In Parts I & II we looked back on days past, via Steinbeck and the Great Depression, and wondered if that is a vision of our economic future? Economic issues aren’t the only thing we should be concerned about in the future…, and those issues seem particularly relevant on Independence Day. Thomas Pynchon took a look back at the 60’s and 70’s and gave us his vision of what the Ronald Reagan Road of the 1980’s looked like, behind the media veil, in his book, “Vineland“. I wonder what Pynchon is saying today…, with a new cabinet level government law enforcement agency called Homeland Security…, and Border Patrol agents manning checkpoints, stopping all law abiding citizens and boarding buses? Are they really looking for “terrorists” and illegal aliens? Or are they just testing us…, again…, to see what magnitude of fascist oppression we will stand still for?

Listening to Gov. Sarah Palin today announce her resignation, I couldn’t help but be impressed with her selflessness in saving Alaska from the trauma of her continuing in office. Now that she has decided not to run for reelection, she has also decided to hand over the keys to the governor’s office to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, because, as she described it, she is not the usual sort of politician. She believes she can fight for Alaskans with more success from the outside than the inside as a lame-duck governor, flopping around in her office in Juneau with no power, subject to the terrible mean-spirited partisanship that characterizes modern political discourse.

Peter Baker | Moscow | July 3

NYT - The Russian government has agreed to let American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan fly over Russian territory, officials on both sides said Friday. The arrangement will provide an important new corridor for the United States military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year war.

BBC - A senior Obama administration official has told the BBC that Russia has agreed to let US troops bound for the war in Afghanistan fly through its airspace. The deal, which opens up an important new corridor for the US military, is to be officially announced when President Barack Obama visits Moscow next week. Speaking separately, a Kremlin official confirmed a deal was on the table but suggested it referred to weapons only. The reported agreement marks a major development in US-Russian relations.

Philip Rucker & Eli Saslow | July 3

WaPo - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) announced this afternoon she will resign from office on July 26 and return to private life, a stunning decision by last year's Republican vice presidential candidate to leave office before the end of her first term.

"We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities," Palin said in a news conference alongside a lake in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

Using a basketball analogy, Palin said, "I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory."

Palin, 45, is a major star in the GOP and is seen as a leading candidate for the party's presidential nomination in 2012.

and had the 2nd hottest June on record
Lakes are setting records for low water- only 1 boat ramp open at Buchannan and Travis(last one still in water)
Hay is available but with out rain soon will be scarce fall and winter
horse slaughter plants are closed in Texas and restrictions on taking them to Mexico
Selling a low end horse is near impossible
Rescues are full
Folks are turning their horses loose- sherriff offices are beggin folks to take them
How long before folks think maybe the Europeans eating horse flesh isnt that bad an idea

If the horses continue being turned out as stray

Bill Sizemore | Alexandria, VA | July 2

The Virginia-Pilot - A just-amended lawsuit alleges six additional instances of unprovoked attacks on Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors.

Three people, including a 9-year-old boy, are said to have died.

Also added to the suit is a racketeering count accusing Blackwater founder Erik Prince of running an ongoing criminal enterprise involved in, among other things, kidnapping and child prostitution.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will buy more than 5,200 new armored vehicles designed to protect troops from roadside bombs in the rugged and steep terrain in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
The move comes as statistics show roadside bomb attacks have surged to record levels in Afghanistan, and commanders there have an urgent need for maneuverable trucks that are safer than armored Humvees when struck by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The need for an all-terrain Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle is acute as more U.S. troops are sent to Afghanistan to help quell the growing insurgency.

wasn't it supposed to peak at 8% and rise no more if the stimulus package was approved

and whos watch was this on??

t r u t h o u t - Jason Leopold on Yoo, Walker, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, officials from the Defense Intelligence Agency, representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and judge advocate generals (JAGs) from all four branches of the military and the process of justifying degrading interrogation tactics in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

Washington | July 1

AP - The Justice Department is again delaying the release of an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration.

