DEAR SIR:

URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL.

MY NAME IS HEINRICH ZUECHER. I AM THE CHIEF OF INTERNAL OPERATIONS OF THE ZENTRALKOMMERZBANK (ìZKBî) IN BASEL, SWITZERLAND. THE ZKBíS SOLICITORS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA HAVE PROVIDED ME YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL ADDRESS, AND RECOMMENDED THAT I CONTACT YOU IMMEDIATELY REGARDING AN URGENT MATTER OF FINANCIAL IMPORTANCE.

A CLIENT OF THE ZKB, WHOSE IDENTITY I AM NOT AT LIBERTY TO REVEAL BUT WHO IS, YOU MAY BE ASSURED, A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE MIDDLE EAST, HOLDS A CONFIDENTIAL ACCOUNT THAT IS CAPABLE OF BEING ACCESSED ONLY BY MEANS OF A NUMBER KNOWN TO THE ACCOUNT HOLDER. THIS IS THE TYPE OF ACCOUNT SOMETIMES DESCRIBED IN THE PRESS AS A ìSECRET NUMBERED SWISS BANK ACCOUNT.î OVER THE LAST TWELVE YEARS THE CLIENT HAS MADE A SERIES OF DEPOSITS INTO THIS ACCOUNT TOTALING RATHER IN EXCESS OF US$ 24 MILLIARD ($24,000,000,000), MUCH OF WHICH IS IN UNITED STATES AND BRITISH CURRENCIES AND ALSO IN BEARER DEBENTURES ISSUED BY AGENCIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS.

NOW WE UNDERSTAND THE CLIENT IS VERY ILL, INDEED, THAT HE LIES IN A KOMA IN FRANCE AND MAY NOT REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS. WE FURTHER UNDERSTAND THAT NO ONE OF HIS ACQUAINTANCES, INCLUDING HIS COLLEAGUES OR EVEN HIS WIFE, KNOWS THE SECRET NUMBER WHICH PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE ACCOUNT IN QUESTION. NOR IS THAT NUMBER KNOWN TO ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ZKB. NEEDLESS TO SAY THIS LEADS TO MUCH DISTRESS, AS ABSENT THE ACCOUNT NUMBER NO-ONE WILL BE ABLE TO RECOVER THE FUNDS THEREIN. THUS NOT EVEN THE PERSON WHO SUCCEEDS TO THE HIGH POSITION THE CLIENT HOLDS IN HIS ORGANISATION WILL BE ABLE TO LAY HANDS ON THE VERY LARGE AMOUNT OF FUNDS IN THE ACCOUNT, FUNDS WHICH, IF ACCESSIBLE, WILL BE OF GREAT BENEFIT TO PERSONS AND ORGANISATIONS IN MANY AREAS ALONG THE WESTERN SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

NEVERTHELESS, CERTAIN ENQUIRIES BY OUR SOLICITORS HAVE REVEALED THAT THE ACCOUNT NUMBER, P.I.N. NUMBER, OR OTHER IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTIC OF AN ACCOUNT HELD BY YOU, OR CERTAIN OF THE DIGITS OF YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, PRECISELY MATCH THE ACCESS NUMBER OF OUR CLIENTíS ACCOUNT. THE ZKB, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CLIENTíS WIFE AND CERTAIN OF HIS TRUSTED COLLEAGUES, THEREFORE REQUESTS YOUR ASSISTANCE IN GAINING ACCESS TO THE ACCOUNT; WE PROPOSE THAT AS CONSIDERATION FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THIS MATTER, YOU WILL RECEIVE A NET 10% (TEN PERCENT) OF THE CONTENTS OF THE ACCOUNT, IN THE TOTAL SUM OF JUST OVER US$ 2.4 MILLIARD ($2,400,000,000). YOUR COMMISSION WILL, AT YOUR REQUEST, BE DEPOSITED BY WIRE TRANSFER INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BANK ACCOUNT OF YOUR DESIGNATION.

THE ZKB WILL, OF COURSE, BE PLEASED TO ASSIST YOU IN THIS MATTER, BUT IN ORDER TO COMMENCE THE PROCESS WE WILL NEED TO OBTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACCOUNT INTO WHICH YOU WISH YOUR COMMISSION TO BE TRANSFERRED. PLEASE E-MAIL THE ACCOUNT NUMBER TO ME, AT THIS ADDRESS, IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE; I WILL THEN CONTACT YOU BY RETURN E-MAIL TO OBTAIN THE FURTHER INFORMATION THAT THE ZKB WILL NEED TO OBTAIN ACCESS TO THE FUNDS IN THE CLIENTíS ACCOUNT. PLEASE BE ASSURED THAT TIME IS OF THE STRICTEST ESSENCE, AS UNDER SWISS BANKING LAW (AS WELL AS THE CUSTOM AND PRACTICE OF THE CLIENTíS COUNTRYMEN) IT IS CRUCIAL THAT WE GAIN ACCESS TO THE ACCOUNT WHILE THE CLIENT REMAINS ALIVE.

THANKING YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OF THIS MATTER, I REMAIN

YOURS VERY TRULY,

HEINRICH L. ZUECHER

I thought they blew the coverup when one of the “attending physicians” was identified as a local mortician. Trying to pass off a walkin reefer as an ICU wasn’t a very good idea either.

Fallujah as Stalingrad – LOLOLOL. What a shame I don’t get MSNBC – Hardball must be the funniest show on cable tv.

More.

Does that mean he’ll be deader soon?

The Democrats have unconsciously employed media as a house organ for their agendas as long as I have been alive. Kindred spirits act toward common goals.

The Republicans tried to fight media on its own turf for literally decades until the first G.W. Bush administration. Bush declined to ‘war room’ the media; instead of fighting a day-by-day refutation game he instead published clear objectives in keynote addresses (Bush Doctrine, tax cuts, NCLB, etc) that are all measurable by results independent of political propaganda or spin.

No domestic mass casualty attacks since 9/11. Elections in Afghanistan. Looming elections in Iraq. Multi-quarter GDP growth, with unemployment at or near historic lows and improving employment numbers. And last but not least, the election results returning Bush with a solid PV majority as well as ECV surplus and increased seats in Congress.

The media can whine at will. Political power isn’t measured by compliments from Maureen Dowd or number of Tina Brown dinner parties a senator gets invited to. It’s measured by the electoral support of the voters (and how they feel they will be impacted) of the respective agendas and in this November of 2004 that support is behind the concepts of responsible government, American exceptionalism, and aggressive confrontation and defeat of foreign threats to American lives and interests.

Until the Democrats…who these days are become a confederacy of convenience of disparate liberal/progressive/socialist/opportunist hacks…can send a message beyond praying for failure on the part of the Republicans they and their media shills will continue to retract from relevance in public debate.

We face real problems in a real world. Bush has enacted policies that address those problems and as time has goes by enough people appear to have judged them worthy of support despite the almost monolithic assault of media and the political opposition to belittle or sabotage them. He has demanded to be judged on results, and has thus far won that bet.

Way back when I first started to participate on Roger’s forum I opined that I thought the media would need at least a year to adjust to the Bush administration. I believed that the media culture would sensibly adjust to the end of the spin dance and buckle down to report the news as it unfolded. I was wrong – and here we are four years out and the majors of the major players, most notably CBS and the NYTimes, have crashed through tipping points like a sports car heading off a curvy road in a crime drama…and then rewound the tape the next morning to do it again.

Bush publishes a policy and the result is a weeks or months long condemnation on style and philosophy tropes…with the eventual objective results of the policies mentioned in passing or outright ignored (more jobs, but the WRONG jobs…quagmire…election majority but based on unteachable Jesusland voters) again and again and again.

The market result has been the rise of the Pajamahadeen – individuals that invest their own time and money in the quest to identify and disseminate facts stripped of MSM spin. Bloggers were an oddity as late as a year ago. Since then they’ve covered both political conventions and now regularly appear or are quoted on MSM pundit shows. Good ideas will not fail in unrestricted markets, and there’s never been a bazaar as wide open as the internet is right now. People vote with their clicks here, and the trend is solidly against MSM.

“The need to restrict the number and length of visits shouldn’t be interpreted as prohibiting visits from the Palestinian leaders to the Intensive Care Unit. The hospital spokesman stated that “the law does not limit to only the patient’s spouse the right to decide who has visitation rights, it allows also the extended family. It should also be recalled that they are the persons in charge for Palestinian Autority who asked us to hospitalize president Arafat”.

(La nÈcessitÈ de restreindre dÈsormais le nombre et la frÈquence des visites au chevet du “raÔs” ne doit nullement Ítre comprise comme une interdiction qui serait faite aux dirigeants palestiniens de se rendre dans le service de rÈanimation de l’hÙpital Percy. “La loi ne limite pas au seul conjoint d’un patient de dÈcider qui a ou non droit de visite. C’est la famille au sens large qui est ici concernÈe, prÈcise-t-on de source mÈdicale militaire. Il faut d’autre part rappeler que ce sont les responsables de l’AutoritÈ palestinienne qui nous ont demandÈ l’hospitalisation du prÈsident Arafat.”

It wasn’t the same article.

I really wish the WSJ would print them side-by-side.