From Australia's News.Com:

Australia 'a nuclear threat'

By Geoff Elliott

Harold Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years.

But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out.

Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US.

In a speech to county government officials yesterday in Knoxville, Mr Ford – listed in People magazine in 2001 as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world – electrified the audience, as he does everywhere he speaks.

He's charismatic and seamlessly weaves a national political story into his own. He speaks about how he will clean up corruption-plagued Washington using the brand of right and wrong that he learned growing up as an African American in the south ; how he has old-fashioned parents who were ready to snap a piece of switch from the tree in the front yard of their home in Memphis and cane him if he broke the rules.

If victorious on November 7, Mr Ford will be the first popularly elected black from the South to take a seat at the exclusive 100-member Senate.

His skilled oration on domestic politics may be flawless, but his grip on foreign policy is error-prone. Yesterday he stumbled into gaffes on the North Korean nuclear tests and then mentioned Australia in the same breath as rogue nations wanting to go nuclear.

"Here we are in a world today where more countries have access to nuclear weapons than ever before," Mr Ford said, adding that when he left college in 1992 he thought the nuclear age had come to an end "and America would find ways to eliminate the number of chances that a rogue group or a rogue nation would get their hands on nuclear material".

"Today nine countries have it – more than ever before – and 40 are seeking it, including Argentina, Australia and South Africa," he said.

Mr Ford was referring to the nine known nuclear weapon states: the US, the UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and now North Korea.

He said this made the US less safe because "more countries have nuclear weapons today which means the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands has increased dramatically".

On North Korea, he claimed Pyongyang had conducted two nuclear tests, the first of which he said occurred on July 4. This confuses the ballistic tests Pyongyang carried out on that date with the single nuclear test earlier this month.

The gaffes were lost on the audience and he was given a rousing standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Any chance of clarifying Mr Ford's remarks with the man himself was impossible as minders shielded any international media from asking questions, ushering Mr Ford away.

"You don't win us any votes," said his spokeswoman. And she might have added that it also means he is insulated from pesky questions probing his limitations on enunciating a foreign policy involving a trusted ally.

Not that any of that appears to matter much in Tennessee. The polls have Mr Ford in a dead heat with Republican Bob Corker…

What a jackass Harold Ford, Jr. is. Though of course he comes by it naturally.

He speaks about how he will clean up corruption-plagued Washington using the brand of right and wrong that he learned growing up as an African American in the south; how he has old-fashioned parents who were ready to snap a piece of switch from the tree in the front yard of their home in Memphis and cane him if he broke the rules.

How absolutely laughable, coming as he does from one of the most corrupt families in the history of the Republic.

And what is this with the media suddenly having to describe every black liberal male as "handsome"? I don’t recall seeing that with white male candidates or black male Republicans such as Lynn Swann?

Isn’t it a form of political incorrectness? Isn’t it "look-ism"? It’s almost as if our one party media can’t think of anything else positive to say about them.

Which of course is probably the case, since the pickings with both Ford and Obama are mighty slim.

(Thanks to Mathews for the heads up.)

The DNC’s Associated Press really lays it on for their masters in this preposterous article:

Webb: Democrats will provide Iraq remedy

By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 28

RICHMOND, Va. – The only remedy to a series of Iraq policy failures by President Bush is a Democratic takeover of Congress in the Nov. 7 election, Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb said Saturday.

The former Republican, who was President Reagan’s Navy secretary, said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address that Bush’s "incompetence" in Iraq had undercut the fight against terrorism…

"Since 2003, President Bush has laid out nine different plans for victory in Iraq, none of them serious and none of them workable. And most seriously, this incompetence has hindered our ability to fight international terror," Webb said…

"A Democratic Congress will demand from day one that the president find a real way forward in Iraq. We’ll work with the administration and other Republicans to develop a concrete plan, but none of us are ready to settle for empty rhetoric, or the same old unacceptable results," Webb said.

In the Saturday address, Webb did not mention the latest controversy in the Virginia Senate campaign. On Friday, Allen’s campaign selected sexually explicit passages from Webb’s six war novels and thrust them into the race, claiming they are demeaning to women.

