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ABC Suspends Producer Over Bush-Bashing E-Mail
ABC News suspended the executive producer of the weekend edition of "Good Morning America" yesterday over a pair of leaked e-mails in which he used inflammatory language to slam President Bush and Madeleine Albright.
John Green, whose unpaid suspension will last one month, apologized to the White House in a call to communications director Nicolle Wallace, while two ABC executives called the former secretary of state to apologize.
"No one is sorrier than John for the embarrassment that these albeit private e-mails caused to his colleagues and to the people who were the subjects of those comments," said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. "John would be the first to say this has been a real lesson to him. John is abjectly sorry for all the comments that have come to light, and that's appropriate."
In one of the e-mails, written during the first presidential debate in 2004 and leaked to the Drudge Report, Green wrote to a colleague on his BlackBerry: "Are you watching this? Bush makes me sick. If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke."
Green, who was not made available for comment yesterday, wrote his colleagues after that leak to say "how much I regret the embarrassment that this story causes ABC. It was an inappropriate thing to say, and I'm deeply sorry."
Wallace said yesterday that she "appreciated the call and the apology."
The second leaked e-mail surfaced Thursday on the New York Post's gossipy Page Six. In that note, Green wrote that Albright should not be booked on the show because "Albright has Jew shame."
Albright, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, acknowledged her Jewish heritage in 1997 after it was discovered by Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs in the course of researching a book.
Green wrote in that note that "she hates us anyway because she says we promised her five minutes and only gave her two . . . I do not like her." An ABC insider said Green was reacting to a heated dispute between Albright and a network producer.
The Albright Group, a global strategy firm founded by the former Clinton cabinet member, took the diplomatic route. "Secretary Albright has always had an excellent relationship with 'GMA' and with ABC and she still does," her office said in a statement. "In fact, she looks forward to appearing on 'GMA' on May 2 in connection with the release of her book on U.S. foreign policy and the importance of religious tolerance."
Both e-mails were disclosed at a time when public distrust of news organizations and their ability to be fair are at or near an all-time high.
The suspension was ordered by Kerry Marash, senior vice president for editorial standards, and approved by ABC News President David Westin.
Green, who got his job in 2004 as the Saturday and Sunday editions of the morning show were being launched, has worked for ABC for 12 years. He is highly regarded by many of his colleagues, and the show is in second place on Saturdays, trailing NBC's "Weekend Today," but is in third place on Sundays, when "CBS Sunday Morning" is No. 1.
It is widely believed at ABC News that the e-mails were leaked by a former employee who has a vendetta against Green.
"Everyone who works at ABC News is unhappy with the situation because it reflects on all of us," Schneider said. But, he said, "I don't think the e-mails tell us anything about the show John Green was putting on the air every Saturday and Sunday, which is fair and balanced and down the middle."
Washington Post ~ Howard Kurtz ** ABC Suspends Producer Over Bush-Bashing E-Mail
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 4:21 AM EST
spacey
Howard Dean accuses Bush, GOP of exploiting immigration issue
Bush does not back the House bill.
"This is a nonsensical proposal put out by far right-wingers in the Republican Party who have been endorsed for re-election by the president of the United States," Dean said. "The president has a moral obligation to rein in the right-wing extremists in his party and stop this divisive rhetoric about immigrants."
"In 2006 it's immigrants. That's what their strategy is on the Republican side: divide people, scapegoat them, set them aside, point the finger at them," Dean said. "Well, that may be good for the Republican Party, but it's bad for America, and we're not going to do that."
TV Station Accused of Entrapment
One of this city's leading TV news departments is drawing the ire of the Independence Police Department after pulling a stunt designed to trap law enforcement officials in a compromising position. Sources tell KMBZ, that KCTV Channel 5 sent a man to the Independence police department late, early Saturday morning with a phony story about wanting to want to file a complaint about an officer. When that proved impossible...the man became aggressive and tried to get officers to overreact. The Independence police chief is considering legal action against Channel 5 and the Police Complaint Center saying this whole episode is really disappointing.
Channel 5 didn't come up with the idea of this story on its own. A south Florida television did the same thing back in February. WFOR T-V had a producer -- with a hidden camera --- visit 38 police agencies in Broward & Miami-Dade counties asking to get a form to file a complaint against an officer. The story said most of the time, police were courteous & professional but others were not. Since then, a Broward County Police union has posted a "be-on-the-lookout" alert on the WFOR investigative reporter on its website. WFOR by the way is a CBS affiliate
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McKinney Allegedly Punches Cop
The officer called out, "Ma'am, Ma'am," and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.
Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest.
McKinney's office has not responded to requests for comment.
According to the Drudge Report, the entire incident is on tape.
Drudge continues, "The cop is pressing charges, and the USCP (United States Capitol Police) are waiting until Congress adjurns to arrest her, a source claims."
