There are some additional photographs of Spaceship One on the day of the flight here and here. These were taken by one of the avionics software guys, so he had a front row seat.
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In an HonestReporting communique earlier this week, we noted that Palestinian PM Ahmad Qurei openly admitted to Fatah’s bearing full responsiblity’ for the actions of the terrorist Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.
We called on the media to acknowledge this bond with Fatah in ongoing coverage of the Al Aqsa Brigades. Yet AFP, for one, has not heeded the call. From an AFP report on Tuesday:
The gunman was named as Khaled as-Shimbari, 21, a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party.
Still calling them ‘loosely linked’?! After Qurei’s statement, this is a blatant misrepresentation of reality.
Silly boy! What do you think is more important, the framing of the story or mere facts?
Michael Moore may be prevented from advertising his controversial new movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” on television or radio after July 30 if the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today accepts the legal advice of its general counsel.
At the same time, a Republican-allied 527 soft-money group is preparing to file a complaint against Moore’s film with the FEC for violating campaign-finance law.
In a draft advisory opinion placed on the FEC’s agenda for today’s meeting, the agency’s general counsel states that political documentary filmmakers may not air television or radio ads referring to federal candidates within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election.
The opinion is generated under the new McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, which prohibits corporate-funded ads that identify a federal candidate before a primary or general election.
Even if this doesn’t go anywhere, it is the best approach for removing this travesty of a law from the books - force its silencing effects on its supporters.
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Don Wycliff writing about Bill Clinton in 1999:
I suspect it would be hard to find an extended black family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner in the United States that conforms perfectly to the common ideal: Every child conceived in wedlock; no single mothers; no “love children”; every husband perfectly faithful to his wife and vice versa. (I suspect it would be hard to find such a family of any ethnicity…
So when it developed that Clinton had strayed from his marriage vows, I suspect it was neither surprising to most African-Americans nor disillusioning. After all, it happens. Remember, the life of the Savior of us all began in just such a dubious, difficult circumstance.
Ombudsman Don Wycliff writing about an allegation, from a bitter divorce four years ago, that sixteen years ago Senatorial candidate Jack Ryan unsuccessfully asked his wife to have sex with him in a club while another couple watched:
I think the Ryan story belonged in the newspaper. I think it belonged on Page 1.
I wonder how much cursing goes on in newsrooms these days because it’s so easy to find damning quote pairs like this?
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The European Commission is planning to alter the rules which governs budget deficits in its member states.
Announcing a review of the Stability and Growth Pact, economic affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the Commission had been “too stringent”.
The pact is meant to keep the deficits of eurozone states below 3% of GDP, but many - most notably France and Germany - have breached it.
Well clearly, if it’s wrong for France and Germany to break the rules they agreed to, the correct resolution is to change the rules until those countries are in conformance.