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Howard Dean: Saddam did not commit genocide in the last 10 years

Beginning shortly..

Were we are in Thumbsucker Central in Boston's Fleet Center, overlooking the Democratic convention as the unthinkable — an unpredictable roll call of the states — is about to begin. A brief recap for those of you who tuned out after the front-loaded Democratic primaries turned into a long, hard slog. After the New Hampshire results were in, John "Bring It On!" Kerry maintained his (professedly unwanted) front-runnership, but Howard "Yee-haw!" Dean recovered strongly from his Iowa waker-upper. John "Two Americas, Count 'Em!" Edwards and Wesley "Call Me General" Clark were nicely positioned for their South Carolina comebacks, and those...

Kerry 33% Dean 28% Edwards 14% Clark 12% Lieberman 7% Other 4% Undecided 2% Data Collected 1/25/04 Geography State of New Hampshire Sample Population 481 Certain Voters Margin of Error 4.6%

New Poll Shows Dean Making a Comeback... YEEEEAHH!!! [Kerry 23%, Dean 22%, Clark 18%]

Dems to Face Off in DebateThursday, January 22, 2004By Liza PorteusMANCHESTER, N.H.  — The seven Democratic contenders for the nomination to go head-to-head with President Bush in November will face off Thursday night in the last public debate before the New Hampshire primary.The debate could be a make-or-break event for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (search) and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark (search), in particular, leading up to Tuesday's first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. Clark's campaign seems to have lost a little momentum to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search) and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (search), whom many politicos see as a potential up-and-comer."I think if you're looking for...

The Democratic presidential candidates participate in the only radio debate of the election season. The debate, sponsored by NPR and the WOI Radio Group, is being broadcast from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET from Des Moines, Iowa. NPR's Neal Conan hosts the event, which includes questions e-mailed by NPR listeners. The NPR DebateDemocrats Face Off in Radio Broadcast in Iowa Why a Radio-Only Debate? Neal Conan "Without the intrusion of cameras, a debate can focus on ideas instead of style and presentation." --Neal Conan, Talk of the Nation host and moderator of the NPR debate. Jan. 6, 2004 --...

C-SPAN LINK

Riot in Sierra Leone Over Midget No-Show Sat Dec 6, 2:32 PM ET By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY, Associated Press Writer FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Thousands of fans rioted at Sierra Leone's national stadium Saturday when authorities substituted two local dwarf comedians for a widely anticipated out-of-town midget duo. Police arrested 30 people, amid damage and dozens of injuries. Daylong radio ads had whipped up excitement and ticket sales for Friday night's scheduled performance by the two Nigerian entertainers, Aki and Paw Paw. The Nigerian performers failed to show by early morning. Organizers put the two local dwarf comedians on the stage...

Now that the Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional (in that state) to deny marriage to homosexual partners there is a lot of noise about how politicians are reacting. Most of the nine dwarves have declared that they oppose homosexual "marriage" but support "civil unions" that look exactly the same on paper. (President Bush has stated that he supports a maintaining our traditional understanding of marriage without giving us any specifics.) Does anybody remember the duck test? Civil unions are marriage. This is a semantic shell game. Now, don't get me wrong. I understand Democrats and their semantic shell...

The field of democrat pretenders for the 2004 Presidential Race is unaffectionately known as the 9 Dwarves. The number varies from day to day, but the concept survives. Now everyone knows the original seven dwarves: Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy, and Bashful. The names come close, but don't quite fit. Here are my suggestions for naming this colorful band of misfits. Doc Whiney Wimpy Frenchie Happy Prissy Dazed Clueless Hopeless

Gephardt said that when he becomes president, he will talk to France. After the recent speech by the French Prime Minister at the United Nations, I am amazed that George Bush talked to France. But, Bush is famous for being courteous to people who don't deserve courtesy. Let us quickly turn to North Korea, which is both philosophically and politically quite similar to France. Little Dicky Gephardt said that President Bush screwed up that situation by criticizing the North Koreans for breaking The Treaty. This, Gephardt said, is why the North Koreans broke the treaty. No, you are not suffering...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the Ruin of Doriath by Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesWell, you know, I actually really liked this chapter. I was expecting Morgoth's minions to do the destroying, so that it was Dwarves and then Elves that did it was a pleasant surprise. Tolkien is incredibly creative with how he ties the last however many chapters together as Doriath meets its end. The Nauglamir with the Silmaril set within it was pretty brilliant--how it was made possible is almost mind boggling when you trace the chain of events that led up to it. And, so incredibly fitting that...

"The Empty Lands Where No Men Are..."The People of Eriador, 2000 - 3017 Third AgeThis article discusses the desolate picture of settlement in Eriador at the time of the War of the Ring. In the early Third Age Eriador had been chiefly inhabited by the Elves of Lindon, the Dwarves of Khadzad-dum and the People of Arnor. Arnor was stricken by internal strife 861+, war with Angmar 1300+, and the Great Plague of 1636, in which "...many parts of Eriador become desolate." (LOTR Tale of Years 1636). In 1974 Arnor was conquered by Angmar and its remaining city (Fornost Erain)...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the coming of Men into the Westby Mark-Edmond The Journey Continues And so the stage is set. We have Elves, whose story this has been primarily for the last 150 some odd pages. We have the Dwarves, who dwell primarily in the mountains in the East. And now, we have Men added to the mix. Let's not forget the common threat in the far North, Morgoth and his armies of Orcs, Balrogs, and fire-drakes. To be honest, this chapter didn't strike me as particularly interesting aside from the general introduction of Men to the story....

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the Sindarby Mark-Edmond The Journey Continues Wow, this chapter is chock full of stuff. Three major things: the Naugrim (Dwarves) and Sindar meet/Menegroth is constructed (we'll call that one). The Nandor are reintroduced and settle in Ossiriand (two). And, the first war with the Orcs takes place (number three for this chapter). Tolkien amazes me because he's able to say so much with so few words. In a few paragraphs he brings to life the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the Naugrim and their relationship with the Elves. The Naugrim are hesitant to teach foreigners their own...

A discussion of Bree's significance and probable history in the Third Age. [ Published prior to the first Lord Of The Rings movie ] Strange as news from Bree...Word has it that we won't see much of Bree in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Bree is the little village east of the Shire where Frodo and his companions meet up with Aragorn (who is known there as Strider). I expect most of the Bree scenes will deal with how the Hobbits come to travel with the Ranger, and the movie will just move on. Will we even see...

Part ILet's talk about Dwarves. I imagine John Rhys-Davies' portrayal of Gimli will result in quite a few Web site homages to both the actor and the character. Right now I can't find anything really useful for Dwarf research. Oh, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of Web sites which mention the fact that Dwarves were one of the races of Middle-earth, and they may cite the Appendices in some fashion and rehash what anyone with a complete copy of The Lord of the Rings and maybe even The Silmarillion could easily find out by skimming a few pages.But does anyone...