Will you help Senator Sanders expose the Koch Echo Chamber?

I can only hope that more people will understand the extent of the Koch Brothers (and many other multi-millionaire and billionaires) reach into changing laws, influence peddling, and disinformation... all to help their long run profitability at the expense of the working class.

This is hilarious:

Oscar Talk with Mike Tyson & Leonard Maltin from Mike Tyson

Of all the Oscar winners last night, I'm particularly satisfied that Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor. His performance in an otherwise dreadful film was thoroughly entertaining.

Mark Morford puts Tiger Woods recent "apology" into proper perspective:

"....Dick Cheney slithering forth and apologizing for being a cancerous, warmongering monster whose brutal profiteering and shriveled soul cost thousands of young American lives? The GOP stepping out and admitting they killed health care reform because they really wanted to ding the scary black president, and don't really give a flying crap about your sick and uninsured children? Now those would be remarkable public apologies. A comatose golfer saying he's sorry for nailing some hookers whilst his family rolls around in $500 million worth of Escalades, diamond-crusted teaspoons and Swiss ski chalets? Not a remarkable apology. Clear?...."

We've added a new widget on the left sidebar, headlines from Globalpost.com. Globalpost was created this year with an eye toward covering world news that the U.S. news organizations are slowly but surely abandoning (due to budget constraints among other factors). Check them out as they increasingly provide important global news that you would otherwise never hear.

Glenn Greenwald hits it on the head (twice):

"....This remains the single most notable and revealing fact of American political life: that (with some very important exceptions) those most devoted to maintaining and advocating government secrecy is our journalist class, of all people. It would be as if the leading proponents of cigarette smoking were physicians, or those most vocally touting the virtues of illiteracy were school teachers. Nothing proves the true function of these media stars as government spokespeople more than their eagerness to shield government actions from examination and demand that government criminality not be punished...."

and:

"....Amidst all the talk about how prosecutions would destroy post-partisan harmony and whether torture "works," it is virtually impossible to find any media star discussions about the fact that torture is illegal and that those who order, authorize or engage in torture are committing felonies. That is because -- other than for fun sex scandals and other Blagojevich-like sensationalistic acts -- the overriding belief of the political class is that elites (such as themselves) have the right to break the law and not be held accountable. Amazingly, when it comes to crimes by ordinary Americans, being "tough on crime" is a virtually nonnegotiable prerequisite to being Serious, but when it comes to political officials who commit crimes in the exercise of their power, absolute leniency is the mandated belief upon pain of being dismissed as "shrill" and extremist. Can anyone find an establishment media pundit anywhere -- just one -- who is advocating that Bush officials who broke the law be held accountable under our laws? That view seems actively excluded from establishment media discussions...."

Good For Campbell Brown & MSM

My highlights:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- You may find it hard to believe that this remains an issue in this campaign, but it does. The candidates, both candidates, are still getting questions about Barack Obama's ethnicity and religion. If you are even semi-informed, then by now you already know that of course, Barack Obama is an American. Of course, Barack Obama is a Christian. Yet just a few days ago, there was a woman at a rally for John McCain incorrectly calling Obama an Arab: Woman at rally: I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab. Sen. John McCain: No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about. He's not, thank you. Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question -- so what if he was? So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter? When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical? Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there is something wrong with being an Arab-American or a Muslim. And the media is complicit here, too. We've all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur. I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else. There are more than 1.2 million Arab-Americans and about 7 million Muslim-Americans, former Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, successful business people, normal average Americans from all walks of life. These are the people being maligned here, and we can only imagine how this conversation plays in the Muslim world. We can't tolerate this ignorance -- not in the media, not on the campaign trail. Of course, he's not an Arab. Of course, he's not a Muslim. But honestly, it shouldn't matter.

Of course I bet Brown was channeling Digby here but I can't find Digby's article.

