If more people would do this, the world would be better for it! I hope he permanently freezes them out.

These are chilly days on Capitol Hill … and on the campaign trail for Fox News journalists — at least when they’re anywhere near Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Will Fox have to watch Obama on C-Span like the rest of us? (Reuters photo)Sources tell The Sleuth that the Obama camp has “frozen out” Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network’s major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story reported by Insight magazine.

“I’m still in the freezer,” one Fox journalist said, noting that the people at Fox “suffering the most did nothing wrong.” (It was “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy who aired the Insight magazine piece, which reported that operatives connected to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) found out that Obama, as a child, was educated at a Muslim madrassah in Indonesia.)

Another Fox journalist called the network’s airing of the story “unfortunate” for the network’s journalists who have to cover Obama and who are being adversely affected despite not being involved in the incident.

Since the madrassah incident, Obama has given interviews to ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC — pretty much every other network except Fox. Sources close to Obama acknowledged that they’re not thrilled to play ball with Fox journalists, but they stopped short of saying they are freezing the network out.

Read more at the WashingtonPost

Keith Olbermann debunks Bush’s claim in the SOTU address to have thwarted 4 terrorist attacks.

They’re sure they would win, but dropped it. They hoped to get the logs before the election, but since they didn’t…..who cares. We’ll just let someone else do it. Huh?

The Washington Post has quietly retreated from a legal battle with Vice President Cheney by dropping a lawsuit demanding Secret Service logs of visitors to his office and residence.

The newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit prompted a flurry of press attention and court action just prior to the November election. In October, a district court judge in the capital, Ricardo Urbina, cited the looming vote when he ordered the Secret Service to comply immediately with the Post’s request. However, just six days before the election, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay blocking Judge Urbina’s order.

“We have decided not to pursue litigation further, though we believe we would have prevailed in the court of appeals as we did in the trial court,” a Post attorney, Eric Lieberman, said in an e-mail yesterday. He said the paper had “a fundamental goal” of getting the records to inform voters before the election and failed in that regard. “We also considered the fact that there are several other well positioned FOIA lawsuits seeking these same types of records, and we are confident that the public’s right of access will ultimately be vindicated in them,” Mr. Lieberman said.

Read more here

That is, if Bush believed in diplomacy…..which he doesn’t.

(CBS) The midnight bus delivers another load of war-weary Iraqis into Damascus. After an 18-hour ride, they’ve just joined one million Iraqis already there, seeking a haven from the violence at home, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports.

But it’s another group of Iraqis - using Syria as a base - who would prove key in ending the violence. Just days ago, more than 100 senior Iraqi Ba’athists met there just days ago with the backing of Syrian authorities.

They are former members of Saddam’s regime, many involved in organizing and financing the insurgency, whose attacks on both Iraqis and Americans have killed thousands.

But the Ba’athists now claim they are willing to trade this violence for political discussions, after secret meetings in Syria.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Syria’s Vice President Farouk al Shara says negotiations are the way forward.

“If they are flexible and if they really believe in the political process, then why not,” he says.

Read more at CBSNews

BERLIN, Jan. 31 — German prosecutors on Wednesday said they have issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives suspected of kidnapping a German citizen in the Balkans in 2004 and taking him to a secret prison in Afghanistan before realizing several months later that they had the wrong person.

The German arrest warrants, filed in Munich, are the second case in which prosecutors have filed criminal charges against CIA employees involved in counterterrorism operations in Europe. European investigators acknowledge that it is highly unlikely the U.S. spies — most of whom worked undercover or using false identities — would ever be handed over to face trial. But the prosecutions have strained U.S.-European relations and underscored deep differences over how to fight terrorism.

Italian prosecutors have also issued arrest warrants for 25 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force officer, alleging that they kidnapped an Egyptian-born radical cleric off the streets of Milan in 2003 and took him to Cairo, where he claims he was tortured. A court in Milan is presently considering whether to press ahead with indictments of the CIA officers and try them in absentia later this year.

Read more at the WashingtonPost

If the man lived to be a thousand years old, it would be worth it just to PISS THESE PEOPLE OFF!

Castro up and talking in new Cuban video

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) – Cuban television Tuesday broadcast scenes of what it said was ailing leader Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The only indication of a date on the video was a copy of Saturday’s edition of the Argentine newspaper Clarin, which Chavez carried.

The 80-year-old Castro, who has ruled Cuba since the 1959 communist revolution he led, ceded power to his brother Raul in late July before undergoing intestinal surgery.

Castro has not been seen in public or on video since October, and the Cuban government has maintained secrecy about his condition, giving rise to widespread speculation about his fate.

Chavez told the Cuban state television program “Roundtable” that Castro was in a good mood and looked well Monday during their meeting.

The scenes that aired Tuesday showed Castro, dressed in a track suit, talking with Chavez, a close ally. The Cuban leader was shot from the waist up and could be seen standing but not walking.

Chavez said they spent two hours discussing various topics, including “the threats of the empire” — a reference to the United States.

Earlier this month, the Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted unnamed medical sources saying Castro was in grave condition.

A Spanish surgeon, who had visited Castro in December and works at the same hospital as the sources, dismissed the report and said Castro’s current condition shows “some progressive improvement.”

Source: CNN.com