Sketchy

Craigslist announced on Friday that EBay had bought 25% ownership.

Is Craigslist selling out? Is this part of some bigger deal? What's going to happen now? I'm very confused. This article from the San Jose Mercury News has the story, but leaves many things unclear.

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Many developements on the August 29th UFPJ march front --

(WAIT, time out, that's not a sentence, but rather a Shepard-Smith-style phrase, lacking a verb. Whatever.)

First, on Monday, the Times ran "F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers", an article about how the FBI has been visiting activists across the country asking them for information about RNC plans.

This is stuff that had been reported in scattered news articles, but it was finally all put together into one big piece, and in the Times. So on Wednesday, a few congressional Dems called for a Justice Department investigation into these FBI practices (see Wednesday's Times article on this).

Separately, Bloomberg declared on Monday that protest is a 'privilege'.

Then on Tuesday, Bloomberg announced the creation of "Peaceful Political Activist" buttons. Pick one up at the RNC and you get discounts at restaurants, hotels, and museums! Right... The Times article explains the whole story and, in trying to give an example of people who this button might not be for, mentions two Wes alums! (in the paragraph about Code Pink).

On Wednesday UFPJ announced that it is suing the city over the rally site. Um, finally! This baby is going to come down to the last few days.

Of course, if the court or courts rule against them, or don't rule at all, it's bad news. But UFPJ has declared that "we are NOT marching to the West Side Highway, even if we do not win our fight for Central Park."

Take that, Mikey!