From World Net Daily

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Fox News reporters
freed for $2 million
Terrorists used cash for arms to 'hit Zionists,'
payment said to encourage more abductions

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Posted: November 14, 2006
8:25 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Steve Centanni of Fox News

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olag Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

 

 

 

I'm not surprised by this, and am certain that it happens all the time by many news organizations.  Even so, it will be fun for CNN and the MSM to report.  Should the ransom have been paid.....hell, yes, .....these guys were doing their job for their employer and the employer has a duty to save them.  Does it have any larger national security or media implications?  I don't think so.  Thought experiment...if these guys worked for say, a plumbing company, woud it matter if that company paid a ransom?...of course not.....

So the program on the DVR just ended and it defaulted to CNN.  Watching Roseanne Barr on Larry King.  Goodness gracious the facial skin on this show is tight enough for two drum kits!

Oh, perfect timing...via email Roseanne is just asked what is her greatest regret..."Getting old."  " "And maybe we should just stop fighting it..stop trying to hang on." 

Wait a minute, I've got to check and make sure I'm not watching Saturday Night Live!.............

Now thes two are going off about the minimum wage.....and Roseanne thinks there should be a maximum wage....hmm.. Larry makes $15 million a year, and Roseanne has made millions a year.  Any guess that she employs an army of accountants and lawyers to minimize her taxes?  Any minimum wage employees on any of her sets?

On second thought, why I am bothering to watch this drivel?

PATAKI, HUCKABEE, HAGEL, AND BROWNBACK TRAIL ALLEN IN GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE [Byron York]

Okay, that's not the headline of the new Gallup poll.  But when asked which Republican they would be most likely to support in 2008, Gallup respondents (Republicans and Republican leaners) came up with this list:

Giuliani            28
McCain            26
Rice                13
Gingrich             7
Romney             5
Frist                  4
Allen                 2
Pataki               1
Huckabee          1
Hagel                1
Brownback         1

Asked the same question, Democrats and Democrat leaners, gave these answers:

Clinton            31
Obama           19
Edwards         10
Gore                9
Kerry               7
Biden               4
Clark                3
Richardson       2
Bayh                2
Feingold           1
Daschle            1
Dodd                1
Vilsack             2

 

ST. JOHN [Byron York]

Democratic uneasiness about John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi's candidate for House Majority Leader, appears to be rising.  "Some Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups say they are baffled that Pelosi would go out of her way to back Murtha's candidacy after pledging to make the new 110th Congress the most ethical and corruption-free in history," reports the Washington Post:

Murtha, a longtime senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has battled accusations over the years that he has traded federal spending for campaign contributions, that he has abused his post as ranking party member on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, and that he has stood in the way of ethics investigations. Those charges come on top of Murtha's involvement 26 years ago in the FBI's Abscam bribery sting.

The paper has also published a handy tear-out guide to Murtha's problems:

* Murtha's relationship with defense industry lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, whose PMA group and 11 of the firm's clients contributed a total of $274,649 to Murtha's campaign in the past two years. PMA clients received at least 60 "earmarks" in the 2006 defense spending bill, worth $95 million.

* Murtha's business dealings with his brother, Robert "Kit" Murtha, a former senior partner at KSA Consulting. A 2004 defense spending bill that went through Murtha's Appropriations defense subcommittee benefited at least 10 companies represented by KSA.

*Murtha's ethical scrape in the early 1980s, when he was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal Abscam bribery scandal and testified against two House colleagues.

One interesting aspect of this is that some Republicans tried to talk about Murtha's ethics issues several months ago, when Murtha was being canonized for his call for "redeployment" of U.S. troops out of Iraq.  There wasn't much of an audience for it then.  That seems to have changed.

Posted at 7:43 AM

Re: Vilsack In [John Podhoretz]

 Jonathan Martin's first Corner post just below is, quite simply, too informative. There's a huge amount to chew on there. But one thing stood out for me that has been little noted: The decision by Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. This decision is a huge gift to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. With Vilsack in the race, all other Democratic candidates can declare the Iowa caucuses his territory and bail out of there. The quirky state won't play a big role, and that only benefits the 800 lb. Gorilla.

Better get your copy of Can She Be Stopped?, friends...