Having abandoned their encampments in Mexico City's main plaza, followers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held protests at 22 Wal-Mart outlets around the capital, accusing the company of "system violation of labor rights," and "an open campaign in favor of Felipe Calderon." Protesters charged that Wal-Mart employees had been ordered to vote for Calderon on threat of being fired. (La Jornada, Sept. 25, via Chiapas95)

From El Universal, Sept. 25, via Chiapas95:

A group of gunmen exchanged fire with protesters outside Oaxaca's Camino Real hotel on Sunday, injuring two and forcing dozens of guests, residents and journalists to run for cover.

Perhaps some of you noticed Bill Clinton's $15,000-a-head confab at a Midtown Manhattan Sheraton hotel last week to raise funds and awareness to tackle global poverty and climate change. Hillary, Colin Powell and even Laura Bush were all on hand. (NYT, Sept. 23) We can't help but feel that this elite exploitation does more harm than good. Sarah Ferguson wrote for the Village Voice Sept. 18 that Clinton's ex-veep Al Gore is also on the stump to promote supposed green solutions—with none other than ex-CIA chief James Woolsey:

After Richard Armitage was named as the source in the Valerie Plame leak, there was a paroxysm of unseemly crowing from the right-wing pundits, who predicted that Plame would not now sue Armitage because he is such a handsome, straight-shooting unimpeachable kinda guy. Well, now it turns out that Plame is suing Armitage. And, better yet, this comes to light. From BBC, Sept. 22:

The US threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it joined the fight against al-Qaeda, President Pervez Musharraf has said.

The irony is certainly not lost on Iran. From Business in Africa, Sept. 22:

Cairo - The United States ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, said his country has no problem with an Egyptian nuclear programme and was ready to supply nuclear technology to help.

From the LA Times, Sept. 25:

BAGHDAD - Iraq's sectarian leaders stepped back from a simmering constitutional crisis yesterday, agreeing to wait at least 18 months before setting up autonomous regions that would shift power away from the central government.

Don't you just love it when the government contradicts itself? The White House responds to the National Intelligence Estimate report finding the Iraq war is fueling global terrorism. From the LA Times, Sept. 25:

White House: Terrorism not linked to invasion
WASHINGTON - The White House yesterday sharply disagreed with a new U.S. intelligence assessment that the war in Iraq is encouraging global terrorism, as Bush administration officials stressed that anti-American fervor in the Muslim world began long before the Sept. 11 attacks.

In "Return to Sender" raids from Sept. 8 to 13, ICE agents arrested 55 people, 11 of them with prior criminal records, in the area around Lansing, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek in western Michigan. Those arrested were from Burma, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Turkey and Yugoslavia. One man with a prior criminal record faces charges for having reentered after being previously deported. Most were detained in the Calhoun County Correctional Facility for processing and deportation. While ICE claimed all those without criminal records had ignored deportation orders, Grand Rapids Attorney Richard Kessler, who specializes in immigration law, said some were merely "in the wrong place at the wrong time," detained because they were at the home of the individuals being sought. The sheriff's offices of Calhoun and Kent counties provided "significant assistance" to the operation, ICE said. (Grand Rapids Press, Sept. 16; AP, Sept. 14)