30 years of pools are out the window. 91 year-old W. Mark Felt, a former FBI official, came out of the proverbial woodwork to announce himself as "Deep Throat," the near-legendary anonymous Watergate source.

Felt spoke to writer John O'Connor for a Vanity Fair piece in their July issue.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue.

Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa, Calif. reportedly gave O'Connor permission to disclose his identity.

"The Felt family cooperated fully, providing old photographs for the story and agreeing to sit for portraits," Vanity Fair stated in a press release.

The confirmation came from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, and their former top editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee. The three spoke after Felt's family and Vanity Fair magazine identified the 91-year-old Felt, now a retiree in California, as the long-anonymous source who provided crucial guidance for some of the newspaper's groundbreaking Watergate stories.

In a statement today, Woodward and Bernstein said, "W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate."

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The owner of one of Rome's trendiest eateries is considering a lawsuit after former President Bill Clinton was a no-show on a dinner reservation.

The owner is miffed because he stocked up on better food and drink, plus closed a section of his restaurant to accomodate Bubba and his Secret Service detail.

Whatever the reason for ClintonÂ’s no-show, the restaurant owner is apparently none too pleased. According to reports, the owner may sue the former president who, the owner claims, didn't bother to cancel his reservation.

the former president has definitely resumed his frenetic pace, last week traveling to Rome to promote links between Africa and Europe. But when he's not pressing the flesh, heÂ’s got to eat. And one afternoon Clinton's people reportedly booked a reservation at one of Rome's trendiest restaurants.

Having a president as your customer is obviously a big deal. And the restaurantÂ’s owner reportedly went to town, spending nearly $2,000 on extra food and wine. He even closed off a section of the restaurant to accommodate Clinton and his secret service.

But the president never made it in, and the restaurant is reportedly considering its options, which might include a lawsuit.

Not cancelling is certainly a breach of etiquette, but a lawsuit? C'mon. Be serious.

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The Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, has been used for decades to launch space missions, including manned missions to the International Space Station.

In April, Russia announced that military Baikonur launches would end soon, shifting space shots to the Pletsnesk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

All space-bound rockets consist largely of fuel tanks and booster stages that fall back to earth when spent, never reaching orbit. In landlocked Baikonur, Russia's primary launching complex in Kazakhstan, these spaceships crash to earth.

Apart from the fear of having a spaceship crash through their roofs, residents in the area complain of the ill effects of leftover toxic rocket fuel. With the relocation of Russian military launches, more than half of which currently take off from Baikonur, these people may get some relief. However, one group of people is probably sorry to see Baikonur lose business; the region's scrap metal dealers are getting rich trading metal from the rockets' titanium alloy hulls.

EurasiaNet has a photo essay showing some of the denizens of that part of the world, along with some of the space trash they collecct.

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Congressman Charlie Rangel (Moonbat-NY), for the second year in a row, is pushing a new bill that would reinstate the military draft. Rangel tried to get a debate going over his bill last year, but was thwarted when House Republicans brought the measure up for a vote without the extended floor debate that he wanted.

Rangel said he is again calling for a draft because military recruitment is falling short.

"Everyone knows that we went into this war with an insufficient number of troops, but the problem now is filling the ranks of those units that are already on the ground," said Rangel.

I would hope that everyone would be able to see through Rangel's hypocrisy.

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Jesse Jackson, his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and his Citizenship Education Fund, along with the Democratic Party have agreed to pay $200,000 in fines stemming from campaign finance violations in the 2000 elections.

At issue in the Federal Election Commission case was about $450,000 in election spending by Jackson, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund using funds from the groups. The two non-profit groups were incorporated, making their money corporate and subject to restrictions under federal campaign finance laws.

According to the FEC, the money was used for a partisan get-out-the-vote effort and voter registration speaking tour that was coordinated with the Democratic National Committee and included appearances by Jackson and Democratic House and Senate candidates.

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A new LA Times piece on the survivor of a Golden Gate Bridge suicide attempt has one of the best opening lines I've ever seen.

The very moment John Kevin Hines jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, he knew he'd made a mistake.

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Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined a Washington-based investment group looking to purchase the Washington Nationals.

"In Washington, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate this city and bring baseball back to a generation of youth who have lost their connection to our nation's pastime," Powell said in a statement yesterday. "I'm encouraged by baseball's efforts to diversify its ranks and its reach, and the Washington Baseball Club shares that commitment to making this team accessible to every Washingtonian."

Other groups looking to buy the Nationals include one fronted by one of Jesse Jackson's sons, another includes former Seattle Mariners owner Jeffrey Smulyan.

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I'm a huge comic book fan, and I don't believe this.

The site's creators are taking nominees for the next League member.

They've also got shirts and posters for sale.

