Column/Legend
1 - Prefix  - L-Life,  H-Homosexual Behavior/Perversion, R-Religion/Legal Persecution/ACLU, E-Education, M-Media Bias, O-Other
2-7 - Yr, Mo, Dy
8 - L -Letter to Editor, C-Commentary, O-Op-Ed, M-Metro

Hotlink Index of this weeks's family values related news:  [Life]   [Homosexual Behavior/Perversion]   [Religion/Religious Persecution]   [Education]   [Media]   [Other]

LIFE
L041023      Judge delays decision about feeding tube

HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR/PERVERSION
H041019     Episcopal Church asked to offer 'regrets'
H041023     Gay 'marriage' ban legally on ballot

RELIGION/RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
R041018      Bishop invites faithful to Mall to pray and fast
R041019      Evangelicals endeavor to redeem the vote
R041020      Kerry a church
R041022      CALIFORNIA   Judge dismisses suit over cross removal
R041022      NEBRASKA   Official withdraws topless-dancer lawsuit
R041023      Bush pitches for Catholic vote
R041024      Campaigns court undecided faithful

EDUCATION
 

MEDIA
M041019     Indecent tactic
M041019     Paper picks fail to sway voters
M041019E  Democratic deception
M041020     Catholics place ad in 5 papers to scold Kerry
M041020     For the record
M041020     Pessimistic Kerry supporters predict Bush will be the victor
M041020     Soros-supported voter-registration drive probed
M041020C  Howard Stern's move
M041020E   The media for Kerry
M041020E   Voter frauds on the left
M041021E   A liberal's burden for Kerry
M041022     A surprising review
M041022     Soros vs. Moore
M041022     Thuggish behavior
M041022E   A shotgun marriage
M041023     Florida probes activists' voter-registration effort
M041023     Sinclair airs parts of anti-Kerry film

OTHER
O041020C   Uninformed voters

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
 
 
 
 
 

By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A last-ditch effort to attract undecided voters is focusing on the religiously inclined who place great importance on both candidates' rhetoric about faith and values.
    John Kerry is preparing to deliver a "values" speech this afternoon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and last week the Bush campaign sent out a four-page statement aimed at the nation's 4 million-member Eastern Orthodox Christian community.
    "As Americans of all faiths go to the polls on Nov. 2, only one candidate, George W. Bush, will address all of the concerns of America's Orthodox Christians," according to the statement, posted on numerous Orthodox Web sites.
    The Rev. Alexander F.C. Webster of St. Mary Orthodox Church in Falls Church called the outreach to Orthodox Christians "unprecedented" in presidential campaigns.
    "It touches on concerns vital to us as Christians and Americans," he said.
    Rabbi David Saperstein, executive director for the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, said his group has sent out Jewish voter guides to 900 synagogues and another 120 to Jewish community groups.
    "From evangelical churches on the right to more politically liberal congregations, there is a sense of purpose about this election that is important," he said.
    The Christian Coalition of America is likewise distributing voter guides via its Web site www.cc.org. Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic publishing house, has a Catholic voter guide on its site, www.osv.com.
    A "Get Out the Muslim Vote" center opens this weekend in Ohio, operated by the Council on American Islamic Relations, and the campaign "Let Justice Roll: Faith and Community Voices Against Poverty," sponsored by the National Council of Churches, has registered 100,000 voters.
    It is "the most organized, aggressive campaign I've seen on behalf of registering the poor in the last 20 years," said NCC General Secretary Robert Edgar.
    He added that neither candidate has addressed child poverty.
    "We were pleased they got to the edges of it in the domestic debate," he said, but, "it's still a missed opportunity by the president and John Kerry to not focus on the newly registered poor."
    They are focusing on evangelical Christians and Catholics, who together make up a quarter of the U.S. electorate. Both campaigns say Catholics are key to winning the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, Margaret Steinfels said in the Oct. 22 issue of Commonweal magazine. She directs the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture.
    "Their polling data show that Catholics are among undecided voters who are socially conservative and economically liberal; in other words, ambivalent in their political views," she said. "They could go either way."
    Paul Crouch Sr., president and CEO of evangelical Christian-oriented Trinity Broadcasting Network in Santa Ana., Calif., said in an interview Friday that evangelicals note "that Mr. Kerry is allegedly a good Catholic, yet he's at odds with his own church on the abortion issue."
    Although some evangelicals may disagree with the president on the war in Iraq, Mr. Crouch said, "Now that we are there, they realize we have to stay there."
    Evangelical turnout, he predicted, will help create a "landslide" for Mr. Bush, partly because of his stances against abortion and homosexual "marriage."
     "Anything that has to do with a moral issue interests Christians in general and evangelicals in particular," he said. "I urge them to pray, and I tell them the Holy Spirit can tell them who to vote for."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041023   Florida probes activists' voter-registration effort
 

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Law-enforcement authorities in Florida have begun a statewide investigation into suspected voter fraud, focusing on accusations that a liberal activist group used a statewide petition drive for a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage to improperly register anti-President Bush voters.
    Amid accusations that voter registration applications have been switched, duplicated, destroyed, forged and otherwise improperly obtained, the investigation has centered, in part, on petition and registration efforts by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
    ACORN, which claims to have registered 1.1 million new voters nationwide since July 2003, has actively been collecting signatures on petitions for a constitutional amendment to raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour. That proposal, now on the Nov. 2 ballot, is expected to boost turnout among 300,000 poor and blue-collar voters in the state , who would be expected to support Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts rather than Mr. Bush.
    Voter fraud is of particularly interest in Florida, a battleground state, where recounts and legal challenges after the 2000 presidential elections delayed final results for five weeks before Mr. Bush was declared the winner in Florida by 537 votes.
    ACORN claims to have registered 212,000 new voters in Florida for the Nov. 2 elections. An ACORN offshoot, known as Floridians for All, a political action committee, says it has collected signed petitions from nearly 1 million people in the state to increase the minimum wage.
    Officials at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) confirmed that the matter is under investigation, noting that the department has received "numerous complaints and has initiated several investigations related to voting irregularities."
     FDLE officials described the complaints as "widespread," adding that many appeared to be "organized efforts to commit voter fraud," including voter registrations, party affiliation forms and absentee ballots.
    The department, in a statement, also said workers for ACORN "have been connected with the widespread voter irregularities," noting that ACORN workers and their voter registration efforts also are under investigation in several states, including Colorado and Ohio.
     "While we conduct this investigation, we are mindful that our number-one priority will be to protect the rights of those individuals that are eligible to vote, and allow them the opportunity to do so," said FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell. "Our agents will do nothing that will impede or hinder that process."
    The investigation, according to FDLE officials, also has focused on accusations that in some instances, persons who believed they were signing various petitions later found out their signatures or possible forged signatures were used to complete a fraudulent voter registration.
    In other instances, they said, it appears that workers hired to obtain legitimate voter registrations filled in the information on the registration forms that should have been completed by the registrants.
     On several occasions, they said, workers appear to have signed multiple voter registrations themselves using information obtained during the registration drive.
    ACORN employees reportedly were paid $2 for each voter registration card they collected.
    The state's attorney's office in Jacksonville is investigating similar voter fraud issues that may have occurred in that jurisdiction.
    FDLE officials said regional task forces have been created to address voter safety issues and they have focused their investigative efforts on groups "such as ACORN, to identify those persons responsible for illegally hiring workers to obtain fraudulent voter registrations or absentee ballots as well as those workers who are suspected of falsifying thousands of voter applications."
    In Florida, most violations of voter fraud are a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Each fraudulent voter application, registration or absentee ballot can constitute a separate felony charge.
    ACORN's chief Florida organizer, Brian Kettenring, said that, while the group registered thousands of Florida voters, he denied the organization used fraudulent methods or deception. He said the FDLE "appears to be back in the voter-intimidation business" — a reference to accusations made by Democrats during the 2000 presidential election, which proved to be untrue.
    Meanwhile, voter registration problems are also being investigated in other states, including:
    • Ohio, where election officials are reviewing the voter registration of Jive Turkey Sr., who was among 1,284 suspicious applications that Cuyahoga County, Ohio, election officials will turn over to prosecutors to investigate for potential fraud.
    Earlier this week, officials in Defiance County, Ohio, questioned the voter registration applications of Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins and Michael Jordan, obtained by a man who police said was paid in crack cocaine for his registration efforts.
    •California, where state election officials are attempting to process a deluge of new voter registrations. A high number of new applications flooded several county offices after the registration deadline on Monday, although they had not been able to hire additional staffers and are now working overtime to process the documents.
    •Missouri, where three Kansas City area residents were charged this week with double voting in past elections and were warned they would vigorously prosecuted for any future election fraud. The three were accused of casting ballots in both Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

L041023   Judge delays decision about feeding tube
    TAMPA, Fla. — A judge yesterday refused to order a new trial to determine whether a severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo would want to be kept alive artificially.
    The ruling in the long-running right-to-die case moves Mrs. Schiavo's husband one step closer to having her feeding tube removed.
    But Circuit Judge George Greer in Clearwater blocked removal of the tube until at least Dec. 6 so Mrs. Schiavo's parents can decide whether to appeal.
    Mrs. Schiavo has been at the center of a bitter dispute between her husband and her parents.
    Bob and Mary Schindler had asked Judge Greer for the new trial to determine whether their daughter, who was a practicing Roman Catholic when she collapsed and suffered brain damage 14 years ago, would still choose to have her feeding tube removed based on recent statements by Pope John Paul II regarding people in vegetative states.
    The pope said people in vegetative states still have the right to nutrition and health care.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041023   Sinclair airs parts of anti-Kerry film
    BALTIMORE — Sinclair Broadcast's much-criticized news special featuring a documentary critical of Sen. John Kerry aired last night, devoting as much coverage to the controversy as the film that sparked the uproar.
    The program featured a few minutes of excerpts from the documentary, "Stolen Honor," as well as excerpts from a pro-Kerry documentary, interviews with veterans who support and oppose the Democratic presidential nominee, and pieces on issues such as the impact of new media, like the Internet, on politics.
    Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, a nonprofit watchdog group, said the show did not appear to be what Sinclair had originally intended.
    "The program that ran tonight suggests the public has been heard," Mr. Schwartzman said.
    Sinclair, whose executives are Republican contributors, originally said the program would air in prime time on all of its 62 stations, many in swing states, prompting protests from critics and shareholders. It aired on 40 stations.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

H041023   Gay 'marriage' ban legally on ballot
    COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the last legal challenge to placing a constitutional amendment banning homosexual "marriage" and recognition of same-sex couples on the Nov. 2 ballot.
    The court ruled 6-1 on technical grounds, saying it did not have jurisdiction over the claim, that opponents did not make their claim far enough ahead of the election and that a lower court had already ruled on the same issues.
    "This thing is definitely going to go forward," said David Langdon, an attorney representing Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, which gathered the signatures to place the issue on the ballot.
    Opponents had argued the initiative was invalid because it lacked the required summary and certification from the Ohio attorney general, but they said they weren't surprised by Thursday's ruling.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041023   Bush pitches for Catholic vote
 

By Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

HERSHEY, Pa. — President Bush yesterday met with Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, as he continued his election pitch to the nation's 65 million Catholic voters.
    With Catholics making up more than 25 percent of the electorate — including large populations in the battleground states Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida and Ohio — Mr. Bush is seeking to increase his share of that vote, which he lost to Vice President Al Gore in 2000 by three percentage points.
    "If you win Pennsylvania Catholics, you win the state and probably the election," said Terry Madonna, a pollster with Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. He said Catholics make up as much as 40 percent of the state's voters, and a majority voted in 2000 for Mr. Gore, who won the pivotal state by 4.2 percentage points.
    Mr. Bush, a Methodist, has made 41 trips to Pennsylvania, including several stops in and around Philadelphia and its suburbs, home to 1.5 million Catholics.
    He met yesterday for 30 minutes with Cardinal Rigali in a church rectory in Downingtown, Pa. White House spokesman Scott McClellan would say only that the pair "had a good discussion about shared priorities."
    Just this month, Cardinal Rigali said in a homily that Catholics have "a duty and responsibility" to vote for candidates who "hold with our Catholic teaching that respecting all life from conception to a natural death is inviolable."
    Although he did not name Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, who is Catholic, the line was clearly aimed at the pro-choice candidate.
    The Massachusetts senator rarely discusses abortion, but during the Oct. 8 presidential debate, he said he "can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that."
    Mr. Bush has begun to emphasize his conservative social stances, which resonate with religious voters.
    A rally yesterday at Hershey Park, which drew more than 23,000 supporters covered in plastic ponchos to protect against a cold drizzle, had a strong religious flavor, from Christian rock bands to an opening prayer in which a local pastor called on "heaven to shine down upon President Bush."
    "In changing times, we will support the institutions that give our lives direction and purpose: Our families, our schools, our religious congregations," Mr. Bush said to cheers from supporters packed into a football stadium. "We stand for a culture of life, in which every person matters and every being counts. We stand for marriage and family, which are the foundation of our society."
    Mr. Bush also painted his opponent as out of the mainstream on religious issues, whose "words are a little muddy, but his record is pretty clear."
    "He says he supports the institution of marriage, but he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act." The crowd booed loudly.
    "He voted against the ban on the brutal practice of partial-birth abortion." The crowd booed even more loudly.
    Mr. Bush has made an effort to win the support of more than 4 million evangelicals who opted not to go to the polls in 2000. Throughout his term, he also has met with prominent Catholics, including three times with Pope John Paul II.
    The candidates are running even among all Catholics, according to national polls, although Mr. Bush leads among white Catholics. Democrats carried the Catholic vote in the past three elections, narrowly in 2000 and handily in 1996 and 1992.
    Mr. Kerry, the first Catholic candidate for president since John F. Kennedy in 1960, is being hammered by conservative Catholics, some of whom have sought to have him excommunicated for his pro-choice stance on abortion.
    Yesterday, five swing state newspapers published a full-page ad, "An Open Letter from Fellow Catholics to John Kerry," in which other Catholic elected officials and voters chide Mr. Kerry.
    The ad, funded by the Bush-Cheney campaign, is running in midsized newspapers with strong Catholic readership in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Florida.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041022   A surprising review
    " 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,' the highly contested anti-Kerry documentary, should not be shown by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It should be shown in its entirety on all the networks, cable stations and on public television," New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley said yesterday in a review.
    "This histrionic, often specious and deeply sad film does not do much more damage to Senator John Kerry's reputation than have the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's negative ads, which have flooded television markets in almost every swing state. But it does help viewers better understand the rage fueling the unhappy band of brothers who oppose Mr. Kerry's candidacy and his claim to heroism," the reviewer said.
    "Sinclair, the nation's largest television station group, reaching about a quarter of United States television households, backed down this week and announced that it would use only excerpts from the 42-minute film as part of an hourlong news program about political use of the media, 'A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media.' That's too bad: What is most enlightening about this film is not the depiction of Mr. Kerry as a traitor; it is the testimony of the former POWs' describing the torture they endured in captivity and the shock they felt when celebrities like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden visited their prisons in North Vietnam and sided with the enemy."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041022   Soros vs. Moore
    George Soros has denounced filmmaker Michael Moore as having used unethical and misleading tactics.
    The left-wing billionaire made the remarks this week at the Tuesday Club in Harrisburg, Pa. He is on a nationwide tour calling for the defeat of President Bush.
    In response to a question from Harrisburg Patriot-News reporter Peter DeCoursey about his fellow Bush-basher, Mr. Soros criticized the filmmaker for resorting to inaccuracies "to mislead the American people."
    He added, "I am not a fan of Michael Moore."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041022   CALIFORNIA   Judge dismisses suit over cross removal
    LOS ANGELES — A judge dismissed a lawsuit that tried to stop Los Angeles County from removing a cross on the county's official seal.
    The county employee who sued, Ernesto Vasquez, argued the change was a First Amendment violation that would send the message Christians are not full residents of Los Angeles County. He also argued the cross was a historic and cultural symbol without a religious message.
    But those arguments are contradictory, said U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in dismissing the lawsuit Tuesday.
    The County Board of Supervisors decided in September to change the seal to avoid a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claimed the cross was an unconstitutional government endorsement of Christianity.
    An effort is under way to overturn the board decision by voter referendum. I
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041022   NEBRASKA   Official withdraws topless-dancer lawsuit
    LINCOLN — Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has stripped his support from a woman who claimed a landlord refused to rent her an apartment because she is a topless dancer.
    Mr. Bruning on Wednesday said he was withdrawing a lawsuit filed by his office last week on behalf of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission against an Omaha real estate company.
    The Richdale Group declined to lease an apartment to Charleigh Greenwood after she listed her occupation as a "dancer" at a Council Bluffs, Iowa, lounge.
    The lawsuit said such a refusal discriminates against women because labor statistics show women make up 98 percent of dancers in the state.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041022   Thuggish behavior
    "Score one for the pro-Kerry thugs trying to stifle free speech," James Taranto writes in his Best of the Web Today column at www.OpinionJournal.com.
    " 'Stolen Honor,' the controversial documentary in which former prisoners of war in Vietnam speak out about John Kerry's antiwar activities, was to have been screened at a theater in Jenkintown, Pa., [Tuesday] night. But 'management of the Baederwood Theater cancelled the showing after threats of civil disturbances,' reports Philadelphia's WPVI-TV.
    "Imagine the outcry we would have heard if Republicans had threatened 'civil disturbances' at theaters showing Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' " Mr. Taranto said.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020   Soros-supported voter-registration drive probed
 

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Billionaire currency trader George Soros, in his quest to unseat President Bush, has given millions of dollars to a coalition of anti-Bush organizations whose nationwide voter-registration drive has been targeted by state and federal authorities for possible widespread fraud.
    Working under an umbrella organization known as America Votes, the coalition's registration drive — described by election officials as the largest in U.S. history — focused on potential voters in 14 so-called battleground states.
    America Votes, which represents a collection of labor unions, trial lawyers, environmental groups and community organizations representing 20 million Americans, describes itself as a "nonpartisan political organization" that seeks to use the strategic abilities and large membership base of its coalition members to "break new ground in electoral politics."
    Its goal is to "register, educate and mobilize" voters for this year's elections, but some of those efforts are now being challenged.
    Hundreds of questionable voter-registration applications, such as duplicates, and accusations of workers shredding registrations in favor of one party are under review by local, state and federal law-enforcement and election authorities in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida.
    The coalition spent more than $100 million on its voter-registration campaign, according to financial records and several people familiar with the member organizations. Despite its nonpartisan claim, its membership includes 32 groups committed to Mr. Bush's defeat.
    Cecile Richards, a veteran labor and political organizer, is the coalition's president. Before coming to America Votes, she served as deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.
    "The launch of America Votes is a groundbreaking endeavor in American politics," she said. "We look forward to working together to reach out to voters and to talk about the issues that are important to Americans. America Votes is going to make an historic impact on the political process in this country."
    As a key contributor to the coalition, Mr. Soros, whose estimated net worth is $7 billion, is on a one-month speaking tour in several battleground states, where he has taken Mr. Bush to task for what he called "missteps" in the war in Iraq.
    Mr. Soros has described the Nov. 2 elections and the defeat of Mr. Bush as "the central focus of my life." To that end, he has routed millions of dollars to coalition members, key among which are MoveOn.org, an anti-Bush Internet-based advocacy group, and America Coming Together (ACT), which is dedicated to get-out-the-vote activities for Democratic candidates, particularly this year.
    Coalition members are using thousands of paid workers and volunteers, armed with bar-coded identification sheets, to target undecided and potential Democratic voters door to door, and at shopping centers, grocery stores, street festivals, sporting events, naturalization ceremonies and hip-hop concerts from coast to coast.
    The America Votes registration drive has been the beneficiary of millions of Soros dollars, and records show two coalition members, MoveOn.org and ACT, have accounted for nearly $15 million alone in cash contributions from Mr. Soros and his business partner, Peter Lewis.
    Both MoveOn.org and ACT are 527 tax-exempt organizations, allowed to take part in political campaigns and register voters.
    MoveOn.org, which claims 2.3 million members, received significant financial help from Mr. Soros and Mr. Lewis, who pledged a $5 million matching grant last November — a dollar for every two raised by MoveOn.org members — to put together a $15 million war chest to defeat Mr. Bush.
    The organization was begun in 1998 by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who organized an Internet-based advocacy group to protest the "waste of tax dollars" in the impeachment of President Clinton, calling for the country to "move on to more pressing issues facing the nation."
    Later, MoveOn.org vigorously opposed U.S. intervention in Iraq, a position that drew the attention of Mr. Soros.
    MoveOn.org ran an ad largely funded by anti-war Democrats that accused Mr. Bush of lying to get the United States into war with Iraq and blaming him for 1,000 American deaths there as well as a $150 billion price tag.
    The ad included an image of a U.S. soldier sinking in desert sand as he tried to keep his rifle above his head.
    In 2002, Mr. Boyd and Mrs. Blades hired a computer programmer, Zack Exley, as MoveOn.org's organizing director. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr. Exley had programmed GWBush.com, a Web page that featured doctored photographs portraying Mr. Bush as a drug addict.
    ACT was founded in August 2003 when Mr. Soros announced he was giving $10 million to the organization to ensure that Mr. Bush was not re-elected. At the time, he called ACT "an effective way to mobilize civil society, to convince people to go to the polls and vote for candidates who will reassert the values of the greatest open society in the world."
    The District-based organization has since raised more than $50 million to defeat Mr. Bush, and has been active in the America Votes registration campaign. It hired a staff of about 1,500 canvassers, paying them $12 an hour to go door to door in battleground states to register voters.
    ACT is headed by Ellen R. Malcolm, who also organized Emily's List, a pro-choice political action network, and Steve Rosenthal, who served as deputy political adviser to the Democratic National Committee, chief adviser to Labor Secretary Robert Reich during the Clinton administration and political director at the AFL-CIO.
    Mrs. Malcolm told The Washington Post that the Soros donation was "like getting his Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."
    Mr. Rosenthal also is executive director of Partnership for America's Families (PAF), a political action committee financed with $20 million from labor unions and as much as $10 million from individual, pro-Democratic donors. PAF also is a member of the America Votes coalition.
    The battleground states — Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin — can deliver 145 Electoral College votes, with 270 needed to win.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020   Pessimistic Kerry supporters predict Bush will be the victor
 

By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

American voters, while split over who should be the next president, overwhelmingly predict that President Bush will vanquish Sen. John Kerry, an expectation that could affect the outcome of a close election.
    While the various national polls show that voters prefer the president over Mr. Kerry by an average of four points, those same surveys place Mr. Bush some 20 points ahead on the question of which candidate is expected to win.
    "This could be a big cause of concern for Kerry," professor Vicki Morwitz of New York University said. "If people really think Bush is going to win, they may have a slight tendency to shift their preference and ultimately vote for Bush, even though they were a Kerry supporter to begin with."

    Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News, agreed.
    "If more people (regardless of whom they support) don't start telling pollsters that they believe Kerry will win, he probably can't," Mr. Halperin wrote in ABC's the Note, an online political briefing.
    Roughly one-quarter of Kerry supporters who have an opinion on the outcome of the election predict the Massachusetts Democrat will lose, according to polls by Fox News and the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP). By contrast, only one of 18 Bush supporters who have an opinion on the outcome expect the president to lose.
    That runs contrary to the prediction of pundits who claim Mr. Kerry's supporters are more enthusiastic and therefore more likely to turn out voters in large numbers, according to Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush campaign.
    "If the vast majority of your supporters believe you're going to win, you're going to be more motivated to turn out, and get other people to turn out," Mr. Dowd said. "Conversely, if a third of Kerry supporters don't think their candidate's going to win, that means they would be much less likely to turn out or help in the final days.
    "It's not necessarily completely vote-determinative," he added. "But it does reflect the president's momentum in the race and the enthusiasm and strength of his supporters."
    Dick Morris, who came to prominence as the pollster for President Clinton, said that while the expectations differential might help Mr. Bush in a typical election, this year's contest is so polarizing that even pessimistic Kerry supporters will show up at the polls.
    "In this election, where everybody believes it will be razor close — partly because of what happened in 2000 — I don't think expectations will be a factor," he said. "I think there's going to be a huge turnout."
    But Mrs. Morwitz, a marketing professor whose research likens winning politicians to winning products, said the constant drumbeat of polls showing Mr. Bush ahead could have an impact.
    "If you like Kerry and then find out the electorate doesn't like him — they seem to like Bush better — that makes you feel psychologically uncomfortable," she explained. "And people don't like to be in a dissonant state, whether it's about politics, whether it's about products, whether it's about anything.
    "So they try to find a way to get out of that state," she added. "Therefore, there might be at least a small number of Kerry supporters shifting their attitudes to be a little more pro-Bush so that their expectations and preferences line up."
    New polls by Gallup, Fox and ABC News have Mr. Bush ahead by eight, seven and five points, respectively. However, those same polls show the president leading by margins of 20, 17 and 23 on the question of who respondents expect to win the election.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020   Catholics place ad in 5 papers to scold Kerry

ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Five newspapers in presidential battleground states will publish a full-page ad today from Catholic elected officials and voters chiding Democratic Sen. John Kerry for his pro-choice stance on abortion.
    The ad, titled "An Open Letter from Fellow Catholics to John Kerry," was funded by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It is running in mid-sized newspapers with strong Catholic readership in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Florida.
    "In the most recent debate, Senator Kerry, you said, 'everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith,' and that 'everything is a gift from the Almighty.' But apparently, when it comes to the issue of the right to life, you follow neither your own faith nor your own reason," the ad says.
    "Senator Kerry, your stand contradicts both your faith and reason," the ad says.
    The letter is signed by 38 Catholics, including Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican; American Catholic Council President Connie Marshner; former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn; and a handful of college professors, including two from Catholic University.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041020   Kerry a church
    Here's a twist: The conservative Family Research Council is looking to team up (sort of) with Sen. John Kerry on the issues of free speech and church and state.
    In a letter to the Democratic presidential nominee, council Vice President Connie Mackey is formally requesting that Mr. Kerry — "upon his return to Congress" — sponsor a Senate companion bill to the House side's Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act.
    The unusual request comes in the wake of Mr. Kerry's presence of late as guest speaker during Sunday services at several houses of worship nationwide. Earlier this month, for example, Mr. Kerry joined preachers — the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton — for services at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Miami. During the service, the senator was endorsed from the pulpit by the church's pastor.
    In her letter, Ms. Mackey suggests legislation Mr. Kerry might propose could "restore freedom of speech to our country's churches, mosques and synagogues," and "is an important defense to the basic right of free speech," which the council considers a top priority.
    "[B]y the use of the tax code, churches and other houses of worship are scared into silence on matters of public morality because of sensitivity to political restrictions," she states.
    The proper interpretation of "separation of church and state," the council notes, has been debated by both political parties in reference to endorsements by members of the clergy.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020   For the record
    Retired Gen. Tommy Franks said yesterday that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry was distorting history with the often-repeated assertion that the United States allowed Osama bin Laden to escape.
    "On more than one occasion, Sen. Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America," Gen. Franks said in an op-ed piece in the New York Times.
    "He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. How did it happen? According to Mr. Kerry, we 'outsourced' the job to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality."
    Gen. Franks said that, contrary to what Mr. Kerry has said, "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir."
    Although the U.S. military did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew the region and its tunnels and caves, special forces from the United States and other countries were "providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes," Gen. Franks said, while as many as 100,000 Pakistani troops sealed the border and rounded up the enemy.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041019   Evangelicals endeavor to redeem the vote
 

By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

President Bush's re-election campaign is getting a boost from powerful Christian groups, which are enlisting entertainers such as actor Jim Caviezel of "The Passion of the Christ" to cajole millions of evangelicals into voting.
    One of the newest groups is Redeem the Vote, the religious community's answer to MTV's secular Rock the Vote. The group is touring battleground states with Christian rock groups and voter-registration drives that organizers say are putting the fear of God into Sen. John Kerry's supporters.
    "This is really scaring Democrats," said Redeem the Vote founder Randy Brinson. "This is major, major news that the major media have ignored because we're not liberal."
    Mr. Brinson persuaded Mr. Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson's hit film, to appear in a Webcast imploring Christians to vote. Although Mr. Caviezel never explicitly endorses the president, his message is designed to remind Christians that Mr. Bush shares their opposition to abortion, judicial activism and homosexual "marriage."
    "In this election year, Americans are faced with some of the most important issues in the history of our country," he said. "In order to preserve the God-given freedoms we each hold dear, it's important that we let our voices be heard."
    The message is hammered home in millions of e-mails that Redeem the Vote is sending to evangelical Christians, whose names were obtained from the marketing firms that made "The Passion of the Christ" a blockbuster.
    A more-established Christian group, Focus on the Family, is making a similar appeal for evangelical votes through its popular radio show, hosted by James Dobson.
    "In the year 2000, 4 million evangelicals did not go to the polls," Mr. Dobson said in a recent speech that will be broadcast next week. "Twenty-five million Christians of various stripes — Catholics, mainline, other perspectives — did not register.
    "That is an outrage," he added. "And it must not happen again."
    The grass-roots efforts by these and other Christian groups are being monitored closely by the Bush campaign, which is taking a more active role in turning out evangelicals than in the 2000 election.
    White House political strategist Karl Rove long has bemoaned the fact that Mr. Bush likely would have won the popular vote if more Christians had shown up at the polls four years ago.
    "I see a lot of parallels between the evangelical vote and the African-American vote," Mr. Brinson said. "For years, the Republican Party wrote off African-Americans, saying they were unable to make inroads, while the Democratic Party took them for granted.
    "I see a lot of that with the evangelicals," he added. "The Republicans have taken them for granted, and the Democrats write them off, saying they don't have any way to reach these people."
    Christian groups are hoping to change that dynamic two weeks from today. To that end, they implicitly are reminding evangelicals that Mr. Bush shares their values.
    "We have sat here, many of us for 35 years, while the family has been battered and bruised and broken," Mr. Dobson said. "Many of us have just let it happen.
    "But I'm telling you, now's the time to say, 'Enough is enough.' "
    The remarks, which were delivered to a cheering crowd in Colorado, will be broadcast next Monday and Tuesday to 1.5 million listeners of the "Focus on the Family" radio show.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

H041019   Episcopal Church asked to offer 'regrets'
 

By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The worldwide Anglican Communion yesterday decided not to discipline the U.S. Episcopal Church for consecrating a homosexual bishop last year and for allowing same-sex "blessings" in some dioceses, instead suggesting the American church "express regrets" for its actions.
    The Windsor Report, released in London by a 17-member commission overseen by Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland, did say the U.S. Episcopal Church caused "deep offense" by electing Canon V. Gene Robinson, a divorced priest living with a male lover, as bishop of New Hampshire.
    At that August 2003 meeting, U.S. bishops also approved a measure that allows Episcopalians to "explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions."
    The Windsor Report also criticized the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia, Canada, which in May last year began performing same-sex rites. Several months later, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada affirmed "the integrity and sanctity of committed same-sex relationships."
    The report called for a moratorium on future "blessings" in U.S. and Canadian churches, and on consecrating more homosexual bishops "until some new consensus" emerges among the world's 70 million Anglicans.
    The several dozen bishops who consecrated Bishop Robinson Nov. 2 in Durham, N.H., were also invited to "consider" whether they should withdraw from future Anglican summits.
    Washington Bishop John Chane, one of the consecrators at the Durham ceremony, refused to say whether he would withdraw from the next regularly scheduled worldwide Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, in 2008.
    "Lambeth is a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then," he said. Bishop Chane did express "sorrow," however, for how the Robinson consecration "engendered alienation and made others feel marginalized."
    The bishop also brought up a new diocesan rite for same-sex blessings, which he authorized a year ago.
    "I have caused pain," he said at a press conference. "I will say with all humility that was not my intent."
    Although he premiered the rite at a June 12 ceremony for two men at a Maryland parish, he promised a temporary moratorium, with the understanding that "there's a time of beginning and a time of certain ending" to discussion on the issue.
    When asked whether his clergy would obey the moratorium, he said, "It's very important for the clergy of this diocese to understand what I'm saying." But he said the "report doesn't ask me to be a policeman."
    The document also recommended the adoption of an "Anglican covenant" by all 38 worldwide provinces of the 70-million-member Communion that would presumably enforce common doctrines.
    Because the Episcopal Church acted alone in consecrating Bishop Robinson, it must explain "how a person living in a same-gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ," the report said.
    In response, Bishop Frank Griswold, the U.S. church's presiding bishop, said Episcopal leaders "regret how difficult and painful actions of our church" have affected the Anglican world. Eighteen provinces of the Anglican Communion have either condemned the U.S. church or broken relations with it.
    The Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, together representing more than 1 billion Christians, also condemned these actions.
    But Bishop Griswold affirmed "the presence and positive contribution of gay and lesbian persons" to the church, adding, "I regret that there are places within our Communion where it is unsafe for them to speak out of the truth of who they are."
    Episcopal conservatives denounced the report, which criticized bishops who have performed confirmations and other church rites in liberal dioceses without the permission of their bishops.
    Diane Knippers, president of the Institute of Religion and Democracy, called it "a misguided attempt at evenhandedness" between two different kinds of bishops.
    "In this, the report implies equivalence between the arsonist who started the fire and the fireman who must take an ax to the door in order the save the innocents caught in the burning building," she said.
    A statement from the American Anglican Council said "that within minutes of the Windsor Report's release, the presiding bishop has already rejected its core presupposition — that is, the church's traditional teaching on human sexuality.
    "We call upon Bishop Griswold to express godly sorrow, immediately implement a moratorium on ordinations and consecrations of practicing homosexuals as well as the blessing of same-sex unions, and we call on all bishops who have supported the consecration to withdraw from the councils of the church, as the report suggests."
    But Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa, praised the report, saying Anglicans will eventually be of one mind on homosexuality.
    "This is possible," he said. "We did it before with the ordination of women," which the Episcopal Church began doing in 1974 even though female priests were not allowed in the Anglican Communion.
    At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Anglican bishops overwhelmingly declared that homosexual practices were "incompatible with Scripture."
    U.S. bishops will meet in January to consider the document, and the world's Anglican archbishops will discuss the report at a February meeting in Northern Ireland. The report also must be voted on at a June meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England.
    •Al Webb contributed to this report from London.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041019   Paper picks fail to sway voters
 