Webb’s fiction evokes events he witnessed as a Marine in some of Vietnam’s bloodiest battles and the scarring effect they had on those who fought in them. It includes descriptions of sex and rape.

Note that while a Republican would have been hounded from office for writing what Webb wrote, the Democrats picked him to deliver their weekly twenty minutes of hate this week. (Bin Laden being unavailable.)

Also note that Mr. Webb did not even suggest what the Democrat solution would be. No Democrat has, because they have no solution.

A Democratic Congress will demand from day one that the president find a real way forward in Iraq.

That’s the Democrats’ solution. They will demand that Bush come up with a plan. Such childishness would be laughable if it wasn’t a matter of life and death.

In reality all the Democrats want is for the US to lose in Iraq. Then they will blame a lost war and the ensuing collapse in the Middle East on Bush and the Republicans. Then they will be able re-live the DNC’s salad days of the post-Vietnam years all over again.

Note too how shamelessly the Associated Press spins Mr. Webb’s homoerotic, misogynistic and racist writings:

Webb’s fiction evokes events he witnessed as a Marine in some of Vietnam’s bloodiest battles and the scarring effect they had on those who fought in them. It includes descriptions of sex and rape.

As far as I’ve seen this is the AP’s first and only mention of this Webb’s literary output. But of course they only mention it to foreclose any criticism that might derive from it.

They even turned a blind eye to Mr. Webb’s chronic use of the N word. Which is a word that is death to any Republican candidate merely to be accused of employing — ever. But when a Democrat sprinkles his scribblings with the N word it suddenly becomes the stuff of belle-lettres.

Indeed, the AP reporter has turned the whole scandal upside down and put Webb’s penis in his mouth — out of his love for the Democrat candidate. (Mind you, I am not being obscene. Like Mr. Webb, I am just describing what we have witnessed.)

Of course the AP and the rest of our one party media will do all that and more to get their bosses elected. They are long past any quaint nostrums about informing the population so that they can properly exercise their civic duties in a representative system of government.

For now the media have only one job, and that is to get Democrats elected. Nothing else matters, including the hemorrhaging of their readership and viewers. They don’t care about money. They know that with power the money will come.

Just remember on November 7th how our DNC owned and operated media have lied to us each and every day. How they have faked their photographs, faked their polls, faked the very news itself.

Remember how they have constantly lied about our brave soldiers and of course about our twice-elected President and the members of his administration. Remember how they did all of this and more day in and day out to help our enemies and hurt our country's interests.

And remember how they did all of this with only one purpose in mind — to convince you to vote for their Democrat bosses.

Don’t let them succeed.

From the UK's Manchester Evening News:

Two Iranians, ages 18 and 16, were executed for the "crime" of homosexuality on July 19, 2005.

Muslim cleric 'backs execution of gays'

Thursday, 26th October 2006

Don Frame

A row has blown up over a claim a prominent Manchester Muslim has defended the execution of sexually-active gay people as "justified".

Arshad Misbahi, a junior Imam at the city's Central Mosque is alleged to have confirmed that it is an acceptable punishment in Iraq and Iran.

His comments are said to have been made to psychotherapist Dr John Casson who is researching the persecution of gays in Islamic states. But they have been condemned as "encouraging conflict between the area's large gay and Muslim communities.

Dr Casson said: "He told me that in a true Islamic state, such punishments were part of Islam if the person had had a trial, at which four witnesses testified that they had seen the actual homosexual acts."

He went on: "I asked him what would be the British Muslim view and he repeated that in an Islamic state these punishments were justified.

"They might result in the deaths of thousands, but if this deterred millions from having sex and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protect the wider community."

It is understood Imam Misbahi believes his comments were taken out of context and misrepresented. He says will be issuing a statement to clarify his views.

It is amazing that in this day and age this is even a question. With the internet there is no excuse for anyone to languish in darkness.

A quick visit to Islam Question And Answer makes it clear that the Imam was exactly right and that he is lying when he tries to backpedal:

Muslim attitude towards the sin of homosexuality

Question:

Dear sir,

How are you? I am currently researching issues related to Homosexual persecution In Asia, especially Malaysia. I hope that you could kindly help answer a few of my questions.

1) How are homosexuals (Muslim & non-muslim) being treated in Malaysia?
2) How severe will the punishment be?
3) How does society perceive homosexuals?
4) Is homosexuality legal?

Thank you very much for your kind help.

Answer:

Praise be to Allaah.

We do not have any information about homosexuality in Malaysia, but we assume that the Muslims there feel total abhorrence towards this shameful act, because their religion, Islam, emphatically forbids this deed and prescribes a severe punishment for it, in this world and the next. How could it be otherwise, when the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Whoever you find committing the sin of the people of Lut (Lot), kill them, both the one who does it and the one to whom it is done" – i.e. if it is done with consent. (This hadeeth was narrated by al-Tirmidhi in his Sunan, 1376)

The scholars of Islam, such as Maalik, al-Shaafi'i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried.

There is no doubt that this act, which goes against the pure human nature created by Allaah, by making men content with men and women with women, destroying families, adversely affecting the birth rate, causing the spread of killer diseases, harming the innocent when children are raped, and generally spreading corruption on earth, should be uprooted and stamped out.

Perhaps your research will lead you to find out much more about t his religion with its great laws and accurate rules and the wisdom of the One Who revealed it.

I ask Allaah to grant you help and success, for Allaah is the One Who guides to the Straight Path.

Islam Q&A
Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

And of course the Muslims have never been shy about carrying out these punishments.

To cite just one example from Reuters:

Taleban flog woman, cut off two men’s hands

KABUL Feb 27, 1998 (Reuters) …On Wednesday, the Taleban ordered the execution of three men for sodomy in the southern town of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. They were ordered to be buried alive under a pile of stones and a wall was pushed on top of them by a tank.

Their lives were to be spared if they survived for 30 minutes and were still alive when the stones were removed.

More punishments would be carried out in public, Niyazi said…

Of course the Democrats believe in destroying homosexuals too, if the homosexual in question is not of their party.

But even the Muslims makes some exceptions for their own, apparently.

From the lovers of the gorgeous mosaic at the DNC's Associated Press:

6 police hurt in violence across France

By Elaine Ganley, Associated Press Writer | October 28, 2006

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France –Six police officers suffered minor injuries and 25 people were arrested in scattered violence across France on the first anniversary of the start of nationwide riots, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

Police had deployed 4,000 reinforcements across the country Friday night to brace for a replay of violence in mostly poor, immigrant suburbs.

Marauding youths torched two public buses and police and firefighters were targeted in some towns, but overall, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that the night was "relatively calm."

Six officers were slightly injured, the statement said, without elaborating on where or how. Of the 25 arrests, 21 were in the Paris suburbs, where the greatest violence had been expected.

The bus attacks hit Le Blanc Mesnil, not far from the site where two teens were electrocuted in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois on Oct. 27, 2005, after what they thought was a police chase. Their deaths set off three weeks of rioting.

About 1,400 cars were burned nationwide in a single night at the height of last year's rioting, fueled by anger at France's failure to offer equal opportunities to many minorities — especially those of Arab and black African origin, and France's 5 million-strong Muslim population.

One bus was engulfed in flames at the foot of a high-rise housing project.

"Four guys attacked Bus 346," said witness Thierry Ange, 19. "They made everyone get off, then they hit a woman and dragged out the bus driver by his tie," then torched the bus with a gasoline bomb in a bottle, he said.

The blackened carcass of another bus sat across town. Two armed men had forced passengers off the bus, police said.

Assailants also tried to burn a bus in Reims in eastern France, the Interior Ministry said.

Police and firefighters were targeted in Clichy-sous-Bois, in Meaux to the southeast, and in Toulouse in southern France, the statement said.

Scores of police, wielding shields and backed by a helicopter blaring its lights, swept into a tough housing project in Montfermeil, a neighboring town to Clichy-sous-Bois, and several youths responded by throwing stones.

Up to 30 cars were torched in Montfermeil, according to another police official.

Paris' transport authority responded to Friday's violence by curtailing bus services in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of the capital, which is home to thousands of immigrants and their French-born children.

Some 7,000 police are on duty on an average night in France, officials have said.

France's trouble integrating minorities and the recent suburban unrest are becoming issues in the campaign for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mind you, this is the calm you get when you have every available policeman out on the street.

From the DNC's Associated Press:

ACORN accused of more bogus election forms

Posted on Wed, Oct. 25, 2006

CLAYTON, Mo. – St. Louis County Election officials claim hundreds of fraudulent voter address changes have been turned in by ACORN, a group that's been criticized for its voter sign-up work in Missouri.

St. Louis County's Republican elections director Joseph Goeke said if a county voter does not get a polling-place notification card in the mail right before the election, the address could have been changed behind their back.

Election Board employees estimate hundreds of fraudulent address changes were submitted.

The address changes included forged signatures and are among questionable or fraudulent voter registration cards submitted to the county within the past couple of months.

County officials told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that most of the suspicious registrations and address changes were submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

Similar fraudulent voter registration cards have turned up this month in St. Louis city and this week in Kansas City, as well as other states, including Ohio.

The cases are often similar. Voter registration cards were forged for a dead person, had false signatures and change of addresses or incorrect and missing personal information, Goeke said.

ACORN has registered hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters across the country, paying workers about $8 an hour in some cases…

Every year the folks from ACORN do everything they can to steal our elections. And when they aren't rigging elections, they are stirring up trouble with their endless protest demonstrations.

So why is ACORN is one of the largest taxpayer funded programs out there? Why are they not only tolerated but funded by our government?

Just think what more ACORN will get in government largess with the Congress in control of the Democrats.

And what more they will be able to accomplish.

From the DNC's Associated Press:

Prosecutor yet to interview rape accuser

Fri, Oct. 27, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. – The district attorney prosecuting three Duke lacrosse players accused of raping a woman at a team party said during a court hearing Friday that he still hasn't interviewed the accuser about the facts of the case.

"I've had conversations with (the accuser) about how she's doing. I've had conversations with (the accuser) about her seeing her kids," Mike Nifong said. "I haven't talked with her about the facts of that night. … We're not at that stage yet."

Nifong made the statement in response to a defense request for any statements the woman has made about the case.

"I understand the answer may not be the answer they want but it's the true answer. That's all I can give them," the prosecutor said after the hour-long hearing.

Defense lawyers said outside court that they found Nifong's statement surprising.

"One of the most interesting things to me of course is Mr. Nifong did admit that he in fact has basically never talked to this woman and has absolutely no idea what her story is, and yet he has chosen to continue to go forward with this case," defense lawyer Joseph Cheshire said.

Nifong said none of his assistants have discussed the case with the woman either and only have spoken with her to monitor her well-being. They have left the investigation of the case to police, he said…

Astonishing.

Here is a video of Nifong’s amazing admission, courtesy of NC TV station News 14.

(Thanks to 1sttofight for the heads up.)

From "Gay Days" Disney owned ABC News:

Boys Will Be Girls … for Halloween

Just as Girls Use Halloween as an Excuse to Dress Down, Men Use the Holiday to Dress Up — as Women

By KATE KLONICK

Oct. 27, 2006 —  On Oct. 28, 2003, college sophomore Rob Morris faced a conundrum familiar to many young men: With just a few days to find the perfect Halloween costume, he couldn’t come up with anything inspired. In search of an idea, he wandered into the room of one of his female housemates.

"I walked into her room, and she always had piles of clothes," Morris, a 23-year-old native of Wilmington, Ohio, said. "And I noticed in one of the piles were some more risqué clothes — and I picked up a slip or something and asked her what it was. She said it was for her Halloween costume, and she was going as a dominatrix."

Morris and his housemate, both physics majors, soon decided they would match costumes and go out to parties together for Halloween as dominatrixes — a costume play on the plural of the math term "matrix."

Morris went to a local costume store, purchasing fishnets, a mesh top, a mini-skirt and — to complete the ensemble — a pair of cherry-red stiletto heels, in size 11.

That Halloween eve he put on the get-up and had a great time.

"Girls can play dress-up so often, but guys, they’re not allowed," Morris said. "I think there’s a strong need to hide in a sphere of masculinity. When you’re a guy, this is a chance to step outside that." …

But women are not the only ones taking advantage of the costuming holiday to throw off social morés for a night. Like Morris, many men use the opportunity to step outside the "sphere of masculinity," something that has a historical background as well…

"Swapping clothes, both for men and women was profoundly titillating, especially in Paris and London. It was something that was done all the time."

The history of "playing" in others’ clothes still exists in Europe. At same-sex schools in Britain, said Steele, cross-dressing happens in the theater as well as the increasingly popular Halloween.

And while the tradition of Halloween is growing in Europe, the relaxed European attitude toward cross-dressing seems to have reached the United States.

"I’ve always thought that Halloween was the only time that men were allowed to show their feminine side," said Frankie Stein, owner of Frankie Steinz costumes, a popular costume rental store in Manhattan. "Half of the men that come in want to do something like that — wear high heels and wigs and things."…

"We think and feel that these things are all fun and games," said Deborah Tolman, a professor of sexuality studies at San Francisco University. "But in the end there’s a substantive meaning in what we do. Most of the time we’re not aware of it — it’s the way we work."

Just as women use the holiday to act out the forbidden roles of a Playboy bunny or a scantily clad teacher, men can use the opportunity to cross gender boundaries.

"Part of what Halloween is, is getting to try on what you’re not — you’re not a witch, you’re not a devil," Tolman said. "We can go into these taboo parts of our society, and for men, that’s dressing up as women — men aren’t supposed to want to be women."

Brandes agrees.

"What makes it safe is that rituals are bounded occasions, bounded by space and time, the neighborhood and party, by the date, by the evening hours. So there’s nothing very seriously threatening to becoming a member of the opposite sex or gender, because everyone understands that it’s a break from normal routine and that you’ll return to your usual role after that," he said.

Both scholars agree, however, that it’s a phenomenon that often does not crop up until after puberty and adolescence, when boys have become comfortable enough with their masculinity to experiment and bend the rules.

Despite the fun he had, Morris was adamant that it was not something he would ever feel comfortable doing outside of the holiday.

"I would feel adversity to dressing up as a woman in another part of the year," he said. "I only bust out the stockings once a year."

The propagandizing never stops.

Not even for holidays.

From Australia’s Herald Sun:

Senior Australian Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali.

Now sheik bags Bush

Andrew Carswell and Evelyn Yamine

October 28, 2006

AUSTRALIA’S leading Muslim cleric says he will resign only when the world is "clean of the White House".

Under pressure to quit after comparing immodestly dressed women with "uncovered meat" waiting to be raped, Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly said yesterday that he would rather die than give up his teachings.

After another fiery sermon in which he described the uncovered meat controversy as "a storm in a teacup", the sheik was asked if he would step down.

"After we clean the world of the White House first," he said.

Followers chanting "Allah Akhbar" (God is great) applauded the comments, which were directed firmly at US President George W. Bush and indirectly at Prime Minister John Howard.

The sheik has previously described Mr Bush, Mr Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the "axis of evil".

Despite earlier reports the mufti had been banned from preaching, he was back to his firebrand ways at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney yesterday.

There was no sign of the oxygen tank he reportedly needed to breathe the previous day when he claimed he was too sick to even walk outside.

He told 2000 worshippers he was going nowhere – apart from leading a pilgrimage to Mecca next month.

Sheik Hilaly launched straight into a defence of his comments, including the claim Satan used women to trap men.

Speaking in Arabic, the mufti said: "I will remain all by myself until God makes me a martyr.

"Whoever wants to, let them take their clothes off. It is a free country. But it is our right to tell our women those texts. I am guiding my daughters, my women.

I wonder if Mr. Taj el-Din al-Hilaly will be giving the Democrats’ response to President Bush’s radio message this weekend?

Buried in the DNC’s house organ, the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF

Friday, October 27, 2006

Rights Group Fires Worker in Foley Case

The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, has fired an employee who admitted to the first publication on a Web site of then-Rep. Mark Foley’s e-mails to a former male page.

The e-mails and later disclosures of sexually explicit computer messages from the Florida Republican to other teenage male pages sparked a campaign-season scandal that threatens the GOP’s majority in Congress.

