DAILY NEWSLINKS

8/21
Skylines:
Morning Concert
FLICKORNA I SMALAND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAAYHGHsFno

NEW CAMERA WILL LOOK BACK 14 BILLION YEARS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/21/spaceexploration

WATCH: DICK CHENEY SUMS IRAQ UP PERFECTLY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I

BRONX BASEMENT OF HORRORS---‘BEYOND VOODOO’
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/21/2007-08-21_bronx_basement_lab_of_horrors-2.html

R.I.P. BLIND PHONE HACKER ‘JOYBUBBLES’
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/us/20engressia.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin

DOG LIVED IN CAR ENGINE FOR WEEKS
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=62495&in_page_id=34

Man Arrested For Holding "Impeach" Sign
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/08/5220_man_in_liberal.html

And on to news and comment. . .

People’s Repugnic
BUSH, CHINA COLLABORATED
TO ALLOW LEAD TOYS IN USA
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/19070.html
MADE IN CHINA: POISON KIDDIE PAJAMAS
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f66851fc-4f48-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac.html
CHINA’S BEEF WITH 33-CENT SOUP
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0821/p07s02-woap.html
"Apartments here are too expensive, and I can't afford one. But I can afford beef noodles. If I don't have an apartment, I can always dig a hole in the mountains and live there. And I'd still get to eat beef noodles," he says.
ACTIVIST JAILED IN CHINA FOR 5 YEARS EMERGES HOPEFUL
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/08/21/i_respect_even_my_guards/
On Saturday, the Chinese activist and Harvard graduate returned home at last to Brookline. His wife, Christina Fu, a Harvard researcher, and his son, now 12, greeted him at Logan Airport.
CHINA IN AFRICA: ECONOMIC COLONIALISM
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,500998,00.html

Enviro Wacko
BRAVO! SAO PAOLO, BRAZIL, BANS BILLBOARDS!---
http://www.alternet.org/story/60084/
---WHILE BRAZIL GOV’T. SELLS CHUNKS OF RAINFOREST FOR LOGGING
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2881400.ece
NATIONS RAPE THE MELTING ARCTIC
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,501034,00.html
Arctic Ice at All-Time Low
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070820-global-warming.html
NOW THEY’RE BLAMING MOOSE FOR GLOBAL WARMING
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,501145,00.html
DOES FLYING HARM THE PLANET? (DUHHHHHH)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1654488,00.html

Big Dick
CHENEY: I’VE GOT SPY DOCUMENTS, AND YOU DON’T
Refuses to hand them over in response to subpoena
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_has_warrantless_wiretapping_documents_wont_0821.html
Vice President Dick Cheney's office has in its possession more than 50 documents related to a congressional investigation of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, but Cheney's lawyer on Monday refused to hand over the documents in response to a subpoena.
AGAIN, CHENEY CLAIMS HE IS NOT PART OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/21/dick-cheney-once-again-claims-he-isnt-part-of-executive-branch/
LEAHY THREATENS WHITE HOUSE WITH CONTEMPT
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_House_Senate_headed_for_subpoena_0820.html

Mashed Media
TRIBUNE HOLDERS APPROVE DEAL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118770757441704048.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
CARLSON SLAMS IRAQ SOLDIERS FOR NYT OP-ED PIECE
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/21/tucker-carlson-82nd-airborne/
WEB ANONYMITY ON THE RISE
http://www.alternet.org/story/60298/
Anonymity online is on the rise, allowing people to write, lie and manipulate data without feeling responsible for it. But who's doing all this hiding? Hint: It's not angry, pajama-wearing bloggers.
DAILY SHOW GOES TO IRAQ
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003628299
WATCH: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/60318/
FLA. PAPER USES “HO” IN CARTOON, NAACP CALLS IT ‘RACIST’
The Rip Post calls the NAACP hypocritical
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003628093
FLA. TIMES-UNION LAYS OFF 60
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/082107/bus_193024448.shtml
TABLOID EDITOR SAYS HE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR DIANA’S DEATH
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=62502&in_page_id=34

Iraq and Roll
SENATORS CALL FOR NEW IRAQ LEADER
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21cong.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
U.S. STRUGGLES TO KEEP MALIKI IN POWER (IF YOU CALL THAT POWER)
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/08/21/us_struggles_to_keep_iraqi_leader_at_helm/
IRAQ HEADS FOR SHIITE DICTATORSHIP
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,501113,00.html
IRAN FREES U.S. ACADEMIC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6956946.stm
WHY IS IRAN SHELLING IRAQ?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1654449,00.html

Your Corporatocracy at Work!
KATRINA: THE PAT ROBERTSON CONNECTION
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/katrina_pat_robertson_connection?tx=3
JON CARROLL: NEITHER A BORROWER NOR A LENDER. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/21/DDI0RKNQA.DTL

(Lack of) Health
GREEN TEA EXTRACT MAY BOOST CANCER-FIGHTING ENZYMES
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/hl_nm/health_cancer_greentea_dc

Animals in the news!
LIONS, HYENAS POISONED IN UGANDA PARKS
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070820-uganda-animals.html

Hugo Fugyoursef
ARGENTINA CRIES FOUL OVER CHAVEZ
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1654511,00.html

House of Cards
DENVER: GROUND ZERO OF COMING HOUSING BUST
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653635,00.html
Yet as Denver richly illustrates, there is plenty of bottom left to wait for. It's a far cry from the days of double-digit home-price gains and mass speculation in hot markets like Las Vegas--where 40% of the houses up for sale now sit vacant.
ANTI-GENTRIFICATION GROUP STOPS SF HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/21/BAFARK1GE.DTL

And in more important matters. . .

GLOBALIZATION THREATENS SWEDISH VACATIONS!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/20/asia/sweden.php

ROLLING STONE PLANS REUNION OF ORIGINAL STAFF IN SF
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003628066

MORE TROUBLE FOR THE GREAT LUCIANO
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6956256.stm

Books
THE ALCOTTS: EVER IN EXILE
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0821/p13s01-bogn.html
RALPH ELLISON’S UNFINISHED NOVEL IS ‘FINISHED’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501365_pf.html
BEATRIX POTTER’S COTTAGE IS RESTORED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/aug/21/hotels.lakedistrict   

And in the end. . .
ORCHIDS!
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=orchids&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

8/20
Skylines:
Morning Concert
DIDEM!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PNklpaJCA&mode=related&search=

MAN WILL BE GOD IN TEN YEARS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/ap_on_sc/artificial_life_5

HEY, PALESTINIAN KIDS! LEARN TO HATE JEWS FROM NAHOOL THE BEE!
Hamas uses kiddie show to brainwash children into hatred, “martyrdom,” death
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0820/p01s03-wome.html

FIRE IS LARGEST IN SOUTHERN CAL HISTORY
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/19/state/n205017D74.DTL

WOMAN KILLED BY AMOROUS CAMEL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=K0RWPM1RCWYODQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/19/wcamel119.xml

100-METER ‘STILETTO RUN’ IN GERMANY
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,500828,00.html

HOLD-UP MAN USED VIBRATOR AS A GUN
Borrowed his girlfriend’s “Rampant Rabbit”
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=62354&in_page_id=34

DWARF GLUES PENIS TO VACUUM
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=62217&in_page_id=34

And on to news and comment. . .

Iraq and Roll
U.S. TO HANG SADDAM’S DAUGHTER?
Well, can't hang Saddam again. . .
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/60125/
‘WE HAVE ROBBED IRAQ OF SELF-RESPECT’
---U.S. TROOPS IN NYT
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?em&ex=1187755200&en=d7c043df97c7aa3e&ei=5087%0A
MITCHELL: ACTIVE-DUTY U.S. SOLDIERS WRITE OP-ED PIECE FOR NYT
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003627854
The soldiers, with the 82nd Airborne Division, conclude: "In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal."
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER GOVERNOR ASSASSINATED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2152619,00.html
IRAQ DRAINING AMMO FROM U.S. POLICE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070817/ammunition-shortage/
BUSH PRAISES ‘PROGRESS AND RECONCILIATION’ IN IRAQ!
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3192

LITTLE JOEY LIEBERMAN WANTS TO INVADE SYRIA NOW
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/20/lieberman-syria-iraq/

Mashed Media
WIKIPEDIA EXPOSED
Website enables you to find out who is behind the entries
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/technology/19wikipedia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/wisdom-more-lik.html
J-PROF BLASTS BLOGS---WITHOUT EVER READING THEM
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/j-prof_swings_and_misses.php
CHINA TELLS ITS PRESS: WRITE ONLY GOOD NEWS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2151227,00.html
PUTIN REWRITES RUSS HISTORY TO PROMOTE PATRIOTISM
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2878775.ece

Karl the Pig
ROVE TO FOX’S CHRIS WALLACE:
“YOU’RE BEING AN AGENT OF CONGRESS”
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Rove_calls_Fox_host_agent_of_0819.html
ROVE STUMBLES THROUGH PLAME QUESTIONS
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Rove_stumbles_through_questions_about_Plame_0819.html

LINDORFF:
PELOSI’S GUTLESS IMPEACHMENT STAND IS KILLING THE DEMOCRAPS
http://thiscantbehappening.net

Religion
TV SPECIAL: HAY-SOOS AS THE MUSLIMS SEE HIM
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2151359,00.html
There was no manger, Christ is not the Messiah, and the crucifixion never happened. A forthcoming ITV documentary will portray Jesus as Muslims see him.

(Lack of) Health
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED!
U.S. painkiller use up almost 100 percent
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/20/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-World-of-Pain.php
SEX IS MAIN CAUSE OF CHINA AIDS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6954859.stm

Enviro Wacko
750 MILLION RODENTS DEVOURING CROPS OF SPAIN
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0820/p12s01-woeu.html
Juan José Luque, a biologist at the University of Valladolid, admits that scientists don't know the source of the invasion. "Some of these species go through cycles where their population explodes," he says. "It's our hypothesis that the confluence of one of those natural cycles with last year's mild winter plays a role."

Oh, by the way. . .
MAFIA USING GERMANY AS MAJOR BASE OF OPERATION
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500785,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

HUMAN ODDITY MUSEUM OF LONDON
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/25/arts/brush.php
The Wellcome Collection, as the new museum is called, includes early anatomical models, surgical instruments, prosthetic limbs and other examples of medical progress, as well as eye-catching objects ranging from Peruvian mummies and Chinese torture chairs to Greco-Roman phallic amulets to Japanese sex aids. It also presents what can only be called celebrity curiosities, like Napoleon's toothbrush, Charles Darwin's walking stick, Benjamin Disraeli's death mask, Horatio Nelson's razor, Florence Nightingale's moccasins (worn during the Crimean War) and locks of George III's hair.

PATTI BOYD’S BIO NOTHING BUT WOE, BUT---
“I WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING”
Yeah, yeah, yeah. . .
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=476230&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

JOAN RIVERS DOING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SHOW IN SF
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/20/DDHIRJG6U.DTL

JET LI: CHINA CENSORS MY WORK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6954500.stm 

And in the end. . .
BUDDY RICH HAS A LITTLE TALK WITH HIS BAND
http://musicology.typepad.com/dialm/files/Buddy2.mp3

8/17
Skylines:
Morning Concert
TOM JOAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWK_qwQbYNI

RUBICK’S CUBE SOLVED IN 26 MOVES!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/17/2

JUST WHAT YOUR KID NEEDS FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL WEAR:
THE BULLET-PROOF BACKPACK!
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1280130,00.html?f=rss

CANNIBALS APOLOGIZE FOR EATING METHODISTS
Maybe thought they were fundamentalists. . .
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PRZR4XBHDEIG3QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/16/wpapua116.xml

PAGAN IN PANTIES CHANTS AT THE MOON
Good idea!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/15/national/a134447D16.DTL&type=bondage

ARE YOU DESCENDED FROM PIRATES?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PRZR4XBHDEIG3QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/17/npirate117.xml

IDENTICAL QUADS BORN
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6951330.stm

MAN WANTS TO BE ‘THE ULTIMATE ELVIS’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6951182.stm

MORFORD:
DEPRESSED? HERE’S SOMETHING TO CHEER YOU UP!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/08/17/notes081707.DTL
You are not Karl Rove and I am not Karl Rove and therefore we can join hands right now, you and I, we can connect across this vast media chasm and via these very wires and we can, together, find a deeper understanding, a shared universal truth, a more profound coming together over the fact that, no matter how bad things might get, we will never have to be Karl Rove. Hey, what's more karmically delightful than that?

And on to news and comment. . .

CHENEY SHRUGS OFF '94 IRAQ STATEMENT
Said invasion would result in “quagmire” back in ’94---Spokesman said “He wasn’t vice-president then. . .”
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_shrugs_off_1994_remarks_about_0816.html
CHENEY CONTRADICTS 2000 CHENEY WHILE DISMISSING 1994 CHENEY
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/17/cheney-contradictions-regime-change/

WATCH: BILL MOYERS ON ROVE
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/60007/
"Using church pews as precincts, Rove turned religion into a political weapon, a battering ram aimed at the "devil's minions", especially gay people," says Moyers. Moyers talks about how Rove not only shook down fundamentalists but also corporate big wigs and effectively left the US government in shambles.

OLBERMANN: MINE SAFETY CHIEF ANOTHER BUSH CRONY
And he’s doin’ a heckuva job!
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Olbermann_Another_dangerous_Bush_crony_at_0817.html

Electile Dysfunction
JON CARROLL:
REALITY-BASED CAMPAIGNING---WHAT AN IDEA!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/17/DDANRJ8RP.DTL 
Giuliani's remarks were an effort to appease Republican voters who think he's a crypto-liberal New York politician with a penchant for serial marriage.
FACTOID:
Despite claiming he was at Ground Zero “as often, if not more” than 9/11 rescue workers, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral archive reveals that from Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001, “he was there for a total of 29 hours.” In that same period, “many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.” http://thinkprogress.org/

People’s Repugnic
BEIJING TESTS BANNING OF CARS
All cities should do this!
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1653826,00.html
WHO FEARS BEIJING POLLUTION
Calling this “pollution” is like calling Iraq a “problem”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6950883.stm
CHINESE IMMIGRANTS FLOCKING TO. . .AFRICA!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/17/news/malawi.php

The Torture Never Stops
U.S. INTERROGATORS DESTROYED THE MIND OF JOSE PADILLA
What there was of it. . .
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/16/1416242
The Christian Science Monitor reported: "Padilla's cell measured nine feet by seven feet. The windows were covered over… He had no pillow. No sheet. No clock. No calendar. No radio. No television. No telephone calls. No visitors. Even Padilla's lawyer was prevented from seeing him for nearly two years." According to his attorneys, Padilla was routinely tortured in ways designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and ultimately the loss of will to live. His lawyers have claimed that Padilla was forced to take LSD and PCP to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations.
LINDORFF: CONVICTION OF PADILLA IS BAD NEWS FOR U.S. CITIZENS---INCLUDING JOURNALISTS
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/2007.08.01_arch.html#1187298020605

Iraq and Roll
WHAT PROOF THAT IRAN IS AIDING IRAQ MILITIAS?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1653385,00.html

Mashed Media
NEW DOCUMENTARY USES FOOTAGE UNDER ‘FAIR USE’ LAW
Does not pay for almost half the footage it uses
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/17/MNP7RH06M.DTL
BBC KNOCKED OFF AIR IN RUSSIA AS ‘PROPAGANDA’
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/17/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-BBC-Broadcasts.php

(Lack of) Health
DEPRESSED? NAH, YOU’RE JUST UNHAPPY
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2151098,00.html

Oh, by the way. . .
THE HILLARY CLINTON OF BUENOS AIRES RUNS FOR PREZ
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,500458,00.html
MAKE FALAFEL, NOT WAR
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/16/news/souk.php
In a region where Arabs and Israelis also fight bitterly over who invented the falafel, food has powerful political potential.
US food aid is 'wrecking' Africa, claims charity
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2871490.ece

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. THE GREAT MAX ROACH
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/arts/music/17roach.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6950810.stm
He was still in his teens when he played drums with the alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, a pioneer of modern jazz, at a Harlem after-hours club in 1942. Within a few years, Mr. Roach was himself recognized as a pioneer.

AT 25, COMPACT DISC FACES RETIREMENT
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/16/business/cd.php

SPRINGSTEEN, E-STREET BAND HAVE NEW ALBUM
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/16/arts/NA-A-E-MUS-US-Bruce-Springsteen-Magic.php

Books
THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF ‘ON THE ROAD,’ REVIEWED
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/17/arts/IDLEDE18.php
THE RETURN OF PHILIP K. DICK
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/08/20/070820crbo_books_gopnik?currentPage=all
AMAZING STORY OF AUTHOR WHO CAME BACK FROM STROKE
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/mem-west.html
The author of more than 50 stylishly written books, a master of English prose with the largest working vocabulary I’d ever encountered, a man whose life revolved around words, he had suffered brain damage to the key language areas of his brain and could no longer process language in any form.

Film
REVIEW: KIDMAN’S ‘INVASION’---NOT ANOTHER ‘BODY SNATCHERS’
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/17/DDMVRJ8OF.DTL
RAINER ON ‘INVASION’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0817/p11s03-almo.html
RAINER ON ‘DEATH AT A FUNERAL’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0817/p11s03-almo.html

And in the end. . .
OAK TREES!
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=OAK+TREES&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi



8/16
Skylines:
Morning Concert
ASHTRAY HEART
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vIDdtztGVM&mode=related&search=

MAHER TO RELEASE ANTI-RELIGION FILM---NEXT EASTER
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/59914/

WOMAN BUYS FAKE COCAINE, CALLS COPS TO GET MONEY BACK
And you wonder why they call it ‘crack’. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/13/national/a133227D77.DTL&type=bondage

JUDGE ON BUSH: “THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/16/judge-boils-down-bush-admins-case-on-spying-the-king-can-do-no-wrong/

JON CARROLL:
RACCOON PROBLEMS? TRY SYSTEM OF A DOWN
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/16/DDQSRIB89.DTL

And on to news and comment. . .

Israelity
U.S. TO SELL $30 BILLION IN WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
While U.S. troops get low pay, heavy rotation, and are stiffed when they come home.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_envoy_signs_30_billion_dollar_Is_08162007.html
ROBERTS: NO U.S. PREZ CAN STAND UP TO ISRAEL
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18192.htm
The power of the Israel Lobby over American foreign policy is considerable. In March 2006, two distinguished American scholars, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, expressed concern in the London Review of Books [ http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html ] that the power of the Israel Lobby was bending US foreign policy in directions that serve neither US nor Israeli interests. The two experts were hoping to start a debate that might rescue the US and Israel from unsuccessful policies of coercion that are intensifying Muslim hatred of Israel and America. The Israel lobby was opposed to any such reassessment, and attempted to close it off with epithets: “Jew-baiter,” “anti-semitic,” and even “anti-American.” Today Israeli citizens who oppose Zionist plans for greater Israel are denounced as “anti-Semites.”

Iraq and Roll
ASTOUNDING IRAQ STATISTICS
162,000 troops, 180,000 private contractors, 630 U.S. Corporations, 2.5 million Iraq refugees. . .
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/59881/?page=2
The number of taxpayer-paid private contractors in Iraq, the number of bullets fired for each insurgent killed, the percentage of amputations performed on U.S. war-wounded: a compilation of numbers puts Iraq into perspective.
FLOYD: THE BIPARTISAN GUARANTEE OF MORE WAR IN IRAQ
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18190.htm
We invaded your country. We occupied your country. We wrote your constitution, in which the arbitrary decrees of our colonial viceroy were imposed as fundamental law. We looted your money. We armed your sectarians. And we are going to keep a large number of troops in your country, come what may. But we aren't going to baby-sit you anymore. No, if you don't get your act together -- and sign the goddamned Oil Law already -- we are just going to withdraw to our permanent bases and watch you kill each other. -- That is the sum total of the leading Democratic candidate's position on Iraq.

CARE REJECTS $45 MILLION IN U.S. FOOD AID
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-care16aug16,1,4056500.story
CARE's decision is focused on the practice of selling tons of American farm products in African countries that it says in some cases compete with the crops of struggling local farmers.

War in error
BUSH’S PALS THE PAKIS AIDED BIN-LADEN, TALIBAN
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Pakistan_provided_military_aid_troops_to_0816.html

Karl the Pig
UGLIEST REPUGNICAN---INSIDE AND OUT---REPLACES ROVE
Ed Gillespie picked for equal ability to shamelessly lie
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502155.html
LOOKING BACK ON ROVE’S GREATEST DIRTY TRICKS
http://www.alternet.org/story/59894/
Karl the pig did it all---suggested lesbianism, a black “love child,” helped “out” Plame. . .

Your Corporatocracy at work!
COUNTRYWIDE BORROWS $11.5 BILLION!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1f3I7uI8BeA&refer=home
HOME PRICES GO UP, SALES DROP
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/16/BU3DRJ9RU.DTL
ASIAN MARKETS, CURRENCIES TUMBLE OVER U.S. MORTGAGE CRISIS
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6ecc7ff4-4b9a-11dc-861a-0000779fd2ac.html

Enviro Wacko
‘DEAD SCATTERED BY DOZENS’ IN GIANT PERU QUAKE
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/16/international/i054414D46.DTL&tsp=1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,,2149760,00.html
CONSERVATIVE CONSEQUENCES IN THE COAL MINES
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/16/conservative-consequences-at-coal-mines/
LAKE TAHOE WARMER, DIRTIER
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/16/MN3CRJ7R3.DTL&tsp=1
Lake Tahoe, the jewel of the Sierra once so crystal-clear that Mark Twain likened boating on it to floating on air, is warmer and soupier than ever before as a result of climate change and human activities, UC Davis scientists reported Wednesday.
SCIENTISTS TRYING TO DEVELOP GAS-LESS COWS
Yeah, that’ll do the trick. . .
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p13s01-sten.html
RUSSIA LAUDS GLOBAL WARMING
Global climate change means "we'll spend less on fur coats," Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped in 2003.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weather/chi-0815russia_fillaug15,0,6266415.story

Electile Dysfunction
NO GOD---CALIFORNIA LIKES RUDY THE CREEP
What has this man done to deserve such acclaim?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/16/MN2KRJ9MC.DTL

Mashed Media
SEATTLE TIMES’ BOARDMAN: NEWSROOMS ARE ‘SACRED AND MAGICAL’
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=12791
Here is Rense’s latest note to Dave:
"A good newsroom is a sacred and magical place."---David Boardman.
Wow. Now what was I telling you about self-seriousness, Dave?
This quote makes one wonder: do you have animal sacrifices in your newsroom these days? Baptisms? Do you perform the Mysterious Chinese Linking Rings trick? Saw women in half?
Rip Rense
Los Angeles
PRESS-TELEGRAM LOSING CIRCULATION
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/shrinking_pt.php
Ten years ago, when Dean Singleton bought the P-T, he broke the union and required newsroom staffers to reapply for their jobs. Successful applicants had to take pay and benefits cuts.
MORE CIA WIKIPEDIA FUN!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6947532.stm

People’s Repugnic
CHINA TURNING INTO A DESERT
Deforestation, overfarming to blame (of course)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p01s03-wosc.html
For decades, China has been trying to hold back the deserts that cover one-third of the country and produce seasonal sandstorms that scour Beijing and other northern cities. Experts say deforestation and overfarming are to blame for desertification, though global warming may become a greater factor in the future, as the Tibetan glaciers that feed China's waterways are melting.
SWINE VIRUS SWEEPING CHINA
Stop eating those porkers. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/business/worldbusiness/16pigs.html?em&ex=1187409600&en=7a5478255df71386&ei=5087%0A

(Lack of) Health
THE STONE AGE DIET: WHY I EAT LIKE A CAVEMAN
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/59864/
‘Western’ Diet Tied to Colon Cancer
http://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20070814/western-diet-tied-to-colon-cancer

Animals in the news!
REGGIE ESCAPES L.A. ZOO HOME, IS RECAPTURED
Just ship him off to Florida. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/15/state/n132048D65.DTL&type=bondage

Oh, by the way. . .
LOST RED ARMY CHILDREN SEARCH FOR FATHERS
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html
STRESSED EXECUTIVES HEADING FOR MONASTERIES
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500300,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

“LUNAR ARK" IN CASE OF DEADLY IMPACT ON EARTH
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070814-lunar-ark.html

For Art’s Sake
THE RISE OF PORTABLE ARCHITECTURE
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,2149697,00.html 
PHOTO GALLERY: ATOM ART!
http://www.metro.co.uk/galleries/gallery.html?in_gallery_id=1251&in_page_id=3

R.I.P.
NEW YORK CABARET GREAT WALLOWITCH
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/arts/music/16wallowitch.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
PHOTOG OF HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI A-BOMB AFTERMATH
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003625949

Musique
ON HITLER’S MUSIC COLLECTION. . .
http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/08/hitlers-record-.html
Wagner scholars monitor such finds closely because they cling to the hope that Hitler's unimaginably valuable collection of Wagner manuscripts — the original scores of Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot, and Rienzi, orchestral sketches for The Flying Dutchman, clean copies of Rheingold and Walküre, a copy of the orchestral sketch for Act III of Siegfried, and a copy of the orchestral sketch for Götterdämmerung, all given to him on his fiftieth birthday — may still turn up.

And in the end. . .
SCARY GO ROUND
http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20070730

8/15
Skylines:
Morning Concert
ELEANOR RIGBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii0_SRdnwgk

DRACULA SELLS CASTLE
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=61710&in_page_id=2

RUSSIANS GET DAY OFF TO PROCREATE
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6624865

BARRISTER ‘WAVED PENIS’
Good old lawyers. . .
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61574&in_page_id=34

MADONNA INJECTS SELF ON PLANE FLIGHT
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=61578&in_page_id=7

PASSENGER SUES LOHAN
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6947572.stm

ROSES LEAD TO DIVORCE, FLORIST IS SUED
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/15/wroses115.xml

MORFORD: YES, JESUS LOVES YOUR CRAPPY VIDEOS
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/08/15/notes081507.DTL
Salvation is, apparently, finally at hand. Witness, won't you, the stillbirth of GodTube.com, the place where good, Net-fearing Christians can go to see awful Christian rap videos and grainy evangelical sermons and 101 flavors of all-American sanctimony with, quite naturally, not a hint of sex or deep humor or true spiritual exploration or religious tolerance. Praise! Joints like GodTube (and other slightly scary conservative spinoff sites like, say Conservpedia, with its implied slogan, "When Wikipedia's global liberal bias toward truth and fact and collective wisdom makes you feel all weird and confused"), these sites actually go a step further, deeper, sadder.

And on to news and comment. . .

Freedom of what?
ANTI-WAR GROUP FINED $10,000
FOR ADVERTISING D.C. PROTEST!
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200708/NAT20070814b.html
FINES COME AFTER CAMPAIGN BY FOX NEWS
http://www.care2.com/news/member/407797667/452073
REGISTER YOUR DISAPPROVAL HERE
And get on the government enemies list!
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr004=ftkkluxq34.app13b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=205
U.S. SPY SATELLITES TO BE USED ON. . .YOU AND ME
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spy_satellites_to_be_used_more_0815.html

People’s Repugnic
THE SLAVE BRICKMAKERS OF CHINA
This is one hideous country, folks
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499877,00.html
BABY BIBS MADE IN CHINA CONTAIN LEAD
Just don’t buy anything manufactured there. . .
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/15/business/bib.php

Mashed Media
WIKIPEDIA IS A JOKE
Entries are “edited” by Diebold, CIA, Microsoft, Congress. . .
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker
Voting-machine company Diebold provides a good example, with someone at the company's IP address apparently deleting long paragraphs detailing the security industry's concerns over the integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's CEO's fund-raising for President Bush.
FOX NEWS CAUGHT ‘EDITING’ AL FRANKEN’S WIKIPEDIA ENTRY
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59794/
SEATTLE TIMES EDITOR SCOLDS NEWSROOM
FOR CHEERING ROVE DEPARTURE
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2007/08/a_newsroom_reprimand_at_the_times.html
Write to the editor-- dboardman@seattletimes.com ---The Rip Post did:
Dear Mr. Boardman,
Your attempt to squelch free and spontaneous expression in your newsroom is another example of the self-seriousness that has infected newspapers and helped fuel their circulation decline. Your action can only stifle the spirit of your newsroom, and generate disrespect and disgust for you. The cheering for Rove’s departure was “not appropriate for a newsroom,” you write. I hope you extend this policy to cheering for world series winners, or displays of mourning in the event of the death of a national figure. Best you should weed out all emotional displays in your newsroom and have your staff sit at their desks with hands folded like good little boys and girls. I’ve always wondered what “executive editors” do, and now I know.
Rip Rense
Los Angeles

Iraq and Roll
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CHOPPER CRASH, FIVE U.S. TROOPS DEAD
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1413629920070814
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER 200 INNOCENTS KILLED
Who believes the country was not better off under Saddam?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2149068,00.html
DEAD TARGETED FOR ‘WORSHIPPING DEVIL’
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/15/news/iraq.php
The Yazidis, a primarily Kurdish religious sect with ancient roots, worship an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians.
BRIT TROOPS: COUNTRY HAS LET US DOWN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2148952,00.html
‘SURGE’ SWELLS IRAQ PRISON POPULATION TO 23,000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401680.html
GENERAL: THE SURGE IS WORKING!
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3155
PATRAEUS’S WAR REPORT WILL BE WRITTEN BY WHITE HOUSE!
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/15/petraeus-white-house-report/

LINDORFF: AMERICAN TERRORISM
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/
By the latest estimate, over one million people have died in Iraq because of the American invasion of that country, and despite a virtual media blackout over that entire country, and the self-censorship practiced by the US media regarding Iraq, more and more evidence keeps trickling out that the vast majority of those deaths have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the American forces. While we read in lurid detail about every bomb blast detonated by Shia and Sunni fighters that hit Iraqis or that kill or wound Americans, we hear barely a word about the killing of Iraqi civilians by US forces, and it’s clear that adding up all of those publicized Iraqi-on-Iraqi attacks you don’t come close to a million dead. Guess who’s killing the rest?

RAIMUNDO: THIS COUNTRY IS ROME
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11448
Walker is hardly the first to draw the parallels between the Roman and American empires: some of us have been making this argument for years. Yet if even our government officials are now telling us that we are on the road to ruin, then shouldn't we examine the ominous parallels a bit further?

RUSSIA BLOCKS DELIVERIES OF CHINESE FIGHTER ENGINES TO PAKISTAN
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070813/71188324.html

TWO DIE OF BIRD FLU IN BALI
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s2004314.htm

Enviro Wacko
U.S. BLAMES CHINA, INDIA FOR POLLUTION---BUT FUNDS IT
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/china_india_following_our_lead_and_our_money?tx=3
WASHINGTON’S SMALL BUSINESSES TAP INTO GREEN POWER
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/15/business/15wind.php

Technically
75 PERCENT OF FIREFOX DOWNLOADERS DON’T USE IT
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/08/08/75_of_the_people_who_download_firefox_dont_become_active_users.html

Lost Angeles
TRAFFIC FORCING MORE PEOPLE TO JUST STAY HOME
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_6625002
TRIBUTE TO PATRICK'S ROADHOUSE
Amazing that no one has torn down this place yet
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-roadhouse15aug15,1,2570983.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

Oh, by the way. . .
RUINS OF GIANT CITY FOUND
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499844,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

REPLICA VIKING SHIP ARRIVES IN IRELAND AFTER SIX-WEEK JOURNEY
Occupants will not rape and pillage and murder this time, though
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,500020,00.html

R.I.P. PHIL RIZZUTO
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/sports/baseball/15rizzuto.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin

For Art’s Sake
SYLVIA PLATH ART FOUND IN ATTIC
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2149031,00.html

Musique
LUCIANO STAYS IN HOSPITAL
Looks like he might not be coming out. . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6946691.stm
LENNON SOLO ALBUMS GO ON Itunes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6947323.stm
ELVIS AND LISA MARIE IN DUET
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401519.html

And in the end. . .
BREASTS!
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22breasts%22&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&start=18&sa=N&ndsp=18


8/14
Skylines:

Morning Concert
BECAUSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOmxQOYvj-E

GIRL NEARLY CAFFEINATES TO DEATH
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=475021&in_page_id=1774&ICO=HEALTH&ICL=TOPART

IT'S PUTIN THE NATURE BOY!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,499835,00.html

ITALIAN MAYOR PAYS CITIZENS TO SLIM DOWN---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6945968.stm
---AND CHEVRON WANTS EMPLOYEES TO WALK MORE
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/14/BUV9RBU8D.DTL

MAN TREED BY CROCS FOR SEVEN DAYS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6945918.stm

NORWAY PRINCESS WANTS TO TEACH HOW TO ‘TALK TO ANGELS’
Tweet tweet, tweet tweet---are those little birdies flying around her head?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,499873,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

Karl the pig
AWWWW, POOR ROVE LOST ‘POLITICAL JOY’
---CREEPO NOVAK
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/14/novak-on-rove-legacy/
ROVE: “I’M MOBY DICK”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/13/rove-im-moby-dick/
WHITE HOUSE SPOKESWOMAN WILL MISS ROVE’S “ICE CREAM FRIDAYS”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/13/perino-will-miss-roves-ice-cream-fridays/

Your Corporatocracy at work!
PRICES FOR BASIC FOODS CREEPING UP
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18902.html
STUDENTS BOYCOTTING COKE
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1651473_1651472_1651479,00.html

TERRORIST BOMB DERAILS RUSSIA TRAIN
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1652758,00.html

Enviro Wacko
QUAKE, HURRICANE HIT HAWAII
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/14/national/a043636D37.DTL

What is the law?
GONZALEZ COULD ‘FAST-TRACK’ STATE EXECUTIONS
http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2007/08/14/gonzales-could-get-say-in-states-executions/
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-penalty14aug14,0,2441069.story?coll=la-home-center  
GETAWAY DRIVER IN TEXAS MURDER SENTENCED TO DEATH
http://www.alternet.org/rights/59484/

NASA PLAYS DOWN SPACE SHUTTLE DAMAGE
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/14/news/shuttle.php

Iraq and Roll
SCULPTOR KEEPS WORKING IN SHATTERED IRAQ
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p01s10-wogi.html
Nida Kadhim's eight statues of physicians from the Abbasid era – a golden age that spanned five centuries beginning in AD 750 – once adorned Baghdad hospitals. Along with many of his other distinctive bronze works, they disappeared in the wave of looting that engulfed the city after the US-led invasion in 2003.
THE SOLDIER WHO WOULD NOT FIRE
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p20s01-usmi.html
Two-and-a-half years earlier, in February 2004, the medic had applied to leave the Army as a conscientious objector (CO), someone whose beliefs forbid him to participate in war. While his claim was being evaluated, Aguayo served a year in Iraq with an unloaded weapon; when the claim was rejected, he sued for another review.

