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SURPRISE! DEMOCRAT WINS 'WEST WING' PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!
The presidential election depicted Sunday night on NBC's 'WEST WING' would have had a different ending had it been held four months earlier.
The reversal of fortune for Matt Santos -- the Democratic nominee, played by Jimmy Smits, who was the victor -- had nothing to do with any shift in opinion among voters or a liberal ideology of the show's writers and producers.
No...
Instead, Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, said he and his fellow writers had declared Santos the winner only after the death, in mid-December, of John Spencer, who portrayed Santos' running mate.
At the time of Spencer's death, the plot for Sunday night's episode had been set: The election was to be won by Alan Alda's Arnold Vinick, a maverick Republican (modeled a bit on Sen. John McCain), whom many Democrats (including the Democrats who write the show) could learn to love.
But after Spencer died, O'Donnell said in a recent interview, he and his colleagues began to confront a creative dilemma: Would viewers be saddened to see Smits' character lose both his running mate and the election? The writers decided that such an outcome would prove too lopsided, in terms of taxing viewers' emotions, NYT reporter Jacques Steinberg will claim on Monday.
Drudge Report Exclusive ** Surprise! Democrat Wins 'West Wing' Presidential Election!
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 11:49 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 9 April 2006 11:59 PM EDT
Affleck: Bush 'Can Be Hung' for Leakgate 
Actor Ben Affleck has made it very clear where his sympathies lie in the Leakgate affair -- and it isn't with the White House.
Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Affleck charged that President Bush "probably also leaked” CIA agent Valerie Plame's name and so "if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!" He continued: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that."
Affleck also called DeLay a "criminal."
d'oh
West Virginia Rep. Mollohan Has Real-Estate Holdings That Also Bring Scrutiny Growth of Budget 'Earmarks'
(Excerpt)
Such a pattern raises questions about whether the donations or deals might be a way beneficiaries of earmarks could influence the legislator's actions. Now, federal prosecutors have opened an investigation of Mr. Mollohan's finances and whether they were properly disclosed, according to people contacted in the inquiry. Mr. Mollohan (right) hasn't been accused of wrongdoing. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, whose public-corruption unit is conducting the inquiry, declined to comment.
... partners with Mr. Mollohan and his wife in five properties in Bald Head Island, N.C., valued in local real-estate records at a total of $2 million. The Mollohans recently bought a $1.45 million oceanfront home on the island, called the Peppervine House, which they rent out for $8,555 a week, next to the Kuhns' house, known as Cape Fearless. ....
Mr. Mollohan's government financial disclosure form, which shows only broad ranges of debts and assets, showed household assets of up to $565,000 in 2000, offset by debt of up to $465,000, including $100,000 in credit-card bills. Four years later, the couple's reported assets had soared to between $6.3 million and $24.9 million, with liabilities of $3.7 million to $13.5 million, mostly mortgages. Mr. Mollohan said his true assets are at the low end of those ranges.
Complete Article: (Origional story requires registration)
NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds Statement on Congressman Alan Mollohan
WASHINGTON - National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Reynolds reacted to a front page report in The Wall Street Journal:
"Today, I am calling on Alan Mollohan to resign from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
"It is no wonder that Mr. Mollohan and Democrat leaders have stalled for so long in getting the Ethics Committee up and running
.
"I believe it would be prudent at this point for Mr. Mollohan to resign from the Ethics Committee until this investigation is completed."
PAGING DAVID HOROWITZ!
An eighth-grade science teacher showed his students a derogatory, profanity-filled Internet film about President Bush and Vice President Cheney, among others. The West Limestone teacher, Steve White, also is running for state office. >>>>>
Teacher who showed students offensive Bush video is candidate for state office
SALEM - An eighth-grade science teacher, who is a Democratic candidate for state office, won't face suspension for showing students a derogatory, profanity-filled Internet film about the president.
Limestone County Superintendent Barry Carroll said Thursday that he talked with West Limestone High School teacher Steve White about showing the film.
"It's a personnel matter, and it's been handled," Carroll said. "Both I and Principal Stan Davis discussed the matter with him. He's not on suspension or anything like that."
Carroll would not specify how he handled it.
White has qualified to run for District 4 state representative, which includes portions of Limestone and Morgan counties.
White ran against Rep. Tommy Carter, D-Elkmont, in 1994 for the District 5 seat. During that Democratic primary, the Alabama Democratic Party ordered a new election because of balloting errors. Carter, who won the initial primary by 27 votes, criticized the party for that decision and tried to stop the new election.
In the new election, Carter won by 1,633 votes.
The video by Filmstripinter national.com opens with the words "American Civics Volume II" and shows black and white clips of war and what appears to be the Great Depression.
It refers to a country at war, the poor getting poorer and jobs moving overseas. Then it shows a color photo of President Bush with a profane caption.
That upset some parents, who complained to school officials about the content of the clips featuring Bush, members of his administration and his supporters.
Other captions, some containing profanity, are shown under photos of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The band Big Jim's Ego performs the film's song. As images of Bush's administration scroll across the screen, the song says:
And I know there are those people,
Who say they never are to blame;
And that's not my modus operandi,
I don't play that game.
And then there are some people, who claim the sun shines out their behind
And it's oh so hard to get them to change their mind;
And I've given up trying.
Carroll said White did not give a reason for showing the film. Carroll said the incident occurred before spring break.
Parent Christy Jackson, whose son saw the film in White's class, said she thinks the motivation was political. Jackson said White is anti-Bush.
Jackson said she is upset because she wants her son to respect other people's religion, beliefs and political views.
Pam Wallace, chairwoman of the local Democratic Executive Committee, said she is in Montgomery and had not heard about the incident.
"So I don't see how I can comment on it," Wallace said.
Jim Burden, chairman of the local Republican Party, said, "It bothers me that he took his political opinion into the classroom. That's not what we're paying him to teach. He should be teaching students how to make gold out of lead and stick to science."
District 4 Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, who is seeking re-election, said this is "absolutely not appropriate material" for eighth grade or high school.
"I know he's my opponent, but I would say this about any teacher who showed something like that. You shouldn't use your position as a teacher to influence children about your political opinions," Hammon said. "That is wrong. He's abusing his authority."
Hammon said legislators are debating getting the Bible taught in schools as an elective, and "we sure don't need to have to come back and battle over stuff like this getting in the classroom."
Hammon said the school system needs to reassure parents that "this won't happen again."
Michelle Malkin has a link to the film 
Early babies dubbed bed blockers
A row has broken out after experts described the costly treatment of very premature babies as "bed blocking".
A report by the birth specialists' professional body said the care of sicker babies was compromising services for healthier babies and their mothers.
Costs must be considered as experts became able to save more and more earlier babies, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists added.
Premature baby charity Bliss said such babies had as many rights as others.
A Bliss spokesman said to deny a baby born under 25 weeks the right to at least an examination would be a gross abuse of their human rights.
He added: "Decisions as to what course of treatment is appropriate should be based in the individual circumstances of each baby rather than a blanket policy of not treating patients born at less than a certain gestation.
"There are many circumstances in which it would not be ethical to propose aggressive medical intervention and these become apparent during examination of the baby."
Bliss chief executive Rob Williams said: "We might as well have a policy of not treating victims of car crashes which occur at over 50 miles an hour, or denying medical services to those over a certain age."
'Success'
"One of the problems of the 'success' of neonatal intensive care is that the practitioners are always pushing the boundaries.
"There has been a constant need to expand numbers of cots to cover the increasing tendency to try and rescue baby at lower and lower gestations."
President of the Royal College of Paediatrics Professor Alan Craft said many paediatricians would support moves to bring in a model followed in the Netherlands of no active intervention for these very early babies.
Inquiry
'Inhumane'
don't ask
Iraqis Find 8 Mass Graves Containing 1,000 Bodies, Kurds Say
Eight mass graves containing about 1,000 bodies were discovered in northern Iraq, President Jalal Talabani's political party said.
The graves were found yesterday in the villages of al-Asri and Tubazawa, west of Kirkuk, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said on its Arabic-language Web site today. Two of the sites contained at total of at least 800 bodies, the party said.
Most of the dead were Kurds, while others were Christians who lived in the two majority-Kurdish villages, the PUK said. No further details were immediately available.
Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein initiated a wave of violence from 1987 to 1988, called the Anfal campaign, to punish the Kurdish minority for siding with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war.
Hussein is facing charges of genocide for that three-phase military campaign, which left as many as 180,000 people dead, and is already on trial for the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiite Muslims from the village of Dujail.
An estimated 500,000 people were killed by the regime in the northern Sulaimaniya, Arbil, and Duhok provinces, which have been under Kurdish control since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, according to Iraq's Human Rights Ministry.
There are at least 290 mass graves across Iraq and about 50 percent of Iraq's population is missing at least one family member, the ministry has said.
chatty
Putin Vindicated?
In 2004 the Russian president said that Saddam had planned terrorist attacks on America. New Iraqi documents suggest he may have been right.
In July 2004, during the course of a little-publicized event while on a visit to Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin made some unusual remarks:
I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received ... information that official organs of Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations.
Putin's remarks were little noticed by the American press, coming as they did so soon after the release of the 9/11 Commission's report. Moreover, despite his strong opposition to the war in Iraq, Putin was unabashedly in favor of Bush's reelection, having earlier criticized Senator Kerry for supporting unilateral action against Serbia while opposing it with regard to Iraq. Putin went so far as to claim in October 2004 that "The goal of international terrorism is to prevent the election of President Bush to a second term."
And one of the newly-released Iraqi documents, 
Written by the commander of Iraq's Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Base, this document, if authentic, indicates that Iraq was actively recruiting suicide bombers with the intention of targeting U.S. interests at least as far back as early 2001. Nor is this the only document released with the intention of making it clear that Saddam's intentions for carrying out terrorist attacks against other nations--the plans for 
[Anti-terror czar Dick Clarke said], "I am unaware of any Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed at the US since 1993, and I think FBI and CIA concur in that judgment?" CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin replied, "Yes, that is right. We have no evidence of any active Iraqi terrorist threat against the US."
It would be sad to learn that the Russian Federation's intelligence service was better informed as to Iraq's terrorist capabilities than were their American counterparts.
Dan Darling is a counterterrorism consultant.
special
I am sure the mainstream media will tear it down and if you can find it, it will be on page 99 of section Z...
March unemployment slips to 4.7%
WASHINGTON - Employers added 211,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate unexpectedly slipped back to a 4-1/2-year low 4.7%, the government said Friday.
The report is likely to keep concern about potential inflation on the front burner.
The pace of hiring last month was stronger than the 190,000 jobs that had been forecast by analysts, who also had expected the unemployment rate to be unchanged at February's 4.8%. The March rate ended up matching January's jobless rate, which was the lowest in 4 1/2 years.
STATE RATES: 
The Labor Department modestly revised down new hiring in February to 225,000 jobs instead of the 243,000 reported last month. Labor said January new jobs totaled 154,000 instead of 170,000 - a cumulative reduction of 34,000 in the number of jobs created over those two months.
President Bush, whose poll standings have been falling in recent months, said at the White House that the newest figures make an argument for extending and renewing his tax cuts.
"Some are now proposing that we raise taxes either by repealing the tax cuts or letting them expire," he said. "These are the same politicians who told us that letting the American people keep more of their own money would be reckless and irresponsible. They were wrong then and they are wrong now."
Wage growth was less robust than forecast, as average hourly earnings rose 0.2% to $16.49 rather than the 0.3% expected by economists. Over the 12 months through March, wages rose 3.4%, down from 3.5% in the 12 months through February.
Not every sector recorded job growth in March. Manufacturing employment declined 5,000 after shrinking 10,000 in February and transportation industries shed 7,600 jobs last month. But overall hiring in service businesses grew 202,000 last month after increasing 194,000 in February. Goods-producing industries increased payrolls overall by 9,000 in March, fewer than the 31,000 new hires in February.
The report showed the average time that the unemployed spent searching for work in March was 16.9 weeks, down from 17.6 weeks in February.
The employment figures come against the backdrop of a rebounding economy. Analysts believe the economy emerged from an end-of-year funk and grew at an annual rate of 4.5% or higher in the just-ended January-to-March quarter. The economy is expected to moderate in the April-to-June quarter but still turn in a good performance
.
Contributing: Associated Press
Statement of
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 211,000 in March, following an increase of 225,000 in February. During the 12 months ending in March, monthly employment growth averaged 174,000. Over the month, there were widespread job gains in the service-providing sector. The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 percent.
Employment in professional and business services rose by 52,000 in March. Several component industries continued to add jobs, including architectural and engineering services, computer systems design, management and consulting services, and services to buildings and dwellings.
The leisure and hospitality industry added 42,000 jobs over the month, largely due to a sizable gain in food services and drinking places. Health care employment increased by 24,000, reflecting continued growth in hospitals, physicians' offices, and home health care services.
A large job gain in general merchandise stores pushed employment in retail trade up by 29,000 in March. Wholesale trade continued to add workers over the month. Financial activities added 16,000 jobs, with continued growth in credit intermediation and in insurance.
In the goods-producing sector, mining employment continued to grow in March, largely in support activities in oil and gas. Employment in manufacturing was about unchanged, as a gain in computer and electronic products was offset by job losses in textile mills and in plastics and rubber products. Construction employment also was essentially unchanged in March, after rising by 81,000 in the previous 2 months.
Average hourly earnings for private production or nonsupervisory workers rose by 3 cents in March, following an increase of 6 cents in February. Over the year, hourly earnings increased by 3.4 percent. The average workweek was unchanged in March, at 33.8 hours. The manufacturing workweek and overtime hours also were unchanged, at 41.0 and 4.5 hours, respectively.
Turning to data from the household survey, both the number of unemployed persons (7.0 million) and the unemployment rate (4.7 percent) were little changed in March. Over the year, the unemployment rate has come down from 5.1 percent. Total employment and the labor force continued to trend up in March. The number of persons working part time for economic reasons edged down over the month.
This month, we again report on the labor force status of survey respondents who evacuated from their homes due to Hurricane Katrina. The data are derived from a special set of questions that have been included in the household survey since October to gather information about evacuees. The estimates do not account for all persons who evacuated from their homes due to the hurricane; information is not gathered on those evacuees who remain outside the scope of the survey, such as those currently living in hotels or shelters.
Data for March indicated that there were about 1 million persons age 16 and over who evacuated from their August residences due to Hurricane Katrina. In March, about one-half of the evacuees were again living in the homes they vacated in August. Among Katrina evacuees identified in March, 53.6 percent were in the labor force, and their unemployment rate was 16.5 percent. Unemployment rates were much lower for those evacuees who were living at their pre-Katrina residences (5.3 percent) than for those who were living elsewhere (34.7 percent).
To summarize the labor market data for March, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 211,000, following a gain of 225,000 in February. The unemployment rate was about unchanged in March at 4.7 percent.
bright
Consumer Confidence in Economy Improves
WASHINGTON - Consumer confidence in the economy's prospects improved in early April even as gasoline prices and borrowing costs marched higher.
The RBC CASH (Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household) Index, based on results from the international polling firm Ipsos, showed confidence at 89.4 in early April, up from March's 86.2. The new reading also was better than a year ago, when consumer confidence clocked in at 84.5.
"It's a positive sign," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
Overall, consumers are in a generally good frame of mind, economists said.
"I think we can take heart in the fact that even with all the worries - about energy prices, higher interest rates and a slowing housing market - confidence moved higher," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.
Analysts track consumer confidence for clues about consumers' willingness to spend, an important force shaping the country's economic health.
The confidence index is benchmarked to a reading of 100 on January when Ipsos started the gauge.
One of the things consumers feel really good about is the jobs climate, the Ipsos results suggested.
A measure tracking consumers' sentiments on this front jumped in early April to 124.5, the highest on record. In March consumers' feelings about jobs came in at 118.5, a buoyant reading. A year ago, this gauge stood at 116.2.
Employers boosted payrolls by a sizable 211,000 jobs in March, helping to push the nation's unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent, the Labor Department said in a report Friday that suggested the jobs market is on solid footing.
Analysts believe the economy emerged from an end-of-year funk and grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent or higher in the just ended January- to-March quarter. The government's estimate of first-quarter economic growth will be released at the end of April.
In the current April-to-June quarter, economists believe the economic growth will probably be in the range of 3 percent, a slower but still healthy pace. That moderation is based in part on the expectation that consumers will turn a bit cautious in the second quarter as energy prices stay high and the housing market slows.
The record-breaking housing market over the last five years and escalating home values have made consumers feel wealthy and thus inclined to spend. They've taken cash out of their homes, which has helped to support brisk spending.
A cooling housing market and slower growth in home values probably would weigh on consumer spending, economists said. But an improving jobs market, on the other hand, would help to blunt some of that negative force, analysts said.
Concerns about the direction of the housing market _ along with rising gasoline prices, which are $2.59 a gallon on average nationwide _ probably played a role in consumers' assessment of current economic conditions, analysts said.
A measure of current conditions dropped to 98 in early April, from 103.9 in March. A year ago, this measure stood at 92.7.
Another gauge tracking consumers' feelings about making a purchase, saving and other investment decisions was 86.7 in early April. That marked a deterioration from March's reading of 98.6. Last year, the investment measure was 87.4.
The Federal Reserve on March 28 boosted a key interest rate to a five- year high to fend off inflation. That action pushed up other borrowing costs, including banks' prime lending rate, which is used for certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans.
Mortgage rates are rising, too.
Rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 6.43 percent this week, the highest in 2 1/2 years, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported Thursday.
A measure looking at consumers' expectations over the next six months, including conditions where they live or work and their own financial positions, rose to 56.9 in early April. That marked an improvement from March's 40.7 and was better than 51.3 registered in April last year. Yet it is still at a level indicating some wariness among consumers, analysts said.
The RBC consumer confidence index was based on results of 1,003 adults surveyed Monday through Wednesday about their attitudes on personal finance and the economy. Results of the survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
On the Net: 
Unbelievable. Then again, when you kill for a living, maybe all those blobs of tissues just start looking the same...
Abortion Practitioner Who Killed Girl in Failed Abortion Hits Pro-Lifer With Car
Wichita, KS - A Kansas late-term abortion practitioner who killed a 19 year-old girl in a botched abortion last year has allegedly run over a pro-life person with his car who was praying outside his abortion business.
George Tiller (right), who may soon find himself subject to a grand jury investigation, apparently struck the protester with his vehicle yesterday.
According to eyewitnesses, Tiller was leaving his Women's Health Care Services (WHCS) abortion facility Wednesday afternoon, when he sped out of the parking lot and struck pro-life advocate Mark Geitzen in the leg.
In a statement provided to LifeNews.com, Geitzen said he was hit in the leg by Tiller's speeding Jeep Grand Cherokee and placed his hands on Tiller's vehicle to push himself further away to avoid being run over.
"I was measuring the driveway to insure that pro-lifers were complying with the law during their prayer times when I heard an engine rev," Geitzen explained.
"I turned to see Tiller coming right at me," Geitzen said. "In that moment I couldn't decide to jump to the right or to the left. I was kind of like a deer caught in the headlights."
Eyewitnesses said Tiller immediately fled the scene. Geitzen has filed a complaint with the Wichita Police Department.
Geitzen said he was not injured in the incident but feels some pain in his right leg. Another man who was with Geitzen at the time was not involved in the hit and run.
Geitzen indicated he was not blocking the exit and that Tiller had plenty of room to drive around him, as there is room for two vehicles to enter and leave the abortion facility parking lot exit at any time.
"There is no doubt that he intentionally hit me," he said. "He drove right down the center of the driveway."
Geitzen is the president of the Kansas Coalition for Life, a group that is part of a coalition of pro-life organizations working with the family of mentally disabled teenager Christin Gilbert to have a grand jury look into her abortion death.
Gilbert died after a third-trimester abortion in January 2005, done by Tiller at is abortion business. She was 28 weeks pregnant at the time.
Gilbert was rushed into the Wesley Medical Center ER, followed by Tiller moments later. In November, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts claimed neither he nor his staff were responsible for the botched abortion death and refused to press charges.
Gilbert's family, with the help of pro-life groups, are planning to file thousands of petitions on Friday asking the county court to call for a grand jury investigation into the abortion death
.
Related: