AS A stabbing victim lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a photo with a mobile phone, stepped over the woman.

The June 23 incident, captured on a store surveillance video, received scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle, in the US state of Kansas, today disclosed the existence of the video and its contents.

Police have repeatedly refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.

"It was tragic to watch," police spokesman Gordon Bassham said. "The fact that people were more interested in taking a picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting."
...
Calloway, 27, died at a hospital from her injuries.

...yesterday, on Indepedence Day, a McClatchy newspaper with a heavy military presence in its circulation area came out for withdrawal.
The headline: "Bring Home U.S. Troops." It concludes that this war "isn't worth a single more American life."

The paper is The Olympian in Olympia, Wash. Nearby are Ft. Lewis (which has sent tens of thousands of troops to Iraq) and McCord Air Force Base. Daily circulation is about 32,000. The president and publisher is John Winn Miller. Vickie Kilgore is executive editor.

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THe editorial:

Hearts are heavy this Fourth of July as the United States continues to wage an unwinnable war in Iraq.

Public support for President Bush and his war has steadily declined as the number of war dead continues to climb.

On a day when Americans are supposed to celebrate the freedom and liberty won by the blood of our forefathers, most Americans instead find themselves disgusted with the trillion dollar war being waged in their name with their tax dollars.

On a day when Americans are supposed to wave the flag with honor and respect, many Americans are disheartened and embarrassed. They are fed up with an arrogant president and an ineffective Congress and their inability to extract this nation from the ill-conceived war that has alienated U.S. allies and unnecessarily sullied the reputation of this great nation.

This year, our day of national pride feels more like a day of national shame.

...with his decision to spare I. Lewis Libby from prison, President Bush sent his critics a clear signal that he will not concede an inch of ground that they lack the strength and determination to take from him.

...even at low ebb, Bush hasn't abandoned his pugnacious approach to governing. If he can implement his ideas, he does, whether or not he's built consensus for them...

The Libby decision's clear implication is that unless opponents can make it politically unsustainable for Bush to maintain his current direction in Iraq, he's likely to resist anything beyond cosmetic change -- no matter how much his support in Congress and the country erodes.

No one in Congress needs to consider that message more than the Republicans uneasy with Bush's Iraq strategy but unwilling to break with him over it...

The lesson of Libby is that consensus matters no more to Bush today than when he was at his apex. He still responds to power, not argument. Watching Bush shrug off the Democratic outrage over Libby ought to show Lugar and other uneasy Republicans how much their softer words on Iraq will affect the president -- unless they command his attention with a sharp slap of repudiation in the votes on the war that will soon consume Congress again.

  The Hypocrisy of It All

One of the goals in Iraq was to bring democracy to the Iraq government.  Many Iraqis are now saying, "We do not understand this new democratic type of government you are talking about."
Do you mean like the recent midterm 06 November election you had in the United States where the majority of your people voted for the democrats on the basis of ending the Iraq war?  However, your president said, I don't care what 65 percent of the American people want I will continue with this war even if the only supporters left  are my wife and my dog Barney.    
Do you mean like the Baker-Hamilton Commission that told your president that the current course in the management of the war was no longer viable and that major changes had to be made to include using diplomacy with the adjacent countries?  However, your president said I heard the commission's recommendation but I chose not to follow them and we will do it my way.  
Do you mean like the military supplemental spending bill that both houses of your government passed with conditions of a timeline to end this war because of the mandate the people gave your Congress to end this war, along with your generals who agree that the only solutions to this war is a political solution and not a military solution? However, your president said, I will veto this bill if it has a timeline to end the war and I am requesting a surge of more troops.  

"Our government was a dictatorship type of government and its ruler was Saddam Hussein and this new democratic type of government you describe sounds very similar to the one we had. Thanks but no thanks."

The primaries will provide a great chance to find out what you can about our election system, before the presidential election.

It's a chance for you to get to know the folks that work at the polls and the folks who control the election process.

Find out how your votes are counted.

Find out who certifies that the votes are accurate.

Find out how they are sure that your vote is counted the way you intended.

Find out if you can secure that information yourself as a citizen.

Find out as much as you can.  Then ask yourself honestly:  Are you satisfied that the vote you cast has been fairly and accurately counted?  What gives you that assurance?  Follow the trail.

"But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is."

And so it goes. The 4th of July is here with its parades and "what America means to me" essays, and picnics and fireworks, and all those pretty speeches about freedom and democracy and the true meaning of Independence Day. But it is all a facade. A lie.

Modern America now spies on its citizens, conducts warrantless wiretaps, suspends habeas corpus, creates "free speech zones" to corral protestors out of sight of sensitive royal eyes, and politicizes the very justice system meant to protect people's rights by turning it into a fraternity of God-fearing Republican conservatism. Neocon America rewards hate speech with celebrity, reviles the very immigration that built this country, and sells out to the highest lobbyist while poisoning its people. Preemptive war trumps truth, and death is glorified by those who never have to sacrifice an ounce of flesh. America has become the personal ATM machine of Bush and the GOP while their corporate cronies line their pockets with the lives of our loved ones.

Washington is no longer that "shining city on the hill," but rather a dismal swamp cloud of shadows that slink about in swirls of deception. The people's house is a piceous cavern of razor black secrets that shred the Constitution with every breath. And those charged with defending the Constitution - defending the Bill of Rights - scurry around in frantic search for the cheese of compromise and campaign contributions.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Americans have become orphans of the great silence.

Democrat and Republican alike have forsaken representation of the people and the people's will. The latest polls show that 77 percent of Americans want the troops home from Iraq.

My entire life they have been telling me how great my country is and how I should be proud of it. Well, I think this country sucks. Our political system is the laughing stock of the world. It doesn't matter if you vote Democrat or Republican because either way it's the same old totalitarianism.

America is supposed to be a nation where you are free to worship, unless you want to smoke marijuana as part of your religion. Oh well, it doesn't matter if we deny religious freedom to some pot heads.

America is supposed to be a nation where you are free to speak your mind, unless you want to protest a war.

America is supposed to be a nation where you have privacy, unless your president decides it's ok tap your phone lines.

America is supposed to be a nation that doesn't torture its prisoners, unless they are accused as terrorists.

American is supposed to be a nation that is ruled by a system of laws, unless the president doesn't like how those laws affect his staff.