VP is Offended by a Free Press, The Terminator Says NO to Bush and Baghdad on Lock Down in Today's Detals

-Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday vigorously defended a secret program that examines banking records of Americans and others in a vast international database, and harshly criticized the news media for disclosing an operation he said was legal and "absolutely essential" to fighting terrorism. "What I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that some of the news media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent future attacks against the American people," Mr. Cheney said, in impromptu remarks at a fund-raising luncheon for a Republican Congressional candidate in Chicago. "That offends me." (He's offended because the press informed the public? The man whose office outed an undercover CIA operative out of spite is offended? A free press and free & open government is what seems to be offensive to the VP. I wonder what it was he thought he was swearing to when he swore to uphold the constitution? This is the United States. We are not supposed to have a government running secret and clandestine operations under the guise of 'security'. I wonder when the MAJORITY of citizens will put their fear aside and get their heads out of their collective asses and realize that and decide all of this is unacceptable?) DETAILS

-Violence flared in the capital and beyond Friday despite a security crackdown now in its second week, causing the government to clear Baghdad's restive streets for three afternoon hours in an attempt to rein in the clashes. The restrictive measure followed morning firefights -- involving a Shiite Muslim militia, Sunni Muslim insurgents, and U.S. and Iraqi security forces -- in the Haifa Street neighborhood, a Sunni enclave that abuts the fortified Green Zone. (Yet more evidence of the insurgency being in its last throes and that in spite of the media, things are getting better in Iraq.) DETAILS

- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week rejected a request from the Bush administration to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, the governor's office confirmed Friday. The National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, asked for the troops to help with the border-patrol mission in New Mexico and Arizona, but Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California Guard too thin in case of an emergency or natural disaster. DETAILS

- A Republican gubernatorial candidate's call for creation of a forced labor camp for illegal immigrants drew rebukes Friday from two GOP lawmakers, who labeled it a low point in the immigration debate. Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, caused an international stir this week when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." DETAILS


-As if beating a five-term congressman wasn't hard enough, John Jacob said he has another foe working against him: the devil. "There's another force that wants to keep us from going to Washington, D.C.," Jacob said. "It's the devil is what it is. I don't want you to print that, but it feels like that's what it is." DETAILS

-A U.S. district judge in Baltimore yesterday heard arguments over the validity of Maryland's controversial law requiring large companies -- namely Wal-Mart -- to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits. At issue was whether the state legislation is preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which sets minimum standards for private companies' voluntary pension and health plans. The state law was enacted earlier this year despite a veto attempt by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. DETAILS