Miami Herald, April 4, 2001 - Florida Recount

Here is a competing version of the original Miami Herald story from April 4, 2001 on the Florida recount.  It seems to present the same info as from this version of the story living in the Google cache, but the different scenarios get more emphasis.

Miami Herald, The (FL)

April 4, 2001

REVIEW SHOWS BALLOTS SAY BUSH BUT   GORE BACKERS HAVE SOME POINTS TO ARGUE

Author: MARTIN MERZER, mmerzer@herald.com

Edition: Final
  Section: Front
  Page: 1A

Index Terms:
  US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FLORIDA VOTING MACHINE DEFECT RECOUNT MH

REPORT RESULTS STATISTICS WINNER BUSH

Estimated printed pages: 14

Article Text:

The Herald's examination of votes cast in all 67   Florida counties projects Gore falling further behind if the recount   Democrats advocated had continued.
  Republican George W. Bush's victory in Florida, which gave him the White   House, almost certainly would have endured even if a recount stopped by the   U.S. Supreme Court had been allowed to go forward.

In fact, a comprehensive review of 64,248 ballots in   all 67 Florida counties by The Herald and its parent company, Knight Ridder,   in partnership with USA Today, found that Bush's slender margin of 537 votes   would have tripled to 1,665 votes under the generous counting standards   advocated by Democrat Al Gore.

The newspapers' ballot review was conducted by the   public accounting firm BDO Seidman, LLP. It was designed to answer a question   asked by many Americans and certain to be examined by historians:

What would have happened if the U.S. Supreme Court   had not halted the sweeping r! ecount of undervotes - ballots without   presidential votes detected by counting machines - ordered by the Florida   Supreme Court on Dec. 8, a month after the November election?

The answer: under almost all scenarios, Bush still   would have won.

Indeed, in one of the great ironies of the bitter   2000 election, Bush's lead would have vanished only if the recount had been   conducted under severely restrictive standards advocated by some Republicans.

There is some ammunition in the review for Gore   supporters - though it requires calling into question the manual recounts in   Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The review found that canvassing boards in those   counties discarded hundreds of ballots that bore marks no different from   those on scores of ballots that were accepted as valid presidential votes.

Had those ballots instead been counted as valid   votes, allowing dimples, pinpricks and hanging chads, Gore would be in the White   House today.

VAL! IDATION CLAIMED

The multiple layers of The Herald's findings al   lowed both parties to claim validation Tuesday of their positions during the   protracted election dispute.

Speaking for the Republicans, former Montana Gov.   Marc Racicot expressed satisfaction with the broad results of the review, but   rejected any suggestion that additional ballots could have been salvaged and   the outcome might have changed.

``We have a problem with efforts by different people   in different places at different times trying to discern what other people   really meant to do,'' Racicot said.

``The American people knew it was a close election.   They accepted the fact that President Bush won under any reasonable scenario.   The decision made by the American people now is numerically confirmed by The   Herald and its partners.''

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said:   ``The president believes, just as the American people do, that this election   was settled months ago. The voters spoke, and George W. Bush won.''

Bob Poe, chairman ! of Florida's Democratic Party,   said The Herald's review shows that many official tallies were incomplete and   inaccurate.

``My feeling is still that more people went to the   polls to vote for Al Gore than went to vote for George W. Bush, and that some   really bad things happened,'' Poe said. ``This tells us that the system has   some major flaws that need to be improved. We cannot continue to have this   kind of ambiguity in an election.''

Said Doug Hattaway, a former Gore campaign   spokesman: ``If you count every vote, Gore wins. This study confirms that   Florida's election system failed the voters.''

The Herald's findings underscore the agonizing   closeness of last fall's presidential election and the vital importance of -   and tumultuous debates over - the various standards that can be employed to   gauge punch-card ballots.

Though this portion of the project examined only   undervotes, The Herald, Knight Ridder, several other Florida newspapers and   USA Toda! y also are conducting a full review of at least 110,000 overvotes -   ba llots for which machines recorded more than one presidential candidate.

That project should be concluded within a month, but   those results will not affect the conclusions of the undercount review   because the Florida Supreme Court excluded overvotes from its sweeping   recount.

