With the Middle East spinning out of control, few are taking note of how close the USA's southern neighbor is to a social explosion. From the LA Times, July 17 (via Chiapas95), with annotation and corrections added, buzz-words in bold (at risk of being obvious):

MEXICO CITY -- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led a massive protest march to Mexico City's central square Sunday and called for peaceful civil resistance to press his demand for a full recount in the presidential election he narrowly lost to a conservative rival. [Why is the LAT taking it for granted that in fact lost?]

From DPA, July 18:

At least 47 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Monday and 10 more bodies were found, pushing the death toll from the Israeli offensive to more than 200 over the past six days.

Hardly even making the headlines anymore. Meanwhile, the level of violence there is worse than at any time since the US invasion of 2001. This headline notes the suicide attack on a government target, but little information is given about the mass abduction (by whom exactly? what "gunmen"?) of villagers in Khost. From Reuters, July 17:

Suicide bomber hits Afghan government compound

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber killed a justice department chief in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Monday and gunmen kidnapped 40 villagers near the Pakistani border, officials said.

Another heroic blow by the Iraqi "insurgents"... against Shi'ite civilians. From AP, July 17:

Iraqi oil official kidnapped; 26 die in bombing

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber detonated explosives yesterday inside a cafe packed with Shias in northern Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring 22, an Iraqi general said. And gunmen seized a top Oil Ministry official, the second major kidnapping in as many days.

With all eyes on the horrific and escalating Lebanon crisis, Gaza has been forgotten. But things aren't looking too good there. From Reuters, July 17:

Aid agencies express concern about humanitarian crisis facing Gaza
Christian Aid, Oxfam International and Save the Children UK fear that escalating violence in Gaza will lead to a humanitarian crisis for over 1.3 million Palestinians.

Received by email from Indymedia Beirut:

URGENT APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH LEBANESE CIVIL SOCIETY
The Israeli offensive against Lebanon is an act of aggression against the whole Lebanese people. The IDF claims to be attacking an "infrastructure of terror," but the attacks on bridges, roads, airports and ships are cutting the country into pieces, threatening to create a disastrous situation by impeding the transportation of food and medicines, and terrorizing everyone. Besides the hundreds killed and injured, thousands of people are fleeing the country, and thousands of people are fleeing from the areas where the bombing is heaviest into central Beirut. Even here in the "safe" parts of the city we can hear the bombs throughout the day and night, and electrical and water supplies are tenuous.

More sacrifices for the American way of life. From Newsday, July 14:

Crash van driver had suspended license

The ambulette driver who crashed into a tree on Broad Channel in Queens killing five passengers from an adult home had sped off just beforehand after drifting into another lane and nearly striking a woman in a silver car, a police source said Thursday.

It is heartening that in this paranoid age even the Coptic Christians of Egypt see US-backed conspiracies in the challenges which are emerging to their own orthodoxy. As we recently noted, neocon groups like the Henry Jackson Society have been seeking to exploit the Copts, who face persecution from the Muslim majority, as ideological cannon fodder in their propaganda war against Islamic extremism and the Islamic nations generally. The suspicions expressed here (note highlighted text below) would suggest they have a long way to go. Also interesting that the orthodox Copts' complaint of US meddling mirrors that of their Islamic fundamentalist oppressors: the yankees are backing modernizers who are eroding core tenets of the faith. First, this short clip from Egypt's Middle East Times, July 12: