Made it into this week's "Bonfire of the Vanities" (hosted this week at Pajama Pundits), courtesy of Screaming Howard Dean's appearance on Meet The Press (and my off the wall post behind it).

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From the idiots at work department, the yearbook staff at Waxahachie High School in Waxahachie, TX were so dumb that they actually printed the school's yearbook identifying one senior honor student as "Black Girl," because they were too lazy or stupid to find out her name.

A North Texas school district is having four pages of its high school yearbook reprinted to correct a photo caption that identified a student as "Black Girl."

Administrators in the Ellis County school district said they planned to talk with Waxahachie High School senior Shadoyia Jones to offer an apology and discuss exactly how she ended up listed that way in a photo of the school's National Honor Society.

"I am disappointed they didn't catch the error," Jones said. "I just felt like all my achievements, everything I have been working so hard for, went down the drain, basically."

District spokeswoman Candace Ahlfinger said Monday that administrators have asked the publisher to reprint the affected page, its companion page in a two-page layout, and those two pages' back pages.

"We will never be able to minimize this damage, but this will change it so that it is not a constant reminder, so it won't be a forever," Ahlfinger told the Waxahachie Daily Light.

Students will be asked to bring in their yearbooks so the old pages can be torn out and the new ones glued in, Ahlfinger said. The district expects to have the reprinted pages by Wednesday. The last day of school is Thursday.

Just damn.

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1 I don't get people sometimes.

Posted by: Joel (No Pundit Intended) at May 24, 2005 05:36 AM (OtvG8)

2 Waxahachie?

Posted by: Samantha at May 24, 2005 06:21 AM (Ihkjb)

3 Boggles the mind. How far was it to the secretary's office where they could find a list of all granduating seniors? How did they ever manage to make it to the yearbook staff? And where were the adults who were supervising?

Posted by: Rachel Ann at May 24, 2005 12:01 PM (jZHsa)

4 Here comes a lawsuit. For once i agree with Michael. "just Damn" nothing else describes it.

Posted by: Nick Saunders at May 24, 2005 01:14 PM (vnSex)

5 It is likely that they just put "black girl" in the yearbook as a placeholder, intending to fill in the name later and just forgot it. If it had been "tall girl" would anybody have assumed it was intended as a slam against tall people? Absent any other indication of racist intent, I'd go with the notion that it was a stupid error. Personally I always us XXXXXX as a placeholder because it stands out more. The irony of course is that this young lady is getting much more attention for her academic achievement than she would have gotten if the yearbook staff had been a little more diligent. So there is a silver lining.

Posted by: Brainster at May 25, 2005 06:23 AM (iw717)

6 I don't see why they just didn't put "unknown" or "unidentified" ... I don't think it was malicious - just ignorant and indicative of the fact that there must be few black students at the school and that, even as a member of the National Honor Society, she is basically ignored and invisible.

Posted by: Qusan at May 25, 2005 11:43 AM (IKPXo)

7 Sad to say, but this is nothing new, I graduated from "hatch" in 2000. The bigger problem is that the administration believes that there is no problem. They truly believe that is was just a mistake. We all have t-shirts that say I know her name. There is no excuse for what happened.

Posted by: Mel at May 25, 2005 04:03 PM (nqbuF)

8 Lets be real i know that this raceholder not placeholder was not a mistake. The board of Wax is too busy trying to cover it up instead of finding out who did this so that she can apologize to miss jones, the school, the community and most inporatant GOD. If this wasn't a board members daughter this would be happening. Lets Pray that God will heal our nation.

Posted by: santified sister at May 27, 2005 01:34 PM (mYf6F)

9 Inexcusable as usual. This is no different than seeing an imaginary gun. All those involved (which now includes those who would accept such a blatant lie as an excuse) should come out of their pockets, purchase a billboard with her picture, name (now that they cannot deny they know it) and “Honor Society” title, for no less than one month. June would be great. Press on sisters and brothers! Continue to reap coals of fire upon their heads! Stay righteous! Your excellence will be your justice!

Posted by: L Smith at May 31, 2005 11:53 AM (9EgRM)

10 Actually I think its pathetic that all of you people get on here and gossip about shit yall dont even know about... leave waxahachie alone, were not freakin prejudice

Posted by: Hachie HS student at June 16, 2005 08:07 PM (M7kiy)

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Remember the Hare Krishnas in the airports years ago?

"Here. Have a flower..."

Six Hare Krishna temples in California are in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings.

A federal bankruptcy court on Monday approved a reorganization plan that will allow six California-based Hare Krishna temples and their affiliates to remain open while compensating members who claim they were abused at the society's schools.

The plan includes $9.5 million for alleged victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse during the 1970s and 1980s at religious boarding schools run by the Hare Krishnas.

A similar reorganization plan was approved May 16 in West Virginia, where temples also filed for bankruptcy. The monotheistic tradition, also known as the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, was founded in 1966 by an Indian scholar.

Ninety-two people sued the Hare Krishnas in 2000 in U.S. District Court in Dallas, alleging they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused at Krishna boarding schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the United States, schools were in Los Angeles and Three Rivers, Calif., Moundsville, W. Va., and Dallas. Other boarding schools were in India.

The federal suit was dismissed in 2001, but the plaintiffs refiled in Texas state court.

The Hare Krishnas filed for bankruptcy in February 2002 before the case went to trial.

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US Senator John McCain (R, but not really-AZ) was at the front of the line when more than a dozen Senators from both sides of the aisle came together on a compromise aimed at avoiding the "nuclear option" showdown set for tomorrow.

Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators announced this evening they had reached a compromise designed to prevent a showdown over President Bush's judicial nominations.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking for the group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, announced the agreement at a news conference at 7:40 p.m.

Under the deal, the Democrats agreed to accept cloture votes on three of President Bush's judicial nominees. The Republicans pledged not to support the so-called "nuclear option" to end the ability of the minority to use filibusters to block nominees.

The group of senators, including Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said the Senate leadership had signaled it would go along with the compromise.

Wimp.

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When you think your tax dollars are finally being spent on good things, a story comes along that shatters all logical rationale.

A new government report, quoted in this morning's New York Post, says that nearly 200 of New York state's worst sexual predators are receiving free viagra thanks to tax dollars.

"The whole purpose of Viagra is to increase sexual performance, is to increase libido, is to increase blood flow, to increase the capacity of the user of the medication to perform sexually," said state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, whose office released the study.

"Some of them, as a condition of their parole, are required to take medication to do the opposite, and this contradicts it. The bottom line is that this is a category of patients that should not be receiving these drugs."

Those receiving the drug have been convicted of everything from first-degree rape to sexual touching, and are Level 3 offenders — who, under state criminal guidelines, are those deemed most likely to commit crimes again.

Viagra costs ten dollars a pill, and the average monthly dosage is around six pills.

Your tax dollars at work.

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Democratic National Committee head and former Presidential candidate Howard Dean said on NBC's Meet The Press this morning that Osama Bin Laden had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

But the thing that really bothered me the most, which the 9-11 Commission said also wasn't true, is the insinuation that the president continues to make to this day that Osama bin Laden had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. That is false. The 9-11 Commission, chaired by a Republican, said it was false. Is it wrong to send people to war without telling them the truth.

The Commission certainly questioned the information regarding Iraq's role in 9/11. The Administration has answered that; they insisted that they operated based on faulty information provided by the CIA. But Dean neglects to address that point, only taking the President to task and repeating the party mantra that insists that Bush lied to the American people regarding Iraq.

And now Dean looks to extend that mantra by falsely exonerating Osama Bin Laden.

This makes Dean no better than the terrorists themselves. He's handing them the right to continue to attack Americans on a silver platter. At this rate, any future attacks should lie on Dean's shoulders.

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PepsiCo president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi, an Indian-born woman, shoved her foot deep down her throat last weekend during a speech to the graduating class at the Columbia Business School in New York. The speech included what many felt was an anti-American attack.

"I'm going to take a look at how the United States is perceived in global business," Nooyi told the audience, saying she'd use the human hand as a model.