In addition, a group of national news organizations   and Florida newspapers has hired a University of Chicago research center to   conduct a statewide survey of undervotes and overvotes. That effort is still   underway.

Regardless of the ballot reviews, debate is likely   to continue over the outcome of last year's presidential election, the   closest in 124 years.

While the ballot reviews accentuate how imprecise   numbers released on Election Night can be, election officials nationwide say   the possibility of human error is so great that it is almost impossible to   conduct a mistake-free election.

That imprecision is not an issue, they say, except   when the results are extremely cl! ose - as they were in Florida.

KEY FINDINGS

Here's what The Herald's ballot review found:

* Under the Florida Supreme Court order, which   exempted counties where manual counts had already taken place, Bush would   have added 1,128 votes to his official 537-vote lead - if every dimple,   pinprick or hanging chad on a punch-card ballot is considered a valid vote.   That would have yielded a final margin of 1,665 votes.

His final lead would have fallen to 884 if dimples   were counted as presidential votes only on ballots that had dimples in other   races.

His lead would have dwindled to 363 if votes were   counted only when a punch-card chad was detached by at least two corners,   perhaps the most common standard applied nationally.

And his margin of victory would have disappeared,   replaced by a Gore lead of only three votes, if only clean punches were   accepted.

That nearly invisible Gore advantage - 0.00005   percent of the 5.9 million votes c! ast by Floridians - is so tiny that it   leaves the outcome in question. In addition, it is produced by a highly   unlikely scenario.

Like the all-inclusive standard, the severely   restrictive clean-punch standard is rarely employed. Among two dozen states   that impose standards on manual recounts of undervotes, only Indiana insists   on cleanly punched chads.

Nevertheless, many Republicans have advocated that   standard since The Herald's ballot review began more than three months ago.

``The context in which we viewed this entire recount   is that, the election is over [and] there is only one legal standard for a   vote, the standard that was in place when people went in to vote, and that   was a clear punch,'' Portia Palmer, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of   Florida, recently told The Herald.

* Contrary to popular belief, mismarks for Gore were   less likely than mismarks for Bush in punch-card counties. Marks of some type   were found in the Bush position on one ballot for every 172 valid Bush   punch-card votes; marks in the ! Gore position were found on one ballot for   every 181 valid Gore punch-card votes.

But the opposite was true in optical scan counties.   Marks were found in the Gore position on one ballot for every 1,489 valid   Gore optical-scan votes; marks in the Bush position were found on one ballot   for every 2,600 valid Bush optical-scan votes.

* More specifically, dimples were only slightly more   likely to appear in the Gore position than in the Bush position. Statewide,   10,745 dimples were found in chads assigned to Gore and 10,004 dimples were   found on chads assigned to Bush, a nearly equal result.

This suggests that dimpled punch-card ballots were   related more to machine failure, which affects everyone equally, than to   human error, which might disproportionately affect inexperienced voters.

* Optical-scan balloting does not solve the problem   of discarded ballots.

While the sheer number of problem ballots was far   higher in punch-card counties, 2,119 di! scernible presidential votes were   left untabulated in counties that us e optical-scan systems. Gore would have   received 1,179 of those votes; Bush would have received 860.

UNCOUNTED VOTES

The large number of seemingly valid votes that went   uncounted suggests that election reform may need to go beyond the replacement   of punch-card systems with optical-scan systems.

For example, Florida law says no ballot may be   discarded if the intent of the voter is clear. But the law is less definitive   concerning the obligations of canvassing boards to examine discarded ballots   to determine if the intent of voters can be ascertained.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that   canvassing boards must examine ``damaged or defective'' ballots for voter   intent and further defined the term ``defective ballot'' as ``a ballot which   is marked in a manner such that it cannot be read by a scanner.''

Though some canvassing boards in optical-scan   counties conducted such reviews on Election Night, most boards around the   state did not.

!

THOUSANDS OF VOTES

Had all canvassing boards in all counties examined   all undervotes, thousands of votes would have been salvaged in Broward   County, Palm Beach County and elsewhere long before the election dispute   landed in court - and the outcome might have been different, The Herald   found.