Israelity
NETANYAHU SET TO BE LIKUD HEAD AGAIN
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Netanyahu_set_to_be_re_elected_chie_08142007.html

People’s Repugnic
MILLIONS MORE CHINESE TOYS RECALLED
Might as well just recall all Chinese products
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6946425.stm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/14/national/a065743D61.DTL&tsp=1
28 KILLED IN CHINA BRIDGE COLLAPSE
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1652694,00.html

Electile Dysfunction
WATCH: BILLARY’S FIRST CAMPAIGN AD
http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-0879.html
BILLARY’S WHITE HOUSE RECORDS LOCKED THROUGH ‘08
http://www.alternet.org/wire/59688/
MRS. EDWARDS TAKES (GOOD) SHOTS AT OBAMA
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/08/elizabeth-edwar.html
MITT THE MORMON WORTH $250 MILLION
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20251525/
Giuliani's Princess Bride
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/giuliani200709?currentPage=1

Mashed Media
JON CARROLL ON NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, MORE
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/08/14/DD7ARGKB0.DTL
Oh, I know a lot of you think Google is the evil empire, but actually Rupert Murdoch is the evil emperor, and he's buying everything that's not nailed down. So if the choice is Google or Rupert, I'll take Google.

(Lack of) Health
PLASTIC BAGS ARE KILLING US
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/
NOSE CREAM TO STOP SUPER-STAPH SPREAD?
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61313&in_page_id=34&in_a_source=

Animals in the news!
THE AMAZING HOT SNAKE-PROOF SQUIRREL TAIL!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070813-squirrel-snake.html
Orangutans home destroyed for bio-diesel 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DDJ4VW0STK4I3QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/earth/2007/08/14/eaorang114.xml

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. BROOKE ASTOR, ARISTOCRAT OF THE PEOPLE
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/obituaries/14astor.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
Yet for decades she had been known as the city’s unofficial first lady, one who moved effortlessly from the sumptuous apartments of Fifth Avenue to the ragged barrios of East Harlem, deploying her inherited millions to help the poor help themselves.

Books
SCHUMANN’S HEMMORHOIDS AND HANGOVERS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/08/09/bowor104.xml
KAHLO’S SECRETS
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2147055,00.html

Musique
FANS REPLACE FATS’ GOLD RECORDS LOST IN KATRINA
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6945453.stm
Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman finally reaps recognition
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-coleman_0812gl.ART.State.Edition1.421bdda.html
LUCIANO LEAVES THE HOSPITAL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/14/international/i070856D62.DTL&tsp=1

PYTHON VOTED BRIT ‘MOST INFLUENTIAL’ COMEDY
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6943775.stm

And in the end. . .
DISNEY IS SATANIST!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTKCianLuI0&mode=related&search

8/13
Skylines:
Morning Concert
RADIO IO
http://radioio.com/channel/player/?voxID=21

DOG JOCKEY IS RODEO VIP!
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61140&in_page_id=34

IS IT A UFO OR IS IT MEMOREX?
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=61225&in_page_id=2

MAN GETS WRONG BURGER, SUES
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61173&in_page_id=34

FRENCH FIRST LADY SNUBS BUSH
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/French_first_lady_goes_for_walk_in__08122007.html

BUSH TELLS THE TRUTH: ‘I CAN BARELY SPEAK ENGLISH'
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Bush_would_vacation_in_France_if_he_08122007.html

And in more important matters. . .

CHENEY 1994 VIDEO:
INVADING IRAQ WOULD LEAD TO ‘QUAGMIRE’
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003624798

189 BIRD SPECIES ON DEATH ROW
http://environment.independent.co.uk/wildlife/article2856857.ece


GOODBYE, KARL THE PIG

Rove obviously will do what he started out doing---dirty tricks to ensure Repignican election victory
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/washington/13cnd-rove.html?hp
OF COURSE, HE IS BEING HEAVILY INVESTIGATED. . .
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59561/#more
LEAHY WILL PUSH FORWARD WITH ROVE INVESTIGATION
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/13/leahy-vows-to-press-forward-with-rove-investigation/
PRESS REACTION
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/08/13/the_departure_of_karl_rove.html
ROVE’S UM, LEGACY
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2007/08/not_the_legacy_he_had_in_mind.html
BUSH LOSES HIS MIND

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3140
Word is that Karl Rove finally tired of being the butt of best buddy Bush's jovial jabs. "Turd blossom" was tolerated, but being called "my own personal Capitol Rotunda" is said to have been the last straw that Karl could gracefully take on his dromedary hump. He joins Tony "my personal snowball" in leaving the center ring of Bush's increasingly lunatic circus.

THE MYTH OF AL-QAEDA
http://lataan.blogspot.com/2007/05/myth-of-al-qaeda-is-now-almost-totally.html
As the insurgency against the occupiers in Iraq gained momentum and US and allied casualties began to mount, so the blame for the increased resistance was placed on ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’ and all those that resisted the occupation were labelled ‘terrorists’. The hate figure devised by the allies to perpetuate the propaganda myth of ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’ was ‘Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’. He gave something that young and gullible US and allied troops could go after. And when he was supposedly ‘killed’ in June 2006 there was much propaganda fanfare and mileage gained from his ‘death’ which was hailed as a ‘great victory’ against al Qaeda.

RAIMUNDO:
DEMOCRAPS SELL OUT THE PEACE MOVEMENT
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11437
Yes, there are exceptions to this dictum – for example, Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic camp, and Ron Paul in the GOP – and yet the odds against one or another insurgent antiwar candidate breaking out into the so-called mainstream are so great that the War Party can continue to operate even in the face of overwhelming antiwar sentiment on the part of voters. After all, when two pro-war candidates are vying for the role of commander in chief, are we really giving peace a chance?

In case you missed it. . .
RICH: BUSH RETREATS TO CRAWFORD
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/59506/
The cases of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch were ugly enough. So surely someone in the White House might have the good taste to draw the line at exploiting the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. But nothing is out of bounds for a government that puts the darkest arts of politics and public relations above even the exigencies of war.

Country Over
VA. STUDENTS WANT TO CARRY GUNS TO CLASS
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Students_in_US_state_of_Virginia_wa_08132007.html

Iraq and Roll
MILITARY FATIGUES IN IRAQ
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2147052,00.html
Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis.
THE REAL REASON FEWER TROOPS ARE DYING IN IRAQ
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/59514/
MASSIVE IRAQ WEAPONS BLACK MARKET PROBED
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_operation_parabellum

Electile Dysfunction
LINDORFF: NYT STOPS COVERING KUCINICH
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/2007.08.01_arch.html#1187017271365
OBAMA’S WIFE DENOUNCES ‘IS HE BLACK ENOUGH’ QUESTION
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/12/politics/p162641D88.DTL
WATCH: THE MITT ROMNEY POP QUIZ
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#59538

People’s Repugnic
CHINA TOY MANUFACTURER KILLS HIMSELF IN WAKE OF RECALL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/12/international/i220638D92.DTL&tsp=1
CHINA DRILLS FOR OIL IN CHAD
Need that crude to keep up massive destruction of rivers, air
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/world/africa/13chinaafrica.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

TWO S. KOREAN WOMEN HOSTAGES FREED
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61305&in_page_id=34

(Lack of) Health
PEOPLE IN 41 NATIONS LIVING LONGER THAN U.S. CITIZENS
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-life12aug12,1,4455613.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=true
"Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on healthcare, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Enviro Wacko
ARE BEES DYING OFF BECAUSE THEY’RE TOO BUSY?
http://www.alternet.org/environment/59426/
Are bees dying because factory farms are "overworking" them? California bee farmers who let their hives take it easy find their colonies are thriving.
Brazilian ministers claim victory in war on illegal loggers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,2147661,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. MERV
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/arts/television/13griffin.html?ref=obituaries
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/13/MNGRIFFIN.DTL
Why Merv Was Loved
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1652260,00.html

Books
THE BIBLE: A BARELY READABLE MESS
Not a very Good Book, after all
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/08/the_bibles_literary_sins.html

Musique
AMERICA’S OPERA BOOM
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/july-august-magazine-contents/america2019s-opera-boom
The U.S. now has 125 opera companies. That’s more than Germany or Italy, and roughly as many Americans attend live opera performances as attend NFL football games.

Shilpa Shetty Next Bond Girl?
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=61235&in_page_id=7 

And in the end. . .
INGMAR BERGMAN’S SOAP COMMERCIALS---REALLY
http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1127687094

8/10
Skylines:
Morning Concert
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
(Well, it used to be)
Los Lobos, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBQ0D47vJvw&mode=related&search=

LAURA BUSH AND DAUGHTER WRITE CHILDREN’S BOOK
Not to worry, both will rely heavily on spell-check. . .
By the way, whatever happened to children’s books written by. . .writers?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070810/us_nm/books_bush_dc

THE AMAZING DOUBLE-NOSED ANDEAN TIGER HOUND!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6940289.stm

BEHEADED SNAKE PUTS MAN IN HOSPITAL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/09/national/a145840D09.DTL

JESUS’S FACE IN GARAGE FLOOR GOES FOR BIG BUCKS ON EBAY
Damn, and the Virgin Mary was in my coffee this morning. . .
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=60894&in_page_id=2

GIANT LEGO MAN RESCUED FROM DROWNING
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=60528&in_page_id=2

MORFORD: HELLO KITTY! HELLO KITTY! HELLO KITTY!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2007/08/10/notes081007.DTL
Gang bangers in powder-blue "Celine Dion World Tour" sweatshirts? Dick Cheney in a giant purple Barney jumper? Ann Coulter in a Tinky Winky constume and rolled in honey and set atop a mound of fire ants? Weak-kneed Dem congressmen who talk about battling the vile GOP machine but actually do nothing, in Eddie the Eagle NRA costumes? Endless possibilities, really.

And on to news and comment. . .

INSANE, INSIPID COMMENTARY OF THE WEEK, MONTH, YEAR---
WE NEED ANOTHER 9/11
by Stu(pid) Bykovsky
(Preferably, one that lands on top of you, Stu.)
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20070809_Stu_Bykofsky___To_save_America__we_need_another_9_11.html
Drop this horse’s ass a note and let him know how much you enjoy his column: stubyko@phillynews.com

Mission Accomplished!
ONE MILLION IRAQIS DEAD
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

CHENEY URGING STRIKES AGAINST IRAN
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18834.html

BUSH FIGHTS EDUCATION BENEFITS FOR VETERANS
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/10/bush-admin-resists-education-benefits-for-troops/

JOHN DEAN: THE SO-CALLED ‘PROTECT AMERICA’ ACT
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/10/3089/
The Washington Post, the New York Times, and politically-diverse organizations ranging from the John Birch Society and the Cato Institute to the American Civil Liberties Union all agree that the PAA is a serious mistake, and threat to the civil liberties of Americans. They point out that the law ignores the Fourth Amendment while, at the same time, hiding its actual operations in national security secrecy. Indeed, Congress was not even certain about the full extent of what it has authorized because President Bush and Vice-President Cheney refused to reveal it.

Spaced out
SHUTTLE TO DO BACK FLIP TO INSPECT DAMAGE
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60970&in_page_id=34
WHY IS ANOTHER SCHOOLTEACHER IN SPACE?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1651390,00.html

Electile Dysfunction
WORLD GOING TO HELL, DEMOCRAPS DEBATE GAY MARRIAGE
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1651787_1651786,00.html
THE GREAT CINDY SHEEHAN CHALLENGES PELOSI
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Sheehan_announces_independent_run_against_Pelosi_0809.html
RUDY THE CREEP: I WAS AT 9/11 SITE MORE THAN RESCUE WORKERS
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/10/2007-08-10_911_workers_outraged_by_new_rudy_claim.html

ABORTION UNDER ATTACK IN SOUTH AMERICA
---WHERE IT IS SO BADLY NEEDED
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1651307,00.html

People’s Repugnic
IT’S A WONDER CHINESE HEAR ANY TRUTH AT ALL
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/10/news/letter.php

The Torture Never Stops
DOCTORS WRONGLY ACCUSED OF SPREADING AIDS WERE TORTURED IN LIBYA
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499316,00.html

Lost Angeles
L.A. CITY ATTY: DOESN’T PAY CAR INSURANCE,
PARKING TICKETS---AND NOW, WATER BILL
Chingate, Delgadillo y tambien el alcalde Villaraigosa! Putos!
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/rocky_didnt_pay_his_water.php

Your corporatocracy at work!
U.S. MORTGAGE CRISIS RATTLES GERMAN BANKING SECTOR
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,499160,00.html

Enviro Wacko
MELTDOWN! ARCTIC ICE IS GOING FAST
But you keep debating global warming, humanity, and rubbing your hands together in anticipation of Arctic oil. . .
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/10/healthscience/10cndarctic.php

We are not making this stuff up
FLA. REP. OFFERED ORAL SEX---BECAUSE HE IS AFRAID OF BLACKS?
Not sure we get the connection here. . .
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Daily_Show_has_fun_with_FL_0808.html

Mashed Media
THE NOSEPICKER IS INNOCENT!
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/register_editor_cp_smith.php

Animals in the news!
PET CROC FALLS 12 STORIES, SURVIVES
What in hell was it doing in a 12th floor apartment, anyhow?
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=60702&in_page_id=2
WHITE-TAILED EAGLE MAKING COMEBACK IN GERMANY
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,498475,00.html

We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when. . .
LEAKY JAPAN NUKE PLANT WILL BE CLOSED FOR MONTHS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6939793.stm
NAGASAKI CALLS FOR NUKE DISARMING ON 62nd ANNIVERSARY OF A-BOMB
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/NEWS07/70809053

Oh, by the way
GIANT STATUE OF HADRIAN FOUND IN TURKEY
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6939024.stm
BURIAL IN BRITAIN’S BIGGEST BONE BOX
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60828&in_page_id=34

And in more important matters. . .

Books
HITCHINS AGREES: ROWLING WRECKED ‘POTTER’ ENDING
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/10/arts/idlede11.php?page=2
In this final volume there is a good deal of loose-end gathering to be done. Which side was Snape really on? Can Neville Longbottom rise above himself? Are the Malfoys as black as they have been painted? Unfortunately - and with the solid exception of Neville, whose gallantry is well evoked - these resolutions prove to possess all the excitement of an old-style Perry Mason-type summing-up." Most of all this is true of Voldemort himself, who becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain. The wish to have everything clarified is self-defeating in its own terms. In her correct determination to bring down the curtain decisively, Rowling has gone further than she should, and given us not so much a happy ending as an ending which suggests that evil has actually been defeated (you should forgive the expression) for good.

THE JOY OF SCRABBLE!
Game having huge comeback thanks to Facebook
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GZSHK3LOEAFEBQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/portal/2007/08/09/nosplit/ftscrabble109.xml

Musique
ROCK FESTIVALS HAVE LONG BEEN OVERPRICED SELF-PARODIES
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0810/p11s03-almp.html
LIVERPOOL BOTCHES BEATLES MUSIC FESTIVAL
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_mills/2007/08/making_waves_in_the_pool.html
CARL DAVIS TO WRITE SCORES FOR 12 CHAPLIN MOVIES
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6938328.stm
LUCIANO ALLEGEDLY IMPROVING
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6940276.stm
R.I.P. CONCERT HALL ACOUSTICIAN RUSSELL JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/arts/10johnson.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin

Film
THE AMAZING STORY BEHIND SCORCESE’S ‘RAGING BULL’
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/filmmagazine/story/0,,2138687,00.html

And in the end. . .
BOLLYWOOD GOES JACKO
http://www.metro.co.uk/media/viral.html?in_page_id=55&in_mediaext_item_id=15212

8/9
Skylines:
Morning Concert
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g9PiEgYYUU&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbdZ-lLFoxc

U.S. USING THE U-2 SPYPLANE---ON THE U.S.!
Paranoia strikes deep. . .into your life it will creep. . .
http://salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/09/domestic_surveillance/print.html

OHIO MAN TICKETED FOR ‘IMPEACH BUSH’ SIGN
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/portage/118664980199160.xml&coll=2

CBS GAME SHOW: DUEL WITH DICK
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Games_Show_Could_you_win_pistol_0808.html

WATCH: MINI-JACKO’S A REAL THRILLER!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=60742&in_page_id=2

CRAZED DOLLY PARTON FAN BUSTED---
FOR PLAYING ‘JOLENE’ 20 TIMES A DAY
Throw the book at her!
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60640&in_page_id=34

MORE ON BARRY BONDS’ ARM DEVICE
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003623041

And on to news and comment. . .

BUSH WAS TREATED FOR LYME DISEASE---PUBLIC NOT TOLD
No cure, apparently, for lying disease though
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5037519.html

BLUMENTHAL: WHITE HOUSE FEARS COLIN POWELL
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/08/09/iraq_powell/

BRITS: U.S. AFGHAN BOMBING IS KILLING TOO MANY CIVILIANS
Hey, what’s war without a little “collateral damage?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/world/asia/09casualties.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

KEILLOR: BRIDGES, UM, AREN’T SUPPOSED TO FALL DOWN
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/08/08/keillor/index.html
Especially not in Minnesota. We are a state of Germans and Scandinavians, people who make up in common sense for what we lack in sheer charisma, and a crappy piece of engineering is an embarrassment to us. There is a university here that teaches engineering and a whole state office building populated by men in white shirts with plastic pocket protectors. It isn't Uzbekistan.

BROWN: HOW CAN YOU NOT BE CYNICAL?
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3098
Is it any surprise that we've lost track of over 100,000 guns in Iraq? A cynic might wonder if the guns even were manufactured, let alone made it to Iraq or were just billed for by defense contractors. Either way, its our tax dollars not at work.

Electile Dysfunction
NOBODY WATCHES LATEST DEM “DEBATE”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/09/olbermannmoderated-debat_n_59754.html
RUDY THE CREEP SINGS KATE SMITH
http://www.internetweekly.org/2007/08/cartoon_rudy_giuliani_sings_kate_smith_backwards.html

People’s Repugnic
ROBERTS:
UNCLE SAM, YOUR (CHINA) BANKER WILL SEE YOU NOW
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18146.htm
Early this morning China let the idiots in Washington, and on Wall Street, know that it has them by the short hairs. Two senior spokesmen for the Chinese government observed that China’s considerable holdings of US dollars and Treasury bonds “contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency.”
NOW CHINESE TIRES ARE BEING RECALLED
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1651230,00.html
KILLER STORM HEADS TO CHINA
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1651199,00.html

Animals in the news!
MARIA BARTIROMO JUST LOVES HER FOX FUR!
http://www.jossip.com/peta/bank-skank-pisses-off-animal-rights-crazies-20070809/
PYGMY ELEPHANTS FACE SMALL FUTURE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/09/endangeredspecies.conservation
QUEST TO SAVE THE RIVER DOLPHINS OF SOUTH AMERICA
China’s Three Gorges Dam wiped out theirs, but there are still a few down south
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0809/p15s01-sten.html
NEW BAT FOUND IN THE CONGO
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070808-congo-animals.html

Lost Angeles
WHERE BLACK AND BROWN COLLIDE
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9587776
“We're being overrun,” says Ted Hayes of Choose Black America, which has led anti-immigration marches in south-central Los Angeles. “The compañeros have taken all the housing. If you don't speak Spanish they turn you down for jobs.”

(Lack of) Health
INDIA COURT STYMIES PHARMA GIANT NOVARTIS
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/indian-court-rules-against-pharmaceutical-giant-novartis
The decision will protect India's special role as the world's leading provider of affordable medicines to the poor. The agencies welcome Novartis's response today that it is unlikely to appeal the ruling.
3800 PEOPLE DIED IN U.S. LAST YEAR WAITING FOR KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/8818392.html
A cohort of physicians and economists has sought for at least two decades to persuade the transplant establishment to apply incentives to increase the organ supply. Many creative arrangements — from tax credits to tuition vouchers for children to charitable contributions in the donor ’s name — should be given a trial, they urge, to see whether new practices could compensate for the limits of altruism.
‘DIET’ FOODS MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650860,00.html

Religion
JEWISH GROUPS CRITICIZE POPE’S MEETING WITH ‘ANTI-SEMITIC” PRIEST
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,499091,00.html

Oh, by the way. . .
WILL CONGRESS MANDATE HOLOCAUST EDUCATION?
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=97
Currently being reviewed by committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Assistance Act – if passed – would provide select organizations nationwide with competitive grants to be used to develop Holocaust curriculum guides as well as training for teachers.
SF KILLS ANNUAL HALLOWE’EN STREET PARTIES
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/09/BASHRFB2E.DTL
R.I.P. LOUIS MOYSE, FOUNDER OF MARLBORO MUSIC SCHOOL
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/arts/09moyse.html?ref=obituaries

And in more important matters. . .

JON CARROLL VERSUS THE RACCOONS!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/08/09/DDDLREEST.DTL

JOURNEY OF A JAPANESE MAPLE TREE
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0809/p19s01-hfes.html
But the bigger task lay ahead of me: What to do with my container garden? More specifically, my Japanese maple, housed in a gallon-size container, nursed from seed by my then 88-year-old Grandma Anna, and given to me when she boldly moved from California to Texas to be closer to my parents.

LUCIANO IN THE HOSPITAL AGAIN
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6938313.stm 

FRANK GEHRY’S EGO INVADES NYC
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,2144668,00.html

Film
RAINER ON ‘BOURNE’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p11s01-almo.html
SCHRADER’S LATEST: “THE WALKER”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6936786.stm

And in the end. . .
TOPPER!
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/sounds/topper.wav

8/8
Skylines:
Morning Concert
COMIN’ HOME
Delaney, Bonnie, George Harrison, Eric Clapton. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EOxy3TF3OY

Your 21st century!
‘LEFT TO DIE’ FOR BEING POLITE
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60474&in_page_id=34
A charity worker was beaten up and left for dead after politely asking a fellow rail passenger to move out of his way, a court heard. Roger Hare enraged his attacker by saying 'Excuse me' as he tried to make his way off the train. The 62-year-old was punched repeatedly and sent flying out of the carriage and on to the station platform.

BLOODIED AND BRUISED AS THEY BATTLED FOR BONDS’ BALL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/MNDIREUUD1.DTL&tsp=1

‘YOUR BLACK MUSLIM BAKERY’ WAS SINKHOLE FOR FED FUNDS
And a fave of Oakland Mayor Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/BAT4RER742.DTL

SEN. GRAHAM DISPLAYS HIS I.Q.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/08/graham-poses-for-right-wing-slander-photo-op/

WORLD’S TALLEST MAN LOSES TITLE!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=60601&in_page_id=2

MORFORD: IT’S CRAP---BUT IT’S FREE CRAP!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/08/08/notes080807.DTL
That's right. It was, apparently, taco day. It was a single, tiny Taco Bell taco, one per person, for free, hundreds and hundreds of them, each one reportedly even smaller than normal, maybe two or three little sodium-soaked bites featuring a scoop of pre-frozen meatlike substance and a pinch of nuclear orange cheese and a twig of watery iceberg lettuce and something remotely resembling a corn shell and all of it about as nutritious and filling and worthwhile as a cupcake made of cardboard and paint thinner.

And on to news and comment. . .

RAIMUNDO: HILLARY, HIROSHIMA, AND HUBRIS
Obama and Billary justify nuclear mass-murder
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11418
Why, just the other day, U.S. presidential aspirant and sometime antiwar candidate Barack Obama was asked by a reporter if he would authorize the use of nuclear weapons against al-Qaeda. Instead of looking at the man as if he were more than half-crazy and pointedly asking to see his press credentials, Obama ruled out the possibility… or, maybe not. I'll leave it to my readers to make the call.

Enviro Wacko
FOOD MILES---HOW MUCH ENERGY DID IT TAKE TO BRING YOU DINNER?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Environmental groups, especially in Europe, are pushing for labels that show how far food has traveled to get to the market, and books like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” contemplate the damage wrought by trucking, shipping and flying food from distant parts of the globe.

Your corporatocracy at work!
BLACKSTONE RAISES $21 BILLION BUYOUT FUND
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayBVt85k5V68&refer=worldwide
Blackstone has used the fund to buy companies from Nielsen Co. to Hilton Hotels Corp., helping fuel a record $707.8 billion in private-equity transactions so far this year, Bloomberg data show.
HOSPITALS SHUTTING DOWN BURN CENTERS---TOO EXPENSIVE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_he_me/burn_bed_shortage

People’s Repugnic
CHINA THREATENS ‘NUKE OPTION’ OF DOLLAR SALES
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
CHINA WIPES OUT THE EXQUISITE WHITE DOLPHIN
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/AFP_Rare_goddess_dolphin_declared_extinct_0808.html
THE PUNK REPUBLIC OF CHINA
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1650594,00.html
Because consumerism is still quite new here, the true punk lifestyle, beyond the loud music and crazy hair, enjoys limited appeal. Even Ma will have to make his peace with the commercial world — a student of stage design, he plans to pursue a career outside his biking. "In this society," he says, "there's no way for me to live like this."
THE POISON PLAYTHINGS OF CHINA
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,498602,00.html

People’s Repugnic 2
CHINA ‘BROWN CLOUD’ THREATENS OLYMPICS
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0808/p07s02-woap.html
Photo gallery: Readying the Olympics
Maybe it’s time for the world to boycott
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/gallery/2007/aug/08/china.olympicgames2008?picture=330351676
CHINA ‘BROWN CLOUD’ BRINGING FLOODS, DROUGHT TO TWO BILLION PEOPLE
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2189190.ece
CHINA ‘BROWN CLOUD’ AMPLIFIES GLOBAL WARMING
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109712&org=NSF&from=news
THE ADVENTURES OF GREGGERY PECCARY
http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/index.php/The_Adventures_Of_Greggery_Peccary
Who is making those new brown clouds?/ Who is making those clouds these days/Who is making those new brown clouds?

Electile Dysfunction
OBAMA GETS AROUND FUNDRAISING LIMIT
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/MN9JREV751.DTL

Iraq and roll
GOMER PATRAEUS!
http://www.internetweekly.org/2007/08/cartoon_gomer_petraeus.html
U.S. RAID KILLS 30 ‘MILITANTS’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6936755.stm
The US military said the dead were part of a network that was smuggling weapons from Iran, but witnesses said women and children were among those killed.
U.N. URGED TO WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6936144.stm
TRIED FOR PROTESTING IRAQ WAR---AND ACQUITTED
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/58426/

Hugo Fugyourself
ARGENTINE JEWS WORRIED ABOUT CHAVEZ
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/07/america/argentina.php

We are not making this stuff up
YOUNG REPUG NAT’L. CHAIR ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT OF SLEEPING MAN
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59139/
AIR FORCE WOMAN TO BE COURT-MARTIALED OVER OWN RAPE?
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59141/

Mashed Media
NOSEPICKING IN THE REGISTER NEWSROOM!
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/giving_the_finger.php
‘NET ADDICTS SENT TO RE-BOOT CAMP
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60472&in_page_id=34

Oh, by the way. . .
DUTCH TO BAN ‘MAGIC MUSHROOMS’ IN WAKE OF SUICIDE?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650809,00.html
ASIA, AFRICA STILL PERMEATED WITH NOMADIC TRADITIONS
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/08/asia/kazakh.php

And on to more important matters. . .

Lost Angeles
COUNCIL OKAYS FURTHER RUINATION OF DOWNTOWN
High-rises without space between the buildings, smaller communal areas, closer squeeze to sidewalks, extremely small units. . .
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-downtown8aug08,1,3577023.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

BATTLING OVER THE FUTURE OF CHOCOLATE IN AMERICA
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/07/business/choco.php
At stake in a battle brewing in the United States is the very definition of chocolate, and whether cheaper vegetable oils could be substituted for what many consider the very quintessence of every block, bar and square of chocolate: cocoa butter. In Europe, the cocoa butter-versus-vegetable oil fight took 30 years to resolve. In the United States, it has been less than a year since the first volley. Hundreds of chocolate lovers have joined the fray, the outcome of which could affect the livelihoods of millions of cocoa farmers in Africa and South America.

THE MAN WITH THE MILLION-DOLLAR BALLS
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1650788,00.html

Film
INDIA TO REMAKE ‘CASABLANCA’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6936642.stm
REMEMBERING CAROLE LANDIS. . .WHO?
http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw280.htm
http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/cl/

Light Reading
SCHICKEL ON FILM NOIR
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=269893
Noir films, with their greatly intensified visual style and their stress on perverse psychology, weren’t reflecting our misery in a peacetime economy, as Schrader suggests. Instead, their aims were quite different (don’t forget, they were meant to entertain). For one, they were trying to give the traditional crime film a new lease on ­life—­particularly in the way it represented the city’s place in the postwar world.

And in the end. . .
I MARRIED A ZOMBIE!
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/socialdiary/2006/10_17_06/images/P1150971.jpg

8/7
Skylines:
Morning Concert
OBON SUKIYAKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtTiSgBTXKA&mode=related&search=

KEEF DID SNORT HIS DAD, ACTUALLY. . .
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/inthenews/0,,2143358,00.html

HITLER’S RECORD COLLECTION
It was full of Jewish performers. . .
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2143233,00.html

LARGEST KNOW PLANET FOUND
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6934603.stm

GERMAN TRAIN STOPS TO REPAIR BEER TAP
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,498603,00.html

PENCIL REMOVED FROM WOMAN’S HEAD AFTER 55 YEARS
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,498594,00.html

PATTI BOYD SPILLS ALL ABOUT HER BEATLE DAYS
How Beatles were dosed with acid
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=473207&in_page_id=1773
Asking Brian's permission to get married
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=473175&in_page_id=1773
"Hellish love triangle with George and Eric"
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=473206&in_page_id=1879
And on to news and comment. . .

U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN ENJOYING THE POPPY
Getting hooked on heroin, the country’s biggest cash crop
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/07/afghan_heroin/?source=whitelist

Iraq and Roll
VETERAN ARMY SGT. DENOUNCES U.S. POLICY
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18126.htm
The apathetic American public needs to pull their heads out of the comfortable little hole in the sand where it has been for far too long and do something about the way our country is being stolen from us by an administration that has its well-being and only its well-being in mind.
ALL SUNNI MINISTERS NOW BOYCOTTING IRAQ ‘GOVERNMENT’
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/07/all-sunni-ministers-now-boycotting-iraqi-government/
HEDGES: IRAQ IS ABOUT TO GET A LOT WORSE
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080607D.shtml
The Democrats' decision to let the war run its course, while they frantically wash their hands of responsibility, means that it will sputter and stagger forward until the mission collapses. This will be sudden. The security of the Green Zone, our imperial city, will be increasingly breached. Command and control will disintegrate. And we will back out of Iraq humiliated and defeated. But this will not be the end of the conflict. It will, in fact, signal a phase of the war far deadlier and more dangerous to American interests.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER FOUR U.S. SOLDIERS DEAD
This is not a war, it is a giant booby-trap
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3096
MORE TROOPS THAN EVER IN IRAQ---162,000
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/07/number-of-troops-in-iraq-reaches-highest-level-of-war/
IRAQ VETS ENDING UP IN HOMELESS SHELTERS
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/07/shelters_take_many_vets_of_iraq_afghan_wars/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Front+Page

Electile Dysfunction
BILLARY AND BARACK BARELY SPEAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/us/politics/07rivals.html?_r=3&ref=politics&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
BILLARY LEAVES BARACK FAR BEHIND IN POLL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/22/opinion/polls/main2383247.shtml
RON PAUL: THE INTERNET’S FAVORITE CANDIDATE
http://news.com.com/Ron+Paul+The+Internets+favorite+candidate/2100-1028_3-6200893.html
RON PAUL: BEST IS YET TO COME
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dana_gab_070802_the_ron_paul_saga_th.htm
In an effort to hopefully speed up this process, Republican Ron Paul has teamed up with Dennis Kucinich along with other Democrats to introduce a bill that would repeal President Bush's authority to use force in Iraq. He stated, “I think if you approach this from a constitutional viewpoint, we can join hands with the left as well as the right and come up with solutions and get our troops home.” This shows his leadership capabilities and demonstrates his willingness to reach across the aisle to get things accomplished.

Enviro Wacko
EUROPE DONATES $507 MILLION TO SEAL OFF CHERNOBYL
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,498590,00.html
GORE: POLLUTERS MANIPULATE CLIMATE INFO (DUH)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070807/D8QS3FC03.html
Farewell to "Flush and Forget"
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch11_ss5.htm
Fight Looms over Construction of Huge Texas-Mexico Freeway
http://www.alternet.org/environment/58669/

Animals in the news!
JUDGE STOPS WHALE-HARMING SONAR OFF CALIFORNIA
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sonar7aug07,1,1467065.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

Religion
‘THANK GOD FOR THE MINNEAPOLIS BRIDGE COLLAPSE’---‘CHRISTIAN’ GROUP
Crazed reactionary vermin to exploit funerals for “anti-fag” message
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/07/fred-phelps-minn-bridge/
PENTAGON BRASS IN TROUBLE FOR ‘CHRISTIAN’ VIDEO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000883_pf.html
PLASTIC JESUS! CHURCHES NOW OFFER ELECTRONIC PAYMENT
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0801/p13s02-lire.html

The Torture Never Stops
BRITS DEMAND RELEASE OF FIVE GITMO INMATES
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/BBC_Britain_demands_return_of_Gitmo_0807.html

Israelity
Israel, UK Clash Over Killing of Award-Winning Filmmaker
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/58963/
Britain and Israel face a diplomatic and legal showdown this week over the death of James Miller, an award-winning British film-maker who was shot by Israel soldiers while working on a documentary in the Gaza Strip more than four years ago.