The report had been expected to be made public two weeks ago but was held back over debates about how much of it should be censored. The government published a version of the report in 2008, but its contents were almost entirely blacked out.

Tourism Stats

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that 3.8 million international visitors traveled to the United States in March 2009, a decrease of 20 percent compared to March 2008. Total visitation in the first quarter 2009 was down 14 percent from the first quarter 2008. International visitors spent $9.9 billion during the month, 16 percent less than visitors spent in March 2008. March 2009 marks the fifth consecutive month of decreases in international visitors spending.

Daniel Nasaw | Washington | July 1

The Guardian - A US army panel has recommended an Arabic linguist and Iraq veteran be discharged from the military for declaring on television that he is gay.

The army accused Lieutenant Dan Choi, 28, of violating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the military. Choi, a graduate of the elite West Point military academy, served a tour in Iraq as an infantry officer, translator and Arabic language instructor. He announced in March on a popular liberal television chat show that he is gay, setting up a confrontation.

The panel today recommended that the US army withdraw Choi's federal recognition as an officer, a move that would end his military career, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fanning, a spokesman for the New York army national guard, Choi's command.

"It is firing based on identity, purely discriminatory based on my identity," Choi said. "If I had said 'no, I'm sorry, I'm actually straight but those statements were a lie and I'm sorry,' then I had a good chance of being retained."

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, my ass

The Minnesota Supreme Court issued a judgment in favor of Al Franken this afternoon. Norm Coleman has conceded. The Democrats now have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Will they use it?

St. Paul, MN | June 30

CNN - Minnesota's Supreme Court has dismissed former Sen. Norm Coleman's challenge to the state's November election results and declared Democratic challenger Al Franken the winner.

The court's unanimous, unsigned opinion declared that Franken "received the highest number of votes legally cast" and is entitled "to receive the certificate of election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota."

If the ruling brings an end to seven months of challenges by Coleman, Franken would become the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus, a move that gives the party a filibuster-proof majority in the chamber, at least on paper.

Kevin G. Hall | Washington, DC | June 29

McClatchy - In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal bank regulator erred in quashing efforts by New York state to combat the kind of predatory mortgage lending that triggered the nation's financial crisis.

The 5-4 ruling by the high court was unusual. Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative jurist, wrote the majority's opinion and was joined by the court's four liberal judges.

The five justices held that contrary to what the Bush administration had argued, states can enforce their own laws on matters such as discrimination and predatory lending, even if that crosses into areas under federal regulation.

David Edwards | June 29

Raw Story - U.S. Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, a graduate of the West Point military academy and an Arabic translator, will face a military panel on Tuesday which may discharge him for admitting he is gay.

His case was mentioned in a letter to President Barack Obama, signed by 77 Democratic members of Congress. They called the 10-year veteran an “exceptional” soldier. Some have even referred to him as “the de facto face of the movement to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“I face a discharge tomorrow morning, simply for being honorable and telling who I am, in truth” he told CNN host John Roberts on Monday morning.

Should he be discharged, it would “strip away a lot of the veterans benefits, and that can include education, home loan, and even veterans hospital and medical benefits,” he added. “These benefits that I’ve earned being a combat veteran of the Iraq war.”

Tim Cocks & Muhanad Mohammed | Baghdad | June 29

Reuters - U.S. troops pulled out of Baghdad on Monday, triggering jubilation among Iraqis hopeful that foreign military occupation is ending six years after the invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi soldiers paraded through the streets in their American-made vehicles draped with Iraqi flags and flowers, chanting, dancing and calling the pullout a "victory".

One drove a motorcycle with party streamers on it; another, a Humvee with a garland of plastic roses on the grill.

U.S. combat troops must pull out of Iraq's urban centres by midnight on Tuesday under a bilateral security pact that also requires all troops to leave the country by 2012.

All had left the capital by Monday afternoon, Major-General in Staff, Abboud Qanbar, head of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, told Reuters.

