Go Cindy Go!

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan wants to snatch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat from her in November, but first she’s going to need the help - and signatures - of 10,198 friends and supporters.

Sheehan was at San Francisco City Hall on Friday to take out papers for her independent run for Congress, but without those signatures from voters in the district, her name won’t show up on the ballot.

“It’s an uphill battle,” said Sheehan, who vowed to run against Pelosi in July after the speaker refused to start impeachment proceedings against President George Bush. “But I’m excited about the signature-gathering process. It’s going to be an opportunity to talk to people about our campaign.”

The 50-year-old Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004, became the public face of the anti-war movement when she mounted a demonstration outside Bush’s Texas ranch that lasted from 2005 to 2007.

Even after pleading exhaustion and closing down “Camp Casey” in May, Sheehan was a regular speaker at anti-war gatherings across the nation. Since moving from Dixon to San Francisco’s Mission District, she’s been campaigning virtually full time.

To get the signatures, equal to 3 percent of the district voters registered for the 2006 general election, the campaign will have people setting up ironing boards and card tables on street corners throughout the city, seeking voters who want an alternative to Pelosi. Sheehan has until Aug. 8 to collect the needed signatures.

More at the San Francisco Chronicle

The Eagles
“Take it to the Limit”

Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada’s largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.

More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.2 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.

More at Yahoo News

With gas prices now averaging $3.50 per gallon across the nation, car buyers across the country increasingly are abandoning SUVs and pickups in favor of smaller crossovers and cars.

This is a problem for used car dealer, Ivan Hoyos. “Nobody is buying used SUVs,” said Hoyos, 35, who stopped accepting them six months ago. “The truth is more and more dealers are staying away from used SUVs and large trucks … It doesn’t pay. You can’t have a unit sitting on the lot forever.”

And if the high price of gas isn’t enough to get you down, imagine paying for gas you don’t get:

Some alert consumers have noticed it over the years: A pump that seems to hesitate a second when the lever is squeezed. Anywhere from 2 to 6 cents tick off before the rush of gasoline starts. That’s what happens with a common, hard to diagnose and mostly ignored problem with the “check valve,” which is supposed to make sure gas flows at the same time the price meter starts.

Are you feeling depressed now? Well, no need to be. President Bush has a message for you:

Bush: ‘We’ll Recover From This Slowdown’

UPDATE:

$4.00 / gallon gas now a reality

The Bush administration has stated that North Korea was in kahoots with Syria in an effort to build a nuclear reactor in Syria. (although they won’t comment on it) They have pictures to prove it. (Where have we heard that before?) Israel, who destroyed the facility last September, was upset that the CIA was going to provide information regarding the claims to the U.S. congress this week, fearing “top secrets” may be divulged. Here’s something that’s not so top secret. In bombing the facility, Israel has pissed off the IAEA and in not providing the video and images to the IAEA until yesterday, the U.S. has pissed them off, too.

Some democrats in congress aren’t too happy it took so long to present this inforamtion, and there is widespread skeptism of the claims the U.S. has laid out. Being that the facility has been destroyed, the IAEA cannot see for itself if there were nuclear activities taking place there. Syria denies the claims, saying this fabrication is proof of what a failure the CIA and this U.S. administration is. They have nothing to hide and will fully cooperate with the IAEA investigation.

Glenn Greenwald takes a look at the situation, questioning it’s validity, also.

Aren’t you just sick of this shit?

by Chalmers Johnson

The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the “smartest guys in the room” — the title of Alex Gibney’s prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

As a result, going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space against unknown adversaries. Instead, the Bush administration puts off these costs for future generations to pay or repudiate. This fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through many manipulative financial schemes (causing poorer countries to lend us unprecedented sums of money), but the time of reckoning is fast approaching.

There are three broad aspects to the U.S. debt crisis. First, in the current fiscal year (2008) we are spending insane amounts of money on “defense” projects that bear no relation to the national security of the U.S. We are also keeping the income tax burdens on the richest segment of the population at strikingly low levels.

Second, we continue to believe that we can compensate for the accelerating erosion of our base and our loss of jobs to foreign countries through massive military expenditures — “military Keynesianism” (which I discuss in detail in my book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic). By that, I mean the mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true.

Third, in our devotion to militarism (despite our limited resources), we are failing to invest in our social infrastructure and other requirements for the long-term health of the U.S. These are what economists call opportunity costs, things not done because we spent our money on something else. Our public education system has deteriorated alarmingly. We have failed to provide health care to all our citizens and neglected our responsibilities as the world’s number one polluter. Most important, we have lost our competitiveness as a manufacturer for civilian needs, an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing.

Continue reading at Alternet

What does it say about religion when it is forced upon people? Does one really “believe in their maker” or have “faith”, if they’re under a constant threat of retaliation of some sort?

What does it say about our military, an organization created to protect our “separation of church and state” country, that refuses to practice the same laws of the land?

Is religion so fragile that, without the threat of personal harm on people, it would crumble and whither away? Is faith really faith if a gun is pointed at the back of your head?

Fort Riley atheist soldier speaks out on lawsuit

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

But the short and soft’spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates. [...]

Hall was in Qatar when the lawsuit was filed on Sept. 18 in federal court in Kansas City, Kan. Other soldiers learned of it and he feared for his own safety. Once, Hall said, a group of soldiers followed him, harassing him, but no one did anything to make it stop.

The Army told him it couldn’t protect him and sent him back to Fort Riley. He resumed duties with a military police battalion. He believes his promotion to sergeant has been blocked because of his lawsuit, but he is a team leader responsible for two junior enlisted soldiers. [...]

“I hope this doesn’t define me,” Hall said of his lawsuit. “It’s just about time somebody said something.”