Chicago Tribune: Dead voters on rolls, other glitches found in 6 key states Meanwhile, four Lucas County elections officers are mysteriously suspended for a "clerical error", and E&P reports the Ohio papers' failure to cover voter fraud like it was a good thing.

The Japan Times Online Knives out for Kofi Annan

Lynch Mob's Real Target Is the U.N., Not Annan

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004

RICHARD HAYES PHILLIPS : LYRIC POETRY WEBSITE Ohio Recount

MiddleEast.org - Mid-East Realities AIPAC offices are raided to collect evidence to be destroyed. Almost-ignored action guarantees no evidence remains to indict pentagon staff for using manufactured "intelligence" to start illegal war.

The first "Burning Times" Award: Governor Mike Johanns of Nebraska How the new secretary of agriculture got his job.

The New York Review of Books: On War

Yahoo! News - IF IT'S 2005, IT MUST BE TIME FOR ANOTHER WAR: "Powell's claims that Iran obtained schematics for an atomic bomb from Pakistan are even older [than the discredited "intelligence" about Iraq], dating to 1996. Moreover, the Iran sourcing--the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI)--makes Ahmed Chalabi look like a Boy Scout. The NCRI, a front organization for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), is a bizarre, Shiite, pro-Baathist (yes, you read that right) guerilla army infamous for crushing the 1991 Kurdish uprising on Saddam's orders. Better yet, it's designated as a 'known terrorist organization' by Powell's own State Department."

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says (washingtonpost.com): "Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals 'can result in pregnancy'...; that 'A 43-day-old fetus is a thinking person; HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears; [and] Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.'

"Some course materials cited in Waxman's report present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for 'admiration' and 'sexual fulfillment' compared with a woman's need for 'financial support.' One book in the 'Choosing Best' series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. 'Moral of the story,' notes the popular text: 'Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess.'"

And then there are the statements that are wrong just for the sake of being wrong, without any apparent policy justification, like "twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual."

Yahoo! News - Europe's Central Bank Seen Holding Rates: "U.S. military has announced that troops stationed in Europe would receive a 31 percent cost of living increase to help provide some relief"

New DEA Statement Has Pain Doctors More Fearful (washingtonpost.com): "the new DEA position is at odds with a set of guidelines negotiated over several years by DEA officials and a group of leading pain-management experts."

Something's fishy in Ohio

As the oil-for-food program scandal deepens, let's remember the conditions the U.S. had created in Iraq before the program was initiated: "International aid efforts and the U.N. oil-for-food program helped reduce the ruinous impact of sanctions, and the rate of acute malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis gradually dropped from a peak of 11 percent in 1996 to 4 percent in 2002."

CBC News Indepth: Continental Divide?

The New York Times > National > Colleges Can Bar Army Recruiters: "Howard J. Bashman, who helped write a supporting brief on behalf of students who favored the law, said the decision would hurt the military and the public.

'A ruling of this sort will cause the military to end up with a lower quality of lawyer,' Mr. Bashman said. 'These lawyers are involved in targeting decisions and in decisions about how prisoners have to be treated.'"

So, presumably, had Harvard Law School permitted military recruiters on campus at the time, perhaps 1982 alum and Air Force Academy dropout Alberto Gonzales might've gone back into the military, and things might've been MUCH different.....

The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The Great Indecency Hoax ABC began apologizing before anyone complained. Overhyped news items about sex sell better than advertising, especially in the more-moral-than-thou Red States.

Times Community Newspapers: "Under the current system, incumbents are likely to face a real challenge only from within their own party, according to Shogun, and most likely by someone with an even more extreme political view than their own."