Mashed Media
SF CHRON’S BRONSTEIN TRIES TO REINVENT THE WHEEL
Calls paper’s new approach “Journalism of Action”---meaning doing what a newspaper is supposed to do
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003622388
A.P. PHOTOG KIDNAPPED IN IRAQ
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003622392
MUSIC PUBLISHERS JOIN YOUTUBE SUIT
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1650426,00.html

Oh, by the way. . .
SCIENTISTS BRING 8 MILLION-YEAR-OLD ANTARCTIC MICROBES BACK TO LIFE
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070806-bacteria-ice.html
SF UNVEILS PLANS FOR TALLEST WEST COAST BUILDING
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/07/BATMRD67A1.DTL
IN SEARCH OF THE 900-FOOT-TALL BUDDHA OF AFGHANISTAN
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0807/p01s05-wosc.html
CHESTNUT TREES POISED FOR COMEBACK IN U.S.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0807/p02s01-sten.html

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. RAUL HILBERG, PIONEER IN HOLOCAUST STUDIES
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/us/07hilberg.html?ref=obituaries

R.I.P. HAL FISHMAN
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/hal_fishman_passes_away.php
http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-halfishman,0,7719129.story?coll=ktla-promo-layout

THE FORMER TEKKIE TYCOON BEHIND “NO END IN SIGHT”
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/07/DDT6RE0572.DTL
What germinated during his hibernation was "No End in Sight," a documentary about how the United States has botched the occupation of Iraq. It opens Friday in the Bay Area after winning the special jury prize for a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival this year and garnering largely rave reviews in New York, where it opened last month. Such plaudits are impressive for a first-time filmmaker, as Ferguson served as writer, producer and director. They're even more remarkable given that he chose to tackle a complex foreign policy issue for his first picture, a choice that required him to film in some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq.

More Animals in the news!
JON CARROLL ON BEARS AND HONEYBEES
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/08/07/DDD2RCGVB1.DTL
HEY, KIDS---THERE’S AN OWL IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0807/p18s02-hfks.html

And in the end. . .
WATCH: ROVEMORT!
http://ws.collactive.com/points/point?id=6RzkyP4Myp3C
8/6
Skylines:
Morning Concert
THE PENGUIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJiUeieQTrI

FORGET STEROIDS---BONDS CHEATS WITH MECHANICAL FOREARM
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003621797
The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke.

THE PLUG-IN PRIUS---THE FERRARI OF HYBRIDS
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/06/BARIRBM7S1.DTL

50 YEARS AFTER ‘ON THE ROAD’
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2141675,00.html
Had Kerouac lived on into old age, he would have been even more appalled at the ways in which his legacy is currently being misrepresented. Two years ago, a range of Jack Kerouac clothing was launched in America. Later this year, the BBC will mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road by sending the comedian, presenter and self-styled dandy, Russell Brand, and his Radio 2 co-presenter, Matt Morgan, on a road trip.

BRIT ‘X-FILES’ REVEALED!
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=60158&in_page_id=34

FINNS TAKE WORLD SWEATING CHAMPIONSHIP
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,498369,00.html

NAKED PEOPLE!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,498504,00.html

And on to news and comment. . .

We are not making this stuff up
ER, UH. . .190,000 AK-47S ARE, UM. . .LOST IN IRAQ
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501299.html?nav=rss_email/components

Enviro Wacko
BILLIONS FOR FAKE GREEN CORPORATE PROJECTS
http://www.alternet.org/environment/58488/
The green sheen plastered on some of these projects -- like burning down the rainforest to generate electricity for homes -- has actually convinced some members of Congress to start throwing billions of taxpayer dollars their way.

SHIITES PROTEST FOR SOUTHERN IRAQ STATE
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0806/p01s03-woiq.html

BAGHDAD BY THE BAY---ALMOST LITERALLY
The plight of Iraqi-Americans in the Bay Area
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/05/INJ4RCNV72.DTL
For Iraqi Americans in the Bay Area, the misery in Iraq is always present in their lives, even if the war zone is 7,000 miles away. Salih and others do what they can, whether it's sending money back home or starting a nonprofit organization that benefits Iraq. They can also do something here that in Iraq might be deadly: Reach out to Iraqis of different religions. In the Bay Area, Iraqi Americans who are Shiite, Sunni, Christian and even Jewish interact with regularity - the sort of commingling that once existed in Iraq.

Religion
LUNATIC BLACK MUSLIMS EXECUTED OAKLAND TRIB EDITOR
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2141841,00.html
The reason that Bailey was killed appears to lie with the secretive and shadowy black Muslim sect in Oakland that Bailey was investigating. A day after he died, a series of dramatic police raids unfolded across the city, aimed at a group of Islamists centred on a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery.
‘YOUR BLACK MUSLIM BAKERY’ CONSPIRACY
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/06/BAK8RDCBI1.DTL

NeoCON
BILL KRISTOL: BRIDGE COLLAPSE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT
Never mind the thousands of bridges in the country rated “deficient”
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bill_Kristol_takes_optimistic_view_of_0805.html

Fear itself
CONGRESS RUBBERSTAMPS MORE DOMESTIC SPYING
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501050.html
RAIMUNDO: BILL KRISTOL AND THE STINK OF FEAR
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11404
In the Bizarro World of the neoconservatives, however, none of this matters: indeed, it merely spurs them on. Since the pursuit of American national interests is entirely unrelated to their foreign policy agenda, the horrific damage to this country and its relations with the world are, for them, quite beside the point. Which is why Bill Kristol's latest screed claiming that victory is right around the corner is particularly disingenuous.
WHY ARE SO MANY AMERICANS IN PRISON?
http://bostonreview.net/BR32.4/loury.html
We have a corrections sector that employs more Americans than the combined work forces of General Motors, Ford, and Wal-Mart, the three largest corporate employers in the country, and we are spending some $200 billion annually on law enforcement and corrections at all levels of government, a fourfold increase (in constant dollars) over the past quarter century.

Electile Dysfunction
BILLARY BOOED BY ‘LIBERAL’ BLOGGERS
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3082
"A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans, they actually do," Clinton said, drawing boos and hisses from liberal bloggers at the second Yearly Kos convention.

Animals in the news!
BRIT EXPORTS BANNED IN U.S. DUE TO HOOF-AND-MOUTH
Just stop eating animals, and. . .problem solved
http://www.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth/story/0,,2142590,00.html
TALK TO THE ANIMALS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm

Mashed Media
NYT IS INCH-AND-A-HALF NARROWER NOW
http://www.observer.com/2007/lean-times?page=0%2C0&%24Version=0&%24Path=/

Lost Angeles
LITTLE ANTHONY PLAYS THE GOD CARD
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6547242

And in more important matters. . .

REMEMBERING THE GREATEST COMEDY TEAM IN HISTORY
http://living.scotsman.com/film.cfm?id=1200872007
WATCH: RECREATING LAUREL AND HARDY’S CULVER CITY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qkv9ZbmMAk&mode=related&search=
JOIN THE SONS OF THE DESERT!
http://www.wayoutwest.org/search/index.html#location
http://wayoutwest.org

WHY OCD HIJACKS HIJACK HIJACKS THE BRAIN
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1649303,00.html

For Art’s Sake
HIROSHIGE
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ichiyusai_Hiroshige

Musique
WAGNER, FOR BETTER OR WORSE
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2181464.ece
FYI---“THE BIG TAKEOVER”---MUSIC SITE
http://www.bigtakeover.com/
R.I.P. LEE HAZLEWOOD
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6933162.stm

CANNERY ROW EATEN ALIVE BY HORRID DEVELOPERS
http://www.abc.net.au/hobart/stories/s1954535.htm
http://www.93950.com/steinbeck/row.htm
http://www.devcon-const.com/CRH.html
http://www.evansmonterey.com/crHotel.html

And in the end. . .
LEE HAZLEWOOD’S BIGGEST HIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ECyTGZjOJc

8/3
Skylines:
Morning concert
TUNAK TUNAK TUN
---WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fSpI4oZoDc

JESUS RETURNS! (YOU CAN TELL BY THE HALO!)
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=67520

BILL KRISTOL GOES MAD, ATTACKS HIS NOSE
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bill_Kristol_Pundit.__Chickenhawk._Nosepicker._0802.html

Rip Post Movie of the Week
SPADE COOLEY’S WESTERN SWING!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkM2igp82Ec

‘SCHNITZEL STEVEN’ GOES TO JAIL
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,498078,00.html

MORFORD: GOD DOES NOT WANT SIXTEEN KIDS!
Arkansas mom gives birth to a whole freakin' baseball team
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/10/19/notes101905.DTL
It's wrong to be this judgmental. Wrong to suggest that it is exactly this kind of weird pathological protofamily breeding-happy gluttony that's making the world groan and cry and recoil, contributing to vicious overpopulation rates and unrepentant economic strain and a bitter moral warpage resulting from a massive viral outbreak of homophobic neo-Christians across our troubled and Bush-ravaged land. Or is it?

And on to news and comment. . .

Electile Dysfunction
WATCH: GUTSY WAITRESS STICKS IT TO MITT THE MORMON!
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/08/03/post_6.html

PLASTIC BOTTLES ARE POISON
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/03/MNG7RC98J1.DTL
Used to make hard plastic, BPA can seep from beverage containers and other materials. It is used in all polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, as well as other rigid plastic items, including large water cooler containers, sports bottles and microwave oven dishes, along with canned food liners and some dental sealants for children.

Your Corporatocracy at work!
800 BAY AREA BRIDGES ALSO RATED ‘DEFICIENT’
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/03/MNK3RC8D52.DTL
ONE-FOURTH OF ALL U.S. BRIDGES ‘DEFICIENT’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p01s05-usgn.html
BRIDGE DEAD VICTIMS OF CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY?
http://www.alternet.org/story/58716/
NEW BILL SETS STAGE FOR MORE KATRINA DISASTERS
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1649403,00.html
KATRINA VICTIMS LOSE INSURANCE APPEAL (SURPRISE, SURPRISE)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/business/03insure.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
ROBERTS: RETURN OF THE ROBBERBARONS
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18109.htm
As the Bush Regime outfits B-2 stealth bombers with 30,000 pound monster “bunker buster” bombs for its coming attack on Iran, the US economy continues its 21st century decline. While profits soar for the armaments industry, the American people continue to take it on the chin.

SECRET PLAN TO GET OUT OF IRAQ?
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/NBC_gets_preview_of_Iraq_withdrawal_0802.html

SHADES OF THE 60’S---BLACK MUSLIM BAKERY RAIDED IN OAKLAND
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/03/BAGVJRCCPR7.DTL&tsp=1

Spaced out
55-YEAR-OLD WOMAN TO FLY ON SPACE SHUTTLE NEXT WEEK
Former schoolteacher was Christa McAuliffe’s back-up 22 years ago
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/03/national/a081734D77.DTL&tsp=1


Electile Dysfunction
DUH. . .DIEBOLD VOTE MACHINES VULNERABLE TO VIRUSES
Just go back to punch cards. . .
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135461-c,onlinesecurity/article.html
IS EDWARDS SETTING THE DEMOCRAT TONE?
http://www.alternet.org/story/58414/
He isn't raising the cash that Obama and Hillary are, but Edwards has been out front on cutting funding for Iraq and ditching Fox News-sponsored presidential debates, while the other contenders have followed.
RAIMUNDO:
OBAMA, THE NEW KENNEDY---NOT IN A GOOD WAY
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11390
MAD ANNIE STILL FACING VOTE FRAUD PROBE
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003621168

RUSSIA ‘AMAZED’ BY WESTERN MOCKERY OF NORTH POLE CLAIM
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Russia_amazed_by_Western_mockery_of_08032007.html


Iraq and Roll
KIDNAPPED FILIPINOS BUILDING U.S. PALACE
---ER, EMBASSY---IN IRAQ
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/03/news/phils.php
GROUP GIVES SEGWAYS TO INJURED IRAQ, AFGHAN VETS
http://www.westsidechronicle.com/clients/westsidechronicle/PAGE3A.pdf
MARINE GUILTY OF IRAQ MURDER
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2140992,00.html

Mashed Media
WATCH: CHRIS DODD TAKES ON O’ REILLY
http://action.chrisdodd.com/t/41/signUp.jsp?key=1487

Enviro Wacko
19 MILLION FLOODED OUT IN INDIA, BANGLADESH
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2140645,00.html

People’s Repugnic
CHINA BUSTS TIBETAN PROTESTERS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6929462.stm

Religion
GOD SAVE US---NOW IT’S ISLAMIC CREATIONISM
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p01s10-woeu.html

Oh, by the way. . .
SWISS ARMY KNIFE---MADE IN CHINA?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2140645,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. IRISH FOLK MUSIC HERO TOMMY MAKEM
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/arts/03makem.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
The Green Fields of Tommy Makem
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/03/europe/03makem-globe.php

VAN GOGH PAINTING NOT BY VAN GOGH
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6929086.stm

QUEEN’S BRIAN MAY COMPLETES PHD ASTRONOMY THESIS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6929290.stm

Film
RAINER ON ‘BOURNE’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p11s01-almo.html
MAYBE HARRISON FORD IS REALLY PLAYING INDY’S FATHER
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=59889&in_page_id=7

And in the end. . .
AMAZING JACKASS
http://www.metro.co.uk/video/videoPlayer.html?inMediaId=1775&in_page_id=1

8/2
Skylines:
Morning concert
HERE, PUSSY PUSSY PUSSY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZfSBKgp6WQ

MUSTANG MADE FROM 5,000 BEER CANS!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=59382&in_page_id=2

WATCH: THE ROVE, CHENEY, BUSH RAP
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/templates/listpop.html?bcpid=823433113&bctid=1111464757

PHOTO GALLERY: GERMAN BODY-PAINTING FESTIVAL!
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,23537,00.html


We are not making this stuff up
RUSSIA PLANTS FLAG ON OCEAN FLOOR AT NORTH POLE
Tries to declare it Russian territory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2140202,00.html

TEXAS PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ADDS ‘GOD’
Wait a second---a Texas pledge of allegiance? Why don’t Texans just secede?
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5020241.html

19,000 TEENS BAG GROCERIES FOR WAL-MART---FOR NO PAY
But they pack all those great Chinese-made goods real nice. . .
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/01/2920/

MORE AMERRYGUNS MOVING TO CANADA
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/01/2919/

And on to news and comment. . .

LEAHY: SUPREME COURT NOW
AN 'ARM OF THE REPUGNICAN PARTY'
Pat for prez
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5219.html

U.S. HAS BEEN SECRETLY ARMING ARAB STATES SINCE 2004
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_has_been_covertly_arming_Gulf_0801.html

THE LEGACY OF INVADING IRAQ
Country was far better off under Saddam
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow?bid=4&pid=219040

JUDGE AWARDS ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS $1 MILLION
http://www.nbc4.com/news/13801730/detail.html

People’s Repugnic
LEAD-PAINTED CHINESE TOYS RECALLED BY FISHER-PRICE---
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2140183,00.html
---AND MATTELL
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/02/business/toys.1-107570.php

MPLS BRIDGE HORROR DEATH TOLL TO RISE
Helpless commuters trapped in cars underwater
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_re_us/bridge_collapse
BRIDGE ROUND-UP: STRUCTURAL FLAWS FOUND LONG AGO
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/fatal_bridge_collapse_minneapolis?tx=3

BROWN: EMBOLDEN THIS, BUSH
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3056

Electile Dysfunction
CORN: FRED THOMPSON, NEOCON
http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20070813&s=corn
With gusto, Thompson embraced the second-favorite crusade of the neocons: Scooter Libby. For them, Libby has been a martyr of near-religious significance. Thompson, a prominent member of the Libby defense fund, called for Bush to pardon the former Cheney chief of staff. While doing so, Thompson repeatedly misstated core facts of the CIA leak case. Deriding special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Thompson, who played a prosecutor on Law & Order, insisted that Valerie Plame Wilson was not covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act--though indeed she was.

Mashed Media
DAILY NEWS EDITOR SHOULD BE FIRED FOR THIS ONE
Paper chickened out on Tony Castro’s big Villaraigosa marriage scoop
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/luke_fords_source.php
WILL FCC STYMY FIRST-DEGREE MURDOCH OF WSJ? (FAT CHANCE)
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003619991
ALL RUPERT, ALL THE TIME
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/alterman
It's not just the Post that Murdoch operates as a de facto nonprofit. The Times of London lost $89 million in 2004, and according to a News Corp. executive quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, even the Australian "doesn't consistently make money." Murdoch doesn't care. Newspapers make up just 14 percent of News Corp.'s operating income. What they cost in cash, they more than make up for in political and propaganda value.

Enviro Wacko
INTERVIEW: ON PEPSI’S ADMISSION THAT AQUAFINA IS TAP WATER
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/01/1435240
L.A. TO BAN SMOKING IN PARKS
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smoking2aug02,1,5376310.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

Ex-Spector-ate
PHIL’S 24-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER TAKES THE STAND
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6927263.stm

Oh, by the way. . .
SEAN PENN STUPIDLY MEETS WITH CHAVEZ
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/02/entertainment/e062015D50.DTL&tsp=1&type=entertainment

And in more important matters. . .

A.O. SCOTT ON BERGMAN, ANTONIONI
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/02/arts/02scott.php
WOODY ALLEN ON BERGMAN, ANTONIONI
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648917,00.html

Musique
BRIAN WILSON REWORKS ‘THAT LUCKY OLD SUN’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6926471.stm

REMEMBERING THE ‘SUMMER OF LOVE’ IN LAUREL CANYON
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-wk-cover2aug02,0,913196.story?coll=cl-calendar

Books
THE LETTERS OF MALCOLM LOWRY
http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=7051 

And in the end. . .
HORSE MANURE!
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN8142660820070802

8/1
Skylines:
Morning concert
TUNAK TUNAK TUN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo

PICTURES PROVE:
MURDOCH IS BASTARD SON OF RONDO HATTON!

