All in all it's just... another week in the brawl

Join me each morning to dissect the mainstream media's slanted news coverage, and search out the hidden headlines, buried in the daily news. Using articles taken from major newspapers and publications across the nation and world, and mixing them with commentary, articles, posts and comments from some notable Blogs, Between the Lines is a study in the deception and subterfuge our current media is perpetrating on our democracy.

We search for Truth hiding between the lies.

Red text is the "real" headline in these stories and articles.
Blue text is my own personal commentary.

The Texas-sized Revenge of Tom Delay's minions?
Court reform bill gets chilly reception; No vote taken on controversial plan
By Mark Lisheron, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF, Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Legislators, trial lawyers and judges bristled Monday at the scope of a bill that would, among other things, abolish many of the state's county courts and give a judicial panel authority to appoint judges to hear cases deemed too complex for the local judiciary. Before hearing more than four hours of testimony before the Senate State Affairs Committee, committee Chairman Robert Duncan, author of Senate Bill 1204, said the time was long overdue for Texas to streamline courts from the local level to the state Supreme Court. Duncan, R-Lubbock, left the bill pending in his committee. He said he intended to work hard to accommodate other points of view but admitted to some frustration with the opposition to the changes that he characterized as "fears of black helicopters." Critics of the bill focused on a proposal to develop specific guidelines for "complex cases" and to remove those cases from local judges deemed unqualified to handle them.

Witnesses told the committee such a system would create two tiers of judges: those who can handled complex cases and those who cannot. In a state where judges are elected, opponents of those who have had cases taken from them would have a potent campaign issue, said Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas."If somebody came to me and told me that they were going to introduce my legislation because I wasn't qualified to draft it, I'd be ready to kill somebody," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "Nobody's going to take away my piece of legislation, and I can't imagine a judge would want somebody to take away their case." Representatives of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and Texans for Lawsuit Reform said the changes would disenfranchise local judges.

"We're not seeing cases where the courts are overloaded. We do not believe this is necessary at all," said Jay Harvey of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/03/27/27courts.html

DOJ Attorney Firings
Saying he wanted to be "more precise" about what he had done, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales acknowledged Monday that he had a role in approving an aide's recommendation to dismiss several U.S. attorneys last year, but he denied that he was involved in the process of identifying which individual prosecutors should be replaced. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gonzales27mar27,0,1230579.story

"And The Truth Shall Scare Us Silly?" no doubt Rove advised her to make this back-door confession of guilt... as follows:

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's senior counselor ...refused to testify in the Senate about her involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Monica M. Goodling, who has taken an indefinite leave of absence, said in a sworn affidavit to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she will "decline to answer any and all questions" about the firings because she faces "a perilous environment in which to testify." ...it could only be perilous if she is planning to lie about something!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032600935.html

Others agree that this is tantamount to an admission of impending guilt..
As the liaison between the White House and the Justice Department, Ms. Goodling seems to have been squarely in the middle of what appears to have been improper directions from the White House to politicize the hiring and firing of United States attorneys. Mr. Gonzales has insisted the eight prosecutors were let go for poor performance, and that the dismissals are an "overblown personnel matter." But Ms. Goodling’s decision to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights suggests that she, at least, believes crimes may have been committed. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/opinion/27tue1.html

and this from NYTimes Op-Ed Contributor NEAL KATYAL
IN 1999, when the Independent Counsel Act (the law that gave Kenneth Starr and Lawrence Walsh their mandates) was expiring, I was given the job of writing the new Justice Department rules for the appointment of a special prosecutor since the department would once again be responsible for overseeing such investigations. There was one hypothetical to worry about once the Independent Counsel Act lapsed: a case in which the attorney general...(is)...suspected of possible misconduct. The rules were therefore written to vest the decision about whether to appoint a special prosecutor in the top Justice Department official not embroiled in the controversy. Today, the only way to get to the bottom of the United States attorney scandal — which involved the administration’s firing of nearly 10 percent of America’s top prosecutors — is to use these rules and appoint a special prosecutor.
The nightmare has now come true.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/opinion/27katyal.html


A Democratic House committee chairman yesterday told the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign to retain copies of all e-mails sent or received by White House officials using e-mail accounts under their control, raising the political stakes in the congressional inquiry into U.S. attorneys' firings. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said his broadly written request was based on evidence that White House officials -- particularly aides to top political adviser Karl Rove -- have used their politically related e-mail accounts to hide the conduct of official business regarding the prosecutor firings and other matters being investigated by Congress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601979.html

But don't expect the simple truth from "you can't handle the truth" Karl Rove!

