Italy down. Spain down. Now Japan. From AP, June 20:

TOKYO -- Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq on Tuesday, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.

Here is the proof that the United States is not totalitarian state. Under totalitarianism, the government spies and collects data on its own citizens, without the formalities of warrants or court orders. In the United States, in contrast, these functions are left to the private sector. From AP, June 20:

WASHINGTON - Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.

From The New Standard, June 22:

Lynne Stewart, a lawyer convicted of terrorism-related charges, has asked a federal court to compel the federal government to disclose whether the National Security Agency’s illegal warrantless domestic-spying program helped the prosecution in its case against her and her co-defendants. Stewart and translator Mohammed Yousry were convicted last year for providing material support for terrorism while representing Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted of involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

More scapegoats are hung out to dry, this time in relation to the Hamdania case. We're reminded of the famous line from Apocalypse Now: "Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500." One can't help but feel sorry for the families of these kids who, whatever atrocities they committed, were in way over their heads. From AP, June 22:

No "state of emergency," eh? Just like there's no civil war. These distinctions appear to be rather semantic. From Al-Arab, June 23:

Iraq's government will impose a curfew in Baghdad on Friday, from 2 p.m. (10:00 GMT) until 6 a.m.(02:00GMT) on Saturday, banning the movement of people and vehicles, state television reported.

The Japanese constitution—ironically imposed at US behest after World War II—states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." Now Japanese warships participate in US military maneuvers in the Pacific. From AFP, June 22, via Spacewar:

A US warship successfully shot down a target missile warhead over the Pacific Thursday in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the US military said. A Japanese destroyer performed surveillance and tracking exercises during the test, marking the first time any US ally has taken part in a US missile defense intercept test, the US Missile Defense Agency said.

From AFP, June 7 via Spacewar:

A new world war involving nuclear weapons may have already begun, Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday, warning that an attack on Iran would be disastrous.

Having heretofore run only a photo with a caption, the New York Times today finally takes note of the labor strife and deadly repression in Oaxaca (albeit on page 6). Isn't it interesting, though, that rare accounts in the mainstream gringo press of the growing unrest in Mexico either mention the strike in Oaxaca or the Zapatista tour—but almost never both. Usually, the coverage of the Zapatitas implies (or baldly states) that they are forgotten and irrelevant. Also generally forgotten by the gringo press is the Atenco crisis, another focus of national attention which has radically eroded the state's credibility. In the run-up to next month's presidential race, the Zapatistas are arguably closer than ever to acheiving their long goal of a national civil revolutionary movement. But you'd never know it by reading norteamericano newspapers.