by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Olympic torch relay in Paris has met some obstacles. And by obstacles I mean massiveprotests. Security officials have had to snuff out the torch five timesand put it on a bus to avoid "Free Tibet" activists and otherprotesters.

Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-City of Industry) wants to help meet the budget shortfall by imposing a sales tax on music purchased and downloaded from the internet. Calderon's proposal wouldraise the cost of a typical iTunes download from 99 cents to $1.07.

Democrats are poised to gain seats in both the House and the Senate, reports the San Francisco Chronicle."We just don't know how many. We don't know if it's going to be in thehigh-single digits or something considerably more," said NathanGonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report.

There's more...

Image courtesy of AP

by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

The Olympic Torch is going on its world tour and, where it goes, it is being met with protests.  The Guardian UK reports on the scene in London today:

Police have been forced to bring in reinforcements to marshal the Olympic torch relay through London after a series of protests and confrontations along the 31-mile route between the authorities and those angered at China's human rights record. So far 35 people have been arrested, all for public order offences.

...

Thousands of peaceful protestors, many of them wearing Tibetan flags, also waved banners proclaiming: "Torch of Shame", "Stop The Killing In Tibet", "No Olympic Torch In Tibet" and "China Talk To Dalai Lama". Helping to lead the chants was Buddhist monk Ngawang Khyentse, who said: "We can't just remain silent. We have no other choice than to protest because there is no other voice for Tibetans inside Tibet, so we have to speak out for human rights. We are not asking for a boycott of the games, although there are many different views, we are asking for pressure to be put on the Chinese government to help the situation in Tibet."

Danny
Communications Director