A quick look at Sunday's headlines

Post: "1998 Memo Cited Suspected Hijack Plot by Bin Laden"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58615-2004Jul17.html
Apparently Clinton received a PDB in 1998 titled "Bin Laden preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft and other attacks." No one in Clinton's gang did too much about it, the story goes, and then when the Bush Administration took power, they say they didn't hear anything about it until the Aug 6 2001 PDB (at which point they still didn't do anything). Hmm.
But what's really curious about this all is that it's an EXCLUSIVE, yet on page SEVENTEEN (ok, Newsweek is publishing this developement simultaneously, but that looks like it). When newspapers have big exclusives that are not on the front page, it can only mean one thing: something is fishy.
 
Times: "New Reports Again Question Whether Iraq Sought Uranium in Niger"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/international/middleeast/18URAN.html
This story is just as hard to sort out. It's about two new reports suggesting that the claim of Iraq trying to get uranium from Niger may have had some merit. But hop down to the end of the 6th paragraph of the article, and you'll find this rather key point:
"Neither report, however, found evidence that Iraq had actually purchased any uranium from Niger. "
Right. So, um, why are we even reading this article, and why is it even here?
 
And lastly, a flashback to Friday, when the Times featured an article, "Kerry Seeks Inspiration By the Sea", about Kerry writing his speach, supposedly with pen and paper. But campaign-generated romanticization aside, the story found an opportunity to remind us that Kerry is, of course, uh, French:
[[''Got to finish writing -- working my butt off,'' he said aboard his campaign plane, in the fragmented patois Mr. Kerry slips into these days when talking about himself to reporters.]]
Patois??? WTF. I didn't even know what a 'patois' was, though it certainly sounds French. And after all, French means weasels and sympathizers with the terrorists.