Last Sunday (1/13), the New York Times published a 7,000-word investigative report (it started on the front page under a three column hed above the fold, and filled more than two full pages inside) that is a testament to what can be accomplished by journalists who lack brains or integrity, but who possess an agenda. The theme of the story, headlined "Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles," is that veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, scarred by the horrors they experienced, have launched a murder spree upon returning to the United States. Apparently Ms. Sontag and Ms. Alvarez did a search of the Nexis database of newspaper articles and found 121 stories of murders committed by veterans since the war on terror began. They then described some of those murders in lugubrious and exhaustive detail. Ms. Sontag and Ms. Alvarez apparently have learned what little they "know" about the military from Rambo movies, and never learned much about statistics.  Their story doesn't just grossly exaggerate and sensationalize a problem, it fabricates one that mostly doesn't exist.  It's the sloppiest, most biased story I've ever seen in journalism.

Which presidential contenders would be best for the economy and which ones worse? Unfortunately, much of the campaign has revolved around a series of largely meaningless sound bites and words like "change." Some candidates find they can get away with policy prescriptions totally disconnected from their stated goals and empty platitudes, because many in the press demand nothing more, even in the "debates." I suspect that there are millions of other such voters who haven't a clue about various candidates' positions, let alone understand the actual implications of their declared policies.  So let's discuss them, one by one, and see if that helps us answer the question.

Sen. John Kerry always seems to be a day late and a dollar short. Today (1/10), Sen. Kerry traveled to South Carolina to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president: "Who better to turn a new page in American politics?" Sen. Kerry said at a rally with Sen. Obama at the College of Charleston.  "We are electing judgment and character, not years on this earth." There is nothing wrong with the choice of Sen. Obama to endorse, or (for Democrats) the reasons Sen. Kerry gave for endorsing him, which included Sen. Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq "from the beginning."  But the timing was weird. Then again, John Kerry always seems weird.

If you Google "Obama" and "assassination" you will get 384,000 hits. All over the world, the media is speculating on the possibility.  Typical is the January 8 (the day of the New Hampshire primary) headline in one of Australia's major newspapers, The Australian: Obama Must Be Wary of the Assassin's Gun. The "news angle" of thousands of such stories is the same.  The first line of The Australian story is:  "Barrack Obama is crazy brave.  His victory in Iowa puts him in the crosshairs of many a gun-toting racist for whom the thought of a black president is an abomination." It's the drumbeat theme echoing around the globe:  evil racist-fascist right-wing war-mongering child-eating nazi conservatives will always destroy America's hopes of being a peaceful humanitarian nation. After all, it was just such a fascist-nazi right-winger that murdered JFK and killed Camelot, right?  What's that?  Lee Harvey Oswald was a Communist?  Oh... Please ignore that impossibly embarrassing fact.  Especially since it brings up the real question that no liberal dares to think, much less ask: Will Hillary find an Oswald of her own to take out Obama?

"Right on track, Jack."  That's what one of the main campaign managers of The Man Who Wasn't There told me today. He and his colleagues are happy, happy guys n' gals.  "This is going exactly as expected," they exude.  "And it's a strategy that has never been tried before.  If it works like we think it's going to, the world will think we're bloody geniuses." Pause, after a bemused glance is directed at them. "Yeah, well, right, it's the boss's strategy, so, okay,  he's actually the genius." "The boss," the man who wasn't there in Iowa, Wyoming, and New Hampshire, the man who won't be there in Michigan, Nevada, or South Carolina, is, of course...

Hear that wonderfully melodious sound?  It's the crack-up of Global Warming, the Left's crazed attempt to seize global power after the failure of Marxism crashing and burning.  2008 is starting off just right. A tip off that it's over for the eco-wackos was the announcement of the Pantone color mavens that green is passé for 2008, that the hip color is blue - as in blue skies, no clouds, no rain, just sunshine and deep blue sky. Then on New Years Day, the liberal bastion itself, the New York Times, scandalously ridiculed glowarmers, calling them "availability entrepreneurs," sneering at them as "the activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels." When the New York Times laughs at glowarmers - well, it's like Global Warming is so over.   So it's time to start celebrating CO2.  I have a really good suggestion on how to do so.