Your happening world

By Avedon from the Sideshow

Peter Daou is returning to his old aggregation duties at a new Daou Report site (which refreshes too frequently for my tastes), and Steven D reports there on the murder by taser of a 21-year-old when he didn't rise fast enough from a prone position after having his wrists cuffed behind his back. That's right, he wasn't resisting arrest, he had already lain face-down as ordered to be cuffed, and didn't stand up fast enough for the cop, who then repeatedly tased him because he kept falling down and not being able to get up again. Then the cop made up a story about how the victim had resisted arrest and after being tasered "fell ill and told the officers he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP." As Digby notes, what tasers are really for is teaching people who's boss. They've given the cops the right to terrorize and kill us in our own streets, and it's never anyone's fault but the victim.

I find it amusing that Ron Paul's counter-convention to the RNC has been forced to move to a larger venue to accommodate a larger than expected crowd.

Watertiger tips us that the unauthorized video of Little Nero announcing that "Wall Street got drunk," he'll be giving up "ranching" when he moves out of the White House, and he's whipped, is available with this article from Auntie Beeb.

Alexander Zaitchik says things are looking better for Al Franken.

Funny how the news media didn't think it at all interesting that nine Republicans broke ranks to vote for Kucinich's impeachment article.

GM is no longer an American company in any real sense - it's Chinese - and America's number one car manufacturer is Toyota. Why? Because America's corporate structure is killing innovation.

Diane notes that the Bushistas' idea of "security" is removing the security we used to have as "Homeland Security" sucks up resources from our regular emergency systems. And Ruth points out that our administration has a lot of unsavory friends who like to do things like torture, incarcerate, and execute people (often for mere political opposition).

News of the World gets socked with compensatory damages and hefty legal costs by the High Court after invading Max Moseley's privacy and claiming his kinky orgy had "Nazi" overtones.

And your point is...?

During the Chimp Years, the economy was great if you were a billionaire or someone who owns an outsourcing firm. The Dow is only one indicator and you can't blame this recession on anyone but The Almighty Lord Monkey Boy and His short-sighted economic policy.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury