F.B.I. Discounted Suspicions About Moussaoui, Agent Says
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: March 20, 2006
ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 20 — The F.B.I. agent who arrested and interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui just weeks before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, told a jury today that his efforts to confirm his strong suspicions that Mr. Moussaoui was involved in a terrorist […]

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Images: original mosaic ntimages.com; referee cnnsi.com

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Here are some interesting pieces from TP Muckraker.
McCain may be playing with Delay’s throw-aways.

Dubai’s $1.2 Bln Bid for U.S. Weapons Maker Delayed (Update3)
March 20 (Bloomberg) —
Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while the authorities investigate security concerns.
Dubai International Capital LLC, which is […]

How to spot a baby conservative

Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand …

Mar. 19, 2006. 10:45 AM
KURT KLEINER
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running […]

Bush To Cleveland: ‘Anybody Work Here In This Town?’
Read the piece and hear the tape here.

Monday, March 20, 2006 ·
Wal-Mart to hire up to 150,000 in China
By MARCUS KABEL
AP BUSINESS WRITER
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to hire up to 150,000 employees in China over the next five years, five times its current work force there, as it expands its number of stores, the company said Monday.
Read the entire […]

Harris tells Christian group she believes God wants her in public service
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Sunday, March 19, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE — Finding inspiration from God, The Last of the Mohicans and The Lord of Rings, Katherine Harris told hundreds of conservative Christians Saturday that she is “a work in progress.”
Harris, who […]

Chavez blasts Bush as “donkey” and “drunkard”
Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:58 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday lobbed a litany of insults at U.S. President George W. Bush ranging from “donkey” to “drunkard” in response to a White House report branding the left-wing leader a demagogue.Chavez is one of Bush’s […]

Exelon kept leaks quiet, files show
By Hal Dardick
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 19, 2006

Exelon officials took several steps that for years kept the public in the dark about radioactive tritium spills at a Will County nuclear power plant and the groundwater contamination the spills caused, public records obtained by the Tribune show.Recent company disclosures about […]

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Images from 1motormart.com//hubcapcafe.com & Sponge Bob Square Pants

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Los Angeles Times EDITORIAL
Shock, awe and humility
March 19, 2006
THREE YEARS AGO TODAY, Iraqis were “shocked and awed” by the power of the U.S. military. Today, Americans are shocked and awed by its limits. If the “cakewalks” of the 1980s and 1990s — Grenada, the Gulf War, Kosovo — restored America’s belief in its omnipotence, so […]

Missouri Drama Teacher Resigns in Play Flap

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 18, 2006
Filed at 9:24 a.m. ET
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A central Missouri high school drama teacher whose spring play was canceled after complaints about tawdry content in one of her previous productions will resign rather than face a possible firing.
‘’It became too much to […]

Please make a habit of reading Media Matters in order to gauge hom much faith one should place in the contemporary new “business.” It’s not just the “WMD” misreporting by the New York Times writer or the obvious b.s. coming from Fox–rather it is the constant erosion of back stories, follow-ups and subtlety which should […]

Representative Conyers says the New York Times is shilling again.
Read it here.

Here is another long piece on victimization a la Abu Ghraib
from THE NEW YORK TIMES site.

On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled 

Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing
By Brian Bennet/Al Jallam
Time Magazine
Posted Friday, Mar. 17, 2006
Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters […]

Associated Press
Update 4: Doctor: Boot Camp Teen Likely Suffocated
By BILL KACZOR , […]

NY St. Pat’s chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis
Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:24 PM ETBy Claudia ParsonsNEW YORK (Reuters) - The man in charge of Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has fueled a controversy by saying allowing a gay group to join Friday’s march would be like permitting neo-Nazis to participate in an Israeli parade.
Read the […]

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Photographs by Karim Sahib of AFP and one photograph from Reuters

SAME WASHINGTON, DIFFERENT OFFICE
By LESLIE WAYNE
After serving as attorney general, John Ashcroft has become a Washington lobbyist and is marketing his insider’s knowledge of how government works.
Read it >here.
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David Scull for The New York Times
John Ashcroft, the former attorney general,
at the offices of the Ashcroft Group in Washington.

The Government places TSA Attorney Carla Martin on leave. I am amazed the alleged transgressions made it to the judge.

Read it here.

Poll: Americans slightly favor plan to censure
Published: Thursday March 16, 200
A new poll finds that a plurality of Americans favor plans to […]

We have not heard about these heavenly appearances lately. Has the Mother of God chosen to forsake the underside of manifolds, day old bread and the hanging window speakers at outdoor theaters? During one period the media was reporting sightings almost as often as the History Channel features UFOs. To refresh your memories, I shall […]

  “The only people who think this wasn’t a victory are Upper Westside liberals, and a few people here in Washington.” (Charles Krauthammer, Inside Washington, WUSA-TV, 4/19/03)
…and all of us know who those Upper West Side liberals are.–DBp
Media Advisory F.A.I.R. Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting

“The Final Word Is Hooray!”
Remembering the Iraq War’s Pollyanna […]

Bush Restates Terror Strategy–Washington Post

The story is here.

Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Low-income women would be affected House OKs birth control funding ban
By Kit Wagar
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.
Critics jumped on the proposal, saying […]

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 · Last updated 2:32 p.m. PT
Justice Ginsburg reveals details of threat
By GINA HOLLAND
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor have been the targets of death threats from the “irrational fringe” of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the […]

Congressman writes White House: Did President knowingly sign law that didn’t pass?

The Raw Story
Read it here.
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Senate Hopeful Katherine Harris to appear on Hannity & Colmes tonight.
Read it here.
She had considered using the History Channel for the announcement, but they had advertised the Jeanne D’Arc: Alien or Angel program for three weeks.
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License plates used to be utilitarian in nature and to this ideal; I shall attempt to return.

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Identifying a torture icon
Thanks to Huffpost for the ‘heads up.’
Read it here at Salon.com.
I’ve done some of my own investigating.
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Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Ali Shalal Qaissi in Amman, Jordan,
recently with a picture of himself
standing atop a box and attached
to electrical wires in Abu Ghraib.
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I greatly enhanced the original image.
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This man may be […]

These headlines are from Google News at approximately 10 am est, March 14, 2006 There were about 2 1/2 pages devoted to them. I gleaned only a sample of the numbers.
85 Dead From Shootings in 24 Hours in Iraq Jackson News-Tribune
Iraqi police report finding 72 bodies in past 24 hours International Herald Tribune
Iraqi police dig […]

ABC News: Berlusconi storms out of election TV interview
Here is the story.
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U.S. quietly tightens access to classified information
Read it here at The Raw Story
…unless you happemn to be an on-the-make reactionary policy wonk or a member of the White House staff.

Interior Secretary Norton resigns
Read it here.

I include the following excerpt as a piece of Americana.
Teapot Dome

Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyo., and at Elk Hills, Calif., […]

THE CATALYST FOR THE 1948 METER MAID PURGE

63,000 Meter Maids Liquidated

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digilander.libero.it/

Analysis: States steadily restricting info
Read here…
Polls: Public worried about gov’t secrecy
…and here. 

John Seery: Update: FBI Responds to HuffPost Exposé 
Read it here.