Whether Rove chats or testifies, Congress will surely be frustrated. Asking Rove questions is simply not an effective method of ascertaining facts. Reporters who, like me, have dogged the presidential advisor from Texas to Washington quickly learn how skilled he is at dancing around the periphery of issues. Any answers he does deliver can survive a thousand interpretations. Few intellects are as adept at framing, positioning and spinning ideas. That's a great talent for politics. But it's dangerous when dealing with the law. Rove has testified under oath before investigative bodies twice, and in neither case was the truth well served. In 1991, he was sworn in before the Texas state Senate as a nominee to East Texas State University's board of regents. The state Senate's nominations committee, chaired by Democrat Bob Glasgow, was eager to have Rove explain his relationship with FBI agent Greg Rampton. Rampton was a controversial figure in Texas, and Democrats suspected that he'd been consorting with Rove for years. During the 1986 gubernatorial race, when a listening device was discovered in Rove's office, it was Rampton who investigated. No one was ever charged — and Democrats suspected that Rove planted the bug himself to distract reporters from the faltering campaign of his client, Bill Clements (who won the election). Then, in 1989, Rampton launched a series of devastating investigations into every statewide Democratic officeholder in Texas, including Agricultural Commissioner Jim Hightower. Rove (at the time running Republican Rick Perry's campaign for that job) often leaked things to reporters, such as whose names were on subpoenas before they were issued. So when the Texas state Senate committee found nominee Rove before it in 1991, members thought they had the power to get at the truth. "How long have you known an FBI agent by the name of Greg Rampton?" Glasgow asked. Rove paused for a breath. "Ah, senator, it depends — would you define 'know' for me?" maybe Karl was thinking about the Old Testament meaning for "know"???
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-moore23mar23,0,3813754.story

More on Rove
(you won't find his name in this story, but he is the inevitable target of these New Hampshire investigations.)

All Things Considered, March 26, 2007 · Questions about political pressure in the Justice Department are spilling over into the New Hampshire phone-jamming case. Five years ago, New Hampshire Republicans jammed the phones of Democratic offices on Election Day, disrupting the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts and blocking phone calls from voters seeking rides to the polls. More than two years later, the New England coordinator for the Republican National Committee — who green-lighted the scheme — was charged with a felony and convicted. But last week, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction. Democrats allege that Justice Department officials in Washington interfered in the case, and they want Congress to investigate.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9145439

"The Internets" and the blogs;
YOUTUBE Awards! 2006 was a pioneering year for online video, user-created content and the YouTube community. You let us into your bedrooms, created new forms of entertainment, and radicalized popular culture. Now it's time to reflect on what a tremendous year it was and recognize the best of the best during the first YouTube Video Awards. http://www.youtube.com/ytawards...

If I were a network programmer today, I'd be popping Nexium left and right. Thanks to the Web, TV fans can now make their own judgments about whether a network chief's decision to ax a show was a smart move or sheer idiocy. Gregory and Huyck have no harsh words for Comedy Central — "The whole process was absolutely great," says Huyck, "until the show got killed." But they are fascinated by the game-changing nature of the Internet, which can provide a second hearing for pilots that would have previously been consigned to the video graveyard.
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-goldstein27mar27,0,4613205.story

Life is dead. Again. Time Inc. pulled the plug on its venerable nameplate yesterday for the third time in 35 years, saying it no longer makes sense to print the publication as a magazine. Instead, the company said it will launch a "major portal" online to host its millions of award-winning photographs. ...sounds more like a rebirth than a death..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601779.html


Politics of War and Peace;
BELFAST, March 26 -- Two men who represent both extremes in Northern Ireland's deep sectarian divide sat down together for the first time on Monday, and their once-unthinkable meeting produced a landmark deal to form a local government in which Protestants and Catholics will share power.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032600343.htm

Washington DC; MARCH 26 Unwilling to do the White House's heavy lifting on Iraq, Senate Republicans are prepared to step aside to allow language requiring troop withdrawals to reach President Bush, forcing him to face down Democratic adversaries with his veto pen. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601923.html

EUROPEAN UNION leaders spoke out strongly on Darfur at a summit in Berlin on Sunday. "The situation," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "is intolerable. . . . The actions of the Sudanese government are completely unacceptable." "The suffering is unbearable," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I want to state frankly that we have to consider stronger sanctions."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601687.html

Healthcare and National Insurance;
A major source of health insurance for people who work for themselves is disappearing, casting thousands of contractors, freelancers and solo practitioners into the ranks of the uninsured with little hope of obtaining new coverage. Health plans offered by professional associations were once havens for millions of people who couldn't get coverage anywhere else. But as medical costs have soared, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have been forced to stop offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure27mar27,0,4490954.story

From the "It's About Time" files
Last week, the FDA proposed to do a better job of preventing physicians who have a substantial financial interest in a company introducing a new drug or device from serving on the committees that make advisory recommendations on such products. Any doctor with a stake of $50,000 or more in a company backing a new drug (or in one of the company's competitors) would be disqualified from serving on an FDA advisory committee. Doctors whose stake is less than $50,000 could participate in panel discussions but not vote.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/03/27/preventing_cures_that_also_kill/Today's

"Most outrageous tale" award goes to...
Hong Kong, March 26 — It was a device worthy of Rube Goldberg, or perhaps Wile E. Coyote. A remote-controlled mechanism with a dozen launching tubes was found buried in the turf at Hong Kong’s most famous horse racing track last week; it was rigged with compressed air to fire tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses at the starting gate. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/sports/othersports/27horses.html