Juan Cole may be a Middle East expert, but he's no slouch on American politics:

I have concluded that Americans, who pretend in public to be straitlaced, are in fact rabid masochists addicted to whips, black leather and the application of fists. It turns out that large numbers of people throughout the world are accidentally asphyxiated every year because they need to be choked for maximum pleasure. The diagnosis of national masochism is the only thing that can satisfactorily explain the poll numbers in the presidential race.Let's get this straight.The Republican Party came to Washington, DC, in 2000 with a solid majority in both houses of Congress and on the Supreme Court, allowing them to steal the presidency, as well. If you wanted to know what a pure Republican-Party government unhindered by the Democrats, Libertarians, Greens or Socialists might look like, this was the moment. So they came to power when there was a budget surplus bequeathed by a Democratic president.They immediately ran up a big deficit every year since, doubling the national debt from $5 trillion to $10 trillion. You don't run big deficits of $300 and $400 billion a year in good times according to Keynes. You save the the deficit spending for a recession, when the economy needs a jolt. If you're already racking up a big deficit every year in a good economy, you have no way of making a difference during a significant downturn except by then going for a truly mega-deficit, which risks destroying the value of your currency abroad. In a service economy like that of the US, a dollar with a declining value might not even help the economy via exports very much, since the manufactured goods are being made down in Mexico now, anyway. Note that Clinton had been talking about using the surplus to pay down the debt or to fix the looming crisis in social security. With the government encumbered with $5 trillion in new debt before September, and now with another trillion and a half (probably when it is all said and done with), how exactly will social security be fixed? (Hint: Republican leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich hated social security, because the people are grateful to the Democrats for it. Bush tried to privatize it and McCain would have helped him; you wonder if they are trying deliberately to destroy it. Social security is the main reason for which the elderly are not now, as they were in the 1930s, the poorest and most miserable section of society.) Then many of the Republicans came to Washington with a crooked plan to use fraudulent methods to ensure that campaign financing went almost exclusively to them through super-lobbyists like Jack Abramoff. Grover Norquist's K-Street Project aimed at guaranteeing big corporate dollars for the Republicans in exchange for their granting the corporations the right to write the legislation affecting their industry. Thus, laws governing pharmaceuticals were written by the pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and just signed off on by the Republicans. This scam goes beyond Marx's fear that government in a business society was just a "managing committee" for the business classes. Tom Delay, from 2002 the Republican Party majority leader in the House, was too lazy even to be the managing committee! The K-Street crowd just let the business classes run the legislature directly, themselves, having the regulatory laws written to suit them. So Abramoff, Delay, the K-Street crowd are busted. Once upon a time such a thing would have been a huge political scandal and would have haunted the party that produced it. But because US Big Media is mostly Republican-owned, it just quietly subsided as a story. It is not just that the rap sheet against the Class of 2000, 2002, and 2004 among the Republican politicians is longer than a trans-Atlantic cable, it is that so much of the corruption took the form of a conspiracy. All parties have people in them looking to get rich on the side. But the K Street Project and various other such scams weren't just about individual aggrandizement. They were about fixing the whole American system permanently to kow-tow to the super-rich without so much as a whimper, and to positively punish the middle classes. After the 2002 mid-terms, even George W. Bush wanted to do a tax cut for the middle classes. But Cheney over-ruled him, insisting on another deep tax cut for the very wealthy. We won the mid-terms, Cheney said. This is our due. Deficits don't matter. "Our" due? Cheney is saying that the Republican Party is the party of the super-rich, of the 3 million at the top of American society who own 45% of the privately held wealth (as though we were Brazil), and they are the ones that will be exclusively benefited by Republican rule. Of course, there were many other conspiracies by the pirouetting pirates of plunder. There was the Iraq War, one of the great criminal conspiracies of modern times. Barton Gellman has how related the story of how Dick Cheney lied to Dick Armey before the vote on the war, telling him that Saddam's family was all al-Qaeda and that Saddam's evil scientists had made a suitcase nuclear bomb that he would certainly turn over to Bin Laden, and such rank horse manure as that. Dick Armey weeps, says he deserved better than to be bullshitted by the vice president of the United States. They took us to war against a country that had not attacked the United States; they killed or maimed 33,000 Americans, and turned a whole Arab Muslim country into a burned-out hulk, displacing millions and continuously bombing the very cities that they had conquered and occupied, killing and disfiguring. They propagandized us with implausible lies about mobile biological weapons labs and Baathist al-Qaeda, and our journalists and their corporate bosses bought them hook line and sinker, as did the public.Cable and satellite television "news" tells us nothing of elections in India or constitutional crisis in Thailand, and barely mentions a major workers strike at Boeing. Dozens of car bombs go off in Iraq and we are told it is "calm" now. It is a vast electromagnetic form of bread and circuses, wherein hapless celebrities and philandering politicians are fed to the lions before millions of cheering plebes, by corporate moguls desperately hoping that the marks will not notice the legion of pickpockets in the arena, relieving them of their purses. This crew in Washington thought nothing of assiduously attempting to induce the press to out a covert CIA operative working against Iranian nuclear proliferation, Valerie Plame. Their culture of lies is such that they attempt to divert attention from all the phone calls to journalists by Irv Lewis Libby and Karl Rove trying to get the press to print her name by saying that those two did not succeed. As if the attempt were not dastardly! Why is trying to inform the Iranians of the identity of a CIA field officer assigned to spy on Iran not an act of treason? After all, you can't inform the world without also informing the Iranians. Isn't the punishment for treason hanging? The Republican Party conducted a vast illegal spying operation on Americans and on foreign diplomats. We still don't know why exactly, and that the operation had domestic political motivations cannot be ruled out. They imposed on us this so-called PATRIOT act that gutted the Constitution. The peaceful protesters in St. Paul at the RNC were actually charged with being terrorists, in this Brave New World. By their incompetence and cupidity the Republican politicians deeply damaged the relief effort for one of America's great cities, New Orleans, which will never see the $33 billion pledged for its reconstruction. Not to mention that levies and bridges are breaking and falling down all around us because Cheney did not want to tax his billionaire friends to pay for the country's infrastructural upkeep. And then they so radically deregulated and removed any oversight from the banking system that they came within hours of presiding over a 1929-style absolute meltdown of the entire financial and securities system. To cover the criminal activities of their cronies, they are now proposing to impose a fine of one trillion dollars on the middle class, to ensure that their partners in crime will receive their $25 million Christmas bonuses and be held harmless for their misdeeds. And in the wake of the greatest and most sustained act of systematic plunder since the Mongol hordes appropriated to themselves the riches of everyplace in Asia from Beijing to Isfahan, the reaction of the supine and slave-like American voting public is to scratch their heads and have a hard time deciding if they would like more of the same. Despite his aristocratic prerogatives and connections in high society, even the Marquis de Sade himself was brought down by a lowly maid, who complained to the police of his cutting her while having his way with her, leading to his arrest. In contrast to that plucky domestic servant, the American public appears to enjoy being lacerated while being badly used, moaning with delight at each new act of abuse and abasement, while, blue-lipped, gasping for air. One worries for our children, threatened with the fate of the homeless street children so common in the sort of third world country into which we are being turned by our managing committee. But, well, if you are determined to bend over on November 4, at least I hope you enjoy pain. In that case, you are going to be ecstatic.

Watch how the right-wing media (a.k.a. MSM) takes a misquote lie by Dana Milbank about Obama to the extreme and totally embarrasses itself:

Take that McRube!

Johnathan Martin at Politico got to the bottom of Obama not checking in on the injured troops at Ramstein AFB, Germany.

VoteVets, the pro-Democrat group of retired military personnel, counters McCain's Black Hawk down statement with some outrage from Col. Katherine Scheirman (Ret.), the retired Chief of Medical Operations for United States Air Force in Europe Headquarters at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany: "John McCain's new ad is dishonest and shameful, and I say that as the former Chief of Medical Operations. Senators Hagel and Reed confirmed to Bob Schieffer yesterday that Senator Obama visited the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad as a part of their CODEL, with no media present. "In Germany, Senator Obama made the right decision to respect wounded troops, and the doctors and nurses doing crucial and time-sensitive work, by not making a visit that was characterized as a campaign event by the Pentagon. Senator Obama should be thanked for putting our military above politics. And, I would hope that John McCain would think in those same terms, the next time he is put in a similar situation. "Senator Obama has voted for the troops when John McCain has not, most recently on the new GI Bill. I am happy that Senator Obama puts the welfare of our troops above politics." Also, it's notable that Obama's camp, quick to respond to most every charge and ever-conscious of not repeating the mistakes of Kerry, has yet to go on the air with a spot pushing back against McCain's charge on the troop visit. Apparently, they won't unless McCain puts real money behind his spot and goes beyond just gaming it for earned media.

Once again, Obama doesn't have to lower himself to his opponents level. Will it work through November?

"Two Sides to Every Breakup"

He said, he said. Of course, you know whom I'm talking about. There's nothing as riveting and at the same time painful as witnessing the public meltdown of a personal relationship. When the drama is being driven by chattering friends and other gossips, ones who really can't wait for the blood to be spilt or for someone to be thrown in the grinder, the public breakup takes on another dimension as Must-See-Entertainment. Meanwhile, two people are nursing hurt feelings and the rupture of a long-term friendship. Wondering how the other could betray the other. Wondering how their friend could violate what they affirmed as their bedrock moral codes. Wondering how the other could have forgotten the love they had for one another. They almost pulled it out, you know. The one we think of as the class orator had been getting flack for days about what his friend, the guy who preached, said months and years ago in his church. The orator was told that since the preacher said all these nasty, nasty things, he needed to get rid of him. Tell him that he was a racist and a lousy human being and throw him out of his life because he'd only Weigh Him Down in the future. The gossips wanted to see fealty to themselves and blood before they would promote the orator. The orator instead went to the crowd. Pulled off a brilliant speech - he said that he didn't believe in the objectionable things the preacher had said, but that the preacher was a great man and a great friend. And I'm not going to betray a friend. And then it went wrong. The preacher was feeling at first like the gossips had torn him into thousand little pieces, and then restored whole in 10 minutes of words. Felt both invulnerable and defensive. Torn down by man and restored by Man with the grace of God. Said that You're Not Gettin' Rid of Me That Easy to the gossips. I am a man of God, and I am here to Prophesize to your ignorant asses! And so the preacher made a complete fool out of himself. It is no surprise that the Devil uses pride to undermine preachers so often. Handed their tools by the guy they wanted to tar, the gossips made short work of the preacher. The orator, shocked by his friend's behaviour and words, accordingly threw away the friendship. As they wanted all along. And I imagine tonight that the orator and the preacher this evening are grieving over the loss of each other in their lives, while at the same time venting their anger at one another's defections and betrayals. And the gossips pass the sordid details into the wee hours of the morn, counting the esteem of the crowd. - idiosynchronic

Democrats are Putting Forth Solid Legislation and Being Fought Every Step of the Way

I frequent, no, you could say I have a second home as a commentator at The Left Coaster. It's a blog where I can express my opinion on the politics at hand and have friendly disagreements with other like minded liberals like myself.

One of the things that bothers me most is when a troll will come in and start throwing out talking points straight from the "Repuli-con Attack Machine" (RAM) or Ru$h "the Ultimate Merchant of Hate" Limbaugh. Especially disheartening to hear is how great the minority party is doing for progress in America. This is completely false! From the pResident down, the Republi-cons are stopping all the important legislation put forth by the Democratic majority in Congress and foiling the will of the people.

For some reason, the Neo-Con, knuckle draggers think it's only the weak Democrats that are the reason for low congressional polling numbers. However, I am positive obstructing republi-cons will continue to lose more elections because of their current mindset. I don't delude myself thinking the "Dino Dems" in control of House and Senate committee chairs are doing all they can to combat this rogue bu$h administration. But let's be clear, the weak Democrats are facing a scheming republi-con minority.

Let me show you some stats (click on for a larger view) from Campaign for America's Future:


As of July 23rd, 2007 there had been almost 3 times as many cloture votes than the previous 17 congresses!! Now how does a simpleton, knuckle dragger not see Republi-con obstruction? They are fighting the weak Democrats every step of the way.

Add to this the threat of a bu$h'$ pResidential veto and there is no wonder why our government is crawling. Yet, because the Democrats took the election last year they are taking the heat in the MSM for nothing getting done. Let's take a look at the bu$h veto threats, once again, from Campaign for America's Future:

Bill Number / Title / Date of Veto Threat HR 6 Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 12/7/07 HR 4156 Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Appropriations Act, 2008 11/14/07 HR 3996 Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007 11/8/07 HR 3355 Homeowners Defense Act 11/6/07 HR 2419 Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 11/6/07 HR 1495 Water Resources Development Act of 2007 11/2/07 HR 2262 Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 11/1/07 HR 3920 Trade and Globalization Assistance Act of 2007 10/30/07 HR 3963 Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 10/25/07 HR 3685 The Employment Non-Discrimination Act 10/23/07 HR 505 Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 10/22/07 S 1710 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 10/17/07 HR 3773 To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes 10/16/07 HR 2102 Providing conditions for the Federally compelled disclosure of information by certain persons connected with the news media 10/16/07 HR 2095 Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 10/10/07 HR 3056 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the authority of the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collection companies, and for other purposes 10/10/07 HR 2895 National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 10/9/07 HR 3093 Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 10/4/07 HR 3246 Regional Economic and Infrastructure Development Act of 2007 10/3/07 HR 2740 MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007 10/3/07 HR 3222 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2008 10/2/07 HR 928 To amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to enhance the independence of the Inspectors General, to create a Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, and for other purposes 10/1/07 HR 3121 Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 9/26/07 HR 976 Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2007 9/25/07 HR 2881 FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007 9/19/07 S 1275 District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 9/18/07 HR 2761 Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 9/17/07 S 1789 Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 9/11/07 HR 2764 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008 9/6/07 S 1645 Military Construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 9/4/07 HR 3221 New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act 8/3/07 HR 2276 Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act 8/3/07 HR 3159 Ensuring Military Readiness Through Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act 8/2/07 HR 3162 The Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 8/1/07 HR 3161 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2008 7/31/07 S 1893 Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2007 7/30/07 HR 2831 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 7/27/07 S 1644 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008 7/25/07 HR 2419 Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007 7/25/07 HR 3093 Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 7/24/07 HR 3074 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bills, 2008 7/23/07 HR 3043 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 7/17/07 HR 2946 To require the Secretary of Defense to commence the reduction of the number of United States Armed Forces in Iraq to a limited presence by April 1, 2008, and for other purposes 7/12/07 S 1547 National Defense Authorization Act, FY 2008 7/10/07 HR 2669 College Cost Reduction Act of 2008 7/10/07 HR 2829 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, FY 2008 6/26/07 HR 2643 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2008 6/25/07 HR 800 Amending the National Labor Relations Act 6/20/07 HR 2764 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008 6/19/07 HR 2641 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2008 6/13/07 HR 2642 Military Construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2008 6/13/07 HR 2638 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, FY 2008 6/12/07 HR 6 Creating Long-term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Act 6/12/07 S 5 Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 6/7/07 HR 2560 Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007 6/6/07 HR 1252 Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2007 5/23/07 HR 2264 No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007 (NOPEC) 5/22/07 HR 1585 National Defense Authorization Act, FY 2008 5/16/07 HR 2237 To provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq 5/10/07 HR 2206 U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 5/10/07 HR 2207 Agricultural Disaster Assistance and Western States Emergency Unfinished Business Appropriations Act, 2007 5/10/07 HR 1684 Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for FY 2008 5/9/07 HR 1529 Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 5/3/07 S 1082 Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act 5/1/07 S 3 Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act of 2007 4/17/07 S 372 Intelligence Authorization Act of FY 2007 4/12/07 S 5 Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 4/10/07 S 965 U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 3/27/07 HR 1401 Rail and Public Transportation Security Act of 2007 3/27/07 HR 1433 District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 3/20/07 HR 1591 U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act 3/19/07 SJR 9 United States Policy in Iraq Resolution of 2007 3/14/07 HR 1255 Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 3/13/07 HR 985 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 3/13/07 HR 720 Water Quality Financing Act of 2007 3/8/07 HR 800 Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 2/28/07 S 4 Improving American's Security Act of 2007 2/28/07 HR 6 Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Act 1/17/07 HR 3 Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 1/11/07 HR 4 Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007 1/11/07

