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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Justices Reject Diversity Plans in Two Districts
WASHINGTON, June 28 — With competing blocs of justices claiming the mantle of Brown v. Board of Education, a bitterly divided Supreme Court declared today that public school systems cannot seek to achieve or maintain integration through measures that take explicit account of a student’s race… Chief Justice Roberts said such programs were “directed only to racial balance, pure and simple,” a goal he said was forbidden by the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
This is what the racists have been working for, for fifty years. Inequality must be preserved, nay ossified, at all cost.—Caro

The Illustrated Daily Scribble

The World

Told you so, U.N. Iraq arms inspectors' report says
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - On the day before it is due to be shut down, the U.N. unit that found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but failed to stop the U.S.-led invasion said on Thursday time had justified its methods and work.

5 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Five U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an attack on their combat patrol in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.

Fayyad warns Islamic preachers
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The new Palestinian prime minister delivered a stern warning Thursday to hundreds of Islamic preachers, including Hamas supporters: He won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants' weapons.

Israeli president submits resignation
JERUSALEM - Israeli President Moshe Katsav submitted his letter of resignation on Friday, as part of a much-criticized plea bargain that dropped planned rape charges and the threat of jail time.

Bolivia targets opposition leader's land
LA PAZ, Bolivia - The Bolivian government on Thursday began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe.

London police investigate suspected bomb
LONDON - Explosive experts "made safe" a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Picadilly Circus in central London on Friday, authorities said.

The Nation

Pelosi, Reid to announce new push to end Iraq war
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are expected tomorrow to announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war, according to Democratic insiders.

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge
A TOP-RANKING US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being "hog-tied" by the US constitution. Judge Richard Posner, a supposedly liberal-leaning jurist regarded by many as a future US Supreme Court candidate, said traditional concepts of criminal justice were inadequate to deal with the terrorist threat and the US had "over-invested" in them.
Liberal? Not hardly. Judge Posner advocated lawlessness in his book about the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision. He said that because he believed the Florida Supreme Court was wrong to rule on its own state’s election laws, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, though wrong, formed a kind of “rough justice” by granting George Bush the presidency. Breaking the law to right a perceived wrong is something this judge and law professor admires. Tell him what you think at his blog.—Caro

Dems denounce court desegregation ruling
WASHINGTON - A historically diverse field of Democratic presidential candidates — a woman, a black, an Hispanic and five whites — denounced an hours-old Supreme Court affirmative action ruling Thursday night and said the nation's slow march to racial unity is far from over.
Damn it, Democrats, you helped form this court. Don’t come crying to me, now. You actually believed Roberts’ and Alito’s lies. Or pretended to. I don’t know which is worse.—Caro

United States Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Manufacturer in Landmark Retail Case: Leegin Creative Leather Products, ...
MENLO PARK, Calif.----In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today overruled a nearly 100-year precedent that prohibits manufacturers from maintaining retail prices for their products.

Legal Memo Confirms White House Led Effort To Target And Remove U.S. Attorneys
(Solicitor General Paul) Clement reviewed the documents that the Congress subpoenaed. In his letter, Clement reveals … the White House was deeply involved in selectively targeting attorneys for removal. These documents presumably reveal the motives of the White House in purging the U.S. attorneys. Now Clement is working to ensure those documents never become public.

Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents
WASHINGTON - President Bush, in a constitutional showdown with Congress, claimed executive privilege Thursday and rejected demands for White House documents and testimony about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Turley: Avoid Bush’s Executive Privilege Claim By Investigating NSA Program As A Crime
(Wednesday) night on MSNBC’s Countdown, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley claimed that Congress may be able to “get around the executive privilege in court” by saying “we are investigating a potential crime.” Turley said this was possible because warrantless wiretapping is “a federal crime” that “the president has ordered hundreds of people do.”
Click through to watch the video.—Caro

House defeats bid to defund Cheney's VP office
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly defeated a Democratic amendment to deny funds to operate Vice President Dick Cheney's office next year in a feud over his handling of classified documents.
Doesn’t matter. They made their point.—Caro

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Vote for “This is Hell”!
Do you wanna give 'public radio' Hell? Then go to Public Radio Quest and vote for Chuck Mertz and This is Hell. If you want live, in-depth interviews on stories ignored by the rest of mainstream media with perspectives that are shunned by the rest of the radio noise, from places around the world that are silenced by the mainstream's lack of interest, then vote for Chuck and his This is Hell radio program. Already, voters in the 'talent search' are writing that he doesn't have 'public radio-osity.' Could there be a better endorsement than that? So, if you want completely unedited, long-form conversations with the voices not heard anywhere else on the radio spectrum, show your support and vote for Chuck Mertz and This is Hell.
Chuck Mertz is an original, friends, and we need his voice to be heard on public radio. You have to register (click the link above then on “Sign Up” and scroll down), but please go to the trouble. After signing up, go to the main page, click on Chuck’s picture, and click on the right-most star next to his picture, to vote. If you want more progressives on public radio, take a few minutes RIGHT NOW to vote for Chuck. Oh, and listen to This is Hell via the internet on Saturday mornings.—Caro

Mike Malloy Doesn't Mince Words -- And His Progressive Talk Radio Fans Love Him for It
Mike Malloy: “To me, the only issues that exist right now are the issues of the corruption and the utter incompetence of the Bush Administration. Regarding those issues, my style, my approach, is very confrontational. I think this republic is under direct assault by a cadre of people who want to destroy it and replace it with totalitarianism. And that pisses me off to a degree I didn't know was possible. So I scream, I yell, I pound things, and occasionally I've been known to use bad language.”

Via email: Today is the Day for "Sicko"
This is it! Two years in the making! The day that our new film, "Sicko," arrives in theaters all across North America! Click here to see where the nearest one is to you.

IT'S AD-SPENSIVE
June 29, 2007 -- Madison Avenue is girding for an onslaught of political advertising that will drive up rates for regular advertisers and could lead to inventory shortages at local stations around the country.
Please do not ever forget that most donations to Democrats go for ads in traditional media. That’s the same traditional media that denigrates Democrats and puffs up Republicans at every opportunity. We’re paying for our own demise, friends.—Caro

The Assault on Reality, Part II
It’s not just the mainstream media that’s attacking Al Gore and his new book -- more off-beat sources are making the same misinformed arguments.

Daily Show: Lewis Black Exposes Right Wing Media Paranoia
Lewis Black goes to town on the “liberal media” paranoia that pervades the right-wing and leads them to do things like counter the “biased” Wikipedia with Conservapedia — which has a quite unique definition of homosexuality.
This is one of the best exposes of right-wing ridiculousness that I’ve ever seen. Be sure to click through and watch the video.—Caro

Luntz Bucket
So Tavis Smiley is insisting on letting Republican operative Frank Luntz run his little poll operation for the Democratic debate and he's pissed that anyone would question his judgment… Smiley thinks Luntz is a terrific guy while he insults David Brock by saying "consider the source?" Wow. That's some serious misunderstanding of the issue. Luntz is a right wing character assassin in good standing as well as a professional pariah. Smiley is oddly stubborn in his defense of the guy.
Luntz BRAGS about the fact that he teaches people how to conflate unrelated people and ideas, such as putting Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in the same sentence, with the sole purpose of misleading the public. All you have to do is WANT a relationship to exist to CREATE that relationship. Truth be damned. Fairness be damned.—Caro

Paul Krugman: The Murdoch Factor
In October 2003, the nonpartisan Program on International Policy Attitudes… (found that) two-thirds of Fox (News) devotees believed that the U.S. had “found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.” So, does anyone think it’s O.K. if Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox News, buys The Wall Street Journal?... If there were any justice in the world, Mr. Murdoch, who did more than anyone in the news business to mislead this country into an unjustified, disastrous war, would be a discredited outcast. Instead, he’s expanding his empire.

Technology & Science

Some experts advise iPhone buyers to wait
If you're thinking about plunking down $500 to buy an Apple iPhone on Friday, here's some advice: Wait a few months. Some tech experts say the iPhone, on sale at Apple and AT&T phone stores at 6 p.m. local time Friday, probably will be refined after Apple designers get feedback from the first wave of users. The hefty price also could drop.

Robot soldiers to be armed with Tasers
RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled 'bots for police and the Pentagon.
My robot can beat your robot. Instead of body counts, future wars will have destroyed robot counts. Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we just stop having wars?—Caro

Replacing a genome boosts race to develop designer bugs: study
CHICAGO (AFP) - Researchers transformed one bacterial species into another by swapping their genomes, a move that will accelerate the race to develop custom-built synthetic bugs, a pioneer on genetics said Thursday.
Um, don’t inflict a Franken-bacterium on us, please.—Caro

Exercise Grows New Brain Cells
Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, a new study on rats finds. The new cells could be the key to why working out relieves depression.

It's Never Too Late to Get Healthy
THURSDAY, June 28 (HealthDay News) -- Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle makes a difference, even if the change doesn't come until middle age. In fact, people who eat right and exercise more can substantially reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and death even if they're in their 50s or 60s, researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina report.

Satellite launched to test space hotel concept
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia launched Thursday a satellite designed to test the feasibility of the world's first space hotel, the brainchild of a Las Vegas hotel tycoon who hopes to begin construction in 2011, officials said. Bigelow aims to build the hotel, which would consist of several inflatable modules, by 2015 at an estimated cost of 500 million dollars (370 million euros)

Environment

Study Sees Climate Change Impact on Alaska
Climate change is expected to raise the repair and replacement cost of thousands of infrastructure projects as much as $6.1 billion for a total of nearly $40 billion from now to 2030, the study says.

ENN Weekly: June 25th - 29th
ENN rounds up the most important and compelling environmental news stories of the week. In the news June 25th - 29th: Bald eagles rebound, desert dust spurs warming, tourism takes a toll, and much more.

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