Environmentalists are 0-for-5 at the high court this term.

The National Law Journal, by Marcia Coyle, June 29

Environmentalists suffered a stunning 0-for-5 outcome in the U.S. Supreme Court this term, their "worst term ever," according to advocates and scholars.

The defeats left the environmental community, and even its traditional antagonist in these cases — the business community — wondering where the Court is heading in this increasingly important area of the law.

Sherwood Ross | Baghdad | June 28

Global Research - The Central Intelligence Agency crucified a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to a report published in The New Yorker magazine.

“A forensic examiner found that he (the prisoner) had essentially been crucified; he died from asphyxiation after having been hung by his arms, in a hood, and suffering broken ribs,” the magazine’s Jane Mayer writes in the magazine’s June 22nd issue. “Military pathologists classified the case a homicide.” The date of the murder was not given.

June 28

BBC - Russia and Nato have agreed to resume co-operation on security issues, after nearly a year of difficult relations. The deal came at a meeting in Greece of foreign ministers from the two sides.

Ties deteriorated sharply in 2008 after Russia's brief conflict with Georgia. Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said differences over the issue remained.But he said Nato and Russia would nonetheless resume co-operation on issues such as Afghanistan, drug trafficking and piracy.

"We have restarted our relations at a political level, we also agreed to restart the military-to-military contacts which had been frozen since last August," the Nato secretary-general told a news conference in Corfu.

“We very much want to work with others to make sure that we have … as pro-American a tax system for corporations as we possibly can …” Lawrence Summers

The Administration is struggling to fund its spending spree in ways that would nominally be consistent with the President’s campaign promises. The Obama budget proposed to inflict two substantial tax increases on U.S. corporations with global operations. One would make it more expensive to bring cash from those operations into the U.S. The other would make it expensive (on average 30% more expensive) to pay Americans, rather than citizens of any other country, to perform headquarters administrative jobs such as accounting, IT, or HR. These proposals were supposedly aimed at fulfilling the promise to “end tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas”. While they hurt companies with global operations, it is hard to see how they would do anything other than reduce U.S. jobs.

Dafna Linzer & Peter Finn | June 27

WaPo/ProPublica - Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president's January deadline.

"Look What You Made Me Do"

Caesar, Hitler, Nixon - War, Racism, Hatred - Alcohol, Mysogyny, Conformity

Seamless trinities...
One needn't ever drink a drop of alcohol to serve in it's churches...
Just as one needn't ever hit women to perpetuate ever worse to them...
Or as one needn't necessarily exit conventional reality to reject the convention.

Seamless subjects. Addiction: money, ego, power, sex, drugs, food, adrenalin, violence, drugs, fear, hatred, guns, vanity, games, the very creative imperative itself -addiction alone makes an endless daisy chain of seamlessly related subjects. They continue on through Blame and Guilt, and Control. Subjects of enthrallment, helpless captivity. It's a necessary convenience to limit the moment's topic. In such isolation, the seamlessness of the chain is not a foregone understanding though, not at all, quite the opposite. It is not a given understanding that to talk of one is to talk of 'them' all... As it should be; that isn't necessarily true, or false.

Gareth Porter | June 22(UPDATED) | IPS

On Jun. 25, 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded at a building in the Khobar Towers complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which housed U.S. Air Force personnel, killing 19 U.S. airmen and wounding 372.

Immediately after the blast, more than 125 agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were ordered to the site to sift for clues and begin the investigation of who was responsible. But when two U.S. embassy officers arrived at the scene of the devastation early the next morning, they found a bulldozer beginning to dig up the entire crime scene.

PART 2: Saudi Account of Khobar Bore Telltale Signs of Fraud
PART 3: U.S. Officials Leaked a False Story Blaming Iran
PART 4: FBI Ignored Compelling Evidence of bin Laden Role
PART 5: Freeh Became "Defence Lawyer" for Saudis on Khobar