Go Jessica Popovac! Chicago Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil is an important outing of a story I had just heard about myself last week from Little Village sources. According to the person I spoke with who was familiar with the concerted negotiations for some weeks between the Venezuelan Government, elected officials from Boston and officials from the City of Chicago and the CTA, representatives of the White House directly contacted Mayor Daley's office to urge that Chicago *not* participate in these efforts by the U.S. oil company Citco owned by the Venezuelan Government.

Great article, and a dizzying display of wrong priorities by the CTA and the Daley administration.

Thanks to the ACLU and Professor Alasdair Roberts, Syracuse U., here is a Memorandum of Agreement between the FBI, Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police forming the "Chicago Counterterrorism Tas Force" dated in 1991.

There really has been too much news to keep up with recently including:

the transit strike in New York

the illegal spying on people within the United States by the National Security Agency as ordered by the President

the 11th hour adding of a provision that would allow corporations to drill for oil in Anwar, Alaska to the defense budget in the House and the Senate.

But Today the BBC reports that there has been another toxic spill into a river in China. This time the chemical is cadmium among others. This is also significant because it is cadmium that the Federal EPA's proposed rollback on reporting rules would eliminate from reporting in Illinois.

Multinational Corporations, most based in the United States, are increasingly directly involved in international human rights abuses, acording to a Global Exchange report.

The times we live in. Hard to believe. Excellent Democracy Now! Program today, check it out:
- Anniversary of Massacre in East Timor
- Government Fails to Convict Palestinian Professor on Terror Charges
- German Citizen Files Rendition Lawsuit Against US
- Rice Secures New Military Base in Romania
- Tehran Plane Crash Kills Over 110 People
- US Security Consultant Kidnapped in Iraq
- Hundreds of Families Flee US Offensive in Ramadi

Ouch. Biting commentary about Obama by the Black Commentator blog: "U.S. Senator Barack Obama has planted his feet deeply inside the Iraq war-prolongation camp of the Democratic Party..."

Also, the US military has officially planted positive stories in the Iraq media. Ahh, nothing like the retoric of building a democracy in Iraq. Lies.

Watch video here about recent 'British Ocean Scientists' finding that the Gulf Stream has cooled by one third.

WBBM AM 780 reports: Illinois National Guard Strapped For Equipment. And Chicago Crain's reports: Gov. asks ICC to lean on Peoples Energy for refund.

And most important of all, unlike what some people have told me, Chipotle Grill is indeed owned by McDonalds as described by Crain's.