By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

In keeping with a long-standing election-year rite, the nation's newspapers are proffering their editorial endorsements to President Bush or Sen. John Kerry as Election Day nears.
    As of yesterday, the Massachusetts Democrat led Mr. Bush by 48 papers to 34. The practice gets mixed reviews, though.
    "I have to believe that even in this day and age of intense communications that newspaper endorsements still have an effect in close elections," said Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher (E&P) magazine, which maintains an ongoing tally of just who loves whom.
    Historically, 175 to 250 papers nationwide make their endorsements in the pivotal weeks before the vote.
    Four years ago, E&P surveyed 2,000 likely voters and revealed that 94 percent of them could not care less who their local newspaper endorsed, and 70 percent thought their paper should stop endorsing candidates altogether. Mr. Mitchell thinks such sentiments still prevail.
    This year, E&P surveyed editors themselves on the endorsement process and will publish the results next week.
    "We peeked behind the editorial curtain, from the New York Times on down," the magazine's editor said. "We found many papers don't make endorsements anymore, with editors believing they only influence a small number of voters. Still, if they affect 5 percent, that constitutes a large chunk in a very close race with a politically polarized electorate."
    Indeed, some papers are ducking a political role. In the 1952 election, for example, 82 percent of the nation's newspapers swore allegiance either to Dwight D. Eisenhower or Adlai Stevenson for president. Now the number of endorsing newspapers lingers at about 30 percent.
    Regardless of their effect, endorsements present a cultural moment of their own, enabling analysts to divine the political significance of candidate support from a big metropolitan daily versus a modest paper in a swing state.
    E&P found that five formerly pro-Bush papers are now in the Kerry camp, and that three papers that once backed the president said they were not motivated to endorse either of the candidates this year.
    Endorsements can include lush patriotic prose, querulous partisan criticism and hybrid missives, such as the guarded rationale of Denver's Rocky Mountain News, which endorsed Mr. Bush on Saturday.
    "If it weren't for 9/11, the 2004 presidential campaign would be a weary reprise of the one four years ago," the paper stated, concluding, "Like many Americans, we have serious misgivings about some aspects of the president's performance."
    Endorsements spell news content, though, and are routinely charted by the Associated Press, the National Journal, the foreign press and others.
    Some say newspapers primarily hold sway in local races.
    "People weigh out presidential endorsements; they pay attention. Whether the endorsement has influence is another matter," said Scott Bosley, executive director of the Virginia-based American Society of Newspaper Editors.
    "People tend to count on their papers to evaluate local candidates who don't get much exposure ordinarily. What with print and broadcast media combined, the public already has more than enough information on a presidential hopeful," Mr. Bosley said.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041019   Indecent tactic
    "The memoir about the Kerry-Edwards campaign that will be the best-seller will reveal the debate rehearsal aimed at focusing national attention on the fact that Vice President [Dick] Cheney has a daughter who is a lesbian," New York Times columnist William Safire writes.
    "That this twice-delivered low blow was deliberate is indisputable. The first shot was taken by John Edwards, seizing a moderator's opening to smarmily compliment the Cheneys for loving their openly gay daughter, Mary. The vice president thanked him and yielded the remaining 80 seconds of his time; obviously, it was not a diversion he was willing to prolong," Mr. Safire said.
    "Until that moment, only political junkies knew that a member of the Cheney family serving on the campaign staff was homosexual. The vice president, to show it was no secret or anything his family was ashamed of, had referred to it briefly twice this year, but the press — respecting family privacy — had properly not made it a big deal. The percentage of voters aware of Mary Cheney's sexual orientation was tiny.
    "But Edwards' answer in the vice-presidential debate raised that percentage. Because Cheney refused to react and the media did not see the spotlight on lesbianism as part of a political plan, the opening shot worked.
    "Emboldened, members of Kerry's debate preparation team made Mary Cheney's private life the centerpiece of their answer to the question, especially worrisome to them, about same-sex marriage."
    Mr. Safire added: "Kerry will, I hope, assert his essential decency by apologizing with sincerity. Other Republicans hope he will let his self-inflicted wound fester. They have in mind a TV spot using an old film clip of a Boston lawyer named Welch at a congressional hearing, saying 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?' "

    Indecent tactic II
    "John Kerry clearly felt he was riding high in the final presidential debate last week in Tempe, Ariz., when he impulsively and inexplicably noted that Vice President [Dick] Cheney's daughter Mary is a lesbian," syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak writes.
    "That shocked politicians of both parties, focus group participants and just plain voters. What happened next could affect the outcome of the closely contested election," Mr. Novak said.
    "The negative reaction by prominent Democrats was conveyed to the Kerry campaign plane with this recommendation: Apologize for an inadvertent insult. That received some support within Kerry's staff, but not much. The overwhelming sentiment was for no apology. Indeed, the hard language from principal Kerry surrogates described Mary Cheney as 'fair game' and asserted that her mother is ashamed of her.
    "It is hard to believe that in the closing weeks of a campaign in which great issues are debated, the sexuality of the vice president's daughter could be determinant. Still, overnight polling after the Cheney flap showed a sharp gain by George W. Bush. Whether this is coincidental or cause-and-effect is a subject for backstage political discussion in both parties."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

R041018   Bishop invites faithful to Mall to pray and fast
 

By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

An "America for Jesus" rally slated for Friday aims to attract 40,000 to 50,000 evangelical Christians to fast and pray for 18 hours on the Mall.
    Although the rally is 11 days before the presidential election, organizers say the intent is spiritual, not political.
    "It is not a political rally; it is a prayer and fasting rally," said Bishop John Gimenez, senior pastor of the 5,000-member Rock Church in Virginia Beach, who is leading the event. "We are going to pray and fast that God will bring healing to our nation.
    "We're not going there with a fist raised in protest but with hands raised in worship. We know 'It's not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord.' We feel the church needs to say to the nation, 'Our house is on fire.' "
    The rally runs from 6 a.m. to midnight on the Mall at Seventh Street NW.
    Bishop Gimenez's church staged similar large rallies on the Mall in 1980, 1988 and 1996 during times, he said, of national ferment.
    "It seems that every eight years, God puts it on our heart to come back to Washington to pray," he said.
    "We feel as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this nation, we have a responsibility and obligation that whenever there's trouble nationally or internally that affects the whole nation, we have to come pray at our capital," Bishop Gimenez said.
    The condition of the country is worse than it was in 1980, he added, when the major problems were soaring interest rates and U.S. hostages in Iran.
    "A lot of things have happened now that are devastating to our nation," he said. "We feel America has become like the prodigal son. It's left its basic, righteous standing and gotten itself into the pigpen area with pornography and no prayer in schools. The church has the obligation to pray and to fast."
    The numerous speakers include singer Pat Boone, Bishop Betty Peebles of the Jericho City of Praise Church in Landover, U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes of Illinois, National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard, televangelist Rod Parsley, and Ben Kinchlow, a former co-host for "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
    Bishop Gimenez said Friday's rally originally was for Hispanics only. When it became clear that Hispanic churches could not afford the $1.2 million cost, the bishop expanded it to other congregations.
    "We haven't had too many people respond," he said. "It's been very difficult."
    But Anna Gimenez, the pastor's sister who is in charge of organizing black and Hispanic churches for the rally, said "hundreds" of local congregations are taking part.
    "I am getting the greatest response from Hispanics we've ever had in the city," Miss Gimenez said. "Usually we get the pastors, but not the people. But this time there's a move amongst them for a vision for America. They are no longer just visiting this country; America is their country, too."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020C   Howard Stern's move
 

