Some Assembly Required: SAR #12141

Rights are nice, but someone has to pay the bills.

The Play's the Thing... In Chicago, a fourth man has been charged with planning to make Molotov cocktails , but – like so much else in this adventure – it is unclear if he was linked to the three remaining under arrest from an earlier police raid. Lawyers for the three say there was no criminal activity on the part of those arrested and suggested there may have been on the part of the police and their agents provocateur, and that the seized evidence was home-brewing equipment belonging to the tenant of the apartment where the CPD conducted a warrantless (and unwarranted?) raid. The cops claim the trio they planted evidence on were making or planning to make firebombs out of beer bottles with ~~bananas~~ bandanas as fuses. The Cook's County state's attorney claims that a mortar, knives and a hunting bow were also seized. The case, like so many others, also has a couple of helpful undercover policemen, who were egging their hapless targets along by promising them jellied gasoline. One of the 8 individuals arrested with the reported bomb-makers and later released said “The whole charge is transparently bogus and meant for the media to reduce turnout to the march on Sunday.” Entrapment? Political theater?

In Act II, a dozen Chicago police cars rounded up 3 #Occupy live-streamers on their way home from a peaceful day on the barricades.

Left Hand/Right Hand: The RNC Chairman blames Obama for making a big deal out of the Rev. Wright attack ads that Karl Rove said was a “stupid” idea on the part of Republicans.

Program, Getchyer Program: The only unknown about Greece is the timing; when will it leave the euro? The unknowns are what Greece's departure and Spain's bank run say about the future of the eurozone. No, not Spain – Spain follows Greece and takes Portugal along. Ireland will be a slight side-show. And Italy is not of immediate concern because the contagion will never spread to Italy. The euro will be a (reconstructed) memory before that happens.

Contagion: “For the sake of democracy and citizenship,” the governments of Quebec and the City of Montreal are doing their best to quash protest and force student organizers to help them do it. Just like south of the border in, say, Chicago.

We Owe: In 1950 the world's fishermen hauled 19 million tons of fish from the oceans. By 2006 the take had increased to 87 million tons. In that time stocks of many large commercial species such as bluefin tuna and cod fish have collapsed by 90% or more. We’re essentially consuming the equivalent of one and a half Earths each year – and not just in fish. We borrow from the future, and one day the world’s fish population will collapse, but there’s plenty for us now . It's a Ponzi scheme, with our children as the fall guys.

Virgin Papers: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has ordered the State Board of Elections to issue 'every eligible voter' ~~an internal passport~~ a voter card. Nibble, nibble.

Leaderslip: Joe Pitts (R-PA) an alumnus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says that “it is now incumbent on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Chairman Yasir Arafat to… restart a peace process that has collapsed." Much like Sharon, who's comatose, and Arafat, who died in 2004).

Reality Check: America want's peace, we say. We're benevolent spreaders of democracy, we say. We're also full of baloney. We are a warlike bunch. It's not just the two we're running now (or the other two we're running now but not acknowledging or the one we want to start with Iran) Go back a 100 years and count the wars - war has become a more or less permanent feature of the American experience.

Quoted: “Unless you run a financial institution whose business model is built on cheating consumers or making risky bets that could damage the whole economy, you have nothing to fear from Wall Street reform, ~~Jamie~~.” President Barack Obama.

A Victory for All of Us: U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, blessed be her name, in overturning Section 1021 of the NDAA, has ruled that the government cannot indefinitely incarcerate citizens without due process. Maybe the ruling won’t last. Maybe it will be overturned. But Americans are freer today than they were a week ago.

Poor Babies: All those suburban California housewives who were going to get rich selling real estate back in 2005,6,7 have gotten the message – the number of licenses is off 29% from the peak.

Porn O'Graph: Up, up, and away...