Okay, I lost track after counting over 75 Bills that bu$h has threatened to veto since the Democrats have taken office!

Now please, tell me again, who is not cooperating with the other party? Plain and simple the Democrats are putting up good laws to be voted on. They are doing their job. The republi-cons need to get out the way, let the Dems lead and do the job the American people asked them to do.

I'd love for the weak Democrats to stand up to bu$h and stop the minority from getting it's way but it will never happen as long as the Dems are facing the threat of a pResidential veto and Republi-con filibuster in the Senate.

As an avid watcher of Rocketboom (I have my TiVo download it daily) and listener of Pandora Radio, I found this interview of Pandora Radio founder Tim Westergren very interesting. Note the visionary use of attributes and musician support which puts P.R. heads and shoulders above all other internet radio:


The use of 400 attributes to categorize each song (and then make recommendations for you) is one of the most unique factors. Most web sites that make recommendations (i.e. Netflix, Amazon, etc.) use maybe a few dozen.

SDCA vs NOLA

Why San Diego and New Orleans differ:

A Victory for Sanity

Well it seems that a little sanity has returned to Maricopa County.

I wrote about it in Bits and Pieces: A police state in the county I live in! "The leaders of an alternative newspaper chain were arrested after running a story about grand jury subpoenas they received seeking reporters' notes and information on who visits their Phoenix weekly's Web site." More at DKos by artmartin, Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution in Arizona. Lucky for me my next door neighbor is a Deputy who works for Sheriff Joe... or maybe not?

What a sordid tale of local politics that made national headlines, had everyone in Maricopa County livid and was blasted all over the blogs. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and their friend, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik will think twice now when it comes to violating people's rights.
Everyone knows about "Sheriff Joe" and his claim of being the toughest Sheriff in America. But what they don't know is that he rules with an iron fist, bullies investigating reporters, intimidates everyone who stands in his way and thinks he is above the law.
What does "Sheriff Joe" say about all this, "I'm the victim".
If it sounds familiar, it is, he's a Republi-con.

County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced that all charges against the 'New Times' were to be dropped and that the case had been seriously mishandled.

A criminal case against Phoenix New Times fell apart Friday amid a crush of public outrage and admissions that a special county prosecutor made serious mistakes. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas dismissed all charges against the free weekly newspaper less than 24 hours after two New Times owners were arrested for publishing details of a grand-jury subpoena that demanded the Internet records of any person who had visited the newspaper's Web site since 2004. Thomas' announcement came just hours after the State Bar Association confirmed that it had received multiple complaints and had launched an internal investigation into Thomas and special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik for their actions in the New Times case and an unrelated one. Thomas, who looked contrite and atypically uncomfortable as he faced cameras in a news conference, said he had no prior knowledge of the arrests or the demands set forth in the subpoena that his office sought. "It has become clear to me that this investigation has gone in a direction that I would not have authorized," Thomas said, adding that he holds the First Amendment in great esteem and that it needs to be upheld. "There have been serious missteps in this matter," he said. "I am announcing that Mr. Wilenchik will no longer serve as special prosecutor." The mea culpa was a gigantic victory for New Times, which for three years has battled the County Attorney's Office over charges that reporters and editors broke the law when they published online the home address of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "This really is a win for the Constitution," said Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, which owns Phoenix New Times and several other papers across the country. He also said it was a victory for readers, who won "the right to read whatever they want without government interference." On Thursday night, Lacey and New Times owner Jim Larkin were arrested on charges that they broke the law by publishing details of the subpoena in Thursday's paper. Lacey and Larkin acknowledged in their cover story that they risked prosecution but said the issues were too important to keep from the public. The two said the subpoena was part of an investigation orchestrated to get back at reporters and the critical stories they wrote about Arpaio, Thomas' political ally. Public backlash over the arrests and the subpoena was immediate and overwhelming Friday, with conservatives and liberals saying Thomas had made an assault on free speech. "There is only one place for friends of freedom to stand at this moment: shoulder to shoulder with the New Times," the conservative Goldwater Institute wrote in defense of the alternative newspaper. The case, which has cost taxpayers undisclosed thousands of dollars, dragged on for years. It started when New Times launched an investigation of Arpaio's real-estate holdings in 2004. The story alleged the sheriff abused a law that allows peace officers to keep their addresses from being made public. It said Arpaio used the law to hide nearly $1 million in cash real-estate transactions while leaving his actual home address on public rolls. Thomas said Friday that he still believes New Times committed a crime by publishing Arpaio's home address. "It was inappropriate. It was wrong. It was arguably illegal," Thomas said. After Thomas dropped the case, Arpaio simply said, "I'm the victim." He declined further comment. Sheriff's spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla said, "From the beginning, the behavior and activity that the New Times engaged in victimized the sheriff and his spouse. To this day, they're still victims and still being victimized." Because of Thomas' contentious relationship with New Times, which has repeatedly criticized his office, Thomas turned the case over to the Pinal County Attorney's Office for prosecution in 2004. The case was returned after two years of inaction. To avoid a conflict of interest, Thomas selected Wilenchik to act as a special prosecutor and continue the investigation. Wilenchik is a private Phoenix attorney for whom Thomas worked before taking office in 2004. Since then, Thomas has often hired Wilenchik as a contract attorney for the county and appointed him as Arpaio's exclusive attorney. Maricopa County has paid Wilenchik's firm $1.9 million since May 2005, county records show. Thomas said Friday that because of Wilenchik's "missteps" in the New Times case, he will no longer be used for criminal prosecutions. Those missteps include the decision to make arrests and the subpoena, which demanded years of reporter and editor notes on several stories and records involving the Internet habits of every visitor to the New Times Web site in three years. Thomas, however, defended Wilenchik as a good attorney. He said Wilenchik could still be used in civil cases and his firm will remain on a list of outside attorneys used by the county. But Wilenchik and Thomas are now the subjects of legal and ethical complaints with the State Bar of Arizona. The Bar, which has oversight of Arizona attorneys, can revoke a lawyer's license to practice law if it finds evidence of wrongdoing. Arizona State Bar President Daniel McAuliffe confirmed Friday that his office has received multiple complaints against the two. The Bar has also launched its own internal investigation into a campaign that Thomas and Wilenchik launched against Maricopa Superior Court judges, which led to an unprecedented request that all 93 judges in Maricopa County be replaced by judges from other counties. Wilenchik and Thomas contend judges are mishandling cases involving illegal immigrants and accused the court's assistant presiding criminal judge, Timothy Ryan, of bias. Thomas' motions to dismiss Ryan and other judges were denied. Bar complaints have also been filed against Wilenchik in the New Times case, alleging that he violated ethical rules by enlisting a political operative to broker a private and inappropriate meeting with Superior Court presiding Judge Anna Baca, who has oversight of the grand jury. At his news conference Friday, Thomas denied any ethical violations and accused the state Bar of engaging in rumor-mill behavior that he called disgraceful. "What they have done is they have attempted to smear me and this office for speaking out and criticizing judges who have been issuing rulings that, in my honest opinion as a prosecutor, endanger public safety," Thomas said. But Thomas hasn't been scoring a lot of points with the public. Newspaper Web sites experienced a crush of e-mails, message board postings and blogs ranting against his office's actions in the New Times case. The Attorney's Office was also vilified by civil-rights and journalism organizations, which described the arrests and the subpoena as an abuse of power. "This is the type of action that should bring everyone, Democrats, Republicans, conservatives and liberals together," Arizona Republic reader and Thomas supporter Bob Haran wrote on the The Republic Web site. "This attack on freedom of the press must end immediately, if not every freedom- loving American in Maricopa County must help fight to preserve a free press by organizing a recall of Thomas and Arpaio for abuse of power and malicious prosecution."

