DRUDGE REPORT 2005 "CABLE NEWS RACE TUES, MARCH 29 VIEWERSHIP

FNC OREILLY 2,428,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 2,121,000
FNC GRETA 1,700,000
CNN LARRY KING 1,529,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 1,402,000
CNN AARON BROWN 1,160,000
CNN COOPER 748,000
CNN PAULA ZAHN 664,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 490,000
CNNHN NANCY GRACE 420,000
MSNBC ABRAMS 412,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 396,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 386,000
CNBC DENNIS MILLER 110,000

You will never see these figures on any MSM site.

This BBC headline does the BBC no credit. Annan cleared over oil-for-food The report did not state he was cleared. It said there was no proof. It also stated that three years worth of records were destroyed.

Those missing records? Jed Babbin, writing in the American Spectator observes .

Iqbal Riza -- who was Kofi Annan's chief of staff until recently -- ok'ed the shredding of all of his "chronological files" for 1997-1999. Riza did this on April 22, 2004: one day after the Security Council passed Resolution 1538, blessing the appointment of the Volcker investigation panel. The destruction of these files continued for almost eight months, until about December 7, 2004. It's to be expected that Riza's files were, in fact, Annan's. A U.N. Secretary General wouldn't keep his own files: his chief of staff, Riza, would do that for him. So whatever went into Riza's shredders, for eight months, must have detailed Annan's actions, conversations, meetings, and memos for the critical period when the Oil-for-Food program was turned into the Oil-for-Food-for-Bribes-for-Weapons scam that stole tens of billions of dollars of oil, bribed men and nations, and corrupted the U.N. to a degree that is utterly historic. No wonder Volcker can't find a paper trail indicating Annan did anything wrong.

A long time ago the BBC had some credibility. Now, like most of the MSM, they spend most of their time covering their own collaboration with despots and crooks. One could be forgiven for thinking that the MSM corrupts everything and every one they touch.

This is one program we won't see in the U.S. And this quote won't get far by our media.

The United Nations should have let the Iraqi people suffer under international sanctions rather than allow Saddam Hussein to skim billions off the Oil for Food Program, Iraq's ambassador to the UN has told the makers of a documentary airing on CBC.

Those humanitarian French and Jordanians made out well.

Medicines from countries like France and Jordan were marked up by between 50 per cent and 175 per cent, yet were often past their expiry dates.

How come that doesn't surprise most of us?

UPDATE: NewsWorldInternational did carry the CBC National program last night, along with the report. My first reaction was to wonder at the timing. Released a day before Volker's report, one could be forgiven for believing it was a pre-emptive strike in case the report condemned Annan and much of the bureaucracy at the U.N. as gold-digging bastards stealing from the mouths of starving women and children in Iraq. This seems unlikely given Volker's connections to and within the U.N., the non-cooperation of Kofi Annan and most of the UNacrats, and the systematic destruction by of three years records (pg 85 of Volker's report) over a period of several months by Kofi Annan's Chief de Cabinet. The CBC report seemed to find unnamed bureaucrats at fault without focussing too heavily on any single individual. In the end, however, I suspect that they are convinced of the need for reform but they want the same miscreants who discredited the U.N. to plot plan for the reformation. Which makes the CBC, what? Like, other MS, part of the problem? Sounds about right.

UPDATE: The second half of the CBC report on the Food for Oil program was aired tonight and shown on NWI. Prepared in advance of the 2nd Interim Report by Paul Volker, it wasn't exactly sparing of Kofi Annan, but not nearly as dismissive as the BBC headline "Kofi Annan cleared." Annan looks very vulnerable.

Jacques Chirac, that paragon of honesty, who is only narrowly avoiding trial for corruption until he leaves office, wants an international tax on airline fuel and tickets to "end epidemics in Africa" with promise of more international taxes to come. Naturally, one supposes the funds would be kept in, ah, French banks, carefully overseen by, yeah, the U.N. and audited by, ummmmm, deaf and dumb Austrian bureaucrats. The Liberals in Canada, no pikers at corruption themselves, would, no doubt, be called upon to deliver the funds to Africa.

