Cross-posted at AlterNet:

Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al-Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be ... the bottom line. It is about oil.

Alan Greenspan said so last fall. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve, safely out of office, confessed in his memoir, "Everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." He elaborated in an interview with The Washington Post's Bob Woodward, "If Saddam Hussein had been head of Iraq and there was no oil under those sands, our response to him would not have been as strong as it was in the first Gulf War."

Remember, also, that soon after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told the press that war was our only strategic choice. "We had virtually no economic options with Iraq," he explained, "because the country floats on a sea of oil."

From Lindsay Beyerstein:

A 61-year-old librarian was ejected from an ostensibly public McCain campaign event at the Denver Center of Performing Arts in Denver, CO on June 7 because she was brandishing a deadly memetic weapon: a hand-lettered sign that read "McCain=Bush."

Carol Kreck was standing outside the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is located on city property. When she was asked to either discard the sign or get out, Ms. Kreck objected that she was standing on city property.

She was led away by police officers and subsequently ticketed for trespassing. As she was being removed, Kreck asked if was being arrested. The officer answered, "Yes." (Approximately 1:03 into the video.)

Carol Kreck, QED. McCain=Bush.

John McCain, appearing on CNN's "American Morning," stated that despite what the numbers say, his Economic Plan that includes continuing Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy would balance the budget. CNN's John Roberts posed the question, "Senator, you can't get over the fact, though, that extending the Bush tax cuts, as you want to do, and adding in your tax cuts do take the deficit number from -- we actually go from a $70 billion surplus to a $445 billion deficit. So, it's those tax cuts."

McCain avoided directly answering the question and offered a classic Republican talking point, "It's Government Over Spending." McCain failed to note the exorbitant costs of the Iraq war when discussing government over spending. The United States spends approximately $275 million per day on the Iraq war and the total cost of the war is projected to to be around 3 trillion. (www.pbs.org)

The threat of nuclear war hangs over the region with no end in sight, just as it has for the past three decades.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: Are the Rove proteges reshaping McCain's campaign? Are they cracking down on the cringey laugh and turning McCain into just one more bland teleprompter jockey? And what's the progress on scoring the budget victory numbers? We bring you all up to date in today's McCain campaign update (with special new cringey laugh footage).

Rove's attorney sent the House Judiciary Committee a letter stating Karl Rove will not even show up to a hearing on July 10th per a subpoena citing executive privilege. Will the House call Rove's bluff?

Shockingly, not if Nancy Pelosi has anything to do with it. For more on that angle see www.hotpotatomash.com

Just how is buyout billionaire Bruce Wasserstein gouging our country's elderly?  Let's connect the dots: Wasserstein is the CEO of Lazard and has made billions by buying companies, cutting costs, and turning quick profits.  Lazard owns and manages Atria Senior Living—the third largest assisted-living provider in the U.S.—as a private equity investment.  Atria has been mismanaging its facilities left and right, making medication mistakes, wrongly locking in residents, and even failing to call emergency services. 

What is Atria's response?  The company slapped residents on a fixed income with steep rent increases to as much as $8,500 per month.  What's more, Atria pays its staff a measly average of $8-10 an hour with unaffordable healthcare, while Wasserstein made $41 million in 2007 alone.  That's right, Wasserstein is getting rich off our nation's grandmas and grandpas, a gross injustice that we have exposed in our newest video, Bruce Wasserstein: Gouging Grandma.

We have joined the SEIU to demand that Wasserstein stop gouging our grandparents and respect its employees.  Here's what you can do:

• Sign the petition from Campaign to Improve Assisted Living and Tell Bruce Wasserstein to Stop Gouging Seniors.

• E-mail this video and the petition to all your friends, family members, and coworkers. 

• Spread the word on sites like Digg, which will help create a public outcry to pressure Wasserstein and Lazard.

Make sure everyone knows we won't stand for Wasserstein's despicable behavior, and make sure it happens today.

The mainstream media repeats McCain's claims that Obama has flip-flopped on Iraq.

One wonders why both the MSM and McCain continually act as if there are no records of what people say and do....or are they that confident that most people will not bother to check?

Following a ruling ordering YouTube to turn over user data to Viacom, privacy concerns mount. YouTube must turn over information about its users as part of a lawsuit from Viacom. The move has outraged electronic privacy advocates. Bobbi Rebell reports.

Breaking down CNN's faulty logic.

Here are the details on the substance of Obama's withdrawal plan.

'Bout time Bill and Barack buried the hatchet!

Barack Obama voiced by Kyle Grooms. Bill Clinton by Marc Jacobs.  More videos at http://barelypolitical.com

George W. Bush, John McCain, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Patrick McCrory and Multinational Big Oil Corporations want to gamble North Carolina's coastal ecosystems and tens of thousands of Tourism and Commercial Fishing jobs for a 2% chance of a commercial find of oil or gas from offshore drilling.

More at therealnews.com

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff and Head of IAEA against attack, Iran's Foreign Minister says it's crazy

Brave New Foundation is currently seeking people who want to tell their stories about private insurance companies for a new short documentary project. We want to hear from people who have struggled to pay medical bills despite having full coverage; people that have been denied a claim; as well as from people who have been greatly assisted by public insurance systems such as Medicare and Medicaid.

If you have any stories that may be of interest to us and want to share them as a call to action to help fix the health care system in America, please EMAIL us at bnhealthcare@gmail.com.

FarkTV takes a comical look at some of the first immigrants ever to reach our shores.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: The McCain camp has jumped all over Obama's statement last week that he would continue to "refine" his Iraq policyfollowing a planned upcoming meeting with military leaders in the country. Obama says he's remained totally consistent, but Joe Lieberman and the Fox News Sunday "All-Star Panel" beg to differ.

Teen pregnancy is on the rise in America for the first time since 1991. One in three teenage girls in the US becomes pregnant. Recent media hype and movies like Juno give teen pregnancy a certain kind of treatment.

America News Project went to one health center in the Northeast of Washington, DC to explore the real thing.

http://newsproject.org

More at therealnews.com

Triita Parsi talks about the affect of threats on Iranian public opinion.

Inside USA travels to Haiti to look at how the stories of politics, rice and the US are deeply interwoven.

See part 2 here.

Somebody should have told the White House that Virginia is David Swanson Country. The link to get tickets to the event was in the 'Do Something' section of MichaelMoore.com last week and it looks like we had some takers. Thanks to all the protesters who fight for our freedom.

Happy July 4th! Tossing another one on the grill at www.michaelmoore.com