The Hill

March 29, 2007

Will Alberto Gonzales Take the Fifth?

Brent Budowsky

When we take the dress off the pig, [on Thursday] Kyle Sampson said Alberto Gonzales is a liar.

The attorney general told the Congress and the nation he was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys. We can dress this up nine different ways, we can use the weasel words of official Washington, but this is clear:

Alberto Gonzales lied…

If there ever was a president who desperately needs an attorney general of stature, integrity and legal authority it is George W. Bush. If ever there were an Attorney General who should never be a sycophant or enabler for George W. Bush, it is Alberto Gonzales.

The president should appoint Jack Danforth as the next attorney general. Danforth is a former senator, brilliant lawyer and devout minister of unquestioned integrity and high-stature legal authority.

Otherwise our country may be headed for an endless succession of Scooter Libbys, with the buck finally landing squarely on the desk of the president, with consequences that will be grave indeed.

Brent Budowsky is a Contributing Editor to Fighting Dems News Service and a former aide to Senator Lloyd Bentsen and the House Democratic Leadership with Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.

[Click through to read more.—Caro]

Sampson says Gonzales’s statements inaccurate
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s statements that he was not involved in discussions about the firings of U.S. attorneys are inaccurate, his former chief of staff told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. “I don’t think the attorney general’s statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals is accurate,” said Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’s chief of staff before he resigned earlier this month. “I remember discussing with him this process of asking U.S. attorneys to resign.”

Wizard of Whimsy

Shiite market bombings kill at least 125
BAGHDAD - Five suicide bombers struck Shiite marketplaces in northeast Baghdad and a town north of the capital at nightfall Thursday, killing at least 125 people and wounding more than 150 in one of Iraq’s deadliest days in years.

Britain considering Iranian demands
UNITED NATIONS - Britain said it was giving “serious consideration” to a message from Iran that appears to propose a new condition for freeing 15 British navy personnel and ending the crisis over their capture without a “confrontation.”

Olmert: Arab initiative is big change
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hailed a peace drive by Arab states as a “revolutionary change” but repeated Israel’s opposition to any return of Palestinian refugees in newspaper interviews published Friday.

U.S. Feels Sting of Winning Saudi Help With Other Arabs
Although American officials were caught off guard by remarks by the Saudi king condemning the American intervention in Iraq, they sought to avoid tension over the comments.

Eleven more killed in Pakistan clashes
WANA, Pakistan (AFP) - At least 11 people were killed as fighting raged between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign Al-Qaeda militants in a troubled region bordering Afghanistan, officials and residents said Friday.

Thai protesters vow to rally despite election plan
BANGKOK (AFP) - Anti-coup protesters Friday brushed off warnings from security forces and vowed to hold the biggest rally yet against Thailand’s junta, despite the announcement of elections for December.

Political parties clash in E. Timor
DILI, East Timor - Gangs from rival political parties scuffled and threw rocks in East Timor, injuring at least 20 people, authorities said Friday, in what was believed to be the first violence directly related to next month’s presidential elections.

Australia finalizes Guantanamo swap
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will have no power to shorten any prison sentence for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks under a new prisoner-exchange deal with the United States, the country’s top lawmaker said on Thursday.

U.N. says more people will starve in Zimbabwe
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More people will starve in Zimbabwe this year with its maize harvest forecast to fall two-thirds short of what is needed, a U.N. humanitarian director told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.

Report: Uganda army killed kids in raid
NAIROBI, Kenya - Ugandan army raids in the country’s troubled northeast killed up to 66 children who were shot or crushed by armored vehicles and stampeding animals, aid workers said Friday, citing witnesses.

Somalia Battle Leaves 30 Dead and Shreds Hopes for Peace
Ethiopian troops stormed into the center of the capital, Mogadishu, setting off clashes that killed more than 30 people.

US Senate defies Bush, ties Iraq war funds to withdrawal
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Fresh battlelines were drawn Friday as the Democratic-led US Congress and the Republican White House faced off again over Iraq after both chambers approved a timetable for withdrawing US troops.

Hagel joins Democrats in Iraq vote
Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill Thursday requiring President Bush to start withdrawing troops from “the civil war in Iraq.”

Dem budget plan squeaks through House
WASHINGTON - House Democrats pushed their budget blueprint to passage Thursday, promising a big surplus in five years by allowing tax cuts passed in President Bush’s first term to expire.
That answers my question from yesterday about how they planned to do it.  And the rich can afford it.  See below.

Income inequality gulf widens in 2005
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows. The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

Panel votes to rein in mortgage giants
WASHINGTON - The two largest buyers of home mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would be brought under tighter government oversight in a bill that won approval Thursday from a House committee.

Report: Interior official blasted for twisting environmental data
A Bush administration official broke federal rules and could face administrative sanctions for leaking non-public federal information about endangered species to private industry groups, the agency’s internal watchdog found.

Judge Allows Private Testing for Mad Cow
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for mad cow disease, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a meatpacker based in Arkansas City, Kan., wants to test all of its cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Larger meat companies feared that move because if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they could be forced to do the expensive test, too. The Agriculture Department currently regulates the test and administers it to less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows. The department threatened Creekstone with prosecution if it tested all its animals.

Pure Horserace: Electoral College Ending?
The state of Maryland passes legislation to effectively abolish the Electoral College from presidential elections, but only if others follow suit.

HHS watchdog to recheck ethics cases
Federal health investigators are undertaking a broad review of conflict-of-interest policies at the National Institutes of Health, with potentially wide ramifications involving the agency’s oversight of nonfederal scientists who conduct research with government money.

New York City to Reward Poor for Doing Right Thing
Seeking new solutions to New York’s vexingly high poverty rates, the city is moving ahead with an ambitious experiment that will pay poor families up to $5,000 a year to meet goals like attending parent-teacher conferences, going for a medical checkup or holding down a full-time job, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday.

Stocks end higher despite oil price gain
NEW YORK - Stocks ended higher in volatile trading Thursday as investors weighed fears about mounting tension in Iran against a report that indicated better-than-expected U.S. economic growth.

Economy expected to remain sluggish
WASHINGTON - After ending 2006 lethargically, the economy is expected to remain sluggish most of this year as businesses and consumers cope with fallout from the painful housing slump.

Circuit City Cuts Wages to Juice Profits
Circuit City Stores said Mar. 28 that it s planning to lay off around 3,400 store employees but only to hire them again at lower wages.

T.J. Maxx data theft worse than first reported
More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers’ financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period.

Top Ten April Fool’s Day Pranks
CareerBuilder.com Reveals Top Ten Picks for April Fool’s Day Pranks Based on Annual Survey

“Gonzo-gate” is Again the Top Talk Topic: March 18 - 23, 2007
Two major news stories, the fired U.S. attorneys story and the argument over Iraq policy, dominated the airwaves on cable and radio talk shows last week. But a look at how the talkhosts operate suggests that it can be passion and personality, rather than the issue itself that often drives the discussion. 

Transcript: Barry Diller on the media
I think that big, vertically integrated media conglomerates, over time, and I do not mean in the next couple of years, will be seen to be inefficient models, and it is only the very rare one that is driven dictatorially and autocratically by a genius, and we have one today, I think. I think, other than that, they just make no sense. They’re impossible to manage, and they’re inefficient, and as the world becomes more specialized I think that they will get efficiency through disaggregation.
I believe the original justification for aggregation was cross promotion of products.  I haven’t seen any studies lately on how that’s working out.

Need To Know: 03.29.07, The Gaggle Edition
Little shoes, big mouthpiece: Howard Kurtz is all a-gaggle over Dana Perino, 34, who is filling in for Tony Snow as the White House spokesperson. She is the first woman to do so since Dee Dee Myers held the position during the Clinton administration. Also noted: the fact Perino powders her face, wears two-inch heels, and was encouraged to put on her “big girl panties”. What, no mention of her hair? [WaPo]

THE STORY OF CHRIS AND THE BIG HORNY MONSTER:
Who should Democrats nominate for the White House? At THE HOWLER, we haven’t decided. But if you still don’t understand the venom aimed at Hillary Clinton by some of our most broken-souled male pundits, you should have heard Chris Matthews expound on yesterday’s Imus. program. Can Clinton be elected president? he was asked. The question set the excitable ranter off on his latest Bill Donohue-style tear. As often happens when he thinks about Clinton, Matthews pictured big, green, horny monsters. Readers, it’s simply gigantic.

NY Times reported without refuting Bush’s false claim about House appropriation earmark
A March 28 New York Times article reported without refuting President Bush’s false claim that the $6.4 million for “the House of Representatives’ ’salaries and expense accounts’ ” — included in the emergency supplemental bill for the war in Iraq recently approved by the House — was “not related to the war and protecting the United States of America.” In fact, the provision to which Bush was referring is for funding for “contingency operations directly related to the global war on terrorism, and other unanticipated defense-related operations,” which according to The Washington Post is “a highly classified upgrade of Capitol security that has been underway since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

Ignoring several veto threats, Hill claimed Bush has “shown willingness to cooperate” with Dems
A March 29 article by reporter Jonathan E. Kaplan in The Hill on President Bush’s threat to veto the House and Senate versions of the Iraq war supplemental spending bill reported that “[s]ince Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January, Bush has signaled his willingness to cooperate with Democrats on a range of issues — except Iraq and letting his advisors testify under oath about the U.S. attorneys scandal.” But Kaplan’s article provided no examples of Bush’s alleged “willingness to cooperate with Democrats.” In fact, Bush has issued veto threats against many other Democratic proposals, including bills concerning Medicare drug prices, labor rights, and stem cell research.

Media failed to explore possible reason for Congress’ transcription demand — administration’s record of falsehoods
Reporting on demands that current and former White House aides testify before Congress about their involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, many in the media have left out a possible compelling reason for Congress’ insistence that a record be made of the aides’ appearances: the numerous instances in this matter, and previously, in which the administration has made false or inconsistent statements to investigators, Congress, and the public.

Journalist gets a look at the “dirt” that Microsoft has on him
The dossier [PDF] that Microsoft and PR firm Waggener Edstrom keeps on Wired contributing editor Fred Vogelstein accidentally ended up in the journalist’s e-mail inbox. Vogelstein, who wrote Wired’s April cover story on Microsoft, says he’s not surprised that such a document exists. “But that still didn’t make it any easier to read lines like, ‘It takes him a bit to get his point across so try to be patient.’ …It also was strange to see just how many resources are aligned against me when I write a story about Microsoft.”

Rwanda: Licensing Journalists vs. Mobile Growth
The Mar. 23 edition of WNYC’s On The Media included an item on a controversial proposed press law in Rwanda… “In the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the media played a critical role in stoking the violence that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. To prevent further conflict, the Rwandan government has placed restrictions on the nation’s private media. A [new] proposed press law would legally enforce a journalistic code of ethics and require reporters to be licensed.”

Tribune expected to announce a deal with Zell on Friday
That’s what a Tribune executive tells Thomas S. Mulligan. Others report that Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, who complained last weekend that Tribune was giving their bid short shrift, have resumed talking with Tribune and could make a counter-bid before Saturday’s deadline. “The situation is very fluid,” says another source.

Now It Gets Fun: Burkle and Broad Up Bid for Tribune
Billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle upped their bid Thursday for Tribune Co., offering a total deal that would exceed one currently being offered by real estate magnate Sam Zell, a person familiar with the offer told The Associated Press.

Fox’s Ann Coulter 2.0
Going beyond Rachel Marsden’s racist asides–like, “maybe [Pakistani cricket fans] should focus less on cricket and a little more on hygiene”–to consider the news punditry qualifications of the latest “incendiary attention-getting conserva-babe”: The [Canadian] press, which had been feasting on Marsden for seven years, also tore her apart for fudging her online résumé, on which she claimed to have assisted Connie Chung at ABC (ABC denied at the time that anyone by her name had ever been employed at the network) and that her writing had appeared in the National Post and MacLean’s magazine (at the time, she had only had letters to the editor printed in either publication).

Sirius to launch TV service in Chrysler 2008 cars
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. will launch its backseat television service exclusively in several DaimlerChrysler cars and minivans later this year, the companies said on Thursday.

Dispatches from the Blog Battle Zone
Threats against a prominent female writer reflect the worst of online discourse. But is speech any more hateful on the Net than elsewhere?

Spam Causing Headaches for Legit Marketers
Despite the growing number of antivirus, antispyware, and antimalware options flooding the market, Internet users are crying out for additional spam-fighting tools.

New Study Finds That Food Is the Top Product Seen Advertised by Children
As health agencies battling childhood obesity call for change and “U.S. food and media industries are developing their own voluntary initiatives,” no federal regulation is in sight to mitigate a new study’s findings that  among all children, tweens see the most food ads at more than 20 a day. Thirty-four percent of all food ads targeting children or teens are for candy and snacks. Half of all ads shown during children’s shows are for food.

Technology helps meet demand for language lessons
HONG KONG (AFP) - London-based stand-up comedian Tommy Campbell’s iPod is packed with recordings made by a mother-of-one who lives in China’s southernmost island of Hainan.

Video Games Conquer Another World: Retirees
Older Americans are increasingly turning to video games that rely on quick thinking as a recreational alternative.

New Computer Hard Drives Better, Faster, Stronger
A new type of flash drive makes no noise, emits little heat, and consumes less power. Oh, and it’s more durable. Sales are expected to soar.

ICANN votes against .xxx domain
LISBON, Portugal - The agency that sets the Internet addressing guidelines influencing how people navigate the Web defeated a proposal Friday to give adult Web sites their own “.xxx” domain.

Smokers Are Dead Weight at the Office
Smokers can be deadweights around the office with lower working performance and more sick days taken than their non-smoking colleagues, two new studies suggest.

Study Reveals Why We Get Distracted So Easily
Distractions turn on different part of our brains and do so more quickly than the daily grind of paying attention, neuroscientists have discovered… The findings, detailed in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, could help scientists develop treatments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Animals are smarter than we thought
Many animals exhibit smart behaviors. But do any of them show what humans would call “intelligence?” Some recently reported lines of research cautiously suggest that the answer is “yes.” Chimpanzees can make wooden spears for hunting and western scrub jays have shown future planning.

Amateur and Professional Astronomers Cooperate to Map Dancing Asteroid
The motions of an asteroid with two whirling parts are now better known, thanks to a rare collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers. Called 90 Antiope, the asteroid consists of two egg-shaped rubble piles locked in orbit, like two twirling dancers facing one another with linked arms. Antiope is thought to be the remnants of a larger asteroid, dubbed Themis, which astronomers think was destroyed by an impact with another asteroid some 2.5 million years ago.

Charge: Carbon Dioxide Hogs Global Warming Stage
Carbon dioxide hogs the spotlight on the stage of chemical culprits causing global warming, but other greenhouse gases deserve some blame, scientists say. “People need to be aware that it isn’t just CO2 that’s the problem,” said Keith Shine of the University of Reading in England, co-author of an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science discussing the many unknowns about the complex mixture of greenhouse gases emitted into Earth’s atmosphere.

Brazil offers Internet access to Indians
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil’s government said it will provide free Internet access to native Indian tribes in the Amazon in an effort to help protect the world’s biggest rain forest. The environment and communications ministers signed an agreement Thursday with the Forest People’s Network to provide an Internet signal by satellite to 150 communities, including many reachable only by riverboat, allowing them to report illegal logging and ranching, request help and coordinate efforts to preserve the forest.

The Power Has Finally Shifted
It snuck up on all of us — the Republicans, the Democrats, the media and President Bush. The power shift the midterm elections promised has finally taken place… The surprise Senate vote [Tuesday] night, to approve a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, delivered to the Democrats what they had hoped for all along but had been unable to grasp.

Bag News Notes

U.K. rejects demand to admit trespassing
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Britain on Thursday rejected a demand by Iran’s foreign minister that it admit its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture.

Fake Maritime Boundaries
The British Government has published a map showing the coordinates of the incident, well within an Iran/Iraq maritime border. The mainstream media and even the blogosphere has bought this hook, line and sinker. But … [t]he Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist.

3 killed in Baghdad market explosion
BAGHDAD - A bomb planted under a parked car tore through an outdoor market in a mixed Baghdad neighborhood Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding 26, police and hospital officials said.

Iraqi president seeks Arab support
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Iraq’s president tried to win Arab support Wednesday, promising Baghdad will give a greater political role to Sunni Muslims but calling on Arab countries to help stop terrorism in Iraq.

Abdullah: U.S. occupation ‘illegitimate’
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah denounced the American military presence in Iraq on Wednesday as an “illegitimate foreign occupation” and called on the West to end its financial embargo against the Palestinians.

Australia finalizes deal for Guantanamo exchange
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will have no power to shorten any prison sentence for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks under a new prisoner-exchange deal with the United States, the country’s top lawmaker said on Thursday.

U.S. set to ask for talks on lumber problems: Canada
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada expects the United States to request formal talks on a number of complaints about a deal on softwood lumber the two countries signed last year, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Wednesday.

Ecuador judge axed in political crisis
QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador’s highest electoral court fired a judge Wednesday who tried to return half the country’s legislators to their posts as a political crisis over the rewriting of the country’s constitution deepened.

Spain’s guest-worker program provides test case for EU
MADRID - As the European Union takes strides toward expanding legal migration into the bloc as a whole for the first time, Spain is already giving a taste of what may be to come through a new partnership with Senegal.

Poles march to demand total abortion ban
WARSAW, Poland - Thousands of Poles took to Warsaw’s streets Wednesday to demand a complete ban on abortion, including in cases of rape or incest.

Sudan leader: No U.N. troops in Darfur
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon tried to persuade Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur on Wednesday, hours after al-Bashir flatly rejected the deployment.

Attacks on insurgents rock Mogadishu, ceasefire over
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting erupted across the Somali capital on Thursday when allied Ethiopian and Somali government troops poured onto the streets with tanks in what appeared to be a major push against insurgents, witnesses said.

Dems Prepare for Veto Fight Over War
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats are moving unflinchingly toward a high-stakes veto fight with President Bush over the Iraq war as the Senate wraps up work on legislation ordering combat troops home from Iraq.

CBS Poll: Public Backs Iraq Timetable
Fifty-nine percent of Americans support the U.S. House measure which calls for most troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by September 2008, according to a new CBS News poll . President Bush has pledged to veto the bill.

Aide: Prosecutors fired over priorities
WASHINGTON - Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support President Bush’s priorities, a standard that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ former chief of staff says is legitimate.

GSA Chief Grilled on GOP Political Presentation
The chief of the General Services Administration testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that she could not recall details of a Jan. 26 videoconference in which a White House official briefed top political appointees at the agency about targeting 20 congressional Democrats in 2008.

White House withdraws ambassador nominee
More than two years after losing his bid for the White House, Democratic Sen. John Kerry exacted a measure of revenge against his political foes Wednesday by helping derail the diplomatic nomination of a Republican fundraiser. President Bush withdrew the nomination of St. Louis businessman Sam Fox to be ambassador to Belgium after Democrats denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group’s TV ads, which claimed that Kerry, D-Mass., exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in Kerry losing the election.
Lesson: use of lying, dirty, smearing, hateful politics doesn’t always pay.

Bush serves jokes at broadcasters dinner
WASHINGTON - Tell us, Mr. President, how have things changed since the last broadcasters’ dinner? “A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone,” President Bush said Wednesday night during the annual gathering. “Ah,” he said, “those were the good ol’ days.”

Democrats predict sizable budget surplus
WASHINGTON - House Democrats plan spending increases for education, health care and national security when they pass their first budget plan since regaining control of Congress.
Well, it would be nice, but considering Bush’s profligate spending I don’t see how they’ll be able to pull this off.

House panel approves executive pay bill
WASHINGTON - A House panel on Wednesday approved legislation written by majority Democrats to give shareholders at public companies a formal say in executives’ compensation packages.

Court blocks horse meat inspections
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the Agriculture Department from providing horse meat inspections for a fee.

Scalia and Harvard professor trade barbs
WASHINGTON - Two outsized personalities clashed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday and one of them, Justice Antonin Scalia, was briefly silenced by a barbed comment that left other justices laughing. Longtime Harvard law professor Arthur Miller, rarely at a loss for words himself, was arguing on behalf of shareholders who want to sue companies for fraud. Scalia clearly was on the side of the companies, chiming in from time to time to make Miller’s difficult task a bit harder. After one remark, Miller let loose: “Is that because you never met a plaintiff you really liked?”

