. She perseveres and eventually states her objection. But her concern goes unaddressed in the remainder of the meeting, as if she had never raised it. It seems to me that this isn’t the first time she was ignored, but it is the first time I noticed.

** Cool donors: Slimfast guru S. Daniel Abraham; Cheesecake Factory president Michael Berry; NYT'er Janet Maslin; actor George Gaynes, who played Commandant Lassard in the Police Academy movies; George Soros; cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

** Note to donor "Anonymous Anonymous" — uh … no. Ya can't do that.

** Dean has allocated the most money to South Carolina — more than $32,000. A staffer there, J. Patrick Anderson, gets biweekly checks.

** Dean appears to have lots and lots of small donors.

I'm glad to pay my taxes every year, and I wish President Bush would back off on his tax-cut crusade. Because if $550 billion comes out of the tax rolls, who in the world is going to bail out the airlines?

In fact, the only other significant event of the evening was a glance that passed between Senators John Kerry and John Edwards when Dean again appropriated the late Senator Paul Wellstone's line "I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." It was a withering glance, and Governor Dean might well be advised, Do not find yourself in a dark alley with either of these men. No doubt, the resentment toward Dean is a consequence of his banty-rooster self-regard, but it is also a result of Dean's success in these early joint appearances. The possibility of Dean's decapitation by either Kerry or Edwards in some future debate is one reason to stay tuned.

If you think government is useless, evil and unnecessary, ponder those pictures of looters in Iraq ransacking homes, hotels, even hospitals. Feel for that sobbing official of the National Museum of Antiquities, aghast at the destruction of irreplaceable historical artifacts by an angry mob.

The lesson the looters teach is basic, and it is usually ignored: The alternative to tyranny is not the abolition of government. Absent a government committed to the protection of rights, there are no rights. Without government, individuals have no way to vindicate their rights to property, to basic personal liberty, to life itself.

Mokhiber: Lawrence Eagleburger, the Secretary of State under George Bush Sr, told the BBC yesterday: "If George Bush Jr. decided he was going to turn the troops loose on Syria and Iran - after that he would last in office for about 15 minutes. In fact if President Bush were to try that even now, I would think that he ought to be impeached. You can't get away with that sort of thing in this democracy." Can you get away with that sort of thing?

Ari Fleischer: I've answered that question previously up here.

(End of press conference. Ari refuses to take follow up and walks away.)

In this presidential election season, everything is happening faster. The primaries have been moved up, consultants hired sooner, and, because of the crowded field and mushrooming expense of running a campaign, fundraising has begun earlier. Consequently, the press is racing to handicap the candidates, subjecting them to the various litmus tests that once occurred much later in the cycle. Anything that can yield a clue is accorded instant significance. There have even been articles analyzing several of the candidates' wives (conventional wisdom so far: Hadassah Lieberman and Elizabeth Edwards are campaign assets; Teresa Heinz Kerry is a bit of a head case).

So it's no surprise that there's also early interest in candidates' answers to the question, "What's your favorite book?" This may seem an innocuous query, but it's actually one of the more treacherous a candidate can answer. In January, for instance, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. John Edwards to name his favorite book. Edwards replied that it was I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates. On the surface, that seemed to hit just the right note. It's plausible that an ex-trial lawyer like Edwards would enjoy a book about the ultimate historical trial, and by choosing that particular title--a serious inquiry written for a popular audience--Edwards conveyed a sense of weightiness without appearing snobbish. But the choice also opened him up to criticism. Conservative commentator Bob Novak fumed on CNN's "Capital Gang": "That's incredible! Did Senator Edwards know that Izzy Stone was a lifelong Soviet apologist? Did he know of evidence that Stone received secret payments from the Kremlin?" Novak's rant illustrated how the slightest stumble on the book question can come back to hurt a candidate.

But the prize for the most interesting favorite book has to go to former Vermont governor Howard Dean. His choice of Ken Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion is surely the bravest. After all, in this poll-tested, consultant-driven age, how many other candidates would confess--much less volunteer--to reading the work of an acid-dropping '60s counterculture hero? Here's hoping that the choice boosts Dean's emerging image as the straight-talking honest candidate, and that this diminutive liberal Northeastern governor doesn't wind up like the last one.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is the Democratic Party's indie rock star. He lacks big production values. He's individualistic. He can be sullen and defensive. Sometimes he even dresses strangely. But when he turns it on, lays into one of his riffs and flashes that heart-melting smile, he drives the girls wild. And he makes you feel like you've been waiting your whole life for someone to say what he says, even though you didn't know it.

By comparison, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is a member of O-Town.

Wednesday night's presidential cattle call sponsored by the Children's Defense Fund made one thing clear: Dean is the candidate creating the framework the others have to respond to. And he is going to give the money men a run for it.

About all those links I put up. I only did that because I'm tired of "the evil Conservative agenda" and "Cheney and his Haliburton Cronies" or "Lord Bush and his pundit subjects" or whatever else. Stereotypes. In general I was trying to point out EVERYONE has faults, both sides of the political spectrum. I only seem to be hearing how Conservatives screw up around here. All of it. Also, Matt? Whats wrong with flag bandannas? I wouldn't wear one, by why can't they? They wore them _under_ their riot helms. Not breaking uniform code. So whats wrong? It's free speach. Also with the Yellow Ribbons, in the Mayor's own words " "The no-sign ordinance is meant to keep the city from getting polluted with signs," he said. "Ribbons are not signs." " So what's wrong with them? And about the transgender joke? For god's sake. Would you file a suit against me if I made a political joke? Those people are too touchy, as I said before. It's all humor. They are the exception to the rule from what I've seen in the Transgendered community.

Moore and the Dixie Chicks. I haven't seen statistics, but with the media saying their sales are down, and Moore saying they're up. I'm willing to bet their conservative listeners are boycotting them, and people like Matt who've gained respect for them because they chose to stand up and voice their opinions pushed their popularity right back up. Also with Moore, I've heard a lot about his Documentary, but haven't seen it. I'm going to not comment on it till I have seen it. I plan on using Kazaa, as I will not voluntarily give him a cent.

Matt: Leader in Exile, Gore? *Snicker* But seriously. I don't like this person Rumsfeld is promoting for Iraqi replacement President, but at least they'll be having elections.

Also, we shouldn't (and I'm thoroughly opposed to this btw) occupy (or colonize, pick a word) Iraq. It would be a horrible mess for them and us.

I've heard this on one News source, but not more then one. I'll try and confirm this, but don't take this as Dogma. Anyone ever heard anything about BBC recently? Specifically how they were banned on the HMS Arc, the flagship of the British Royal Navy. Call it silencing if you want, but they claimed it was disheartening the troops to listen to the BBC. How the BBC was down playing coalition achievements and Demonizing whatever it did display. The straw that broke the camels back was when the Statue of Saddam fell, they never aired it. They aired an earthquake in India instead.

You've already missed out on Baghdad and Basra, but by planning and preparing now you can be first in line in Damascus or Pyongyang.

Practical advice inside - loot like a professional!

Liberation Day

Even those opposed to the war should celebrate a shining moment in the history of freedom -- the fall of Saddam Hussein