"He inappropriately used Human Rights Campaign resources. He was fired," David Smith, the organization’s vice president, said of the employee. "The Human Rights Campaign believes in being very aboveboard in our political activity."

Smith would not identify the employee by name, citing privacy concerns, but said he was a junior staff member who worked as a coordinator in Michigan.

The story doesn’t bother to get into the details, but this is the person who set up the phony StopSexPredators site which was clearly only created to give the Foley emails cover.

The gentleman in question is reported to be a former Democratic Senate staffer named Lane Hudson. But, again, the Post doesn’t think that information is important enough for their readers to be told.

Here is an example of some of Mr. Hudson’s handiwork for the DNC/HRC from the (non-partisan 501c3) HRC’s own website:

Ann Arbor Get Out the Vote Rally

University of Michigan University Union, Pendleton Room 2nd floor
530 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Date: 10/22/2006 from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Hosted By: Lane Hudson
lane.hudson@hrc.org
RSVP by: October 22, 2006 at 5:00 pm

The Human Rights Campaign, along with Michigan Equality, Triangle Action Fund, EMILY’s List, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women, Michigan Citizen Action and other Progressive organizations are EXCITED to sponsor this GOTV Rally. Come join members of your community in learning the BEST way to make an impact in the upcoming election! For more information, email Lane.Hudson@hrc.org . We look forward to working together for a successful election!

Remember Mr. Hudson and all of his groups on November 7.

From the Washington DC radio station WTOP:

The moral paragon Bill Clinton endorses Jim Webb.

Jim Webb Defends Content of His Novels

Oct 27th

WASHINGTON – Jim Webb says Sen. George Allen is trying to "affect the woman’s vote" by targeting the graphic portions of novels he’s written.

"This is a Karl Rove campaign," Webb said on Washington Post Radio’s The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin.

"The Karl Rove campaigns are always divisive. They go after character assassination. They try to drive wedges among people on various issues."

Several conservative web sites, including The Drudge Report, have pointed out several sexually graphic excerpts found in some of the Virginia Senate candidate’s novels, including "Lost Soldiers." The sites are raising concerns about Webb’s own character and his attitude toward women. According to The Drudge Report, the information comes from a news release provided by Allen’s campaign.

Allen’s campaign has refused to tell WTOP whether it issued a news release on the matter, but did issue a release Friday morning from Allen’s mother, Kay Allen.

That release questions Webb’s portrayal of women, saying, "How can women trust Jim Webb to represent their views in the Senate when chauvinistic attitudes and sexually exploitive references run through his fiction and non-fiction writings? More importantly, what type of mind commits these thoughts to paper — in such graphic detail?"

Webb defends his fiction, saying the novels illuminate cultures about which people may not be aware.

"If you want to show them how the world lives, you have to step forward and do this," he said.

"People should read my novels. A lot of the military novels are male novels," he says. "There are strong female characters in my novels."

Webb did take issue with Plotkin reading parts of one of his novels on the air, saying that doing so wasn’t appropriate and that people choose to read his books.

Even this article downplays the the main points of the controversy, which is that Webb writes very disparagingly about women (more or less treats them as meat), Vietnamese (calls them monkeys) and blacks (the N word crops up repeatedly).

Moreover Webb seemingly likes to dwell on under-aged sex and homoerotic acts between prison guards. Though the topper might be this passage about a man and his son:

But to WTOP’s credit a search of Google news will reveal they are seemingly the only news outlet of any kind that is carrying this story.

Why is that?

If elected, won’t Mr. Webb be in contact with those Congressional pages the media were so recently out to protect at any cost?

Or is it that Mr. Webb is a Democrat and therefore above all moral reproach?

The DNC’s Associated Press do their best to breath some life back into Plamegate (the scandal that wasn’t) before the elections:

Witness grilled in CIA leak case

Posted on Thu, Oct. 26, 2006
MATT APUZZO

WASHINGTON – Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her research.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hoped the hearing would persuade a judge to let him call a memory expert at his obstruction and perjury trial in January.

At the outset of the procedural hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton indicated that he was not inclined to allow a memory expert to testify at the trial. Still, he allowed Libby’s lawyers to present a witness to bolster their claim that memory experts would help in his defense.

