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March 17, 2004 Statement by Bush-Cheney ‘04 Campaign Chairman Governor Marc Racicot ARLINGTON, VA --“Yesterday on a conference call arranged by Sen. Kerry’s campaign, former Gov. Howard Dean blamed the deaths in Spain on President Bush and the War on Terror. The attacks were caused by a global terror network that not only struck Spain, but also killed in the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Bali. If Senator Kerry understands the nature of this threat and the need to take on terror, then he should immediately repudiate these troubling comments, and stop all efforts on behalf of his surrogates...

Media Reality Check. "'Red Meat' Previews 'Angry Campaign'; Reporters Rebuke Tone and Substance of State of the Union While Inviting Democrats to Castigate BushBelow is the text of a Campaign 2004 Media Reality Check report, by the MRC's Rich Noyes, which was distributed by fax this afternoon. It combines some Tuesday night material, which appeared in today's CyberAlert, with fresh quotes from the Wednesday morning shows. The pull-out quote in the middle of the faxed page highlights Judy Woodruff's upset on CNN on Monday about how Bush's State of the Union address would distract attention from the Democrats. Monday's CyberAlert...

Readers are invited to send in the most strained and mealy-mouthed statements from the devastated press and anti-war politicians and activists following the capture of Saddam. First up: Saddam's paid-up British anti-war activist, George Galloway: "This will not stop the Iraqi resistance. if anything, it may set the resistance free, if you like, from the cloud of Saddam Hussein, and transform it into a purely national resistance movement without the charge that it's being controlled from behind by the deposed president." Galloway must be worried sick about what Saddam might tell the coalition. So must Chirac. - 4:23:59 PM

[***snippage***] THE MEMO, obtained by NEWSWEEK, suggests that the INC last year was directly feeding intelligence reports about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and purported ties to terrorism to one of Cheney’s top foreign- policy aides. Cheney staffers later pushed INC info—including defectors’ claims about WMD and terror ties—to bolster the case that Saddam’s government posed a direct threat to America. [***snip***] a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S. Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on Cheney’s staff, as one of two “U.S. governmental recipients” for reports generated by an intelligence...

<p>Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post notes the sudden appearance of multiple stories critical of various conservative symbols and causes.  Liberals love it, and conservatives claim conspiracy.  Whatever.   A Wall Street Journal columnist notes that it represents ''an outsized, mad hostility that even the assault on Clinton, which was poisonous, does not match,'' she said. ''A bottom level of partisan craziness and zealousness has infected the media.''</p> <p>The Los Angeles Times dropped an October surprise on Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, running detailed interviews with six women who say the actor groped them during the last 30 years.</p>

Fox News reporting that "sources" say Mr. Limbaugh had several suppliers. Made note of a couple who were arrested for selling prescription drugs not far from his house. Also found out that his former maid got paid in the six-figures for her story.

<p>President Bush on Sunday described as "uncivil" Sen. Edward Kennedy's critical remarks of the administration's policies in Iraq.</p> <p>Kennedy said last week the case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud "made up in Texas" to give Republicans a political boost. The longtime senator also alleged that the money for the war is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send troops.</p>

Beyond making some amiably assorted stabs at speaking Spanish, the Democratic presidential candidates were united in their first major debate on at least one thing, resolutely targeting President Bush for his foundering postwar policy in Iraq. The clownish intramural sideshows that usually haunt the Democratic Party on the early primary circuit were missing in Albuquerque. But those Americans bothering to tune in on Thursday night were also offered an early look at how the Democrats disagree. While they competed to come up with the most dismissive description of Mr. Bush's foreign policy (Richard Gephardt may have won with "miserable failure"),...

Nazis murdered millions of unarmed people. They put them in ovens. They made soap out of them. They carted off children in boxcars to die and used some of the kids for medical experiments, including injecting dyes into their eyes to see if they could improve their looks. Lower on the list of charges, the Nazis enslaved millions and launched wars for territorial and egotistical gain (and sent many of the conquered populations to death camps as well). Lower still, they banned books and burned them too. They expropriated homes and businesses, banned religions, etc. An intelligent person wouldn't normally...

