Defense Tech: Ayatollahs in Orbit: "Tehran is about to send its first satellite into space, says the Jerusalem-based Isracast.

By the end of September a Russian Cosmos 3 missile will be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome 800 km north of Moscow, carrying two Iranian satellites into orbit. Although the satellites are claimed to be for meteorological and experimental purposes, experts believe that one of them will possess surveillance capabilities allowing it to observe American and Israeli military facilities throughout the Middle East..."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "Anti-war groups are using a $1 million ad campaign and a demonstration they say will attract 100,000 people to try to re-energize their movement and pressure the Bush administration to bring troops home from Iraq."

...

"On Thursday, Bush said withdrawing troops right now would make the world more dangerous.

"The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission," he said. 'For the safety and security of the American people, that's not going to happen on my watch.'"

But, we've already beaten them. Why else would: "the Justice Department is recruiting FBI agents away from investigating murders, terrorism, money laundering, drugs, racketeering, kidnapping and other minor offenses to form an elite squad to confront the menace of our time: pornography."

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com - The president's double reverse halo: "As Reuters reports today, public support for the war in Iraq has 'nosedived in the aftermath of Katrina.' A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released Monday had 66 percent of Americans favoring the withdrawal of some or all of the U.S. troops in Iraq -- an increase of 10 percentage points from the results Gallup reported just two weeks ago.

Steven Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University, tells Reuters that the issue is one of money. 'Americans want to attend to the needs of people at home before we take care of people overseas,' he says."

(Via Salon.)

Defense Tech: Spec Ops in DC: "'Today, somewhere in the DC metropolitan area, the military is conducting a... Top Secret and compartmented [exercise of] the military’s extra-legal [response to] weapons of mass destruction,' writes William Arkin, on his extremely awesome new blog, Early Warning. 'It allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control.'

A spokesman at the Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region (JFHQ-NCR) confirmed the existence of Granite Shadow to me yesterday, but all he would say is that Granite Shadow is the unclassified name for a classified plan."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Police forcibly break up Cindy Sheehan rally | AfterDowningStreet.org: "The New York City Police Department forcibly broke up this afternoon's rally for Cindy Sheehan, moving in as Cindy was speaking at about 3 p.m. in Union Square. The rally had been underway for about an hour, and was about to conclude as Cindy spoke following several other speakers, including a few who are traveling with her on her caravan.

As Cindy was speaking, a large platoon of police massed behind from the interior of the park, then formed a circle behind her, the speakers' area and a few dozen people who were deployed in an arc behind her. Overall, about 200 people were in attendance, with the crowd steadily increasing in size as the rally progressed. As the police formed their arc just behind, the men and women immediately behind Cindy linked arms. A captain made a cutting motion at his throat, signalling he wanted no more free speech"

(Via AfterDowningStreet.org.)

Georgia's New Poll Tax - New York Times: "In 1966, the Supreme Court held that the poll tax was unconstitutional. Nearly 40 years later, Georgia is still charging people to vote, this time with a new voter ID law that requires many people without driver's licenses - a group that is disproportionately poor, black and elderly - to pay $20 or more for a state ID card. Georgia went ahead with this even though there is not a single place in the entire city of Atlanta where the cards are sold. The law is a national disgrace."

...

"The Republicans who pushed the law through, and Gov. Sonny Perdue, also a Republican, who signed it, say that it is intended to prevent fraud. But it seems clear that it is about keeping certain people away from the polls, for political advantage. The vast majority of fraud complaints in Georgia, according to its secretary of state, Cathy Cox, involve absentee ballots, which are unaffected by the new law. Ms. Cox says she is unaware of a single documented case in recent years of fraud through impersonation of a voter at the polls."

(Via NY Times.)

Martini Republic » Racebaiter Rove setting Administration policy on New Orleans reconstruction: "How can it be that the very same man who pandered to white racists in South Carolina in 2000 is responsible for setting policy on Katrina relief efforts? How can it be?"

(Via Martini Republic.)

Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans: "This is criminal': Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans**

Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for New Orleans City Council, lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that is not flooded. They have no power, but the water is still good and the phones work. Their neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people. - Ed."

(Via craigslist.)