1. Jennings Focuses on "Black Leaders Angry" at Ohio's Blackwell
ABC's Peter Jennings on Wednesday night focused on how "Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a leading black conservative," has "made a number of decisions regarding election law which have made other black leaders angry." Viewers then heard this shot from Jesse Jackson: "This is a national pattern of voter suppression." While Jennings gave Blackwell one soundbite to respond, Jennings ran four soundbites from those denouncing Blackwell and, in relaying how a federal judge had overruled Blackwell's decision to have those casting provisional ballots do so only at the proper precinct, Jennings noted how "Democrats say" Blackwell's procedure symbolized "Republican trickery." But Jennings failed to address either how Blackwell was just trying to prevent voter fraud or how, at the very least, allowing anyone to show up anywhere to vote will lead to more problems.

2. Olbermann Denounces Bush Themes, Appeal to "Our Lizard Brains"
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann devoted much of his Countdown show on Wednesday to denouncing Bush-Cheney campaign strategy. Olbermann latched on to how "the Kerry camp has latched on to what seems like a serious faux pas by the Bush administration," that "if the Vice President is out there on the campaign trail talking about the prospect of nuclear attacks," why "is the National Security Advisor also out there on the campaign trail rather than doing her job?" Olbermann moved on to how "six of Mr. Bush's second cousins have launched a Web site called BushRelativesForKerry.com." Arianna Huffington soon came aboard to discuss her column, "Appealing to Our Lizard Brains: Why Bush is Still Standing," in which she contended that irrational fear inspired by the Bush campaign has overwhelmed reason which would lead to support for Kerry. Olbermann wanted to know why, when Bush accused Kerry of having a "September 10 mind-set," Kerry "did not detonate at that point and say the September 10 mind-set, Mr. Bush, was yours?" Huffington suggested that in contrast to Bush and Cheney, "John Kerry is being logical. He's being reasonable."

3. NPR Highlights Supposed Fearmongering by Cheney, but Not Edwards
On Wednesday's broadcast of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, NPR correspondent Don Gonyea detailed how "both [presidential] campaigns seem to have come to the conclusion that the way to the winner's circle is to [persuade voters to] imagine the worst about their opponent." Gonyea's description of his story would have been more accurate if he'd said not "both campaigns" but rather "a campaign and a half," for while he explored the supposedly fear-inducing rhetoric of John Kerry, George W. Bush, and (at greatest length) Dick Cheney, he didn't mention Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, even though on Tuesday Edwards suggested that Bush's handling of the flu-vaccine shortage indicated that the President would be helpless in the face of a biological or chemical terror attack.

Jennings Focuses on "Black Leaders Angry"
at Ohio's Blackwell

     ABC's Peter Jennings on Wednesday night focused on how "Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a leading black conservative," has "made a number of decisions regarding election law which have made other black leaders angry." Viewers then heard this shot from Jesse Jackson: "This is a national pattern of voter suppression." While Jennings gave Blackwell one soundbite to respond, Jennings ran four soundbites from those denouncing Blackwell and, in relaying how a federal judge had overruled Blackwell's decision to have those casting provisional ballots do so only at the proper precinct, Jennings noted how "Democrats say" Blackwell's procedure symbolized "Republican trickery." But Jennings failed to address either how Blackwell was just trying to prevent voter fraud or how, at the very least, allowing anyone to show up anywhere to vote will lead to more problems.

     Jennings also skipped how, as outlined in Wednesday's Washington Times, "the Ohio Attorney General's Office has joined the investigation of a man charged with filing more than 100 fictitious voter registration forms who was paid in crack by a woman affiliated with the NAACP National Voter Fund."

     Jennings, who in an October 4 speech to the Radio-Television News Directors Association, in denying that there's any bias in network news, insisted that "I recognize ideology when I see it," demonstrated that he's certainly able to recognize conservatives. Though he identified a local Congresswoman as a "liberal," he didn't label Jackson or any of several black activists he featured and, in addition to tagging Blackwell with a conservative label, Jennings found another group of voters to label: "There are 53,000 Amish voters in Ohio and 50,000 in Pennsylvania, very conservative Christians."