Nooyi then went on to say the five major continents in the world can each be represented by a finger on the hand.

She said Africa was the pinkie, because of its place on the world's stage, having yet to catch up to her sister continents.

"And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand," Nooyi stated.

She said our thumb is Asia, "strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the world's economic stage."

Europe was compared to the index finger, the cradle of democracy which "pointed the way for Western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business."

South America, including Latin America, was likened to the ring finger, symbolizing love and commitment to another person.

She said her analogy "leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and in particular, the United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg up in global business since the end of World War I.

"However, if used inappropriately – just like the U.S. itself, the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble," Nooyi said, noting she would not demonstrate, nor was she looking for volunteers. "Discretion being the better part of valor, I think I'll pass."

She continued:

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long, middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand, not the finger. Sometimes this very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

Some quarters are calling for a boycott of Pepsi products, while Pepsico in general, and Nooyi in particular are left with tap dancing.

Unfortunately, my remarks at Columbia University were misconstrued and depicted in a different context as unpatriotic. Although nothing could be further from the truth, I regret any confusion or concern that I may have inadvertently created.

Following my remarks to the graduating class of Columbia University's Business School in New York City, I have come to realize that my words and examples about America unintentionally depicted our country negatively and hurt people.

I appreciate the honest comments that have been shared with me since then, and am deeply sorry for offending anyone. I love America unshakably – without hesitation – and am extremely grateful for the opportunities and support our great nation has always provided me.

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Saddam in his BVDs....

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25 year-old Radric Davis, who is known as the hip hop artist Gucci Mane, turned himself in to DeKalb County, Georgia police this evening on suspicion of murder.

Davis was notified Wednesday of the arrest warrant, while in New York, according to his attorney, Dennis Scheib.

Mane was in New York on Thursday for a show.

“He said, ‘Hey, I’ll come down’—he’s not trying to avoid it,” Scheib said.

The attorney said the shooting was in self-defense and that Mane did not even know anyone was injured in the gunfight.

Mane was in a DeKalb County home with a woman on May 10 when five men entered with guns and duct tape, his lawyer said. Mane traded fire with the men, who later fled, Scheib said.

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The second day (the first full day) of Senate floor testimony on Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown is underway on Capitol Hill. The two sides are splitting time, an hour at a pop.

You can watch or listen to the live C-Span2 stream (WMP) online.

The filibuster vote (i.e., exercising the "Constitutional/Nuclear Option") is anticipated late thsi week or (more likely) early next week.

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What a moron.

Well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag, so....I'm not dead.

To those that sent heartfelt messages, and felt that this was a true story, I truly apologize. This situation quickly got out of hand, when national media outlets called looking for clarification.

I honestly thought people would shrug it off, and go on their merry way. I even got a kick out of the numerous hate messages from people

Just damn.

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That's gotta be the only explanation. He's turned into this rabid moonbat conspiracy buff that sees black helicopters and men in black everywhere we turn.

Olbermann's latest target is (no surprise here), as the majority of the time, the Bush Administration. This time he not only blames them for the Newsweek fiasco, but accuses them of treason.

Newsweek’s version of this story has varied from the others over the last two years — ones in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, and British and Russian news organizations — only in that it quoted a government source who now says he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of whether or not the investigation took place (oops, sorry, shoulda mentioned that, buh-bye). All of its other government connections — the ones past which it ran the story — have gone from saying nothing like ‘don’t print this, it ain’t true’ or ‘don’t print this, it may be true but it’ll start riots,’ to looking slightly confused and symbolically saying ‘Newsweek? Newsweek who?’

Whatever I smell comes from this odd sequence of events: Newsweek gets blasted by the White House, apologizes over the weekend but doesn't retract its story. Then (White House Press Secretary Scott) McClellan offers his Journalism 101 outdoor seminar and blasts the magazine further. Finally, just before 5 p.m. Monday, the Dan Rather drama replaying itself in its collective corporate mind, Newsweek retracts.

The real point, of course, is that you’d have to be pretty dumb to think that making a threat at Gitmo akin to ‘Spill the beans or we’ll kill this Qu’ran’ would have any effect on the prisoners, other than to eventually leak out and inflame anti-American feelings somewhere. Of course, everybody in the prosecution of the so-called ‘war on terror’ has done something dumb, dating back to the President’s worst-possible-word-selection (“crusade”) on September 16, 2001. So why wouldn’t some mid-level interrogator stuck in Cuba think it would be a good idea to desecrate a holy book? Jack Rice, the former CIA special agent and now radio host, said on Countdown that it would be a “knuckleheaded” thing to do, but “plausible.”

Or would somebody rather play politics with this? The news organization turns to the administration for a denial. The administration says nothing. The news organization runs the story. The administration jumps on the necks of the news organization with both feet — or has its proxies do it for them.

ThatÂ’s beyond shameful. ItÂ’s treasonous.

Second thing. Newsweek's editors took a look at their "evidence" and realized that they'd screwed up. Big time. Yeah, the White House was pissed, Republicans in general were pissed, we conservative bloggers were pissed. We not only had a right to say so, we actually did. Loudly. That is entirely different from "forcing" Newsweek to change anything. "Forcing" someone in the press to change hasn't worked before; what makes you think it would work now? Oh. I forgot. That whole conspiracy thing again.

Third -- lay off of the sauce, man. Your theories are getting wilder and wilder. Your face is starting to twitch.

Trust me on this. No one else would tell you, because next to no one else is watching MSNBC at that hour. Save maybe your relatives.

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Brian Nichols, the alleged assassin in the Atlanta courthouse shootings back in March, has pleaded "not guilty" to 54 counts, including murder, carjacking, armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

Nichols was present at an arraignment hearing in Atlanta today.

Defense attorney Chris Adams announced his client's plea of not guilty in the 54-count indictment charging Nichols with killing Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley at the courthouse. In the indictment, Nichols is also charged with killing U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm in Buckhead during a carjacking.

Nichols, dressed in a dark suit and light blue dress shirt, seemed to listen intently and answered Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller politely with: "Yes, your honor," and "No, your honor" when asked if the defense team seated beside him represented him and if he wanted to discuss any concerns about his defense so far.

Nichols' attorneys, with the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender, asked Judge Fuller to move future pretrial hearings to DeKalb County. Fuller, on loan from DeKalb to hear the case, agreed.

Fuller said he doesn't have concerns about security at the Fulton Courthouse and that the move would be for other reasons, but he didn't elaborate.

The next hearing is scheduled for June 9 and 10, where Judge Fuller will hear defense requests for a gag order, and the recusal of Howard and his staff, since the shootings occured in their workplace, and they - the DA and his staff - were possible targets.

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George Curry, once editor of the now defunct Emerge magazine, and who once endorsed and encouraged a cover of his magazine depicting Clarence Thomas as a "lawn jockey," has penned a screed that goes after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The new piece appeared in today's Chicago Defender.

Curry wastes no time in insulting all black conservatives -- so that we know where he's coming from in the first place.

Few things are as repulsive as Black conservatives trying to advance the Republican agenda by mischaracterizing the Civil Rights Movement or distorting history.

When asked her thoughts on gun control, Rice replied: “Well, Larry, I come out of a – my personal experiences in which in Birmingham, Ala., my father and his friends defended our community in 1962 and 1963 against White nightriders by going to the head of the community, the head of the cul-de-sac, and sitting there armed. And so I’m very concerned about any abridgement of the Second Amendment…”

Moments later, she added: “…We have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that our Founding Fathers thought very important. And on this one, I think that they understood that there might be circumstances that people like my father experienced in Birmingham, Ala., when, in fact, the police weren’t going to protect you.”

Speaking at the 2000 Republican convention, Rice praised her father as “the first Republican I knew.” She declared, “Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.”

What Rice forgot was the truth: political parties donÂ’t register voters in Alabama. Voters are added to the voting rolls by registrars. A profile of Rice written by Dale Russakoff, a reporter for the Washington Post and native of Birmingham, was even more telling.
After a White registrar asked Rice’s father a trick question to keep him from registering, according to Russakoff: “Rice says her father later learned of a Republican functionary in the registrar’s office who would register blacks secretly, as long as they registered Republicans – not the expansive grant of suffrage suggested in her speech.”

