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'Opelousas PD Buys Machine Gun'

From this:

"Opelousas [Louisiana] police don't want to be out-gunned, so they've bought a machine gun which can be mounted on the department's armored personnel carrier. The department is the first in the state to buy the weapon, recently made legal for police by the Homeland Security Act."

Let martial law begin!

Posted to Miscellania at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

My "peace" protest links

Links to my reports, to some of my pictures and to external articles:

External reports, etc.:
David Corn on A.N.S.W.E.R. and NION
'Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism Web'
Background on 'United for Peace and Justice'
Nat Hentoff: 'Why I Didn't March This Time'
Pic: "We support our troops when they shoot their officers"

My pics and reports:
Pic: Bussh
Pic: terrorism
Pic: heilbush
Pic: partners_in_crime.
Pic: U.S. flag as swastika
Pic: little red book
Pic: Bush with swastika as the "s"
Pic: Fourth Reich
Pic: the (Uday-supporting) radical cheerleaders
Pic: Bush with swastika on forehead
Report: 4/13/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 3/22/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 3/20/03 L.A. protest
Report: 2/15/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 1/11/03 L.A. protest
Report: 12/14/02 Hollywood protest

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)

"The War for Liberalism"

Pejmanesque links to this good Bill Kristol column:

[Democrats/libs/lefties can be divided into two group: the Gephardt/Lieberman group, and the other group which] includes the Teddy Kennedy wing of the Senate Democrats, the Nancy Pelosi faction of the House Democrats, a large majority of Democratic grass-roots activists, the bulk of liberal columnists, the New York Times editorial page, and Hollywood. These liberals--better, leftists--hate George W. Bush so much they can barely bring themselves to hope America wins the war to which, in their view, the president has illegitimately committed the nation. They hate Don Rumsfeld so much they can't bear to see his military strategy vindicated. They hate John Ashcroft so much they relish the thought of his Justice Department flubbing the war on terrorism. They hate conservatives with a passion that seems to burn brighter than their love of America, and so, like M. de Villepin, they can barely bring themselves to call for an American victory.

Posted to Politics at 02:01 PM | Comments (1)

"Mexico is meddling in US military"

So says this article.

Apparently, our friends in the Mexican government are taking "a census of persons of Mexican ancestry who belong to the armed forces of the United States and who are stationed in the war zone."

Are they doing it because they're nice people? Or, perhaps it's because, in the words of a Mexican official, "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first'."

[insert standard set of links here].

Posted to Immigration2003 at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)

Tonya not down for the count

Spunky super feather-
weight Tonya Harding - last seen boxing Paula Jones on Fox (pictured) - is now 2-1 in women's pro boxing. This older article has more info on Tonya and a talent agency for other "scandal celebs."

Posted to Celebrities at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

Fishing for more Perles

According to 'Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors':

Of the 30 members of the Defense Policy Board, the government-appointed group that advises the Pentagon, at least nine have ties to companies that have won more than $76 billion in defense contracts in 2001 and 2002. Four members are registered lobbyists, one of whom represents two of the three largest defense contractors...

Members of the board disclose their business interests annually to the Pentagon, but the disclosures are not available to the public...

Some of the DPB members served under Republican administrations, some under Democrat, and some under both.

All or most of them might be honest as can be. That doesn't mean this looks bad, and that at the least detailed, public disclosures should be required.

Posted to Politics at 10:04 PM | Comments (1)

Debbie Schlussel and her puppies

Since I get a lot of hits for Debbie Schlussel pics, here's one. Terrible lighting.

UPDATE: That link doesn't work anymore. Go here for puppies.

Posted to Celebrities at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)

"Halliburton Out of the Running"

Details here:

"The giant energy and construction firm once managed by Vice President Dick Cheney is no longer in the running for a $600 million rebuilding contract in postwar Iraq... though the Houston-based firm could take part as a subcontractor.

Allegations of a too-close-for-comfort relationship with corporate America have long dogged Cheney and other Bush administration officials, as well as insiders. On Thursday, leading hawk Richard Perle stepped down as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a Pentagon panel of unpaid outside advisers, after congressional Democrats raised questions about his relationship with Global Crossing, a telecom firm that had sought his assistance in winning government approval for a deal with an Asian conglomerate.Cheney’s spokeswoman, Cathie Martin, said Friday she “hadn’t even heard” that Halliburton would not be awarded the reconstruction contract and added, “The vice president has nothing to do with these contracts.”

But a U.N. official who follows the issue told NEWSWEEK that the Iraq reconstruction contract probably wasn’t worth the bad publicity for Halliburton, which depends on maintaining a favorable image both in Washington and the Arab world (where it gets much of its oil-related business, and where the war is increasingly unpopular). “This kind of political controversy was not in their corporate interests,” he said. Halliburton may prefer to quietly work as a subcontractor rather than be in the spotlight as prime contractor, the official suggested.

