Saturday, July 3 Issue #25

TODAY'S ACTION ALERTS
Tell the Coast Guard that you expect laws to be followed.

Inform the California Governor that you want him to terminate global warming problems.

Ask California legislators to nix cruise ship dumping.

FEATURED ARTICLES
Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, has penned the featured article in this month's National Review arguing for more sensible drug policy. A pot leaf appears on the magazine's cover.

Nicholas Kristof says Bush should watch less Fox, more Al-Jazeera.

NYTimes editorial correctly cites poor wage and unemployment numbers as a concern for the growing economy and low-income Americans.

Anonymous, CIA agent and author of Imperial Hubris, a book strongly critical of the Bush administration's War on Terror, penned this LATimes opinion.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES
US lawmakers ask UN to monitor 2004 elections.

Sadr tells Iraqis to keep fighting against occupation as two more Marines are killed.

Bush continues to advocate greater political-religious incest.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H.L. Mencken

TODAY'S BUSHISM
"We've got -- John Biagas is with us. John, thank you for coming. Newport News, Virginia. Newport News, Virginia. John purchased his business in 1997. He took a gamble and said, I'm going to buy the business from the previous owner. I think he said they might have had a million dollars' worth of sales in 1997 -- they're over $14 million now. That's pretty good growth, isn't it, in a five-year period of time? " (2004-1997=?)
-July 2, 2004

BLOG OF THE DAY
Smart Ass is the official blog of the College Democrats of America, and is a great place to find Kerry campaign information.

NEWSWORTHY
Holy Crap: First Jesse Helms did it, now the Southern Baptists are criticizing Bush.

Warheads found in Iraq by Polish troops last week did not contain chemicals.

DRUG WAR UPDATE
Bed and Breakfast....and a joint?

Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment may be brought to a vote in Congress next week.

SITE OF THE DAY
The Hill newspaper focuses solely on the U.S. Congress. From spats and gestures to rumors and fact, The Hill covers it first.

COOL SITE OF THE DAY
National Public Radio has delivered the most diverse selection of music, news, commentary, and discussion of any radio network. The official site of NPR reflects this with a wide selection of articles, transcripts, and audio/video offerings.

ONLINE VIDEO OF THE DAY
Halliburton to the rescue!

CLAPS, SLAPS, AND THE MIDDLE FINGER

Claps all around to the Leon County Circuit Court of Florida for ordering the public release of the names of 47,000 people listed as registered to vote but considered ineligible by the state. Florida's Department of State, former cabal of nutcase Congresswoman Katherine Harris, fought the release hard, unwilling to give up the names. The Miami Herald reported that at least 2100 names should not have been on the list due to receiving clemency, and many others may have never been convicted of a felony. A full analysis of the list is underway by many outlets, including CNN, the network which brought the suit.

Slaps ring off the cheeks of Coca-Cola marketers for their brilliant plan to place GPS chips and cell phones in drink cans...!!!....What the hell were they thinking? In an age when tweezers and scissors get impounded faster than Rasheed Wallace can smoke a joint, how did the security issues escape one of the most successful marketing teams ever? The military is right to worry about this, and maybe the marketing blunder will lead to more strict security measures for U.S. bases. But until then, Coke blokes should be giving each other Slaps, or at least drinking a little more C2 prior to marketing meetings.

My Middle Finger points in the direction of the IRS for granting breaks to "honest" criminals. In return for confessing involvement in an illegal tax shelter, the IRS is allowing the crooks who come forward to pay less of a financial penalty. These are not average joes, saving a few bucks for the kid's college. These guys had write-offs in the millions. Not income, write-offs. As hard as the IRS pushes Average Joe to pony up every penny, I expect more harsh treatment for those wealthy enough to use such high-class means of theft. Enough with the douchebaggery. Scrape out their wallets, I say, just like would have been done to me if I had not reported a couple of thousand bucks and been caught.

ANIMAL RIGHTS WATCH
Mount Vernon, New York needs people to adopt shelter dogs.

Sick bastards kill 100 Canadian Geese deemed a "nuisance."

Burned Tulsa dog doing better as two teenage suspects are taken into custody.

CANDIDATE OF THE DAY
Doug Haines looks to take a Georgia Congressional seat in November. As a lawyer, Haines established a non-profit law firm which concentrated on civil rights in environmental cases. Georgia Legal Watch was successful in suing the state to enforce anti-pollution laws which favor clean rivers. Haines has fought to remove the Confederate Flag from official uses, and has been a strong advocate for living wage legislation.

DAILY PHOTO
Secretary of Funky Chicken



TODAY'S POLITICAL CARTOON



HISTORY LESSON
Revisit the skunk that is Ken Starr.