<p>August 29, 2003 -- THE rise of an ardent, pas sionate, angry and en gaged left is the most im portant political story of 2003.</p> <p>The hottest book of the new publishing season is Al Franken's "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)." Joe Conason of the New York Observer has a fast-selling tome called "Big Lies." At the end of September comes "The Lies of George Bush" by David Corn of the Nation magazine, which will likely hit the bestseller list as well.</p>

President George W Bush's personal chef has been humiliated by a team of French practical jokers who tempted him with a job offer to desert his employer and go to work for President Jacques Chirac.The stunt, which is threatening to spiral into a diplomatic incident, happened when Walter Scheib visited Paris in his capacity as president of the Chefs des Chefs d'Etat, a club for those who cook for the world's heads of state.On Wednesday evening he was due to attend a party at the Elysee Palace given by the French leader's wife, Bernadette. That afternoon a French television company...

WASHINGTON — Frustrated at the failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have launched a major effort to determine if they were victims of bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war. The goal, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, "is to see if false information was put out there and got into legitimate channels and we were totally duped on it." He added, "We're reinterviewing all our sources of information on this. This is the entire intelligence community, not just the U.S."

CNN refuses to be left out of the media bonanza Fox New whipped up last week by suing liberal comedian Al Franken. Atlanta-based CNN is bringing Franken on as a guest host on "Crossfire" Monday and Tuesday. He'll take the liberal chair across from regular conservative commentator Tucker Carlson for the half-hour debate show. Fox last week filed a lawsuit against Franken and his publisher, the Penguin Group, to stop them from using Fox's trademarked slogan, "Fair and Balanced" in the title of Franken's new book. Related: • Are these guys fair and balanced? You decide The book, called "Lies...

Flood the Zone Fridays, brought to you by Karl Rove Posted by Ezra Klein George W. Bush has a new website up, and upon seeing it, you have to admit -- this is a campaign that "gets" the web. Their website consolidates many of the tools that the Democratic challengers and their supporters have been experimenting with, and they are well implemented. Particularly impressive is their Action Center, which has one the the coolest, most useful tools I've ever seen: If you scroll about halfway down the page, you'll see a field where you can input your zip code...

As a Florida Republican, I listened to the press lie through the 2000 recounts, pause for an obscenely short time after 9-11, and pick up the refrain - the campaign of lies..."Gore won" "Bush is selected."Remember when the press "discovered" the old mildly-intoxicated-while-driving Bush "scandal" a week before the election? Coincidentally, earlier that same day, Janet Reno told the press that she would be opening an investigation into Al Gore's pulling the plug on a multi-year drug investigation (after the Houston detectives cried foul at the cover-up) because the #1 suspect made a BIG $$$ donation to Al's campaign. A mob...

<p>In New York -- which has reported about 70,000 violent crimes a year since 1998 -- police reported four burglaries in the entire city overnight, and said they had made arrests in all four.</p> <p>Three deaths overall have been reported that were tied to the outage.</p>

Less Than Meets the Eye? U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup By Brian Ross Aug. 13— Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS. They say there's a lot less than meets the eye. The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared today in federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license. Outside...

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 22 July 2003 BERKELEY – Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations? Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include: * Fear and aggression * Dogmatism and intolerance of...

Fleischer: Media Driving 'Overblown' Uranium Story: In a July 17 appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman retiring Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer discussed the reaction of reporters like CBS's Roberts to the uranium controversy, and said of the disputed words, "This one issue, we didn't have solid enough information for it to be made into the president's speech. But if ever there was an issue that was dramatically, ridiculously exaggerated and overblown, it's this one." Letterman then wondered how long the stories would last: LETTERMAN: When something like this happens, a little eruption like this--and everybody [the...

The man can't even count past five, as was evidenced when Senator Bob Graham tried to count the letters in the word, 'deceit'. Now for his new five letter word: 'impeach'. Graham might not be smart enough to count the fingers of more than one hand, but he knows so much more about the articles of impeachment than we do. Oh, yes. He's brilliant. He was elected in Flori-duh, after all. But I have some questions for Mr. Graham: when will he call for the impeachment of his fellow senators who beg campaign fund raisers from someone whom the senate...