Mother arrested for attempting to intervene in her 14-year old's decision to have abortion
Mood:  irritated
Topic: News

For legal reasons, the names of the family and the 14-year old girl that are the subject of this story have been withheld at this time.

GRANITE CITY - A Sothern Illinois woman was arrested last week (March 17) after trying to intervene on behalf of her 14-year old daughter's effort to have an abortion. The girl was allegedly taken to an abortion clinic by the mother of the man allegedly to have impregnated the 14-year old.

According to the girl's mother, her 14-year old daughter was called off from school in Madison County by a woman posing as the girl's "grandmother." The woman took the girl from her home only minutes before the girl?s mother returned home from work.

It was later determined that the woman who had posed as the "grandmother" to the school authorities was the mother of the male who had fathered the unborn child the 14-year old girl was carrying. The age of the male has not been released.

When the parents were notified their pregnant daughter was not at school, they suspected she had been taken to the Hope Abortion Clinic in Granite City. The parents and grandfather were the only persons authorized to request school absence for the fourteen year old female.

"My husband and I rushed to the abortion clinic where we saw our daughter?s name on the roster and the time she had checked in," the mother said. She then went into the clinic and searched a room filled with young women awaiting abortions but did not see her daughter.

She took a seat near the main desk and said, "I was told I could not prove my daughter was there so I began calling her name. A medical tech at the clinic told me , ?It?s your daughter?s rights, it?s her body. You have no rights.?"

After continuing to call out her daughter?s name and telling her "don?t do it," authorities were called and the mother was arrested.

The 14-year old told her mother she could hear her but when she asked employees to give her mother a message, they came back to the room and told her that her mother had left.

Angela Michaels, of Small Victories Ministry, was tipped off as to what was happening at the Hope clinic. According to Michaels, she witnessed police placing the mother?s hands behind her back, taking her into custody. As the police were putting the mother in the squad car, she was crying out, "Please, please, help me...my daughter is in there."

Michaels said, "Exactly one hour later at 10:35 a.m., the 14-year old emerged from the clinic looking disheveled. The 14-year old told us that employees kept her in a quiet room until the procedure was performed and she was told that her mother had left."

Employees assured this girl on her departure, "No-one will ever know you were here, we?ll bury your records."

In the meantime, the woman who had taken the girl for the abortion was slipped out the back door of the clinic.

The police in the community in which the family lives allegedly told the girl's mom that they couldn't intervene despite her making a charge that her daughter had been raped (by statute) because the charge was stale--7 weeks after the incident. They did tell the girl's mom that, while she had no right to stop the abortion, she did have a right to go into the clinic and speak to her daughter.

The parents are expected to file charges.

Illinois Leader ** EXCLUSIVE: Mother arrested for attempting to intervene in her 14-year old's decision to have abortion

FL Capitol bill aims to control ?leftist? professors
Mood:  bright
Topic: News

THE LAW COULD LET STUDENTS SUE FOR UNTOLERATED BELIEFS.

TALLAHASSEE ? Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors" in the classrooms of Florida?s universities.

The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.

The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House.

While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than "one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom," as part of "a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views."

The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative "serious academic theories" that may disagree with their personal views.

According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.

Students who believe their professor is singling them out for "public ridicule" ? for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class ? would also be given the right to sue.

"Some professors say, 'Evolution is a fact. I don?t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don?t like it, there?s the door,'" Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.

Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, warned of lawsuits from students enrolled in Holocaust history courses who believe the Holocaust never happened.

Similar suits could be filed by students who don?t believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin or even by Shands medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body, Gelber added.

"This is a horrible step," he said. "Universities will have to hire lawyers so our curricula can be decided by judges in courtrooms. Professors might have to pay court costs ? even if they win ? from their own pockets. This is not an innocent piece of legislation."

The staff analysis also warned the bill may shift responsibility for determining whether a student?s freedom has been infringed from the faculty to the courts.

But Baxley brushed off Gelber?s concerns. "Freedom is a dangerous thing, and you might be exposed to things you don?t want to hear," he said. "Being a businessman, I found out you can be sued for anything. Besides, if students are being persecuted and ridiculed for their beliefs, I think they should be given standing to sue."