The French may be stupid or indifferent to his checkered past and the 47 associates now on trial for corruption, but the Japanese were not keen on his plan. Presumably the U.S. laughed outloud.

Michael Barone on why Congress acting on the Schiavo case "wasn't a cynical ploy":

On the Schiavo issue, most members of Congress, on both sides, were not indifferent but acted on moral convictions in a difficult situation. They were trying to do what they believed was right. They deserve respect, not contempt.

It was bi-partisan.

In the House, enough Democrats returned from recess to provide the necessary quorum, and 46 Democrats voted for the bill, while 53 voted against.

Not exactly the religious zealots or the grandstanding Republicans the media would like you to think.

There's a waiting list for dialysis or a standard MRI, but the Liberals in Canada want to spend $10 billion for the Kyoto proposals. The Sparring officials to delay Kyoto proposals You can bet no politician will ever be on a waiting list, but they are eager to transfer money to Russia who will be selling these.

For Canada to meet its Kyoto commitments, they say, the country will have to spend at least $1.7-billion a year more than Environment Canada is figuring on. This is money that would be spent overseas on "international credits" from foreign enterprises that have done better than required under Kyoto in cutting emissions.

Voting with your, ah, blank ballot. Some 55% of almost 900 people polled in France oppose the proposed EU constitution. BUT "Half the 856 people questioned said they would abstain or submit a blank ballot."

These are really bright people, non??

Some days we need a break.

"Schoolhouse crock" is a good title for this fiasco. He's been teaching since 1998. HEH

There's a beautiful essay at Between Hope and Fear entitled "Being" by Marcus Cicero. The desert bloomed for all of them. Happy birthday, little one.

Give me your poor, your tired, your, ah, trash. How come environmentalist activists aren't screaming about this report? PDF format

The largest source of waste imports to Michigan continues to be from Canada... pg 5

Michigan is a waste importing state. Who knew?

The joys of socialized medicine. I know I want this. Big Time. Especially in light of this and this.

What do they know?
Social Security trustees verify the coming insolvency of Social Security. And Medicare.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the report "confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place: the minds of Republicans.

Church criticises baby sex selection report that recommends parents "should be free to choose the sex of a child and that the ban on human cloning should be reassessed."

But Lord Winston said the number of people who would want to choose the sex of their baby would be small. "At Hammersmith we have had a handful of requests over the last few years. But people will not go through IVF to choose the sex of their baby and even if they did it would not in any way, I think, damage the fabric of our society," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

I seem to remember that being said about partial birth abortions. Today you can Google "late term abortions" and get paid advertisements for the service.

From DRUDGE REPORT 2005

CABLE NEWS RACE TUES NITE 3/22/05

FNC O'REILLY -- 2,566,000 [VIEWERS]
FNC HANNITY/COLMES -- 2,206,000
FNC GRETA -- 2,101,000
FNC SHEP SMITH -- 1,604,000
CNN LARRY KING -- 1,529,000
FNC BRIT HUME -- 1,426,000
COMEDY DAILY SHOW -- 1,075,000
CNN AARON BROWN -- 847,000
CNN COOPER -- 670,000
MSNBC HARDBALL --571,000
MSNBC ABRAMS -- 477,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN -- 434,000
CNNHN NANCY GRACE -- 386,000
E! JACKSON TRIAL -- 347,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH - 305,000

It just heartens me to see that nearly two times as many people watch the Daily Show than Chris "Shout it out" Matthews.

Between Travesty and Tragedy

Charles Krathammer:

For Congress and the president to then step in and try to override that by shifting the venue to a federal court was a legal travesty, a flagrant violation of federalism and the separation of powers. The federal judge who refused to reverse the Florida court was certainly true to the law. But the law, while scrupulous, has been merciless, and its conclusion very troubling morally. We ended up having to choose between a legal travesty on the one hand and human tragedy on the other.

There is no good outcome to this case. Except perhaps if Florida and the other states were to amend their laws and resolve conflicts among loved ones differently -- by granting authority not necessarily to the spouse but to whatever first-degree relative (even if in the minority) chooses life and is committed to support it. Call it Terri's law. It would help prevent our having to choose in the future between travesty and tragedy.

Four Mounties are blamed for dying.

The Hill on groups calling for the ethical invesitgation of Tom DeLay has some interesting tidbits, especially about "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington" (CREW). With the internet it is easier to locate such information. Not that it was hard to find before. Certainly the MSM knew the connections even without referencing Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations or the Guide to Congressional Staff Members. The difference is that before the Internet, it was easier to hide such information.

Unintended consequences. A German cartoonist who depicted Christ "playfully" as a naked binge-drinking surfer high on frankincense and friend of Jimi Hendrix in a book published in Germany and later in Greece was surprised at a charge of Blasphemy and a summons to appear in the Greek court where he was sentenced in absentia to six months. The Guardian worries about extradition. The EU arrest warrant system guarantees that a Greek arrest warrant is valid in Germany even though blasphemy isn't a crime in Germany. Extraditing your own citizens for crimes committed in other countries isn't unusual if both countries share a common criminal code, but extraditing your own citizens to face charges that aren't even valid in your own country is to deny protection of citizenship and national law. But, that's the EU - supra-law for a supra-socialism where no citizen has a guarantee of laws written by his or her elected representative. The bizarre laws of EU wannabe Turkey are as valid as any your representative wrote. But, hey, it's for the common good. And Jacque "Le Finger" Chirac is writing your constitution.

An online petition to (drama is big to the Left) "Free the cartoonist" has so far, gotten 2 petitioners.

UPDATE: (April 20, 2005) A Greek Appeals court has overturned the conviction for blasphemy.

ODD QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
From the founder of Faithworks, an "umbrella body for a number of Christian organisations promoting the work of churches in the community."

the Baptist minister the Rev Steve Chalke, told Mr Blair afterwards: 'We will pray for you over the coming weeks.' He added with only a barely perceptible pause, 'and for Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy. We like to think faith is the Viagra of the people.

Kinda worldly, don't you think? Makes you wonder if Faithworks is like our National Council of Churches, a leftwing front that regularly parades Nuns for Socialism and Other Forms of Tyranny in front of microphones.

Only people as clueless as an Associated Press writer could ponder this: Motive Sought in Minn. School Rampage

Save your brain, you stupid writer. The kid was an evil bastard. Looking for motive is the theurapetic approach to crime, fostered by decades of psychologists and psychiatrists overselling their services. It really is that simple: the kid was an evil bastard and it is a shame that someone didn't take him out before he killed people far better than he was.

Some time the AP should look up the word motive and use it correctly. It isn't as though they can prosecute the kid; he's dead. But having gotten a free pass from the liberal nutcases on the U.S. Supreme Court led by Anthony Kennedy, the kid would, had he lived, be assured that, like that constant refrain from a diet remedy: "It's not your fault." and you can't be held responsible.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a lot on the killer. Neal Boortz has a lot to say and he's right.

I wish I had a dollar for every time this occurs.

Thomas Sowell essays on "Cruel and unusual"

These are not things that liberals have any track record of caring about. Is what really bothers them the idea of the sanctity of life and what that implies for their abortion issue? Or do they hate any challenge to the supremacy of judges -- on which the whole liberal agenda depends -- a supremacy that the Constitution never gave the judiciary?

No one has staked a greater dependence on the United Nations for their reputation than Canada. With the latest scandals at the U.N. Kofi Annan has several proposals for change (the CBC uses the words "revamp" and "makeover" but not "reform," at least in this article.)

That the U.N. should be reformed (excuse me, revamped) by the very man whose family was implicated in one of the many scandals doesn't seem to bother the CBC. To their credit, however, they do link to Annan's report with the lofty proposals for everything from eliminating fear to supporting democracy. (For an organization that for years supported the PLO and Yassir Arafat, their proposals on curbing terrorism and organized crime should be taken with Pepto Bismo.)

Newest scandal seems to be, soo prize, soo prize, another European-based agency.

More

You thought the Sopranos glorifies gangsterism. Heh Even the researcher is wanted for murder.

Who knew? Pat Sajak on collecting media bias.

The Liberal party in Canada has spent $1.5 billion (with a B) of taxpayer money for a gun registry. Four Mounties were killed recently by man who, despite having been "prohibited from owning guns since 2000" and the massive boondoggle gun registry that still is not implemented, had three guns in his possession when he killed the officers as this story states without even mentioning the registry. Don't expect a Canadian national debate on this. The liberal media will nitpick it to death.

Police would not say whether the Heckler & Koch was set up to fire in a fully automatic, or rapid-fire mode.

Eventually, as it always does with the Canadian liberal media, it will be the Mounties' fault for not having been A) sufficiently trained, and/or B) insensitive to the situation. Mostly though, it is C) America's fault.

UPDATE March 23rd: You knew it was coming. Headline from Globe & Mail: "Top Mountie defends deadly raid on Roszko." Subhead: "Police made no mistakes, Zaccardelli says"

Facing questions at a Parliament Hill news conference yesterday as to the lack of supervision of the four rookie officers who died during the March 3 operation, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said senior officers were involved in planning the failed raid.

[bolding mine] And, THAT, is how the Left switches the focus to suit their agenda. The issue is not how a convicted felon and a $1.5 Billion gun registry failed to prevent the shootout with police. It's what the police did wrong. Read the article. Now the officers are "rookies." It was a "failed raid." and "the raid could have been better handled."

But the real kicker??? "Mr. Roszko's former lawyer and Tory MP Rob Merrifield, who represents the Alberta riding of Yellowhead, questioned Commissioner Zaccardelli's strong defence of his team." Mr. Roszko was the drug dealer who killed the four Mounties.

By the time it is finished, the drug dealer's family will probably be able to sue the dead officers' estates, the useless Liberal MPs who hate all police will call for the removal of Zaccardelli and they will impose their own Leftwing, touchy feely, politically correct, department head, pat themselves on the back, ignore the fact that they slandered everyone including four dead men who gave their lives doing a job they believed in, and the whole issue will be one of gigantic opportunism, aided and abetted by a Leftwing media who have successfully made Canada the King of the Third World in less than 35 years. It's enough to make you glad that the U.S. is not obligated to protect Canada in case of nuclear war.

Schiavo and the National Agenda

The last few days I have thought about the controversies of the last week. To many bloggers (and, seemingly, all Libertarians) the hearings on drugs in sports were grandstanding. Similarly, they are indifferent to the role Congress and the President have taken on Terri Schiavo. That, too, is said to be posturing and politics.

To me, this sums it all up: That is what we are fighting -- a cultural war to determine who will decide the issues of life and death for all of us. The Death Cult Democrats and their minions in the MSM, funded by the Hollweird Left. Or voters and their elective representatives. Will we allow the MSM and the ACLU and the Right to Die, Right to Drugs crowd to set the precedents that will direct our lives or will WE stand up and actually stand for something. The dignity of life is no small campaign. Whether you believe in abortion or not, there is a need for a great debate. Late term abortions are infanticide. We all know it. Dignity of Death is merely the early stage of Euthanasia. We all know it. Should our "national sport" be wedded to our national appetite for drugs, all subsidized by a legal monopoly and tax breaks? Will we follow the European model and descend into their crass indifference to life? Not without a battle.

Mark Steyn on the "Death of the Liberal West":

America this Holy Week is following the frenzied efforts to halt the court-enforced starvation of a brain-damaged woman for no reason other than that her continued existence is an inconvenience to her husband. In Britain, two doctors escape prosecution for aborting an otherwise healthy baby with a treatable cleft palate because the authorities are satisfied they acted 'in good faith'. You can read similar stories in almost any corner of the developed world, except perhaps the Netherlands, where discretionary euthanasia is so advanced it's news if the kid makes it out of the maternity ward.

AND

In practice, a culture that thinks Terri Schiavo's life in Florida or the cleft-lipped baby's in Herefordshire has no value winds up ascribing no value to life in general.

Excellent read.

The very un-Christian Christian Science Monitor that long ago opted out of the conservative column, has dire warnings for Congress because of their principled stand on the Schiavo case:

But members of Congress who voted in favor of intervening may face some political cost. An ABC News poll taken Sunday showed strong opposition to the law; 70 percent of those polled said Congress should not have gotten involved. And by a margin of 67 percent to 19 percent, most Americans think Congress acted more for political advantage than out of concern for Schiavo or for the principles involved.

Apparently this is a popularity contest. There are no principles involved, no validation of the value of human life. No sirree!! It's entertainment as judged by ABC News.

We are now engaged in a great national debate. Whether the entertainment-obsessed MSM will determine our national agenda as proposed by Hollywood: legalized drugs, gay marriage, gay adoptions, euthanasia, abortion on demand, "right to die" -- (soft euthanasia) and the end to capital punishment. Or whether the national agenda will be set by us through our duly elected legislators.

I, for one, don't give a damn what Rosie O'Donnell, the Un-Christian Monitor, or an ABC poll say. And I think Peggy Noonan should actually worry a little less about winning or losing political battles and start thinking about what a genuine national debate, sans the MSM as filters, can mean. To all of us.

Mickey Kaus weighs in on Terri Schiavo case.

Opposition to the Florida court's ruling seems like a legitimate protest against what appears to be a disingenuous machinery of euthanasia lawyers are busy establishing under the guise of a 'right to die' (a right Terry Schiavo can only be said to be exercising by an extremely suspect chain of reasoning). ... Our society is going to have to have this out at some point--why not now? And why isn't it a perfectly reasonable issue for the national legislature to address?

Exactly! [bolding and ellipses are his]

Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker has a wonderful piece called "The Dense Poets" that is to be savored.

The New York Post reminds us that the Pew Charitable Trusts were instrumental in getting the McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reform" through, along with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and George Soros' Open Society Institute all of whom

colluded with Pew to give $123 million between 1994 and 2004 to promote the regulation of political speech.

Sen. John McCain, Sen. Russ Feingold, Rep. Chris Shays and Rep. Marty Meehan have some explaining to do as well.

LE CROOKS
Would you want this man writing your country's constitution that will replace the existing Rome and Maastricht treaties on which the EU is founded? More. It's like having Al Capone write your tax laws.

OH OH
Don't tell George Soros but the Netherlands is abandoning his favorite cause.

Health Minister Han Hoogervorst is considering abandoning the legal sale of medicinal cannabis, claiming that it is bizarre that the government is involved in the production and sale of "State weed."

The Health Minister isn't going to win any popularity contests in Oregon or Canada either.

Hoogervorst also stressed that the medicinal properties of cannabis have never been proven. He also said that the use of cannabis also has side-effects such as psychoses. "I think that's an enormous problem," the minister said.

OBITUARY Typical of the values neutral Associated Press stories, John DeLorean is referred to by the American-media owned Associated Press as "an innovative auto maker" rather than a man who was arrested on charges of attempting to sell cocaine in an effort to raise funds for his failing company. Acquitted by claiming entrapment, the Washington Post thought he was brilliant but troubled. Unsavory is more like it. But this quote from GM CEO Rick Wagoner makes you wonder.

John DeLorean was one of Detroit's larger-than-life figures who secured a noteworthy place in our industry's history.

Yeah.

Canadian conservatives

Those Canadian conservatives are just plain incomprehensible. From the Globe and Mail: "Tories vote to support traditional marriage"

The Conservatives have put forth a policy platform that contains a large number of fairly moderate proposals. However, there are some that the Canadian population will undoubtedly find controversial .

The undoubtedly "controversial" measures?

