Free Republic

Feb. 25, 2004. 01:00 AMPremiers fear collapse of health-care systemCAROLINE MALLAN AND DANIEL GIRARDSTAFF REPORTERSVANCOUVER—Canada's premiers say the health-care system will begin to self-destruct by the end of the decade without both an overhaul and a cash influx from the federal Liberals.At the end of the inaugural meeting of the Council of the Federation, the premiers demanded that Prime Minister Paul Martin increase base transfers to the provinces for health care by $2 billion in the March 23 federal budget.They accuse the federal government of purposely understating the size of the surplus and short-changing the health-care purse year after year.Alberta Premier...

Nightline Daily E-Mail February 25, 2004 TONIGHT'S FOCUS: Whether by cunning marketing, runaway buzz and controversy or the inherent power of the story, Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" opens today to enormous advance sales. The film will open on over 4,500 screens in the U.S.--more than "The Lord of the Rings." Much of the advance ticket sales are driven by the phenomenon that has developed around the film. While many Christians and Jews remain concerned about Gibson's depiction of Christ's crucifixion story, some Christian churches are seeing the film as a powerful tool for marketing of another...

February 19, 2004 Howard's EndBy JON MARGOLIS ARTON, Vt. For Vermonters, the portrayal of their centrist former governor as the left-winger in the Democratic presidential race was the second biggest surprise of Howard Dean's brief span of political glory. The biggest was the apparent transformation of a campaign clod into a fiery orator who inspired a movement. He never tried that at home. In Vermont, Dr. Dean was never a very good politician. He was quite a good governor. He was a prudent steward of the state's finances. He expanded social services while reducing taxes. During the debate over civil...

February 18, 2004 Close Finish by Edwards Jolts News Networks' CoverageBy JIM RUTENBERG enator John Edwards's unexpectedly strong second-place showing in Wisconsin threw political pundits off balance once again last night. The results transformed questions about when Mr. Edwards would drop out of the race earlier in the day into questions about whether he had an outside shot at the Democratic presidential nomination. The quick change underscored again how unpredictable the Democratic nomination competition has been — and just how wrong conventional wisdom has been in predicting voter behavior. Viewers who watched the cable news networks throughout the day were...

<p>A UC Berkeley journalism lecturer's 32-year-old photograph of future Democratic U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry has wound up in a forgery that suckered the New York Times.</p> <p>Ken Light, head of the photojournalism program at UCB's Graduate School of Journalism, has found himself in the eye of a media and Internet storm after a clever forger inserted an image of Jane Fonda alongside his image of Kerry and posted the composite on the Internet.</p>

Rumsfield Fighting Technique This was originally posted in our forums by Agent White but I thought it needed to be highlighted for those who may have missed it. You may have defeated my Southern Hook Palm technique, but can you defeat the 1000 styles of Rumsfeld? Twin Cobra Fist! White Axe Hand! Grimace Palm! Sleeping Dragon Technique! Evil Eye Style! Mirror Swan Palm! Fist of the West Side! Viper Fang! Drunken Temple Boxing! Lion Claw Technique! Praying Mantis! Coffee Palm! Crouching Tiger! Splashing Hands! Quacking Duck Hand! Pressing Palms Style! Hidden Monkey Hands! Swan's Nest Technique! Fire Palm Fist! Spider...

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to say I'm closing down the Media Schadenfreude and and Media Shenanigans lists for good. It just doesn't seem to be accomplishing anything any more. Well, not that it ever accomplished anything, they were just ping lists after all, but there just doesn't seem any point to going on any more. Or in any case I'm not any good at following the stories any longer, or something. I hope some of you found it useful in the past, at least. Thanks for being part of it.

Observer: North Korea and the BBC's evidence Feb 16 2004 04:00Has the BBC got it wrong again, in another part of the axis of evil? Weeks after its two top bosses resigned over a discredited report on Iraq, the British broadcaster is facing scrutiny over a documentary about North Korea.The programme grabbed headlines around the world this month with its claim that the communist state was testing chemical weapons on prisoners in secret gas chambers. However, debate rages in Seoul about the authenticity of the BBC's evidence.Central to the case is an official-looking North Korean document referring to the chemical...

Layoffs rumoured at CNN InternationalBeleaguered global news service CNN International is rumoured to be considering major redundancies in a cost-cutting exercise. From our rumourmill correspondent F---edCompany.com's Super Happy Fun Slander Corner is reporting that AOL-Time-Warner is considering "mega-layoffs" at it's international channel, CNN International. CNN has come under domestic pressure from News Corporation's Fox News whilst internationally BBC World and Sky News continue to give the broadcaster a hard time.

February 15, 2004 New York Police Training for Catastrophic TerrorismBy WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and JUDITH MILLER he New York Police Department, working with city health officials, federal authorities and other agencies, has been preparing for a possible attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, perhaps the most daunting threat facing municipalities in a post-9/11 world. Meeting in secret and conducting complex drills, the department has brought together government agencies in a broad effort for much of the last year. In doing so, it has put together a program that some national security and law enforcement officials describe as unrivaled among...