During the committee hearing, Baxley cast opposition to his bill as "leftists" struggling against "mainstream society."

"The critics ridicule me for daring to stand up for students and faculty," he said, adding that he was called a McCarthyist.

Baxley later said he had a list of students who were discriminated against by professors, but refused to reveal names because he felt they would be persecuted.

Rep. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, argued universities and the state Board of Governors already have policies in place to protect academic freedom. Moreover, a state law outlining how professors are supposed to teach would encroach on the board?s authority to manage state schools.

"The big hand of state government is going into the universities telling them how to teach," she said. "This bill is the antithesis of academic freedom."

But Baxley compared the state?s universities to children, saying the legislature should not give them money without providing "guidance" to their behavior.

"Professors are accountable for what they say or do," he said. "They?re accountable to the rest of us in society... All of a sudden the faculty think they can do what they want and shut us out. Why is it so unheard of to say the professor shouldn?t be a dictator and control that room as their totalitarian niche?"

In an interview before the meeting, Baxley said "arrogant, elitist academics are swarming" to oppose the bill, and media reports misrepresented his intentions.

"I expect to be out there on my own pretty far," he said. "I don?t expect to be part of a team."

House Bill H-837 can be viewed online at www.flsenate.gov.

Alligator Online FL ** Capitol bill aims to control ?leftist? profs

As an April fool's joke, Maxim magazine plays a photo prank on the Bush twins
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

As an April fool's joke, Maxim is taking on the Bush twins.

The April issue of the men's magazine, which hit newsstands Tuesday, has a photo illustration of Jenna and Barbara Bush, plumage in the air and sporting lingerie in what is meant to be the aftermath of a pillow fight.

"Born November 25, 1981, this Texas twosome burst into the public eye and our dirtiest dreams — right after Daddy moved into the Oval Office," reads the first paragraph.

As the magazine worked on introducing a new "girl page," said Maxim's executive editor James Heindery, "we thought, 'Who should we prank?' How do you make a girl page and make it a prank? We had to watch our p's and q's. We certainly don't want to step on some people's toes, but it seemed like the Bush twins was the first suggestion that everybody threw out. And we thought there was little chance that we would get in too much trouble because I don't think their father would ever want to talk about this."

It took 25 models and more than 75 paparazzi shots to come up with the concoction, Heindery explained. "We definitely tried to be realistic and not put stick figures on them."

This isn't the first "doctored" photo that magazine buyers have seen lately. Newsweek recently ran a cover that showed Martha Stewart coming out from behind a curtain. That image was Martha's face put on a model's body. It was identified as a photo illustration.

Texas Monthly, for the cover of its annual Bum Steer Awards issue, showed Jessica Simpson wearing a T-shirt that read: "I'm with stupid."

Maxim's photo trickery does have a red ring on the page with "100% FAKE" written in it.

Susan Whitson, press secretary for Laura Bush, said the first lady had not seen the photo and offered a "no comment" after the image was e-mailed to her.

Whether it was for underage drinking or making strange faces at the press, the Bush daughters have made news throughout their dad's tenure.

Overall, however, the news media have restrained their coverage, possibly due to a stern warning by the president.

But now, Heindery said, the twins are fair game.

"We took (the warning) into consideration," Heindery said. "But first of all, the girls made news themselves with their antics. Also when (President Bush) brought them along the campaign trail (in 2004) and had them speak at the convention, it made them fair game."

Michael Musto, columnist for the Village Voice, said Maxim's fake photo may signal open season on the twins.

"But I honestly feel they should send Maxim a thank-you note," he wrote in an e-mail. "The mag made them look beautiful!"

"We haven't gotten any blow-back (yet)," Heindery said. "I think like any good American, they should take (the) joke in stride."

Houston Chronicle ** Men's magazine plays a photo prank on the Bush twins

Five Democrats indicted in alleged vote-buying scheme
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. Five Democrats in East St. Louis have been charged in a scheme to buy votes in November's election in a federal indictment unsealed today.