Rondo                                               Ruperto

MUST SEE: PREVIEW---“NO END IN SIGHT”
http://www.noendinsightmovie.com/?gclid=CL-NjIzS1I0CFRLWYAodWyDddw

MUST SEE: THE WACKY HUGO CHAVEZ SHOW
Quien es mas cuckoo? Bush o Chavez?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=97b_1185874568

VEGANS REFUSE SEX WITH MEAT-EATERS
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=472433&in_page_id=1770

MYSTERY APE-MAN SNATCHES CHEESEBURGERS IN GERMANY!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,497508,00.html

THE BAD SEEDS
http://www.internetweekly.org/2007/07/cartoon_the_bad_seeds.html

And on to news and comment. . .

BUSH IN PUERILE SNIT WITH BBC REPORTER
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003619296

Big Dick
CHENEY SLIPS, IMPLIES HE MAKES BUSH’S DECISIONS
(Scroll down about seven paragraphs into this story)
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_appears_to_say_that_Bush_0731.html

BUSH LIED ABOUT EXTENT OF DOMESTIC SPYING
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3047

26,000 U.N. TROOPS TO DARFUR
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0801/p99s01-duts.html

Enviro Wacko
THE CANARY ISLANDS ARE BURNING DOWN
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6925377.stm
‘DEAD ZONE’ IN OCEAN OFF OREGON
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Dead-Zone.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The return of oxygen-depleted water off the Oregon coast is a sign of a warming climate, which could have ill effect on populations of sea creatures, scientists said Monday.

Electile Dysfunction
OBAMA: HUNT TERRORISTS IN PAKISTAN
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_el_pr/obama_terrorism_7
RUDY THE CREEP: WORSE THAN BUSH
http://www.alternet.org/story/58480/
MITT THE MORMON LIKES HEZBOLLAH TACTICS
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/01/mitt-romney-sez-hezbollah-style-diplomacy-would-be-good-for-america/

Your corporatocracy at work!
COKE LAUNCHES NEW ‘HEALTHY’ COKE
Can you say. . .oxymoron? 
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=59490&in_page_id=34
HOME DEPOT KICKBACK SCANDAL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/31/cbsnews_investigates/main3120258.shtml?source=mostpop_story

Mass Murdoch
RUPERT FORMALLY DEVOURS WSJ
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003619177
WSJ ME SAYS NEWSROOM WILL NOT CHANGE UNDER RUPERT
Wonder how long he will keep his job
http://gawker.com/news/memos/wsj-managing-editor-marcus-brauchli-tells-his-staff-not-to-panic-284726.php

Iraq and Roll
YAWN. ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER 67 KILLED BY CAR BOMB
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6925487.stm
SOARING RATES OF CHILD ABUSE,
NEGLECT AMONG U.S. TROOP FAMILIES
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1648412,00.html

Religion
WHAT WERE CHRISTIAN ‘RELIEF’
WORKERS DOING IN AFGHANISTAN?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,497635,00.html

Animals in the news!
YELLOWSTONE GRIZZLIES IN TROUBLE
Their favorite trees are dying
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1648087,00.html
‘LIVING FOSSIL’ CAUGHT IN INDONESIA
Well, it’s a dead fossil now
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6925784.stm
FIVE PACIFIC COAST SHARK ATTACKS IN A MONTH
http://www.rense.com/general77/sharkes.htm
BAVARIAN TOWN NEEDS GOOSE-CHASER
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,497652,00.html

People’s Repugnic
JACKIE CHAN FILM BANNED IN CHINA FOR DEPICTING CHINESE GANGSTERS
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=59370&in_page_id=34

Lost Angeles
HUNTINGTON TO HOST SOCAL AEROSPACE HISTORY CONFERENCE
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/08/when_aerospace_was_king.php

And in more important matters. . .

DON’T LIKE SOMEBODY?
MIGHT BE THE ICED COFFEE YOU’RE HOLDING
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=science&adxnnlx=1185942963-94kMsnDybk1wXujVLRbrvA&pagewanted=all
That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.

For Art’s Sake
GETTY TO RETURN 40 ITEMS TO ITALY
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-ex-getty1aug02,0,2633304.story?coll=la-home-center
INTERVIEW: OSCAR NIEMEYER AT 100
“I pick up my pen. A building appears.”
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,2139073,00.html
THE END OF HANDMADE THAI SILK?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p20s01-alar.html

Travel
SCOTLAND’S IDYLLIC ISLES
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0801/p19s01-hfes.html 

And in the end. . .
DEAF PERFORMING ARTISTS NETWORK
http://www.d-pan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=45

7/31
Skylines:
Midday concert
OLD MAN RIVER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNjD9DYp33g

HARRY SHEARER LAUNCHES OWN ‘YOUTUBE’
---MY DAMN CHANNEL
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648309,00.html

FLASH! L.A. OFFICIALS MAKE ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY!
INCREASED DEVELOPMENT. . .INCREASES TRAFFIC!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-traffic31jul31,1,4592163.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

DEBBIE HARRY: FACELIFT AND SHEEP CELLS ARE THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=471528&in_page_id=1773

MICHAEL CAINE MAKES HIP-HOP ALBUM
Or something. . .
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=59435&in_page_id=7

PARIS HILTON LOSES INHERITANCE
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=59197&in_page_id=7

THE GEORGE W. BUSH DIET
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/31/bushs-healthy-food-at-camp-david/

And on to news and comment. . .

LINDORFF WEBSITE SHUT DOWN
Site of impeachment point-man is “corrupted” after items about martial law and Pat Tillman
Lindorff: In a curious coincidence, the day that this site published an article on the string of steps that this government has taken to put in place the legal niceties to prepare for a potential declaration of martial law, including a sidebar on the possibility of an assassination of Pat Tillman, my site suddenly ceased allowing me to access it for any further editorial changes.I have been in repeated contact with the help desk (sic) at Earthlink, and have been informed that the site's pages have been "fatally corrupted." They advised me that I might have to rebuild the site and start over. When I pointed out that the site itself is still up and available to readers, and so should be recoverable on the server, they said that they would attempt to fix it, making it a "priority" item.That was yesterday.
It has now been locked down for a total of four days.

2004 OHIO PREZ BALLOTS ‘ACCIDENTALLY’ DESTROYED
Hahahahahahaha
http://www.alternet.org/story/58328/?page=3

Your Corporatocracy at Work
THE AMAZINGLY CORRUPT SEN. TED STEVENS IS THROUGH
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3039

THOMPSON: THE UNPATRIOT ACT
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3036
Unfortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway Ranger who threatened me with arrest if I photographed him subjecting attendees of FloydFest to unreasonable search and seizure is only the latest time the Act has been thrown in my face and used to cover up the acts of a government that's out of control.

Iraq and Roll
20,000 MORE TROOPS GOING TO HELL---ER, IRAQ
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Pentagon_to_announce_massive_continuation_of_0731.html

ROBERTS OBVIOUSLY EPILEPTIC---AND BUSH KNEW
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Supreme_Court_Justice_John_Roberts_leaves_0731.html

Big Dick
“I’M A BIG FAN OF AL’S”
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Cheney_defends_embattled_US_attorne_07302007.html

Enviro-Wacko
WOULD YOU LIKE A LITTLE FISH WITH YOUR MERCURY?
BP will continue dumping mercury into Lake Michigan
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2007-07-30-mercury_N.htm
EARTH TOO WARM? BURY THE CO2
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p01s05-wogi.html
HEY, KIDS! IT’S THE WORLD MAP OF DISEASES!
http://www.healthmap.org/

WOMAN SPENT NINE HOURS---NINE HOURS!---ON GROUNDED FLIGHT
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/31/BUIFR9TN22.DTL

Sssssssst
POT BUST CAN RESULT IN LOSS OF VOTING RIGHTS
http://www.alternet.org/rights/58346/

Mashed Media
DALLAS MORNING NEWS---BIG BUSH BACKER---CHANGES TUNE ON IRAQ
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003618626

People’s Repugnic
STOP EATING GINGER IMPORTED FROM CHINA
Hell, stop eating anything imported from China
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6505851

Oh, by the way. . .
WORSHIPPING THE COKE GOD
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/arts/design/30muse.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&adxnnlx=1185779042-t8qLiTLOh0hcMQgY3Vmu6g&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Coke, adding to all those slogans, must now be the only soft drink in the world with its own shrine: a tabernacle for the faithful, constructed by its creator.
JAPANESE TOP LIST OF WEDDING TOURISTS
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/31/news/wed.php

And in more important matters. . .

LOTS OF POTTER BOOKS IN CHINA---NOT ALL BY ROWLING!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/31/news/china.php

MORE THINGS HOLLYWOOD SHOULD BAN!
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_popmachine/2007/07/no-more-smoking.html
Biting your lower lip, if you’re an attractive young woman. It’s not that cute and can lead to infection.
Talking, if you’re an infant or animal. Confuses kids, may lead to heavy drinking among parents. (The great “Babe” is grandfathered in.)

INDIA STATE PLANTS TEN MILLION TREES IN ONE DAY!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6922896.stm

R.I.P. ANTONIONI
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6923785.stm

JON CARROLL: READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/07/31/DDD1R9PTP2.DTL

ROBERT LLOYD REMEMBERS TOM SNYDER
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-snyder31jul31,0,114145.story?coll=cl-calendar
So distinct was the mark he made here that I can only ever regard quasi-look-alike Paul Moyer as his less-resonant echo. Snyder didn't so much deliver the news as push it out through the screen.

For Art’s Sake
COURBET AND THE MAKING OF A MASTER
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/07/30/070730crbo_books_schjeldahl?currentPage=all
BATHING BEAUTIES OF JAPAN
http://lotusgreenfotos.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post_26.html

And in the end. . .
CONSTIPATION BLUES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvNO0BfBecc

7/30
Skylines:
Afternoon concert/cartoon
CHICKEN A LA KING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LoQcj-5Rl0

INTRODUCING THE CATCAM!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=59113&in_page_id=2

LATEST BREAKING NEWS ON HILLARY’S BREASTS!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/The_United_States/Hillarys_cleavage_hottest_topic_of_presidential_race/articleshow/2241398.cms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902668.html
PUNDIT LIKENS HILLARY’S CLEAVAGE TO BONDS’ MUSCLES
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Pundit_compares_Hillarys_cleavage_to_Barry_0730.html
HERE IS THE SHOCKING PHOTO!
http://corner.nationalreview.com/images/hillary_cspan2.jpg
And if that’s not sufficient titillation. . .
HILLARY’S BUST
http://insidetheusa.net/images/blogs/Hillary-Bust.jpg
HILLARY BARING MAMMARIES FOR THE PRIMARIES?
http://steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/images/hillary_clinton_boobs_bill_cleavage.jpg
Related:
ANGELINA TAKES IT ALL OFF
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=59179&in_page_id=7

JAPAN MAILBOXES FULL OF MYSTERY GIFT MONEY
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Mystery_money_in_Japan_appears_in_m_07282007.html

JON CARROLL ON MAGICAL THINKING
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/07/30/DDA0R992U2.DTL
You have perhaps been following the story of the San Francisco cabdriver with medallion No. 666 who believes that his cab is cursed. It's a Christian thing; in the Book of Revelation, 666 is "the number of the beast" and is generally associated with Satan, although its actual meaning is obscure. But Revelation is an apocalyptic vision, not a work of history. It's fine with me if heavy metal bands want to use 666 in their album art, but it's not, how shall I put this, a real thing. It's a fake thing. Probably the taxi commission should devote their time to dealing with real things.

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE IN SAME. . .MAN
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1648080,00.html

And on to news and comment. . .

WATCH: MOYERS ON THE ASTOUNDING EARMARK LOOPHOLE
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07272007/profile2.html
Do you know where your tax dollars are going? How about to build 10 multi-million-dollar military cargo planes that the Pentagon hasn't asked for? What about to fund the "Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree" in Spruce Pine, North Carolina? These congressional pet projects, sometimes referred to as pork-barrel spending, are these days more commonly called earmarks. They are provisions inserted into bills that allocate funds directly to colleges, local agencies, or private businesses, without public hearing or oversight.

GONZALES HELPED BUSH HIDE DRUNK-DRIVING CONVICTION
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Paper_details_Gonzaless_decade_of_dishonesty_0730.html
Gonzales's apparent willingness to dissemble in order to protect himself or President Bush stretches back to at least 1996, when he intervened to prevent then-Gov. Bush from serving jury duty in Texas, the Post notes. Not until its second-to-last paragraph, however, does the Post article remind readers that by not serving jury duty in the drunken driving case Bush was able to keep his own drunken driving conviction a secret for several more years.
NYT ON GONZALES: PROSECUTE OR IMPEACH HIM
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003618013

Homeland Insecurity
AMERRYGUNS ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR BIG BROTHER
Most support ubiquitous surveillance cameras
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3422372&page=1
U.S./E.U. PLAN DATABASE ON
AIRLINE PASSENGER PERSONAL INFO
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Privacy_groups_alarmed_by_passenger_personal_0729.html
DEPUTY FORCES WAY INTO HOME, ASSAULTS MAN OVER ‘FLAG-DEFILING’
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770725118
The signs pinned to the flag included an explanation on the meaning of an upside-down flag and asked to “help our country.” One of the signs was a photo of President Bush with “Out Now” written on it, they said.

Big Dick
MONDALE: CHENEY IS ESSENTIALLY PRESIDENT
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ExVP_Mondale_accuses_Cheney_of_power_0729.html
CHENEY GOING ON LARRY KING TOMORROW---PARAMEDICS BETTER STAND BY
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/30/cheney-lkl/

Electile Dysfunction
BILLARY PANDERS TO OUTSOURCING CORPORATIONS
While playing to rich India-Americans
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/30/2857/
ACTOR-SENATOR’S CAMPAIGN LOSING STEAM
http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/morenews.php?id=2588

Saudi Doody
U.S. TO OFFER $20 BILLION ARMS DEAL TO SAUDIS
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/29/news/saudi.php
U.S. ENVOY: SAUDIS ARE UNDERMINING U.S. IN IRAQ
(What’s to undermine?)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6921737.stm

Iraq and Roll
8 MILLION IRAQIS HAVE NO BASIC SERVICES
---‘NEED URGENT AID’
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/30/iraq.humanitarian/index.html?eref=rss_world
THE LAST EIGHT JEWS OF BAGHDAD
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647740,00.html

Iran from the truth
EX-CIA OFFICER DEBUNKS U.S. IRAN POLICY
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=76438

People’s Repugnic
CHINA’S 'ME GENERATION'
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647228,00.html
As the chief beneficiaries of China's economic success, young professionals have more and more tied up in preserving the status quo. The last thing they want is a populist politician winning over the country's hundreds of millions of have-nots on a rural-reform, stick-it-to-the-cities agenda.
CONGRESS TO GO AFTER CHINA OVER SAFETY OF PRODUCTS?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647881,00.html
Dozens of anti-China bills, denouncing China for alleged currency manipulation, illegal subsidizing of exports and violations of intellectual property law, have been circulating in the Senate for months.
CHINA IS THE WILD WEST
As far as product standards are concerned
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/26/madeinchina.overview/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

(Lack of) Health
MORE RESTAURANTS GOING GREEN BY GOING LOCAL
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0730/p01s04-ussc.html
GENES LINKED TO M.S.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/30/MNGHOR9DPI1.DTL

Oh, by the way. . .
1934: The Plot Against America
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000651

And in more important matters. . .

THE ABDUCTION OF OPERA
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_urbanities-regietheater.html
Mozart’s lighthearted opera The Abduction from the Seraglio does not call for a prostitute’s nipples to be sliced off and presented to the lead soprano. Nor does it include masturbation, urination as foreplay, or forced oral sex. Europe’s new breed of opera directors, however, know better than Mozart what an opera should contain. So not only does the Abduction at Berlin’s Komische Oper feature the aforementioned activities; it also replaces Mozart’s graceful ending with a Quentin Tarantino–esque bloodbath and the promise of future perversion.

Books
POTTER PUBLISHER PLANS FUTURE WITH HARRY
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2137655,00.html
J.K. ROWLING, THE NEW ROGER BANNISTER
By Clive James
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6919618.stm
If would-be writers aren't capable of writing a book for its own sake, they shouldn't be writing at all. I speak as one who would have found it hard to make ends meet as a writer if I had not been wearing another hat in show-business. I can't honestly whinge about having pushed my pen in vain but if I had done nothing else except write books I would be raking the leaves on one of JK's front lawns by now, and glad of the gig.
On the Road (uncensored)
http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/news/article2814743.ece
The original, 120-ft typewritten roll of the Beat generation literary classic is being republished, complete with material too hot to handle in 1957

R.I.P. INGMAR BERGMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/movies/30cnd-bergman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185813687-Ulwsp4/GI739Nu/FBeUt+g
BERGMAN BIOGRAPHER REFLECTS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6922552.stm
WATCH: BERGMAN 1970 INTERVIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PniEkwgL8ms
R.I.P. TOM SNYDER
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/30/national/a055059D81.DTL
WATCH: SNYDER INTERVIEWS JERRY GARCIA AND KEN KESEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz1b-GKEIKI

JOHNNY DEPP TO STAR IN HUNTER THOMPSON ADAPTATION
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003618226

For Art’s Sake
FORGER BACK AT WORK---LEGALLY
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2137637,00.html

And in the end. . .
JOE E. BROWN ‘THREE MUSKETEERS’ COMMERCIAL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfK7HiMDIiY

7/27
Skylines:
Morning Concert
BOUM!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KWyWwVp0E

LONDON WIPED OUT BY FLOOD---SEE PICS
http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/article.html?in_article_id=58970&in_page_id=9

PRISONER GUILTY OF MASTURBATING IN JAIL
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2135251,00.html

ORANGUTAN HOLDS FIRST ART EXHIBITION
Seems heavily influenced by Kenneth Noland
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,496855,00.html

THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF THE $1.9 MILLION DIME
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/27/MNG9GR85OG1.DTL

ROWLING IS WRITING TWO NEW BOOKS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6918723.stm
Related:
HARRY POTTER AND THE BAD TATTOO
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=58894&in_page_id=34

MORFORD:
WHY WAS THE PLANET EXTRA SICK LAST WEEKEND? TWO WORDS. . .
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2007/07/27/notes072707.DTL
Nuclear warheads spontaneously armed. Guns spontaneously cocked. Every active soldier on the planet felt his mouth go dry in dread. Herds of gazelles and addaxes and even prides of lions across the African veldt paused in their activities, looked up and cocked their heads in nervous awareness, as if sensing the presence of a very large, reeking predator. Shoes came untied. Cheese sweated. Clouds scowled. Scissors nicked.

And on to news and comment. . .

CRAZED BUSH ADMINISTRATION
SUBPOENAS MICHAEL MOORE
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Michael_Moore_says_hes_been_served_0727.html
Watch: Moore on “Tonight” last night
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Iraq and Roll
DID U.S. USE DE FACTO SLAVES
TO BUILD BAGHDAD EMBASSY?
http://www.miamiherald.com/578/story/183836.html
John Owens, who worked on the site as a security liaison from November 2005 to June 2006, said he had seen foreign workers packed in trailers and working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with time off on Fridays for Muslim prayers. Several told him they earned about $300 a month, after fees were taken out, and that they were docked three days' pay for such offenses as clocking in five minutes late.
STATE DEPT. DENIES EMBASSY WORKER ABUSE
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-Embassy.php
HALF-BILLION DOLLAR BAGHDAD PALACE---ER, EMBASSY---
NOT BIG ENOUGH TO HOUSE ITS OWN EMPLOYEES
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-embassy24jul24,0,7085179.story?coll=la-home-center
Despite its brash scale and nearly $600-million cost, the compound designed to accommodate more than 1,000 people is not big enough, and may not be safe enough if a major military pullout leaves the country engulfed in a heightened civil war, U.S. planners now say.
IRAQIS USING ORGANIZED CRIME TO FLEE COUNTRY
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/26/news/migrate.php
Officials here at the world's international police organization maintain that the hand of a criminal gang was evident in the arrests in Mexico of a group of 11 Iraqis who were trying to enter the United States.
WAS PAT TILLMAN MURDERED?
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003617692

NO KILLING IN IRAQ NOW---JUST MURDER
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/58101/
The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed over time to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents. It is a short psychological leap, but a massive moral leap. It is a leap from killing -- the shooting of someone who has the capacity to do you harm -- to murder -- the deadly assault against someone who cannot harm you. The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing.

LINDORFF: MARTIAL LAW THREAT IS REAL
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/2007.07.01_arch.html#1185548464625
From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.
Related:
THE ICE PACKS THAT THREATENED AMERICA
http://www.attytood.com/2007/07/the_ice_packs_that_threatened.html

Electile Dysfunction
BILLARY ON OBAMA QUIP: THIS IS GETTING SILLY
O-man called her “Bush-Cheney Lite,” which sounds about Rite to us. . .
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Clinton_chides_Obama_in_silly_despo_07262007.html
THOMPSON: RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3010
Ron Paul's biggest political liability at the moment is his affiliation with the Republican Party. A large number of voters would rather vote for the devil than for a Republican - any Republican - and after seven years of George W. Bush one can hardly blame them. But the Democratic front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq and has yet to apologize for doing so. She supports keeping troops in Iraq in a reduced capacity that would still place American lives at risk. I hope Ron Paul makes it. I'd like to vote for him.

What is the law?
WATCH: JON STEWART SCALES GONZALES’ “BULLSHIT MOUNTAIN”
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Jon_Stewart_climbs_Bullshit_Mountain_with_0726.html

Mashed Media
JON CARROLL ON THAT KILLED LAT COLUMN. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/27/DDVIR7NPT3.DTL
My colleague at the Los Angeles Times Patrick Goldstein writes a column called the Big Picture. On Monday, he wrote a piece with a novel suggestion: The Times should follow the lead of the Daily Mail in London and distribute free CDs with its Sunday newspaper. Since both newspaper and music companies have been going through a rough patch, Goldstein suggested, such a synergy might be mutually useful, as synergy often is. Alas, that column never ran. Someone higher up in the Times killed it, perhaps for revealing the closely guarded secret that newspapers are losing subscribers.
NEWSPAPER STOCKS SINK IN WAKE OF MARKET PLUNGE
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003617573

Eat your greens
‘ORGANIC’ TAKEN OVER BY CORPORATE FOOD PROCESSORS
http://www.organicconsumers.org/SOS/nowmag101405.cfm
“It appears the Organic Trade Association has been taken over by large corporate food processors. This is not the way the organic community ever acted before. This is the way Monsanto acts."
SUPPORT CALIF. CLONED MEAT LABELING ACT
https://secure.npsite.org/cu/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr011=k04d6m6i92.app7a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1623

Save the world
WILL ‘GREEN CHIC’ SAVE THE WORLD?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0726/p13s01-sten.html
Last week, Whole Foods Market released a limited edition, $15 cotton bag with "I'm not a plastic bag" emblazoned on its side. When the bag went on sale at outlets in Taiwan, a stampede followed. In Hong Kong, throngs shut down a shopping mall. In New York City last week, lines formed at dawn.
WILL BILL GATES SAVE THE WORLD?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,496715,00.html
WATCH: GEORGE HARRISON---SAVE THE WORLD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17rXeIGnr2Y

(Lack of) Health
TODAY’S SUPER-POT ‘DOUBLES RISK OF PSYCHOTIC ILLNESS’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SCT0PDNZTB0WHQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/27/ncannabis127.xml
Those who smoke the drug regularly are more than twice as likely to suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions later in life,
scientists found.
DIABETES DRUGS POSE HEART RISK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6914434.stm
BLUEBERRIES CUT COLON CANCER RISK
http://www.newstarget.com/021951.html

Oh, by the way. . .
KATRINA VICTIMS GIVE TO WEST VIRGINIA
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=26783
FIVE. . .FOUR. . .THREE. . .WHA’ COMES AFFER THREE?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_re_us/astronaut_drinking
Uganda's 'sex tree' at risk from the advances of amorous poachers
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2809200.ece
Judge Orders $102 Million Payment In Wrongful Convictions
http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hcu-wrongful-imprisonment-0726,0,5772202.story
A federal judge in Boston Thursday ordered the government to pay $101.7 million to four innocent men who spent decades in prison after corrupt FBI agents, in order to protect potential informants, helped concoct evidence that led to their wrongful convictions for a 1965 murder.

And in more important matters. . .

THE ADVENTURES OF SHIN TAKEI AND HIS IVY GREEN ’65 MUSTANG
http://www.westsidechronicle.com/clients/westsidechronicle/PAGE3A.pdf

THE FASTEST MAN ON NO LEGS
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,496760,00.html
His prostheses are undeniably responsible for part of his success. The J-shaped blades are optimized for sprinting, but of little use to Pistorius for anything else.

Musique
KATHARINA WAGNER PUTS GREAT-GRANDAD IN OPERA---IN UNDERPANTS
Viewing her pic, one hopes she might join nude rompers she put in “Meistersinger”
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/wagner_pizza_booed_in_berlin.html
Clearly she was keen to show a break with the past, and a certain irreverence towards her great grandfather, an anti-Semite, who was Hitler's favourite composer, because in the performance - her Bayreuth debut which was attended by the German great and good - she put him on the stage as a figure dancing in his underpants. Most crucially, Wagner's production is also set to decide whether or not she is suitable to take over the job as festival head from her father, the 87-year old Wolfgang.

For Art’s Sake
PHOTOS: STIRLING PRIZE ARCHITECTURE FINALISTS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/2007/jul/26/architecture?picture=330280095

Light reading
CONSIDERING THE BOHEMIAN BONOBO
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/30/070730fa_fact_parker?currentPage=all
The Kinsey Institute claims on its Web site that “every bonobo—female, male, infant, high or low status—seeks and responds to kisses.” And, in Los Angeles, a sex adviser named Susan Block promotes what she calls “The Bonobo Way” on public-access television. (In brief: “Pleasure eases pain; good sex defuses tension; love lessens violence; you can’t very well fight a war while you’re having an orgasm.”) In newspaper columns and on the Internet, bonobos are routinely described as creatures that shun violence and live in egalitarian or female-dominated communities; more rarely, they are said to avoid meat.
ARISTOTLE WOULD HAVE LIKED E-MAIL
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue61/61madigan.htm
While I haven’t (yet) re-established connections with lovers from long ago, I have availed myself of the opportunities of Google to find former classmates, teachers and friends from years past. I’m amazed at how quickly, even after twenty years or more, we can pick up where we left off. There’s something about email’s democratic nature that makes it easy to send a message to someone you haven’t talked to in decades.

Film
RAINER ON “NO RESERVATIONS”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0727/p11s02-almo.html
RAINER ON ‘SIMPSONS’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0727/p14s02-almo.html

Travel
POST CARD FROM DUBAI
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1644559,00.html

And in the end. . .
HYDRANGEA
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=Hydrangea&btnG=Search+Images


7/26
Skylines:
Morning Concert
I’VE BEEN HURT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTXqmv5O5dg

FLYING CARS!
Canadian invents identified flying object
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=58822&in_page_id=2

SCORE EIGHT FOR A PAIR OF ENSLAVED ELEPHANTS
They stomp eight humans before being shot to death
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647270,00.html

NORWAY PRINCESS SPEAKS TO ANGELS
We were chatting with some pixies just last night. . .
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=58547&in_page_id=2

TOM DELAY:
U.S. MUST BE PALS WITH ISRAEL FOR JESUS TO RETURN
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Delay_US_and_Israel_to_enjoy_0726.html
Related:
‘DR. WHO’ NASTY RETURNS!
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=58735&in_page_id=7

THE ONION ‘PREDICTED’ CONTAGIOUS OBESITY STORY---IN A SATIRE
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003617051
Obesity found to be contagious
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/25/healthscience/fat.php

PHOTO GALLERY: THE INSECTS AMONG US
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1644013,00.html

And on to news and comment. . .

BUSH SPEECHWRITER CALLS FOR ATTACKING SYRIA
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18069.htm

LISTEN: BUSH’S GRANDFATHER PLOTTED TO OVERTHROW ROOSEVELT
We are not making this stuff up, folks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

What is the law?
AP DOCUMENT REVEALS CLEAR GONZALES PERJURY
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/25/new-doc-spying/
Snowjob: Congress has nothing on Gonzo
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/25/laid-a-glove-on-gonzo/
THOMPSON: GONZALES LIES, NOBODY CARES
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/3000
Gonzales lies so often that reporting the fact that he lied is no longer news. If the attorney general's lips are moving, you can bet he's lying. . .In six years Bush - aided and abetted by Vice President Dick Cheney and the politically devious Karl Rove - has turned the Presidency into an absolute monarchy that answers to no one - not Congress, not the courts, not the Constitution and certainly not the people. Congress moans and frets and does nothing.

Your Corporatocracy at Work!
CRASH OF ’29 TO REPEAT?
http://www.alternet.org/story/56443/
News flash: The American economy is a hyperreality engineered by Ph.D.s working hand-in-hand with colluding media multinationals, political officials and some of the biggest names in business -- and the banks that invest in them. In other news, greed is still good.

Iraq and Roll
50,000 FLEE IRAQ EVERY MONTH
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6916791.stm
SO YOU THINK WE’RE ‘FIGHTING AL QAEDA’ IN IRAQ?
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/57889/
JON CARROLL: STOP ‘STOP LOSS’ POLICY
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/07/26/DDADR6Q223.DTL
If you are in a military family, particularly one with a soldier on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, you've probably already had too many conversations about the Bush administration's "stop-loss" policy. It's been in place since the Vietnam War, and was first used in the Gulf War, but it was not until Iraq that it was wielded with such enthusiasm and range. Now deployed soldiers have no assurance that they will rotate out on schedule, or at all. Used in times of extreme emergency, the policy makes some kind of sense. But used to prop up a badly conceived and terribly executed war, it's immoral.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WHEN CHENEY TOLD LEAHY: ‘GO F--- YOURSELF!’
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/26/hayes-cheney-leahy/

People’s Repugnic
$500 MILLION CHINESE PIRACY RING BUSTED
That should stop about one percent of the counterfeiting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6917127.stm

Mashed Media
SNOWJOB LAYS INTO REPORTER FOR “TWISTED WORDS’
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Snow_demands_reporter_change_twisted_words_0726.html 
Kinsolving asked Snow whether the President thinks it would be a good idea for all Americans to prepare an emergency survival kit for a possible terrorist attack or natural disaster. Snow quickly said he couldn't comment, and then proceeded to take time out to lecture Kinsolving on his job.
UNDER PRESSURE, DISNEY BANS SMOKING IN MOVIES
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/26/business/disney.php

Enviro Wacko
FRANCE TO BUILD NUKE REACTOR IN LIBYA
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,496711,00.html
What to Say to Those Who Think Nuclear Power Will Save Us
http://www.alternet.org/environment/57530/
IS GERMANY TAXING BIODIESEL TO DEATH?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,495674,00.html

Oh, by the way
SOLAR COOKERS TO THE RESCUE OF DARFURIS
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0726/p01s02-ussc.html
The three activists are among thousands nationwide who have raised money for a project that addresses the rape, mutilation, and murder of Darfuri women – now among at least 2 million Sudanese displaced by the conflict. The aim: Supply families with solar cookers and teach women in refugee camps new cooking skills so they don't have to burn wood.
Burma: A plight we can ignore no longer
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2802617.ece
The people of Burma endure human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale. Rape, torture and forced labour are facts of their lives. So why does the world refuse to act?
Star Trek's Chekov visits Burma refugees
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=120426

And in more important matters. . .

BIDS FOR KEITH RICHARDS BIO REACH $7.3 MILLION
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2135294,00.html
Fears that Richards may "do a Jagger" and renege on the deal because he can't recall enough of his infamously debauched past have been dismissed by his agent.

PARIS, CITY OF BIKE
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/25/opinion/edserge.php
What Paris has done right is to make it awful to get around by car, and awfully easy to get around by public transport or by bike.

DOCUMENTING REAL “LOCH NESS MONSTERS”
Group will document giant fish found around the world
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/070724-giant-fish.html

Musique
WAGNER’S GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER DESTROYS ‘MEISTERSINGER’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6917338.stm

Books
REMEMBERING ROBERT HEINLEIN
http://opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010381

And in the end. . .
THERE’LL ALWAYS BE AN AVANT-GARDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm-_rPKuoRc

7/25
Skylines:
Morning Concert
ANY ROAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8zQ0ZNn8VU

MAN TELLS CHENEY IRAQ IS ‘REPREHENSIBLE’
---IS ARRESTED FOR ‘ASSAULT’
http://cliffschecter.blogspot.com/2007/07/man-walked-up-to-dick-cheney-calmly.html
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/25/cheney-criticizer-arrested-for-assault/

SEVEN-YEAR-OLD ON ‘NO FLY’ LIST
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sfl-flbnofly0724nbjul24,0,2509059.story

FRENCH PREZ SARKOZYIS ACTUALLY SYLVESTER STALLONE
Photographic evidence confirms
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6914857.stm

GAIL ZAPPA THREATENS SUIT OVER STREET NAMED FOR FRANK
http://www.glidemagazine.com/Articles/52291/Frank-Zappa's-Wife-Threatens-Musicians'-Collective;-Fan-Club-Responds.html

RACCOONS THREATEN TO INVADE CATALINA ISLAND
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/8697487.html

‘SUMMER OF LOVE’ CONCERT AT SF SEPT. 2
http://www.2b1records.com/summeroflove40th/info.htm

MORFORD: NOBODY HAS A CLUE ABOUT LOVE
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2007/07/25/notes072507.DTL
It goes on. For every woman I know who simply can't wait to have kids and who tears up in front of a newborn and whose biological clock is ticking like Dick Cheney's pacemaker in a gay fetish dungeon, there's another who has quietly realized she should maybe never have become a mother. Or that it's not all it's cracked up to be. Or that it's wonderful and profound, but oh my God the changes and the sacrifices are just never-ending and it's insanely difficult and You. Have. No. Idea. What, still too obvious? Oh, it gets juicier. Couples you think were rock solid and perfect have fallen apart, screamingly. Couples you thought wouldn't last a year have made it to 10 and show no signs of slowing.

And on to news and comment. . .

TAX CIGARETTES TO FUND CHILDREN’S HEALTH?
BUSH WANTS TO VETO IT!
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/25/2755/
Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that will cover poor children in the U.S.The major obstacle? President Bush is vowing to veto the bill, even though Republican and Democratic senators reached bipartisan agreement on it. The bill adds $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next five years by increasing federal taxes on cigarettes.

(Lack of) Health
BUSH COMPLAINS OF GOV’T. HEALTH CARE
---TAXPAYERS PAY FOR HIS COLOSCOPY
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/25/BU44R6ES42.DTL&tsp=1
WATCH: MOORE ON ‘HARDBALL’
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#57875
WORRIED DINERS ASK:
IS THIS FISH FROM CHINA?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0725/p01s01-ussc.html

BUSH GOES THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS---
IRAQ OCCUPATION IS NOW WAR ON AL-QAEDA
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2992

RAIMUNDO: HOW TO GET OUT OF IRAQ
(But Justin, this is a permanent occupation, you see. . .)
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11344
Rapprochement with Iran, hands off Iraqi politics, and let the chips fall where they may

FORECLOSURE SKYROCKET IN BAY AREA
Insane housing market finally collapsing?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/25/BU44R6ES42.DTL&tsp=1

TALIBAN KILLS ONE OF 23 KOREAN HOSTAGES
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/afghanistan.hostages/index.html

Impeachy Keen
LINDORFF: THE SHAME OF JOHN CONYERS
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/2007.07.01_arch.html#1185245219549
Rep. John Conyers, venerable member of Congress, finally chair of the House Judiciary Committee, a man who worked with Parks in Alabama and then hired her on his staff after he won election to Congress in Detroit, today had 48 impeachment activists, including Gold Star Families for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan, Iraq Veteran Against the War activist Lennox Yearwood and Intelligence Veterans for Sanity founder Ray McGovern, arrested for conducting a sit-in in his office in the Rayburn House Office Building.
74-YEAR-OLD MAN ARRESTED FOR SELLING ‘IMPEACH HIM’ BUTTONS
http://keyetv.com/topstories/topstories_story_204145245.html
JACKOFF’S CRONY NORQUIST TELLS BUSH:
MAKE MOVEON.ORG LOOK ‘MORE EXTREME’
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/25/norquist-rove-iraq/

SHEEHAN: I ANNOUNCE MY CANDIDACY
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18066.htm

The Torture Never Stops
U.S. IGNORED U.K. PROTEST OVER ‘RENDITIONS’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6915652.stm
CHALMERS JOHNSON: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE CIA
http://tomdispatch.com/post/174824/chalmers_johnson_agency_of_rogues

What is the law?
FIRE GONZALES FOR BAD JON LOVITZ IMPERSONATION
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616429
GONZALES CONTINUES TO BRAZENLY LIE, WEASEL
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/07/25/senators_accuse_gonzales_of_deceit/
SENATORS WANT SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO GO AFTER GONZO
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2989
THE MUMBO KING
http://www.internetweekly.org/2007/07/cartoon_mumbo_jumbo_king.html

Electile Dysfunction
THE ACTOR-SENATOR READIES HIS CAMPAIGN FOR ACTOR-PRESIDENT
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2996
PUSSYFOOTER CLINTON ‘WINS’ YOUTUBE
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,496230,00.html
Clinton's biggest challengers, Obama and Edwards, stared into space. Hillary's campaign managers were more than pleased with their protégé. She had barked, but without biting.

Mashed Media
SOLOMON: MEDIA CORRECTIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE
http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon07242007.html
"For nearly five years, The Daily Bugle has frequently printed the headline 'Deaths in Iraq' over the latest listing of confirmed American deaths in Iraq. This headline has been insidiously misleading because it propagates the attitude that the only 'deaths in Iraq' worth reporting by name are the deaths of Americans. Such tacit jingoism and nationalistic narcissism have no place in quality news reporting. The Daily Bugle regrets its participation in this repetition compulsion disorder of American journalism."
TOP TEEVEE NEWSMANNEQUINS MADE $37 MILLION LAST YEAR
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Nations_top_three_news_anchors_made_0725.html
MORE LAT MADNESS:
COLUMN KILLED FOR SUGGESTING MUSIC GIVEAWAY
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/07/goldsteins_killed_column.php

Israelity
HUMMUS BRINGS ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS TOGETHER
Not to be confused with Hamas
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0725/p07s02-wome.html

Oh, by the way. . .
SPEAK NO ILL OF FASCIST HUGO
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1646554,00.html
BRIT FLOODS CAUSE CHIP CRISIS!
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=58685&in_page_id=34

And in more important matters. . .

JAPANESE WOMAN MAGICIAN INJURED IN SWORD TRICK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6913036.stm

STARBUCKS SIGNS JONI MITCHELL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6915142.stm

JON CARROLL ON FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/07/25/DDQRR66MV2.DTL

EGAD---STRAWBERRY FIELD BECOMES SALVATION ARMY ‘PRAYER CENTER’
http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article13635

HEATHER STILL HOLDING UP PAUL
“Can’t buy me off for 20 million pounds” long way from "Can't Buy Me Love."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2100189.ece

A HISTORY OF THE OBON FESTIVAL
http://www.janmstore.com/jaobonfestival.html

And in the end. . .
LORD BUCKLEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-b6S94O-Wk&mode=related&search=

7/24
Skylines:
Morning Concert
MOIRA LEVANT---STRING QUARTET
http://myspace.com/kmll2007

BONDS’ EX-HARLOT TO APPEAR IN PLAYBOY
That man is a walking piece of dignity, isn’t he?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/23/sports/s205150D45.DTL

NYC’S ASTOUNDING ‘GRAFFITI MECCA’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p20s01-ussc.html

SEE BUSH’S COLONOSCOPY SCAR!
http://www.internetweekly.org/2007/07/cartoon_bush_lobotomy.html

MAN HAS 30-LB. TUMOR REMOVED FROM FACE
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=58496&in_page_id=2

THE LEANING TOWER OF. . .THURINGIA?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,496073,00.html 

MORFORD: PLEASE NEVER FIND A GIANT SQUID
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/07/20/notes072007.DTL
The giant deep-sea squid is, quite simply, the perfect thing. Unlike UFOs, unlike lizard beings from the fifth dimension, unlike the GOP's heart, we actually we know for certain that it exists, that it has officially moved from the realm of fantasy and ancient mythology into the arena of (potentially) knowable entity, something that actually shares this planet with us and, relatively speaking, isn't all that far away.

And on to news and comment. . .

MUST WATCH: HOW TO CREATE AN ANGRY AMERICAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfzqulvhlQ

DON’T LIKE U.S. IRAQ POLICY?
BUSH CAN FREEZE YOUR ASSETS
New Exec Order gives Prezboy the right---we’re not making this stuff up!
http://www.gambling911.com/Executive-Order-Fifth-Ammendment-071907.html

PATRIOT MISSILE FOUND IN TAMPA JUNKYARD
Now that’s homeland security!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=57926&in_page_id=2

Iraq and Roll
NOW IT’S 2009. . .
We told you this was a permanent occupation, folks. . .
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_plans_sustained_Iraq_presence_through_0724.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/24/MNG8ER5KCF1.DTL

POLITICAL SATIRE BANNED IN NEW ZEALAND
We’re not making this stuff up. . .
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16541

RAIMUNDO: WILL BUSH INVADE. . .PAKISTAN?
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11334
No, this isn't about Iraq – it's about Pakistan, where al-Qaeda has carved out an enclave, reportedly in the wilds of Waziristan, and where the "experts" are saying Osama bin Laden has probably fled. The Bush administration – or, at least, the State Department – wants to fund something called the Frontier Corps to recruit Pashtun tribesmen to patrol and seal the porous Pakistani-Afghan border.

Your corporatocracy at work!
HALLIBURTON INCOME MORE THAN DOUBLES
“There’s plenty good money to be made/ by supplyin’ the army with tools of trade.”---Country Joe.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118518572033674818.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
$100-A-BARREL OIL COMING SOON
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/23/business/oil.php
WHY DID WOOLWORTH’S DIE?
http://www.americanheritage.com/events/articles/web/20070717-woolworth-business-retail-five-and-ten-urbanization-suburbanization-walmart.shtml

THE MICROCHIPPING OF AMERRYGUNS!
(Time to re-see Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner”)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070721/D8QH34P80.html
Chipping, these critics said, might start with Alzheimer's patients or Army Rangers, but would eventually be suggested for convicts, then parolees, then sex offenders, then illegal aliens - until one day, a majority of Americans, falling into one category or another, would find themselves electronically tagged.
Related:
INDONESIA MULLS MICROCHIPS FOR HIV CARRIERS
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Microchips_mulled_for_HIV_carriers_0724.html

Electile Dysfunction
RUDY THE CREEP PREACHING DIVISIVENESS, GREED, HATRED
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/23/BAGRUR5B4J12.DTL

The Torture Never Stops
FORMER GITMO INMATE BLOWS HIMSELF UP
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Former_Guantanamo_inmate_blows_hims_07242007.html
INJURED VETS HAVE TO SUE V.A. FOR HEALTH CARE
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003803254_veterans24.html

Mardis Grave
NEW ORLEANS RECOVERY SLOWED BY CLOSED HOSPITALS
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/us/24orleans.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Enviro Wacko
FREAKO BRIT SUMMER FLOODS CREST
20 days without fresh water in many areas
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2133666,00.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/24/international/i081754D29.DTL&tsp=1
GLOBAL WARMING CHANGING RAINFALL
The Brits are convinced. . .
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22124393-23109,00.html
A study has yielded the first confirmation that global warming is already affecting the world's rainfall patterns, bringing more precipitation to northern Europe, Canada and northern Russia but less to swathes of sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and Southeast Asia.
ANOTHER FIRE AT A JAPANESE NUKE PLANT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2133721,00.html

Mashed Media
ERIC SPILLMAN---TEEVEE NEWSMANNEQUIN---EXPLAINS JOURNALISM
Better that he explain ventriloquism. . .his “KTLA Morning Show” is as journalistic as Charlie McCarthy
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup23jul23,0,7322888.story?coll=la-opinion-center
RATHER STILL BADMOUTHING COURIC
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/07/rather_says_odds_getting_longe.php

People’s Repugnic
U.N. REJECTS TAIWAN’S RE-ENTRY
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1646204,00.html

Oh, by the way. . .
BRAILLE LITERACY DYING OUT
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0719/p13s02-legn.html
It seems the time, effort, and money it takes to teach children braille is sometimes passed over in favor of less expensive and less time-consuming audio and computer aids. To many within the blind community, this trend holds serious ramifications.
FAMED CHEF FIGHTING TONGUE CANCER
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-chef24jul24,1,2012149.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout&ctrack=2&cset=true
FINISHING SCHOOL FOR NAZIS TO BECOME MUSEUM
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,496026,00.html
FAT KIDS LESS LIKELY TO GO TO COLLEGE
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1646310,00.html
EUROPE’S HIGHEST TOILETS INSTALLED ON MT. BLANC
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,496153,00.html

And in more important matters. . .

R.I.P. SOPRANO TERESA STICH-RANDALL
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/arts/24stich-randall.html?ref=obituaries

THE TAO OF GLUTTONY
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22vegas.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Photo essay: What The World Eats
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1645016,00.html

SCHOOLS NAMED LESS AND LESS FOR PUBLIC FIGURES
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_51.htm
Of almost 3,000 public schools in Florida, five honor George Washington, compared with eleven named after manatees.

Books
AMATEURS RUINING THE WEB?
What’s to ruin?
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/computingandthenet/story/0,,2130794,00.html
His attack even encompasses one of the web's more widely admired experiments - Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written and edited by anyone who wants to have a go, on the principle that the crowd possesses an aggregate wisdom all of its own. "To my mind Wikipedia is not wise," says Keen. "It's dumb. Not necessarily because all its contributors are dumb, but because if you don't have an editor in charge, and you don't have singular voices, then the intellectual quality of what the crowd produces is very low."

Film
‘LIFE OF BRIAN’ IS # 1 FAVORITE BRIT FILM
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=58447&in_page_id=7
SIMPSONS FILM A TRIUMPH
http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,2133231,00.html

For Art’s Sake
SIGNS OF LOS ANGELES
http://sola7.wordpress.com/
THE JOLLY, BOOZY PAINTINGS OF BERYL COOK
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2133345,00.html

And in the end. . .
STRANGER THAN TRUTH---
FILIPINO PRISONERS RECREATE JACKSON’S ‘THRILLER’
http://www.metro.co.uk/yourmetro/article.html?in_article_id=58519&in_page_id=6

7/20
Skylines:
Morning Concert
IN LIVERPOOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9LGcwh6f8g

Potter heads
STEPHEN KING ON ‘POTTER’:
MY ADVICE---STOCK UP ON KLEENEX
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20044270_20044274_20044682,00.html
When it comes to Harry, part of me — a fairly large part, actually — can hardly bear to say goodbye. I'd guess that J.K. Rowling feels the same, although I'd also guess those feelings are mingled with the relief of knowing that the work is finally done, for better or worse.
‘HARRY POTTER’ IS OUT OF CONTROL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/20/POTTER.TMP
That may be the real magic that Harry Potter leaves behind. Even in an age when everyone seems to know everything instantaneously, it still comes down to turning the pages one-by-one and savoring every word.
THE VOICE OF ‘POTTER ON TAPE’ KEEPS A SECRET
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/20/arts/17dale.php
WHAT EXACTLY ARE ‘DEATHLY HALLOWS?’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6908080.stm
‘POTTER’ BOOK PLOTS SUMMARIZED BY READERS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6896062.stm
‘POTTER’ PODCASTS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6904289.stm
BRAILLE ‘POTTER’ BOOKS RELEASED SATURDAY
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/18/entertainment/e140930D29.DTL
‘POTTER’ WILL LIVE ON AS FRANCHISE
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/20/news/companies/harrypotter_newbook/index.htm
STUDENTS STUDYING ‘POTTER’ STAGE GAME OF QUIDDITCH
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=58043&in_page_id=34

ABSOLUTE PROOF: YOU DON’T NEED A BRAIN TO COLLECT TAXES
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,495607,00.html 

HUGE VIKING TREASURE FOUND IN ENGLAND
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=57957&in_page_id=34
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/19/international/i112759D67.DTL

CAPTAIN AMERICA BUSTED!
Oh, the symbolism. . .
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/BREAKINGNEWS/70719024

And on to news and comment. . .

MUST WATCH: OLBERMANN---
BUSH HAS SOLD THE COUNTRY OUT
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Olbermann_slams_Bush_after_Hillary_blamed_0719.html
Pentagon drags out the old ploy: Billary is helping “the enemy”
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2950

BUSH TO CONGRESS: YOU CAN’T CHARGE US
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_House_to_Congress_You_cant_0720.html

ROBERTS:
GET READY FOR ANOTHER 9/11/WMD EXPERIENCE
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18037.htm
Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran. If Bush’s intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three carrier strike forces.Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran.

IRAQ ‘WAR’ WILL TOTAL $550 BILLION BY OCTOBER
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/19/iraq-costs-half-trillion/

BAGHDAD IS A ‘SMASHED CITY’
http://www.rense.com/general77/bagh.htm

ASBESTOS IN MANHATTAN EXPLOSION
http://www.enn.com/todays-news/13164

Plame-out
JUDGE THROWS OUT PLAME’S SUIT AGAINST CHENEY
Country gone. . .
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2947
JUDGE IS REPUGNICAN LOYALIST (OF COURSE)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071907R.shtml

People’s Repugnic
CHINA JACKS UP PRICES OF VITAMIN C
Controls 80 percent of the market
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p01s01-woap.htm
FORMALDEHYDE IN CHINA ‘WHITE RABBIT’ CANDY
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/2007/07/20/115591/China-candy.htm

Your Corporatocracy at Work!
PROSECUTORS WANT EX-QWEST EXEC TO COUGH UP $52 MILLION
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200707180833DOWJONESDJONLINE000569_FORTUNE5.htm

Electile Dysfunction
ROMNEY SPENDS THOUSANDS ON. . .MAKE-UP!
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Mitt_Romney_spent_nearly_2K_on_0719.html
POLL: 63 PERCENT SAY CLINTON LIKELY TO WIN
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/19/opinion/polls/main3076104.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3076104
ANOTHER POLL: U.S. WOMEN SKEPTICAL OF BILLARY
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/20/america/20poll.php
OBAMA UNPLUGGED---OBAMA UNINTERESTING
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,495460,00.html

Mardis Grave
FEMA SENT TOXIC TRAILERS TO KATRINA VICTIMS
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1645312,00.html

Mashed Media
L.A. BLOGGER IN APPARENT SUICIDE
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/07/theresa_duncan.php

Israelity
ISRAEL RELEASES 250 PALESTINIANS
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,495600,00.html

Enviro Wacko
SNOWLESS FRENCH SKI RESORT BIDS ADIEU
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/19/travel/0720francewarm.php
MEAT IS MURDER ON THE ENVIRONMENT
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-murder-on-the-environment.html
A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.

Oh, by the way. . .
NEW NIXON MEMO SHOWS SAME OLD PERSECUTION COMPLEX
http://www.slate.com/id/2170457/entry/2170458/

And in more important matters. . .

THE GOOSE WHISPERER
http://www.enn.com/todays-news/13158

Film
RAINER ON ‘HAIRSPRAY’---
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p13s03-almo.html
---AND ON ‘GOYA’S GHOSTS’
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p13s02-almo.html

And in the end. . .
HAPPY CATS
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=happy+cats&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi