TERESA'S BACK: ELECTION WAS HACKED!
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: Teresa Heinz Kerry hasn't lost her outspoken way...
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Teresa Heinz Kerry is openly skeptical about results from November's election, the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER reports, particularly in sections of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes.

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as "hard-right" Republicans. She argued that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."

Heinz Kerry did not offer any specific evidence that votes on the machines were altered.

"We in the United States are not a banana republic," added Heinz Kerry during a fundraiser in Seattle.

"I fear for '06," she said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ** In The Northwest: Teresa Heinz Kerry hasn't lost her outspoken way

Now girls as young as this five year old think they have to be slim to be popular
Mood:  sad
Now Playing: THIS FIVE-YEAR-OLD THINKS SHE HAS TO BE SLIM TO BE POPULAR
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Girls as young as five are unhappy with their bodies and want to be thinner, according to a study which blames peer pressure in a child's early years at school.

Most girls thought that being slim would make them more popular, claimed the research in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. They would also have no hesitation in dieting if they gained weight. The study was conducted among five- to eight-year-olds in South Australia, but experts said last night that British children felt "paranoid" about their weight - partly because of the Government's anti-obesity message.

Dr Andrew Hill, of Leeds University Medical School, said research among more than 200 eight-year-olds showed a high awareness of the campaign against obesity. "Children have absorbed anti-fat messages loud and clear", he said. "To get people to listen about a condition, you talk it up, and we have got obesity on the health agenda.

"We have upped the ante, adding to negativity about being fat, but we need to be careful now so people are not paranoid about being fat.

"We want people who are overweight to do something about it. We don't want to terrorise youngsters."

The UK Eating Disorders Association said it was known that children as young as eight had been diagnosed with eating disorders and there may have been instances in younger children.

A spokesman said: "Low self-esteem is a major contributory factor of eating disorders: media images, peer pressure and family situations can also affect people. We are concerned but not surprised that school children as young as six are affected by them."

The latest research was conducted by academics at Flinders University among 81 girls. They were asked what they thought about their peers' level of unhappiness with their bodies and if they discussed body shape.

Almost half (46.9 per cent) wanted to be thinner, and 45.7 per cent said they would go on a diet if they gained weight. Among five-year-olds, 28.6 per cent wished they were thinner. After being shown pictures of a girl before and after putting on weight, 35 per cent of the girls thought her eating habits were to blame, and 28.6 per cent said she should go on a diet. Around 71 per cent of girls aged seven said they wanted to be thinner.

The report's authors said: "Body dissatisfaction and dieting awareness develop over the first two years of schooling."

Most of the girls believed that being thin would make them more likeable, although few said they discussed their bodies with friends. Their ideas about their friends' unhappiness with their bodies were linked to their own unhappiness with their bodies.

"It is therefore possible that peer transmissions of ideals about appearance could also occur through comments when trying on clothes or talking about pop stars when watching television," the report said.

Deanne Jade, of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, said the research should be treated cautiously because children often picked out a thin image as desirable when shown one by researchers but had no problem making friends with children of all shapes and sizes at school.

"What we do know, however, is that by the time they reach adulthood, 95 per cent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies and seven out of 10 girls have been on a diet," she said.

UK Telegraph ** Now girls as young as this five year old think they have to be slim to be popular

Now we know who's funding the insurgents... ITALY !
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Italians kept U.S. forces in dark
Topic: My Columns

Fanatical fruitcake lib loser Giuliana Sgrena, the former Iraq hostage and reporter for the Communist daily il Manifesto, charged that U.S. forces might have deliberately targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's policy of dealing with kidnappers.

First of all, it would've been nice to KNOW Italy's policy was to pay out millions to kidnappers in Iraq. Second, I'd love to know how the hell she thinks the U.S. forces knew her communist ass was in the car speeding towards the checkpoint, and how they knew the fucktarded frame of mind of the occupants of the vehicle.

But I'm sure those answers will go by the wayside to promote a new long line of bullshit conspiracy theories that U.S. troops are targeting anti-Iraq war journalists. Because her babbling bullshit newspaper ardently opposes Italy's deployment of 3,000 troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition (even though they offered no direct evidence to support the charge.)