In that scenario, under the most inclusive standard,   Gore might have won Florida's election - and the White House - by 393 votes,   The Herald found. If dimples were counted as votes only when other races were   dimpled, Gore would have won by 299 votes.

But if ballots were counted as votes only when a   chad was detached by at least two corners (the standard most commonly used   nationally), Bush would have won by 352 votes.

The ballot review also accentuated the latitude   local elections officials enjoy under state law to establish standards and   practices that can differ from those employed in other counties.

For example, nearly all optical-scan systems ! can   alert voters to errors on their ballots - if scanners are deployed in each   precinct.

But Herald reviewers found that some elections   officials intentionally don't use the scanning equipment's full capabilities.   The result: voters in some counties are able to correct fewer errors than   voters in other counties.

One consequence of this latitude was clear in   Escambia County, where vote tabulating equipment was programmed to flag as   undervotes only those ballots on which no votes were apparent anywhere. Few   other counties adhere to that policy.

When Escambia was ordered by the Florida Supreme   Court to recount its undervotes, it only examined ballots that fit that limited   definition - a total of 16. Nine votes went to Gore and six went to Bush, a   net gain of three for Gore.

But when The Herald insisted that Escambia identify   ballots where no votes were tabulated specifically in the presidential race,   the county presented 677 ballots for inspection. Of those, 20 were deemed to   be votes for Bush and 45 were deemed to be ! votes for Gore - a net gain of   25 for the former vice-president.

ACCESS REQUESTED

The Herald requested access to undervotes in all 67   Florida counties on Dec. 13, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed   the Florida court and terminated the official undervote recount.

The nation's highest court said the lack of a   consistent statewide standard for judging ballots raised constitutional   issues. It declined to give Florida time to develop such a standard,   effectively handing the state's 25 electoral votes and the White House to   Bush.

The Herald's requests cited the Florida Public   Records Law, which makes ballots subject to public examination. The newspaper   later retained BDO Seidman, LLP, to inspect the ballots.

The comprehensive review of undervotes began on Dec.   18 in Broward County, and teams of accountants and reporters soon visited all   67 counties. The last undervote was inspected March 13 in Hamilton County.

Under its agreeme! nt with The Herald, BDO's   accountants noted what kind of mark was pres ent on each ballot and the   mark's location, then totaled the marks of various kinds and reported them to   The Herald. But BDO made no effort to determine voter intent or whether a   mark on a ballot was a legally valid vote.

Reporters from The Herald, other Knight Ridder   newspapers and USA Today also reviewed every undervote ballot and made   separate and independent assessments of their characteristics. That effort was   designed as a statistical check of variation between observers, but was not   considered in the tabulations BDO reported.

Of the 64,248 ballots inspected by BDO, only 42,897   came from precincts affected by the Florida Supreme Court order or from   counties that did not complete the recount before the U.S. Supreme Court   issued its stay.

The state court specifically excluded from the   statewide recount Broward, Palm Beach, Volusia and 139 precincts in   Miami-Dade where manual recounts already had been conducted. In addition,   three counties - Escambia,! Manatee and Madison - completed the count before   the U.S. Supreme Court froze the process. Another, Hamilton County, reported   that it had no undervotes, although that proved untrue when The Herald   inspected its ballots.

Of the 42,897 ballots, no marks for president were   found on 20,861. These were true undervotes - with no evidence of any attempt   to vote for president.

Another 861 ballots showed marks for write-in   candidates or for presidential candidates other than Bush or Gore, and 2,912   had marks in ballot locations that were not assigned to candidates.

NOT TABULATED

Not included in the tabulation were 1,512 ballots that   BDO determined had marks for more than one presidential candidate. State law   specifically prohibits the tabulation of ballots with marks for more   candidates than are to be elected to the office.

That left 9,114 ballots with marks or write-in   notations that might, under the most permissive standard, be interpreted as   vo! tes for Bush. And it left 7,637 ballots that bore marks that, under th at   same standard, might be interpreted as votes for Gore.

To recreate the conditions that existed at the time   of the court's order, The Herald accepted the official results of the recount   in Escambia, Madison and Manatee - an additional 20 votes for Bush and 27 for   Gore - and Hamilton's claim of no undervotes.

