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Philadelphia Aims to Go Wireless Internet

Earthlink Inc. has finalized a 10-year contract to provide wireless Internet service across Philadelphia, a city official said Monday.

Philadelphia was the first large city to announce plans to build a wireless Internet network and provide low-cost access to residents as a way to span the digital divide. Smaller cities already have networks in operation.

In Philadelphia, Earthlink will own the network and charge a wholesale rate of $9 a month to Internet service providers that would then resell access to the public, according to Dianah Neff, the city’s chief information officer.

The contract doesn’t specify the monthly rate that would be charged to consumers, but Neff said the wholesale price is low enough to enable ISPs to offer low-cost services. City officials had been trying to keep the monthly price to $20 or less.

The contract will go before the City Council for approval in February. Construction should start right after the contract is signed. Earthlink will build the network initially over a 15-square-mile area in Northeast Philadelphia to prove the system will work, Neff said. If successful, citywide access could be turned on by spring 2007.

Under the terms of the agreement, which can be renewed, Atlanta-based Earthlink will carry the cost to build the Wi-Fi network to cover 135 square miles.

Earthlink also will pay the city and Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit handling the project, a fee to mount equipment on city infrastructure, such as lamp posts.

Bill Gates: Turn Cell Phones Into Computers

Microsoft is proposing an inexpensive technology to bring computing to the developing world – turning a cell phone into a computer by connecting it to a TV and a keyboard.

The company’s Chairman Bill Gates demonstrated a mockup of the proposed cellular PC at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.

And he cited the technology as a cheaper alternative to PCs and laptops during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Everyone is going to have a cell phone,” said Microsoft’s Vice President Craig J. Mundie.

In locales where television sets are already common, "turning a phone into a computer could simply require adding a cheap adaptor and keyboard,” the New York Times reports.

Mundie said there is no timetable for marketing the cell phone technology, and Microsoft has not said how much the devices would cost.

Howard Dean Implicates Harry Reid in Abramoff Scandal

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that Democrats who took money from Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff and who did something on behalf of those tribes have "a big problem."

Dean made the statement apparently unaware that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has reportedly done exactly that.

Under questioning by "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace, Dean claimed that Democrats did no favors for Abramoff's Indian tribe clients:

"Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff," the top Democrat insisted. "No Democrat delivered anything and there's no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered anything to Jack Abramoff. And that's not true of the Republicans."

But Wallace countered: "So if we find that there were some Democrats who wrote letters on behalf of some of the Indian tribes that Abramoff represented, then what do you say, sir?"

Dean's response: "That's a big problem. And those Democrats are in trouble. And they should be in trouble."

In November 2005 the Associated Press reported that Senate Minority Leader Reid had accepted tens of thousands of dollars from an Abramoff client, the Coushatta Indian tribe, after interceding with Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton over a casino dispute with a rival tribe.

Reid "sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002," the AP said. "The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004."

Questioned about the donations in December by "Fox News Sunday's" Wallace, Reid immediately turned testy.

"Don't try to say I received money from Abramoff. I've never met the man, don't know anything," he claimed.

The full exchange between Dean and Wallace went like this:

DEAN: It is possible that some of Jack Abramoff's clients may have decided on their own to give Democrats some money. The key is . . .

WALLACE: I'm sorry. Did you say that you're sure that Abramoff didn't direct them to give that money?

DEAN: No, what I said was that it is possible that some Democrats got money from someone he [represented]. What I'm saying is that Abramoff may not have directed some of this money to Democrats.

WALLACE: In fact, he did. We have evidence of that.

DEAN: But the point is not one Democrat either knew it or acted on it. Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff. No Democrat delivered anything and there's no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered anything to Jack Abramoff. And that's not true of the Republicans.

WALLACE: So if we find - and we have to wrap this up - so if we find that there were some Democrats who wrote letters on behalf of some of the Indian tribes that Abramoff represented, then what do you say, sir?

DEAN: That's a big problem. And those Democrats are in trouble. And they should be in trouble. [END EXCERPT]

Syria Gave Al Qaida Saddam's WMDs

A former senior military advisor to Saddam Hussein is warning that the chemical weapons used by top Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi in a foiled 2004 plot to attack Amman, Jordan were the same weapons Saddam Hussein transported to Syria before the U.S. invasion.

Gen. Georges Sada offered the stunning revelation Saturday while explaining why he didn't decide to go public about Saddam's hidden WMD stockpile until recently.

"As a general, you see, we should keep our secrets," Gen. Sada told WABC Radio's Monica Crowley. But when news broke of the foiled WMD attack on Amman, he changed his mind.

"I understood that the terrorists were going to make an explosion in Amman in Jordan . . . . and they were targeting the prime minister of Jordan, the intelligence [headquarters] of Jordan, and maybe the American embassy in Jordan - and they were going to use the same chemical weapons which we had in Iraq," he told WABC.

Last week, Gen. Sada generated headlines when he told the New York Sun that Saddam had shipped his biological and chemical weapons stockpiles to Syria in the weeks before the U.S. attacked in March 2003.

But until yesterday, the former top Iraqi official had said nothing about al Qaida gaining access to those same weapons.

"It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government," said Jordan's King Abdullah at the time, in an interview about the Zarqawi plot with the San Francisco Chronicle.

Had it succeeded, the WMD strike would have been the most deadly terrorist attack in world history, with Jordanian officials estimating that Zarqawi's al Qaida team could have killed up to 20,000 people.

While King Abdullah said that trucks containing chemical weapons had come from Syria, he did not identify Iraq as the ultimate source of Zarqawi's WMDs.

Gen. Sada, however, said he had no doubt that Zarqawi intended to use the same chemical weapons Saddam had sent to Syria.

Telling Crowley that he was "shocked" when news of the Zarqawi plot broke, Saddam's former top advisor recalled thinking: "My God, I know many things. How can I keep them [secret any longer]."

Gen. Sada also detailed on Saturday the Iraqi dictator's plan to launch his own WMD attack during the first Gulf War, explaining, "He wanted to attack Israel with chemical weapons."

The top Iraqi military man recalled a meeting of senior defense ministers where Saddam ordered: "I want you to do two things that are very important - to attack Israel and to attack Saudi Arabia with chemical weapons."

Gen. Sada said the planned WMD strike was to be carried out by 98 aircraft, including Soviet-built Sukhoi 24s, MiGs and French-built Mirage jets.

"One wave would fly through Syria and the other wave through Jordan and then penetrate to Israel," he said.

Gen. Sada recalled that he was the only one to raise objections, warning Saddam that such an attack would surely provoke a nuclear response from Tel Aviv.

"I told all this directly [to Saddam] and everybody was listening. If a needle was dropped on the carpet you would hear it," he told Crowley.

After presenting a nearly two-hour-long argument against the WMD attack, Gen. Sada said Saddam was finally persuaded to pull the plug on the deadly operation.

Hamas Oath Vows Death to Jews

U.S. officials, including President Bush, have reacted to Hamas' shocking victory in Wednesday's Palestinian parliamentary elections by saying that unless the terrorist group renounces violence and lays down its arms, Washington will withdraw its support for the Palestinian state.

