On cnn.com's frontpage, we see that InBev is buying Anheuser-Busch for $52B.

This news has been brewing for weeks (haha sorry for pun, I love puns) and had many a beer drinker discussing the possibility of late.

And, apparently, it's rankled quite a few, including Repubs, who consider this to be un-American.

Hell, even a mexican-american gangbanger in jail a couple weeks ago complained to me that selling the company to Europeans was 'really fucked up'.

Then again, is it really bad to trust the maker of Beck's with making Budweiser? Beck's is pretty good, especially on tap in Berlin. (and cheap over there too). And, don't forget, Budweiser was sued many years ago for doing what it did- stealing the name and recipe for the beer from Budveiser, the Czech company. St. Louis fans can appreciate, I guess, the unique history the company has with the baseball team, having shilled Budweiser at the baseball field there for decades.

So what do YOU think?

As some of you may have read in the past, I was sentenced to 4 months in LA county jail for cannabis, having done two days of solitary confinement in a police station prior to sentencing. At my sentencing hearing, the jail time was suspended for a community service program with extremely stringent measures  
that I was unable to fully meet due to employment obligations, and it became clear that jail time (instead of an extension or amendment of my probation terms) was the inevitable outcome.

After having served 2 weeks in Twin Towers(also known as Dante's Inferno), I am very glad to say that the excellent work of my public defender has granted me a release, with only a moderate addition of penalties to my terms of probation. (probation/parole can be a complicated system, for all you non-lawyers out there, so I'll embed some comments that illuminate the specifics somewhat)

This week I begin a multi-month sentence for cannabis, even though I never did that diary series on the quirks of cannabis history like I promised, or even  interviewed/diaried the Siegelman jury member acquaintance interview that I promised OPOL that I'd do. But here I am, out of time, and will have to put those off it seems.

[ah! procrastination, how insidious a demon thou art!]

more below the jump...

It was pretty obvious by the end why Clinton lost. I admit skipping over the frontpagers' explanations for Clinton's loss on the day after, simply because that analysis was more apparent than the true intentions that drive Hillary's ambitions...whatever they may exactly be.

And in his recent post over at Rolling Stone, the intrepid and blunt Matt Taibbi goes further in answering this question than any of the online guessing games. It's probably because he melded his status as a reporter and the access it gave to events-on-the-ground as well as real people with his own research and perusal of online blogs/discussion.

The result is definitely worth a look, especially for those of you who, like me, didn't get involved in the Primary Wars, save for a few pro-edwards or pro-obama comments and a few mystified questions regarding Clinton's decision to stay in a race she had already lost.

go over the fold for more Taibbi quotes(highly recommend the article to everyone). There won't be much filler material from me, because Matt says it better.

Yes, we all know that unemployment figures are really high right now. And, that's given the fact that unemployment figures only account for those seeking work, and many young people are left out of that figure.

That doesn't mean young people stopped eating, or buying gas, or spending money. Just that making it is harder than ever. So what do we do to survive in an economy that is KILLING folks twice our age, with much more padding on their resumes?

One word: hustle.
[in more than one word: we can't afford health insurance,etc.. and we don't even know the meaning of the word 'savings']

Now, first of all, be assured it had nothing to do with concerns for the environment, pollution, or climate change.

It's just not making enough money for them to keep dealing their main product

One of America's main drugs of choice, you see-oil-has become more expensive, and the main connects in the Middle East,etc consider us fiendish customers. Luckily for us, however, the almighty Market Gods will use their Invisible Hands to correct any problems our oil addiction might cause. And so forth.

This story is headlining over at cnn.com, and it is appalling. Since it doesn't appear to be on dkos at all, here's the story. [correction: gregmitch covered this story already, before cnn.com did]

As has been noted in a IGTNT diary, Green Beret Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, passed away in Iraq.

But...not as a fallen soldier on the battlefield. Maseth was a casualty of the war profiteer KBR, which colluded with corrupt Bush government officials to rip off taxpayers for shoddy work and inferior contracts.

Links and more info below the fold..

This diary is, in part, a re-posting of a diary that was done a few days ago. It was mostly a personal reaction sort of diary, and ended with a broader view of presidential politics.

I'd like to reintroduce this story to dkos, however, with a focus on Rachel Hoffman.

