BREVITAS

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

OUTLYING PRECINCTS

DAVID SWANSON, AFTER DOWNING STREET - In [an] audio report, [Ted] Koppel
points out that in a recent debate Senator Hillary Clinton said that her
first priority if elected would be to "bring our troops home." She did
not say all our troops, Koppel points out, and she does not mean all our
troops. She told the New York Times three months ago that some forces
would have to remain. And Koppel adds that he spoke with someone from
the Pentagon who briefs Clinton, and that she had told this person that
if she is elected and reelected, she expects to have troops in Iraq at
the end of her second term.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23557

AP - A published report says Illinois Senator Barack Obama wrote letters
of support to city and state officials for a real estate deal involving
now-indicted fund-raiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. The Chicago Sun-Times
reports today that Obama was a state senator when he wrote letters in
support of a proposed apartment building for senior citizens in October
1998. . . Obama spokesman Bill Burton says the letters weren't written
as a favor for anyone. He says it was done in the interest of people in
the community.

http://www.wandtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6650629

WSCH - Last week, Obama's campaign said it was donating $23,000 to
charity -- the total of three contributions from Rezko business
associates. Last year, it donated $11,500 to purge itself of money Rezko
donated.

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=63214

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

MIDEAST

THINK PROGRESS - Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob
Graham (D-FL) was one of 23 Senators to have voted against the Iraq war
resolution in October 2002. "With sadness," he told his colleagues, "I
predict we will live to regret this day, Oct. 10, 2002, the day we stood
by and we allowed these terrorist organizations to continue growing in
the shadows." Just four months after Bush launched the Iraq war, Graham
floated the idea of impeachment. "Clearly, if the standard is now what
the House of Representatives did in the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the
actions of this president [are] much more serious in terms of
dereliction of duty," he said. In an interview this week, Graham said he
stood by his 2003 statement. Graham added that it's unlikely Bush would
be impeached, explaining that he learned the word impeachment is an
"incendiary word" that Americans shy away from. "Americans don't like
impeachment because it connotes the kind of instability that so many
other countries around the world have known." But he added that his
original remark regarding impeachment "was a truthful statement at the
time and it's even more truthful today."

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/12/graham-interview/

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

CITIES

NEW RULES - In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court
fortified efforts by cities across the state to restrict the development
of big-box stores, favor small-scale retailers, and protect the vitality
of downtowns.
The ruling (Hernandez v. City of Hanford) upholds the authority of
cities to adopt planning and zoning ordinances that have a direct impact
on economic competition and that treat businesses differently based on
the scale of their stores. The Supreme Court's ruling strongly endorses
the authority of cities to enact zoning policies that have a direct
impact on competition. It reviews three previous appellate court
rulings, all of which upheld municipal zoning laws that affected
competition among retailers. The court not only seconded these rulings,
but put forward an even more expansive interpretation of local
authority.

http://www.newrules.org/retail/news_slug.php?slugid=359

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

ECOLOGY

TREEHUGGER - North Korea has taken a first step towards creating a
wildlife preserve in the Demilitarized Zone. . . Because the area has
been all but off limits to people since the fighting ceased in 1953, the
150-mile length of nearly pristine nature shelters a thriving ecosystem,
including rare wildlife. Hundreds of bird species spend winter in the
heavily mined area, at least two of them endangered: the white-naped and
red-crowned cranes. Fifty types of mammals also pad around within the
zone, including the rare Asiatic black bear, Amur leopard and, according
to some, the Siberian tiger. A U.S.-based nonprofit, DMZ Forum, has been
campaigning to preserve the DMZ. Last week, it said North Korean
authorities has allowed it to set up shop in a 17-acre rice field just
north of the DMZ, where volunteers will begin a project to attract the
aforementioned red-crowned cranes.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/wildlife_preser.php

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

JUSTICE

LARRY NEUMEISTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Inmates at the federal prison camp
in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library
on Memorial Day - hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.
The removal of the books is occurring nationwide, part of a
long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent
radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into
the hands of violent inmates. Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit
over the policy, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. They
say all religions were affected. . . Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian
Feldman told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that prison
libraries limited the number of books for each religion to between 100
and 150 under the new rules. He said officials would expand the number
after choosing a new list of permitted books.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070610/ap_on_re_us/prison_book_ban;_
ylt=AvBGEhvE_vBbrgG5yvyFHtlxFb8C


CHICAGO SUN TIMES - Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville,
N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial
Day -- hundreds of books had disappeared. The removal of the books is
occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal
directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically
Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates. Three
inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy. They say all
religions were affected.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/422633,CST-NWS-jail11.article

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

FURTHERMORE. . .

ENN, IRELAND - Texting continues to prove popular with Irish mobile
phone users with a new study showing text messages are used more than
voice calls. The Com Reg report found that the average mobile user make
five calls a day but sends seven text messages.

http://www.enn.ie/article/10121687.html

YOUR STATE'S GDP IS EQUAL TO WHAT COUNTRY'S GDP?
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed
-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/


HEADLINE OF THE DAY - "Victims of Communism" memorial opens in DC.
"Victims of Capitalism" memorial project scrapped due to cost and size
constraints - Fark

BRITISH SHOW ACTUALLY DISCOVERS A GREAT SINGER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0dzZTPWrSM

STUDENTS HAVEN'T GIVEN UP FIGHTING FOR NORMAN FINKELSTEIN'S TENURE
http://www.finkelgate.com/

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

FIELD NOTES

WAR MADE EASY DVD
http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org/

EXCELLENT AFRICAN WATERING HOLE WEB CAM
http://www.wavelit.com/index.asp?ch=Wildlife&sh=africam&pu=100#

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||