U.N. Admits to Phone Fraud in Eritrea
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: UN staff stole and distributed pin codes to make 'free' calls
Topic: News

United Nations peacekeeping staff in Eritrea have rung up more than $500,000 of unpaid international calls. The fraud was discovered last year when auditors noticed huge billing discrepancies in 2003, the UN said.

Schemes such as stealing pin codes and abusing a one-minute grace period before being charged for a connection accounted for the "irregularities".

The countries of those caught swindling their phone bills have been charged, but so far only $14,000 has been paid.

The UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) said the process of unravelling the fraud was "painstaking and complex, involving the manual verification of 1.4m lines of computer billing data".

UN staff are affiliated to peacekeeping missions from their country's team at the UN headquarters in New York.

To avoid absorbing the cost itself, Unmee has forwarded $364,000 of confirmed bills to New York.

Since 2000, a 3,000-strong Unmee peacekeeping force has patrolled Eritrea's tense border with Ethiopia.

The two Horn of Africa countries fought a war between 1998 and 2000 that is thought to have killed more than 70,000 people.

BBC News ** UN admits phone fraud in Eritrea

(D) Mayor of Orlando arrested, ousted; new election in the works
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: Orlando approves special election
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The decision to hold a vote May 3 to replace suspended Mayor Dyer draws dissent.

Facing an almost certain legal challenge, a fractured Orlando City Council decided Monday to call a special election six weeks from now to pick a replacement for ousted Mayor Buddy Dyer.

The council split 4-2 over the politically charged question of whether it had to hold a special election or could leave city commissioner and interim Mayor Ernest Page at the helm until the criminal charges that prompted Dyer's suspension are resolved.

The whirlwind election will be May 3, at a cost of about $100,000. If no candidate wins a majority in the nonpartisan race, a runoff would be May 24.

But at least one attorney said there would be an immediate court challenge of the election's validity -- as soon as today.

"We'll ask the court to fast-track it," attorney Steven Mason, who represents the Orange County Democratic Party, said Monday. "What bigger issue has been before the city in recent years?"

The council's decision is the latest of many twists in Orlando politics since Dyer, a Democrat, was suspended by Gov. Jeb Bush 11 days ago.

Dyer was arrested March 11 after a grand jury indicted him on charges stemming from his successful 2004 re-election campaign. He is charged with violating a state election law that bars paying someone to collect absentee ballots. Also charged were absentee ballot consultant Ezzie Thomas; Dyer's campaign manager, Patti Sharp; and Circuit Judge Alan Apte, who also had hired Thomas for his 2002 judicial campaign.

Page, chairing his first meeting as interim mayor, recognized the upheaval, but tried to assure Orlando residents that the city's business will go on.

"The city of Orlando is in good hands with this council and the staff we have now," Page said. "All our projects are still ongoing and doing just fine."

As the City Council -- minus Dyer -- debated the city's political future Monday, the audience was packed with a slew of attorneys, two court reporters transcribing the discussions for use in later legal challenges, six TV news cameras, political consultants and more than one would-be mayor.

City Attorney Dykes Everett told the council that the Florida Constitution, state law and the City Charter together require the council to hold the election. If Dyer is acquitted, he will get the mayor's office back, but if he is convicted, the city would hold a second special election to find a permanent replacement.

"We find ourselves in extraordinary times here in the city of Orlando," Everett said, whose interpretation was backed up by a former city attorney and a former county attorney.

Four of the council's six remaining members backed a special election, including Page and Commissioners Daisy Lynum, Betty Wyman and Vicki Vargo.

"Yes, Mayor Buddy Dyer is innocent until proven guilty. And our legal system is fair and just," Vargo said. "However, until his criminal case is resolved - which could easily take up to one year - the citizens of Orlando deserve the right to exercise their right to vote."

At least a dozen attorneys and citizens showed up to offer differing legal interpretations but were not allowed to speak.

