Medary.com

This attack on the press is much more real and dangerous than holding a reporter in contempt of court for refusing to reveal sources in a national security-related case:

"It's the new trend of drug gangs: Journalists are warned, paid off or killed," said Daniel Rosas, the managing editor of the daily El Mañana, the oldest newspaper in this border city south of Laredo, Texas. "Drug battles have become bloodier, and gangs have no code of ethics. They don't respect human life; why should they respect reporters?" El Mañana, founded in 1932 after the Mexican revolution with a motto to promote freedom of expression, has been self-censoring itself since its editor, Roberto Javier Mora García, was stabbed to death on March 19, 2004.

Standing up to lawless thugs with guns is pretty much the definition of bravery. But there's bravery, and then there's trying to stay alive. The Mexican government needs to quash this drug lord problem, and quickly. I won't go into a War on Drugs rant, but I could.

Via Fark.

President Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill, a modern day record for veto-free government.

Although the streak could end next month - Mr. Bush is threatening a veto if Congress eases his restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research - the Bush era thus far underscores a historically high-water mark of collegial cooperation between Congress and the White House, experts say.

Given the bloat of the Highway Bill, perhaps divided government isn't such a bad idea after all.

In this all-new episode of Imperial Judges, North Carolina joins Kansas as states where education funding is directed by His Royal Highness from behind a court bench.

This judge does not have the power to tell the legislature how much money to spend, no matter how much he wants that power. The legislature should absolutely ignore him and do their job. In a more perfect world, the legislature would start proceedings to remove the judge for him attempting to usurp the power of the legislature.

I much agree. The Legislative branch must act, and forcefully, to assert the soverign power of the People over the Judiciary. Throughout the country. (And no, this doesn't mean that the minority party gets to determine who goes on the Supreme Court...if you think so, go back to first grade and re-learn what "democracy" means.)

This is un-freakin-believable. After taking their houses via eminent domain to build a shopping center, New London, Connecticut now has the temerity to charge the former homeowners back rent!

The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It's a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.

In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000.

This gives new meaning to "outrage."

Quincy is on this. As is Coyote Blog, BizzyBlog, and Catallarchy.

Original headsup via Reason Hit and Run.

Elsewhere in this episode of Imperial Judges: Ohio judge freaks out over criticism:

"Former Ohio attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner and the editor of a news blog, Bryan DuBois of Sandusky, Ohio, have been charged with intimidation and retaliation because a judge filed a complaint against them, claiming that he was intimidated by them and their charges of judicial corruption."

To allay his feelings of persecution, this "Jurist" has had the pair incarcerated, and has barred any communication with the outside world or with one another. Forget that silly ol' Constitution thingy - "that don't apply if'n you're a-talkin' 'bout me!" What, is this guy Judge Roy Bean? Is he on Indian Territory, or not otherwise subject to U.S. Code?

Perhaps it's time for a good solid discussion of the Second Amendment and the root causes of the American Revolution. Oops, that's probably "intimidating" too for the Right Honorable Judge Richard Markus.

via No Government Cheese.

Update: The Ohio Supreme Court has slapped down Judge Richard Markus and his lapdog proscecutor Mark Mulligan.

In what appears to be an ongoing attempt to taint a potential jury pool and wrongly use the criminal justice system and his public office to malign and attempt to discredit a critic who has levied charges of public corruption against him, Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan last week again attempted to ridicule and prejudice his critic and nemesis, former attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner by stating that her handwritten motion to dismiss charges of criminal contempt filed against her by a judge were the “chaotic ramblings of a disturbed person”.

The reason the motion was handwritten was because at the time it was filed, Baumgartner was incarcerated at the Cuyahoga County Jail in northern Ohio, having been indicted on numerous felony counts of intimidation, retaliation and possession of a criminal tool, a laptop computer, for having criticized visiting retired judge Richard Markus, 75, when he was presiding in a civil case against her last fall.

She was being held on an unlawful detainer of $360,000 cash only bond---such high bails allowed by law only in capital cases, a violation of the Eighth Amendment which states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

#10: Technology Burnout
#9: Royals swept in double-header
#8: White House picks head chef
#7: Search engines: don't sell those copyrighted keywords
#6: The $100 wireless laptop
#5: Money CAN buy you happiness
#4: Airliner crash in Greece-a weird one
#3: Europe notices it has a problem
#2: Gaza pullout begins
#1: Bush's neighbors have had enough of Sheehan

Detroit 8, KC 7; Detroit 1, KC 0. Royals loss streak now up to fifteen.

"This is getting really old," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "We literally did some bad things - getting picked off, doubled off. The kid pitched a good game, but he threw to the same place the whole game and we didn't make adjustments. You've got to have the courage to make adjustments, to live with a plan. It is frustrating."

Royals need to go 43-3 to finish .500, 25-21 to avoid 100 losses, 1-45 to avoid losing all of their remaining games.

Regina Linn at Wired is maybe too connected:

I'm guilty of disappearing without notice. By the time I realize I'm in burnout mode, I can no longer make myself e-mail my friends to say I'm taking time off from the keyboard.

And from the handful of "Where are you, are you OK?" e-mails and IMs I've received over the past week, I can see the effects of a frequent e-communicator suddenly dropping out.

People worry that something has happened to you, or that they've inadvertently offended you, when really you're just sick of typing. Days slip by too fast and before you know it, you've gone weeks without reaching out.

Leave your cell phone, pager, etc., etc. at home every once in a while, go out to a park, lay down on the grass, and stare at the clouds for a while. Or, maybe, go to the State Fair, like Snookums and I are about to do. Just a suggestion.

First woman selected as President's head chef:

Cristeta Comerford was chosen from hundreds of applicants to head the executive kitchen. A naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines, she will be the first woman and first minority to hold the post.

Comerford has been an assistant chef at the White House for 10 years. She worked under former executive chef Walter Scheib III, who resigned in February.

Google loses in court:

Google’s AdWords underwent a policy change in April 2004. Until then Google had respected requests from companies that asked it to prevent their marks from being available for sponsorship. Now Google only takes action when a trade marked term is used in the text of an ad – i.e. the trade marked term can still trigger the ad.

The policy change has seen a flurry of suits against Google – including the action filed by GEICO.

Now we can get back to "saving a lot of money on car insurance" and watching animated geckos. Ooh baby.

MIT contemplates the cheap, wireless future:

AMD, among others, has been working on very cheap, low footprint platforms for mass market wireless devices, but the latest concept that could shift the communications goal posts comes from Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, who has outlined the blueprint for the so-called Hundred Dollar Laptop (HDL), a first step towards even lower cost devices in future.

The HDL that Negroponte posits would bypass three expensive components of conventional laptops - Microsoft Windows, a traditional flat panel screen, and a hard drive. Instead it will be loaded with Linux and other open source software; its display will use either a rear projection screen or a type of electronic ink invented at the MIT Media Lab; and it will store one gigabyte of files in flash memory.

Now, put all of that computing power on a reasonably sized watch, and you've got something.