BANGKOK, Thailand -- About 6,500 ethnic Hmong, who illegally crossed the Mekong River into Thailand, suffered the death of a baby girl after Thai officials reportedly ordered people not to feed or help them.

Si Yang, cradling the pale corpse of her two-month-old daughter, said the infant perished on Wednesday (July 6) from fever and diarrhea after the family was refused medical treatment, food and water by Thais in the central province of Phetchabun.

"No medicine, no doctors. Our daughter died," a distraught Si Yang told reporters.

Several months ago, 6,500 minority ethnic Hmong allegedly paid human traffickers thousands of dollars to smuggle them across the wide Mekong River to escape landlocked, impoverished, communist Laos.

Some of the Hmong migrants claimed to be former rightwing mercenaries hired by the CIA during the 1960s and 1970s to fight communist Lao and Vietnamese forces during the U.S.-Vietnam war, only to be abandoned in 1975 when America lost and retreated.

Some younger Hmong said their fathers were CIA mercenaries who had died.

Is there ever anyone luckier than Judy Miller? All last year she was pilloried as the prime saleslady for the imaginary WMDs that offered the prime pretext for the invasion of Iraq. Although it refused to denounce her by name, the New York Times publicly castigated itself for poor reporting, and Miller's career seemed to be at an end, except for the occasional excursion to CNN studios for tete-a-tetes with Larry King.

But then came a glimmer of hope. With unexpected zeal, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was pressing his investigation of who exactly outed Valerie Plame as a CIA officer. Plame, as the world knows, is the wife of Joe Wilson, who had incurred the displeasure of the Bush White House by discrediting the phony Nigerian yellowcake story, part of their vast propaganda operation to sell the Iraq attack to Congress and the American people.

The uproar of applause at attorney Cliff Arnebeck's serving the Hocking County Board of Elections with a court order not to make any decision regarding the firing of Hocking County BOE whistleblower Sherole Eaton, was in the very least, memorable. It shall be treasured by the present Eaton, who blew the whistle on a Triad GSI Technician who was witnessed by Eaton early last December, illegally switching out hard drives on an election machine involved in last year's election recount in Hocking County, Ohio. Sherole Eaton's decision to stand up for election integrity was an easy decision for this slight woman who most people would not immediately think of as "courageous." Her thought at the moment was that what she was doing the right thing. Now, she is in a fight to keep her job with the Hocking County Board of elections who voted to fire her in May 2005.

Weeks before this incident, immediately following the election, Ms. Eaton was commended by Hocking BOE Board member, Gerry Robinette (D), for her outstanding performance in executing her duties as Asst. BOE Director.  After Lisa

I attended the rally in support of Sherole Eaton, the assistant director of the Hocking County board of elections who was fired aftyer having drawn attention to suspicious activities at the BOE involving both a technician from Triad Election Systems and at least two BOE members around the time of the Green Party's recount and during the 2004 election.

About 35 people gathered in the town square with signs and banners - most were from the local area. J30 folks Victoria Parks and myself as well as Dave (Mr. Meetup) Hickman and Connie ( Ms. Backbone) Harris were there as was Sherole Eaton herself. Sherole was in apparently good spirits and seemingly good health - full of energy and zeal and very appreciative of the support.

Judy, it’s been so many wars since we’ve talked.

Now people are hailing your dedication to the principle of journalistic independence. For many, you will always be the courageous reporter who went to jail. But I’ll always remember what happened when we met under hot lights and you showed your stuff.

Far from today’s headlines, what will endure is your approach to journalism in a time of war. (And in this era, what other time is there?) Long before your current stratospheric fame, you were upholding the media spirit that has made you emblematic of the nation’s press.

Of course there are some who still recall how you pushed stories about Saddam and WMDs onto the front page of the New York Times. And they remember that officials who helped to funnel disinformation into your articles grew fond of going on television to cite them as evidence that the Iraqi regime was a menace to the world.

But you were no overnight sensation. Your type of zeal about war was long apparent to those who cared to look.

Judy, we all know that memory can be foggy. But a transcript can help