A good place for top Hamas officials to start might be to denounce a particularly noxious little document that the terror group calls its "Martyr's Oath."

The stunning message, which reads like a terrorist pledge of allegiance, was posted on Friday to the Jerusalem Post's web site.

Here's a few highlights:

The Hamas "Martyr's Oath":

"Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious...The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realized...

"The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him...'

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.

"The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies...
The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion... It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups.

"We should not forget to remind every Muslim that when the Jews conquered the Holy City in 1967, they stood on the threshold of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and proclaimed that 'Mohammed is dead, and his descendants are all women.'

"Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. 'May the cowards never sleep.'"

Thumbs Down on Prez Hillary Clinton

By a margin of three to one, Americans say they would "definitely" vote against Hillary Clinton for president, a CNN/Gallup poll released Tuesday has found.

While just 16 percent say they had made up their minds to back Clinton when she seeks the presidency in 2008, 51 percent say there's no way they want to see the former first lady back in the White House.

Men are the most vehement when it comes to the prospect of another Clinton presidency, with 60 percent telling Gallup they would vote against Hillary for sure.

Reporting on the Gallup survey in today's edition, the New York Post notes that women are slightly less repulsed by the notion of Mrs. Clinton running the country, with just 43 percent saying they definitely don't want to see her in the Oval Office.

Even Mrs. Clinton's liberal base isn't solidly behind her, with a full one-third of self described liberals telling Gallup/CNN they have no intention of supporting her in 2008.

Late Nite Jokes

Letterman

It’s the flue season. The cold season. Everyone is being cautious. On my way to work today my cab driver was wearing a turban made of antibiotic wipes.

Did you hear about this? A snowstorm might hit Hawaii. Don’t worry, FEMA is on the way.

It can’t be snowing in Hawaii. I’m not on vacation there right now.

At a press conference yesterday President Bush was asked if he had seen "Brokeback Mountain”. He said he hadn’t seen the movie but is interested in drilling for oil there.

Conan

The New York Mets have announced they are starting their own cable television network. No word yet on what the channel will air in the month of October.

The movie "Son of Man” is making news. It’s a story of a black Jesus. Conservative Christian groups in the south are upset saying, it was bad enough he was Jewish, now this.

Pat Leahy Labeled 'Abramoff Democrat'

NewsMax - While national Democrats are calling the Jack Abramoff lobbying imbroglio a "Republican scandal," top Vermont Democrat, Sen. Pat Leahy, is being labeled an "Abramoff Democrat" by home state critics.

The Vermont Guardian has uncovered thousands of dollars in contributions to Leahy by lawfirms linked to Abramoff - though the senator's spokesman says that any suggestion of a relationship to the disgraced Republican is ridiculous.

"It’s preposterous to even think that Jack Abramoff would do anything to support a progressive Democratic leader like Patrick Leahy," Ed Pagano, Leahy’s chief of staff, told the paper.

However, the Guardian says it has discovered that Leahy "received thousands of dollars from attorneys at Preston, Gates, Ellis, Meeds and Rouvelas, and Greenberg Traurig, the two high-powered legal firms where Abramoff hung his hat."

While Pagano said the donations were coincidental, Jim Barnett, executive director of the Vermont Republican Party, told the paper:

"Everyone knows that this is a process called bundling, and that Abramoff would walk into the firm and ask attorneys to donate $1,000, $500, or $250 to a campaign. This is Abramoff money and this is just an example of the utter hypocrisy that this issue only affects Republicans.

"Pat Leahy is an Abramoff Democrat,” Barnett insisted.

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

It’s been so windy here. Today illegal aliens were hang gliding across the border.

For the first time the Miss America Pageant was not broadcast on network television. It was on cable TV. It was on the Country Music Channel. You could really tell. Like three of the finalist said that their life’s goal was to be the first to marry outside their family.

The budget was not as big as in previous years. Like last year the winner got a check for $50,000. This year Miss Oklahoma got some flowers and a $200 gift certificate from the sizzler.

And they didn’t sing, "There she is, Miss America”. Larry the Cable Guy just told the winner, "Git-r-done.”

As you know, the Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers 34-14. This is the most disappointing thing for panther fans since they fired those lesbian cheerleaders.

So it’s the Steelers and the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. So you’ve got Pittsburgh, the city known for Rocky Blier, Frank O’Harris, Terry Bradshaw, Mean Joe Green. And Seattle, the city where Bill Gates is from.

The government is still analyzing Osama bin Laden’s latest tape. On his most recent release he called Bush a liar and said that he was just after oil. It’s the usual stuff we have heard before. Like at the Golden Globes.

Senator Ted Kennedy said he plans to quit the owl club, a social club that bans women. Today Hillary Clinton asked Ted if he knew of any other clubs that ban women that her husband could join.

Some sad news – NBC has cancelled the west wing. The NBC show "West Wing” has been cancelled. That’s when you know things are bad…when even fictional Democrats aren’t doing well. Can’t even get elected on TV anymore.

Letterman

America’s must trusted man, Walter Cronkite who is 89 will get married this weekend. Cronkite is looking forward to the wedding night because it’s been a long time since he was able to say, "This just in.”

FISA Fears Shielded 9/11 Plotters

Contrary to the claims of Bush administration critics, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has seriously hampered U.S. counterterrorism efforts - and actually helped to shield at least two key 9/11 plotters from detection by U.S. law enforcement.

The stunning analysis comes from former Reagan-era Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, who explains on OpinionJournal.com: "I have extensive experience with the consequences of government bungling due to overstrict interpretations of FISA."

As deputy assistant attorney general one of Toensing's chief responsibilities was the terrorism portfolio, which included working with FISA.

She recalled having to terminate a FISA wiretap in the midst of the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, which ended in the murder of passenger-hostage Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem.

We had a previously placed tap in the U.S. and thought there was a possibility we could learn the hostages' location," Toensing explained. "But Justice Department career lawyers told me that the FISA statute defined its 'primary purpose' as foreign intelligence gathering. Because crimes were taking place, the FBI had to shut down the wire."

Toensing notes that the vaunted FISA law became the basis for former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick's notorious wall of separation in 1995 - which prohibited intelligence agencies from sharing information on terrorists with U.S. law enforcement.

She recalled that when "the wall" was finally removed in 2001 by the Patriot Act, the FISA appeals court upheld the new law's constitutionality with a ruling that characterized the rigid interpretation of the FISA statute as "puzzling."

"The court cited an FBI agent's testimony that efforts to investigate two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were blocked by senior FBI officials, concerned about the FISA rule requiring separation."

Toensing said that if intelligence agencies had been able to wiretap terrorists operating inside the U.S. as they do under the Bush program, "we could have detected the presence of Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego, more than a year before they crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon."

The former Reagan deputy AG dismantles another canard frequently touted by FISA supporters: That the Bush surveillance program could have been just as effective if he'd utilized the provision for retroactive court orders up to 72 hours after the surveillance begins.

Noting that FISA still requires that probable cause be established over that three day period, she offers the following example:

"Al Qaeda Agent A is captured in Afghanistan and has Agent B's number in his cell phone, which is monitored by NSA overseas. Agent B makes two or three calls every day to Agent C, who flies to New York."

