It's not definite.

You know the effort that goes in to letting cops who have committed brutality and other crimes off the hook.

The coroner's report that has come back says the man may have been dead after the 7th of 9 50000-volt-jolts fired by the officer.

This appears to be another ray of sunshine in a Dark Age: Gitmo judge: No 'coercive' questioning evidence.

This is regarding the trial of Salim Hamdan, alleged to be a driver for Osama bin Laden.

I found this here and it references a report here.

It is purporting to discuss an article from the "Family Security Matters" "think tank", which is apparently associated with Dick Cheney. The sounds of the article are classic Dick.

I cannot comment on the sources: neither are familiar to me, but that sort of adds to the interest of this bit, because I tacitly accept that there would be another "think tank" hitherto unnoticed or unsung, that would have some dipshit policy like this with which to sally forth and make the attempt to deliver with the straightest of faces.

However it is filled with hate for America, hate for Democracy, and hate for Arabs, and encourages some very bad things.

Ok...so it's not End Times but I did look outside and sho 'nuff: it's a Full Moon.

From Raw Story

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called President George W. Bush "a total failure" who "has no ideas," in an interview with CNN.

Is she just now noticing this?

McCain's team is known to be flush with "lobbyists" and some of them are top-level people opposed to anything resembling healthcare "reform".

Drug Lobby Spends $1 Billion, Study Finds

Republicans in general, of course, are to blame for much of our screwed-up healthcare in this country. Big Pharma slides them billions of dollars, they in turn give Big Pharma all sorts of perks - illegally and unethically.

GOP needs to APOLOGIZE to US!

This is quite the leaderly thing to say because I agree with it as being dead on accurate.

Well, .... the shoe is on the other foot is seems with regards to who is spying on whom.

A lawyer investigating leaks in the probe of a Poconos casino operator obtained cell-phone records for prosecutors and state police - raising concerns in Pennsylvania's law enforcement community that others could use the same tactics to compromise sensitive investigations.

Standard PATRIOT Act-syle stuff, right?

Thank ya... Thank ya furry musch

The Senate gave President Bush what he wanted Wednesday, sending him a bill expanding his surveillance authority and granting legal amnesty to telecommunications companies that facilitated his warrantless surveillance program.

You're such good dogs.

Yes you are!

Done Deal

Short "diary" to note numbers and names.

for ignoring Plamegate subpoena

Buzzflash

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ignored a subpoena issued June 16 by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asking for documents relevant to its Valerie Plame leak investigation, including FBI interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Committee Chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent Mukasey a letter July 8 informing him that the Committee would vote July 16 on whether or not Mukasey will be found in contempt of Congress.

It's election time and I am a Democrat.

This means I vote for Obama or I vote for Obama and be happy about it. Those are my choices as I see them. I will, of course, vote happily.

And I will be expected to pitch in on the destruction of John Sidney McCain and I have already been practicing.

But in researching things and reading other people's works about McCain, I have come up on something that sort of bothers me.

I suppose a number of otherwise "liberal people" will find a number of excuses for this outrage just because "mar-ju-wanna" is involved.

Video shows cop choking marijuana suspect

The incident began with a traffic stop.

Officer Cosby said he smelled burning marijuana, ordered Anders out of the car and told him to spit out something he had in his mouth.

Cosby then put one, then both hands around Anders' neck and squeezed in attempt to keep he from swallowing drugs in a technique called "vascular restraint."

So he choked him JUST for having cannabis nearby.

Video on the flip.

A Brief Compendium of Dirty Fucking Hippy© Values

This is just a short look at my values and what issues I find important.

This election season finds America bitterly divided, and I don't just mean rightwingers versus the Left.

I mean that even the Democratic party, as much as MOST of it wants "unity" in the quest for electoral dominance in November and beyond, has some rather deep rifts.

What I mean specifically is a sort of dividing line that has cropped up recently, as far as I am aware.

M$NBC is reporting that a recent SCOTUS ruling is going to result in the imminent closure of Guantanamo Bay or "GITMO".  They think that Bush will be "forced" to "make a decision" before the 2008 Elections, guaranteeing that the decision is milked for all the political value it has.

Incredible, but true

Federal prosecutors said Yonkers officer Wayne Simoes used excessive force when he grabbed the woman by the waist, hoisted her in the air and slammed her, face first, into a tile floor.

Fellow officers didn't bat an eye when he did this, but now he is going to be charged with a federal civil rights violation.

It was a time of Darkness.

Of Fear.

Tyrants threatened our country.

Determined and clandestine enemies threatened our freedoms.

A military stretched thin trying to protect the free world from harm.

An outdated Constitution placing America in needless danger.

One man would emerge to  lead us out of the darkness of our times.

Boldly.

Decisively.

Dirtily.....

I am just asking, but the Independent UK has a report from another award-winning MD that says we are cooking our brains:

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

Like most unrealistic Dirty F'n Hippies, I am outraged by both the assaults on the Constitution by Team Bush and the GOP as well as the unflinching resolve by Decent Responsible, Upstanding, Serious Adult Democrats to hand him every last thing he desires.

Between the sheer power of a minority GOP and the sheer dedication of Democratic leadership to give them what they want, people like me feel pretty powerless and totally shut out.

Well, here in Georgia there is a Bush Democrat named "John Barrow" and he is up for re-election and he has a primary fight on his hands.

Make the jump...with both feet.