Commissioners Phil Diamond and Patty Sheehan voted against the special election, arguing that the city should allow public comment on the matter and seek a definitive legal opinion from the court or the state attorney general.

"I am very concerned about this matter moving forward so quickly without hearing any public opinion," Sheehan said. "It is not a public process if they don't get a chance to speak."

Mason, the attorney for the local Democratic Party, didn't get a chance to argue his position that the law allows Page - a Republican - to remain in charge until Dyer's future is known.

Ken Mulvaney, the runner-up in the 2004 election, said he also may challenge the validity of the special election. Mulvaney filed a lawsuit soon after last year's election accusing Dyer's campaign of absentee-ballot fraud, and a judge is expected to rule on his request for a runoff in the coming days.

Mulvaney, a Republican, said he has not decided whether to run in the special election.

Bill Frederick, the city's mayor from 1980 to 1992, wasted no time in following through on his promise to seek the office once again. Not long after the council adjourned, the Republican became the first candidate to file his election papers.

Others who have said they will definitely run include retired Orlando police Capt. Sam Ings, a Democrat who finished third in 2004, and perennial candidate Alex Lamour, an independent who finished fifth.

Bill Sublette, a former state representative who lost to Dyer in 2003, said Monday that he will run for mayor in the future but plans to support Frederick in the special election.

"I think he is the best person for the city right now," Sublette, a Republican, said.

Republican attorney Tico Perez, who also mounted an unsuccessful campaign in 2003, said he won't decide whether to put his name on the ballot until the Democrats' expected legal challenge is decided.

"I've got to sit down and think about what makes sense for me and what makes sense for the city," Perez said.

Orlando Sun-Sentinel ** Orlando approves special election

Iraq's insurgents ?seek exit strategy'
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: News

Many of Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab insurgents would lay down their arms and join the political process in exchange for guarantees of their safety and that of their co-religionists, according to a prominent Sunni politician.

Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq's main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba'ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election.

"Firstly, they want to ensure their own security," says Sharif Ali, who last week hosted a pan-Sunni conference attended by tribal sheikhs and other local leaders speaking on behalf of the insurgents.

Insurgent leaders fear coming out into the open to talk for fear of being targeted by US military or Iraqi security forces' raids, he said.

Sharif Ali distinguishes many Sunni insurgents, whom he says took up arms in reaction to the invasive raids in search of Ba'athist leaders and other "humiliations" soon after the 2003 war, from the radical jihadist branch associated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Unlike Mr Zarqawi's followers, who are thought to be responsible for the big suicide bomb attacks on Iraqi civilian targets, the other Sunni insurgents are more likely to plant bombs and carry out ambushes against security forces and US troops active near their homes.

Sharif Ali said the success of Iraq's elections dealt the insurgents a demoralising blow, prompting them to consider the need to enter the political process.

Financial Times ** Iraq's insurgents ‘seek exit strategy'

'Fox Blocker' Aims to Block Channel
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

It's not that Sam Kimery objects to the views expressed on Fox News. The creator of the "Fox Blocker" contends the channel is not news at all.

Kimery figures he's sold about 100 of the little silver bits of metal that screw into the back of most televisions, allowing people to filter Fox News from their sets, since its August debut.

The Tulsa, Okla., resident also has received thousands of e-mails, both angry and complimentary ? as well as a few death threats.

"Apparently the making of terroristic threats against those who don't share your views is a high art form among a certain core audience," said Kimery, 45.

Formerly a registered Republican, even a precinct captain, Kimery became an independent in the 1990s when he said the state party stopped taking input from its everyday members.

Kimery now contends Fox News' top-level management dictates a conservative journalistic bias, that inaccuracies are never retracted, and what winds up on the air is more opinion than news. "I might as well be reading tabloids out of the grocery store," he says. "Anything to get a rise out of the viewer and to reinforce certain retrograde notions."