     From Cleveland, Jennings set up his October 20 World News Tonight segment, as checked against the closed-captioning by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:
     "We are going to take 'A Closer Look' tonight from here in Cleveland at one of the country's most important voting blocs: African-Americans. In this election, their importance to Mr. Kerry is hard to overestimate. In Florida and Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, and certainly here in Ohio. The two campaigns are not thinking of the popularity contest these days, they are thinking electoral votes. A candidate needs 270 to win, Ohio has a big fat 20 of them, and Mr. Kerry doesn't get them without African-Americans."

     ABC jumped to Jennings' taped piece: "John Kerry knows what the stakes are here in Northeast Ohio. This is Ohio's manufacturing corner. No Democrat can win the state without getting a very good turnout at the polls by African-Americans."
     John Kerry: "Cleveland, here I am, and I love it. I'm glad to be here."
     Jennings: "A hundred thousand registered black voters who didn't go to the polls in 2000 could make or break John Kerry in Ohio. The black vote in many cities offsets the strong Republican tendency in the suburbs."
     Unidentified woman #1, outside a house: "You know this election's very critical this year."
     Unidentified woman #2, inside a house: "Oh, I'm voting. Believe that."
     Woman #1: "Okay, I believe you."
     Jennings: "Black voters have historically been a hard group to get to the polls. Registration is up in many neighborhoods this year. Turnout is another matter. Stephanie Tubbs Jones is the third-term liberal Congresswoman from the district which includes Greater Cleveland. Why do you think people will come out this year?"
     Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH): "Poverty and no education is a death note for young people, and we need to do better."
     Jennings: "But here's the complaint about John Kerry from some African-Americans: That in this campaign, he may have taken this natural constituency a little too much for granted -- until quite recently."
     Jesse Jackson at pulpit with Kerry sitting behind him: "The man will enforce the laws of hope and justice."
     Jennings: "The Reverend Jesse Jackson is a great endorsement in many black churches, but potential voters here are not as warm about John Kerry as they were about Bill Clinton."
     Woman: "I'm not sure if he could make a difference or not. That's why I haven't decided exactly who I'm voting for."
     Man: "I just have to listen and look a little more to see where he's coming from."
     Jennings: "There is another great concern here about black turnout on Election Day."
     Unidentified woman: "We praying to God that we don't have a problem when we do get to the polls."
     Jennings: "Here's the issue. Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a leading black conservative, is also the chief elections officer. He's made a number of decisions regarding election law which have made other black leaders angry."
     Jackson: "This is a national pattern of voter suppression."
     Jennings: "Just before the voter registration deadline, Mr. Blackwell said that only registrations printed on a certain stock of paper, heavy like the weight of a post card, would be accepted. This meant that convenient registration forms people could print at home were now invalid."
     Michael Vu, Cuyahoga County Director of Elections: "We were concerned that there would be public confusion as to whether there would ballot, registration form was going to be accepted."
     Jennings: "The Secretary of State backed down on that one. But then he said that provisional ballots for people who showed up at the wrong polling station, or without an ID, would only be good at three locations. The Democrats sued him. A federal judge overruled him. Mr. Blackwell is appealing. Democrats say it's Republican trickery."
     Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State: "That's really foolish. And that's a wooden-headed suggestion. Here I am, elected official that receives 50 percent of the African-American vote, this is just partisan rage on the part of my critics."
     Jones: "You know, tell Ken Blackwell to get a life. Ken Blackwell knows he's wrong. He made a statement that if, in fact, a court determined that he was wrong, he would, in fact, follow the law. The court determined that he's wrong, and now he's filing a, he's going to appeal the decision."
     Jennings: "Several black activists hoped that this controversy will encourage people to actually vote. Thirteen days before the election, it is a statistical dead heat in Ohio, and everybody believes that the African-American vote can make the difference to John Kerry. Do you agree?"
     Jones: "Absolutely."
     Jennings: "Is that a big burden on the African-American community?"
     Jones: "Absolutely. But, you know what? If you think about what African-Americans have gone through since they've been in this country, voting is probably one of the easiest things that's ever happened to us."
     Unidentified woman at podium: "Let's go get the job done. We're going to come out in record numbers. We need 75 percent of the people in this county to get out the vote, and when we do that, we will take our nation back, we will take our city back, we will take our neighborhoods back. Good night."
     Jennings, back on live from an outdoor setting in Cleveland: "The African-American vote. Every poll we've seen this year says pretty much the same thing. Ninety percent of blacks prefer Mr. Kerry. But do they care enough? Incidentally, this is all so close, at the moment, that voters we rarely think of are getting attention. There are 53,000 Amish voters in Ohio and 50,000 in Pennsylvania, very conservative Christians. 'We do not vote,' said one, 'but we pray Republican.' This year the Republican Party is encouraging the Amish to participate."