It'll be (almost) like Easton Jordan at CNN all over again, except nobody will resign. These commie lib peacenik pacifist fucktards will just go on babbling the bullshit only they want to hear... not the truth. Kind of like CBS' "myopic zeal" here at home.

ONE OF THE MANY OFFICIAL NEWS STORIES.....
Washington Times ** Italians kept U.S. forces in dark

MICHELLE MALKIN WROTE A COLUMN ABOUT IT BETTER THAN I EVER COULD.....
Michelle Malkin ** The ransom of the red reporter

PLAYGIRL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OUTS HERSELF ~ AS A REPUBLICAN !
Mood:  surprised
Topic: News

When it comes to sex and politics, Democrats are the more liberal, right? Not so fast. Playgirl editor-in-chief Michele Zipp explores "down and dirty" politics and examines sexuality on both sides of the aisle. In the process she comes to a realization about herself and reveals for the first time she?s now a Republican.

"Siding with the GOP when you live in the bluest state around is almost like wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey at a New York Yankees' home game," says Zipp in the April issue of PLAYGIRL. "I cannot tell you how many times a person assumed I voted for John Kerry in 2004. Most of the time, I don?t have the heart to tell them, or the energy to discuss my reasons for going red this election year. But this is Playgirl magazine so it?s about time I was the one who bared what?s underneath."

How could a member of the media who produces adult entertainment for women possibly side with conservatives from the red states?

*

Zipp spells it out. "Those on the right are presumed to be all about power and greed ? two really sexy traits in the bedroom. They want it, they want it now, and they?ll do anything to get it. And I?m not talking about some pansy-assed victory, I?m talking about full on jackpot, satisfaction for all."

"The Democrats of the Sixties were all about making love and not war while a war-loving Republican is a man who would fight, bleed, sacrifice, and die for his country. Could you imagine what that very same man would do for his wife in the bedroom?" asks Zipp.

BEAUTY QUEEN TO DUPE BIG BROTHER HOUSEMATES
Mood:  crushed out
Topic: Odd Stuff

A Russian beauty queen on Germany's marathon version of Big Brother is pretending she can't speak German.

Miss Russia Anna, 19, has to pretend she cannot understand the other housemates when they speak German.

The stunning former Miss Universe finalist has actually been living near Cologne for 10 years and is fluent in German.

She will earn 1,000 euros for each day that her fellow contestants do not realise that she speaks German as well as Russian.

"I don't see it as taking them for a ride. It's more of an amusing challenge for me. I'm going to have to be really careful not to let something slip out or to talk in my sleep," she said.

German broadcasters say the new 24-hour Big Brother Village show could run for decades.

Eleven people have already moved into the village with another four inhabitants coming this week.

Katja Hofem-Best, the channel's entertainment executive, said the show would be "endless - God and TV viewers willing."

Ananova.com UK ** Beauty queen to dupe BB housemates

WELLESLEY COLLEGE GIRLS GO TO HOSPITAL INSTEAD OF "DYKE" BALL
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: 11 hard-partying Wellesley girls go to hospital instead of "Dyke" ball
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

A "creative black tie" evening at the annual Dyke Ball at Wellesley College ended in the emergency room or infirmary for 11 party girls who drank the night away Saturday before the school-sanctioned celebration sponsored by a lesbian, bisexual and transgender group, school officials and students said.

This is the second time in two years that preball boozing has marred the wildly popular tradition at the women's college where revelers don anything from shorts and ribbed tank tops to Saran Wrap, corsets and, for the men, drag-queen costumes and tuxedo thongs. Alcohol is not served at the party.

The 11 students, some of them underage, were taken from dormitories and the party site at the Keohane Sports Center Field House to the school infirmary and several area hospitals for treatment of alcohol intoxication, said college spokeswoman Mary Ann Hill. It's too early to tell if the tradition, which attracted 2,000 students, could be called off next year, but Hill said "all options" are on the table.

"While the party was not out of control, some people's drinking was out of control," said Hill. All the students are expected to recover and will appear before the college's alcohol hearing board.

"It's just about doing what you feel like doing, but because people party beforehand, it gets a little risque," said a Wellesley senior who attended the party, but refused to give her name.

Under the "creative black tie" rules, baseball caps, khakis, jeans and polo shirts are off limits and drag dress is encouraged for the men, students said. Cellphones and cameras also aren't allowed.

"They don't want pictures because there are scantily clad people," said junior Liz Abbey.

College officials tried to quell preball boozing by delivering pizza and hot chocolate to dorms and pushing an alcohol-awareness campaign that began after last year's party, when about a dozen students were rushed to area hospitals after heavy drinking.

Students said the school follows a "better safe than sorry" policy when it comes to alcohol intoxication.

"They have a policy of taking someone to the hopital if someone is (vomiting)," said Wellesley freshman Elizabeth Harrell.

Officials of Spectrum, the Wellesley lesbian, bisexual and transgender group sponsoring the party, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"People who drink are people who drink. There's no correlation with the group," Hill said.

Boston Herald ** Wellesley girls gone wild: Hard-partying students go to hospital instead of ball

White House press corps admits its first 'blogger'
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: White House Approves Pass for Blogger
Topic: News

Another signal moment for bloggers is to occur this morning, when Garrett M. Graff, who writes a blog about the news media in Washington, is to be ushered into the White House briefing room to attend the daily press "gaggle."

Mr. Graff, 23, may be the first blogger in the short history of the medium to be granted a daily White House pass for the specific purpose of writing a blog, or Web log. A White House spokesman said yesterday that he believed Mr. Graff was the first blogger to be given credentials.

He is being given a press pass as the editor of FishbowlDC (http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc), a blog that is published by Mediabistro.com, which offers networking and services for journalists.

Increasingly, bloggers are penetrating the preserves of the mainstream news media. They have secured seats on campaign planes, at political conventions and in presidential debates, and have become a driving force in news events themselves.

Mr. Graff said he was inspired to try to seek access to the White House by the controversy over James D. Guckert, who used the alias Jeff Gannon. Mr. Guckert was granted daily passes to White House briefings while writing for a Web site run by a Republican operative in Texas. The episode raised questions about who was a legitimate journalist and how access to the White House was granted.

White House press officials and others said it was relatively easy to get a day pass, prompting Mr. Graff to test that premise. He set about trying to get one and chronicled his attempt on his blog.

He made 20 phone calls and got nowhere. Bigger blogs picked up on his saga, and traffic on FishbowlDC increased tenfold, he said. But it was not until the traditional media joined in, Mr. Graff said, that the White House relented.

"USA Today started making calls on Thursday. CNN mentioned it on 'Inside Politics,' and Ron Hutcheson, president of the White House Correspondents Association, raised the issue with the White House Press Office," he said. "I think a combination of all of that made the White House pay attention and decide to let me in."

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said he had met with the White House Correspondents Association and they had decided to let Mr. Graff in. "It is the press corps' briefing room and if there are any new lines to be drawn, it should be done by their association," he said.

Mr. Graff said he was surprised at the help he received from "real" reporters covering the White House, given what he described as the animosity between some bloggers and the mainstream news media.

Mr. Graff is something of a bridge between those two worlds. Although he is a blogger, he has old-media genes: his father, Christopher Graff, is the chief correspondent in Vermont for The Associated Press; and his grandfather, Bert McCord, was the drama critic for The New York Herald Tribune.

Mr. Graff himself was executive editor of The Harvard Crimson. He said he became a blogger because "it's the newest trend in journalism."

In any case, Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University and specialist in blogging, said Mr. Graff's odyssey was significant for two reasons. First, he showed that it was harder to get a pass than the White House said it was after the Guckert case.

Secondly, he said, Mr. Graff was expanding the definition of what constitutes the press, just as radio and television once pushed those boundaries.

NY Times ** White House Approves Pass for Blogger

Berkeley Student Pol to be Stripped of Office FOR BEING CONSERVATIVE
Mood:  on fire
Now Playing: ASUC President Plans To Override His Pick For Judicial Council
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

ASUC senators are alleging that a newly appointed judicial council member, who the senate confirmed Wednesday night, misled the Senate about her political group involvement.

Senators say Amaris White, a former Daily Cal reporter, did not reveal her ties to the conservative California Patriot magazine and the Berkeley College Republicans when senators asked what groups White participated in.

"Did she deliberately try to mislead us? The answer is definitely yes," said SQUELCH! Senator Ben Narodick, who confronted White about her group affiliations outside of the senate chambers Wednesday. "It was obvious that she wasn't being forthcoming with us."

White told the senate at her confirmation hearing that she provided art for student publications, but did not specify the publications.

An Internet search revealed that White is the art editor for the Patriot, Narodick said. He said he was unable to raise this issue during the hearing.

"I didn't mention it because I didn't think it was relevant," White said. "I don't think that it will be a problem because the cases that come before the council are mostly concerning the ASUC. My political views should have no effect whatsoever."

The concerns over White's honesty prompted CalSERVE senators to push the senate to reconsider her confirmation after the vote Wednesday, but they failed to garner the 14 necessary votes.

ASUC President Misha Leybovich, who nominated White for the seat, is expected to submit a veto to override the appointment and oust White from the council.

"Lying is unacceptable, especially in the body of ASUC that is supposed to hold the association accountable," Leybovich said. "To start off one's Judicial Council career with a dishonest way of getting there just really doesn't sit well with me. This is absolutely not a personal attack; clearly I think she's qualified to be on the council, but a lie provides a barrier that no qualification can overcome."

Political affiliation can often tip the scales in a potential council member's appointment, since the council hears suits that often split along party lines. Some senators are reluctant to vote for radical left-leaning or right-leaning appointees.

Leybovich said he has seen council appointees hide affiliations to ensure their appointment.

"I can see where she's coming from to hide that information, though I don't endorse her decision," said council Chair Robert Gregg. "This situation might reflect negatively on the credibility of individual justices."

Some senators and officials said the push to void White's appointment is driven by her political affiliation, not her failure to mention the Patriot.

"They're pissed as hell they voted for a Republican ... and are demagoguing that she lied to save face," former council Chair Mike Davis said in an e-mail. "It's nothing new. They were saying vicious things about me when I was on the council."

But the legitimacy of a presidential veto is also in question. Leybovich can override main motions, but officials are at odds over whether an appointment qualifies as a main motion.

"The president can veto legislative actions of the Senate, which an act of confirmation is certainly not," Davis said. "Amaris should apologize for lying and everyone should move on."

Daily Californian ** Senators Say Appointee Hid Conservative Affiliations

Universities Are Now The Power Base of the Left
Mood:  loud
Now Playing: Mike Rosen: CU is worth fighting for
Topic: News

Thank you Ward Churchill! As the poster child for so much of what's wrong with higher education today, you moved this issue from the back burner to the front burner of public policy. Whether you stay or go is merely another battle. This is about the war of ideas.

Richard Rorty is a philosophy professor at the University of Virginia. He's also editor of an unabashedly socialist magazine, Dissent, and a hero of the academic left. Here's his political assessment of academe: "The power base of the Left in America is now in the universities, since the trade unions have largely been killed off. The universities have done a lot of good work by setting up, for example, African-American studies programs, Women's Studies programs, and Gay and Lesbian Studies programs. They have created power bases for these movements."

Movements? If you had any illusions that these programs were simply "studying" these areas, now you know better. Like Churchill's Ethnic Studies program, they're all "movements." And American universities have become "the power base of the Left."

The debate stimulated by the Churchill affair has escalated into a long overdue exploration into the politics and processes of higher education. The sacred cow of tenure is under review, along with the limits of academic freedom and the shameful lack of ideological balance within college faculties. It's like peeling off the outer layers of an artichoke to get to the heart of the issue.

And this is it: 1) Ideology and politics. As Rorty proudly proclaims, the Left has taken over academe. We want it back. 2) Accountability. Self-important academics believe themselves to be beyond reproach, sitting as philosopher-kings, dispensing their wisdom to the ignorant masses. Nonsense. They're ordinary people, government employees dependent on their customers and the taxpayers for their income, and ultimately accountable to their bosses and the citizens who elect the Board of Regents. Academic freedom is not absolute.

One hundred ninety-nine CU faculty members, in an ad in the Boulder Daily Camera, have "demanded" that the investigation of Churchill be "stopped immediately." They argue that inquiries into his alleged plagiarism, misrepresentation of sources cited in his "scholarly" writings, false claims of Indian status in his affirmative action job application, and incitements to commit violence should be inadmissible because he had originally been criticized only for his ideas. Please. This is like saying a fugitive serial killer should be released because he was originally stopped by the police for making an illegal left turn. Churchill's potty mouth is what got him noticed.

Some of his apologists have resorted to playing the "McCarthyism" card. Nonsense. This implies that Churchill is being unjustly hounded for things he has not done or things that cause no harm.

On the contrary, Churchill's misdeeds appear to be quite tangible, deadly serious and extremely harmful. That's why there's an investigation. Let's see what it concludes.

Professor Charles Braider, director of the Center for Humanities and Arts, says the Churchill investigation has caused a "chilling effect" on curriculum and is "affecting the very life of the university." Good. It's about time. I'd prefer to call it a remedial, correcting effect.

Whatever the outcome for Churchill, the battle lines have formed and are hardening. Here's what many of us, I hope most, would like to see: substantive change, a revolution even, at the University of Colorado. It must start with electing regents who have a commitment to restoring real, intellectual diversity and an evenhanded exchange of ideas. That means hiring conservative professors to balance the now left-lopsided scales.

It means ending politically correct speech codes for students and the "diversity" and "sensitivity" re-education camps freshmen are forced to attend. It means a housecleaning of administrators, starting with President Betsy Hoffman. It means hiring new administrators with sufficient backbone to take on the entrenched, leftist faculty with knowledge that the regents will stand behind those administrators. If the changing culture disturbs some in the tenured left who preferred their monopoly, let them leave, and good riddance.

We're told that applications from out-of-state students - who subsidize Colorado students by paying six times the resident tuition - have fallen off sharply. Here's the perfect remedy: Convert CU into a bastion of conservative thought, making it the only big-time state university in the country of that kind. The pent-up demand for such a school is overwhelming.

Multitudes of students would beat a path to our door.

Rocky Mountain News Column ** Universities Are Now The Power Base of the Left

AIR AMERICA'S LOUSY RATINGS
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: Liberal Talk Radio Continues to Struggle
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Michelle Malkin has a round-up of ratings data for Air America, a year into its life. the signs are not terribly encouraging. In most of its major cities, it has a found a niche audience of roughly one-third or less of the leading conservative talk radio station in the market. In fact, the #1 market data in New York is even worse, given the fact that most major cities have at least two conservative talk stations.

Nobody seems to want to point out that Air America's biggest handicap, aside from the lameness of its programming, is that it faces subsidized competition from NPR talk shows, which don't cause the audience to suffer through annoying commercials. To admit this would be to concede that NPR is left wing, and that government subsidies are a bad thing.

Air America's flagship station, WLIB-AM in New York, garnered a 1.2 share in the latest quarter, down 0.1 from the year-ago period. By comparison, WABC-AM, New York's leading conservative station, garnered a 3.8 share, up 0.1 from the year-ago period. WOR-AM, another conservative station, posted a 2.1 share, down 0.1 from the year-earlier period.

WLIB has now had a full year, a generous amount of time in broadcasting, to build an audience and figures are still flat compared with the previous niche Caribbean format the station featured. Often in radio that would mean imminent cancellation, but backers continue to be so noisy, they have generated enough industry hype to sustain poor performance a tad bit longer....

My contention is that if liberal talk radio can't find an audience in New York City, it certainly doesn't have a chance in San Antonio, Reno, Fresno and other places now gaining Air America stations that have small "progressive" populations.

LINKS: Arbitron Ratings Service ** Listings for New York, NY (#1 Market) Arbitron Results

Michelle Malkin ** AIR AMERICA'S LOUSY RATINGS

The Radio Equalizer ** Update: Liberal Talk Radio Continues to Struggle

Arbitron Ratings Service ** Listings by release date - Winter 2005 Phase 1 Arbitron Results