Lawbreakers who are considering cussing or flashing a breast on TV may not be getting the most value for their money. The FCC’s recently escalated fines for these heinous crimes is $325,000 per incident. Lost Remote has done the public service of identifying some relative bargains for the thrifty ne’er-do-well.

• Killing someone by accident: $250,000.
• Commit Second Degree Murder in Florida: $10,000.
• Kidnap a child in California: $10,000.
• Do drugs in Iowa: $10,000.
• Violate someone’s civil rights: $10,000.

Some of these crimes also come with prison terms, but from a financial perspective, the benefits are clear. This is an excellent example of the free market at work.

It’s interesting to observe what American media considers to be good news these days. This morning a statement was released by Karl Rove’s attorney stating that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald does not expect to seek charges against Rove. Much of the media’s characterization of this announcement plays as if Rove had received an award.

The New York Times said that the decision:
“lifted a pall that had hung over Mr. Rove,” and that it, “removes a potential political stumbling block for a White House that is heading into a long and difficult election season for Republicans,” and that it, “should help the White House in what has been an unsuccessful effort to put the leak case behind it.”

The ABC News/Associated Press reports that the news is:
lifting a heavy burden from one of President Bush’s most trusted advisers,” and that it, “cheered Republicans and a White House beleaguered by war and low approval ratings.”

Reuters says that the news gave:
“a much-needed boost for President George W. Bush, who has been battered by bad news ahead of November’s congressional elections.”

MSNBC hails that:
“Now with the cloud of indictment lifted, Rove is liberated.”

On NPR they noted that:
The news about Rove triggered what was described as elation at the White House.

What they are not saying is that Rove’s evasion of culpability may be temporary. Fitzpatrick’s notice stated that, “he does not expect to seek charges…” That is hardly an unequivocal exoneration. And let’s not forget that Scooter Libby is still under indictment and others, including Dick Cheney, are still being investigated.

I think it’s funny (not ha ha funny) that the media, and even much of the blogiverse, thinks it is positive for Rove that he hasn’t been indicted. Since when is “not being indicted” an affirmation of good character? As if that is the penultimate honor in our society – to be suspected of dishonesty, corruption and treason, but not get indicted for it. Isn’t that the dream we all have for our children?

I started News Corpse as a direct result of my experience at dailyKos. I didn’t set out to seek attention or to promulgate my views. I was just drawn to the idea of being able to express myself. It was more cathartic than anything else. But absent the stir of inspiration, I might never have made this site manifest.

Now I’m getting about 2,500 visitors a day. I know that’s small in Kosian terms, but it’s 2,485 more people than I’ll run into at the coffee house I hang out at. And if just 100 Kossacks (out of 70,000) build sites like mine, that’s almost another dailyKos in terms of reach. The exponential growth of this message machine is mind boggling. And that’s where I see the most value emerging from this community.

Markos has set the stage for an experiment in communications that I call paramedia. It is not just an addendum to the conventional media. It resides on a seperate plane but can move in concert with it. Paramedia uses the same components as the conventional model, but uses them much more efficiently. In advertising, reach and frequency are the keys to a campaign’s effectiveness in influencing consumer behavior. By expanding reach, a message gains exposure. And for messages to take root in the public mind they must be repeated with reliable frequnecy. Frequency also places the message in close proximty to a consumer’s decision. These same concepts hold true for politics, journalism and citizen media. Therefore, it is important for those who have an interest in promoting the goals of progressive leadership, liberal ideology, and media reform, to participate in the discussion. You may not think that your role is significant, but it’s a cumulative formula and every contribution adds mass to the whole.

In a pre-conference post, Markos said,“Technology allows each and every one of us to be a leader.” But it does more than allow it – it invites it. It savors and rewards it, and spreads it like an infection, the likes of which the world’s body has never seen.

If you have something to say, say it. Don’t fret about who hears you. The reverberations of our cumulative voices extend out like waves and can inspire whomever they touch. Your signal in this wave pattern may not touch many people, but what if it touches one person who sends out more powerful signals? That’s your progeny. Some of us may touch 200, others 200,000. That’s really not the point. It’s like bands that never really got very famous themselves (i.e. Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Pixies) but got tens of thousands of teenagers to pick up instruments and take up residence in their garages and start their own bands, many of whom went on to superstardom.

As an artist, I would rather have that kind of legacy than being the next Warhol.

Vice-president Dick Cheney has a well-known penchant for secrecy. Whether it’s the energy task force he headed or his attempts to hide the facts about his shooting a friend on a hunting trip.

Now he is trying to suppress a congressional investigation into the administration’s wiretapping affair. The Republican chairman of the senate Judiciary committee, Arlen Spector is accusing the VP of interferring with the oversight responsibilities of congress. In a letter to Cheney, Spector said…

“I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point.”