Regardless of whatever niche or position one may hold in the wide spectrum of political persuasions and beliefs, this is a tragic story that speaks for itself, and should be spoken about by a much wider audience than only locals in Florida. As much as we need inspired discussions about the nuances of drug policy reform, the injustices being done in our name, by our justice systems, simply cannot be ignored.

Please join me in a look at this story.

This is a heartbreaking and horrific story, and even more shameful is how it has been ignored wholly by the media. Not surprisingly, the San Diego State drug bust story has generated lots of publicity and media attention, probably because it reinforces the idiotic, status-quo messages about cannabis prohibition, drug dealing, and drug-related scandal. [I did not find this story on dkos, but if it is, someone let me know and I'll post that as well]

But what about Rachel Hoffman? Her story is much more tragic. If you can bear to read it, here is what happened in a
nutshell, just this past month: a 23 year old Florida State University graduate was busted for
pot possession of LESS THAN AN OUNCE, in her car during a stop for a SPEEDING ticket. At the request (or strong-arming)of the Tallahassee Police Dept., she acted as a drug buyer/informant during a drug sale involving ecstasy, crack, and a gun. She was killed during that transaction, simply because a trained narcotics undercover officer wasn't doing what Rachel Hoffman was askedto do.

Right now CNN is reporting that John McCain is in New Orleans for a 'forgotten' areas tour (aka the areas forgotten by the likes of Republicans and the DLC).  The headline on cnn.com is that McSame 'scathes' Bush's response to Katrina. [Feel free to drop a comment at Jack Cafferty's blog regarding your thoughts towards McSame in NO and his photo-op. ]

Interesting. Here we see McSame try to claim some difference from the Imperial Bush way of doing things.

So is the 'maverick' GOPer actually ANY different from Bush on Katrina? Well, while reading the HuffingtonPost, a startling post reminded me of how little difference there truly is between McSame and Bush.

For now, I want to do something that has been at the back of my mind since it became clear that prison was indeed the only option given to me by the legal system, which had increasingly seemed likely for months and was confirmed as a certainty today.

Before this gets into some sort of analysis or background, let's take a look
at the news story from rawstory.com that inspired this diary...

pilotless drones bought for 100k$ to stop the evil mexican dope growers

No, I'm not making that up. Before I make a few comments, worth approximately two pennies apiece, let me share the links.

UN chief sticks foot in mouth-  on video

Check that video out, as well as this link:
UN drug czar pitches hissy fit at reform conference

 A few comments below the fold...no preaching to the choir intended, so this will be fairly brief.

Hi, apologies for the shortness of this diary, but the brevity is kind of necessary since there isn't really a news story to report or analyze. I've researched comments at dkos to get an answer to my question, however many were very old and didn't come up for some reason.

Basically, I have an interview scheduled for a company called Telefund , which raises money for many clients such as the DNC, Planned Parenthood, and the LCV. All good organizations I'd be happy to fundraise for, so long as a respectable ratio of the cash goes to said clients, right?

Given the breadth of experience on this site, it seems reasonable to find some kossacks to help me out with this decision.

After reading this little nugget buried in a current NYTimes , I decided to write a little something....

San Diego County, the largest county in California without a fire department, relies on a hodgepodge of local departments that are almost all serving areas where populations are growing faster than their tax bases, and which are often low on money among a constituency that is generally allergic to taxes.

"Typically it takes the second or third time for a local fire department to make a compelling case" for increased tax revenues, said Stewart Gary, a principal at City Gate Associates, a government consulting firm that studies San Diego fire departments.

One of the two firehouses in the East County Fire Protection District, which sits in the heart of the 2003 fire area, was nearly closed last month, saved only by a special tax approved by voters.

uh.....seriously???!?? Even after the fires of 2003 ? (which I hope to see nothing like, ever again , in my lifetime)

This isn't going to be an eloquent, deeply-researched, or breaking diary. But I feel the need to get this off my chest...because the hypocrisy coming out of the GOPRANO camp (all day, every day, about everything) is too much......uh, bullshit??

If this

has been diaried already, I will delete. Did not see it, however.

According to an article up on cnn.com right now, the US military is "arming nationalist guerrillas and former Saddam Hussein loyalists -- and coordinating tactics -- in a marriage of convenience against al Qaeda radicals in one of Iraq's most violent provinces, senior U.S. commanders tell CNN."

PR b.s. or a huge escalation of the Iraqi civil war?