By Dan K. Thomasson

The moans emanating from the airwaves these days are coming from AM-FM radio executives stunned by the imminent departure of Howard Stern, the trashy disc jockey who has become fabulously wealthy as an icon for millions of Americans whose taste starts at the knees and ends at the neck line.
    Mr. Stern, as everyone knows by now, is taking his daily scatological meanderings to another venue, satellite subscription radio where those who "get off" (to use one of his expressions) on gutter talk and juvenile stunts can pay for the privilege of listening to him convince young women to disrobe in his studio. How exciting. Well, they are certainly welcome to him, all 12 million of them. In fact, it is safe to say they deserve the ... (Oops, almost used a Sternism here) they will receive in the process.
    If cable television is any example, the $12.95-a-month initial fee for this kind of radio will last about as long as any discerning human being above the IQ of moron and the age of 16 would spend listening to "Mr. Private Parts," the king of the talk show smut peddlers. The odds are pretty good that the base rate plus premium packages charged by XM and Sirius, the two main satellite players, ultimately will rival those of Comcast and Cox and the rest of the big players in the viewing arts.
    Then there is the question of government regulation, which is the reason Mr. Stern signed off of free radio and on to pay, a contract for $500 million. There already is a clamor in Congress to start regulating cable content as it broadcasts TV and radio with substantial fines for indecent material. The FCC just levied some severe fines on Fox stations for pushing the limit of decency. If the guys who dreamed up subscription radio are not aware that some of that attention now will be diverted to their enterprises, they have been blinded by the prospect of those dazzling Stern interviews with pornography stars.
    But old Howard knows that the matter then becomes a First Amendment issue and any such successful assault on his right to talk dirty to a paying audience will take a great many more years than he has left, if it could survive the constitutional challenges, which is doubtful. Look at all the smut channels one can buy on cable and the mainliners like HBO, which airs shows with degenerate killer heroes whose utterances are limited to "youse" punctuated fore and aft by the "F" word. Besides, Mr. Stern understands how to get in on the bottom floor of a good thing, having had a couple of decades of experience at a much lower level than that.
    But he isn't going to be a pioneer in the new enterprise despite his silly messianic claims that his action will spell the end of AM and FM. A team of Stern knock offs, who once did a running commentary of a couple having sex in a church, is already on board XM, which now has three times as many subscribers as Sirius, Mr. Stern's new employer. It will be fascinating to see how many regular Stern listeners are willing to fork over the monthly fee to continue their worship when he switches from Infinity Broadcasting in 16 months.
    This isn't a general condemnation of paid radio. For those who can afford it, the satellite concept offers a wide variety of music and other interesting programming, including news. Nor is it meant to criticize Sirius for signing Mr. Stern. Actually, it is a good solution. It is where he belongs, and the move relieves the pressure on fathers and mothers who don't want their youngsters listening to him but have been almost powerless to do anything about it. That is until they complained loudly enough about his offensiveness that Congress and the FCC had to pay attention, especially after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl flash. Keeping him around ultimately was going to cut substantially into the $100 million in revenue he allegedly generates each year.
    That amount alone attests overwhelmingly to the commercial value of pandering to the basest tastes. Mr. Stern has lived on the edge of "prevailing community standards" (to borrow a Supreme Court phrase) for a long time, surviving a number of firings always to rise even higher. One day it is conceivable he will crash off a cliff of political correctness from which there is no recovery, as have several of his imitators. That day probably has been put off by his decision. Meanwhile, he is laughing all the way to the bank.
    His soon to be former employers should welcome his departure.

    Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

O041020C   Uninformed voters
 

By Cal Thomas

During this soon-to-be-over (thankfully) political season, some, in the heat of debate, have told people of a different political persuasion, "You don't know what you are talking about." There is now evidence to back up that claim.
    A new Cato Institute study by Ilya Somin, an assistant law professor at George Mason University, concludes voters are ignorant about the candidates and their positions and do not know enough about the issues to make an informed choice.
    Mr. Somin has compiled his analysis from several studies, all of which reveal a lack of knowledge by a majority of voters. He cites one study showing 70 percent of respondents did not know Congress recently passed and President Bush signed a Medicare prescription drug benefit. And 58 percent said they knew "nothing" or "very little" about the controversial USA Patriot Act, despite a slew of TV commercials by the American Civil Liberties Union denouncing it.
    How can people in a free society properly judge candidates, policies and issues if they know little or nothing about them beyond the images concocted by skilled media manipulators?
    Mr. Somin writes, "Informed voters must have at least substantial understanding about which of the available policy options are most likely to advance their goals."
    Mr. Somin adds: "Particularly significant is the fact that, on many issues, the majority is not only ignorant of the truth, but actively misinformed. For example, 61 percent believe that there has been a net loss of jobs in 2004, 58 percent believe that the administration sees a link between Saddam Hussein and September 11, [2001] and 57 percent believe increases in domestic spending have not contributed significantly to the current federal budget deficit."
    The Bush administration has repeatedly denied a link between September 11 and Saddam, but does not get through to most voters. And job growth continues upward.
    Widespread voter ignorance is not a recent phenomenon. One month after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, polls showed 57 percent of Americans had never heard of the architect of the takeover, Newt Gingrich, despite massive press coverage. In 1964, at the height of the Cold War, only 38 percent were aware the Soviet Union was not a NATO member.
    "Most of the time," writes Mr. Somin, "only bare majorities know which party has control of the Senate, some 70 percent cannot name either of their state's senators and the vast majority cannot name any congressional candidate in their district at the height of a campaign."
    Mr. Somin then makes this shocking and depressing statement: "Overall, close to one-third of Americans can be categorized as 'know-nothings' almost completely ignorant of relevant political information."
    Politicians know this, and so they often seek to restrict the flow of information to voters, preferring poll-tested buzzwords and assertions about the patriotism, faith or honesty of the other candidate. But, as Mr. Somin concludes, "Ill-informed voters attempting to make political judgments on the basis of personal experience may fall into egregious errors."
    Most people feel overwhelmed when they think about government. Government, especially the federal government, is so large and seemingly remote from average people (except when it wants our money) that most people apparently believe neither their thoughts nor their votes can change much. Perhaps if government were smaller, more manageable and more citizen-friendly, more people would care.
    The Cato study is a shocking revelation of the lack of political depth in the country at a time when knowledge was never more needed. "An informed electorate is a prerequisite for democracy," writes Mr. Somin. It follows that the opposite, ignorance, is the prerequisite for domination by the few. This is why pollsters need to go deeper when they ask voters their opinions on issues and candidates. Are their positions informed, or are they reacting to images and impressions?
    If ignorance is bliss, there will be a lot of happy voters Nov. 2. Such ignorance has serious implications for the health and welfare of a constitutional republic.

    Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041022E   A shotgun marriage
 

By Deborah Simmons

In an interview published Wednesday in USA Today, Mother Teresa, er, excuse me, Teresa Heinz Kerry, said, "I don't know that she's ever had a real job" — the "she"being LauraBush. Mrs.Heinz Kerry issued an apology hours later, yet, somehow, it is inconceivable that the First Lady of Pittsburgh, a woman of considerable learning, did not know that the First Lady of America is a former teacher and librarian, and became a full-time homemaker after marrying W.
    I wouldn't give a hoot what the sixty-something said if it weren't for the fact that the endowed Widow Heinz might become the mistress of America's most expensive public housing.
    But let's dispense with her latest oral blunder and look at what her trophy husband has been up to.
    JFK wannabe John Forbes Kerry seemingly wants to be seen as both the Ed Brooke of Massachusetts and the cream of the black pulpit, as he solicits votes hand-in-arm with Jesse Jackson, a "senior adviser" to Team Kerry (surprise, surprise!) and Al Sharpton, a once and former Kerry foe. Mr. Kerry has plopped his liberal butt in several black churches in recent weeks, and even turned on his leftist charm at a Haitian Catholic Church (when he sought the blessings that really and truly matter, however, he put knees to kneeler in a different Catholic Church).
    Black voters, it appears, are not as interested in the Kerry brand — even though that might mean crowning an "African American" as first lady. Indeed, ambivalent might be a more accurate characterization. Black Democrats, like their white counterparts, say Mr. Kerry has neither the charisma nor thepolitical stance that traditionally has made black voters slaves to the Democratic Party.Just watchMr. Kerry operate. He doesn't even seem comfortable around black folks, whereas Mrs. Heinz Kerry spent her childhood in colonialist Africa. And Mr. Kerry never needed black votes in Massachusetts, whose black population hovers around 5 percent.
    Even Team Kerry has problems with blacks. Gore 2000 campaign chief Donna Brazile and other strategists warned the Kerry camp to hire more black advisers way back in the spring. In July, the all-Democrat Congressional Black Caucus shook its finger at Mr. Kerry, calling his ad campaign that targets blacks B-O-R-I-N-G. Then, as he prepared to start hustling black congregations, Mr. Kerry paired up with hucksters extraordinaire Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
    Now, as the day of reckoning draws near, it has dawned on him and his party's leaders that he cannot afford to play footloose and fact-free with black voters, despite the fact that long ago they began whistling, even in Dixie, for the carpetbagger.
    The news coming out of the polls for Mr. Kerry was a bit startling, perhaps biting him where it hurt the most, since he, like other Democrats, had already assumed the black vote was in the bag.
    ASeptember poll by The Washington Post and ABC News showed that less than 40 percent of blacks were "very enthusiastic" about Mr. Kerry, despite the fact that an overwhelming 80 percent of them plan to vote for him in November. More recently, even as busloads of celebrities hawk on his behalf, another bit of polling news struck deeper: A national poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies showed that President Bush has substantially strenghtened his support among black Christian conservatives (36 percent vs. 11 percent in 2000). Moreover, the same poll said that 18 percent of black voters would be willing to give Mr. Bush another four years in the White House — double the 9 percent that exit polls said he received in 2000. Overall, the Joint Center poll said, Mr. Kerry holds a commanding 69 percent to 18 percent lead over Mr. Bush among black voters.
    That Mr. Bush falls short in a head-to-head lineup for the black vote is no surprise (after all, Mr. Bush is five inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Kerry). What is insightful is that while Al Gore won 90 percent of the black vote in 2000, Mr. Kerry falls way short.
    If Mrs. Heinz Kerry didn't know that Mrs. Bush is a former educator, then she surely doesn't know that her husband's relationship with black America is not a promising one. Actually, it's like a shotgun wedding.
    Oops, I forgot. Mrs. Heinz Kerry, poor thing, probably doesn't know what a shotgun wedding is. But that's OK. All she has to do is pull aside one of her husband's domestic workers, say, Jesse Jackson, and ask. The Reverend would be more than happy to oblige.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020E   The media for Kerry
 

By Diana West

"Absolutely," most reporters want John Kerry to win the election, declares Newsweek's Evan Thomas, commenting on the media bias he says translates into "maybe" five extra points for the Democratic ticket at the polls. That's down from the 15 points Mr. Thomas first predicted Fourth Estate favor would bestow on Kerry-Edwards, but even five points could tip a race as close as this one.
    Which is a chilling thought, but also a golden opportunity. It means that a vote for Bush-Cheney is not only a vote against Kerry-Edwards, but also a vote against Kerry-Edwards-CBS-CNN-New York Times. Are you incensed over Dan Rather's crude attempt to influence the presidential election with a sheaf of pathetic forgeries? Appalled by "Nightline's" Ted Koppel for using dictatorship-vetted sources in communist Vietnam to contradict the testimonies of decorated American veterans? Outraged by ABC's head-office directive to its reporters to go easier on John Kerry than George W. Bush, and not "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable"? Don't get mad, vote Republican.
    The fact is, never before have mainstream media (MSM) organizations, and I mean the hunters and gatherers of news, not its cooks and consumers, sunk so deep in the tank for a Democratic ticket. The election is days away, but vital questions about Mr. Kerry remain not just unanswered in MSM outlets, but unasked. This is evidence of the efficiency with which the only-selectively adversarial media have embraced the role of Democratic star-maker, not newsmaker.
     "It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course," ABC News political director Mark Halperin admits in a "1984"-style directive leaked to the Drudge Report. "But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying ..." — gee, thanks a lot — "now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right." And how's that done — by covering for Mr. Kerry? Given what we still don't know about the candidate after practically incessant blah-blahing, including three debates, this becomes the inescapable conclusion. And I don't just mean de-emphasizing such Kerry facts as his inexplicable failure to attend three-quarters of his public Senate Intelligence Committee hearings. Or failing to ponder the coincidence that Kerry cousin C. Stewart Forbes' company won a $900 million contract from Vietnam after Sen. Kerry pushed to normalize relations.
     Here we are, on the brink, possibly, of electing a self-confessed war criminal to the Oval Office — a man who, as an American officer, parlayed with the enemy, and... nothing. No questions, no stories. No thoughts, no curiosity. We contemplate a new wartime leader whose political epiphany — the famous Christmas in Cambodia, "seared, seared" into Mr. Kerry's memory — never happened. Questions, stories in the MSM? Not a one. We consider trusting our very lives to a man who has consistently hewed to the wrong side of history, favoring appeasement and disarmament over democratic principle and strength, but we know nothing of his current thinking on those old positions.
     How, for instance, does this American presidential candidate explain his place of honor in a Vietnamese war museum dedicated to an American defeat? Does Mr. Kerry believe the anti-war movement in which he figured so prominently bears any moral responsibility for the mass brutality — executions, re-education camps, boat people — that marked Hanoi's victory? Indeed, does Mr. Kerry still believe North Vietnam "liberated" South Vietnam, and that the conflict itself was not a front in the Cold War? We saw valedictory comments from Mr. Kerry on Ronald Reagan's death, but we have no idea whether he still reviles the Reagan years as a "moral blackness." We don't know because no one in the MSM has asked him. This glaring failure makes a mockery of the media. It leaves us gasping for facts. It also explains the volcanic eruption of alternative sources of campaign information like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the newsies of the blogosphere, and a slew of independent ads and documentaries, including "Stolen Honor." Such activity has injected vital blasts of oxygen into otherwise stilted coverage.
     But in the land of the free and the free press, we shouldn't have to rely on the unique gumption of, say, a John O'Neill, the Swiftee spokesman who went so far as to write a best-selling book about John Kerry ("Unfit for Command") to publicize crucial information the MSM ignored. I remember well the veritable news blackout on the Swift Boat vets when they first assembled last spring in downtown Washington. The Associated Press didn't even send a correspondent, calling the group's press conference "old news"before it happened.
    Whatever the final tally on Election Day, we, the people, need to take a good hard look at the MSM scorecard the day after.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041021E   A liberal's burden for Kerry
 

By Gary J. Andres

It's too early for post-mortems on this year's presidential campaign, but two bold brush strokes already color the electoral canvas. Future historians will highlight these factors as dominant themes explaining the 2004 presidential mosaic.
    First, blinded by the candidates' daily tactics, most in the media misjudge how much John Kerry's record as a Massachusetts liberal has burdened him during this campaign. It's no surprise Republican partisans consider Mr. Kerry a liberal, but the full weight of this yoke among ordinary voters has been underestimated.
    Second, taking up the challenger mantle ? particularly when largely uncontested by the mainstream media — carries advantages that kept the Senator in this race. Yet there is some evidence his "lies about 'Bush lies'" rhetoric — particularly his or advisors' wild charges about the reinstating the draft and privatizing Social Security — are beginning to unravel.
    Running as a liberal senator from Massachusetts had little impact during the nomination process. After all, his main competitor was an anti-war, ultra-liberal former governor of Vermont. Compared to the competition, Mr. Kerry was a "centrist"— temporarily. But even though he was in the "middle" of that pack, this year's litter — with the exception of the dogged Joe Lieberman — was on the left fringe of the pound.
    Moreover, don't forget his Senate counterpart for the past 20 years was Ted Kennedy, a name as synonymous with liberalism as Purina is to dog chow. But as the general election unfolded, Mr. Kerry's attempts to "moderate" became a constant political headache.
    At his convention in Boston, Mr. Kerry tried to "redefine" himself as an acceptable alternative to George W. Bush on national security. Yet as a Vietnam War veteran who spent more time protesting against the war in the United States than fighting the enemy in Southeast Asia, and a Senate voting record few consider pro-defense, Mr. Kerry's tough talk sounded hollow.
    Mr. Kerry either had an "election-bed" conversion or he's not being candid about how his past votes and actions comport with his current positions. Today his views seem more driven by political expediency than conviction. Electing someone as liberal as Mr. Kerry would be unprecedented. "Will the American people choose as president someone with John Kerry's national security record?" asked Bill Kristol in the October 18, 2004 issue of the Weekly Standard. "They never have before." Mr. Kerry exercises similar rhetorical gymnastics domestically. We now learn he is deeply Catholic, going back to his days as an altar boy. His religious convictions lead him to believe life begins at "conception" and that marriage is "between one man and one woman." Yet, Mr. Kerry's personal values contradict his policies. His platform is aimed more at placating liberal Democratic interest groups than his moral convictions. Either he doesn't say what he believes or doesn't act on what he says — neither option is endearing.
    As Rich Lowry observed in the National Review Online last week, Mr. Kerry is stuck between pleasing his secular base and political reality. "He cannot admit that he's a social liberal who could care less whether the Catholic Church objects to unborn babies being destroyed, so long as he's getting the votes of feminists by paying obeisance to Roe v.Wade, " Lowry says.
    As a result, Mr. Kerry gets himself so twisted in metaphysical double-speak he fits very nicely into the cookie-cutter caricature of a hopelessly nuanced candidate who says one thing and does another — offering not a choice, but a muddle.
    But if liberalism is his burden, Mr. Kerry's challenger status represents a blessing. He effectively identified concerns among some voters including ongoing violence in Iraq, budget deficits, outsourcing of jobs, the uninsured — even the shortage of flu vaccines — and argues he has a "better plan." Yet his "solutions" are often no more than "a litany of complaints," as President Bush charged in the last debate. "He's been in the Senate for two decades, and now he's offering plans?" a former Republican congressional aide told me. Lately his charges also sound increasingly preposterous, like his scare tactics about secret plans to reinstate the draft or privatizing Social Security.
    With less than two weeks left in the campaign, voters are systematically filling in the spaces between the two broad-brush strokes. The bold colors of Senator Kerry's ideology are spreading over the nuanced pastels of his "plans," like a can of spilled paint. In the end, historians will complete the landscape of 2004, a portrait that suggests Democrats cannot win the White House again without nominating a more centrist candidate.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

E041020L   Maintaining school discipline
    I want to comment on Walter E. Williams' column about violence in our schools ("Tolerating school violence," Commentary, Saturday).
    Mr. Williams has hit the nail square on the head. Even in the more affluent schools, there is an incredible amount of violence. I can only imagine what it must be like in the poorer communities. It is a real shame when a struggling parent tries to do the right thing by his or her child, only to be hampered by the government schools.
    When schools quit punishing students and started to tolerate bad behavior, it began a quick spiral downhill.

    LARRY WIANDT
    Wake Forest, N.C.
 

    Maintaining school discipline
    I want to comment on Walter E. Williams' column about violence in our schools ("Tolerating school violence," Commentary, Saturday).
    Mr. Williams has hit the nail square on the head. Even in the more affluent schools, there is an incredible amount of violence. I can only imagine what it must be like in the poorer communities. It is a real shame when a struggling parent tries to do the right thing by his or her child, only to be hampered by the government schools.
    When schools quit punishing students and started to tolerate bad behavior, it began a quick spiral downhill.

    LARRY WIANDT
    Wake Forest, N.C.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041020E   Voter frauds on the left

Since the 2000 election, it has become an article of faith for the Democratic Party and its allies on the political left that George W. Bush won by suppressing the black vote in Florida and elsewhere.
    John Kerry and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe have made numerous speeches declaring that Democrats must remain vigilant against a repeat of such Republican chicanery. People For the American Way, New York Times columnists Bob Herbert and Paul Krugman and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been recycling a false story suggesting that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has dispatched state police to the homes of elderly blacks in an effort to discourage them from voting. DNC officials have produced a manual urging party members to publicly challenge Republican efforts to "intimidate" voters even if there is no evidence that intimidation is taking place.
    Meanwhile, America Votes, a 32-member coalition of anti-Bush organizations — led by such groups as George Soros' MoveOn.org, America Coming Together and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — is spending $100 million on a campaign that voting officials say has resulted in a massive increase in voters nationwide. The aim of this door-to-door voter-registration drive is to identify undecided and potential Democratic voters in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and 11 other battleground states.
    One member of the coalition, a left-wing activist group known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), claims to have registered 1 million new voters since July 2003. The problem is that at least some of these were fraudulently registered. ACORN's western regional director acknowledged in an interview with this newspaper that several hundred of those new registrants in Colorado were fraudulent, but sought to downplay the problem with the explanation that registration fraud is different from voter fraud: "Just because you register someone 35 times doesn't mean they get to vote 35 times."
     Not everyone finds this reassuring. Authorities in several states are investigating whether thousands of voter registrations have been fraudulently submitted — many of them by members of the America Votes coalition. In Florida, the Justice Department and state authorities are investigating charges by a former ACORN field director that workers for the organization routinely withheld Republican voter registrations, while thousands of invalid voter registration cards were submitted in their place.
    Regarding the 2000 election, allegations of mass voter intimidation and suppression in Florida were determined to be unfounded by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which spent six months investigating the charges. In recent months, Messrs. Herbert and Krugman of the New York Times have given extensive publicity to charges that members of the Florida state police tried to intimidate black voters while investigating fraud in the Orlando mayoral election this year. After conducting his own investigation of the charges, Jeffrey Billman, a columnist for the liberal Orlando Weekly newspaper, pronounced them "bull—." Saying they were part of a legitimate investigation into whether one of the candidates manipulated absentee ballots.
     Thus far, the evidence suggests that the Bush-bashers are the people engaged in political chicanery when it comes to the question of voting rights.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

M041019E   Democratic deception
 

By Terrence Scanlon

Newspapers are reporting an incredible surge in new voter registrations this year. Democratic and Republican activists have sponsored registration drives in the hope that millions of new voters will elect John Kerry or George W. Bush president. Voter offices are swamped with thousands of last-minute registrations.
    That makes the possibility of voter fraud very real. Increasingly, reports of fake and forged voter registration cards are surfacing across the nation, and they are prompting official investigations into voter drives. One group in particular has come under scrutiny. ACORN — it stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — has received wide attention for claiming to have registered more than 1 million new voters nationwide. But in state after state, allegations are surfacing that ACORN activists are padding the registration books.
    In Colorado, hundreds of voter registration forms are suspect. On Oct. 12, Denver television station KUSA reported that one woman admitted to forging three people's names on 40 registration forms to help her boyfriend earn an extra $50 from ACORN. According to the Associated Press, she also signed herself up to vote 25 times.
    Police in Duluth, Minn., stopped a 19-year-old motorist for running a stop sign and discovered 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of his car. According an Oct. 8 article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the driver, an ex-ACORN employee, admitted the cards were there for weeks and months. ACORN says it paid the canvasser $1 per registration and fired him because it suspected he was registering voters twice to double his fee. The Associated Press reports that ACORN claims to have registered 36,000 new voters in Minnesota.
    An Oct. 8 report in the Cincinnati Inquirer says Hamilton County officials subpoenaed 19 voter registration cards turned in by ACORN with similar handwriting and false addresses. In Columbus, Ohio, officials discovered dozens of faked names on voter cards and have indicted one ACORN worker. ACORN says it has registered 158,000 new voters in Ohio and 26,000 in Cincinnati/Hamilton County.
    A Sept. 26 New York Times county-by-county analysis of heavily Democratic areas in Ohio (mainly low-income and minority neighborhoods) finds that new registrations since January are up by 250 percent compared to registrations during the same period in 2000. In Florida, the increase over 2000 is 60 percent in Democratic areas —compared to just 12 percent in heavily Republican areas.
    In the battleground state of Florida, ACORN claims to have registered 212,000 voters for the general election. But one of them was the mayor of St. Petersburg who received a letter telling him he was ineligible to vote because his registration form was not turned in on time. Mayor Charles Schuh discovered someone from ACORN had fraudulently submitted his name, reports an Oct. 4 article in the St. Petersburg Times. The Palm Beach Post reported on Oct. 8 that ACORN is also under state and federal investigation in Miami-Dade County for unlawfully registering former felons to vote. (In New Orleans, ACORN registered 700 new voters at the jailhouse by signing up prisoners awaiting trial but not yet found guilty of a crime.) An ACORN worker registered a 13-year-old to vote in Albuquerque, N.M.
    "There's a lot of fraud committed," said former ACORN Miami-Dade field director Mac Stuart in the Oct. 2 Florida Today. He charges that ACORN submitted thousands of invalid registration cards while failing to turn in cards from registered Republicans.
    ACORN's principal activity is not voter registration. With some 150,000 dues-paying members organized into 65 city chapters, the group is better known for public disruption. For more than 30 years its "community organizing" has relied on in-your-face confrontation. In 1995, ACORN famously bused in 500 protesters to disrupt a Washington, D.C. speech by House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In 2002, it burst into the Heritage Foundation to harangue welfare-reform expert Robert Rector. Dozen of city councils and state legislatures have had to face angry ACORN protesters demanding higher minimum wages and more welfare entitlements. Banks have been pressured to change their lending practices or face ACORN charges of discrimination before regulators.
    ACORN's founder and chief organizer is one Wade Rathke, a veteran activist who is also president of the New Orleans-based Local 100 of the Service Employees International Union. More importantly, Mr. Rathke is chairman of the board of the San Francisco-based Tides Center and a board member of its affiliated Tides Foundation, the left-wing grantmaker that specializes in helping new political advocacy groups get organized. Grants from the Heinz Endowments, whose chairman is Teresa Heinz Kerry, to and from the Tides organizations have been the subject of major news stories recently, which speculate on the impact Mrs. Heinz Kerry's private philanthropy will have on the policies of a Kerry administration. The Tides connection to ACORN raises even more questions.
    Clearly, the 2000 election cliffhanger rankles leftist activists. It's no wonder they are determined to change the results in 2004. But will groups like ACORN play fair, and if they don't will they be caught in time?

    Terrence Scanlon is president of the Capital Research Center, a non-profit philanthropic watchdog organization.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv