Town of Braintree

Media landscape pits Red vs. Blu

Book publishers are supposed to be retards when it comes to marketing, but they seem to have all this Blue State-vs.-Red State stuff figured out. There are two utterly divergent constituencies for books, so they've mobilized Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich to adorn one bestseller list and Bill Clinton (news - web sites) and the anti-Bush polemicists for the other. The strategy is working so well that surely the film and TV mavens can't be far behind.
Mel Gibson (news) showed everyone how to muscle the Red States, and Mormon filmmakers for years have prospered within their mini-industry. So now that the Red States have their own president, why not give them their movies and TV shows, too?
The hot-button campaign issues may even provide storylines. Wouldn't they flock to a ''Gay Married With Children'' -- a series about a gay married couple who hate one another? How about ''Desperate Anti-Abortion Housewives?'' And since ''Troy'' worked, why not try ''Goy,'' with Brad Pitt taking on the Crusades?
There's one entertainment sector that's surreptitiously shared by both Red and Blue sectors, however: Market expansion of porn in the old Bible Belt, in fact, exceeds that of the coasts, and one of its major purveyors, Adam & Eve, is even nestled in North Carolina.
The only distinction between Red and Blue is this: While porn-watchers on the East and West Coasts have switched to DVDs, the heartland still covets its VHS format. That distinction, perhaps, defines the truly rigid conservative.
With Michael Ovitz again basking in the spotlight, I was amused to see his former partner, Ron Meyer, hovering anonymously in the corner of a Hollywood restaurant the other day. His familiar battered-jeans-and-wrinkled-T-shirt uniform suggested he'd just come from the gym, but this is office attire in Ronnie-land, which continues to be a very thriving place.




By Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich

US MARINE EXECUTES SHOT MAN

A US marine has sparked world-wide revulsion after being seen shooting an injured and helpless Iraqi.

The sickening scene was broadcast by Channel 4 News after a fire-fight in the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

The trigger-happy soldier had been asked to get nearer to the injured man.

But instead of trying to capture him, the marine is seen leaning over a wall and cold-bloodedly shooting him.

He then turns to his colleagues and says: ''He's gone''. Coalition chiefs were last night under pressure to investigate the incident.

Labour left-winger Jeremy Corbyn said: ''This execution will be remembered by the Iraqi people for generations.

''What does this say about the tactics being used by those who are supposed to be the forces of democracy? We want an immediate investigation.''

Channel 4 News viewers flooded the station's web-site with complaints. One said: This was against all civilised norms and law.''



By Paul Gilfeather, Political Edito

Thousands are being evacuated.

Ivorian leader hits out at France
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has accused France of supporting rebels in the renewed civil war. He said the recent destruction of government warplanes by French forces showed Paris ''objectively'' favoured the insurgents, who hold half the country.

''The French destroyed our advantage in less than two hours,'' he told BBC News.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply after nine French peacekeepers died in a government bombing raid earlier this month.

The retaliatory destruction of most of the Ivory Coast's air force triggered attacks against French and other Western expatriates.

Thousands are being evacuated. The acts France committed against us are acts of war
Laurent Gbagbo Ivory Coast president

West African leaders are meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss the crisis.
Supporters of the president have often spoken out against the former colonial power - which brokered a power sharing-deal in January 2003 - since the start of the conflict two years ago.
But Mr Gbagbo was particularly scathing in a BBC interview at the weekend.
He said the French had committed ''acts of war'' against his government, and had always favoured the rebels.
''At the start of the crisis I asked for two helicopters,'' he added. ''If they had given them to me, the war would have been over in two days.''
'Anarchy'
Mr Gbagbo said the French had consistently blocked attempts by his government to buy weapons.


PEACE UNRAVELS
29 Sept: Parliament fails to meet deadline for political reforms
15 Oct: Rebels ignore deadline for disarmament
28 Oct: Rebels withdraw from unity government
4 Nov: Government aircraft begin air strikes on rebel-held territory
6 Nov: Air strike kills nine French soldiers; France destroys Ivorian planes
7 Nov: Gbagbo supporters demonstrate against the French in Abidjan; UN condemns Ivorian attacks
8,9 Nov: Anti-French rioting
10 Nov: French begin evacuating civilians




By The retaliatory destruction

hypersonic cruise missiles

American scientists are developing hypersonic cruise missiles that will fly 10 times faster than current rockets, penetrate concrete armouring and could be launched from any site in the world.
The missiles would have a range of 9,000 miles, more than a third of Earth's circumference and be able to reach their targets within two hours. First prototypes are expected to be tested next year, though the missile is not expected to be deployed until the end of the decade.

'If someone is messing with us - or Britain - from far away, we could whack them straight away,' said Preston Carter, an aerospace engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California.--US to deploy hyper-missiles Anywhere on Earth could be targeted 'within two hours'

The new missiles will exploit supersonic combustion ramjet - or scramjet - technology. Nasa engineers will tomorrow attempt to fly a robot X-43A scramjet over the Pacific at speeds around 7,200 mph, 10 times the speed of sound.

The flight will be crucial in demonstrating the feasibility of hypersonic travel. Most media attention has focused on its commercial exploitation for jets that could travel from London to Sydney in two hours. The prime aim is to create hypersonic rockets that would replace current cruise missiles.
'The new missiles could strike pretty much anywhere within a couple of hours,' said Graham Warwick, Americas editor of Flight International . 'Current cruise missile have to be carried on a B52 bomber. That involves planning and takes at least 24 hours. The military want a quick solution, so if they knew bin Laden was sipping coffee at a cafe they could get a bomb on target in two hours.'
Scramjets work on the same principle as all jets, by igniting fuel in compressed air and using the expanding gases to propel the aircraft. Standard turbojets use fans to compress the air: scramjets use a plane's forward motion alone to bring air into the combustion chamber and require an initial boost from a rocket.
The entire aircraft then becomes an enormous scoop that receives air which is compressed and injected - and ignited - with a chemical called silane before hydrogen fuel is added. The feat compares to 'lighting a match in a hurricane', says Nasa.
'We'll see a military application initially as a ''bunker buster'' that would hit its target and bore into the ground before exploding,' said Carter.'
'We are talking about the ability to strike more cost-effectively. If the US has to deploy troops to the other side of the world, it is expensive. This may keep enemies in check and act as a deterrent.


By The missiles would have a range