That chain of facts, without further evidence, says Toensing, "does not establish probable cause for a court to believe that C is an agent of a foreign power with information about terrorism."

If Bush critics had their way, however, U.S. monitoring of Al Qaeda Agent C's phone calls would have to cease the moment he landed on U.S. soil - allowing him to continue receiving instructions in secret from his terror masters abroad right up to the day he carries out the next 9/11.

John Kerry Touts Al Qaida Successes

NewsMax - In quotes sure to bring delight to Osama bin Laden and his followers, Sen. John Kerry said Sunday that the reason the U.S. homeland hasn't been attacked by al Qaida since 9/11 is because the terror group is having so much success against U.S. forces in Iraq.

"Many people surmise that one of the reasons we haven't been attacked here, is because they are being so successful at doing what they need to do to attack us in Iraq and elsewhere," the failed presidential candidate told ABC's "This Week."

Kerry was responding to comments Friday by chief White House advisor Karl Rove, who credited President Bush with "protecting America against attacks."

"He is winning the war against terrorism, promoting liberty in regions of the world that have never known it," Rove told a Republican gathering in Washington, D.C.

Rove complained that Democrats like Kerry still had "a pre-9/11 worldview."
On Thursday, bin Laden released an audiotaped message that seemed to echo comments by Bush administration critics, including Sen. Kerry.

Asked whether bin Laden had expressed "almost the same" sentiments that Kerry had in the past, "CBS Evening News" anchorman Bob Schieffer told WABC Radio's Mark Simone: "Well, he did. That's exactly right."

But Schieffer cautioned that he couldn't be sure whether bin Laden was consciously borrowing from Kerry.

"You can never know about things like that," the veteran newsman explained. "But [bin Laden's] people seem to have tremendous access. And television being what it is, and now with satellites and so forth, these things go all over the world. Perhaps he did."

Osama bin Laden Used John Kerry's Talking Points

9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden may have borrowed some of Sen. John Kerry's talking points for the audiotaped message he released on Thursday - veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer said Saturday.

Asked whether bin Laden had expressed "almost the same" sentiments that Kerry did during an appearance on Schieffer's "Face the Nation" broadcast in December, the CBS anchorman told WABC Radio's Mark Simone: "Well, he did. That's exactly right."

Back then, Kerry complained to Schieffer: "There is no reason that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids."

In his message, bin Laden also complained that the U.S. was terrorizing Iraqi innocents, saying that "the oppressive measures adopted by the U.S. Army and its agents" show "there is no difference between this criminality and Saddam's criminality, as it has reached the degree of raping women and taking them as hostages instead of their husbands."

Schieffer said he wasn't sure whether bin Laden was consciously borrowing from Kerry, but he added it was possible.

"You can never know about things like that," he told Simone. "But these people seem to have tremendous access. And television being what it is, and now with satellites and so forth, these things go all over the world. Perhaps he did."

Dean Denounces Rove's Remarks

WASHINGTON - NewsMax

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean says White House adviser Karl Rove's push to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue is "both unpatriotic and wrong."

Dean was responding to remarks made Friday by Rove, who said Republicans have "a post-9/11 view of the world," while Democrats have a "pre-9/11 view."

Dean denounced the remarks and again said that Rove should be fired for his role in leaking a CIA official's name.

Rove's appearance was a rare public one, and he used it to push the president's mission of staying in Iraq.

He says that Republicans understand better than Democrats the "the nature of the threat and the gravity that America finds itself in."

'Osama's People' Smuggled Into U.S.?

NewsMax - Court documents in a Brownsville, Texas drug-smuggling case cite a wiretapped telephone conversation by one of the smugglers who said that "Osama's people" are ready to be transported across the Mexican border into the U.S.

The Brownsville Herald reported earlier this week:

"[Paperwork in the case] contains details of a December 2004 incident in which [one smuggler] tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern 'terrorists' waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.

"Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the [suspect] referring to the 20 men as 'gente de Osama.'”

According to these same court documents - the phrase translates into "Osama’s people.”

The court documents cited by the Herald also revealed:

"During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, [the smuggling suspect] described the men as 'Iraqis,' ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.

"[The suspect] mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were 'dangerous' and 'really bad people.' They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them 'afraid.'"

FBI officials declined to comment further on the case. But one federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the paper that the men labeled "terrorists” turned out to be illegal aliens from a "nation of concern.”

The FBI declined to say whether "Osama's people" made it across the border or if authorities had apprehended them.

Jimmy Carter Has High Hopes for Hamas

Former President Jimmy Carter expressed optimism Friday over Hamas's participation in next week's Palestinian parliamentary elections, saying that while the group may be terrorists, at least they're not corrupt.

Interviewed Friday, Carter said that although Hamas were "so-called terrorists," so far "there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials."

In quotes reported by the Jerusalem Post, Carter did concede that "there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel's right to exist."

Citing his own negotiations with Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yassir Arafat, however, Carter said sometimes you have to learn to work with terrorists. At the time of Carter's Camp David Accords, the PLO was still outlawed as a terrorist organization.

The former president also invoked the example of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin's membership in the Irgun, which Carter reminded "was also characterized as a terrorist organization."

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

Al Jazeera has released an audiotape from Osama bin Laden. State Department officials say it shows he’s aware of world events. It opens up congratulating Brad and Angelina on their baby.

If you missed the broadcast, you can download it from iTunes for 99 cents. They don’t want you to steal because that would be wrong.

On the tape bin Laden. He has three demands. That we pull our troops out of Iraq. That we pull the troops out of Afghanistan. And he wants to see actual stars on dancing with the stars.

Today NASA launch it first ever mission to Pluto. President Bush is very excited about this. I didn’t even know Pluto had oil. Did you know there was oil on Pluto?

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is being criticized for saying that God wants New Orleans to be a chocolate city and that the hurricanes were because God was mad at us. The good news, today he was nominated for the Pat Robertson Lifetime Achievement Award.

Last night in a game against the Bulls, New York Knicks forward Antonio Davis went into the crowd to defend his wife against an unruly fan. How refreshing is that? An NBA player who actually wants to spend time with his wife!

According to the "National Enquirer”, Michael Jackson plans to convert to Islam and will even take an Islamic name. "Malcolm in The Middle X”.

Letterman

There’s a new Osama bin Laden tape. We haven’t heard from him in about a year. Experts say it’s current because in the tape he references the Hillary Swank divorce.

There’s a report that Ted Kennedy might have had a child out of wedlock. Who hasn’t?

This is the sort of thing that could damage the Kennedy reputation with women.

Scooter Libby's Lawyers: Subpoena Reporters

NewsMax - Lawyers for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal judge Friday they want to subpoena journalists and news organizations for documents they may have related to the leak of a CIA operative's name.

In a joint filing with prosecutors, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, 55, warned U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that a trial likely will be delayed because of their strategy to seek more subpoenas of reporters' notes and other records.

Libby was indicted last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters.

Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium "yellowcake" in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Africa to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports; he concluded they were untrue.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in announcing the charges against Libby, portrayed Cheney's former chief of staff as the first government official to have shared Plame's name and her work at the CIA with reporters in the summer of 2003.

Libby's defense team did not disclose the names of reporters or new organizations it wants to subpoena.

The filing provides the most concrete indication yet that a large part of Libby's trial strategy will be identifying other government officials who knew Plame was a CIA operative and told reporters about it.

The kind of subpoena cited is for documents or records, not testimony. Such subpoenas usually require records to be turned over before trial so the defense team would have a chance to review them. Libby's team said it expects a delay in the trial while news organizations fight the subpoenas, if Walton agrees to issue them.

The defense attorneys also told Walton that a significant disagreement is brewing between Libby's team and Fitzgerald's prosecutors over whether reporters heard Plame's name from government sources other than Libby.

Libby's lawyers said information about other sources used by reporters is "material to the preparation of the defense."

No trial date has been set. Walton had requested the update on the prosecution's exchange of evidence with the defense before a Feb. 3 hearing in the case.

Fitzgerald said he has turned over 10,150 pages of classified and unclassified documents to Libby's defense team.

But the defense attorneys said they want more. They said they may subpoena other executive branch agencies - besides the special prosecutor's office and the FBI - if Fitzgerald continues to refuse to turn over information he has from those departments. They did not specify which agencies.

Shortly after Libby's indictment, The Washington Post revealed that one of its editors, Bob Woodward, who achieved fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, may have been the first reporter to learn about Plame.

Woodward gave a sworn deposition to Fitzgerald late last year, telling the special prosecutor that a top administration official told him in mid-June 2003 that Wilson was married to Plame.

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

It was so cold in L.A. Shaq and Kobe are now hugging for warmth.

In the Midwest it was so cold some people were actually forced to stay inside and watch NBC.

It was so cold in New Jersey, people were using their mullets as a scarf!

This week the government is scheduled to launch a mission to Pluto. It's President Bush's last chance to find those weapons of mass destruction.

Al Gore was pretty upset too. Did you hear his speech? I haven’t seen Gore this angry since they charged him for two seats on a Southwest Airlines flight.

Here is an odd story. A dentist in Britain has been banned from practicing dentistry after she allowed her unlicensed and untrained boyfriend to perform dental work on patients. How amazing is that? They have dentists in Britain? Who knew?

Some sad news. The rumor going around, after 14 years of marriage, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown may be splitting up. I guess Whitney came home early one day and caught bobby hitting other women.

It should be pretty easy to divide up their assets…just use a credit card.

Letterman

It’s been rainy and windy here in New York City. And I hate that here because everywhere you go there’s that wet King Kong smell.

Did you see the "Skating With Celebrities” show tonight? What a great show. At the end of the show Tonya Harding shot Robert Blake.

Conan

President Bush met with the Prime Minister of Belgium and there was a tense moment when the Prime Minister demanded that the prison in Guantanmo Bay be closed. President Bush responded by saying, "It is closed. That’s how we keep the prisoners in there!”

Sen. Jim DeMint Blasts Sen. Harry Reid's Hypocrisy

NewsMax - Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) chastized Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Wednesday for Reid’s hypocritical sermonizing on congressional ethics.

"The idea that Senator Reid would attack other senators for taking Abramoff-related donations is laughable,” DeMint said, noting Reid is "among the top recipients of these funds in Congress, and still refuses to return or donate the money.”

"And now,” DeMint continued, "he is using his taxpayer funded office to put out what amounts to campaign attacks. Senator Reid should clean up his own act before lecturing the rest of Congress on ethics.”

On January 11, the Washington Times reported federal investigators were focusing on Reid and four other lawmakers in their probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The other lawmakers alleged to be "first tier” targets are Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.); Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.); Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.); and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).

Reid has consistently denied ties to the Abramoff scandal. In December, he told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, "Don’t try to say I received money from Abramoff. I’ve never met the man, don’t know anything.”

But a November Associated Press article revealed that Reid had accepted money from the Coushatta Indian tribe, an Abramoff client, just one day after interceding with Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton over a casino dispute with another tribe.

Reid reportedly sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002. "The next day,” according to the AP, "the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid’s group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.”

DeMint’s criticism did not stop with Reid. He also questioned what he alleged to be a non-existent Democratic agenda.

"Democrats look like a bunch of rodeo clowns creating distractions,” he said. "They are hoping that Americans don’t notice their lack of ideas or solutions for today’s challenges. It’s been months since they promised to unveil a real legislative agenda, yet we still have heard nothing.”

DeMint was referring to reports since October that Democrats were preparing to unveil a positive agenda for 2006. As DeMint’s criticism suggests, they have yet to release their vision.

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

How many people watched "Nip/Tuck” last night? Or as we call it the Golden Globes.

The Golden Globes were last night. It was the biggest gathering of Hollywood celebrities that wasn’t an anti-Bush rally.

The big winners were "Brokeback Mountain”, "Capote” and "Transamerica”. All movies with gay themes. I think this is God’s way of punishing Pat Robertson.

On more serious news, there’s a rumor that we may have killed al Qaeda’s number two man. If it turns out to be true this will be the 387th time we have killed the number two man.

Former Vice-President Al Gore attacked the Bush administration’s use of wire-tapping and torture to combat terrorism. Gore said President Bush has created a police state. Ironically, even in a police state, Al Gore probably couldn’t get arrested.

Did you see Kobe and Shaq hugging last night at the Lakers game? I guess the feud is over. If this can happen there can be peace in the Mideast.

Last time Kobe hugged anyone like that he had to buy his wife a diamond ring.

Letterman

Did you watch the Golden Globes? They were so long that Dick Cheney taped it and is using it to torture detainees.

Al Gore yesterday gave a speech an accused President Bush of repeatedly breaking the law. Al Gore issued the statement into a microphone at Taco Bell.

California executed the oldest death row inmate last night. He was 75 years old. CBS just lost another viewer.

Conan

A strange story out of New Orleans. Mayor Ray Naggin has caused a controversy by saying when New Orleans is rebuilt it will be a chocolate city. He also went on to say that the city will be protected by a system of graham cracker levees.

Yesterday in a speech President Bush called Dr. Martin Luther King one of the greatest Americans to ever live. He went on to say, "How many people grow up to be a doctor and a king?”

NSA Leakers are 'Traitors'

Americans overwhelmingly support President Bush's decision to wiretap suspected terrorists operating inside the U.S. without first obtaining a court order - and a solid plurality believe those who leaked news of the secret operation are "traitors," a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll has found.

Asked whether the president "should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States?" - 58 percent of those surveyed said yes.

Just 36 percent disagreed.

According to Dick Morris, who reveals the poll's stunning results in today's New York Post - even 42 percent of Democrats back the Bush surveillance program.

The results flatly contradict a widely reported Associated Press poll two weeks ago, which sampled a dispropotionate percentage of Democrats and concluded that the public objected to the Bush surveillance program.

In another stunning finding, the Fox poll found by that a margin of nearly 2 to 1, the American public believes that those responsible for exposing the super secret surveillance program have betrayed the country.

Fifty percent of those surveyed called those responsible for blowing the NSA's cover "traitors," while just 27 percent agreed with media claims that the leakers were "whistleblowers."

By a margin of 42 to 34 percent, even Democrats agreed with the "traitor" label.

Americans also strongly support renewing the Patriot Act by a nearly 2 to 1 margin [57 to 31 percent].

And a solid plurality of those surveyed - 46 percent - credit Bush administration counterterrorism efforts for preventing al Qaeda from carrying out another 9/11-style attack on the U.S.
Notes Morris:

"These statistics tell us that Democratic politicians are just hurting themselves by raising and dwelling on the wiretap issue . . . We're more afraid of al Qaeda than of our own elected officials."

"In other words," he adds, "Ann Coulter represents the Democratic mainstream better than Al Gore on this one!"

Cronkite: U.S. Should Cut-And-Run in Iraq

Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq.

"It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.

Now 89, the television journalist once known as "the most trusted man in America" has been off the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century. He's still a CBS News employee, although he does little for them.

Cronkite said one of his proudest moments came at the end of a 1968 documentary he made following a visit to Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Urged by his boss to briefly set aside his objectivity to give his view of the situation, Cronkite said the war was unwinnable and that the U.S. should exit.

Then-President Lyndon Johnson reportedly told a White House aide after that, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

The best time to have made a similar statement about Iraq came after Hurricane Katrina, he said.

"We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States," he said. "Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home."

Iraqis should have been told that "our hearts are with you" and that the United States would do all it could to rebuild their country, he said.

"I think we could have been able to retire with honor," he said. "In fact, I think we can retire with honor anyway."

Cronkite has spoken out against the Iraq war in the past, saying in 2004 that Americans weren't any safer because of the invasion.

Cronkite, who is hard of hearing and walks haltingly, jokingly said that "I'm standing by if they want me" to anchor the "CBS Evening News." CBS is still searching for a permanent successor to Dan Rather, who replaced Cronkite in March 1981.

"Twenty-four hours after I told CBS News that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday I was already regretting it and I've regretted it every day since," he said. "It's too good a job for me to have given it up the way that I did."

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

Being Friday the 13th...today is a good day to avoid ladders, black cats, and governors on motorcycles.

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings got pretty heated yesterday. Ted Kennedy question Judge Alito’s integrity when Alito was at Princeton. As you may know, Kennedy was kicked out of Harvard for cheating. So when it comes to questionable integrity at college he knows what he is talking about.

A 75 year old man on death row here in California is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday. He is 75 years old. They say this maybe the first time that an inmate’s last meal is also the early bird special.

In Oklahoma City, a Baptist minister, who has spoken out against homosexuality in the past, was arrested for propositioning a male undercover police officer...Baptist church leaders say they still support this minister, unless it turns out he tried to dance with the officer.

The author of the book "Million Little Pieces” was on Larry King last night, defending himself against charges that he exaggerated details of his best-selling memoir. He said, "Only 18 pages of a 430-page book are in question”. It’s 95% accurate. I believe this is known as the "Clinton defense.”

According to new fat acceptance study, Americans are okay with fat people. Unless they are on top during sex.

A new study by the University of Buffalo says that seven percent of workers drink on the job and may be drunk. Well, that would explain NBC’s primetime schedule.

The federal government has begun installing metal polls at the Mexican border. They expect these poles, which are four feet apart, to serve as a barrier for illegal immigrants -unless somehow they manage to walk between them.

Happy Birthday to Rush Limbaugh. He’s 55 years old. You have to give Rush credit. He’s probably the only Republican in the country with a cheap prescription drug plan.

The Fox network announced they are planning a show called "Duets” where they pair a professional singer with a non-singing celebrity. They will do a duet together. Like for example, they will take Ashlee Simpson and pair her up with a professional singer.

Bush: Iran Intends to Nuke Israel

In his sharpest comments to date on the Iranian nuclear crisis, President Bush warned Friday that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons and intends to use them to destroy Israel.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C. with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bush warned:

"I want to remind you that the current president of Iran has announced that the destruction of Israel is an important part of their agenda. And that's unacceptable. And the development of a nuclear weapon, it seems like to me, would make them a step closer to achieving that objective."

The president said that Iran's nuclear ambitions pose a threat, not just to the Jewish state, but to the world.

"Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a great threat to the security of the world. Countries such as ours have a great obligation to step up, working together to send a message to the Iranians that their behavior, trying to clandestinely develop a nuclear weapon, or using the guise of a civilian nuclear program to attain a nuclear weapon, is unacceptable."

For her part Chancellor Merkel added, "To Germany, it is totally unacceptable, what Iran said recently, especially regarding Israel and the Holocaust."

Last month, Iranian president Mamoud Ahmadinejad said that historical coverage of the Holocaust had been "exaggerated." In October he urged that Israel be "wiped off the map."

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

Doctors in Israel are now slowly drawing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of his coma to see what his remaining brain function is. Political experts say it’s unlikely a person could run a country with a severe loss of brain activity. I beg to differ!

Have you watched any of these confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito? Senators are given thirty minutes to question the guy: thirty minutes exactly. Senator Joe Biden’s question took 23 1/2 minutes. His question took 24 minutes. And Alito is smart. He’s brilliant. Do you know what he said? "I’m sorry, could you repeat the question?”

Ted Kennedy got pretty contentious, after he pointed out that Alito once belonged to a club that didn’t allow women, it was discovered that Senator Kennedy also once belonged to a club that wouldn’t allow women. Of course, with Kennedy those were club rules in place purely for the safety of women.

As you know, Governor Schwarzenegger was caught riding around on his motorcycle without a motorcycle license. I just hope this doesn’t encourage other people in California to drive without a proper license. You’d hate to see something like that catch on here.

A 75 yr-old man on death row is scheduled to be executed in California next Tuesday. The method of execution? A pillow held over his face by Anna Nichole Smith.

NBC announced plans today for 416 hours of Olympic coverage next month. 416 hours. That’s almost as much as they play "Law & Order”.

Letterman

It’s been unseasonably warm across the eastern U.S. In Cincinnati, that dead woman that was watching TV for two years – it was so warm in Cincinnati that she got up to take a walk.

It was so nice down in Washington, D.C. that the statue of Lincoln had a plate of fried chicken and potato salad on his lap.

Are you following the Samuel Alito Supreme Court Hearings? The hearings are so dull that CBS has ordered three more episodes.

Conan

The Supreme Court Hearings are getting strange. Today there was an odd moment when Senator Spector said that he goes to the same gym as Senator Ted Kennedy. Not surprisingly that gym is closed 364 days a year.

Laura Bush Comforts Mrs. Alito

First lady Laura Bush called Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's wife on Thursday to comfort her after Democrat attacks smearing her husband's character drove her to tears during confirmation hearings the day before.

"I called Martha Alito yesterday to tell her to hang in there," Mrs. Bush told CNN International.

"I do think it's really important in the United States for people like Judge Alito to be treated with respect," she explained. "I think personal attacks are what people don't like and what are really unwarranted."

Mrs. Bush admitted that "every once in a while" the constant attacks on her own husband make her feel like crying, saying, "Does it ever not hurt? You know, not really."

But she explained: "My family has been in politics for a long time and I think you do develop a thick skin."