Federal prosecutors in southern Illinois charged four Democratic committeemen and one precinct worker in the indictment.

Yesterday, four others pleaded guilty to related vote-buying charges in federal court.

Court records indicate voters were paid five or ten dollars to cast a Democratic ballot in the November second election.

They allege that the money to buy votes came from the St. Clair County Democratic Committee.

U-S Attorney Ronald Tenpas says the allegations do not address how many voters may have been paid for their votes or whether it affected the outcome of any election.

WQAD Channel 8 Illinios ~ Associated Press ** Five Democrats indicted in alleged vote-buying scheme

Experts: Conservative Bloggers More Influential Than Liberals
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: The Web: The battle of the bloggers
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

CHICAGO - There may be more liberal blogs than conservative ones on the Internet, but the conservatives appear to be much more adept at employing the technology of the medium to market their message and influence public opinion, experts told UPI's The Web.

Take last year's presidential election. Research shows conservatives used the blogs - a contraction for the term, Web logs - to talk down Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on the Internet, perhaps making themselves one of the decisive factors in the November election's outcome.

"Who were the bloggers writing about?" asks the new report, "The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog, from Intelliseek's BlogPulse project." It answers its own question, "Curiously, 59 percent of the mentions of John Kerry came from right-leaning bloggers, while 53 percent of the mentions of George W. Bush came from left-leaning bloggers."

The study was conducted by Natalie Glance of Intelliseek, a marketing intelligence firm in Cincinnati, and Lada Adamic of HP Labs, the main laboratory for Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, Calif. It showed that of the 1,494 most influential blogs, during the two months leading up to the election, 759 were liberal in worldview, while 735 were conservative. The conservatives, however, showed a "greater tendency" to link to other blogs than did the liberals -- on average 15.1 links per conservative blog to 13.6 for the liberals. That made them more powerful agents of persuasion.

"We've been looking at blogs for about a year," Glance said. "There was some hope that the blogosphere would help bridge the different opinions in America, but what we are seeing is in an election year, it was divisive online and there was a strong tendency for separation of differences."

Conservative blogs apparently were the most influential sites, generating huge flows of traffic to right-leaning news organizations, such as the National Review magazine and Fox News television. The bloggers' links also pushed up the readership numbers for publications such as The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal's online Opinion Journal and The Washington Times, Glance said.

Other experts said the trend is likely to continue, and it is starting to shape the way businesses are perceived, too, not just politicians.

"There is a democratization of media going on before our eyes," said Scott Anthony, co-author of "Seeing What's Next" (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), and a partner in Innosight LLC in Watertown, Mass. "A small number of people used to determine what was, or was not, newsworthy. Now, it is an online collective that says this is interesting, or not interesting, news."

Anthony said this is an example of "disruptive innovation" in the media business, which has a parallel to the rise of the personal computer back in the late 1970s.

"Disruptive innovation uses relatively cheap, relatively simple technologies to give people what they want," Anthony told The Web. "Look at the early days of the computer industry. Back then, Digital Equipment Corp. looked at the (personal computer) and saw no reason why anyone would want one in their home - but people were delighted with product."

Anthony predicted that 20 years from now, there will be an entirely new industry based on blogs. Just a few years ago, he noted, when eBay was launched, it was selling novelty items, such as Pez candy dispensers. Today, it is a major retail force that even sells automobiles.

"The established media companies are going to have to deal with the blogs," Anthony said. "This pattern of starting simply and expanding will have profound effects. Thirty years ago, Digital Equipment had delighted customers, and sound management principles, like listening to their customers, but the wave of change caused by the PC overwhelmed them."

The blogging phenomenon is challenging local media as well as the national giants. In Chicago, for example, the newspapers have not devoted much attention to a measure that local conservatives view as important: Senate Bill 2033, which calls for the direct election of GOP state central committeemen in Illinois. Yet the bill is being promoted via a simple blog by Joseph A. Morris, a former Reagan administration lawyer who is now an attorney in private practice in Chicago. He holds forth at illinoiscenterright.com.

The blog is marketed by e-mails from conservative Web sites, such as the local affiliate of Townhall.com, run by activist Rich Johns. Rather than waiting for the Chicago Tribune to write about the story, for example, the blog reports and comments on its own.