The writer details the incident, saying, "I was rushing to my meeting when a white police officer yelled to me. He approached me, bodyblocked me, physically touching me. I used my arm to get him off of me. I told him not to touch me several times. He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He then let me go and I proceeded to my meeting and I assume that the Police Officer resumed his duties. I have counseled with the Sergeant-at-Arms and Acting Assistant Chief Thompson several times before and counseled with them again on today's incident. I offered also to counsel with the offending police officer."
Director Rob Reiner resigns from Calif. commission
SACRAMENTO, California - Actor-director Rob Reiner, accused of abusing his role as head of a California commission by spending state funds to promote a campaign to fund preschool, resigned from the job on Wednesday.
Reiner has headed the First 5 California Children and Families Commission, a state entity that provides services to young children, for seven years.
Legislators from both political parties said Reiner, an outspoken Democrat, improperly spent $23 million of commission funds to highlight preschool when he was promoting a referendum for the June 2006 ballot that would guarantee preschool for 4-year-olds.
"When you and I spoke over the weekend, we agreed we cannot let personal political attacks get in the way of doing the very best we can for California's children," Reiner said in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As recently as two weeks ago, the director of the film "When Harry Met Sally..." said he would not leave the job.
A star of the 1970s hit TV series "All in the Family," Reiner had considered a run for governor against Republican Schwarzenegger in a contest pundits were savoring as the battle between the on-screen "Meathead" and the "Terminator." Reiner decided against such a run in December.
Schwarzenegger praised Reiner's work.
"Because of Rob's efforts, California has become a national leader in providing early childhood health and education services for our youngest children and their families," he said in a statement.
bright
U.S. consumer confidence rises to 4-year high
But the outlook for the near-term is still somewhat pessimistic.
The consumer confidence index rose to 107.2 from an upwardly revised 102.7 in February, despite higher gasoline prices.
Economists expected a reading of 101.8, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch. 
The expectations index rose to 89.9 from 84.2.
The strength of the present situation index suggests the economy "gained steam in early 2006," said Lynn Franco, head of consumer research for the private group. But the low level of expectations suggests "a cooling in activity" later this year, she said.
The cyclical high in the present situation index "implies a robust growth path for consumer spending," said economists at Action Economics.
The view that the economy could weaken later in the year will weigh on the Federal Reserve's deliberations on Tuesday about monetary policy. Analysts are unanimous in expecting a rate hike after the meeting, and most expect a final rate hike in May to bring the federal funds rate to 5%. 
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"Despite generally mediocre attitudes, consumers have performed admirably over the past two years, overcoming a variety of obstacles such as surging energy prices, hurricanes, rising interest rates, and now the housing sector 'bust,'" said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. "In contrast to the prevailing view, we believe that consumer spending will hold up just fine in 2006."
The percentage of consumers who think jobs are plentiful rose to 28.4% from 27.4%, the highest in this expansion. The number who thinks jobs are hard to get also rose slightly, to 20.7% from 20.2%.
The percentage who thinks conditions are "good" rose to 28.3% from 26.4%, the highest since August. The percentage who thinks conditions are "bad" fell to 14.7% from 15.4%.
Despite sagging home sales, the number of consumers who expect to buy a home in the next six months rose to 4%, the highest level since last April
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chatty
What the drive-by media has no interest in reporting these days is just what the United States military does every single day...
Good News is No News in Iraq & Afghanistan
"'We are happy,' Sheik Modar Thamir, a leader in one of the affected communities... The 
It was just stunning to see.
I'm never going to have the same reaction when I hear people complain about "poverty," particularly in this country after what I saw there. Here's the point. I went to a number of US military installations, and I was stunned at the cities for military that the military had set up to house the troops. They had literally built little villages and cities with water treatment centers. It's amazing to see what they do -- and they were helping one of the plans that was being implemented then was the same type of thing that you just heard about here with water purifying projects in Iraq, the civilian military authority was working with the Iraqis to rebuild the country and establish sanitary water systems and sanitary disposal systems and so forth.
The contrast! Here you had the US. We went into Afghanistan in 2001. I'm over there in 2005. In less than three years I saw a bunch of more modern standard-of-living establishments that the military had set up for itself in the remote part of the world, essentially building little cities -- housing units and water purification, game rooms, rec rooms, communication centers -- and it was just stunning. Here we are, a culture able to go into a place like this and build housing and all the necessary infrastructure for our troops in a matter of months, in a country that hasn't been able to do it in I don't know how many thousands of years, and now we're doing the same thing in Iraq.
This is the kind of good news, this is the kind of progress, this is the kind of story that does not get reported. It really doesn't. I've made mention of the fact: I've traveled a lot of places in the world, and I'm sure a lot of you have, too, and one of the things that you can't help but notice when you travel in a foreign country, and I don't care what it is, one of the things you can to appreciate most is the water system that we have in this country. You can go coast to coast in this country, and you don't have to worry about drinking the water in a home, in the city, or out in the country, hotels or gas stations.
Some people have problems with it so they drink bottled water, but the fact remains you can turn on the faucet anywhere in this country, in an actively maintained establishment, and be totally safe drinking the water. You don't have to pack up bottled water from Missouri when you travel to California so you don't get a stomach disease, is the point -- and we take this all for granted. When you travel around the world, if you're in some places, toilets will not even flush toilet paper -- and these countries and civilizations have been around far longer than we have. Our military engineers, in Iraq and Afghanistan, are setting things up on the same model that we set up in our whole country.
Before it's over with, Iraq is going to have a water system that will be better than a lot of European countries' existing water system. I'm talking about sanitary and waste removal, drinking water, the whole thing -- and the drive-by media will never tell you about this story. They will never discuss this with you. In fact, even in this story they went out and had to go find some anti-war people to say, "Well, yeah, this is all well and good, but why did it happen in the first place? The United States has to rebuild this because they destroyed it!" It's just absurd. Even in a story which focuses on good news "for the sake of journalistic balance," you have to go out and find some detractor, some critic (it doesn't matter who) just to "balance" the story so that nobody thinks the journalists are being biased or unfair.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
silly
Sad, Sad, Pathetic little man... One wonders how many mutilated animals are buried
in his back yard. Sean is really putting out the Angry Liberal vibe isn't he? So much for that peace and love hippiness.
PENN HAS TORTURE DOLL 
Hollywood activist Sean Penn has a plastic doll of conservative US columnist Ann Coulter that he likes to abuse when angry. The Oscar-winner actor has hated Coulter
ever since she blacklisted his director father Leo Penn in her book Treason. And he takes out his frustrations with Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit, on the Barble-like doll. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Penn reveals, "We violate her. There are cigarette burns in some funny places. She's a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn't believe a word she says."
Next thing you know he'll be punching out photographers and beating up his ex-wife.
Clinton chauffeur an illegal immigrant
NEWARK, N.J. - An embarrassing hole in security surrounding former U.S. President Bill Clinton turned up when one of his chauffeurs was found to be a wanted man.
Shahzad Qureshi, 42, was in one of three cars awaiting Clinton at Newark Airport last week when a Port Authority policeman happened to check license plate numbers.
The computer came back showing the Pakistani national had skipped a residency-status hearing in 2000, and a deportation order had been issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the New York Post reported.
Qureshi was still in jail Monday awaiting immigration processing, the report said.
special
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - An Indiana National Guard soldier who spent a year in Iraq returned home to a big surprise: In his absence, his friends had transformed his rusted 1967 Plymouth Barracuda into a deep blue, chrome-trimmed car lover's dream.
Spc. Bob Metcalf, who had stored the rusted, hoodless, fenderless Barracuda in his brother's garage, left for Iraq last year. He had planned to someday fix up the old muscle car.
Friends of the 39-year-old reservist kept their restoration work secret until Friday night. That's when Metcalf wandered into South Bend's Joyce Center to see the Cavalcade of Wheels auto show with his pals.
Metcalf, who returned recently from Iraq, was incredulous when his friends told him that the gleaming deep blue car with red and white stripes sitting under a spotlight was his old car sporting a new look.
"I don't believe it. This is incredible," he said, looking around at the crowd of volunteers and cameras that greeted him at his new ride.
Sean Burns, a friend of the Army National Guard soldier, turned over the keys to him.
"Why don't you go start it up?" he told Metcalf.
The hot-rodded Chrysler 318 V-8 under the hood awoke from its slumber with Metcalf's first turn of the key, settling into a loping rumble.
Metcalf's friends and family had waited a long time to see him sitting in his polished car. Dozens of volunteers had endured six months of busted knuckles, grease and sweat to finish a project they called "one soldier's dream."
Metcalf, a veteran of more than 20 years in the service, had shipped out to Mosul, Iraq, last year for what was originally supposed to be two years in Iraq, but was later cut to one.
After he left, Burns and several of Metcalf's other friends pitched in with work, parts, and cash to make the Barracuda restoration project a reality. They toiled until the early morning hours behind the roll-up steel door in a Mishawaka workshop, fueling up with caffeine and pizza as they worked their magic on every nut and bolt of the old car.
"Everyone I talked to thought it was a great idea," Burns said. "I can't believe what kind of support we found."
Metcalf, who plans to retire from the reserves later this year, has already figured out what he's going to do with his new toy, which remained on display Saturday at the Joyce Center.
"I'm probably going to cruise (U.S.) 20," he said with a smile. "And at some point, I'm going to have to take her out and see what she'll do."
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"A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses."