Marla Ruzicka was a hero of mine.

The news on CNN this morning really punched me in the gut. I'd been blown away by Ms Ruzicka's intelligence, commitment & initiative when I saw her on Democracy Now! a few months back. Her work at trying to heal some of the wounds caused by this war, wounds who she bore no more responsibility for than any other American (which isn't to say none at all) in the face of now horrendously obvious danger actually inspired me. Her death should cause us all to step up our efforts even more. At the very least help continue her mission.

Release the hounds!

According to the ruling in Illinois v. Caballes your United States Supreme Court has decided that the next time you have a light out or are going 6 miles over the speed limit (as the defendant in this case was when he was stopped) your local law enforcement community may detain you long enough to run a K-9 unit through your car.

This isn't seen as an unreasonable search because you are in public. It seems that nowadays being 'secure in your person' stops at your front porch—after the city's easement all bets are off.

Maybe after white middle-class folks get a taste of what the drug war is all about we'll be able to talk about ending the damned thing. When some twenty & thirty-something professionals go from earning $30,000 a year in taxable income to requiring $30,000 a year to incarcerate (and then being economically crippled for life after release, if not also infected with AIDS) because they wanted to burn one before they saw the latest Will Ferrell movie the madness will become apparent.

Don't Laugh at Me Venezuela

Hugo Chavez isn't buying the new Bush Doctrine put forth Thursday. Guess he's still pissed about the whole coup d'état thing we tried in 2002.

File Under: Would've been nice to mention BEFORE the election.

Given that a. the war in Iraq was one of the largest issues in the past election next to b. the war on terror; it'd've been nice for Mr. Straight Talk Express to mention his misgivings about the Secretary of Defense his canidate had chosen for his first term before the election. At least some sort of, "I support Bush, but not all the people he hangs out with at those cabinet meetings."


"Senator John McCain said Monday that he had 'no confidence' in Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing the secretary's handling of the war in Iraq and troop levels there that Mr. McCain deems insufficient.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said his comments were not a call for Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation. President Bush 'can have the team that he wants around him,' the senator said.

But asked about his confidence in the secretary's leadership, Mr. McCain recalled fielding a similar question earlier. 'I said no,' he said. 'My answer is still no. No confidence.'"

new kicks

Not sure about only having lowtops, but adbuster's putting their money where their mouth is in hopes you might too with a line of anti-sweatshop sneakers. nice.

as a bonus the hand painted logo is reminiscent of evisu's.

Arghgh!

Welcome to ‘at the top of my lungs’. I'm going to try posting here instead of actually shouting at the tv, radio, whatever (it frightens the cat).

j.