The public outcry over Paris’s early release from prison was deafening. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors received “thousands of emails from the public on this matter.”

Oh Paris, our sad little Marie Antoinette. Nancy Grace is calling for your head, and Anne Coulter is one of your only allies.

Even Paris’s plea for the public’s empathy — “I feel like the media portrays me in a way that I’m not and that’s why I wanted to go to county, to show that I can do it and I’m going to be treated like everyone else” — was received as well as Antoinette’s attempt to dress more shabbily and appear more human, in that it was completely rejected.   more »

You’d think that with such a shambles in his wake and his popularity at an all-time low, George Bush would at least partially have relinquished his pride of ownership. Not so.

Here he is the other day, responding to the aborted attempt in the Senate to legislatively declare “no confidence” in Attorney General “Fredo” Gonzales:

“They can try to have their votes of no confidence,” the president said, “but it’s not going to determine — make the determination — who serves in my government.”

MY government? Now that’s entitlement. And you thought George Bush didn’t have a vision for America. Unfortunately, it’s one big MySpace page, from sea to shining sea. Or, rather, shining me.   more »

Today Leary's motto would be

"turn off, tune out, drop dead"

In the overwhelmingly dumbed-down

global medialand, nobody gives a damn

The best lack all conviction

(and take refugee in their iPods)

while the worst simply lord over all, unchallenged

   more »

Keywords: 1967, culture, ipod, 2007, revolution, generation, apathy

In the rich countries, the mind-managed, self-destructive brew of consumerism, militarism, imperialism, Evangelical Christianity, and apathy still holds sway.

For most in the poor countries, those follies are not even dreamed of by any but a small minority.

In a nutshell, the large majority of peoples of the imperialized world have not been as bewitched as the relatively well-off people of the imperializing world.   more »

The American aim is clear. President Bush has chosen a local leader for every Muslim country, who will rule it under American protection and follow American orders. In Iraq, in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, and also in Palestine.

Hamas believes that the man marked for this job in Gaza is Mohammed Dahlan.

For years it has looked as if he was being groomed for this position. He is a close ally of Israel and the United States and the Abbas-affiliated "Presidential Guard."

US Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams -- who helped divert money to the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s and who was convicted of lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal -- has spearheaded the effort to set up these Palestinian Contras...

The American and Israeli media have been singing his praises, describing him as a strong, determined leader, "moderate" (i.e. obedient to American orders) and "pragmatic" (i.e. obedient to Israeli orders).   more »