     As for 90 percent of blacks preferring Kerry, a poll released Tuesday conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economics Studies, put Kerry ahead by 69 to 18 percent.

     "Ohio aids probe of bogus voter registry forms," read the headline over an October 20 Washington Times story by Joyce Howard Price. An excerpt:

The Ohio Attorney General's Office has joined the investigation of a man charged with filing more than 100 fictitious voter registration forms who was paid in crack by a woman affiliated with the NAACP National Voter Fund.

Defiance County Sheriff Dave Westrick said yesterday he requested the state's assistance, given that some names in the probe involve individuals and organizations in "other counties" of Ohio.

Kim Norris, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, confirmed that her office is helping in the investigation....

On Monday, the sheriff's office arrested and charged Chad Staton, 22, of Defiance, with false registration, a fifth-degree felony. He was released on his own recognizance and has a hearing set for Friday.

The sheriff's office said Mr. Staton was hired by a Toledo woman, Georgianne Pitts, who, they said, admitted paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine. Miss Pitts said she was recruited by Thaddeus J. Jackson II of Cleveland.

Mr. Jackson was identified on a business card that Miss Pitts provided police as assistant Ohio director of the NAACP NFV.

Capt. Mike Murphy, spokesman for the Toledo Police, said authorities were attempting to locate Miss Pitts yesterday.

In an interview with the Toledo Blade, Mr. Jackson said Miss Pitts was a volunteer with the NVF. He said he knew of no fraud involving any of the registration forms she submitted....

Laura Howell, deputy director for the Defiance County Board of Elections, said one of the 130 registration forms traced to Mr. Staton bore his name. Others, she said, had names such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Michael Jordan and Janet Jackson....

     END of Excerpt

     For the October 20 Washington Times article in full: www.washingtontimes.com

Olbermann Denounces Bush Themes, Appeal
to "Our Lizard Brains"

     MSNBC's Keith Olbermann devoted much of his Countdown show on Wednesday to denouncing Bush-Cheney campaign strategy and to mocking the campaign for who supports and opposes it. Olbermann latched on to how "the Kerry camp has latched on to what seems like a serious faux pas by the Bush administration," that "if the Vice President is out there on the campaign trail talking about the prospect of nuclear attacks," why "is the National Security Advisor also out there on the campaign trail rather than doing her job?" Olbermann moved on to how "six of Mr. Bush's second cousins have launched a Web site called BushRelativesForKerry.com" with the slogan, "Because blood is thicker than oil." Arianna Huffington soon came aboard to discuss her column, "Appealing to Our Lizard Brains: Why Bush is Still Standing," in which she contended that irrational fear inspired by the Bush campaign has overwhelmed reason which would lead to support for Kerry.

     Olbermann proposed to her that "it was to my shock the other day that a reference to who was in the White House" on the day of the September 11 attacks "was made by the President. He accused Senator Kerry of the September 10 mind-set." Olbermann elicited: "Why do you think, from a campaign point of view, John Kerry did not detonate at that point and say the September 10 mind-set, Mr. Bush, was yours?" Huffington suggested that in contrast to Bush and Cheney, "John Kerry is being logical. He's being reasonable."

     (Fearmongering by John Edwards on Tuesday about how Bush won't protect us from biological or chemical attacks, nor from "loose" nukes, didn't interest Olbermann. See item #3 below for more on the remarks from Edwards.)

     Olbermann teased at the top of the October 20 Countdown produced at NBC's Burbank facility: "Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? The Vice President says we need to get our minds around the idea of terrorists using nuclear weapons here. So why then is the President's best mind on the subject out on the campaign trail? The Rice factor inside the fear factor. Arianna Huffington joins us."

     Olbermann opened his 5pm PDT show: "Good evening. From Burbank, California, this is Wednesday, October 20th, 13 days until the 2004 presidential campaign, rather, the election. If terror really does loom ahead of us, why, the Democrats ask, is the Republican National Security Advisor out campaigning instead of securing?"

     -- Olbermann devoted most of his first Countdown item, number 5, to the subject, as tracked by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:
     "Just as the Kerry camp has latched on to what seems like a serious faux pas by the Bush administration, if the Vice President is out there on the campaign trail talking about the prospect of nuclear attacks by terrorists in the U.S., why, the Democrats ask, is the National Security Advisor also out there on the campaign trail rather than doing her job? Dr. Condoleezza Rice has already spoken in battleground states like North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Washington. She has yet to speak in Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania over the next five days. She has also had time to give extensive media interviews in those locations. And to the horror of many in the national security field, she has been overtly political. Last Friday, speaking to the City Club of Cleveland, Dr. Rice named no names but spoke at length of how 'some,' how 'they' view the war on terror."
     Rice, in speech: "For some, it is a limited engagement whose goal is to go after Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, assume a defensive posture here at home, put it out of our minds eventually, and hope that they do not attack us again. They see a narrow struggle against a narrow enemy. But I suggest to you that this is a fundamental misunderstanding about what happened to us that day, a day that should have changed us all."
     Olbermann: "There is no misunderstanding about how the Kerry campaign, the national security advisor for President Carter, and others are responding to Dr. Rice's unprecedented pre-election swing state speaking engagements. As usual, it was vice presidential candidate John Edwards delivering the hard punch. In an interview with NBC News today, saying that Dr. Rice's tour was further indication that the President will go to any length to cling to power."
     John Edwards clip #1: "The National Security Advisor has other things that she ought to be focused on. We have a mess in Iraq, we have a very serious war on terror, and we don't need the national security advisor traveling around the country to battleground states campaigning."
     Edwards clip #2: "I think she's campaigning for George Bush. I mean, this is not an accident, the places she's going to. She's going to key battleground states, states that are hotly contested by both sides. It's not what the national security advisor should be doing. Traditionally, the National Security Advisor is completely nonpartisan. They're focused on keeping the American people safe. We don't need a partisan who's out there campaigning for the President."
     Olbermann: "The White House says Dr. Rice doesn't involve herself in the political campaign, that according to Communications Director Dan Bartlett, but we're a nation at war, and Dr. Rice is helping to explain the administration's actions. To which Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, says, in essence, 'bolshoi.' In a media conference call arranged by the Kerry campaign, today he said her speechifying was, quote, 'obviously timed to coincide with the national elections. I'm afraid that represents, at least in my book, excessive politicization of an office which is unusually sensitive.' The Associated Press reports that since the inauguration of President Bush, Dr. Rice has given 68 speeches, most of them in Washington, D.C., until this fall's two-month, eight-city tour."

     -- Olbermann advanced to what he saw as another troublesome area, comments Cheney made on Tuesday:
     "And then there is the mixed message. Things are not bad enough for the national security advisor to stay near her office, but they are bad enough for the Vice President to make a speech at Carroll, Ohio, invoking images which make his earlier opinions about the relative security under a Kerry presidency seem like a quick dance in the spring rain."
     Dick Cheney clip #1: "The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us, with a biological agent or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind, and able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, not just 3000."
     Cheney clip #2: "John Kerry would lead you to believe that he has the same kind of view that President Bush does, that he would be a tough, aggressive individual, leader, Commander-in-Chief to pursue the global war on terror. I don't believe it."

     -- Relatives against Bush/Axis of Evil for him: "Two more submissions from this campaign in its bid to win honors as the strangest one in our history. President Bush today gaining the endorsement of one of the countries in what he termed the 'Axis of Evil' but losing the endorsement of six of his own relatives. Six of Mr. Bush's second cousins have launched a Web site called BushRelativesForKerry.com. None has ever met the President, though they claim this is not a factor in their advocacy of his challenger. All six are the children of Mary Bush House. She was the sister of former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, who was the father of Bush 41 and the grandfather of Bush 43. Their slogan is 'Because blood is thicker than oil.' They say they want to do 'our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000.' That is their word. And they end with, 'Please don't vote for our cousin.'
     "Ordinarily, that would count as any incumbent's bad news for the day, but it actually gets worse for the President on the endorsement front. The head of Iran's security council has said that Mr. Bush's re-election is in the best interests of his country, 'his' country, Iran, 'Axis of Evil' Iran. Hassan Rohani says that historically in Iran, quote, 'We haven't seen anything good from Democrats.' The administration has accused Iran of harboring al-Qaeda and threatened it with sanctions over its nuclear dreaming. Despite the evil words from the evil doers or kind words from the evil doers, a Bush administration spokesman said, 'It's not an endorsement we'll be accepting any time soon.'"