That brought the Bush total to 9,134 and the Gore   total to 7,664.

The Herald then followed the court's order, adding   174 votes to Gore's total as the net gain from Palm Beach County's official   recount. It also added 168 votes to Gore's total as the net gain from the 139   Miami-Dade precincts that had been recounted manually.

That left Gore with a potential total after the   recount of 8,006, under the most permissive standard.

The Herald then added 537 - Bush's statewide lead at   the time the Florida court acted - to Bush's result, leaving him with a total   of 9,671 - 1,665 more than Gore.

The Herald's statewide review adds to a gro! wing   body of material that brings the outcome of the disputed election into   sharper focus.

Five weeks ago, for instance, The Herald reported   that if Secretary of State Katherine Harris had allowed South Florida   counties to complete manual recounts before certifying the election, Bush   likely would have won the presidency outright - ending the dispute before the   Florida Supreme Court ordered the recount of undervotes.

Last month, The Palm Beach Post reported in some   detail on the results in Palm Beach County. Among other things, it found that   5,062 residents of that county voted for three or more candidates for   president, an indication of voter inexperience.

The Palm Beach Post also found, like The Herald,   that hundreds of potential votes for Gore were not counted.

Of course, regardless of the undervote reviews, only   one thing is truly clear: Precise numbers released on Election Night mask a   world of imprecision and chaos.

Responding to Hera! ld requests for undervotes, only   eight of Florida's 67 counties were a ble to produce for inspection the exact   number they reported on Election Night. Elsewhere, there is no way to know   whether the Election Night figure, the number of ballots actually inspected,   or some other number is correct.

At one point, Pasco County Supervisor of Elections   Kurt Browning testified during a hearing that multiple machine recounts in   his county produced a different number of undervotes each time.

Nov. 8: 1,776. Dec. 9: 1,712. Feb 5: 1,744.

But it was not machine sorting alone that proved   inaccurate. In Duval County, elections officials - acting under court order -   hand-sorted the county's 291,000 ballots in search of the 4,967 undervotes   they had reported on Election Night.

They ended up delivering 5,106 ballots for   inspection by The Herald.

That's close, but it also raises the possibility   that some of those ballots were actually tabulated in the Election Night   machine count.

On the other hand, BDO determined that only! 4,880 qualified   as undervotes. The other 226 bore marks for at least two presidential   candidates, apparent overvotes.

This review did not attempt to inspect overvotes.   Florida's Supreme Court order specifically called for the recounting only of   undervote ballots, leaving the estimated 110,000 overvotes unaffected.

But Herald reviewers saw numerous overvotes, and it   became clear that many could have been declared valid votes - if they had   been examined in time.

For instance, in some counties that use optical   scanning equipment, people managed to vote for Gore and then again for his   running mate, Joseph Lieberman, or for Bush and then again for his running   mate, Richard Cheney.

Throughout the state, many people voted for Bush or   Gore - and then did so again in the write-in category.

All such votes were rejected by machines as   overvotes. However, many elections supervisors agree that some of those votes   could have been rehabilitated through ! manual recounts by canvassing boards   employing nothing more than commo n sense.

``It's sad,'' said Levy County Elections Supervisor   Connie Asbell. ``These are people who really wanted to vote for president.''

EXAMINING THE NUMBERS
  The Herald applied the BDO Seidman ballot review results to several scenarios   to project the possible impact of a statewide recount on November's election.
  SCENARIO 1: Florida Supreme Court Order

The Florida Supreme Court on Dec. 8 ordered that all   undervote ballots be counted in counties that had not already conducted a   hand recount. The court also ordered that the secretary of state's office   include 174 net votes from Palm Beach and 168 net votes from a partial   recount in Miami-Dade be added to Gore's certified total. At the time, Bush   was leading by 537 votes.

The recount order was halted the next day by the   U.S. Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that the Florida court's order   violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

To see how the election might ! have been affected   had the Florida court's order not been stopped, The Herald considered ballots   only in counties where manual recounts had not been completed. That meant   excluding review results from Broward, Palm Beach, Volusia and portions of   Miami-Dade County.

