Arkansas State Democratic Chairman, Bill Gwatney, died this afternoon at the hospital where he was taken after a gunman entered the Democratic Party Headquarters in Little Rock this morning and opened fire, then fled. According to police Lt. Terry Hastings, the gunman fired several shots, "He came in and went into this office and started shooting." The gunman, a white male in his 40s, lead police on a high speed chase which ended in a hail of bullets between the police and the suspect, who was injured. The suspected gunman died.

Gwatney was a state legislator for 10 years, and owned 3 GM car dealerships. He was a superdelegate to the Democratic Convention. ABCNews.com reported that workers at the Republican State Party office were sent home as a precautionary measure.

Bill Clinton, Arkansas' former governor and former first lady, Hillary, called Gwatney a strong state party chairman and "a cherished friend and confidante. We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," the former governor and first lady of Arkansas said in a joint statement. "His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him."

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE TODAY (7/2/08). THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST UNITE TO SHOW THE WORLD WE DID NOT SUPPORT OR APPROVE OF THE INJUSTICES OF THIS ADMINISTRATION AND THE CRIMES IT COMMITTED AGAINST IRAQ, THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD.  TO REGAIN OUR STATURE IN THE WORLD, WE MUST CHARGE BUSH AND CHENEY WITH WAR CRIMES BEFORE THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES IT FOR US.  CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPERSONS TODAY!

By Dave Lindorff

In the last few days, both the Israeli military and the US military have fired missiles into homes, in an effort to target what they said were terrorists, in the process killing many innocent civilians.

But what a contrast we see in both the reporting on these events, and in the response within the two countries!

By David Swanson

"Jacked: How 'Conservatives' Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted for Them or Not)" is a short book by Nomi Prins that makes an excellent education for those remaining Americans who still do not understand that right-wing politicians take from those who work and give to those who live in luxury off the sweat of others.

At the end of World War II, corporations paid half the cost of the federal government. They now pay 7 percent, and many of them pay 0 percent. Unless you are very wealthy, you pick up the tab, and the tab has grown. The federal government now spends more than what it spends on everything else on the military alone, and that cost keeps rising.

By Dave Lindorff

Anybody who thinks that the government is telling the truth about the plan to shoot down a dead spy satellite--that it's all about protecting us, and not about testing an anti-satellite weapon--has to be really stupid.

And stupid is what the Bush administration and the Pentagon apparently think we are.

They're claiming they need to shoot this thing down because it's got a tank with 1000 pounds of hydrazine, a fuel used for maneuvering satellites while in orbit which is said to be as toxic as chlorine if breathed.

Well, the odds of a tank of hydrazine surviving an 18,000 mph plunge into the atmosphere intact and making it to the ground is basically zero. That sucker will heat up to a fine redhot glow and blow up before it even makes it to the stratosphere.

Harper's Scott Horton just dropped da turd in da tank. Seems as though a few "movement conservatives" got some "private time" with the "independently minded" Judge Mukasey. They made two offers he couldn't refuse. First, don't appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the US Attorneys scandal - that's essential to protect the Bush toadies Rove and Miers. Secondly, they wanted Mukasey's assurance that he would continue the protection of the authors of the waterboarding torture program.

Welcome, folks, to the world of Alice in Wonderland, as we peer down into the rabbit's hole, reading Senator Schumer's (ir)rationalization for endorsing Mukasey:

"...the job will not be finished until we get a strong and independent attorney general. I believe Judge Mukasey is that type of person. Should we reject him, it is almost certain that an acting, caretaker attorney general will take office without the advice and consent of the Senate. Inevitably, that would enable those in this administration, who do not believe in the rule of law, and have done things that caused even former Attorney General Ashcroft to threaten resignation, to have the complete upper hand.

"Too often, the Bush administration does what it wants, no matter the law. It says what it wants, no matter the facts,"

-- Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.

It's not enough that the Bush Administration can't consider a piece of legislation lest it be slathered with myriad "signing statements" -- i.e. presidential admissions of contempt for the rule of law. Now, it seems, they can't even work within the canyon-fitted leeway afforded by Bush's law-skirting actions. At least that's what the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in their report (though they worded it a bit differently;)

As being reported by Time Magazine:

"A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo."

Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

John Aravosis posted a disturbing blog about how Washington DC is becoming "A Clockwork Orange":

If you never saw the movie "A Clockwork Orange," it's about... well... I don't even remember what it's about, I saw it so long ago. All I remember from the movie was an incredibly graphic and violent scene of some thugs breaking into a woman's home. The rest was so violent and nasty, it still sticks in my head some 30+ years later.

That is what Washington, DC is now becoming, a city of gratuitous and graphic violence. I'm serious, the city is dangerous folks. Visit or live here at your own peril.