I think people will be surprised to learn a central reason the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT4) were in Iraq. It raises questions about whether the kidnappers are jihadists or something even worse.

(I saw this diary up at dKos and got permission from the author to post it here. Sheesh.)

It appears that the Washington Times newspaper is helping the Maryland GOP perpetuate a hoax about Senate candidate Michael Steele, in an attempt to garner sympathy for him. Reporter S.A. Miller has posted two stories in three days claiming that, in 2002, liberals assaulted Steele with Oreo cookies.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

(UPDATE: In case it's not clear, the part about the minstrel picture is true. That was from the blog of Steve Gilliard, a black New Yorker.) This reference to a "campaign appearence" is deliberately vague - but of course, it's been good enough for the Times and good enough for the Drudge Report to link to the stories with salacious headlines like today's "Update: Black Dems Claim Pelting Black Republican With Oreo Cookies Simply 'Pointing Out The Obvious'..."

There's one problem. Based on my quick scan of Maryland newspaper archives, I don't think this incident ever happened. Instead, it was contrived by a Republican operative and hyped by the Times.