(2004-02-09) -- Former Democrat presidential frontrunner Howard Dean today reversed his previous pledge to drop out of the race if he loses the Wisconsin primary. He now promises to stay in "until this ringing in my head stops."
“Ding dong- ya ok Howard just take a nice nap now, the men in the white coats are on the way”
"Even if I don’t win Wisconsin or any other state, I will continue to run," Mr. Dean told a small crowd of supporters in Sheboygan.
“Probably there to see if he has anymore freakout speeches”
"If I don’t get the nomination, I will run as an independent. And if I lose the general election, I will immediately announce my 2008 campaign and keep running. I will never stop running for president. This is my profession -- my calling.
“I’m not self delusional am I? ..they’re coming to take me way ha ha, they’re coming to take me away ho ho hee hee, to the funny farm
.”
The ringing in my head beckons me to strive inexorably onward. Can you hear the ringing? Can you hear it?"
“uh ya man sure

.ya we hear it
”
The crowd erupted in applause and shouts of "Yes, we hear it. Run Howard, run!"

1. Dr. Stuart Trager MD, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, told the Wall Street Journal that Atkins’ heart disease stemmed from cardiomyopathy, a condition that was thought to result from a viral infection. Atkins’ weight was due to bloating and water-retention associated with his condition, and the time he spent in a coma after his head injury.
   
2. Trager’s own release this morning reads in part: "Due to water retention ... [Atkins] had a weight that varied between 180 and 195. During his coma, as he deteriorated and his major organs failed, fluid retention and bloating dramatically distorted his body and left him at 258 pounds at the time of his death, a documented weight gain of over 60 pounds."

• Earlier today Ambassador Bremer met with a Turkish business delegation, led by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey. The delegation, which also includes the Turkish ambassador to Iraq, are in Baghdad for the day to look at the foreign investment climate and ways in which Turkey can further contribute to the reconstruction of Iraq. Turkey has already pledged $50 million at the Madrid donors’ conference, placing it among the top 15 contributors.
  
• Two targets, Mufook Sadiq (ph) and Salim Kudar Mutab (ph), turned themselves in to coalition authorities last night. Sadiq is a suspected Black Eagle movement member, a terrorist group in the northern area, and Mutab (ph) is a suspected bomb maker.
  
• Well, the memo itself says -- the author of the memo himself says that he accomplished 25 operations since he’s been here in Iraq.
  It is clear that the type of techniques that we have seen in certain of these attacks, such as what we’ve seen at the north gate, at the Assassin’s Gate, perhaps in Erbil, perhaps down -- the assassination of Hakim, perhaps the attack on the U.N. building -- all of these have the fingerprints, as we have said, month after month, and hallmarks of al Qaeda, fingerprints of al Qaeda and other foreign fighters. So we can’t rule out that the 25 operations claimed inside that document are untrue. And in fact that just gives us more and more evidence of these -- that al Qaeda is in fact conducting operations, or people who would like to work with al Qaeda are operating inside this country.
  
• Yeah, we are persuaded that Zarqawi was the author of this letter. It is our understanding that this letter was being taken by a courier outside this country for delivery abroad. And it is our intent and our -- certainly our hope that -- in the near future that this letter can be declassified.
  
• We understand that Grand Ayatollah Sistani is currently in a safe location. We do not believe he is being held by coalition forces. He is certainly not being held by coalition forces, but he is being protected by his own people.
  
• On your first question, the November 15th agreement is very explicit: sovereignty will be handed over to the Iraqi people on July 1. June 30th will culminate the effort by which we develop a transitional national assembly; that will be done by June 1. And then during the month of June that transitional national assembly will select an executive branch, if you will, that will assume power on July 1. As I said, that’s explicit in the November 15th agreement.
  What happens in 2005 is a constitutional convention for the permanent constitution of Iraq and then elections at the end of 2005 for the next, what we call the permanent government of Iraq, rather than the transitional government, that will take office this summer. That will be at the end of 2005 and they will begin to take power in 2006.

"Images in our pages that purport to depict reality must be genuine in every way... Pictures of news situations must not be posed."

"Everything I have learned about Palestinian terrorists since my daughter Malki was murdered tells me that desperation is the last word you should apply to them. These people are jubilant, triumphal, ecstatic at the moment of performing their satanic act of mass murder. The next time you hear about their ’desperation’, think about this image of an Arab woman crying on demand for the gathered paparazzi. We and all our neighbors are being manipulated by photo editors, journalists and reporters in the field."