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Amid all the Sheriff Joe intimidation and his cozy relationship with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, there exists the relationship between Thomas and Special Prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik.
Thomas couldn't pursue the case against the 'New Times' editors without there being "a conflict of interest". So he appoints a Special Prosecutor in the case, Dennis Wilenchik, his former boss. Then he fires him?

Thomas went from trying his best not to make this look political in appearance to doing the exact opposite.

And I only thought the bu$h administration could screw something like this up.
This is the trickle down effect when the leaders of our country act in a lawless manner.

Judi Villa of The Arizona Republic does a great job in her article.

Thomas said he brought in Dennis Wilenchik as a special prosecutor to head up the New Times investigation given that the alternative weekly paper has "not been, let's say, a fan of mine." He also said he thought "there could be an appearance of conflict of interest" for his office to prosecute the paper. The New Times and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have a contentious relationship that worsened after the paper published the sheriff's home address in 2004. The criminal investigation initially was handed off to the Pinal County Attorney's Office. Thomas said Pinal County prosecutors did not act on the case for two years, so he took it back and turned it over to Wilenchik. Wilenchik is Thomas' former boss, and his firm has reaped $1.9 million since May 2005 for work done on behalf of the County Attorney's Office... ...Rick Romley, who served as Maricopa County Attorney before Thomas, said that "arguably, he (Thomas) shouldn't know" about details of the special prosecutor's work. "If it's a conflict of interest, that's how it should work," Romley said. "He should not know." Still, Romley said, it doesn't make sense that Thomas could fire Wilenchik if he was an independent prosecutor. "This was either one of the worst handled matters in years that I've seen, or there was something purposeful about it. I don't know which one," Romley said. "Nothing makes sense to me in this matter. "If Andrew Thomas said he had a conflict of interest, he should not have been able to fire him. If it was not a conflict of interest, shame on him for not keeping a better handle on things."

Wow. Tom Friedman talking totally bat shit:



This is why I can't watch Charlie Rose. He gives air time to completely insane and very dangerous, "serious" political pundits.

Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Bush Lies, Lied, and will Lie

Daily Show takes a field trip outside the studio:

Bill Moyers - Farewell to Karl Rove

Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious draft-averse naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco in his back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God's anointed in a state where preachers and televangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat - a battering ram, aimed at the devil's minions, especially at gay people. It's so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber, and if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew that, in politics, you better bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion. At the same time he was recruiting an army of the lord for the born-again Bush, Rove was also shaking down corporations for campaign cash. Crony capitalism became a biblical injunction. Greed and God won four elections in a row - twice in the lone star state and twice again in the nation at large. But the result has been to leave Texas under the thumb of big money with huge holes ripped in its social contract, and the U.S. government in shambles - paralyzed, polarized, and mired in war, debt and corruption. Rove himself is deeply enmeshed in some of the scandals being investigated as we speak, including those missing emails that could tell us who turned the attorney general of the United States into a partisan sock puppet. Rove is riding out of Dodge city as the posse rides in. At his press conference this week he asked God to bless the president and the country, even as reports were circulating that he himself had confessed to friends his own agnosticism; he wished he could believe, but he cannot. That kind of intellectual honesty is to be admired, but you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a skeptic, a secular manipulator. On his last play of the game all Karl Rove had to offer them was a hail mary pass, while telling himself there's no one there to catch it.