TODAY'S TOP FIVE: I Like Ike's Kid.
Return of the Bill of Rights U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero has struck down surveillance portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, ruling that it is unconstitutional for the FBI to seek confidential consumer records from communications companies and also to refuse those companies to disclose that the records had been requistioned. Attorney General Ashcroft, fresh from throwing sheets over statues and getting all greased up with Crisco, plans to appeal.
Even the Wackos Are Beginning to Make Sense Pat Buchanan, he of the yearned-for Great Wall of Mexico, has come out in favor of Kerry, saying that Kerry is "pummeling" Bush on "the great issue of the campaign": Iraq. Man, how nutty do you have to be as a right-winger to alienate Pat Buchanan? He invented nutty right wingerhood, fer cryin' out loud!
Draft Panic: We Were There First! Talk about re-instatement of the draft is now more mainstream than Nelly: there's a Rock the Vote commercial about it, and Ted Kennedy referred to it in his great speech this week. Also, Seymour Hersh (the great journalist who exposed My Lai and Abu Ghraib) says he thinks the draft will be reinstated after Bush steals another election. I'd like to point out two things: One, the MLWL has been warning about the draft for more than a year. Two, Hersh's advice for dealing with the coming bad times, "Sell short and buy some land in Tuscany," doesn't really help us broke-ass working stiffs.
The Daily Mayhem: Israel Edition 15 people were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip one day after two Israeli children, ages 2 and 4, were killed by a rocket fired at their grandmother's home by Palestinian militants.
The Daily Mayhem: Iraq Edition More than 40 people were killed in coordinated car bombings in Western Iraq today, most of them children. One American soldier was killed and three were wounded. The number of attacks on American troops is now averaging 80 per day, up from 40 per day a month ago. The first presidential debate is tonight at 9 p.m.
-Consider Arms
