Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005 FOR THOSE accustomed to reading US-prepared news reports, here is a bit of what the BBC online edition has to say about the Scooter Libby indictment (link below). If you get your news in the United States, it's necessary to understand the concept of "spin." Spin is how you tell the story that controls or influences how the facts are interpreted by the reader or viewer. UK news outlets tend to claim their spin. Everyone agrees the Daily Mail is on the conservative end and the Daily Mirror is on the liberal end -- and the editors don't deny this. You read a paper for its point of view. In America's marketing rich environment, you have to spin your materials while keeping the illusion of "fair and balanced." We have this ideal of "objectivity" that denies the fact that everyone has an opinion, and everyone has their business interests. Most of the time, the BBC -- which is not influenced by commercial sponsors (unless you count a few ridiculous ads on BBC World), and which is in a country where reading, education and a slower-paced assimilation of knowledge are still taken seriously -- does a reasonable job. In England, if you can quote Shakespeare, nobody throws a rock at you, or cuts your budget for kicks. From what I have seen, BBC has a pro-American, pro-business slant. Consider that when you check out this article. What I find most interesting is that suddenly, the Project for the New American Century, or PNAC, is starting to make the news. -- mentions only, but the name is surfacing (I saw it on CNN yesterday). The political machine you see in power in Washington is neither Democrat nor Republican, not properly so. They are a small cabal of men involved with what I can honestly call a radical political movement that is centered around a neoconservative" think tank" (i.e., a political machine) that recruited George Bush as their candidate (familiar name, familiar looking face, folksy drawl = winnable) and set about implementing their agenda. The behind the scenes players are Libby, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and a variety of others. Not Bush, not Rice, not Colin Powell -- they just came along for the ride. Google Project for the New American Century for more information. Hey, they are a dot-org, just like Craig's List and the World Bank. One last thing -- I am interested in what you have to say about the indictments and the Plame affair, and I would like to quote readers in this space next week. Please drop me a note at horoscopes@planetwaves.org. Indictment Rocks Bush Administration http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4386076.stm Thanks for tuning in. Subscribers -- please remember your Friday horoscope is on the horoscopes homepage. We are slowly working our way out of mailing list purgatory. Please send your prayers, and please subscribe or request a comp if you can't afford it. Have fun, pay attention --     e