Search engines dedicated to blogging, such as technorati, help fans find the info they want. Really simple syndication, or RSS, technology provides short descriptions of Web content and links to the search engines.

"Right-wing blogs have very coherent message delivery," Glance said.

Traditionally, conservative business people are also now using blogs to promote their enterprises online. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review called on businesses to embrace the trend.

In a marketing switch, the business bloggers embrace -- rather than eschew -- controversy to generate business. One Chicago blogger, entrepreneur Kirsten Osolind, has been posting an ongoing debate with a conservative business pundit, Seth Godin, on her site, reinventioninc.blogspot.com.

Osolind has received feedback calling her "catty," which she does not think she would have received if she were a male blogger. However, the tool of controversy seems to have worked for her, because she is being wooed by advertisers such as Home Depot, who want to place ads on her site, and she has landed a column with Entrepreneur Magazine.

"The whole blogosphere is a fascinating space - a movement really," Anthony said. "Rather than having conservatives say they are unhappy about biased liberal news, or liberals saying they are unhappy about biased conservative news, everyone goes where they are happy. The old gray lady (The New York Times) does not determine what we read anymore. It is a different world."

World Peace Herald ~ United Press International ** The Web: The battle of the bloggers

Phony Iraq warriors beginning to surface
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: News

- On the front lines in Afghanistan, Sgt. Thomas Larez was said to have braved enemy fire to pull an injured soldier to safety, taking two shots to his torso and shrapnel in his thigh as he did.

Though bloodied and temporarily blinded by a concussion grenade, Larez then killed seven Taliban fighters and helped capture several others.

It was a compelling account of heroism hailed in a December 2001 Dallas newscast based on a "Marine advisory" about the battle that Larez said his commanding officer wrote.

Two days later, the station retracted the story. Not only was the "advisory" bogus, apparently concocted by Larez, but the Marine had never even left the United States, much less distinguished himself in combat overseas.

With that fraud, Larez became one of the first phony heroes of America's war on terrorism to be exposed. He was far from the last.

- In Rockport, Texas, Andrew Isbell, clad in an Army sergeant's uniform, told jurors at his drug-possession trial in August that he had earned the two Bronze Stars on his chest in Iraq in August, along with a Purple Heart for a recent bullet wound to the shoulder.

Portraying himself as an infantryman on medical leave from his dangerous patrol job in Baghdad, Isbell was a sympathetic figure who ultimately was acquitted.

But after a juror later raised questions about Isbell's uniform, investigators found that he had actually been a food-service private who never saw combat, was not wounded, won no decorations and had been discharged from the Army after being absent without leave for 61 days.

Isbell faces perjury charges.

- Home on leave last August in Maysville, Ky., Army Spc. Chastity Turner was honored at a Veterans of Foreign Wars picnic and lauded in a local newspaper for her calm under pressure during two convoy ambushes she survived in Iraq.

"An IED (improvised explosive device, or makeshift bomb) went off and it blew out the windows of the trucks," Turner told the Ledger Independent. "It's exciting and it gets your adrenaline going."

Only problem: Turner never left Kuwait during her deployment. She was busted in her lie by her company commander, who had read the story online and contacted the paper, which published a retraction.

- Justin McCauley regaled his Roseville, Calif., family with his derring-do as an elite Navy SEAL in 2002 in Afghanistan, showing off his Navy jacket with a patch signifying his membership in the storied commando outfit and recounting the close call he survived when a grenade exploded near him and sprayed him with shrapnel.

"The second it happened, that hit me: 'Wow, we're at war,' " McCauley was quoted as saying in the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

But, like Turner, McCauley had made the whole thing up, the newspaper later reported. Not only was he not a SEAL, the aviation ordnanceman had never left the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier where he loaded U.S. warplanes with bombs.

- Sarah Kenney, of Grand Junction, Colo., allegedly made up a heroic husband. Kenney told a local support group for soldiers' families that her husband, Spc. Jonathan Kenney, had been killed when he shielded an Iraqi child from flying bullets only to be hit by one himself.

In fact, there was no such soldier, and Kenney was charged last month with criminal impersonation.

To the phalanx of mostly volunteer fraud-busters dedicated to outing wannabe warriors, it is no surprise that bogus soldiers claiming exploits in Iraq and Afghanistan are now surfacing.

"It's a phenomenon of every single war that's ever, ever been fought," said B.G. Burkett, co-author of the award-winning book "Stolen Valor."

He and Mary Schantag, who with her husband Chuck spend hours each day hunting down fake claims, are certain the number of Iraq and Afghanistan service frauds will only mushroom as time goes on.

Mary Schantag, who helps run the POWNetwork.org clearinghouse that also investigates non-POW frauds, says reports of phony Vietnam-era heroes have reached epidemic proportions.

When the Schantags began outing fakes in 1998, they had 22 cases. Last year, they had more than 2,000. There are now at least twice as many pretend Vietnam POWs documented than the number of U.S. troops who truly were prisoners.

"The more we expose, the more get reported," Schantag said, lamenting the fact that, despite the criminal violations committed by the poseurs, overtaxed police and other authorities simply don't have the time or resources to pursue more than a handful.

She and Burkett also warn that high-tech tools are a boon to the bad guys, who can use them to easily create fake military records that can pass for the real thing.

They are outraged, as well, that many of these phonies have snookered the government into providing them with benefits, while others are recording their made-up war exploits for assorted oral-history projects across the country.

"It's so sad," Schantag said.

These activists characterize the majority of the fakes as people with low self-esteem who create a heroic persona to inflate their image. "Being one changes everything about his life. The medals say he is not only brave but also loyal, trustworthy, honest," said Burkett, a Vietnam vet with an ordinary record like that of most who served at the time.

The rest are generally cons looking for quick bucks or other advantages. For Jim Johnson, it was romance that he apparently was seeking. Though his Navy service lasted just two years in the mid-1970s, Johnson portrayed himself to scores of women via an Internet dating site as a Navy SEAL now fighting in Iraq. He allegedly asked many to marry him.

An outfit called Veriseal, dedicated to identifying SEAL imposters, determined that Johnson had never been a Navy commando and was never in Iraq - or even in the service. Instead, he was found to be working for an insurance company in Rocky Mount, N.C.

Scripps Howard News Service - Lisa Hoffman ** Phony Iraq warriors beginning to surface

WELL, LOOKIE HERE... Social Security Said to Go Broke in 2041
Mood:  suave
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

With 79-year old Margaret Valdez at his side, President Bush promotes his Social Security reforms to an audience at the Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, March 22, 2005. In a state with a large population of retirees, Bush wants to assure seniors that they will continue to receive their regular government checks, while he pushes for a system of private accounts which would enable younger workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes from Social Security deductions and into stock market investments to bankroll their retirement. \/

WASHINGTON - The trust fund for Social Security will go broke in 2041 - a year earlier than previously estimated - the trustees reported Wednesday. Trustees also said that Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly and disabled, faces insolvency in 2020.

The new projections made in the trustees annual report were certain to be cited by both sides in the massive battle to overhaul Social Security, which President Bush has made the top domestic priority of his second term.

The go-broke date for Medicare was delayed by one year, compared to the estimate that trustees gave a year ago.

The insolvency dates represent when both trust funds will have exhausted the government bonds that have been building up to take care of the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers.

Equally important are when benefits paid to the elderly start exceeding the payroll taxes designated to support the two programs. That's when the government will have to increase its borrowing on financial markets, raise taxes or divert money from other government programs to sustain Medicare and Social Security at current levels.

For Medicare, the threshold when benefits exceed program income occurred last year. For Social Security, that threshold will be crossed in 2017, one year earlier than the 2018 date projected in last year's report.

That change is certain to be cited by the administration as a sign of the urgency to act to deal with Social Security's funding woes. Democrats argue that the real crisis is in Medicare and that the administration is ignoring the health care crisis.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, chairman of the six-member board of trustees for both programs, said the estimates "leave no question that Social Security reform is needed and it is needed soon. Reform of this system, for the sake of our children, grandchildren and the financial future of our country, is a very real and pressing matter."

