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Washington Post columnist Al Kamen notices that after taking much heat about the White House's sputtering Iraq strategy, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice finally unloaded and admitted to what has been, no doubt, the White House's largest miscalculation. "If there was something that was really underestimated," she began slowly, "it was how really awful Saddam Hussein was to his own people."
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Speaking of deaths of people with wild pasts that YOU have never heard of, Edward Teller died yesterday. Teller is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb; he helped get Oppenheimer's security clearance revoked, promoted nuclear testing and development, and is thought to have been the 'model' for "Dr. Strangelove".
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston agreed Tuesday to pay $85 million to 552 people who say they were molested by priests over the past three decades. Under the agreement, a mediator will determine individual payments to victims, ranging from $80,000 to $300,000, based on the circumstances of each case. The archdiocese will appoint victims to advisory boards monitoring abuse policies and fund psychological and spiritual counseling. Appointing the victims to the advisory board, I have to say, is a bad idea. Doncha think they might have just a tiny bias?
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Good morning, kids.