Spector said Cheney had lobbied Republicans to oppose the holding of any hearing, even a closed one. He argued that the telecommunications companies were “not to provide any information to the committee as they were prohibited from disclosing classified information.”

These admonitions were given in advance of the hearings and represent a kind of executive prior restraint since there was no evidence that the companies intended to disclose anything of a classified nature. The administration has been working hard to keep the facts surrounding their unlawful eavesdropping from seeing the light of day. They have even cut off Justice Department investigations by refusing to grant JD attorneys the necessary security clearances to conduct their investigation.

Is this the behavior of a White House that has nothing to hide?

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown gave a speech on “Power and Super-Power” before the Century Foundation and Center for American Progress — Security and Peace Initiative. Much of the speech was directed at encouraging greater participation by the U.S. in both world affairs and the U.N.’s operations and reforms. But while Brown lamented the absence of U.S. participation, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, seemed to take the whole speech as an affront to America and Americans.

Brown’s central observations were concerned with U.S. officials and media that promote hostility toward the U.N.:

“…today, on a very wide number of areas, from Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and the Palestinian issue, the US is constructively engaged with the UN. But that is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.”

We can add John Bolton to that group. Before his recess appointment (he has never been confirmed by the Senate for his post), he was quoted as saying that, “If the UN Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.” His response to Brown’s speech demonstrates that his mood has not mellowed.

“Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations…Even worse was the condescending and patronizing tone about the American people.”

Bolton went on to say that, should Brown’s speech not be repudiated, he fears the consequences for the organization. Bolton’s predilection for making up affronts to Americans and his fondness for throwing threats around is an affirmation of the substance of Brown’s speech. I’m not sure where we can expect to go from here when we have an ambassador who feels insulted by a colleague who is admiringly pleading for a closer, less hostile relationship with the U.S.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Matthew W. Friedrich appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee to reiterate the Justice Department’s threats to criminalize journalism. And he stayed just long enough to anger even the Republican members of the committee by stonewalling them.

Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) told Friedrich, that he should be ashamed of himself for, “…taking what would be called a testifying Fifth Amendment.” Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), scolded Friedrich for spinning an answer to refer hypothetically to the past. “I’m not interested in history this morning,” Specter told him. “I’m interested in current events.” And Charles Grassley (R-IA) wondered aloud why the Justice Department would send a representative to testify who wouldn’t answer the committee’s questions if they had, “any respect for this committee whatsoever.”

What Friedrich did say was that the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, was correct when he said that, with regard to prosecuting journalists who receive leaks from anonymous sources…

“There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that [prosecution] is a possibility.”

He would not say whether or not such prosecution had been considered, except for his cryptic reference to “historical examples.” He also wouldn’t comment on the JD’s attempts to seize records from the estate of investigative journalist, Jack Anderson.

One thing he did make a point of saying was that he doesn’t believe new legislation is needed to protect reporters. Protecting reporters is, in fact, the last thing this Justice Department is interested in. Their every occupation and utterance is directed at intimidating and emasculating what remains of an independent press, even unto the grave in Anderson’s case.

Some of the members of the Judiciary committee showed a little gumption by challenging Friedrich, but the media itself has been typically silent. It’s their asses in the sling, yet they still can’t bring themselves to fight for their honor and, by the way, the right of Americans to enjoy the benefits of our constitutionally guaranteed free press.

Here’s a great idea: Let’s pump ads at our kids as they are transported to and from school everyday. Let’s make them a captive audience for corporations who want to turn them into little consumption machines. What better way to indoctrinate the next generation of shopaholics than by forcing them endure commercial broadcasts in their school buses?

That’s the business that BusRadio has embarked upon. Their website touts the service as taking:

“…targeted student marketing to the next level. Every morning and every afternoon on their way to and from school, kids across the country will be listening to the dynamic programming of BusRadio providing advertiser’s with a unique and effective way to reach the highly sought after teen and tween market.”

Finally, targeted student marketing advances to the next level where our highly sought after children are effectively served up to advertisers. And all of this is done through the compulsory education system with the official imprimatur of school administration. School districts that allow this are admitting that their core mission is not education, but indoctrination. They are also conceding that functioning as a day care is more important than educating children. Indeed, BusRadio promotes a study that finds that kids are quieter and more obedient when exposed to their service. And parents that permit this have effectively surrendered their children to the media overlords.

This new enterprise is filling a void that exists because we don’t already have enough advertising infecting every vacant inch of our consciousness. And preparing young minds for their eventual enslavement to Madison Avenue can only make their transition to servitude proceed more cooperatively. If not, there is still Ritalin and Prozac.