Much Better: Arrest Impeach Supporters Rather Than Indict A Lying, Thieving President

It's amazing, really.

A president who stole two elections, lied us into countless wars (the one in Iraq and the ridiculous one he labeled "War on Terror" are but two), violates the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention on a daily and egregious basis, has made our country far less safe (and our risk from terrorists seems almost microscopic compared with our grave and present risks from the Bush-Cheney minions who are themselves terrorists), has killed the American dollar (still in freefall throughout the world) along with countless soldiers, civilians, and so-called enemy detainees, goes scot-free.

But cops arrest a 74-year-old man for selling Impeach Bush buttons at a Maryland farmer's market. Cindy Sheehan and nearly four dozen other Americans have also been arrested this week for impeachment efforts.

Feel any safer? I don't.

A Birthday Toast to Studs Terkel

[Ed. note: While I cross-posted this at All Things Democrat, Studs at 95 has MORE on the ball than 95 (or 1,995) men a quarter his age! Happy birthday, Studs!]

Today is Studs Terkel’s 95th birthday. And if you ask, “Studs who?”, get yourself to Wikipedia or other resources, because this man is very well worth knowing about. You can also find a prolonged interview with Studs conducted today by Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!”

As I wrote yesterday re: the passing of Jerry Falwell, that he was a man for whom the planet was much worse (IMHO) for his influence, I think the exact opposite is true (and an understatement to call it just “exact opposite”) of Studs, a man who has contributed so much, for so long, and so admirably on topics like labor, American culture and society, social justice, McCarthyism, free speech, and much more.

On milestones like this (and 95 is still a milestone!), it makes me think of the recent passing of Kurt Vonnegut as well as those older but ever-so-wise distinctly American minds, voices, and contributors such as Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Jimmy Carter, Helen Thomas, and (thankfully) countless others who are now much older. I worry that we don’t have the strong minds coming along that the generations that produced these fine minds nurtured.

But please, make me eat my words. Become a fine mind like Studs or Helen or George McGovern, et al. America and the entire world needs you!

Real, Live, Person-Drive Radio: Go For It!

I'm passing this along because I am a major proponent of this (and frankly, I'm considering doing this on my own, both over the airwaves along with simultaneous Webcast - and yes, I promise NOT to sing).

Have you ever dreamed of running your own radio
station? Here's the chance to make it happen.

The Federal Communications Commission is about to open up the public
airwaves to local communities. The federal agency will open a brief window in
October for issuing full-power, noncommercial radio licenses.

Now may be the last chance for you or your community group to secure a
license. But you have to be ready, organized and committed:
Visit GetRadio.org to Learn More

Free Press is working in partnership with Prometheus Radio
Project, the Future of Music Coalition, and the Radio for People
Coalition to help communities across the country set up their own local,
noncommercial stations.

Here's what you need to do to secure a spot on the dial:

Visit our Web site at www.GetRadio.org

Enter your ZIP code in the "frequency finder" to see if space on the dial
is available near you Answer the GetRadio questionnaire to see if you're
eligible to apply.

This opportunity may be our last chance to reclaim a segment of
the radio spectrum for the public. Over the past several decades, local
radio stations have been bought up and consolidated under a handful of large
commercial conglomerates. The result has been lousy, cookie-cutter formats
that sound the same anywhere you go.

Once More, The Bushies Shat All Over the U.S. Constitution

Americans detained and interrogated by a secret FBI unit because they exercised their rights, granted by the U.S. Constitution, to assemble and speak out freely. Peace activists, no less.

More Of The Bushies' Fondness For Others' Right to Speak

On the heels of the story of GIs being told to zip it, the magnificent MissM brings us this:

Facility Holding Terrorism Inmates Limits Communication - washingtonpost.com

The Justice Department has quietly opened a new prison unit in Indiana that houses a hodgepodge of second-tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims, whose ability to communicate with the outside world has been tightly restricted.

::sigh:: and grrrrrrrr.....