Posted to Iraq at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

"I fantasize about being liberated by a European invasion"

Here's a report from a "peace" "teach-in" at Columbia University. All of the profs speaking were against the war; English prof. Bruce Robbins uttered the title quote.

However, the nadir of the "teach-in" were the comments by one Nicholas De Genova, professor of anthropology:

[De Genova] called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993.

"The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," Nicholas De Genova, assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University told the audience at Low Library Wednesday night. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus."

The crowd was largely silent at the remark. They loudly applauded De Genova later when he said, "If we really believe that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine."

He's mentioned here, here, and here he says:

the heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. The state of Israel has no claim to the heritage of the Holocaust."

His faculty page is here, with an email of npd18@columbia.edu and a phone of 212-854-0199.

UPDATE: We've got meme: Volokh's comments.

UPDATE 2: There's more information on the "teach-in" and De Genova here, and Insty's got a couple more too. I also deleted a comment that appeared to give De Genova's home address.

UPDATE 3: Even more links.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 12:14 PM | Comments (16)

"Ivorian Authorities Investigate Murder of Saudi Ambassador"

From this:

Authorities in Ivory Coast are investigating what they say was the murder of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the West African country.

Ivory Coast police say the body of Saudi Ambassador Mohammed Ahmed Al Rasheed was discovered by his driver early Friday morning.

Police sources say the unclothed corpse was found in a puddle of blood in the stairwell of the high rise apartment building where the Saudi diplomat lived, in Abidjan's central business district.

Ivorian officials called the killing bizarre, since the building is in a high security area adjacent to the United States Embassy. Furthermore, police believe it happened during curfew hours.

Perhaps his chess-playing got out of hand. Or, his opponent wasn't just a chess player but was hired for another sort of job. Or, maybe someone wanted to make it look like he'd been taken out by a chess player.

UPDATE: There's more information here.

Posted to TheSaudis at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

"Suspect Testifies in Fortuyn Murder Trial"

According to this:

The man who confessed to killing Dutch anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn told a panel of judges Thursday that he acted out of concern for the country's Muslim minority.

Van der Graaf said he followed Fortuyn's career as a columnist for a popular national magazine and was concerned he was using "the weak parts of society to score points" and gain political power.

Muslims in the Netherlands were being used as "scapegoats," he said.

Thanks for your concern.

Posted to Terrorism at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

Protest like Susan Medea Benjamin

Susan's got her name in the paper again. 'In the trenches: Can the anti-war movement survive the outbreak of war?' is about a week old, but chocka with heartening quotes from Susan and pals.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

Saudi Diplomat Linked To Al Qaeda

Again? Shark blog links to this Der Spiegel story and this Reuters story about a Saudi attache who had contact with Islamists who were later arrested for planning a terrorist attack. Whence followed a typical Saudi reaction.

Posted to TheSaudis at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)

"Nena startet Jubilaeums-Tour in Regensburg"

Remember Nena? C'mon! '99 Luft Balloons'? She's celebrating her 20-year-old music career with a series of concerts. Howard Jones will be joining the tour as well.

Posted to Celebrities at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

Hollywood war profiteering

The following is an internal memo from a real Hollywood company:

Assuming the current situation with Iraq leads to combat activity by US troops, I suggest we get a small film crew credentialed as press to shoot over there. This will solve some of the budget vs. production value problems we?ve discussed. In the best case scenario we can also get one or two of our leads over there in costume to do a scene with the mayhem of real war as a backdrop.

This is from Timely Studios, and the project is 'codename courage'.

While I've seen plenty of pictures with red eye, until looking at Anita Lavine's picture, I'd never seen a picture with red mouth.

Discussion here.

Posted to Iraq at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

Mayor James Hahn is not a wanker

According to 'L.A. Mayor Regrets Anti-War Petition':

A day after signing a students' petition labeling the war in Iraq "unjust," Mayor James Hahn backtracked and said he doesn't believe the conflict is unjust after all.

"Yesterday I signed a petition prepared and presented to me by sixth graders at Florence Nightingale Middle School," Hahn said in a statement Tuesday. "I regret that I did not read it word for word before I signed.

"I do not agree that this is an 'unjust' war. This is the time to support our troops and pray for their swift and safe return."

Now, my first reaction was "What a wanker!" But, that's wrong, and I regret my outburst.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Calif. governor orders Guard to LAX"

Here. They'll just be patrolling the perimeter, not inside the airport itself.

Posted to Terrorism at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

"Hundreds of thousands of protestors burn effigies of Bush, Blair in Meerut"

New Delhi, March 26, IRNA -- Hundreds of thousands of protestors in
a demonstration against the US war on Iraq in Meerut on Tuesday
declared that they would boycott products made by American or British
companies and burned effigies of the American president and British
prime minister in protest.