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According to published reports, North Korea is threatening a pre-emptive strike against the United States, while simultaneously promising to go ahead with the six-party talks aimed at reducing tensions in that part of the world.

The North poured out anti-US rhetoric -- a tactic it has used in the past before entering negotiations -- claiming that Washington's "hostile policies" led it to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent, and warning against any attack to dislodge its leadership.

"The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the Cabinet newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response."

North Korea on Tuesday repeated claims that its nuclear weapons protect regional peace.

"It is in the East Asian region, including the Korean Peninsula, where the US moves for vicious attacks and war ... are carried out most seriously," the Minju Joson said. "It is our nuclear deterrent that basically guarantees peace and stability."

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1 I'm so roonrey

Posted by: Patrick at May 25, 2005 08:39 PM (/ivFm)

2 In addition to getting new shoes that won't hurt his ankles . . . on the other hand, he can continue to wear his 5" platform shoes and one can hope that he will trip at an unfortunate location . . .

Posted by: Lola at May 26, 2005 10:32 AM (V1eTE)

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You can't make this kind of stuff up!

Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.

A man, aged 20, and a girl of 17 are believed to have been filming a mock duel when they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it.

A police spokeswoman said the pair were taken to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex.

They are both said to be in a critical condition.

She added: "At this stage we are unable to confirm the exact circumstances, but glass tubes and traces of accelerant (flammable substance) were found at the scene."

Usually this type of thing is the result of a lot of drinking and one bright guy saying to the other, "Hey! Hold muh beer 'n watch this!"

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Fox Reality, the newest channel from the Fox stable, hit the airwaves yesterday on DirecTV Channel 250.

The new channel will show reruns of past reality shows from the US and abroad. They started out with reruns of the original Joe Millionaire, and will run the first season of Last Comic Standing next week. Love Cruise, The Swan, Temptation Island, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance and Mad Mad House (the latter from SciFi Channel last year) will be on the schedule shortly.

Also, look for international versions of Temptation Island and Joe Millionaire, along with other imports from off-shore like the UK's Single Girls and The Villa. Negotiations are underway for the rights to The Bachelor, The Will and The Family.

I'm holding out hope for cancelled Fox reality shows Playing It Straight (the one with the gay cowboys) and Forever Eden (with the people living on a resort island). Both shows were dumped before their last episodes were aired.

Fox Reality is also airing extra content with behind the scenes info on the programs, and a fair amount of other shows like Arrest & Trial, The 5th Wheel and Cops.

Anyway, as the headline says, it'll be a guilty pleasure for me, at least.

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Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer has an in depth look at the latest on the Arbitron ratings for several Air America markets, and the results are the same across the board. No one's listening -- at least not in any kind of numbers that anyone can appreciate.

Sounds like the writing may be on the wall at Air America.

To the Radio Equalizer, most telling is the recent report that Al Franken has purchased a home in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, gearing up for a potential 2008 US Senate run. Franken's clearly making backup plans.

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The Reverend Creighton Lovelace from the Danielstown Baptist Church in Forest City, NC is urging that the Koran be "flushed," according to a radio broadcast sermon and a sign outside the church.

"I cannot change my position just because it may offend someone else," Lovelace said.

Lovelace said he put the sign up in response to a Newsweek article that falsely accused U.S.soldiers of flushing the Quran down a toilet at the Guantamo Bay detention center. Newsweek later retracted that story, but not before the article sparked riots in some Muslim parts of world, killing at least 15 people.

"Where is the desecration of the Quran? Because from the viewpoint of Christ -- the Bible -- 66 books is his revealed word to mankind. Any other book trying to state they are God's revealed message to mankind would be false," Lovelace said.

He said he has a right and responsibility to expose what he calls false teachings to the world.

"Our position is that we stand on the Bible -- God's word -- and that any other book that teaches a way to God that is not scripture is false. It is wrong. It is not correct," Lovelace said.

Regardless, Lovelace promises to keep the sign up through Friday.

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After the vaunted compromise yesterday, 17 Democratic Senators (along with Jumpin' Jim Jeffords (I-VT)) voted for filibuster in today's cloture vote (designed to limit debate on the Owen nomination):

Biden, Del.; Boxer, Calif.; Cantwell, Wash.; Corzine, N.J.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Dorgan, N.D.; Feingold, Wis.; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Levin, Mich.; Lincoln, Ark.; Murray, Wash.; Reed, R.I.; Sarbanes, Md.; Stabenow, Mich.

Frist and his crew should have still lit the fuse -- just to show the moonbats who is truly in charge. Even though McCain handed the keys to the kingdom to the Democrats in order to both put the kybosh on Frist's Presidential hopes, and simultaneously trying to light the wet fuse on his own potential 2008 campaign.

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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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