The trustees said that Social Security's unfunded obligations total $4 trillion over the next 75 years, an increase from last year's projection of $3.7 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Snow said that to meet that shortfall, Social Security payroll taxes would have to be raised by 3.5 percentage points or benefits would have to be cut by 22 percent.

Bush has said he will not raise payroll taxes to deal with the funding problem although he has left the door open to raising the $90,000 cap on incomes subject to the payroll tax.

In the report, the trustees said that "the projected trust fund deficits should be addressed in timely way to allow for a gradual phasing of the necessary changes and to provide advanced notices to workers. The sooner adjustments are made, the smaller and less abrupt they will have to be."

^ House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., take part in a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 16, 2005, on Social Security reform legislation.

My Way News ~ Associated Press ** Social Security Said to Go Broke in 2041

AND LIBERALS WONDER WHY THEY LOSE... how berkeley can you be?
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Funny Stuff

George Soros Funding 'Watchdog' Efforts To Attack Delay On Ethics
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

House Republicans are taking the offensive in the burgeoning ethics war on Capitol Hill by circulating research that details links among Democrats, George Soros and government watchdog groups that have criticized Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the House ethics process.

The research shows that members of these groups’ boards have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and political organizations and several of their staff members have previously worked for Democrats.

The groups have also accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Open Society Institute, an organization founded by Soros, who spent millions trying to defeat President Bush in last year’s election.

The emergence of the detailed research follows talking points that the Republican National Committee (RNC) distributed last week labeling four government watchdog groups as liberal and having "close ties to left wing leaders like George Soros."

Together, the documents indicate a concerted Republican effort to quell what has become a media feeding frenzy surrounding DeLay and allegations of his improper conduct.

Over a five-day span, ending last Thursday, TV and radio stations and print publications from around the country featured at least 290 stories either about a controversial junket he took to Scotland in 2000, his response to criticism about the propriety of that trip or his offer to discuss the matter with the House ethics committee, according to a survey. The articles by The Associated Press, Reuters, Knight Ridder and The Washington Post were picked up by news outlets around the country.

The latest spate of broadcasts and articles, a glut of the type of negative coverage that has plagued DeLay in recent years, likely explains why his name identification has risen from 46 percent to 76 percent between September 1999 and last month, according to several CNN/USA Today/ Gallup surveys of adults nationwide, cited by Democrats. During the same span, DeLay’s unfavorable ratings have swelled from 11 percent to 24 percent, according to the same surveys.

"The DeLay scandal is getting to the point where House Republicans just won’t be able to withstand much more," a Democratic aide said. "With every story that is written, it becomes more clear that House Republicans are risking their political futures by associating themselves with him. When literally hundreds of stories about the GOP leader’s shoddy ethics are appearing in nearly every local and regional paper across the country, you can’t blame voters for painting them all with the same brush."

Last week’s focus on House ethics was spurred in part by a press conference held last Tuesday by members of the Congressional Ethics Coalition, a group of nine government watchdog groups. The conference was called to decry the immobilization of the House ethics panel, which has yet to organize because of objections by ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) to changes House GOP leaders made to ethics procedure at the start of the new Congress. But watchdog groups also used the opportunity to attack DeLay.

Later that day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered a resolution on the House floor calling for a bipartisan panel to review the chamber’s ethics procedures.

Republicans charge this and other evidence reveals a coordinated effort between House Democrats and government watchdog groups to damage DeLay and the GOP leadership politically. GOP aides point to a plan being crafted by Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to use ethics as a touchstone in races against DeLay and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), as The Hill reported last week.

One target of Republican criticism is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the group that last year assisted former Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) in drafting an ethics complaint against DeLay, which resulted in an admonishment of DeLay from the ethics committee. At last week’s press conference, Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said that DeLay should step down as majority leader.

From 1995 to 1998, CREW’s Sloan served as minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee under Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Before that, Sloan served as the nominations counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).

According to GOP research, Mark Penn, who had been a pollster for President Clinton, and Daniel Berger, a major Democratic donor, are on CREW’s board. Spokeswoman Naomi Seligman declined several requests to reveal the membership of CREW’s board, although she confirmed that Penn and Berger are members. Last year, Berger made a $100,000 contribution to America Coming Together (ACT), a 527 group that was dedicated to defeating Bush in the presidential election, according to politicalmoneyline.com, a website that tracks fundraising.

CREW declined to respond to the RNC talking points or House GOP research.

Another target is Democracy 21, headed by Fred Wertheimer. GOP research showed that the group’s board of directors has given "tens of thousands to Democrats." A survey by The Hill of fundraising data on politicalmoneyline.com showed that three members of the group’s board, including Dick Clark, a former Democratic senator from Iowa, gave nearly $20,000 in contributions to Democrats since the beginning of the 2000 election cycle. Republicans received nothing from board members, according to the survey by The Hill.

Lexa Edsall, a consultant to the group, served in the Clinton administration, and Amanda Lewis, the communications director, worked for former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo (N.Y.), according to the GOP research. Wertheimer confirmed the information about Edsall and Lewis, adding that Lewis worked as an intern at Cuomo’s law firm, suggesting that Republicans have left few stones unturned in their efforts to discredit the watchdog groups.

Democracy 21’s education fund also received a $50,000 grant from Soros’s institute in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available, according to a 990 form filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The GOP research paper states that the group has received $300,000 in total from the Open Society Institute.

Wertheimer responded by noting that he has in the past asked for a Justice Department investigation of President Clinton’s campaign finances and filed Federal Election Committee (FEC) complaints against former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

He also provided a letter from former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie for comments Wertheirmer filed with the FEC arguing for greater restriction of 527 political groups, which Democrats relied on in 2004.

The Hill ** Watchdogs in Soros's pocket: GOP

DNC Chair Coward Deanpeace Uses Scripture To Attack Republicans
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: Democrats must work in state to win it, Dean says
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Party chairman sees need for respecting South, values

If the Democrats want to win in Tennessee, the first thing they have to do is campaign here, Howard Dean told a packed house at Vanderbilt University last night.

Dean, national chairman of the Democratic Party, was greeted with a standing ovation from the largely student audience. He said that as the party moves forward it needs to show those who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line that it respects them and the values they hold.

"I don't believe in blue states or red states," the former 2004 presidential candidate said. "I believe in purple states — and some are more purple than others."

The remarks were delivered on the second night of the university's 41st Annual Impact Symposium, which focuses on a variety of topical issues.

This year it was differing "Visions of America." Monday night the featured speakers were the Rev. Al Sharpton, also a Democratic presidential contender, and conservative commentator Ann Coulter.

Dean's swing through Tennessee is part of a 50-state strategy to compete in Southern and Western states, places Democrats lost last year, come the 2008 election.

During a question-and-answer session with the media before his speech, Dean said he had not heard a state GOP radio commercial airing during his visit that pegged him as a "Northeastern liberal." It also labeled Dean and Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen as "peas in a pod."

"I've been called worse things than a liberal," Dean said. "The reason the Republicans call names is because they have nothing to say about balancing the budget, creating jobs or doing anything about health care or education."

In his speech, Dean told the audience how, under his leadership, the Democratic Party will be made stronger.

The party allowed its opponents too often to define debates and control issues, such as faith and family values, Dean said.

"We need to talk about values and not be afraid of them," he said, going on to make two biblical references.

In the first he said Jesus' directive to "love thy neighbor" didn't mean one could choose which ones to love. He then remarked that Republicans never brought up the scriptural verse saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

"We should never let anybody tell us we don't respect faith," he said.

Dean said he wanted the audience to focus not only on national politics but also on state and local elections.

He urged every person present to run for office.

"How many people in the audience think they can't be just as good a president as George W. Bush?" he said, prompting a wave of applause and laughter.

He encouraged those not able to run to donate "$10 or $15" to a political candidate they support or donate their time to a political campaign.

"It's not about Republicans and Democrats, but about democracy that works," he said. "I'd rather see someone go to work for a Republican campaign than sit on their butt."

Tennessean ** Democrats must work in state to win it, Dean says