Several Lakota Indians, tired of having the government not live up to its treaty promises, have decided to withdraw from treaty partnerships with the U.S. altogether, forming a new country that includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

“We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by,” Phyllis Young, an Indian rights activist said. “They continue to take our land, our water, our children.”

The new Indian country will issue its own passports and driving licenses, and living there will be tax-free, as long as citizens renounce their U.S. citizenship. The State Department has not yet reacted to the Lakota declaration of independence.

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Samuel Snow was sent to a military prison for over a year for allegedly taking part in a bloody riot at Fort Lawton, Wash. during World War II. But he always maintained his innocence. The government finally agreed in October, and he was told the U.S. military made a mistake.

“Then the Pentagon settled up with the wronged soldier,” according to news reports. “But Snow, now 83, was shocked by the small size of the check he received for back pay withheld while he served nearly a year in a military brig. The $725 check he got in the mail included no interest or adjustment for inflation.”

“That hurt my feelings. I was disappointed,” Snow said. “I feel I was cheated out of a career [with the Army].”

He added that “the money is not enough for the decades of humiliation and anguish he suffered for being wrongly convicted, locked up and later dishonorably discharged. Snow said he has no plans to cash the check.”

“I’d like them to pay my back-time with inflation and interest,” he said. “And I would like my retirement benefits.”

Rep. Corrine Brown says Snow’s case is an injustice. She plans to ask Congress to launch an investigation into why Snow’s back pay was not adjusted for interest and inflation.

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Nancy Nord, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has announced that she won’t heed Democratic lawmakers’ calls for her resignation. She also opposes Democratic efforts to double her agency’s funding and give it more authority.

“At this point I have no intention of resigning,” she told the AP. “I’m doing my job, and part of my job is to talk with Congress about the tools and resources we need.” Yesterday Nancy Pelosi said Nord should resign.

It’s also being reported that Nord rejected criticism that she is controlled by the White House and too cozy with manufacturers.

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In a post-debate interview Bill Richardson told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that he doesn’t believe the U.S. government has done enough to shed light on UFO phenomena. The New Mexico governor added that while he has never personally seen a UFO, he thinks the government has classified far too many documents involving sightings, which has helped to foster conspiracy theories about their existence. The city of Roswell, he noted, is the site of an alleged UFO crash, and is a large tourism draw in his home state.

Related: Another Way to Piss Off Al Gore: Own a Flying Saucer

And: Kooky Kucinich Questions Bush’s Brain

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Fifty-five years of imprisonment and my entire life’s savings – this is what they want to take from me, in my real life ‘David and Goliath’ struggle with the United States Department of Justice.

For the past year, I have discovered myself immersed in the world of the Justice Department; a world, replete with on-the-record faulty memories, omissions of fact and out-and-out lies; one where political motive and groupthink usurp integrity and the rule of law and where as hard as one might try, justice is nowhere to be found. This is the setting I have been placed to do battle with a bureaucratic behemoth.

As I fight for my very life ostensibly on a daily basis, I have experienced a legal and financial pounding — a premeditative orchestration created to best the most resolute among us, by the Department of Justice or the Department of Injustice, as it more widely regarded these days. Read more…

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Turkish newspapers are printing gruesome pictures of Iraqis killed by U.S. soldiers in response to American political efforts to label the country as having committed genocide. The headline on this page, “Soykırım diyene bak,” is translated directly into English as, “look who is talking about genocide,” and it links to several graphic photos.

The Turkish press closely followed a U.S. Congressional committee meeting last night, during which a resolution describing the 1915 slaughter of Armenians as a genocide was voted through. House leader Nancy Pelosi has long supported the measure, and it’s believed a majority of the House does, too.

It’s a move the White House predicted would severely damage relations with Turkey. “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings,” George Bush told reporters just hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee met to consider the measure. The president is desperate to keep Turkey as an ally.

Anti-war protesters, too, are angry that the U.S. government is focusing on foreign killings from decades ago, rather than definitively trying to end the war in Iraq.

More Turkish media presentations of the “shock and awe” after the jump: Read more…

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According to an internal audit, the Department of Justice spent a whopping $7 million to plan, host or send employees to ten conferences over the last two years.

This included paying $4 per meatball at one swank dinner and providing an average of $25 worth of snacks around to each participant at a movie-themed party.

More than $13,000 was spent on cookies and brownies for 1,542 people who attended a four-day “Weed and Seed” conference in August 2005. A Community Oriented Policing Services conference in July 2006 cost more than $60,000, with butterfly shrimp, coconut lobster skewers and Swedish meatballs on the menu. Read more…

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Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the accused “DC Madam,” filed a memo with DC’s U.S. District Court today, detailing her plans to move forward with a “Honey Pot” defense, under the representation of lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley.

The memo alleges that “the United States Government has been directly or indirectly benefiting from the operation of her service by monitoring her customers and is thus equitably barred from prosecuting her,” according to Sibley.

The pleading identifies not only already-known customers of the escort service — Sen. David Vitter, Randall Tobias, of USAID, and Harlan Ullman, a government advisor — but also confirms for the first time that another individual with very high government security clearance — Ronald Roughead, former Army Colonel Defense Attache — was also a customer. Read more…

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So! Australians can moon President Bush all they want, and their government doesn’t arrest them, send them to jail, and force them to pay ridiculous fines!? In fact, government officials there instead would celebrate such an effort and encourage a “world record mooning attempt“?

Hmm. Joel Gardner , DC’s most famous Karl Rove mooner, had definitely better consider moving to Australia. And, girls, you’ve gotta wonder if his luscious butt would look just as nice down under.

VIDEO: Aussie Protesters Moon President Bush

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The Nation’s Capital has found a surefire way to spark interest in recent downtown development: Hire an aging, washed-up former rap star.

“Come out and dance, sing and enjoy an evening in Washington, DC,” hails a new announcement from the city’s government. “Thursday, September 6 hip-hop superstar MC Hammer brings his distinct style…with his hits Too Legit to Quit, Pray and U Can’t Touch This.”

Hammer (aka Stanley Kirk Burrell) has not had a hit since the early 1990s.

Still, officials are spinning this as an all-star affair: Read more…

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