Alito's wife Martha Ann could be seen sobbing as she sat in back of her husband on Wednesday while Sen. Lindsey Graham apologized for efforts by his Democratic colleagues to paint Mr. Alito as "a bigot."

Late Nite Jokes

Leno

I did something so stupid this week. I feel like such an idiot. This is the last time I lend my Harley to Arnold Schwarzenegger…he didn’t have a license.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back at work after a motorcycle accident. He had to have 15 stitches in his left upper lift. The whole left side of his mouth was numb. Which is tough for a politician, to only being able to speak out of one side on your mouth.

The Hamas terror organization has announced it now has its own TV station. Great, now NBC will be the fifth rated network.

Senator Ted Kennedy announced that he and his dog Splash are writing a children’s book. Is Splash the best name for Ted Kennedy’s dog? Isn’t that a bit like Jack Abramoff naming his dog Bribe?

It was this week 1861 that Florida seceded from the union. They actually seceded in 1859. But it wasn’t until 1861 that all the votes were tabulated.

Last night they had the Peoples Choice Awards. Thanks to President Bush this is the first year the Iraqi people could vote in the People’s Choice Awards.

"Brokeback Mountain” leads the SAG Awards with four nominations. The biggest one, the best male performance by a male lead in another male lead.

Letterman

Angelina Jolie is pregnant. Angelina and Brad Pitt are going to have a baby. Will this is nice, finally this couple is going to get some attention.

Have you folks been watching the Alito Supreme Court Hearings? The Democrats are accusing Alito of giving vague answers. He shot back by saying, "Maybe, maybe not.”

According to the AMA 15% of Americans are drunk on the job. In fact the writer of this joke was too drunk to come up with a punch line.

15 percent of Americans are drunk while on the job. Hmmm, I wonder if that’s how we go into Iraq?

Conan

This week New Jersey voted to temporarily disband the death penalty. Lawmakers say this will send a clear message to criminals that if they can’t leave New Jersey, neither can they either.

Laffer Curve Pays Off Again

Tax cuts work because they increase the incentive to work, save and invest according to Dan Mitchell, the Heritage Foundation’s senior fellow in Political Economy.

The cuts - meaning more earnings will remain in the pockets and bank accounts of the earners, if they choose not to spend it - also provide more income for taxpayers, part of which is taxed by the government, he says.

This reality follows the economic theory created by economist Arthur Laffer, and known as the Laffer Curve, which suggests the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues collected by governments. The higher the tax rates beyond a certain point, the less incentive workers have to be productive, since they are not receiving the earnings anyway.

"This is why pro-growth tax cuts (as opposed to rebates and credits) have what is known as a "supply-side" effect. If the supply-side effect is large, the revenue loss of lower tax rates is small ..."

He cites the Wall Street Journal’s explanation that the 2003 supply-side tax rate reductions "had an unambiguously positive effect on state government finances. Governors and state legislators are getting a revenue windfall because supply-side federal tax cuts are generating faster growth around the nation.”

This flies in the face of the claims of some liberal Republicans who demanded a $20 billion giveaway to the states to offset what they thought would be "lost" revenue in return for their votes for the Bush tax cuts. Despite their fears, the data now shows that the Bush tax cuts and the resultant economic expansion have been a windfall for state coffers.

Mitchell reports that since the tax cuts were enacted in mid-2003, the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has averaged close to 4%, the jobless rate is down to 4.9%, and federal tax receipts have climbed at the fastest pace in more than two decades. Moreover, he shows that more people in the work force with rising incomes translates into more taxable income for states.

He concludes that "because most states tax investment income too, state budgets are also benefiting from an increase in corporate dividend payouts. If the states were smart, they'd offer to repay the $20 billion if Washington will make the tax cuts permanent.”

Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy Had Racial Covenants

It's particularly ironic that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee would try to smear Samuel Alito as racist for his 1980s membership in a Princeton organization that was against affirmative action - especially given the backgrounds of Alito's leading critics on the Committee.

In fact, Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden have some significant exposure of their own on the racial sensitivity front, given the fact that both their families owned homes that were restricted by "racial covenants" from being sold to blacks, Jews or other minorities.

The startling news emerged in 1986, during confirmation hearings for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Back then, Democrats were in the midst of skewering Rehnquist as a racist because a deed on a home he once owned had a racial covenant.

But the tables were turned when Republicans on the Committee learned that both Kennedy and Biden's families owned property with the same kind of racial restrictions.

United Press International picked up the story, reporting at the time: "The parents of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., own a home in Wilmington, Del., that has an old deed prohibiting sale or occupancy by blacks."

Biden insisted that neither he nor his parents knew about the racist restriction. The Delaware Democrat announced that when his family found out they took immediate legal action to reverse what he called the "morally repugnant" agreement.

Sen. Kennedy's racial skeletons came tumbling out of the closet shortly thereafter, when news surfaced that his brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, had a racially restrictive covenant on the deed to his Georgetown home.

Kennedy, who was leading the charge against Justice Rehnquist, insisted his brother couldn't have possibly known about the racist agreement, which he called "deplorable."

Kerry Workers' Tire-Slashing Trial Begins

Fourteen months after John Kerry narrowly carried Wisconsin in the 2004 presidential election amidst allegations of voter fraud, five campaign workers for the Kerry-Edwards campaign team are set for trial Tuesday in Milwaukee on felony charges of damage to property.

The "Milwaukee Five” is charged with slashing 40 tires on 25 separate Republican vehicles on the morning of the 2004 presidential election. The vehicles were rented by the Wisconsin Republican Party to transport less-mobile voters to the polls on Election Day. In total, the vandals disabled 25 percent of the Republican Party’s "Get Out the Vote” fleet.

The defendants include Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde, the son of Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) who also goes by the name Supreme Solar Allah; Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt and leader of Kerry’s campaign team in Milwaukee; Lewis Caldwell; Lavelle Mohammed, and Justin Howell.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, four of the defendants were paid operatives of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, including Omokunde and Pratt.

Court TV will cover the trial, which is expected to last two weeks. Potential witnesses include Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and 77 others – including FBI agents, Milwaukee police officers, and party activists from both parties.

The five defendants, who will be tried together, are charged with criminal damage to property, a felony with maximum sentences of 3 1/2 years in prison or $10,000 in fines.

The criminal complaint states that Opel Simmons, a Democratic campaign worker from Virginia, identified the defendants as the perpetrators, and told police they had named their plan "Operation Elephant Takeover.”

Simmons told Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Feiss that he saw the defendants dressed in "Mission Impossible type gear” at Democratic Party headquarters sometime around 3 a.m. on the morning of the election.

When Simmons asked the five what they were planning, defendant Lavelle Mohammed allegedly responded, "You don’t want to know, don’t ask.”

The defendants returned to Democratic headquarters approximately 20 minutes later. Simmons told investigators they were jubilant and shared details of their vandalism spree with him. "We got ‘em,” said Pratt. "We hit the tires.”

The tire-slashing incident is just one of a number of election-day irregularities in Wisconsin, a state where Kerry prevailed by only 11,384 votes.

Questions have been raised about the inordinately large volume of Election Day registrations in Milwaukee, where 84,000 people in a city of 600,000 registered at the polls on the day of the election. The total represented 30 percent of all voters in the city.

Milwaukee city officials admitted in January 2005 that around 10,000 same-day registrations could not be verified, leaving open the possibility of fraud.

An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that another 1,200 Milwaukeeans voted using invalid addresses. Another article revealed in late January 2005 that there were 7,000 more votes than voters in Milwaukee, suggesting ballot-stuffing in the Democrat-controlled city.

Lawsuit: Bank Hired Women as 'Eye Candy'

Six female employees have filed a $1.4 billion class-action sex-bias lawsuit against an investment bank, claiming they were hired as "eye candy.”

According to the suit filed in Manhattan, one attractive female employee at the German bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities LLC was openly called "the Pamela Anderson of trading” by her boss.

The six women – five of whom work in New York and one in London – also allege that executives brought prostitutes to the office for lunch.

Plaintiff Jyoti Ruta claims she was once pressured by a boss and a colleague to leave a dinner celebrating a deal so that male employees could go to a strip club, the New York Post reports.

Another plaintiff, Kathleen Treglia, said salesmen admitted they chose female junior hires based on appearance because they wanted "eye candy” in the office, according to the suit, submitted on behalf of any female employee of the bank in the U.S. or any female U.S. citizen who works for the bank overseas.

The women alleged in the suit that the company condoned relationships between top executives and female subordinates, and one married boss dated his personal assistant and impregnated her.

The six stated that they wanted to end unfair promotion practices and unequal pay for men and women at the bank, according to the Post.

Said Ruta: "The glass ceiling is unfortunately alive and well at Dresdner.”

Howard Dean in Abramoff Cash Fib

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean denied on Sunday that any Democrats had taken money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even though several top Dems - including Sen. Hillary Clinton - have already announced they were giving their tainted Abramoff cash to charity.

That little detail didn't faze Dean, however - who insisted with a straight face to CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

"There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican.

Dean continued: "This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true."

Last week, Sen. Clinton's office announced that she would be donating $2,000 of her Abramoff jackpot to charity. The Republican National Committee says she took a total of $12,900 in Abramoff-linked cash.

Other Democrats who have pledged to return tainted donations include Sens. Tim Johnson and Barbara Mikulski - as well as leading House Democrat Charles Rangel.

Clinton Scheme Gave Iran Nuke Blueprints

In a hairbrained scheme that was personally approved by then-President Clinton, the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.

The allegation, detailed in the new book "State of War," by New York Times reporter James Risen, comes as the Iranian nuclear crisis appears to be coming to a head, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urging that Israel be "wiped off the map" and his government announcing last week that it will resume uranium enrichment on Monday.

Reports Risen: "It's not clear who originally came up with the idea, but the plan [to give Tehran nuclear blueprints] was first approved by Clinton."

Beginning in February 2000, the CIA recruited a Russian scientist who had defected to the US years earlier. His mission: Take the nuclear blueprints to Vienna to sell them - or simply give them - to the Iranian representatives for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Dubbed "Operation Merlin," the plan was supposed to steer Iranian physicists off track by incorporating design flaws in the blueprints that would render the information worthless.

But in what may turn out to be one of the greatest foreign policy blunders of all time, Operation Merlin backfired when the Russian scientist spotted the design flaws immediately - and even offered to help Iran fix the problems.

Risen said the Clinton-approved plan ended up handing Tehran "one of the greatest engineering secrets in the world, providing the solution to one of a handful of problems that separated nuclear powers such as the United States and Russia from rogue countries such as Iran that were desperate to join the nuclear club but had so far fallen short."

He noted that thanks to the bizarre operation, Iran could now "leapfrog one of the last remaining engineering hurdles blocking its path to a nuclear weapon."

Ironically, Risen's New York Times has declined to cover Mr. Clinton's Iranian nuclear debacle - concentrating instead on his book's dubious claims that the National Security Agency was first authorized to commence domestic wiretapping by President Bush.

Still, with Operation Merlin going so badly off track, "State of War's" revelations certainly warrant the kind of full blown congressional investigation now planned for the wiretap pseudo-scandal.

Risen's report could also have a serious implications for Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Mrs. Clinton has been sharply critical of President Bush's handling of the Iranian nuclear crisis, complaining that a nuclear-armed Tehran would be a much more serious threat to the U.S. than Iraq.

New Saddam Documents Detail Terror Training

The Bush administration is preparing to release never-before-seen documents captured when U.S. forces liberated Baghdad that chronicle the extensive training of thousands of radical Islamic terrorists by Saddam Hussein's regime.

"The secret training took place primarily at three camps in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak," reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, who adds that the operations began two years before the 9/11 attacks and were "directed by elite Iraqi military units."

The existence of these documents, and the nature of what they describe, has been confirmed to the Standard by eleven U.S. government officials, Hayes says.

If true, the documents represent a bombshell finding that shatters the claims of Iraq war critics who have maintained for three years that Saddam Hussein had no connection whatsoever to Islamic terrorism.

More intriguing still is the documentation on Salman Pak - a camp previously described by Iraqi defectors as the location of airline hijacking dress rehearsals that bear a striking resemblance to what took place on 9/11.

Hayes reports that the materials currently being reviewed for release include photographs, handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes and videotapes - plus information recovered from compact discs, floppy discs and computer hard drives.

Taken together, the material chronicles a massive operation that trained 2,000 terrorists to attack Western interests each year from 1999 to 2002.

The volume of material examined so far represents the tip of the iceberg. Of the 2 million items recovered from Saddam's regime, just 50,000 have been thoroughly translated and analyzed.

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has convened several meetings in recent weeks to discuss the Pentagon's role in expediting the release of this information," the Standard says.

"According to several sources familiar with his thinking, Rumsfeld is pushing aggressively for a massive dump of the captured documents."

DoD: Limit Cell Phone Use on Military Bases

Defense Department installations have begun implementing new cell phone restrictions for drivers on military bases.

The new regulation, published in the Federal Register in April 2005, states that anyone driving a motor vehicle on a DoD installation cannot use a cell phone unless the vehicle is safely parked or the driver is using a hands-free device.

Many installations already have implemented the new restrictions, and the rest will implement the rules on their own schedule, said John Seibert, assistant for safety, health and fire protection for DoD. There is no deadline for installations to implement the restrictions, Seibert said, but he expects most will do so this year.

"We have not issued an implementation schedule," he said. "But it's definitely getting everyone's attention."

The law enforcement policy offices for each military department are putting together policies and procedures for the implementation and enforcement of the restrictions, Seibert said. He explained that this regulation is a minimum requirement, and installation commanders still have the authority to put stricter rules in place. Each installation will determine the punishment for violation of the rules, he said.

As the installations implement the restrictions, they have a responsibility to notify the public by putting up signs or putting notices in base newspapers, Seibert said. Many installations are allowing a grace period in which motorists in violation of the rule will be warned and not ticketed.

This regulation was developed based on information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which studied driving distractions as the cause of motor vehicle accidents, Seibert said. The study found that cell phone use is the fastest growing and most visible distraction that leads to accidents, he said.

The DoD regulation follows suit with many regulations that states and cities have already imposed. Currently only Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia ban hand-held cell phones for drivers, but many cities have imposed their own rules, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

"We are in front of the majority, but we certainly are not the first ones to do this," Seibert said.

This cell phone regulation will increase traffic safety on installations, Seibert said, but more importantly, it will encourage safe driving habits.

"Our intent is that this will drive an increased attention to the importance of safe driving and that we'll see a change in driving behavior, both on military installations and off," he said.

Most Senate Dems Took Abramoff Cash

Nearly ninety percent of Senate Democrats took money linked to disgraced "Republican" lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a list compiled by the Republican National Committee.

Though reporters continue to insist that the Abramoff imbroglio is "a Republican scandal," 2008 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton took more than $12,000 in tainted cash.

Compared to the party's 2004 standard bearer, however, she's a piker. John Kerry raked in nearly $100,000 in Abramoff-linked donations.

In fact, 40 of the party's 45 U.S. senators made the Jack Abramoff dishonor roll, including:

• Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), who received at least $22,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), who received at least $6,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), who received at least $1,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who received at least $20,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who received at least $21,765 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), who received at least $12,950 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who received at least $8,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who received at least $14,792 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who received at least $79,300 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who received at least $14,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), who received at least $1,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who received at least $45,750 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who received at least $9,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), who received at least $14,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who received at least $3,300 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who received at least $98,550 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who received at least $28,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), who received at least $4,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), who received at least $6,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who received at least $29,830 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Received At Least $14,891 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who received at least $10,550 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), who received at least $78,991 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), who received at least $20,168 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) Received At Least $5,200 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), who received at least $2,300 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), who received at least $68,941 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV), who received at least $4,000 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), who received at least $4,500 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), who received at least $4,300 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who received at least $29,550 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who received at least $6,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

• Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who received at least $6,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

Harry Reid Caught in Abramoff Plea Deal

This morning's announcement that Washington super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff has reached a plea bargain deal with the Justice Department has reporters salivating over what they hint is going to be a Republican mega-scandal.

But it turns out that the most prominent player in Abramoff's web of influence was reportedly none other than the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid.

In a little-noticed story in November, The Associated Press revealed that Reid had accepted tens of thousands of dollars from an Abramoff client, the Coushatta Indian tribe, after interceding with Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton over a casino dispute with a rival tribe.

Reid "sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002," reported the AP. "The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004."

Questioned about the donations last month by "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace, Reid immediately turned testy.

"Don't try to say I received money from Abramoff. I've never met the man, don't know anything," he insisted.

When Wallace protested: "But you've received money from [one of his Indian tribe clients]," the top Democrat shot back: "Make sure that all your viewers understand - not a penny from Abramoff. I've been on the Indian Affairs Committee my whole time in the Senate."

When the Fox host pressed again on the Abramoff-linked donations, a flustered-sounding Reid continued to stonewall, saying: "I'll repeat, Abramoff gave me no money. His firm gave me no money. He may have worked [at] a firm where people have given me money. But I have – I feel totally at ease that I haven't done anything that is even close to being wrong."

NY Times 'Stonewalling' on NSA Leak

New York Times executives are "stonewalling" on questions about the paper's decision to publish top secret information about the Bush administration's use of the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance operations against terrorists, the paper's public editor charged on Sunday.

"The New York Times's explanation of its decision to report, after what it said was a one-year delay, that the National Security Agency is eavesdropping domestically without court-approved warrants was woefully inadequate," public editor Byron Calame wrote in a New Years Day column.

In its initial report on Dec. 16, Times said that editors held the story at the request of the White House, then edited out some - but not all - of the information that Bush administration officials warned would compromise national security.

But a frustrated-sounding Calame said that explanation wasn't good enough, adding: "I have had unusual difficulty getting a better explanation for readers, despite the paper's repeated pledges of greater transparency."

"For the first time since I became public editor, the executive editor and the publisher have declined to respond to my requests for information about news-related decision-making," he lamented.

Three days after the Times began publishing the national security secrets, Calame says he emailed a list of 28 questions to executive editor Bill Keller, who "promptly declined to respond to them."

He then sent the same questions to Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who also declined to respond. "They held out no hope for a fuller explanation in the future," Calame said.

He accused the two top Times officials of "stonewalling," adding, "The paper's silence leaves me with uncomfortable doubts."

Kennedy Touted Anti-Bush Spy Hoax

More than a week after the story was exposed as a hoax, Sen. Ted Kennedy has yet to apologize for touting false claims from a University of Massachusetts student who said officials from the Department of Homeland Security visited his home and repeatedly interrogated him after he tried to obtain a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book."

In mid-December, the unidentified student instigated the hoax by describing the phony grilling to reporters for the New Bedford Standard-Times. The story appeared on Dec. 17, the day after the New York Times reported that the Bush administration was monitoring the phone calls of U.S. residents suspected of communicating with terrorists abroad.

In a Dec. 22 op-ed piece for the Boston Globe, however, Kennedy conflated the Times report along with the U. Mass student's bogus allegation to blast the Bush administration for what he insisted was an illegal invasion of privacy.

"Just this past week," Kennedy wrote, "there were public reports that a college student in Massachusetts had two government agents show up at his house because he had gone to the library and asked for the official Chinese version of Mao Tse-tung's Communist Manifesto. Following his professor's instructions to use original source material, this young man discovered that he, too, was on the government's watch list."

"Incredibly," the top Democrat fumed, "we are now in an era where reading a controversial book may be evidence of a link to terrorists." He demanded "a thorough and independent investigation of these activities."
However, on Dec. 24 the Times-Standard reported:

"The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for 'The Little Red Book' by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story."

The revelation left Sen. Kennedy uncharacteristically silent.

Asked if he shouldn't have verified the incendiary account before citing it in print, Kennedy spokeswoman Laura Capps insisted to the Boston Globe: "Even if the assertion was a hoax, it did not detract from Kennedy's broader point that the Bush administration has gone too far in engaging in surveillance."

Mitch McConnell: New York Times Endangering U.S. Security

A top Senate Republican accused the New York Times on Sunday of carrying out a campaign to compromise national security by continuing to reveal top secret information about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program.

Asked about the prospect of public hearings into the counterterrorism program, Sen. Mitch McConnell told "Fox News Sunday": "We're already talking about this entirely too much out in public as a result of these leaks and the New York Times continuing to write about it - and it's endangering our efforts to make Americans more secure."

Citing anonymous sources, the Times reported on Sunday that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey had expressed doubts in 2004 that the Bush surveillance program was legal. However, neither Comey or any other top Justice Department official would confirm the story on the record, relegating the claim to rumor status.

The report is the latest in a series of stories by the paper on the top secret program, which was first revealed by the Times on Dec. 16

McConnell said that any congressional hearings should take a back seat to the criminal probe launched into the Times leaks on Friday, saying: "Thank God the Justice Department is investigating to find out who is endangering our national security by leaking this information so that our enemies now have a greater sense of what our techniques are in going after terrorists."

The Kentucky Republican predicted that Americans would back the White House in any fight over surveilling terrorists, noting, "An overwhelming majority of the American people understand that we needed new techniques in the wake of 9/11 to protect us."