MY DOG ATE MY BACON!
"A new study of how the media has covered the issue of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), released today, concludes, 'Many stories stenographically reported the incumbent administration's perspectives on WMD, giving too little critical examination of the way officials framed the events, issues, threats and policy options.' "
(COMMON DREAMS)

EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND
The federal No Child Left Behind law is threatening to wreck public education in Minnesota and elsewhere. That's what it was designed to do.
(CITY PAGES)

WATCHDOGS ARE SLEEPING
Partisan TV pundit participation in the RNC's attack on Kerry is perhaps to be expected, but they were not the only media figures to simply pass on the Republican allegations without examination....
Embarrassingly, Dicks had to explain to Woodruff that most of the weapons "votes" weren't individual votes at all, but a single vote on the Pentagon's 1991 appropriations bill. Woodruff responded with surprise to this information: "Are you saying that all these weapons systems were part of one defense appropriations bill in 1991?"...
Unfortunately, Hume failed to raise an important follow-up: Why was Cheney now criticizing Kerry for having essentially the same position Cheney advocated back in 1991?
(FAIR)

BYRD IN COOP
"Legendary rock artist David Crosby was arrested yesterday for possessing marijuana and a .45 caliber handgun. Crosby had checked out of a Times Square hotel but reportedly left behind a piece of luggage. A hotel employee searching the luggage for identification found the gun and the pot. Police arrested Crosby when he returned to the hotel to claim the luggage."
(TALKLEFT, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

STRICT RECONSTRUCTIONIST
"Lost amid the flurry of victory signs being waved by his most strident GOP backers is the fact that the president actually loves activist jurists, as long as they embrace his views on marriage, gay sex, civil liberty, reproductive rights and religion. "
(SF CHRONICLE, unearthed by Kathryn Varner)

FOOD FIGHT!
"A dispute at the salad bar turned into a food fracas at an upscale retirement home, with a man taking a bite out of another's arm and other residents suffering minor injuries."
(FINDLAW, unearthed by Bill Messick)