Tuesday, August 5, 2008

KKK founder statue finds its way into another race

By Aaron Blake

A statue of Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest has made its way into a second congressional campaign this year, with Rep. Steve Cohen's (D-Tenn.) primary challenger injecting even more race into an already racially charged contest. Democrat Nikki Tinker has launched a television ad spotlighting Cohen's vote against renaming a Memphis park that is named for the Confederate general. It is narrated by former Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey, and it juxtaposes a picture of Cohen with a statue of Forrest. Both Bailey and Tinker are black. Cohen, who is white, is trying to hold on to a district that is 60 percent black. Cohen said he wanted to avoid the racially divisive process of renaming the park, and he pointed out that city leaders never acted on the recommendation. "It's just a desperation effort that's hard to fathom — that somebody would suggest that, particularly a Jewish person, was in any way involved with the Ku Klux Klan," Cohen told The Hill. "The Klan didn't exactly have Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana services and invite us over for them."

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/kkk-founder-statue-finds-its-way-into-another-race-2008-08-04.html

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President's Job Is to Pardon

By David Swanson

In the evolving neocon scheme of unconstitutional US governance, the job of running the country may belong to the office of the Vice President, while the primary duty of the president (other than following orders and acting like he's in charge) may be to pardon the Vice President and all of his henchmen for their crimes.

We have survived (just barely) seven and a half years of life under a government that has eliminated the legislative and judicial branches, installed a certified moron in the oval office, and placed dictatorial power in a new fourth (or first) branch of government located wherever Dick Cheney casts his shadow. The Republican candidate to succeed George W. Bush is a bumbling idiot and senile to boot, clearly incapable of remembering what he had for breakfast, much less running a global empire. (And he lost any right to take pride in his torture victimhood when he began supporting the torture of others.) If he chooses a new Dick Cheney as his running mate, we will know that his role is puppet-in-chief and primary pardoner.

Now, I know what you're thinking: why can't Congress pardon each vice president and gang by legalizing their crimes, as done in the FISA modernization act or the military commissions act? Well, of course, it can - in the cases of crimes it finds out about. But Congress can't be counted on to pardon crimes that are successfully kept secret, which however might be discovered while the criminals remain alive. And laws can always be undone by new laws or court rulings, while presidential pardons cannot be.

Alright, fine, but why couldn't a president just pardon himself? Well, first of all, you don't want the president to be in charge of the national crime syndicate for a number of reasons. First of all, he has to be chosen through something resembling an open election - a process well suited to selecting a Bush or a McCain, but not a Cheney or Lieberman. The Vice Presidential candidate need not be chosen through any primary elections, and can remain a footnote in the general election. Second, the Vice President's office holds greater claim to a privilege of secrecy, by virtue of constituting its own separate and unregulated branch of government. Third, while the Constitution does not explicitly ban self-pardoning, no president has yet attempted it, and any sane Constitutional scholar would denounce it as patently outside the law.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/35281

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China Fuels Repression in Darfur

China Fuels Repression in Darfur

Shameful History of Arming Sudan Mars Beijing's Reputation on Eve of Olympics

New York, NY-China has been the most egregious violator of the global arms embargo on the Sudan, providing everything from guns and ammunition to arms manufacturing facilities, according to a new issue brief released by the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Since 2004, the vast majority of Sudan's small arms and light weapons have come from China, and many of them have found their way into the hands of the notorious Janjaweed militias in Darfur. The issue brief will be released on August 6, 2008.

"China's domestic policies have come under much-deserved scrutiny in the run-up to the Olympics," notes William D. Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative and the author of the new report. "But we shouldn't forget that the Chinese government's most egregious act has been its role as an enabler of mass murder in Darfur. Without Chinese support, the ability of the Sudanese government and its allies to kill, maim, and intimidate the people of Darfur would be greatly diminished."

The arming of Sudan is just the most damning example of a Chinese policy that has resulted in major weapons exports to repressive regimes in Zimbabwe and Myanmar, as well as sales of missile technology to Iran and Pakistan. While noting that China controls only 2% of the global arms market, Hartung asserts that "China's impact is measured less by the value of its sales than by the character of its clients. It is the supplier of last resort for dictators and human rights abusers."