The Herald also excluded the results of its review   in three counties - Escambia, Manatee and Madison - that had completed the   state-court-mandated recount before the U.S. Supreme Court acted. In   addition, ballots reviewed in Hamilton County were not included because   officials there had said they had no undervotes at the time of the court   rulings.

The Herald applied three standards in computing   this: a loose standard where every dimple, hanging chad and pinprick was a   vote, a tougher standard where a dimple counted only if the ballot had other   dimples onit, and a still tougher standard where a ballot had to have chads   detached by at least two corners to count as a vote. In all three instances,   Bush wo! uld have been victorious.

STRENGTH - This is as close an approx imation as   possible to the conditions when the Florida court order was issued.

WEAKNESS - There is no way to be certain how   canvassing boards in each county would have judged each ballot.

THE NUMBERS
  Bush Gore

9,134 7,664

537 (lead) 174 - Palm Beach County

168 - Miami-Dade ballots

9,672 8,006

Bush margin - 1,665

Palm Beach standard

Bush Gore

5,877 5,188

+ 537 +174

+168

6,415 5,531

Bush margin - 884

2-corner chad standard

Bush Gore

1,749 1,581

+ 537 +174

+168

2,286 1,923

Bush margin - 363

The Clean Punch Scenario

There is one scenario that would have led to a Gore   victory - though it was unlikely. That would have happened if the precincts   affected by the Florida Supreme Court order had been counted with only cle!   an punches counting in the punch card counties.

Why is it so unlikely? Because the application of   that standard only in the affected precincts would have required the   Miami-Dade canvassing board to switch standards in the middle of its count.

Nevertheless, applying the standard shows the irony   of the insistence by some Reublicans that only clean punches be counted. In   the counties to be counted under the state court order, Bush actually   benefited from the inclusion of dimples, pinpricks and hanging chads.

The scenario also assumes that the results in   optical scan counties would have remained the same, since markings for   president on those ballots are more obvious.

The Numbers

Bush Gore

988 1,186

+ 537 +174

+168

1,525 1,528

Gore wins by 8.

The Statewide Standard

What if the canvassing boards in all 67 counties had   reviewed their undervote ballots immediately afte! r the last state-mandated   machine tabulation Nov. 8? Such a review pro bably is required by state law,   but few canvassing boards conduct one.

But such a review would have avoided court fights.   And using The Herald ballot review allows all ballots to be judged by the   same standard.

To accomplish this, The Herald excluded no counties   where it had inspected ballots. It also used as it's starting point the final   machine recount, which had given Bush a lead of 300 votes. It then also added   to the Bush total 630 votes, which was the margin of overseas absentee   ballots that Bush won when those ballots were open Nov. 17.

STRENGTH: This also would have satisifed the feeling   of the minority of the U.S. Supreme Court who felt Florida should have been   given time to devise a statewide standard for recounts.

WEAKNESS: A ballot review such as this might have   included an unknown number of overvote ballots, where tabulation machines saw   two votes or more for president. In some counties, a review of those ballots   - not part of this re! view of undervotes - have found many were in fact   valid votes. Those ballots would certainly affect totals.

The Numbers

Bush Gore

13,055 14,378

+ 300

+ 630

13,985 14,378

Gore margin - 393

Palm Beach standard

Bush Gore

6,644 8,873

+300

+630

8,574 8,873
  Gore margin - 299 votes

2-corner chad

Bush Gore

2,169 2,747

+ 300

+ 630

3,099 2,7487

Bush margin - 352

HIRAM HENRIQUEZ/HERALD STAFF
  RECOUNT STAFF
  The following Herald staff writers contributed to these reports:
  Lila Arzua, Steve Bousquet, Tyler Bridges, Paul Brinkley-Rogers, Lesley   Clark, Tina Cummings, Daniel de Vise, Anabelle de Gale, Geoff Dougherty, Amy   Driscoll, Lisa Fuss, Jasmine Kripalani, Larry Lebowitz, Phil Long, Beth   Reinhard, Shari Rudavsky, Charles Savage, Mark Silva and Andres! Viglucci.
  HERALD REPORT
  The Miami Herald staff has prepared a book about Florida's 2000 presidental   election, to be published in early May by St. Martin's Press.

