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By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch Last Update: 11:58 AM ET Jan 21, 2005 WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - An invited group of bloggers and journalists began a two-day conference Friday morning at Harvard University amid cold weather (3 degrees) and controversy. Alex Jones, head of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, acknowledged "contentious" comments have been made about the event's guest list of about 50 people. Among the critics was a conservative blogger who said the meeting "is a hopelessly biased group of center-left academics/journalists who are once again getting overwhelmed by the marketplace." That statement was made to...

(Filed: 29/12/2004) It is likely to go down as one of the greatest natural disasters in history: a catastrophe that breaks records for global spread of death and destruction. The survivors return and give their airport interviews, still stunned and tearful, having witnessed something that will change their understanding of life and its preciousness forever. Our paltry human endeavours at evil are dwarfed when the earth itself erupts: what terrorist organisation or would-be world dominator could orchestrate such totally unexpected devastation on an international scale? There can be no negotiation with this force, and no protection from it. It is...

On the streets and in the gathering places of Iran, millions celebrated the re-election of President Bush with congratulations and discreet V for victory signs to each other. The Student Movement Coordination Committe for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) Website reports that not just a few, but millions of Iranians hoping for reform in that country are excited about President Bush and his promises of democracy for the whole region. However, SMCCDI reports, "As Iranians and especially the younger generations have become happy, those affiliated to the Islamic regime are seen deeply worried about their future." It says the ruling regime...

By Published 11/3/2004 2:29:35 AM Elite journalists promised not to invest any faith in exit polling in this election. But they did. In the tank for Kerry all along, they took great heart from ill-informed pro-Kerry buzz early in the day based on exit polling. But results in Florida exposed the early reports as flaky conjecture, and as they did, the press corps looked quite hurt that exit pollsters had dashed their hopes again. Republicans will hold the House, Senate, and White House. Yet reporters said ad nauseam that the country is "divided." Apparently not. What does all this talk...

PARIS -- In many countries of Europe, former inmates of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been relishing their freedom. In Spain, Denmark and Britain, recently released detainees have railed in public about their treatment at Guantanamo, winning sympathy from local politicians and newspapers. In Sweden, the government has agreed to help one Guantanamo veteran sue his American captors for damages. Not so in France, where four prisoners from the U.S. naval base were arrested as soon as they arrived home in July, and haven't been heard from since. Under French law, they could remain locked up...

EOM

Published Did the March 11 railway bombings in Madrid have anything to do with Spain's participation in the Iraqi reconstruction? Terrorist propaganda notwithstanding, the facts suggest that they did not. Events both before and since indicate that the bombings are part of a broader campaign, and that withdrawing from Iraq has not enhanced the Spanish people's security. There's no question that the attacks were timed brilliantly for greatest effect -- three days before Spain's national election. Considering that the modus operandi did not fit al Qaeda operatives' usual pattern of self-immolation, at first there was plausible reason to believe that...

Heavy freep needed on CNN poll: Is the U.S. responsibile for the missing explosives in Iraq?yES 86% no 14%

SENATOR John Kerry’s efforts to portray himself as "just a regular American guy" suffered a blow this weekend when he comprehensively messed up the scoreline at a game featuring his beloved Boston Red Sox. Twice on Sunday, the Democrat said he was basking in the glory of Boston’s 10-9 win on Saturday night. The problem was, the Red Sox won 11-9. "Ten-nine, the Sox did fabulous," Mr Kerry said with a big smile as he ducked into church on Sunday morning in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Inside, the minister asked worshippers to clap "if the Lord has done anything wonderful in...

This is a very illuminating site http://www.husseinandterror.com/

Dan Rather, call your office. If the Democratic National Committee gets its way, it may not be long before the anchor of "CBS Evening News" or his bosses could be hauled before the feds and fined for making illegal "contributions" to the Kerry campaign. Sounds unlikely? It's not -- as even Democratic lawyers are acknowledging. Newspapers and TV stations have long been sheltered from campaign-finance laws and allowed to roam free in a little free-speech zone called the "media exemption."... However, the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law placed severe restrictions on average citizens, corporations, labor unions and non-profit groups, setting forth...

Washington, DC, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The controversial documentary on Sen. John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities will be made available free to the public, it's producer said Friday. Producer Carlton Sherwood said "Stolen Honor" would be available on the Internet Monday and would also be available for screening or broadcasting. "I want to be sure that every American who wants to see this film is allowed to do so," he said in a news release. "Therefore, I am offering the film publicly to anyone who wants to see it. "In addition, any media entity brave enough to air 'Stolen Honor'...

Makes reference to journalistic objectivity which SD schruggs off.

http://rightalk.com/

Alert! There are very strong indications that Eizat Aldori the deputy of Saddam has been arrested near Tikrit! After his arrest by the Iraqi Police and the US forces, 150 members of his guards tried to free him but most of them either killed or escaped. More details later! Congratulations for the victims of Abo-Al-Thaleg!

One is moved by a quotation from the late Enzo Baldoni, the Italian freelance journalist and Red Cross volunteer who was murdered on video by the Jihadis in Iraq this week. "Some people think I am some sort of Rambo who loves strong emotions and watching people die. I am miles away from that. I am a convinced pacifist, and for that reason I am curious to understand what makes normal people brandish guns." Poor Baldoni, who survived previous adventures in East Timor and Colombia, had stopped appearing in the Milan weekly, Diario, and started appearing on Al Jazeera, as...

OTTAWA - A group of vocal Liberal MPs appealed to Prime Minister Paul Martin to think twice about taking part in the U.S. missile defence program, as party members gathered for their annual caucus retreat. Ontario MP Carolyn Parrish, who called Americans "bastards" in the runup to the war in Iraq, used a new term on Wednesday to voice her opinion. "We are not joining a coalition of the idiots," she told reporters. "We are joining a coalition of the wise." When asked about Parrish's comments, Martin said that kind of language was uncalled for. He declined to say whether...

For now Americans seem to be split 50-50 over the reelection of George W. Bush. Such a hotly contested election is hardly new. We saw races just as close in 1960, 1968, and 1976. Had Ross Perot not run in 1992 — and perhaps even in 1996 — Bill Clinton (who didn't receive a 50 percent majority in either of his presidential races) may well have found himself in the same predicament as Gore did in Florida, 2000 — struggling to win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote to George Bush Sr. One can argue that the post-bellum...

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 11:37 a.m. EDT Iraq Survey Chief Duelfer: Saddam Was Developing Nukes Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons development program at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003, chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer has told Congress. In comments that received virtually no press coverage in the United States, Duelfer testified that Iraq was "preserving and expanding its knowledge to design and develop nuclear weapons." One Iraqi laboratory "was intentionally focused on research applicable for nuclear weapons development," the top weapons inspector said. Duelfer's stunning assessment, delivered in March of this year, was first...