In answering the question of why China engages in weapons trafficking to the Sudan, the report notes that China is essentially "bartering arms and political support for access to Sudan's oil resources." Hartung argues that any policy designed to stop Chinese weapons sales to Sudan must address Beijing's economic interests there. In the short-term this could mean imposing economic costs by conditioning increases in trade and investment on China's willingness to stop arming the Sudan. In the longer-term, Hartung suggests a policy of energy cooperation between Washington and Beijing that could help "disentangle both nations from dependence on oil-rich tyrannies."

To arrange an interview, or for more information, contact William D. Hartung at 212-431-5808, ext. 201, or e-mail hartung@newamerica.net; Mr. Hartung is based in New York City.

Additional resources:
1. William D. Hartung's bio
2. Arms and Security Initiative Overview

###

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of American public discourse. Relying upon a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.

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Traffic

Traffic: Criterion Collection

Director: Jacques Tati

Cast: Jacques Tati, Maria Kimberly, Marcel Fraval, Honore Bostel, François Maisongross

(1971) Rated: N/A

US DVD release date: 15 July 2008 (Criteron)

by Kate Williams

In the vast marketplace that comprises world cinema, comedy is not an easily exportable product. Action flicks, superheroes, cartoons and horror films are more often relied on to deliver the goods and draw international audiences into their local cinemas. Outside specific sub-genres (like broad, physical-based comedy or romantic comedy), the humor of many comedic films seems to quickly and easily get lost in translation. The commercial and financial success of many of today's top Hollywood's comedic stars—Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn—seems limited to the shores of the United States, as their films routinely earn significantly less (on average) abroad than they do at home.

Comedic film stars, historically speaking, who have enjoyed success and a truly international acclaim—brought about from their skilled artistry as performers and their unique ability to brand an indelible presence or character into the heart of popular culture—are a very select (i.e., ridiculously and shamefully small) group. If pressed to name such stars, many cinemagoers would undoubtedly recite the usual suspects: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Peter Sellers.

One name that rightfully belongs on that short list of international comedy heavyweights is Jacques Tati, the acclaimed French filmmaker, writer and star. Outside of Europe his name may not be as widely known and his work not as commercially familiar to general movie-going audiences, but the strength of Tati's talent and his lasting artistic contributions to world cinema are indisputable.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/61390/trafic/

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Monday, August 4, 2008

Brainwashing

by Bruce Yurgil

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More than 1 percent of US adults are in jail or prison

...for the first time ever in our nation's history. That most interesting fact, cited in the lasest issue of an American prison industry trade magazine. Snip:

Quoting the recent report by the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, Lamkey noted that for the first time in history more than 1 percent of adults in the United States - one in 99.1 persons is held in jail or prison.

Ned Sublette, on whose email list I found the item, says:

That is a good thing, if you sell things like Aedec's Pro-Straint prisoner restraint chair. [ * ] Another article at this journal's website discusses the problem of increasing numbers of alzheimer's cases in today's aging prison population.

BuzzFlash Reviews Manufactured Landscapes

A Film by Jennifer Baichwal

Click Here to Get Your Copy from BuzzFlash

An exquisitely photographed documentary on the stunning photographic legacy of Edward Burtynsky, who specializes in large format vividly colored photos of the artificial landscape of industrialization and its toxic byproducts.

Watching "Manufacutured Landscapes" is a bit like attending an art exhibition. You may want to view it in 2 or 3 sittings. Burtynsky offers occasional narration and insight into his growth as an artist and how he came to focus on the ability of our species to create "manufactured landscapes" of industrial byproducts, many of them toxic.

At first, it may seem a little slow. There is no dramatic narrative here. But the power of the images and the interspersed narration, along with the actual documentary footage starts to swell up into a tidal wave of recognition: men and women have created an artificial construct in which to live, alienated from nature, with results that will come back to haunt us.

Burtynsky's brilliance -- and irony -- is that he can make an endless mountain of discarded tires both ominous and beautiful. There's something breathtaking about massive ships that are "discarded" on the sands of the Southeast, and then dismantled by local cottage industries of poor residents, with the parts and the scrap metal sold or bartered.

Al Gore personally awarded the film the first prize in the documentary category at the Nashville Film Festival, and his presentation is included in the extras.

http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/1224

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Who Is This So-Called ‘John McCain?’

By the Comics Curmudgeon

Like everyone in the liberal media, your Wonkette has been following every minute detail of the ascension of our next president, Barry Jesus Obama. But did you know that there needs to be an "election" before Obama can become president, and that there is another person also seeking this high office? His name is "John McCain," and it seems that he was in a war [Korea? Philippine Insurrection? Research! --Eds] and maybe also in Congress. In our attempt to bring you complete coverage of Obama's election, we are presenting all the information currently available on this elusive McCain individual. There are no known photographs of McCain, possibly because his primitive cultural beliefs forbid them, but we at least have these crude depictions from America's political cartoonists.

John McCain is a tiny, dwarfish man, though whether a result of the primitive understanding of nutrition in the distant time of his rearing or of some genetic abnormality we cannot say. The disproportional hugeness of a his bald, jowly skull points towards the latter explanation, however. What is known is that his staff enjoys building whimsical little replicas of the sorts of things that normal humans use, such as the "McCain-sized" lectern, complete with microphone, that you can see here.

McCain is so short, in fact, that he can easily be picked up and toted about without mechanical assistance of any sort. His staffers use this feature as a selling point, noting that his "pleasing portability" will make it cheaper to transport him overseas for diplomatic trips. However, as you can see here, those who do hoist the diminutive candidate soon find themselves becoming quite angry, presumably because he's irritating in some way when encountered at close quarters.

Like lovable Yoda from the Star Wars films, John McCain is not only tiny but unfathomably old. Unlike Yoda, though, McCain is not a CGI construct, but is rather made of wrinkly, liver-spotted flesh. Like many old people, McCain frequently puts on clothes that are far too large and/or situationally inappropriate and wanders around aimlessly, demanding attention.

What are McCain's mating habits like? While the sex life of this shy, retiring creature has never been captured on film, here we see an artist's depiction of what most biologists believe to be McCain's primary mating behavior: hot, hot phone sex with Mitt Romney. If actual Mitt Romney is not available, McCain must sometimes resort to the Romney impersonators at 1-900-SEX-MITT.

http://wonkette.com/401612/who-is-this-so-called-john-mccain

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Media Matters

by Jamison Foser

The media debunk McCain smears, then promote them

One of the dominant themes in media coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign was that Al Gore was a liar. That theme was itself a lie; media outlets invented quotes Gore never said in order to accuse him of dishonesty, all while virtually ignoring actual lies from George W. Bush. Inaccurate and imbalanced as that media coverage was, it reflected at least one assumption that seems inarguably true: It is significant, and newsworthy, when a presidential candidate and his campaign repeatedly make false claims.

But it seems reporters throw that assumption out the window when the presidential candidate making the false claims is one the media have long praised for his "straight talk" and his opponent is one the media have begun accusing of being "arrogant" or "presumptuous."

Over the past few weeks, and especially the past week, numerous news organizations and other neutral observers have debunked a series of false claims made by John McCain and his campaign.

FactCheck.org, for example, has called one McCain attack ad "false," said another contains a "false" insinuation, described another as misleading, called another "ridiculous" and added, "That's absurd, and McCain knows it." FactCheck said the attacks in yet another McCain ad are "oversimplified to the point of being seriously misleading," noting that by the standards of evidence the McCain campaign used in the ad, the Arizona senator himself could be criticized precisely the same way. FactCheck called criticisms McCain has leveled against Obama's tax plans "bunk," adding, "He's wrong," and stating that McCain is using a "false and preposterously inflated figure" to attack Obama. They called another McCain attack "simply wrong" and "not true." They said yet another McCain ad "gets nearly all its facts wrong. ... [E]very number in the ad is wrong, except one. ... And even that number is rounded upward so generously as to flunk third-grade arithmetic." And FactCheck called yet another McCain attack "trickery" based on an "inflated and misleading" number that was the result of "Double, Triple and Quadruple Counting."

And that's just in the past month.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200808010008

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Michael Moore: I’ve got my Madonna shorts on today

Michael Moore talks during a panel discussion "Saturday All Star Comedy Panel" at the City Opera House during the Traverse City Film Festival on Saturday, August 2, 2008 in Traverse City, MI.

By JULIE HINDS • Free Press Pop Culture Writer

Michael Moore brought the funny to the Traverse City Film Festival this morning, hosting a panel discussion on comedy at the City Opera House.

"I've got my Madonna shorts on today," said the festival's founder, who paired them with a black T-shirt.

Tonight, Madonna is coming here to introduce her very serious, often moving documentary, "I Am Because We Are."

But the mood was mostly irreverent at the comedy panel, with some thoughtful discussion on the making of controversial comedies.

Stanley Donen and Elaine May didn't make it to the panel, but Larry Charles, director of "Borat," was there to talk about "Religulous," his new film that follows comedian Bill Maher on a look at religions across the world. Talk about a touchy subject.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080802/FEATURES01/80802021

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27 million slaves

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executive bonuses

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Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

By ANN ZIMMERMAN and KRIS MAHER

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.

The actions by Wal-Mart -- the nation's largest private employer -- reflect a growing concern among big business that a reinvigorated labor movement could reverse years of declining union membership. That could lead to higher payroll and health costs for companies already being hurt by rising fuel and commodities costs and the tough economic climate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html

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The New Normal: McCain's Desperate Ad Hours

Posted by: David Kiley

Please see this blog entry ["No Conversations": McCain Troops Ad] to go with this post.

The McCain campaign had adopted an ad strategy that has been dubbed "desperate" by Time Magazine political columnist Joe Klein. Klein was writing in response to this latest ad from McCain's new ad/communications honcho Steve Schmidt.

Klein writes that a candidate airs tis ad only if: "1. You're desperate.
2. Your Middle East policy has been superseded by events and abandoned by your allies. 3. You apparently have nothing substantive to say about America's future role in the region and the world."

"If you watched both Obama and McCain on the morning shows today, you saw one candidate who was at ease, confident but not flawless (Obama's answer on the Surge still seems too grudging), and another who was tense and almost entirely negative. There used to be another John McCain—charming, open, unpredictable. I wonder where he went; the McCain who appeared on the air today seemed too much a scold, too little a statesman."

Obama's cancellation of a visit in Germany to visit wounded U.S. troops has been adequately explained: that his campaign was advised by the Pentagon that since Obama was on a campaign trip and spending campaign resources, it would be viewed as using the wounded as props whether cameras were allowed in the hospital or not.

This ad asserts a McCain campaign talking-point that Obama wouldn't make time for wounded troops unless cameras were allowed to follow him, but did make time to work out at a gym. This, of course, is a lie. It's a blatant lie. Steve Schmidt, a disciple of Karl Rove's who worked on George W. Bush's 2004 ad/communications effort, though, is playing the Rovian playbook that says that it doesn't matter if it's true as long as your target audience (non-college educated white working class voters) won't bother to find out the actual truth, and believe that it "sounds like it might be a true."

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/07/the_new_normal.html?chan=search

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The Bush Monument

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McCain’s Oil Drilling Hoax

By Joe Conason

Forced to cancel a visit to an oil platform off the Mississippi coast last week because of inclement weather—and the untimely leaking of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil from a damaged barge in the area—John McCain finally got his photo op at a California derrick on July 28. Speaking at the Bakersfield site, the Arizona senator delivered extraordinarily good news to the beleaguered gasoline-consuming public as he explained why we must drill offshore.

McCain, basing his remarks on briefings he received from "the oil producers," said: "There are some instances [that] within a matter of months they could be getting additional oil. In some cases, it would be a matter of a year. In some cases it could take longer than that, depending on the location and whether you use existing rigs or you have to install new rigs, but there's abundant resources in the view of the people who are in the business that could be exploited within a period of months."

The prospect of significant new petroleum resources that could be available so soon would be excellent news—aside from the obvious impact of burning still more oil—if only what the senator said was true. But what he said actually made no sense whatsoever, as a statement about the future development of domestic oil, the alleged need to increase drilling off our coasts or the resources that such drilling might produce. So let's unpack that McCain statement (which was overshadowed by the news that his dermatologist had just removed a small lesion from the 71-year-old melanoma survivor's right cheek).

It may be true that "existing rigs" could produce additional barrels of domestic oil immediately, whether on land or in the ocean, as McCain suggests. If so, he might want to ask his friends in the oil business why those rigs aren't producing more oil now, at prices above $120 a barrel. An existing rig by definition is a rig that is operating legally on property already leased for exploration—and can produce oil unencumbered by any environmental constraints on drilling. In case the senator doesn't understand, an existing rig is where someone has already drilled a well.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080730_mccains_oil_drilling_hoax/

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Shear madness

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Pelosi Claims Republicans Want Impeachment

By David Swanson

Almost every time House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explains why she won't impeach Bush or Cheney she says that the Republicans want impeachment and that therefore she must oppose it.

She originally took impeachment "off the table" in response to a May 2006 Republican National Committee announcement that (contrary to all existing evidence) talk of impeachment would benefit Republicans in the November 2006 elections. (In fact polls showed a majority believing that electing Democrats would mean impeachment, and we elected 30 new Democrats and not a single new Republican.)

Pelosi made the same claim in this week's Time Magazine:

"I think the Republicans would like nothing better than for us to focus on impeachment and take our eye off the ball of a progressive economic agenda."

She also made the same claim in this week's Nation Magazine:

"You know who wanted us to impeach the President...it was the Republicans."

Over and over again she argues that the Republicans want impeachment.

Turns out the speaker hasn't checked her facts. I just phoned the RNC to ask whether they support impeachment, and they told me they definitely do not. Here's the audio. Do you suppose that if Pelosi finds out about this she'll put impeachment back in our Constitution?

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35203

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Dead Army vaccine scientist eyed in anthrax problem

Federal prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to indict and seek the death penalty against a top Army microbiologist in connection with anthrax mailings that killed five people. The scientist, who was developing a vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide this week.

The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md. For more than a decade, he worked to develop an anthrax vaccine that was effective even in cases where different strains of anthrax were mixed, which made vaccines ineffective, according to federal documents reviewed by the AP.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing grand jury proceedings, said prosecutors were closing in on Ivins, 62. They were planning an indictment that would have sought the death penalty for the attacks, which killed five people, crippled the postal system and traumatized a nation still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Officials said that Ivins, who shared in the 2003 Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, was under investigation to determine whether he released the anthrax as a way to test his vaccine. The decoration is the highest honor given to civilian Pentagon employees.

The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to close the investigation, officials said, meaning it's still not certain whether Ivins acted alone or had help. One official close to the case said that decision was expected within days. If the case is closed soon, one official said, that will indicate that Ivins was the lone suspect.

Ivins' attorney said the scientist had cooperated with investigators for more than a year.

"We are saddened by his death, and disappointed that we will not have the opportunity to defend his good name and reputation in a court of law," attorney Paul F. Kemp said. "We assert his innocence in these killings, and would have established that at trial."

Kemp said that Ivins' death was the result of the government's "relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo"

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/U.S._anthrax_suspect_commits_suicide_report_0801.html

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FCC slaps Comcast’s wrist over network neutrality; Sets precedent

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday ruled 3-2 that Comcast overstepped its network management authority by blocking BitTorrent peer to peer traffic, but stopped short of fining the cable company. The move clarifies the boundaries a bit for other carriers and sends the message that the FCC enforces network neutrality principles.

The order against Comcast is notable because it's the first official one making network ~~throttling~~ blocking officially illegal. The order, which was expected, also sets the template for future actions, which may turn up against other providers. In a nutshell, the FCC issued a cease and desist order to Comcast that forces the cable giant to disclose to customers how it manages its network. One thing is certain: This network neutrality issue will continue to reappear. Indeed the Electronic Frontier Foundation created a software tool to gauge your ISP's neutrality.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin likened Comcast's behavior–and the Net neutrality issue in general–to the post office. Would it be ok if the post office decided what parcel it moved faster? "Comcast was blocking downloads and doing it 24/7," said Martin. "Today the commission tells Comcast to stop and allow everyone to have unfettered access to the Internet."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9530&tag=nl.e589

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Friday, August 1, 2008

Thank you Miss Rice

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Britney is tired of being compared to influential black leaders

July 31st, 2008

First time bloggers popped up all over the place this week. Christian Bale explained that he keeps to himself because deep down he's really Patrick Bateman, Justin Timberlake claimed to have invented the trucker hat and Rihanna finally fessed up to writing 'Umbrella' while it was raining outside. Check out these stories and more ...

I'm tired of being compared to influential black figures by Britney Spears

I'm so mysterious because deep down I'm Patrick Bateman by Christian Bale

I invented the trucker hat by Justin Timberlake

You are going down to Chinatown, rest of world by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

There is seriously a shit load to do in Albany! by Peyton Manning

In honor of Randy Pausch, this is "The Last Blog Post" by John Mayer

I wrote 'Umbrella' when it was raining outside by Rihanna

Regards,

The News Groper Editors
www.newsgroper.com

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Exxon Mobil 2Q profit sets US record, shares fall

A refinery of the Libyan/Swiss-owned Tamoil company is pictured ...

By JOHN PORRETTO

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares slumped 3 percent.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $11.97 billion, or $2.27 per share.

Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080731/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_exxon_mobil;_ylt=Al._CWNWVSYwY4dg5nXt0uas0NUE

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‘Safe’ Pesticides Now First in Poisonings

By M.B. Pell and Jim Morris

Two-and-a-half-year-old Amber Nickol McKeown had head lice. Her mother, Eileen, put the child in a warm bath and massaged Osco Lice Treatment Shampoo into her scalp. Problem solved.

But when Eileen lifted Amber from the tub, she noticed her daughter's chest had turned red. She called her husband, James, upstairs, and the couple tried bathing Amber in cool water. The little girl's condition deteriorated quickly. She labored to breathe. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her skin peeled off in clumps, according to a lawsuit filed by the family.

Amber was rushed from her home in Lester, Pennsylvania, to Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital, where the staff found burns over 60 percent of her body. She was in respiratory distress, and her heart and lungs couldn't supply her body with oxygen. Read more

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/pesticides/

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Jeepers!

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Keeping Track

By Josh Marshall

I note with interest today, John McCain's new tactic of associating Barack Obama with oversexed and/or promiscuous young white women. (See today's new ad and this from yesterday.) Presumably, a la Harold Ford 2006, this will be one of those strategies that will be a matter of deep dispute during the campaign and later treated as transparent and obvious once the campaign is concluded.

But what I'm most interested in today is the new meme the McCain campaign has been pushing for the last few weeks that Obama is presumptuous, arrogant and well ... just a bit uppity. Ron Fournier picked the ball up early in his reporting for the AP. And John King was pushing it over the weekend on CNN. Is it arrogant or above Obama's station for him to meet with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve? If I'm not mistaken he is a sitting United States senator and also the presidential candidate of the Democratic party. Such meetings are actually the norm.

Now, I note that the Post, which has generally been in McCain's camp, has a front page story today that comes about as close as they feel able to confirming that McCain campaign and McCain personally have spent most of the last week peddling what they knew was a lie about Obama's called-off trip to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. And there's also this piece in today's Times noting 'concern' among some Republicans over McCain's increasing use of personal attacks on Obama with what are often demonstrably false claims. How many demonstrable lies does the McCain campaign have to push before it colors the portrayal of his campaign?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/206241.php

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Rep. Barney Frank Proposes HR 5843 to Eliminate Penalties for Marijuana Use

Frank says that the current laws target marijuana users, place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

House Resolution 5843 is sponsored by Frank and co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul R-TX), as well as six others.

Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

There have been 20 million marijuana-related arrests since 1965 and 11 million since 1990. Marijuana users are arrested "every 38 seconds," according to Brian St. Pierre, the spokesman of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

NORML contends that marijuana can be used to treat a range of illnesses, including glaucoma, asthma, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and seizures.

House Resolution (HR) 5843, titled the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008, would support marijuana smokers possessing up to 100 grams, which is about 3½ ounces, of cannabis without being arrested.

HR 5843 would not address laws forbidding growing, importing or exporting marijuana, or selling it for profit. The resolution also would not speak to state laws regarding marijuana use.

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=54972&cat=5

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Little League Baseball - the Republican Party's new terrorist organization!

Alfredo gives us a heads-up on Republican plans.
     The country is mired in two separate wars.
     The economy looks like it slept in the dishwasher.
     The Bush Administration has announced a budget deficit for this year of nearly $500 billion ($600 billion if you count the money to pay for the two wars).
     But to Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), the most important issue facing the U.S. Government is the fact that a Little League All-Star team somehow got permission to go to Cuba to play baseball.

What's the trouble? "This meeting was scheduled at the request of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart," the invite said, "to discuss the very troubling granting of a Treasury/OFAC license to a little league team to travel to Cuba in August. I have included links to two newspaper articles that provide details on the issue."

The press reports were about a planned trip by an all-star team of 11- and 12-year-olds from eastern Vermont and western New Hampshire to Havana next week to play several games with Cuban counterparts. Unclear what happened at the meeting, but, as of yesterday, representatives of the 14 kids and their coaches said they had their license.

Mark this as one more reason why the Republican are going to get beat so badly that their grandchildren will be born unelectable.
Little League Baseball - the Republican Party's new terrorist organization!

http://www.kissmybigbluebutt.com/

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Cheech & Chong "light up" for new comedy tour

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two of the most famous pot smokers of the 1970s, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, unveiled plans on Wednesday for their first comedy tour in more than 25 years following their acrimonious split.

"Cheech & Chong: Light Up America ..." will hit 22 cities in the United States starting with Philadelphia on September 12 and ending in Denver, Colorado, on December 20. In between they will play Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, D.C. and other places.

"This is a moment that I've been looking forward to for many, many years because we have such a legacy and history together that we couldn't escape it, even if we tried," Chong told reporters at a news conference to announce the tour.

http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSN3034914820080730?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

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The Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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'I couldn't have handled success'

He's hot property in Hollywood. So why does singer-songwriter Randy Newman think the biggest joke is on him?

By Dorian Lynskey

Randy Newman

Nearly man ... Randy Newman

'It's very hard to get rich and famous at a young age and handle it well," says Randy Newman, sitting by his hotel window, high above the sunlit bustle of the Strand in London. "I can't think of anyone who did."

On the close-knit, overheated circuit of singer-songwriters in Los Angeles during the late 60s and early 70s, Newman was the outsider, the man who watched several of his peers - Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young - reap millions, while his own career followed a more quixotic, cultish path. Four decades on, he thinks he got the better deal. "Some of them got through it and now they're fine," he continues, "and some of them died, and some of them are assholes, and some of them don't have money any more. But no one was the same person."

So was he ... "Saved?" he suggests. "Yeah, maybe. The numbers say that I wouldn't have handled it particularly well. Y'know, if I took pills, I would take more. Thank God I didn't like cocaine. I think I'd have been pretty bad as a person. And maybe I was anyway, but I don't think I could have handled [success]. Fortunately I wrote stuff that people didn't like." A chuckle gurgles up. "I dodged a bullet there."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jul/28/popandrock.usa

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Where Do You Fall on the Economic Barometer?

cartoon

From the Cartoonist Group

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RECESSION, YEAR 8

Bickering Over Terminology Delays Real Action

by Ted Rall

There's a debate in the media about the recession. On the right are those who say that the economy has never been better. Not so fast, says the official left: we've (just) started a recession.

Phil Gramm, McCain's former economic advisor, leads the School of Sunny Optimism. "This is a mental recession," said Gramm. "We may have a recession, we haven't had one yet. We have sort of become a nation of whiners." Given his day job, you have to admire his attitude. UBS Investment Bank, which employs Gramm as its vice chairman, was recently forced to write off $38 billion in bad debts because of its exposure to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. All its profits since 2004 have been wiped out.

Economists are mildly pessimistic. In April, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke conceded that a recession was possible. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, believes that unemployment and other data for the first quarter of 2008 marks the official start of a recession. "It is now very clear that the fat lady has sung for the economic expansion. The country has slipped into a recession," he said, articulating the mainstream view that we're about to embark on a bumpy ride.

Recession? We've been in one since 2000.

Forget the experts. They think telling the grisly truth about the state of the U.S. economy could make things even worse--and they're probably right. But Americans know the truth.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20080724/cm_ucru/recessionyear8

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Free College for Poorest Students Puts Ivy League to Shame

By Leonard Doyle

Berea University in rural Kentucky is one of the wealthiest colleges, but it accepts the poorest applicants and gives them a free education.

Berea University in rural Kentucky is one of the wealthiest colleges in America but it only accepts the poorest applicants. The dropout rate is negligible and its students go out into the world debt-free, unlike the majority of those who emerge every year from America's universities, proudly clutching a degree but burdened by massive debts.

Berea is lucky. It has a $1bn endowment which, wisely invested, produces enough income, topped up by fundraising, to teach 1,500 students. Some of Berea's students even leave with money in their pockets.

Alex Gibson graduated in philosophy this year with $17,000 to his name. Now he is off on a year-long world study tour, funded by a generous travel grant.

Although it ranks among the wealthiest colleges in the nation because of its trust fund, Berea is not one of America's elite colleges. Those are the crown jewels of the US education system and they are far wealthier than Berea.

Harvard's endowment is worth $35bn for example; Yale's $23bn; Stanford's $17bn and Princeton's $16bn -- amounts that make them among the world's richest universities. But there is a drumbeat of criticism about whether they are doing enough for the public good to deserve their tax-free status or just hoarding money for the benefit of an intellectual elite.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/92827/free_college_for_poorest_students_puts_ivy_league_to_shame/

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Inventing a Country-Club Muslim Marxist

Joe Conason

by Joe Conoson

Precisely on schedule, the usual assortment of right-wing operatives is preparing its expected assault on the Democratic presidential nominee. While this unwholesome phase of the election cycle is known universally as "Swift-boating" — named after the defamatory media blitz against John Kerry four years ago — the style and some of the personnel date back at least two decades. So does the winking charade of separation between the official Republican presidential campaign and the dirty business conducted on its behalf.

The only notable difference this year is that neither the money nor the message has crystallized yet behind any "independent" effort to destroy the candidacy of Barack Obama. Whether such a campaign against him can be mounted effectively remains to be seen, but it will not fail for lack of trying.

Back in 2004, the Swift Boat group's attack on Kerry commenced in earnest with the August publication of "Unfit for Command," a book purporting to prove that the Democratic nominee's decorations for courage as a Navy officer in Vietnam were undeserved and that he had fabricated his sterling military record. Those sensational charges won immense publicity for the authors and were soon augmented by a wave of national advertising, with millions in seed money provided by a group of wealthy Bush supporters based in Texas. Of course the fingerprints of Karl Rove, then the president's top political strategist, were all over that ugly episode.

This August will mark the publication of the first book-length screed against Mr. Obama, courtesy of Regnery Publishing, the house responsible for the scurrilous smearing of Kerry between hard covers. At work on the Obama tome is David Freddoso, a young writer from the stable of the National Review, whose byline has also appeared in the ultra-right-wing magazine Human Events and who was reportedly trained by Robert Novak, the conservative "prince of darkness." His straightforward title is "The Case Against Barack Obama."

Competing with Freddoso's book for talk radio promotion and cable airtime will be a similar product by Jerome Corsi, one of the authors of "Unfit for Command," who has migrated from Regnery to a Simon & Schuster imprint.

With somewhat labored cleverness, his book will be titled "The Obama Nation," and is likely to posit, among many other implausible claims, that the Illinois senator is under the influence of the defunct Communist Party USA.

Aside from such far-fetched theorizing, which excites only the hard-core fringe, what canards will the anti-Obama campaign exploit? Several themes have undergone pretesting in recent days, with mixed results.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/joe-conason/inventing-a-country-club-muslim-marxist.html

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