Titled The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held   Hostage, the book provides the most detailed account yet of an election   process that went awry and include the full results of the ballot review   conducted by the accounting firm BDO Seidman, LLP.

It will be available wherever books are sold, and   now can be ordered in advance from The Miami Herald's HeraldStore.   HeraldStore can be found on the World Wide Web at www.heraldstore.com or   contacted Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at:
  * Miami-Dade: 305-376-3719
  * Broward: 954-764-7026 ext 3719
  * From elsewhere toll-free: 1-877-242-0001

Caption:
  WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFFLOOKING CAREFULLY: Herald reporter Phil Long and   auditor Elena Chari examine a questionable ballot that was cast for the Nov.   7 presidential election in Duval County. The ballot is held by a municipal   employee.
  WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFFIN REVIEW: Duval County's director of operations,   Robert Phillips, and ballot checkers Joyce Roland and Zerelda Thomas, left,   work amid a camera-produced swirl.
  WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFFTAKING STUDIOUS LOOKS: In Duval County, from left,   are auditor Elena Stetsenko, Herald reporter Daniel de Vise, Republican   observer Marc Ross, auditor Elena Chari, Herald reporter Phil Long and   municipal employee Joyce Roland.
  WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFFREADY TO MOVE: Duval's director of operations,   Robert Phillips, loads a cart with ballots that were stored in a secure area.   They were then rolled out to the site of the review.
  WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFF LEGAL ACTION: At left, Mark Seibel, The Herald's !   managing editor/news, studies paperwork while waiting for a judge in   Jacksonville. Below, a stack of ballots.color photo: Phil Long and Elena   Chari examine a questionable
  ballot (a), George W. Bush (a), Al Gore (a); photo: Robert Phillips and Joyce
  Roland and Zeralda Thomas work amid a camera-produced swirl (a), Elena
  Stetsenko and Daniel de Vise and Marc Ross and Elena Chari and Phil Long and
  Joyce Roland examine ballots (a), Mark Seibel studies paperwork in
  Jacksonville (a), A stack of ballots (a), Robert Phillips loads a cart with
  ballots (a)

Memo:
  WHO WON?/A HERALD REPORT

Copyright (c) 2001 The Miami Herald
  Record Number: 0104060072

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Comments

[TM]

Islam means peace

NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial3/02muslims.html

Times - London
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/international/europe/03london.html

ISNA Conference
http://www.isna.net/clear.gif

ISNA .pdf file
http://www.isna.net/uploads/media/2005Convention-Program-Final.pdf

The session on Islam means peace is Session 10B, Sunday, Sept. 4

Speakers are Badawi, Magid, Irfan

[TM]

Mortgages

USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/housing/2005-09-13-minorities-loans_x.htm

Fed study
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2005/3-05hmda.pdf

Fed speech
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050603/default.htm

NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/business/14lend.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126715766-t0JeU7XQ9TD+RM11fcdaSQ&pagewanted=print

[TM]

David Carr, a regular Times contributor, discovers media hype in the Katrina coverage.

Careful readers will infer that Mr. Carr writes these columns as some sort of a media critic who focuses on television coverage, so the performance of the NY Times itself is given a pass.

In his world, Fox News, talk radio, and the internet hyped the violence and atrocities. However, let's notice the gap between criticism and evidence:DISASTER has a way of bringing out the best and the worst instincts
in the news media. It is a grand thing that during the most terrible
days of Hurricane Katrina, many reporters found their gag reflex and
stopped swallowing pat excuses from public officials. But the media's
willingness to report thinly attributed rumors may also have
contributed to a kind of cultural wreckage that will not clean up
easily.

First, anyone with any knowledge of the events in New Orleans knows
that terrible things with non-natural causes occurred: there were
assaults, shots fired at a rescue helicopter and, given the state of
the city's police department, many other crimes that probably went
unreported.

But many instances in the lurid libretto of widespread murder,
carjacking, rape, and assaults that filled the airwaves and newspapers
have yet to be established or proved, as far as anyone can determine.
And many of the urban legends that sprang up - the systematic rape of
children, the slitting of a 7-year-old's throat - so far seem to be
just that. The fact that some of these rumors were repeated by
overwhelmed local officials does not completely get the news media off
the hook. A survey of news reports in the LexisNexis database shows
that on Sept. 1, the news media's narrative of the hurricane shifted.

The Fox News anchor, John Gibson, helped set the scene: All kinds
of reports of looting, fires and violence. Thugs shooting at rescue
crews. Thousands of police and National Guard troops are on the scene
trying to get the situation under control. Thousands more on the way.
So heads up, looters. A reporter, David Lee Miller, responded: Hi,
John. As you so rightly point out, there are so many murders taking
place. There are rapes, other violent crimes taking place in New
Orleans. After the interview, Mr. Gibson did acknowledge that we have
yet to confirm a lot of that.

Later that night on MSNBC, Tucker Carlson grabbed the flaming baton
and ran with it. People are being raped, he said in a conversation
with the Rev. Al Sharpton. People are being murdered. People are being
shot. Police officers being shot.

Some journalists did find sources. About 10 p.m. that same evening,
Greta Van Susteren of Fox interviewed Dr. Charles Burnell, an emergency
room physician who was providing medical care in the Superdome.

Well, we had several murders. We had three murders last night. We
had a total of six rapes last night. We had the day before I think
there were three or four murders. There were half a dozen rapes that
night, he told Ms. Van Susteren. (Dr. Burnell did not return several
calls asking for comment.) On the same day, The New York Times referred
to two rapes at the Superdome, quoting a woman by name who said she was
a witness.

OK, if Fox mentioned the systematic rape of
children, or the slitting of a 7-year-old's throat, this was the time to mention it. Instead, we get a generic mention of violence, looting, and rapes. Does Mr. Carr contend that this was *not* happening?

But we don't need to look far for news source that was passing on some of thr urban legends. If Fox helped set the scene with their Sept 1 broadcast, let's see what the NY Times offered on Sept 1:
Higher Death Toll Seen; Police Ordered to Stop Looters

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31 - Chaos gripped New Orleans on Wednesday as
looters ran wild, food and water supplies dwindled, bodies floated in
the floodwaters, the evacuation of the Superdome began and officials
said there was no choice but to abandon the city devastated by
Hurricane Katrina, perhaps for months.

...With police officers and National Guard troops giving priority to
saving lives, looters brazenly ripped open gates and ransacked stores
for food, clothing, television sets, computers, jewelry and guns, often
in full view of helpless law-enforcement officials. Dozens of
carjackings, apparently by survivors desperate to escape, were
reported, as were a number of shootings.or:
Superdome: Haven Quickly
Becomes an Ordeal

They had flocked to the arena seeking sanctuary from the winds and
waters of Hurricane Katrina. But understaffed, undersupplied and
without air-conditioning or even much lighting, the domed stadium
quickly became a sweltering and surreal vault, a place of overflowing
toilets and no showers. Food and water, blankets and sheets, were in
short supply. And the dome's reluctant residents exchanged horror
stories, including reports, which could not be confirmed by the
authorities, of a suicide and of rapes.or:
Police and Owners Begin to
Challenge Looters

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31 - In a city shut down for business, the Rite Aid
at Oak and South Carrollton was wide open on Wednesday. Someone had
stolen a forklift, driven it four blocks, peeled up the security gate
and smashed through the front door.

...

One police officer was shot Tuesday trying to stop looting, but he was expected to survive.

An emergency medical vehicle that was taking a Baton Rouge police
officer who had been shot last month from a hospital back to his
hometown was shot at on the way out of New Orleans on Tuesday.
Fair and balanced at the NY Times.

We also take issue with a specific point made twice by Mr. Carr:

(1) ...First, anyone with any knowledge of the events in New Orleans knows
that terrible things with non-natural causes occurred: there were
assaults, shots fired at a rescue helicopter...

(2) The widely reported and seemingly fantastical story about a man shooting at a rescue helicopter was confirmed.

Confrimed by whom? Matt Welch wrote a better, earlier column about Katrina media hype on Sept 6, and said this about the helicopter:

Relief efforts
ground to a halt
last week after reports circulated of looters shooting at helicopters, yet
none of the hundreds of articles I read on the subject contained a single
first-hand confirmation from a pilot or eyewitness. The suspension-triggering
attack—on a military Chinook attempting to
evacuate refugees from the Superdome—was
contested
by Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown, who told ABC
News, We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of
them reported being fired on. What's more, when asked about the attacks,
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
replied:
I haven't actually received a confirmed report of someone firing on a
helicopter.

From the ABC story to which Matt links, we see confirmation from a National Guard officer:At the Superdome, we have a report that one shot was fired at a
Chinook helicopter, [Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard] said, adding that the Chinook is an
extremely large aircraft.Although he ignored the Times own breathless coverage of rapes, looting, and vigilantism, I am sure Mr. Carr will welcome an opportunity to document this particular assertion about the confirmation of reports that a helicopter was fired upon. We don't want any hype in the hype-denouncing story, do we?

[TM]

Shleifer of Harvard / Al Gore in Russia scandal

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ma/presspage/Aug2005/Harvard-Settlement.htm

[TM]

A never-finished draft:

The President Has Asked People To Show Their Cards On Iraq

I am declaring war on Iraq, and feel as if I ought to explain why.

I accept the notion that Saddam is a long term threat to the peace and stability of the Middle East, including Israel, and that there is an excellent probability that we will have to confront him militarily at some point. Sanctions have been a public relations disaster, and are being eroded due to lack of world support. The long term presence of US troops scattered throughout the region to "contain" Saddam also seems to fuel hostility, as we have seen with Osama.

Regime change in Iraq will reduce these problems. There will be many US troops in Iraq, but we can move troops out of the holy land of Saudi Arabia, as well as our other bases in the Mid East. I also believe that the road to peace in Jerusalem runs through Baghdad. Israel can not negotiate with a gun to its head. Saddam is a major supporter of the Palestinian terrorist groups, and a military threat to Israel. Syria will also become more amenable to developing a peaceful relationship with Israel when its neighbors include a democratic Iraq. Removing Saddam helps to create an environment in which Israel can feel that it will be allowed to live in peace, and fruitful negotiations should be a result.

I believed this months ago. Beyond that, however, US credibility will be shattered if we back down now. If that were the only reason to proceed, it would be insufficient. However, since I believe that this is a war is only a matter of time, then the time is now.

So, am I worried about casualties to Iraqi civilians? Of course I am. I also worry about Iraqis imprisoned and killed by Saddam and Iraqi children that receive reduced medical care due to sanctions. I worry about Palestinian and Israeli deaths in that struggle. I worry about a potential worldwide breakdown in the international system if the only credible superpower is shown to have no resolve. I worry about lots of things.

But I have concluded, or rationalized, that an invasion of Iraq will, on balance, promote the health, wealth, and stability of Iraq. There will be higher civilian deaths than without an invasion, but over the next few years, more children will live as a result of the end of sanctions. The net result is unknowable, but quite possibly beneficial to Iraqi civilians as a group. The invasion of Iraq, while tragic, will probably save lives.

Will an invasion of Iraq be a recruiting bonanza for Osama? Well, did sales of tickets on cruise liners skyrocket after the release of "Titanic"? I think that, like most of the world, the Muslim world prefers the strong horse. When the US shows strength, we will be respected; if we show reasonableness, it will be mistaken for weakness.

Diversion from war on terror

No link to 9/11

Breakup of the UN

Wait for a Democratic President

[TM]

Brooks
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/268jlqme.asp?pg=1

Kaus
http://www.slate.com/id/2129634/&#mystery2

[TM]

More on Brooks, Kaus

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=115670

Author Ron Kampeas interviews prominent neoconservative intellectual Joshua Muravchik.

"When Joshua Muravchik, perhaps the pre-eminent expert on the interventionist foreign policy that has become known as neo-conservatism, was looking for non-Jewish neo-cons to prove that the movement isn't pervasively Jewish, he naturally included Lewis Libby.

"'Non-Jews figuring prominently in current foreign-policy debates and today called neo-cons include Libby, [John] Bolton, American Enterprise Institute president Christopher DeMuth, and Gary Schmitt of the Project for the New American Century,' Muravchik wrote in Commentary magazine two years ago.

"'Go easy on me,' Muravchik laughingly told a reporter this week, after it emerged that the man at the center of the White House leak scandal indeed is Jewish."