First Amendment Issues

First Amendment Issues

Mark Tapscott: Why Ignore Supreme Court's Threat To Free Press?

What? Saddam Supporters Were Paid Off? Say It Ain't So!

What? Saddam Supporters Were Paid Off? Say It Ain't So!

ABCNEWS.com : Document: Saddam Supporters Got Oil Deals

According to the document, France was the second-largest beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of French President Jacques Chirac.

Maugein, individually and through companies connected to him, received contracts for some 36 million barrels. Chirac's office said it was unaware of Maugein's deals, which Maugein told ABCNEWS are perfectly legal.

The single biggest set of contracts were given to the Russian government and Russian political figures, more than 1.3 billion barrels in all — including 92 million barrels to individual officials in the office of President Vladimir Putin.

Another 1 million barrels were contracted to the Russian ambassador to Baghdad, 137 million barrels of oil were given to the Russian Communist Party, and 5 million barrels were contracted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Also on the list are the names of prominent journalists, two Iraqi-Americans, and a French priest who organized a meeting between the pope and Tariq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister. . . .

The article goes on to list some of the biggest winners in this Iraqi Lottery:

Russia

• The Companies of the Russian Communist Party: 137M
  
• The Companies of the Liberal Democratic Party: 79.8M
  
• The Russian Committee for Solidarity with Iraq: 6.5M and 12.5M (2 separate contracts)
  
• Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet: 90M
  
• The Russian Orthodox Church: 5M
  

France

• Charles Pasqua, former minister of interior: 12M
  
• Trafigura (Patrick Maugein), businessman: 25M
  
• Ibex: 47.2M
  
• Bernard Merimee, former French ambassador to the United Nations: 3M
  
• Michel Grimard, founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club: 17.1M
  

Syria

• Firas Mostafa Tlass, son of Syria's defense minister: 6M
  

Turkey

• Zeynel Abidin Erdem: more than 27M
  
• Lotfy Doghan: more than 11M
  

Indonesia

• Megawati Sukarnoputri: 11M
  

Spain

• Ali Ballout, Lebanese journalist: 8.8M
  

Yugoslavia

• The Socialist Party: 22M
  
• Kostunica's Party: 6M
  

Canada

• Arthur Millholland, president and CEO of Oilexco: 9.5M
  

Italy

• Father Benjamin, a French Catholic priest who arranged a meeting between the pope & Tariq Aziz: 4.5M
  
• Roberto Frimigoni: 24.5M
  

United States

• Samir Vincent: 7M
  
• Shakir Alkhalaji: 10.5M
  

United Kingdom

• George Galloway, member of Parliament: 19M
  
• Mujaheddin Khalq: 36.5M
  

South Africa

• Tokyo Saxwale: 4M
  

Jordan

• Shaker bin Zaid: 6.5M
  
• The Jordanian Ministry of Energy: 5M
  
• Fawaz Zureikat: 6M
  
• Toujan Al Faisal, former member of Parliament: 3M
  

Lebanon

• The son of President Lahoud: 5.5M
  

Egypt

• Khaled Abdel Nasser: 16.5M
  
• Emad Al Galda, businessman and Parliament member: 14M
  

Palestinian Territories

• The Palestinian Liberation Organization: 4M
  
• Abu Al Abbas: 11.5M
  

Qatar

• Hamad bin Ali Al Thany: 14M
  

Libya

• Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem: 1M
  

Chad

• Foreign minister of Chad: 3M
  

Brazil

• The October 8th Movement: 4.5M
  

Myanmar (Burma)

• The minister of the Forests of Myanmar: 5M
  

Ukraine

• The Social Democratic Party: 8.5M
  
• The Communist Party: 6M
  
• The Socialist Party: 2M
  
• The FTD oil company: 2M

DAMNIT!

DAMNIT!

Time to stop this madness. But how?!?!?!?!

FOXNews.com - Politics - Medicare and Deficit Estimates Revised Upward

WASHINGTON — President Bush's 2005 budget proposal estimates that his Medicare bill will cost one-third more than the $400 billion the White House promised, and predicts the largest deficit ever in dollar terms, congressional aides said Thursday.

Kay on WMD

Kay on WMD

OpinionJournal - So Where's the WMD?

Iraq weapons inspector David Kay speaks to the Senate today, and our (probably forlorn) hope is that his remarks will get wide and detailed coverage. What we've been hearing from him in snippets so far explains the mystery of whatever happened to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

His answers, we should make clear, are a long way from the "Bush and Blair lied" paradigm currently animating the Democratic primaries and newspapers. John Kerry of all people now claims that, because Mr. Kay's Iraq Study Group has not found stockpiles of WMD or a mature nuclear program, President Bush somehow "misled" the country. "I think there's been an enormous amount of exaggeration, stretching, deception," he said on "Fox News Sunday." This is the same Senator who voted for the war after having access to the intelligence and has himself said previously that he believed Saddam had such weapons.

The reason Mr. Kerry believed this is because everybody else did too. That Saddam had WMD was the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community for years, going back well into the Clinton Administration. The CIA's Near East and counterterrorism bureaus disagreed on the links between al Qaeda and Saddam--which is one reason the Bush Administration failed to push that theme. But the CIA and its intelligence brethren were united in their belief that Saddam had WMD, as the agency made clear in numerous briefings to Congress.

And not just the CIA. Believers included the U.N., whose inspectors were tossed out of Iraq after they had recorded huge stockpiles after the Gulf War. No less than French President Jacques Chirac warned as late as last February about "the probable possession of weapons of mass destruction by an uncontrollable country, Iraq" and declared that the "international community is right . . . in having decided Iraq should be disarmed."

Wonder What They See In Her?

Wonder What They See In Her?

This is the second story they have run on this kid who suppsedly can see into people like an x-ray. Weirdest story of '04, already?

The Sun Newspaper Online - Girl 'sees' broken bones

Franken For Free Speech

Franken For Free Speech

Summary: Al Franken body slams heckler at Dean event.

Can you even IMAGINE if a Rep supporter had doen this to someone? My mind cannot comprehend the uproar that would cause. Holy .

New York Post Online Edition: AL FRANKEN KNOCKS DOWN DEAN HECKLER

January 27, 2004 -- EXETER, N.H. - Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.

The tussle left Franken's trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured.

Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after.

"I got down low and took his legs out," said Franken afterwards.

Franken said he's not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely. "I would have done it if he was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally," he said.

"I'm neutral in this race but I'm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down."

The trouble started when several supporters of fringe presidential candidate Lyndon Larouche began shouting accusations at Dean.

Franken emerged from the crowd and charged one male protester, grabbing him with a bear hug from behind and slamming him onto the floor.

"I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move," Franken said.