     -- From NBC's gimmicky "Democracy Plaza," aka Rockefeller Plaza, Tom Costello looked at voting machines and gave a boost to conspiracy theorists:
     "According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, will computerized voting increase the likelihood of vote tampering or miscounting? Look at this: 48 percent of the country said yes, 47 percent said no, even though this is a new technology. And maybe that's why, Keith, here's something you should know. One of the big companies making electronic voting machines, and by the way, not one of these, but the company is Diebold, D-I-E-B-O-L-D. The CEO of the company last year held a fund-raiser for the Republicans, and he said that he believed his job was to make sure that he got every delegate in Ohio voting for George W. Bush. That is the CEO of a company that is making voting machines. You can understand why there's some mistrust out there."

     -- Moving on to Countdown's #4 segment, Olbermann set out to prove that the Bush campaign is winning on fear over reason: "It is impressive to note that this will be only the fifth election in this country's history to follow in the wake either of an attack on our soil or the beginning of a worldwide conflict. In 1812, James Madison was reelected. 1864, Abraham Lincoln was reelected. 1916, Woodrow Wilson was reelected. And in 1944, Franklin Roosevelt was reelected. FDR, it was, of course, who pointed out that we had nothing to fear but fear itself. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush would evidently disagree.
     "Our fourth story on the Countdown tonight, are they rightly transmitting vital information to voters or cynically using fear of terrorism in the way Lyndon Johnson used fear of nuclear war in his campaign ad against Barry Goldwater 40 years ago? My next guest has just addressed this topic in her nationally syndicated column, a piece called, 'Appealing to Our Lizard Brains: Why Bush is Still Standing.' Writer, author and former candidate for governor around these parts, Arianna Huffington. A pleasure to have you here."

     Olbermann asked Huffington, who sat beside him at a table in Burbank: "So explain this to me. You've actually analyzed and talked to physicians about this from a neurological point-of-view?"
     Huffington: "And psychiatrists, because I was trying to understand, after the meltdown, especially of the first debate and the other two, the dreadful news coming out of Iraq, the job figures, all that stuff, why, I wanted to find out, is George Bush still neck and neck with John Kerry? So I talked especially to a psychiatrist called Dr. Daniel Siegel, who has written a book on mind sight. And he explained to me that when we are in what he calls a fear fog, we're not operating from our logical, our left brain, but from our lizard brain, and the right brain, the emotional brain. We're looking for reassurance. We want to be soothed. We don't want a four-point plan to save us in Iraq. We want to know that we're going to be okay. So we're looking for nonverbal signals of the kind that George Bush gives. So even though he stumbles verbally, our right brain likes the fact that he's reassuring. We are kind of regressing to a more infantile state. So, in a sense, you know, you quoted FDR's famous saying, George Bush has nothing to fear but the end of fear itself."
     Olbermann: "So this would also explain, and perhaps, in turn, the event that I'm going to describe explains what we're seeing here now. In New York City, where I was on September 11, 2001, and lots of reasonable people, including myself, looked at the calendar and said this mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who's done a strong job in the middle of this crisis, is going to be forced out by term limits at the end of this year, let's not have an election, or, well, let's have co-mayors, or let's have a transitional period or let's delay the, and people didn't even want, is it also some indication that people are reluctant just to change, let alone really evaluate?"
     Huffington: "Yes. Because people are not really assessing facts. They're not looking at the evidence. We are reacting. Not all of us, thank God, but millions are reacting out of fear. So really if you think of you as a child, you know, you are looking for an authority figure to take care of you, and George Bush is strutting and he's confident and doesn't want to change course, you know, you get the sense that you're going to be okay with him. So instead of really answering the question that normally people are asked, like, whom would you rather have a beer with, the question now is whom would you rather have give you your bottle and your blankie and protect you from the boogeyman? It's kind of amazing that the most important election of our lifetime might be decided by our inner babies."
     Olbermann: "For months on this topic more broadeningly on the subject, I have been wondering if and when the Democrats would get so desperate in this case as to say, by the way, remember who the President was on September 11, 2001, and sort of lay it at his doorstep, which might not be a reasonable thing to do, but in this campaign, there have been no reasonable things. It was to my shock the other day that a reference to who was in the White House then was made by, in fact, on September 10, was made by the President. He accused Senator Kerry of the September 10 mind-set. Why do you think, from a campaign point of view, John Kerry did not detonate at that point and say the September 10 mind-set, Mr. Bush, was yours?"
     Huffington: "Well, John Kerry is being logical. He's being reasonable. And George Bush and Dick Cheney are making incredible statements. I mean, look at Cheney's statements. Both during the debate, when three times he told us that there may a nuclear attack in the middle of our cities. And this week, when he told us again, there will be, in fact, he said during the debate that he's very confident that there will be a nuclear attack. I mean, how can he say that and get away with it? And so even if we don't exactly remember what he said, on some level, we heard it, and the fog of fear got thicker."
     Olbermann: "A fascinating topic. And we appreciate greatly your insight on it and taking the time to look into it."

