The day after I pointed out that The Washington Post often puts suicide killings of Israelis on the front page but relegates Palestinian deaths of equal or greater number to the inside pages (See Balanced or Pandering post below), today we see it again. Watch how the inevitable retaliation is played.

Meanwhile, the World Court has opened proceedings on the Israeli wall.

The Dillon Rule
Anyone not from Virginia seeking to understand the restrictive Dillon Rule, this is what we live under.

Home Schoolers
While the challenge at public schools is to enlist smart, well qualified teachers, Virginia is considering lowering standards for teachers of home schoolers, often, of course, a parent. The bill failed in committee but kept alive for a vote this week.

Where In the World Is Vince Callahan?
Fairfax Delegate Vince Callahan (R) is all over the map. At one time, he’ll lament the draconian cuts needed if taxes aren’t raised and then he say something like he did today in the Virginian-Pilot: that local governments are flush?! Virginians, especially those in the 34th House District, send the delegate a note at Del_Callahan@house.state.va.us All we have are property taxes, Mr. Chaiman of the Appropriations Committee, and because of the Dillon Rule, that’s all we’re likely to have any time soon.

Whatever Happened to Gentleman Conservatives?
Va. Del. Jim Dillard has toiled for many years in the Virginia Assembly as a truly compassionate conservative. As he says in this AP profile Download file, “I don’t think it’s going to go back to the Republican party that I joined 35 years ago,” he said. “The Republican party that I joined was the party to make Virginia first again.”

Another moderate GOP in the making may be Del. Phil Hamilton, who works in the Newport News public schools. See this editorial, which states:

When a small group of Republican lawmakers gathered the weekend before the opening of the 2004 session, Hamilton recalls asking, “What’s our plan?” Even though House Speaker Bill Howell and others were firmly against tax increases, Hamilton doubted that the stance would carry them through the session.

“The bottom line was, we didn’t have one yet,” he says.

Usually the GOP has no plan except “no taxes.” Let’s hope the up and coming Hamilton and the veteran Dillard talk a lot.

A recent Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language film, “Osama” is reportedly a powerful film about a young Afghan girl who is forced to disguise herself as a young boy in order to work to feed the family. The story depicts life under the Taliban, where women who found themselves with no male relatives to support them faced starvation because women were not allowed in public without a male companion.

A story (Go to For U.S. Officials, ‘Osama’ a Must-See Film) on NPR’s morning edition Friday reported that the Bush administration wants to publicize the film. The president and Secretary of State Colin Powell both saw the film, which is the first to be produced in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. I was alerted to this story by a woman who was outraged. She had known of the treatment of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, having read a story (I’m uncertain if this link is the story she was referring to) in Marie Claire magazine in March 1996.

But what outraged this woman was the quote attributed to Powell in the NPR story. “You’ll learn why President Bush is right about waging a war on terrorists until there are none of them,” Powell said, according to the report. This woman’s letter Download file is very powerful.

If you want more information about the plight of Afghan women, go to the site of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Be forewarned that the site has disturbing and violent video and photos.

In an AP story about the level of anger at Bush by Democrats (and 10% of Republicans), the following appears:

John McAdams, a political scientist at Marquette University, said resentment of Bush is particularly strong among liberals who already hold three things against him: “First, he’s a conservative. Second, he’s a Christian. And third, he’s a Texan. When you add all of those things up, that invokes pretty much every symbol of the cultural wars.”

“It’s particularly galling when somebody who mangles his syntax and doesn’t pronounce words extremely well and is from Texas beats you,” McAdams added.

I don’t know who the hell McAdams is, but such a patronizing, bigoted characterization is beyond the pale. So liberals are the anti-Christ and hate Texans? It’s particularly galling when stupid pundits mangle their 15 minutes of fame. Google the guy. A lot of people think he’s nuts.

Washington Post Ombudsman Michael Getler today discusses a recent front page story about the wall Israel is building around Jerusalem. The article prompted at least one reader, a Jew who spent time in the West Bank, to challenge American politicians to see for themselves how the wall is an impediment to peace while we send $13 million A DAY to Israel for its defense, according to the writer.

In Getler’s column, he addressed criticism of the article from David Bernstein, executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s Washington branch. Bernstein wanted mention of the suicide attacks. Getler defended the article but agreed the suicide attacks should have been acknowledged and then summarized the suicide death toll. He then mentions that that summary was just reported in a Post story 10 days before the article in question.

In every article about suicide bombers, does The Post mention the pernicious policies of Israel that cause such deep frustration and anger in Palestinians? No, of course not.

You rarely see in Getler’s column acknowledgement of complaints from readers who think The Post’s coverage, placement or headlines have an anti-Palestinian bias. Yet, I know there is a deep frustration at The Post’s stance and it hears from pro-Arab groups. But their complaints don’t make the paper.

One issue I’ve constantly communicated to Getler is The Post’s habit of making suicide bombings in the Middle East front page news, while the murders of Palestinians are usually buried in the paper. Here’s the text of my last email to Getler:

On Jan. 30, on A1 The Post ran the story “11 Killed By Bomb On Bus in Jerusalem.”

Today [Feb 12, 2004], on A32 The Post has “Israeli Raids in Gaza Kill 15 Palestinians.”

Exactly what is the criteria that dictates that the killing of 11 Israelis in yet another tragic suicide bombing is A1 news but the killing of 15 Palestinians in yet another Israeli raid A32 news?

I’ve pointed out many instances of this pattern to Getler over the last couple of years, but as usual, I received no response.

This is not a criticism of the reporters, especially John Ward Anderson and Molly Moore, who do a terrific job of reporting from the Middle East, but rather of editorial judgement about how such stories are played. Anderson’s story about the wall deserved to be front page and I applaud The Post for putting it there. I just wished Getler would be as sensitive to complaints from the other side.

Also in Getler’s column today, he defends The Post’s coverage of the rumor that Sen. John Kerry had an affair with an intern, which turned out to be untrue: She neither had an affair with him nor was an intern. Here’s part of what Getler writes:

Although several mainstream news organizations reported Kerry’s denial and briefly explained the situation over the weekend, The Post did not publish a story until Tuesday. [Post Executive Editor Len] Downie explains: “When a former Associated Press reporter issued a public statement [on Monday] saying that she was the subject of rumors about Kerry, that it had caused problems for her and her family and that they were untrue, we published a story about those facts that focused on the role of the Internet in spreading the rumor and how the mainstream media reacted.”

The article may have focused the role of the Internet, but it nonetheless perpetuated the rumor. I don’t know if I would have written the piece that Howard Kurtz did, but I certainly think that would have been enough. But not for Getler:

The Post, it seems to me, acted properly and carefully in this episode, although I have to admit that, as a reader, I was looking for a story by Saturday or Sunday, for sure, explaining what Kerry was talking about.

And then how about a story of what Kerry was thinking about and how he was feeling about it and how his wife felt about and ad nauseum until, as so many of the vicious rumors initiated by the right, they become fact. Read Big Lies.

Lawyers have a cardinal rule: Don’t ask witnesses on the stand questions that you don’t know the answers to. The Dems might follow that advice regarding Bush’s National Guard service. Today’s story in The Post pretty much exonerates him, or at least reporter Josh White didn’t quote any credible skeptics. If the Dems keep suggesting Bush was AWOL and he comes up with irrefutable proof late in the campaign, their credibility is damaged. Quiet research is the better strategy.

The GOP has a greater (if that’s the right word) history of going negative in campaigns, according to a study by a University of Mississippi professor. During the last 50 years, we were more likely to see attacks on a candidate’s character from the GOP than the Dems by a margin of 44-33%. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the Dems. Eleven percent difference! But in the stolen 2000 election, the Bushies directed 43% of its attacks on Gore’s character while the Dems did only 16% character assignation ads.

Washington Post reporter Dan Balz today discusses Sen. John Edwards lack of foreign policy experience on the front page. In the story, Balz, who lately hasn’t much profound to say in such “analysis” pieces, nonetheless states what’s been missing from such discussion in the past. One can understand why the right wing Fox talking heads don’t mention it, but the mainstream press should: Dubya had NO foreign policy experience before becoming president. From The Post:

Edwards has served three years on the Senate intelligence committee…. Edwards’s advisers challenge those who question the North Carolina senator’s foreign policy credentials. He has, they say, as much experience or more than did Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter when they were first elected.

Virginia senators passed two measures Friday. One increased taxes, the Chichester tax reform plan. Included was a 32.5 cent hike in taxes smokers will pay per pack of smokes. The other measure gives Phillip Morris a tax credit of $6 million dollars a year for its products sold abroad.

So on the one hand, we’re raising taxes because a) we can get more money, b) traditional wisdom (really suspect here) says it should dissuade kids from smoking and c) that extra money will help pay for the people who get sick from smoking.

But on the other hand, we’re paying the company, Phillip Morris, that produces the death sticks in Virginia to pedal them elsewhere because, proponents said, it would save jobs.

Help me out here. I don’t have much sympathy for smokers, especially those that get sick and then sue as if it was somebody else’s fault. But I think smokers have a case. Why should they pay more while the company gets a tax break for producing them? (The $6 million almost covers the cost of Phillip Morris CEO’s bonus last year, according to Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax.))

And how does it save jobs? Well, of course, if we don’t give PM a tax break, they could take their cigarette making factories elsewhere, and Virginia tobacco farmers would have a tougher go of it.

We want to discourage kids from smoking and pay for the health effects through higher taxes but we want Virginians to keep growing the stuff. Someday, some politician is going to stand up and say, “Sorry, tobacco farmers, the gig’s up.” I’d fully support spending money to retrain them and help them turn their land for another profitable but healthy product. But to continue along this conflicted public policy is stupid and, of course, a waster of taxpayer money.

As Sen. Yvonne Miller (D-Norfolk) said, “Our values are twisted. It’s crazy.”

No, senator, it’s old Virginny.