Bruce Springsteen immortalized his hometown in 1973 when he wrote about the fortune teller who worked on the boardwalk at Asbury Park, N.J. She's gone, and the New York Times gave her an obituary.

July 2, 2008 Madam Marie, Jersey Shore Psychic, Is Dead By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — The Asbury Park fortuneteller known as Madam Marie, who became a figure of rock ’n’ roll mythology thanks to Bruce Springsteen, died on Friday. She was in her mid-90s.

Her death was announced by her great-granddaughter Sally Castello.

Billing herself as a psychic reader and adviser, Marie Castello had told fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk since the 1930s.

She became famous worldwide in 1973 when Bruce Springsteen paid homage to her in the song “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”

His lyric “Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do” cemented her fame.

Here's Springsteen singing Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) at his famous Hammersmith Odean concert in 1975.

Here's another cut from that great concert, Rosalita:

ACLU Releases Navy Files On Civilian Casualties In Iraq War

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released thousands of pages of documents related to Navy investigations of civilians killed by Coalition Forces in Iraq, including the cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the United States. Released today in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the ACLU filed in June 2006, these records provide a vivid snapshot of the circumstances surrounding civilian deaths in Iraq.

"At every step of the way, the Bush administration and Defense Department have gone to unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Our democracy depends on an informed public and that is why it is so important that the American people see these documents. These documents will help to fill the information void around the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq and will lead to a more complete understanding of the prosecution of the war."

The ACLU obtained documents from eight Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigations. One of the files documents the investigation of the death of Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, a cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S, Samir al-Sumaidaie. In 2006, the ambassador accused Marines of "intentionally" killing his cousin and today's records shed light on al-Sumaidaie's NCIS investigation for the first time. Among the findings uncovered in this file are conflicting accounts of events, questions of credibility, possible command influence issues and cover-ups.

"As these files remind us, many charges of war crimes in Iraq have not seen the light of day," said Michael Pheneger, a retired Army intelligence colonel who is also a board member of the ACLU. "There are many discoveries here that should bring pause to any American who cares about this country and hopes to restore the United States' respected role in the world. It is time to bring the facts about this war into the sunlight and end practices that go against our laws and national values."

Through its FOIA project, the ACLU has made public information on Defense Department policies designed to control information about the human costs of war. These practices include:

• Banning photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed overseas;

• Paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort;

• Inviting U.S. journalists to "embed" with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review;

• Erasing journalists' footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan; and

• Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

I once wrote that no one ever talks about a First Amendment scandal the way that we talk about sex scandals or bribery or other abuses of the public trust. There is no such thing as a First Amendment scandal. But First Amendment scandals happen all the time. We just don't hear about them.

Few people really care about free speech. We talk the talk, but we don't really want to hear from others who disagree with us. If you have money you can buy off the printing press and shut down opposing voices. If you have power you can get the police to arrest dissenters. And if you're a librarian who wants to go to a John McCain campaign rally with a sign that reads "McCain = Bush" then you can go screw yourself.

Watch this video two or three times. Notice how calm and controlled the sign-woman is. She can't believe she is about to be arrested for trespassing for carrying a political sign into property that was partially paid for by taxpayers. The event was open to the public, but she was escorted from the property and ginen a court date. This is what I call a First Amendment scandal. It happened at a McCain event, and as far as I'm concerned, McCain is partly responsible for this.

According to the Denver Post, "Jenny Schiavone, a spokeswoman for the performing arts center, said the venue is city-owned rental property, but is not legally defined as public property." I'm not sure what this woman means, but it sounds like legal mumbo-jumbo. Of course the local paper covered this, but the the media ignores these stories.

Something like this happened in my neck of the woods. An activist group was kicked out of a public park in May 2008 when they tried to bring protest signs and flyers into an event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. I am representing these people in court. Here's a video of what happened:

There will always be some argument that speech like this is not appropriate, or that it's not the right time or place. But it's never the "right" time to ask questions, if you go along to get along. Allowing the police to escort us from public property because we have an opposing point of view means this country is becoming a very different place.

It's the 1970's all over again. The economy is tanking, as any responsible newspaper will tell you. Elect a madman, you get madness. The protest songs of the early 1970s apply today, with endless war and the economic shutdown plunging us into the hell-hole.

Marvin Gaye recognized this in 1971, with his classic album, What's Going On, one of the first political albums by Motown. "Makes Me Wanna Holler" is as relevant today as it was back then. Lyrics below.

Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
For we see it you take it
Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
This ain't livin', This ain't livin'
No, no baby, this ain't livin'

Inflation no chance
To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life

Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
I can't pay my taxes
Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God know where we're heading

I'm telling you right now. This fall's presidential election is going to have monumental consequences in any number of areas. What all those areas will be, I know not. But I do know this. The Supreme Court will undergo changes as a result of this election. And if you are one of those people who thinks it does not matter who wins the presidency, then you'd better think again. The Supreme Court is that important.

Many of the civil rights and civil liberties that we take for granted were identified and strengthened by the Supreme Court. When we read about the Court in the media, the focus is usually on abortion, affirmative action, death penalty and other hot-button issues. These issues are important, but they may or not affect you directly. On the other hand, issues that affect us everyday, including the rights of employees, criminal defendants and political dissenters are handed down all the time. These are the cases that we really have to worry about.

The common response to arguments that the Supreme Court hangs in the balance is that the judges are professionals who will simply apply the law. When John Roberts was nominated to the Court a few years ago, he told the U.S. Senate during his confirmation hearing that he was merely an umpire, like in baseball, calling balls and strikes. But most legal scholars know that nearly every case that comes before the Supreme Court could go either way. That's because there really are no right answer in the law. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are vaguely written, and Federal laws use words like "reasonable" and other language that create potential loopholes in civil rights. Since the Supreme Court takes cases primarily to iron out differences in the way that courts around the country rule on certain legal issues, then one way to view Supreme Court rulings is that the legal experts on the Court are simply disagreeing with the legal experts on the lower courts around the country. I can think of few legal issues that cannot go either way in the Supreme Court.

At the moment, there are four liberals and five conservatives on the Court. One of those conservatives, Anthony Kennedy, sometimes tempers the right wing impulses of the other four conservatives. This means that Kennedy is often the fifth vote in 5-4 cases and sometimes he even sides with the liberals. So here's the problem. The four liberals are older then the five conservatives, and one of them is in his eighties. As one of the better Supreme Court journalists notes:

All nine justices appear to be in good health. But the two oldest--88-year-old John Paul Stevens and 75-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg--are liberals. So is 68-year-old David Souter, who has told friends that he longs to go home to New Hampshire. By contrast, Kennedy and the four conservatives seem reasonable bets to serve another four to eight years or more. Kennedy and conservative firebrand Antonin Scalia are 72. Clarence Thomas, the Court's most conservative member, Alito, and Roberts are a relatively frisky 60, 58, and 53, respectively. Six of the last eight justices to retire or die in office ranged in age from 79 to 85.

Given this age distribution, a President McCain would have at least one potentially balance-tipping vacancy to fill unless the vigorous Stevens smashes the oldest-serving-justice record set by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who retired at 90. But it's doubtful that McCain could get the Senate to confirm a nominee with strong conservative credentials, especially to replace one of the liberals or Kennedy.

Replacing any of the older liberals with a young conservative who can serve on the court for 25-30 years means a rock solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court for the first time in decades. That scares the crap out of civil liberties advocates. That means you should register to vote if you have not done so already, and drive yourself and everyone you know to the polling place in November to vote for Obama, if for no other reason that he can save the Supreme Court and civil liberties in this country. There is nothing more important.

A New York Times photographer was told by the U.S. Military that he could not take pictures for the newspaper anymore because he was violating the rules for journalists who are embedded with the soldiers. The photographer was taking pictures of dead people, Americans and Iraqis. Those pictures are reprinted below, taken from the New York Times website. The Times reports:

Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world.

I am convinced that one reason the Iraq war has not ended yet is that the gruesome pictures of wartime casualties have been kept from us. The government does not want these pictures published in the media. War is now sold to us like a television series. People don't really die, and no one really gets injured. Few of us actually know someone who was killed or hurt in the war, so the real pain is contained among the family and friends of the victims.

Many commentators have noted that there is no shared sacrifice for the Iraq war. In a break from the past, taxes were not raised to finance the war. So the economy tanks as our national treasure is being squandered, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the war is being fought on the cheap. Our men did not have enough body armor, and many died because of this as President Bush was paraded around like a war-time visionary. There is no draft, so anti-war rallies do not have the same urgency as Vietnam protests, where young men were taking to the streets out of self-preservation.

Public relations is everything. Out of sight, out of mind. We know that over 4,000 American soldiers have died in the Iraq war, and over 25,000 have been injured, some of them severely injured, their lives changed forever. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have also died. This war will not end, because no one has the guts to stop it. Politicians say that the war will end once we "win." Victory will take forever. "We can end the war now but . . ." The war would end a lot faster if pictures like this were in the newspapers and on national television. These images will stay in your head for a long time. This is what thoughtless war looks like, and it isn't pretty.