Senate advances e-campaign filing system
WASHINGTON - Government watchdogs have joked for years that senators must mail their campaign finance reports fourth-class from Alaska, it often takes so long for them to surface for public viewing.
It was, of course, a delaying tactic.  They haven’t wanted us to know too quickly from whom they’re getting their money and how they’re spending it.

In 2008 race, private lives are public issues
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the 2008 race for the White House, the most personal details of a candidate’s life — from divorce to drug use to disease — can become public issues and campaign-trail fodder.

Edwards experiences surge in support
RALEIGH, N.C. - Elizabeth Edwards’ sobering diagnosis of incurable cancer has triggered an outpouring of support, with a surge of donations to her husband’s presidential campaign and affirmation of his candidacy in opinion polls.

U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce(TM) Joins Fight in Landmark Women’s Class Action Suit Against Wal-Mart
The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce is joining the fight in the largest employment discrimination class action suit in American history, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, and actively seeking redress for the giant retailer’s treatment of female employees over the past 25 years.

Stocks rise, oil slips
LONDON (Reuters) - Stocks are expected to open higher on Thursday, paring the previous session’s losses, as oil prices drifted lower, while economic data will shed light on the state of inflation and the broader economy.

Durable goods weaker than expected
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Orders for U.S.-made big-ticket items were weaker than expected in February as a stricken housing industry put a drag on the economy, a report on Wednesday showed.

Bernanke highlights new risk to economy
Ben Bernanke on Wednesday highlighted a new risk to economic growth from weakness in business investment, but played down the threat to the US economy from the crisis in the subprime mortgage market.

Burger King beefs up humane purchasing; wins PETA praise
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Fast-food giant Burger King said Wednesday it was beefing up its purchases of pork and eggs from farmers who practice more humane animal treatment.

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Local Media Diversity
Measuring Diversity with Democratic Values: Report outlines how to effectively measure local media diversity and determine what level of diversity supports local democracy.

Not Neutrality
Why are the Communications Workers of America opting out of the Save the Internet coalition?

PEJ summary selectively cited poll to suggest Americans are uninterested in U.S. attorney story
In the summary of its March 18-23 News Coverage Index, the Project for Excellence in Journalism selectively cited a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll to assert that the American public is not that interested in the U.S. attorney scandal. It did not note that the same Pew poll found that 19 percent of respondents said they were following “[q]uestions about how the White House and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were involved in the firing of eight federal prosecutors” “very closely,” while 24 percent said they were following it “fairly closely.”

Does the MSM have BAADD?
[T]he prevailing MSM attitude is “Let them get away with it.” Or at best it’s “One scandal at a time, please. We’re reporters.” But as the invaluable E.J. Dionne inquires, “Is the U.S. attorney scandal actually a small part of a larger story about how politicized the Justice Department has become over the past six years?”

The Media Know Best
For six years, conservative domination of Washington created a drought of oversight and accountability. Now, as Congress finally begins to take action and shed light on the executive branch, establishment media figures are aghast.

The Politico’s Reporting Problems
Concocted claims about Barack Obama and Bill Richardson, along with several high profile mistakes, are raising suspicions over the new online insider magazine.

The FCC And Armstrong Williams’ Continuing Legacy
As you may remember, Armstrong Williams’ $240,000 government contract and his failure to disclose it spurred public outrage and calls for accountability. To date, two government reports on Williams have been released — both late on a Friday, presumably to limit media coverage of them.

Can Papers Get Smart About Print on Demand?
What if newspapers and local advertisers got serious — and smart — about both print-on-demand and targeted print/online advertising? Imagine this: Every day, the print paper you subscribe to lands on your doorstep loaded with ads targeted at your unique combination of zip code and interests you’ve indicated to the publisher. It’s a thinner paper, but all the content (stories, commentary, and ads) is more relevant to you personally, your neighborhood, or your business. Both you and the advertisers are getting a bigger bang for the buck.
Click through for more great ideas.  Also, I’ve wondered why the front page of newspapers can’t be just headlines like those I post every morning.

About 60% of the Onion’s ad revenue comes from its website
Its print publications remain profitable, but The Onion is moving more and more toward the Web, where it now draws about 60% of its advertising revenue versus 40 percent from print — about the reverse of where it was four years ago.

A pair of minority programmers are pushing back against an effort by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and other in Congress to get the cable industry to move to an a la carte model.