No media whores here today

Ken Lay'd to rest

Señor "Blank-o" wins in Mexico


Tonight's TV

Still in Harm's Way & Man of Peace?


I know better than to read stories like the following one, I usually end up in tears. The boy who died in Iraq isn't a whole lot older than my kid.

I knew this was going to happen, you see, where I grew up the human flotsam and jetsam from previous foreign wars is inescapable, and heartbreaking. What are these men (boys, really) dying for? Why are the ones who don't die, but end up broken, fighting? So Dick Cheney can make obscene amounts of money?

A dead soldier and who cares

Mexican election steaks

Border for Sale
Privatizing Immigration Control
by Joseph Richey, Special to CorpWatch
July 5th, 2006



Grand Theft Mexico
July 3, 2006


Mexico Presidential Election Ballots Found in Dump
RAW STORY
Published: Thursday July 6, 2006

Conservative Has Insurmountable Lead In Mexican Presidential Race
Massive Recount Underway in Mexican Election
(July 6, 2006)--Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon now has an insurmountable lead in Mexico's presidential vote count, but his leftist rival is vowing to challenge the results in court...

Past Incidents of Mexico Election Fraud
By The Associated Press
July 05, 2006



Calderon wins disputed Mexico vote
Thursday, July 6, 2006; Posted: 7:03 p.m. EDT (23:03 GMT)
Leftist candidate says he'll challenge vote in court

Lay Cheats Justice

For Lay's estate, and his widow Linda, the positive implication of this grim day is that the government now has no means to collect on its forfeiture claim against Lay for $43.5 million...

...That makes it more likely that Linda Lay will be able to hold onto remaining assets, like the Lays' $3 million Houston condo. Having sold several properties in Aspen to pay legal bills, the Lays were reportedly renting a place there when Ken Lay died.
Larry Ribstein, a law professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, thinks Lay's death might provoke a reevaluation of government strategy in pursuing white-collar criminals. "A natural sympathetic reaction will cancel some of the anger that was driving all this," he says.
That could end up being good for Lay's co-defendant Jeffrey Skilling...

Figures.

And hmmm, what's Cheney doing?
"U.S. Plants Seeds of Disaster in Kazakhstan"

Israel dosen't want peace

Israel’s Gaza assault: the real motives
Guy Grossman
3 - 7 - 2006
Israel's destruction of Palestinian infrastructure in Gaza has more to do with its strategic objectives than with concern for one kidnapped soldier, says Guy Grossman.

Israel is like a thirteen year old boy who is spoiled beyond belief. I'm sick of the boy's shit, he needs his fucking allowance cut off for a year.

RLJ Youngblood

the fourth

America From Freedom to Fascism Commentary


Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Problem with Presidential Signing Statements: Their Use and Misuse by the Bush Administration By JOHN W. DEAN

pertectin' yer freedom, now go git drunk 'n watch the damn fireworks

Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

next two, hat tip: One Pissed Off Veteran

State's security office tracked protests
SACRAMENTO
Attorney general criticizes monitoring as unconstitutional
Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times
Saturday, July 1, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and anti-war groups, a practice that senior law enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties...


Has This Country Gone Completely Insane?
By Mike Ferner
07/02/06
-- Yesterday afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you've had your 15 minutes, it's time to go.""Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about. "You can't be in here protesting," Officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt."Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," ...

STEALING IT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES
Matt Pascarella in Mexico City
Greg Palast in London
Monday, 3 July for The Guardian
Dispatch from Mexico City

Gore v. Bush.
Kerry v Bush.
Lopez Obrador v Calderon.

As in Florida in 2000, as in Ohio in 2004, the exit polls show the voters voted for the progressive candidate, but the race is “officially” too close to call.

But they will call it — after they steal it...

True Lies
2:46 min poetry reading video

thanks to ICH and GNN

A July 4th Declaration in Defense of the Constitution

The Nation
BLOG Posted 07/03/2006 @ 7:43pm

...Given a clear choice, Americans will choose defenders of the Constitution over those who would destroy it. But the choice must be put clearly before them...

Ummm, gosh, what's missing from this atrticle/blog post?
They forgot to add

"And the right to vote, and the right to have that vote counted."

Right wing pundits lose readers

Right-wing pundits in Internet ratings freefall
Published: Friday June 30, 2006

Ok.
That's a relief. Just because someone has enough money behind them to buy air time doesn't mean that they're not full of shit. It looks like the online community is figuring that out. Frankly, I never understood the morbid fascination on the left with refuting the pina ho anyway, till a commenter on Sadly, No! pointed out what I, as a woman, had suspected all along:

http://sadlyno.com/archives/003120.html#comment-61070

NYT's spotty history

When Republicans Hurt our freedoms the Terrorists Win
RJ Eskow on Huff Po
...The latest wave of liberal outrage is directed at conservative Melanie Morgan's call to send the New York Times editor to the gas chamber. (Call it "Deadline Man Walking.") Some additional progressive heat is directed at Fox anchor E.D. Hill for suggesting a Government Bureau of Censorship...

A declaration of war
Fri, Jun 30, 2006 8:20pm EST
"Media Matters"; by Paul Waldman
This week, the conservatives declared war.

Not on The New York Times. Not even on the media in general. No, this week the entire conservative movement -- from the White House to Republicans in Congress to Fox News to right-wing talk radio to conservative magazines -- declared war on the very idea of an independent press....


Ummmm...Dudes? The media (including the New York Times) has a long history of carrying water for those in power. I'd really like to think that us uppity bloggers are changing that, I really would, but here's some relatively recent history (as far as human civilization goes, it's recent).

Project Censored's media ownership 2005 (pdf file)


I've read this book, check it out

It's about William_L._Laurence of the New York Times

And it's the first time I ever saw this quote written, although I had heard of the quote before.

Regarding the 1939 letter to Roosevelt, his biographer, Ronald Clark, has noted:
"As far as his own life was concerned, one thing seemed quite clear. 'I made one great mistake in my life,' he said to Linus Pauling, who spent an hour with him on the morning of November 11, 1954, '...when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them.'".
Ronald Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, pg. 620.
Hiroshima quotes

The nightmares caused by the ruling elite and the year 2000 crowning of King George the Poopypants

I generally don't care for rap, except for Rage Aganist the Machine, but I love these music videos. My kid showed me these.

The Fourth Branch

Cause of Death


Mama is proud.

We could learn a lot from the youth in this country.

I wish people would quit treating them like they're stupid, or incompetent, and completely irresponsible because they are not legal adults yet. You think people magically turn into responsible adults on their eighteenth birthdays?

Now if you'll excuse me I want to finish this book today. So far, I think the title of the book is appropriate. The one descriptive phrase for the Supreme Court that jumped out at me was (that they were) "pompous asses." After spending the better part of two days trying to find out somthing about John Diebold, (who apparently has nothing to do with the voting machines, but sure looks like he was a member of the ruling elite to me) the arrogance of the members of the Supreme Court is ...ummm...not surprising.

All that hoohah about the decision that the court made on Thursday re: Gitmo? I'll take a wait and see attitude. The ruling elite are, after all, the ruling elite.



Bwwaaaaa haaaaa hhaaaaaaa ha ha ah ha, karma for you, you shortsighted bitch. Did you really think the Bushies would take care of you after they were done with you?

Good job, captains of industry

Heeeey, looks good....

Gray whale births rebounding on Pacific Coast
Thursday, June 29, 2006 Posted: 1456 GMT (2256 HKT)

Will it last?







A mystery of mass death
By Andrew Darby
December 1, 2004

Mystery my ass, pay attention, I predict more beachings


Navy allowed to use sonar in war games
HI Star Bulletin
Posted on: Friday, June 30, 2006 10:50 AM HST



Yeesh, between the gas and oil companies , the companies and people that pollute, the Navies that protect them and the ignorance of global warming, the whales and dolphins are fucked. The noise isn't just "pollution" to them it is survival, or death. They beach themselves, and sometimes the tympanic bones recovered from their corpses are broken. If they are deafened that means that they have no way to navigate.

In fact the oceans are fucked, but don't try to tell the captains of industry that, their useless offspring don't have enough in their trust funds yet. And the captains have help.

Just more of the same

And via Danny, some digging on what I suspected

Ok that was a bummer, now go laugh at Rush via Robin Williams on Leno Crooks & Liars

thanks C&L, I needed to laugh.