When it came Fitzgerald’s turn, the veteran prosecutor launched into a nearly three-hour cross-examination of the witness – psychologist Elizabeth Loftus – that had some members of the audience shaking their heads.

It was the first public courtroom confrontation between Fitzgerald and Libby’s defense team and foreshadowed a contentious trial.

Libby wants to use a memory expert to help argue that, when he made false statements to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame, it was because of faulty memory. Prosecutors say he lied.

Loftus testified that many jurors don’t understand how memory works and how unreliable it can be.

Fitzgerald challenged the validity of memory research. Citing footnotes in her publications, presenting conflicting statements and questioning her methodology, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that a statement in one of her research papers was taken out of context and that a figure in one of her books was incorrect.

Libby’s defense team had no comment after court.

Walton did not immediately rule on whether to allow the memory testimony at trial. He closed the courtroom to continue the debate over how much classified information Libby should be allowed to present at trial.

Libby is the only person charged in the leak case. Plame believes the Bush administration leaked her name to reporters as retribution for her husband’s criticism of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

It this not truly hilarious?

Citing footnotes in her publications, presenting conflicting statements and questioning her methodology, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that a statement in one of her research papers was taken out of context and that a figure in one of her books was incorrect.

Doesn’t this prove precisely how easy it is to make errors? Even when doing careful research? Hasn’t Fitzgerald actually helped make Mr. Libby’s case?

But it is so preposterous on every level. Mr. Libby should skip all of these memory experts and just call Mr. Fitzgerald to the stand. Mr. Fitzgerald forgot that he was told who leaked Plame’s identity at the start of his investigation.

No wonder there were people shaking their heads in the courtroom. You can bet some sides were shaking as well — in laughter.

Fitzgerald has made it clear to all that he is nothing but the DNC’s slavey. (If I can still use that term.)

And note how the AP is still riding this line:

Plame believes the Bush administration leaked her name to reporters as retribution for her husband’s criticism of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

If Valerie "Book Deal" Plame still believes that she should have never had anything to do with intelligence. But of course it was the only way the AP could perpetuate their four year old lie — dusted off just in time for the elections.

After all, someone might still be uniformed enough to believe it, right AP? But the dying mainstream media might finally prove Barnum wrong.

You can go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

Hillary stands a lot of her and her husband’s history on its head in this report from the Gay City News:

Absorbing Gay Pain & Praise, Clinton Says She’s Evolved

By: PAUL SCHINDLER
10/26/2006

In an appearance early Wednesday evening in front of roughly three-dozen LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered] leaders, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated that s he would not oppose efforts by Eliot Spitzer, the odds-on favorite to become the new governor, to enact a same-sex marriage law in New York.

She also suggested that language she used when she first ran for the Senate in 2000 explaining her opposition to marriage equality based on the institution’s moral, religious, and traditional foundations had not reflected the "many long conversations" she’s had since with "friends" and others, and that her advocacy on LGBT issues "has certainly evolved."

On Wednesday, Clinton presented her position on marriage equality as more one of pragmatism.

"I believe in full equality of benefits, nothing left out," she said. "From my perspective there is a greater likelihood of us getting to that point in civil unions or domestic partnerships and that is my very considered assessment."

Clinton addressed a gathering organized by the Greater Voices Coalition made up of LGBT Democratic organizations citywide…

Representatives of the gay press were invited to the meeting, which was on the record…

Ethan Geto, a long-time gay activist who described himself as an advisor to the senator on LGBT issues, introduced Clinton, addressing what he called "the elephant in the room."

"We’re engaged in a dialogue with someone who has the stature, who has the credibility, the viability to be the party’s standard bearer in 2008," he said. "I think when you look at Senator Clinton’s record, she may not agree with us on every last policy issue, but when you look at the totality of the record, there is no one in this country who may be the president of the United States with whom we have a warmer, a stronger, a closer productive working relationship." …

Allen Roskoff, the president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, worked to hold Clinton’s feet to the fire. Recalling a conversation he had with her during her first Senate campaign, Roskoff said, "It was right after you said that you were against same-sex marriage on moral, religious, and traditional grounds and I found that incredibly hurtful." He also criticized the senator for volunteering her support for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, even if not asked, and for not speaking during the Senate marriage amendment debate in June regardless of the work she did behind the scenes.

Clinton offered Roskoff some consolation regarding her earlier characterizations of marriage’s history as an exclusively heterosexual institution, an argument that she made in an interview with this reporter as well during the 2000 campaign.

"Obviously my friends and people who spoke to me-we’ve had many long conversations and I think-and which I believe-that the way that I have spoken and I have advocated has certainly evolved and I am happy to be educated and to learn as much as I can," she said.

Clinton went on to defend both DOMA and her decision not to speak during the marriage amendment debate this past June, and in fact linked the two. She said that without being able to point to the U.S. law which bars federal recognition of gay marriage and allows states to similarly refuse to acknowledge such unions from other states, many more members of Congress would have voted to amend the Constitution, especially when that effort had its first vote two years ago.

She explained that her choice not to speak on the Senate floor about the amendment this year was strategic.

"Very few Democrats spoke, because maybe you thought one way, which is that you want people out there speaking for us. We thought as-force the Republicans out there, make them look like they’re trying to enshrine discrimination in the Constitution. We don’t even want to dignify it."

Later in the discussion, Larry Moss… asked, "How do we keep your words from being cover for conservative Democrats who want to compromise with Eliot and say, ‘Just do civil unions?’"

Clinton’s response was probably the evening’s most newsworthy moment.

"My position is consistent," she said. "I support states making the decision. I think that Chuck Schumer would say the same thing. And if anyone ever tried to use our words in any way, we’ll review that. Because I think that it should be in the political process and people make a decision and if our governor and our Legislature support marriage in New York, I’m not going to be against that… So I feel very comfortable with being able to refute anybody who tries to pit us or pit me against Eliot."

Asked several moments later by Gary Parker, the Greater Voices leader who chaired the meeting, to clarify that point, Clinton reiterated, "I am not going to speak out against, I’m not going to oppose anything that the governor and the Legislature do."

No other issue raised during the gathering garnered the heat that marriage did. Clinton spoke passionately against what she said was the injustice, waste, and stupidity of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that has led to 10,000 discharges in the past 13 years, including some involving personnel with specialized skills such as language translation…

Asked by Melissa Sklarz, a transgendered activist who is a former president of the Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, if she would support the inclusion of gender identity and expression protections in the long-stalled federal employment nondiscrimination act, or ENDA, Clinton noted that the federal hate crimes measure also lacks such language, but said only, "We are very aware of that and we are raising that."

Asked about a measure authored by West Side Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler that would allow immigrant partners of Americans to gain citizenship just as foreign-born married spouses can, Clinton said movement on that awaits a comprehensive solution to the immigration issue that moves beyond the current Republican emphasis on penalties and border fences. With a Democratic Congress, Clinton said, much more is possible "and I think that will be included in it."

Only at the very end of the meeting did Clinton get around to foreign policy, the Iraq War, and what she called the Bush administration’s "abuse of power."

"I think they put Nixon to shame," she said, in what was an indisputable crowd-pleaser.

Gosh, what a burn. Especially from the co-President of the most ethical administration in history.

And note how readily Ms. Rodham changes her stripes depending on the audience. In fact, she lets loose with bald-faced lies in this one speech than Richard Nixon ever did in his entire career.

She even now claims to be against the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy," which in fact was one of her husband's first acts as President.

From Wikipedia:

Don’t ask, don’t tell

… It was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 by President Bill Clinton who, while campaigning for the Presidency had promised to allow all citizens regardless of sexual orientation to serve openly in the military, a departure from the then complete ban on those who are not heterosexual…

She is that shameless.

But note how Hillary promised to fight the discrimination the transgendered face — with "hate crime" legislation. Lastly, note her pledge to work for immediate citizenship for illegal aliens who "marry" homosexuals.

Remember, the Senator said all of this will be possible if the Democrats win Congress. Or as she put it:

With a Democratic Congress, Clinton said, much more is possible…

How true.

And that’s what makes it so scary.