RiceÂ’s exploitation of the Civil Rights Movement is even more notable because her middle-class parents, by her own admission, were not active in the movement. Her father, John Rice, was a minister and her mother, Angelena, was a school teacher.

Ah. But Curry deftly leaves out the fact that Democrats in that day, as a whole, were opposed to blacks voting and asserting their rights. Then again, that would be telling wouldn't it?

Mind you, also today, word has come up that a posting on an Al Qaeda-frequented Islamic internet message board, purportedly from Al Qaeda itself, refers to Rice as a "hag," and publishes a veiled death threat toward her.

"The hag wants the participation of the apostates and secularists who are claiming to be Sunnis. You should know that our [the Sunni] way is fighting you."

The statement griped that the Iraqi constitution "is written only by those who disavowed their belief in God's book."

In what sounded like an indirect death threat to Dr. Rice, the message continued, "Our belief entails that the sword and bullets are our way of holding dialogue with you."

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This week is the annual E3 computer gaming trade show in Los Angeles.

Last week, Microsoft took the time to release images and specs of it's upcoming XBOX 360, the replacement for their current gaming console. It's due on store shelves next winter -- but you know how Microsoft can delay things, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Early this morning, Sony released information and images of the PlayStation 3, their next-generation console system. Sony says that their system will be fully backward-compatible, both with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.

The new system is very sleek looking with an aerodynamic controller. Sony showed off three colors -- white, silver and black.

Both systems boast full high defintion compatibility, and showed off some upcoming game titles and images for the new systems.

Both systems will be in the $300 to $400 range at full retail, with the Sony system coming to market in Spring 2006.

It's anticipated that Nintendo will make an announcement regarding their next-generation console system sometime before the end of the E3 show this week.

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Senator Barbara Boxer (Moonbat-Granola State) is on the floor fo the US Senate as I type this, beginning the filibuster showdown.

Live streaming coverage is available from C-Span2 (via Windows Media Player).

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Michael Crook, the creator of the reprehensible ForsakeTheTroops.info website died last night, according to a posting on his personal website.

Crook was allegedly beaten by persons upset with his site, and died as a result of those injuries.

As it mentions on the Troops site, today at 6:19pm EST, Michael Crook died at an area hospital as a result of head injuries sustained from an assault by people upset with his website.

Michael died with his wife, and baby present. He was 27. The assaulters are in custody.

a Vietnam vet actually recognized me in public and approached me. He didn't threaten me, and was actually quite respectful. In all honestly, it seemed as if he was hurt by the site..he was blubbering some nonsense about losing friends in the conflict. I felt real good telling him off. He just slunk away. All talk, no action. Typical!

Oh, by the way..playtime's over..you'll notice that the contact methods are no longer available on the website. No more e-mail, no IM's, and the forums require my approval to join. You can no longer leave comments on this weblog, either. Playtime's over. I don't really care to hear about peoples' hurt feelings, nor do I care about anyone's opinion, really. What it comes down to is this: I am right, and everyone else is wrong on this matter.

His family has placed a contact telephone number on the site for media and condolences, and asks for privacy at this point (I won't post the number in respect for said privacy). But given Crook's attitude and mindset, I wouldn't be surprised if the family doesn't receive much in the way of sympathy.

UPDATE - 10:45A ET - No word of Crook's attack or death has been reported in local media in Syracuse, NY, Crook's home town. In addition, the telephone number listed on the website "has been changed" and points to a local web hosting service's phone number.

Could this be a publicity stunt on Crook's part?

UPDATE - 12:30P ET - Crook's personal website is still there, but mentions of his demise (notably the link above) have been removed.

His ForsakeTheTroops site still exists with the reports of death though.

No reports of the attack on Crook have appeared in Syracuse or New York state media outlets, which increases speculation that this is an idiotic, brain-addled attempt at faking his own demise.

UPDATE - 8P ET - Confirmed, via Marine Corps Times: "local police say no murder has occurred."

The site also says the two attackers were “taken into police custody.”

But officials with the Onondaga County SheriffÂ’s Office in Syracuse told Army Times Tuesday that they have no record or knowledge of any such attack in the region.

A message left at the phone number listed on the Web site was not immediately returned.

The Web site has repeatedly posted disparaging comments about the military. Crook, the alleged blogger of the site, has said his main intent is to inform Americans that soldiers are paid too much for what they do.

Recently the site posted this: “Don't military pukes learn anything? Nine more Marines bite the big one in combat. Stupid is as stupid does!”

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When you thought NBC's Today couldn't sink any lower in their tactics used to criticize the Bush Administration (all while hiding behind the veil of "journalistic impartialiaty"), this morning, they suggested that the only reason Newsweek retracted their false story was pressure from the Bush White House.

Again and again, Today floated the notion that Newsweek retracted the story due to pressure from the Bush administration, and went so far as to suggest the story might be true.

The focus was at least as much on possibly sinister motives at the "White House," as it was on any transgression by Newsweek.

Thus the story was introduced with this question: "Will Newsweek's retraction end the flurry of White House criticism?"

And again: "Did pressure from the White House impact Newsweek's decision to retract the story?"

Matt Lauer stuck to the marching orders in his interview of Dan Klaidman Newsweek DC Bureau Chief.

Lauer: "Did you get pressure from the White House?"

Klaidman flatly denied it: "The only pressure was our own sense of responsibility."

That wasn't good enough for Lauer. He was apparently more willing to believe the enemies of the US than he was the Bush administration or even Newsweek.

Lauer: "There is suspicion in the Muslim world. They say they've heard similar reports from released detainees. Why shouldn't we believe it and think that Newsweek retracted the story only because it was forced to do so by the White House to protect its image?" And just in case anyone missed the MSM message, Lauer sympathetically asked: "Is there piling on by the administration?"

Given that the propagation of a false story led to riots and deaths, you'd think the last thing Today would do would be to air other rumors. Yet incredibly, incredibly!, that's exactly what it devoted virtually the entirety of its next segment to.

NBC reporter Richard Engel reported from Baghdad, and his report consisted of retelling a variety of additional rumors:

1. "There are many rumors in Iraq and across Muslim world that this kind of thing happens regularly."

2. "There are rumors that US Marines while raiding a mosque abused a Koran and spray-painted it."

3. "Another one - during a search of woman, a search dog pulled a Koran out of the woman's handbag and Marines started laughing."

Engel claimed: "People believe this is not a war on terrorism but a war on Islam."

Lauer 'helpfully' filled in the blanks: "You're telling me people in that part of the world expect the worst from the US.?"

Engel somberly observed: "I'm not sure we're winning the battle for hearts and minds. There is still fallout from Abu Ghraib."

And just to pour the last measure of gasoline on the fire, Engel ended with this explosive allegation: "There are rumors women were raped at Abu Ghraib. One women claimed she was raped six times every night."

How long before Katie Couric accuses President Bush of eating children?

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Mexican President Vicente Fox abruptly reversed course this evening, apologizing for racist statements against black Americans. Friday, Fox said that illegal Mexican immigrants did work that blacks wouldn't.

Fox repeatedly refused to back away from his Friday comment, saying his remark had been misinterpreted. But later, in telephone conversations with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton the president said he "regretted" the statement.

"The president regretted any hurt feelings his statements may have caused," the Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement. "He expressed the great respect he and his administration has for the African-American community in the United States."

Did I miss something, or shouldn't Fox be more concerned with people in his own damn country, as opposed to taking care of illegals in THIS country?

Closing the border militarily has more and more appeal the more I hear of and from Fox. And then President Bush has the audacity to suggest a damn "guest worker" pseudo-amnesty program. I hope this mess wakes Bush up -- but I'm not holding my breath.

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The New York Times plans to charge online readers an annual fee of $49.95 to read their editorial pages beginning in September.

The heck with 'em. I don't need 'em to charge me money just to tell me what they want me to think.

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