Oil from bombed plant covers Lebanon shore

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U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

One hopes this noxious bit of attempted fascism doesn’t pass Congress, but given the gutlessness and complicity of Democrats, who knows? Hey Democrats in Congress, it’s now or never. Take a stand. Fight. History will not be kind to you if you don’t.

Ditto for Republicans in Congress, many of whom I suspect will oppose this turd of a bill. Israel is going bat-shit violent because they are losing the Lebanon war. The Bushies are losing too, public opinion has turned against them, their fanatic religious agendas, and their endless wars and invasions. Now is the time to oppose them. Not later, not maybe. Now. They are collapsing. Let’s make sure they do.

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From the NY TImes

The very clear winner, for the moment at least, was Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

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Brian Becker, National Coordinator of ANSWER Coalition, statement to press conference on Aug. 12 march.

On Aug. 12, 2006, thousands of people will be traveling to Washington, D.C. for a massive “National Emergency March to Stop the U.S.-Israeli War,” a war that is killing the people of Lebanon and Palestine. The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has organized most of the huge demonstrations in Washington, D.C. during the past four years, protesting Bush’s war against Iraq.

We also organized the historic demonstration of 100,000 on April 20, 2002, the largest mobilization in support of the Palestinian people in U.S. history. That demonstration happened three weeks after George W. Bush gave Ariel Sharon the green light for Israel’s murderous “reinvasion” of the West Bank.

Now, we are coming back to Washington, D.C. to make it clear that the government, which speaks in the name of the people, does not have the consent of the people as it launches a another murderous war against the Arabs and other peoples of the Middle East.

There will also be major marches and rallies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and elsewhere.

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From the Left Coaster

Horror and despair will seem like hyperbole to many, but Californians just watched the Secretary of State call the vicious and brutal war upon Lebanon a “birth pang” before jetting off to a piano recital in Asia. Something very, very, very bad is coming, everyone knows it after that little stunt.

The likely scenario is an invasion of Iran, the Middle East becoming a war zone, and the price of oil becoming catastrophically high.

It is true, yes, that California has two senior Democratic Senators to possibly influence the course of events, but Feinstein and Boxer turned out to be two more useless, clueless 21st century politicians, failure and death their hallmarks to the new millennia.

Feinstein, of course, voted for the current mayhem in Iraq and has displayed absolutely no leadership at all in attempting to get us the hell out of there. For reasons no one can explain Feinstein is untouchable in the California and national press so she’s going to win another term this year in a total walk, even though she’s plainly one of the most stupid, evil turncoat Senators we’ve ever had, a voting record that to this day makes Dick Cheney cackle with glee.

Her husband is worth several hundred million. You think she will do anything to upset the established order?

Along with the piano recital Californians just watched a horrifying, vicious betrayal to the base when Barbara Boxer, our other august member of the world’s oldest deliberative body, jetted to Connecticut to defend Joe Lieberman—along with our old very dear friend who used to visit us so much, Bill Clinton.

The stupidity and shortsightedness of this move is breathtaking in its Bushian scope. Boxer cannot be judged by one action in her career, but to staunchly defend and campaign for the greatest Democratic proponent of the Iraq war who has a voting record of Feinsteinian dimensions is going to be a gaping, eternally bleeding mark on her record.

It’s a class thing. Congress is composed primarily of the very wealthy. They defend their interests and the interests of their class against the rest of us. It’s not their children in Iraq, now is it? They vote for war and torture because they *want* to vote that way. Some say the Dems vote that way because they are gutless (which they certainly are) but in reality it’s because they agree with the Republicans and because war benefits them as a class.

When the Dems win back the House in November, little if anything will change. That’s when the radicalization will start to happen. Electing a different set of wealthy people to Congress will not change a thing. When the populace genuinely realizes this, and they will, then radical change becomes possible.

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The United States should adopt a moratorium on death sentences, a U.N. rights body said Friday, noting that capital punishment appears to be disproportionately imposed on minority groups and poor people.

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Audio podcasting is great. Video is even better. So, I’m taking the plunge into video podcasting, and have spent a week or so researching camcorders. There are a baffling amount of options and features available, especially for newbies like me.

CamcorderInfo was an enormous help, written by enthusiasts and pros, their reviews are detailed and informative, with a highly useful comparison. Their sister site, EasyCamcorders has advice and a buying guide. Among their advice

-Low light performance is crucial, and by that they mean indoors too.
-Stills won’t be as good as from a digital still camera
-A 3 CCD model is way better than the standard 1 CCD
-Mic-in and headphone jacks can really help with audio
-Ignore digital zoom, it’s useless. Optical zoom is what’s important.

Plus, from what I can tell, mini-DV camcorders record at higher quality than DVD or Flash.

Given all that, I’m getting the Panasonic PV-GS500, 3 CCD, mini-DV, good in low light, with lots of tweakable features, and used Froogle to price it and check customer satisfaction ratings with the online stores.

After I learn how to use the camcorder and edit the results, Polizeros will start videocasting!

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