NPR Highlights Supposed Fearmongering
by Cheney, but Not Edwards

     On Wednesday's broadcast of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, NPR correspondent Don Gonyea detailed how "both [presidential] campaigns seem to have come to the conclusion that the way to the winner's circle is to [persuade voters to] imagine the worst about their opponent."

     Gonyea's description of his story would have been more accurate if he'd said not "both campaigns" but rather "a campaign and a half," for while he explored the supposedly fear-inducing rhetoric of John Kerry, George W. Bush, and (at greatest length) Dick Cheney, he didn't mention Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, even though on Tuesday Edwards suggested that Bush's handling of the flu-vaccine shortage indicated that the President would be helpless in the face of a biological or chemical terror attack.

     [Tom Johnson, who monitors NPR for the MRC, filed this item for CyberAlert.]

     The first half of the four-minute piece, which focused on Kerry and then Bush, was reasonably balanced. Then, however, Gonyea spent the last two minutes dwelling on some of what Cheney said Tuesday at an Ohio campaign stop, during which, in Gonyea's words, the Vice President "went after Kerry with his own big, scary picture of the world should the Democrat win."

     After a Cheney soundbite regarding the possibility of chemical, biological, or nuclear terrorism in a American city, Gonyea declared that the VP "has spent months on the campaign trail leveling such harsh attacks against Kerry," and that "this latest comment, with its talk of nuclear bombs in American cities, takes it to a whole new level." After a soundbite of Kerry spokesman Mike McCurry criticizing Cheney's remarks, Gonyea closed by musing: "With the nuclear card being played by the Vice President, one wonders where things can go from here."

     Where things didn't go from there was to Edwards, whom Gonyea failed to include in the story despite the North Carolina Senator's seemingly pertinent comments in Windham, New Hampshire, on Tuesday. Scott Brooks of the Manchester, N.H. newspaper. The Union Leader, reported that Edwards asked rhetorically, "How can we expect this President to deal with anthrax or a potential chemical or biological attack when he can't even manage the flu-vaccine crisis?" According to Brooks, Edwards repeatedly referred to Bush's "incompetence" and predicted that Bush "will fail...in the war against terrorism because he does not know how to lead."

     For the Union Leader article in full: www.theunionleader.com

     The AP's Katharine Webster relayed some more scare-mongering from Edwards at the same event: "Contending that Bush gave in to chemical industry lobbyists by not requiring greater security against terrorist attacks at the nation's chemical plants, Edwards said Bush has not secured 'loose' nuclear weapons in other countries and has failed to protect airports and ports in the United States."

     For the AP dispatch in full: news.yahoo.com

     Bush can't protect us from anthrax, biological attacks, chemical weapons or "loose" nukes. Sounds every bit as much of a fearmongering effort as anything Cheney said, just not to NPR or MSNBC's Olbermann (see item #2 above.)

-- Brent Baker