There he goes again!Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats' pants. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Joe ConasonFeb. 13, 2004  | Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping? That seems to be the default program of the right-wing media machine whenever Republican poll numbers sink into the red zone. Late Thursday morning -- with George W. Bush's credibility damaged on several fronts as reporters demanded answers to questions about his National Guard service that...

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004Humiliated Democrats Dump Loyalty Oath Democrats have caved to widespread outrage and dumped what South Carolina's largest newspaper calls a "loyalty oath." The party had planned to force voters in today's primary to swear, "I consider myself a Democrat." Voters in South Carolina do not register by party, but those who refused to sign would have been ejected. Then the uproar started. The media tattled, and hundreds of voters jammed the state party’s phone lines Sunday and Monday to complain. "Some callers were confused, some were concerned, and some, said S.C. Democratic Party chairman Joe Erwin,...

Jobs Jabs Disney As Pixar Earnings SoarLOS ANGELES (AP) - Boosted by a record quarterly and full-year performance, Pixar Animation Studios chief Steve Jobs on Wednesday explained his company's decision to split with The Walt Disney Co., blasting Disney as weak creatively and unwilling to compromise on a new agreement. In a conference call with analysts to discuss Pixar's earnings, Jobs took a slap at Disney's recent animated films.``The truth is there has been little creative collaboration with Disney for years,'' Jobs said. ``You can compare the creative quality (of Pixar films) with the creative quality of Disney's last three...

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004 NFL Cancels Chasez PerformanceThe NFL has taken one of its first actions in the wake of the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl halftime show by canceling a halftime performance by JC Chasez, a member of Justin Timberlake's band *NSYNC, scheduled for this weekend's Pro Bowl on ESPN.Mr. Chasez was to sing "Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love)," a song that appeared in the soundtrack of the 20th Century Fox movie "Drumline" in 2002. "We thought it was over the top," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. "It was because of the song, and how we believed it...

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004 Post-Super Bowl, Bare Breasts on 'ER' Raise AlarmOnly days after the firestorm created when Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the Super Bowl, plans to air an episode of "ER" on NBC Thursday evening that includes a view of an elderly female patient's bare breast are raising serious concerns among the network's affiliates. Some NBC affiliates are so uneasy about the scene planned for the first night of sweeps that at least one station group executive described himself Tuesday as "considering what my options are" should NBC decide to air the hour with the exposed breast....

Graydon Carter’s War The Mind of a Great Editor Is a Terrible Thing To Waste By RUSS SMITH Mr. Smith writes weekly columns for New York Press and Baltimore’s City Paper. I wonder when Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is going to wake up from his increasingly public nightmare. Mr. Carter, a charming and intelligent man, has clearly not come to grips with the stark reality, as Spy magazine would’ve said 15 years ago, that the go-go 1990s are over and the gaudy colors that washed over that decade have given way to black and white. In fact, Mr. Carter’s...

TAXATION AND SLAVERY: ROBERTS RESPONDS TO THE CRITICS    The following was sent to me by Paul Craig Roberts, in response to criticism of his column comparing the income tax to slavery -- which I myself defended last week. From time to time people write to me asking how they can become columnists. I tell them that they do not want to become columnists. Read on. Many years ago when I was offered an appointment at the University of Rochester, I remember wide-ranging discussions of economic issues with the many distinguished economists who were at Rochester at that time. One...

Sunday, February 01, 2004, 08:14 P.M. Pacific Fighting words from Dean stir faithful hereBy David PostmanSeattle Times chief political reporter Struggling presidential candidate Howard Dean used a speech to a yelling, stomping, liberal Seattle crowd yesterday to paint fellow-Democrat John Kerry and President Bush as twin tools of special interests. Dean railed against Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who has supplanted Dean as the front-runner in the Democratic race, and said news yesterday that Kerry took more lobbyist money than any other member of the Senate made him so mad he was sputtering. "This is the challenge for the Democratic Party:...

Hutton: Fleet Street's reaction Journalists from Britain's national press give their initial responses to the Hutton Inquiry report.Michael White, political editor, Guardian: Lord Hutton has been very severe on the BBC, rightly so in many respects in my view. But he has been overly generous to the government machine and some individuals within it. Any 72-year-old who pronounces the word "hotel" without an "h" is a very establishment figure. Hamish McDonnell, political editor, Scotsman: It's not quite what we expected. It's surprised a lot of people in the way the government got off the hook while the BBC has taken...

January 26, 2004 Prime-Time 'Millionaire' Returning to ABCBy BILL CARTER ho Wants to Be a Millionaire," the most successful game show in the history of prime-time television until ABC burned through its popularity by overexposing it, will return next month, complete with Regis Philbin, the hot seat, the lifelines and the steady progression of cash prizes. ABC is expected to announce today the comeback of "Millionaire," not as a weekly series but as a one-week burst of one-hour shows in the last week of February. This time the show will be called "Super Millionaire," and to distinguish itself from the...