A Fox spokeswoman at the station's New York headquarters said the channel's ratings speak for themselves. For the first three months of this year, Fox has been averaging 1.62 million viewers in prime-time, compared with CNN's 805,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Kimery's motives go deeper than preventing people from watching the channel, which he acknowledges can be done without the Blocker. But he likens his device to burning a draft card, a tangible example of disagreement.

And he's taking this message to the network's advertisers. After buying the $8.95 device online, would-be blockers are shown a letter that they can send to advertisers via the Fox Blocker site.

"The point is not to block the channel or block free speech but to raise awareness," said Kimery, who works in the tech industry.

Kimery doesn't use the device himself; his remote is programmed to only a half-dozen channels. Plus he occasionally feels the need to tune into Fox News for something "especially heinous."

Business could pick up since the blocker was alluded to in a recent episode of the ABC drama "Boston Legal." The show's original script mentioned Fox News, but ABC had the references removed.

The boisterous conversations on Fox News may be why the station is so popular, said Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media watchdog group. And despite a perception that Fox leans to the right, Felling said, that doesn't mean people who lean left should tune out.

"It's tough to engage in an argument when you're not participating in it," Felling said. "It's just one more layer in the wall that the right and the left are building in between each other."

On the Net: Fox Blocker / Fox News

Seattle Times ~ Associated Press ** Device lets you out-Fox your TV

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press ** 'Fox Blocker' Aims to Block Channel

Starbucks puts lib loser opinionated bullshit quotes on its cups
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Coffee with steam
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Some conservatives are angered by opinionated quotes that Starbucks puts on its cups.

Moments after picking up a venti vanilla latte from a St. Petersburg Starbucks, Sam Maston removed his cup's cardboard sleeve to inspect a message printed beneath.

"America's national debt is now $7.5-trillion, and it's skyrocketing, even as America's population ages," the cup read. "There will never be a better time to start paying off this crippling debt than today."

The quote, from environmentalist Denis Hayes, didn't faze the 29-year-old Maston.

"I'm a pretty hardcore Democrat," said Maston, who wore a black rubber wristband bearing the words I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH. "I think they should put that stuff on there."

Not everyone agrees.

The Seattle coffee chain has raised some eyebrows over its "The Way I See It" campaign, which prints quotes from thinkers, authors, athletes and entertainers on the side of your morning machiatto. The goal, according to the company, is to foster philosophical debate in its 9,000-plus coffeehouses.

The quotes aren't all that inflammatory, though several mirror Starbucks' hallmark tall-grande-venti pretentiousness. Take this one from film critic Roger Ebert: "A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it."

The problem, critics say, is the company's list of overwhelmingly liberal contributors, including Al Franken, Melissa Etheridge, Quincy Jones, Chuck D. Of the 31 contributors listed on Starbucks' Web site, only one, National Review editor Jonah Goldberg, offers a conservative viewpoint.

Considering Starbucks sells millions of cups of coffee each day - at $4 and up, no less - it's no surprise some customers have complained to Starbucks' Web site, labeling the campaign "offensive" and the company a proponent of "the destruction of family values and virtues."

"I want to enjoy your product without having Earth Day Network propaganda thrust at me," wrote Malachi Salcido of East Wenatchee, Wash.

Yvette Nunez, a 27-year-old Republican from Tampa, said she hadn't noticed the quotes on her weekly caramel machiattos. On "tall" cups, the text is obscured by a cardboard sleeve.

"There are a lot of great conservative quotes, but oh well," she said. "I'm not surprised. I'm used to being under-represented."

Starbucks' founder and chairman, Howard Schultz, is a major Democratic campaign donor who last year gave $1,000 in Florida to Peter Deutsch's failed U.S. Senate campaign.

Seth Hoffman, president of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans and an occasional Starbucks drinker, said he tries to avoid buying some "liberal" products, like Ben & Jerry's ice cream. He said Starbucks should consider using more conservative voices, but if they don't, he's unlikely to stay away.

"I know about what the company does; I know what my money's going to," said Hoffman, 32. "For me, with Starbucks, it's not what's on the cup, but what's in the cup."

Company spokeswoman Valerie Hwang said the goal is not to stir up controversy. She said the company has lined up 60 contributors with "varying points of view, experiences and priorities" in an effort to promote "open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals."

Each cup also bears a caveat letting customers know that the quote is "the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks."

"The program is such that we're not requiring our customers to read," Hwang said, "but rather the quotes are there for our customers to discover and enjoy."

The cups also refer customers to the campaign's Web site, www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit where ordinary Joes can submit opinions for publication on a future cup. The site, as well as fliers available in each Starbucks store, encourage angry customers to lash out if they're upset.

Plenty of conservatives may do so. But liberals? Maston, for one, shrugs off the cup-quote controversy, and suggests most Starbucks addicts will do the same.

"If I was that upset about what they put on there," he said, "I wouldn't come here."

St. Petersburg Times ** Coffee with steam

Dems teach donors how to skirt campaign finance laws
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey Republicans on Thursday blasted a Democratic Party memo that reportedly tells contractors hoping to win business from the state how to bypass a new law intended to choke off their campaign contributions.

The law, trumpeted by Democrats as a win for ethics in government, restricts campaign donors from receiving state contracts worth $17,500 or more if they contributed more than $300 to a gubernatorial campaign, the governor's state party account or county committees controlled by the governor's political party.

The Star-Ledger of Newark on Thursday said the memo suggests contractors can still make sizable contributions, informing them they may donate up to $10,000 a year to the Democratic State Committee's federal campaign account. Money from that account can be used in state races with few restrictions, including ones that pertain to maximum contributions and disclosure obligations, according to state and federal election officials.

The memo was distributed among top Democratic fund-raisers before the party's annual fund-raising gala Tuesday evening, just hours after acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed the Democrat-sponsored pay-to-play law, the newspaper reported.

The pay-to-play law was an outgrowth of an executive order imposed last fall by Codey's predecessor, former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who resigned in November.

The Feb. 1 memo was written by Angelo Genova, the Democrats' top campaign finance lawyer, who also helped draft the measure Codey signed, according to the newspaper.

Genova said the subject matter of the memo was the executive order and called it "ludicrous" to say it was aimed at contractors. Both political parties and all candidates regularly inform contributors of obligations and restrictions concerning campaign donations.

Genova stressed that contributions to a party's federal campaign account would not enable donors to bypass the pay-to-play law. Money used from those accounts on state races must be reported to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission and would then trigger provisions of the pay-to-play law.

On Thursday, state Democratic Committee chairwoman Bonnie Watson Coleman issued a statement saying the memo advises contributors with respect to campaign finance law.

"In response to the many questions from our broad base of supporters, we provided the necessary information to keep them within compliance of the law. With changes in rules and regulations, it's important that our donors understand what contributions are permissible under the law and what contributions are not," Coleman said.

She added: "The party is diligent in adhering to the letter of the law and all regulatory requirements."

When he signed the pay-to-play law Tuesday, Codey, a Democrat, said it was the nation's strongest check on the practice of rewarding contributors with contracts, a relationship critics have characterized as legal bribery.

Codey said Thursday he was unaware of the memo but maintained it does nothing to change the reform initiative.

"I still think what we did changes state elections to a great extent and takes away the influence of vendor money," he said.

State GOP chief Tom Wilson said Democrats were interested only in guarding their election prospects in the fall.

"This is further proof they don't have an interest in doing the right thing. If anything should tell the voters who the real reformers are and who the posers are, it is this," Wilson said.

Democrats hold majorities in the Senate and General Assembly.

State Sen. Thomas Kean Jr., a sponsor of a Republican crackdown on pay-to-play that remains stalled in the Legislature, said Democrats aren't living up to their word.

"They have been talking reform for 3 years, but in practice they have been raising money any way they can. It's frustrating the majority party has figured out a way to circumvent the law even before it was signed," Kean said.

Newsday ~ Associated Press ** GOP lashes out at Democrat memo higlighting pay-to-play loophole

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