• Support of traditional marriage. (Shocker!)
• Delegates voted in favour of two-tier health care. (The same privilege MPs and the rich have.)
• They voted to elect Supreme Court judges in the House of Commons. (Rather than appointment for life by the dominant political party. One-third from Quebec.)
• Other policy resolutions includes eliminating all defences for the possession of child pornography. (What defense is there for child pornography? None unless you are judge who thinks they have "artistic merit" even if they are pornographic.)
• Raising the age of consent to 16. (From 14)
• Review the Kyoto accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (But, but, the Liberals hoped to sell all those pollution credits to China!!)
• Return to the table with the Americans on missile defence. (Instead of grandstanding.)
• Repeal the much-loathed gun-registry. (That cost $1.5 billion and still doesn't work. And since when did the Globe and Mail loathe the registry????)

Gonna be tough times in Canada actually having two political parties.

Terror Alert in London

The Guardian is reporting a terrorism alert of a 'Substantial threat.' From militant muslims? Or rabid Islamofascists? No. It's from "dissident Irish republican terrorists."

Would that be the same Irish republicans who were feted by Bill Clinton? The same Irish republicans that Northern Ireland protestants were forced to share power with? The IRA and Sinn Fein have always been terrorists but this is the first time The Guardian has probably acknowledged what everyone else knew all along.

Revelations

From the Washington Post, comes this startling revelation.

Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday will propose establishing new rules for the use of military force, adopting a tough anti-terrorism treaty that would punish suicide bombers, and overhauling the United Nation's discredited human rights commission, according to a confidential draft of a report on U.N. reform.

Who knew that the UN was not opposed to suicide bombers before?!!! Who knew that the UN Human Rights Commision was discredited?!!! None of us if you judge from MSM stories on the topics.

Strange isn't it what our MSM withholds? Like any knowledge of the weaknesses of communism till after it fell, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the totalitarianism of Fidel Castro who still imprisons people for their writings, the fact that Nelson Mandela is a Marxist (and in good company with Fidel, Pol Pot, Robert "kill the white farmers" Mugabe), that Mandela's wife was involved in the torture and murder of a 14-year old?, that Yassir Arafat was a gangster and a crook and a serial murderer, that the IRA and Sinn Fein were one and the same and both were drug running, murdering thugs who terrorize the very people they purport to represent? Odd isn't it how the MSM always errs on the side of despotism, whether at the UN or Saddam Hussein or French perfidity around the globe? Amazing coincidence or agenda? You've got to be kidding if you think the former.

The MSM reports the story. They never dwell on it. Not say, like important stuff like George Bush's National Guard service. As Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times media critic says, "The media doesn't tell you what to think. They tell you what to think about."

Distortion

One of the things that the MSM can do is distort history. It is sometimes unintentional. Newspapers and their wholly-owned wire service hire 20-Somethings right out of college. The new hires are usually idealistic and highly motivated to make a change in the world with absolutely no experience of the real world or any knowledge of the past. It's understandable that a 20-Something would not know that Yassir Arafat was a miserable murdering sod who systematically killed off any opposition for twenty years. This lack of world view is less understandable on current history when the American media-owned Associated Press sends a story around the world that affects surprise that Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein was not invited to the White House for St. Patrick's Day.

Yesterday marked the first St. Patrick's Day in years in which Mr. Adams and other leaders from Northern Ireland were not invited to celebrate at the White House. Since the days of former president Bill Clinton, who was active in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, the province's political leaders have been frequent guests there.

The Clinton years were the only time in history that Sinn Fein was welcome to the White House. The Irish Republican Army has been on the State Department's Terrorist List for decades and not even the Clintonistas dared remove the name. The pretext of the Peace Accords was the thin excuse for the invitation. The result was that to no one's suprise the IRA did not give up their weapons and soon they were teaching new bomb-making techiques to Columbian Marxist terrorists, only stopping in Cuba on the way, presumably to pick up the new bomb materials for delivery.

Shame

What a difference. Republicans are fighting to save a human life. Democrats agonize over seal pups and cruelty to animals but celebrate death of the unborn and starving Terri Schiavo to death.

What a surprise. "Bush appointments align with conservative agenda" is the headline for the heartstopping story by Bill Straub. It goes without saying that if Algore or John Kerry had been elected, they would promote a liberal agenda but the lamestream media would never find that remotely newsworthy.

Baseball, the National Pastime and Drugs, the National Pastime

I generally agree with Professor Bainbridge on most things and even when I don't, I admire his wonderful intellect. On steroids and the Congressional hearing, however, I think he is dead wrong.

Right off, baseball is a government-sanctioned monopoly no longer even granted to Ma Bell. Baseball is spectacularly subsidized in their local markets. Argue what you will about whether that money will help create jobs and fill hotels and provide work, it is used to subsidize baseball. When players receive $26 million a year, baseball is pulling in enough money so that they can build their own stadiums. On every corner if they like.

Congress has a duty to oversee the exemption from fair competition granted baseball and they have a duty to question the willingness of owners and players to regulate their own behavior. Because so far, the owners, players, and the baseball commissioner have done a lousy job. John McCain's posturing on their behalf did nothing to show players and owners that it was time to clean up. And not just steroids.

Sports drug use is rampant. The players know it. The baseball owners know it. The coaches know it. Former good guy Mark McGwire knows it. And every kid in America knows it. Kids are taking steroids and enhancing drugs drugs. Yet these players were more mad at Jose Conseco for his expose than at the reality that they were lousy human beings.

The best question asked of the baseball players today was, "Do you consider yourself a role model?" The answers were: "Yes" "Yes" "Yes" "Yes" (Amazingly, McQwire thought he would be excellent!!! just excellent!!! in advising youth not to take drugs to enhance their performance and then refused to answer questions with a "I refuse to discuss the past.") Asked if they thought using drugs was cheating, they said "Yes" "Yes" "Yes" (McQwire "I am retired... blah blah")

They acknowledge they are role models. They think drugs are cheating. They all agree that outside independent testing is essential. Not one was willing to criticize either the owners or their own player association. The players were shamed and should have been.

This Congressional hearing isn't grandstanding. It's acting responsibily. For a change. If Baseball is the National Sport, how come it is the only one with no meaningful anti-drug policy? How come it is the only major sport where the officials outright lie about even having a policy? How come they have to be subpoenoed to even provide the DRAFT of a policy that no player had heard of and owners claimed was adopted a YEAR after John McCain covered for them?

Ann Coulter on acknowledging reality on women in law enforcement.

A 1993 news article in the Los Angeles Times, for example, referred to a "study" –- cited by an ACLU attorney — allegedly proving that "female officers are more effective at making arrests without employing force because they are better at de-escalating confrontations with suspects." No, you can't see the study or have the name of the organization that performed it, and why would you ask?

Sad to say, a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal officer were killed because of political correctness and idiot feminists.

REHEARSAL The bleak future of France.

WARD CHURCHILL UPDATE. The Rocky Mountain News reports that since the University of Colorado Board of Regents decided that they couldn't get away with using university funds to buy out Ward Churchill, there was speculation that the UC Foundation might provide the money. Now that, too, appears squashed. The sad thing is that 7 of the 9 regents were willing to buy Churchill out before the Nova Scotia plagarism charge gave them hope. Now they are postponing a decision another two weeks.

For insight to the squishy Democrat thinking on why he should be bought out, read this opinion piece by Rocky Mountain News columnist Paul Campos.

Of course it's extremely distasteful to pay Churchill anything. If life and law were fair, he would have been fired long ago. But they aren't - and one consequence of this is that there's a real risk Churchill will win his lawsuit.

In other words, compound an error in judgement by making the thing just go away so no one is answerable for having hired a crackpot. Maybe they should just take the Canadian view espoused by their Foreign Affairs Minister to offer absolution to the U.N. with an injunction to "move on."

UPDATE: Denver Post dire prediction that Ward Churchill case could take years. I hope so. If it focuses attention on the lack of scholarship and disreputable administration at universities, it's a good thing. But that's exactly why Libs and Democrats want a quick buyout.

Moving on

It's time for the UN Human Rights Commission and the Conference on Disarmament to shape up, according to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew. A call for reform? Not exactly.

Mr. Pettigrew was blunt regarding the “setback” of the Human Rights Commission in the last couple of years, but remained supportive. “We have to acknowledge that, but Canada and my presence here today wants to demonstrate that it is very important to move on,” he said.

It sounds like political, ah, absolution.

The bigger concern?

“Certainly, I pride myself and the government of Canada to be very, very vigilant so that we do not sacrifice human rights on the alter of greater security.”

Wow. I hope the Canadian Press reporter didn't block copy from his press release. I would like to think the reporter, at least, knew how to spell altar.

Associated Press Twit

Remember the name David Espo, "AP Special Correspondent" if only for this ludicrous headline " GOP Taking Advantage of Election Gains" And how are they taking advantage? By passing legislation to fit their agenda. SHAME!!! SHAME!!! Can you imagine in a representative republic where elected -- ELECTED, mind you -- representatives actually pass legislation their constituents want and voted them into office for.

Where does the AP find such absolute twits?

More C-BS

Reid Collin of AIM has insight into the Roger Mudd interview of Former CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton, shown on C-SPAN's BookTV on Sunday. It's full of those insider stories about how Roger Mudd was beaten out from the job of filling Walter Cronkite's chair by Dan Rather but says absolutely nothing about the interview itself.

Fenton contends that CBS, like the CIA, had abandoned their news collection in the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's his view that this is what is wrong with CBS. Not bias, not intent.

The truth is that long before the 2000 merger of CBS corporation and Viacom, CBS was not reporting the news and it had little to do with lack of overseas personnel.

Since the early 1970s when Yassir Arafat emerged after a decade of systematic assassination of his rivals, CBS has, like the other alphabet networks, carefully avoided branding him the terrorist he was. Thirty-five years on, they still referred to him as a "statesman", despite ample evidence that he was a gangster and a thug and a murderer. So what does that make them? Frankly, it makes them the same collaborationists who looked on the Soviet Union as an experiment in utopianism that resulted in cracking some 30 million eggs, eggs that happed to be human lives washed down the drain in an appalling act of insanity that was echoed by another Marxist maniac, Pol Pot, who still is referred to as a "leader" without the reference to the Marxism. Then there is Marxist Robert Mugabe and the Marxist Idi Amin, all certifiable nut case murderers, all embraced as was Stalin, by our MSM.

Our MSM didn't dismantle their foreign bureaus. Once they had achieved a monopoly on information and a consolidation of newspapers so they had no competition, they no longer had to pretend to be a news gathering entity. They could just print the party line as straight news. They have done so for more than 30 years. That's why the talk of foreign bureaus and reporters is so laughable. Not since Robert Trout reported fluff pieces from Paris, has a single foreign reporter at CBS has a single bit of credibility. It's just an elaborate ruse to convince you that it's the corporate moneybags who are responsible, not the ethos at the MSM that embraces terrorists and Marxists and hates America nearly as much as your average rabid Socialist Frenchman.

The pity is that the interview was just a fluff piece to try to sell a book. One colleague interviewing another, the favor no doubt returned at a later date. It was as empty as CBS, ABC, and NBC have been of morals and decency for most of our lifetime.

Buh bye Dan

The overnights from Drudgereport for Dan's departure:
DAN RATHER PULLS TOP AUDIENCE FOR ANCHOR FINALE;
CBS EVENING NEWS 7.2 RATING/13 SHARE OVER
NBC NIGHTLY 6.5/12 OVER
ABC WORLD 6.3/11...

leads me to note that Rather had to leave CBS in order for the network to finally come in first.

The MSM is outdoing itself on damage control. It was evil bloggers who are right wing fanatics who are to blame; Dan had no fault in any of this. This tells you more than anything else that theirs is a celebrity cult having nothing to do with issues of honesty or credibility or even free speech for anyone except themselves. And isn't that, really, the issue? Blogs are what Letters to the Editor used to be when newspapers sought consensus and not control of the national agenda. That was before newspapers followed the lead of broadcast media that never sought or accepted feedback.