The protestors, which included children, women, peace activists
and professors, held placards saying "Bush Down Down," "Hang Bush," "Stop the bonfire of blood," "Mercy on innocent civilians," "Stop bombing," among others.

Mayor Shahid Akhlaq and other councilors of Meerut, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, also participated in the protest against the onoging US-led war on Iraq...

Other Muslim leaders also criticized America and Britain for their war on Iraq. The leaders also criticized all Muslim countries of the world, including Pakistan, for their failure to impose pressure on America and Britain to stop the war so that the lives of innocent citizens of Iraq could be saved.

Earlier, the meeting passed a resolution condemning the US war on Iraq...

Maybe they could be our newest sister city.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

"Receiving low-cost tuition denied to many citizens"

Here's a good article about state laws that give illegal aliens college tuition at the in-state rate. In other words, illegal aliens pay lower tuition than out-of-state citizens:

At California's state universities, in-state students and undocumented aliens pay an annual tuition of $1,839, out-of-state students pay $7,380; at the University of California Berkeley, in-state residents and undocumented aliens pay $3,859, out-of-state students pay $15,000...

The advocates of this discrimination claim they want undocumented aliens to get a college education so they can become productive residents. But undocumented aliens cannot legally hold a job in the United States.

Let me put that in a clearer format:

at state unis:
in-state undocumented aliens: $1,839
out-of-state citizens: $7,380

at UCB:
in-state undocumented aliens: $3,859
out-of-state citizens: $15,000

For the state unis, a citizen pays $5,541.00 more than an illegal alien; at UCB, a citizen pays $11,141.00 more than an illegal alien.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 11:45 AM | Comments (3)

Griffith Observatory webcam

A webcam placed on top of the astronomer's statue and pointed at the observatory is linked to off this page.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

Picture of the Day

From Drudge's front page:

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

"Taco's tomato pickers on slave wages"

According to this: Taco Bell has been buying tomatoes produced by slave and sweatshop labour, according to a group of Florida tomato pickers who held a 10-day hunger strike outside the company's headquarters.
Some of the tomato pickers earn barely one cent - less than a penny - for each pound of tomatoes picked and others have been forced to work under threat of violence in what has been classified as slavery by law enforcement agencies.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

Another day, another "peace" protest

To save time, here's my new format:

What/Where/When?
Peace Protest/Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood, CA/earlier today.

Pictures?
Right here.

Numbers?
Around 5000 participants.

What were they fighting for?
This protest was designed to protest against the "biased" war coverage of CNN and other media outlets. It was held in front of CNN's Hollywood headquarters, and several of the signs referred to CNN, cheerleaders for the war, etc. Their choice of CNN indicates, once again, that many of these people are living in the past. Note also that some refer to CNN as the "Communist News Network," so either CNN can't win, or the protesters were practising nuanced misdirection, or both.

Peaceful?
For the most part, with a few problems discussed below.

Wacky Slogans?
"Bush, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" (It might have been "you're guilty of genocide" or similar). That was followed by something about Baby Bush being a liar like Dad. Or similar. From the pics, "US-UK: Coalition of the Killing" is at least a little creative. See the pics for more. As the crowd dispersed, it was announced over the megaphones that there would be yet another protest tomorrow, the dispersing protesters should take heart in manana. Resulting in several of them saying, "We'll be back." And, they weren't saying it in an ironic fashion. (See Ken Layne link above).

Police Brutality?
Near the end of the protest, about 50 or so protesters sat down in the middle of the world-famous Hollywood and Vine interesection. The cops announced the protest was over; they slowly started advancing after about a half an hour. Several officers on horseback moseyed through the sit-in; whether anyone was hurt by the horsies is unknown. Asked later, one of the adult organizers said the cops did a few things right, but there were reports of them using batons and shoving a few people. Apparently, however, nothing like the recent Westwood protests.

Arrests?
I guess 50-100 from the sit-in. Due to being herded east on Hollywood by the cops, I couldn't get up close to the sit-in after the horse-back cops advanced, but it didn't look like they were resisting arrest.

Evidence of Capitalism/Swapmeetism?
Hot dogs were available for purchase. A few vendors of the non-protester variety were selling T-Shirts; one of them spoke on his cellular phone with his partner on the other side of the protest, complaining about not selling too many at his current location.

Sc!ent*l*gists or Sc!ent*l*gy references?
None. No free personality tests today.

Christina Gonzalez?
Yes, she was there.

Transvestites/Transsexuals/Hustlers/Hollywood Freaks and Weirdos?
One possible TS sighting amongst the protesters. Didn't get a good look at hands or for Adam's Apple.

LaRouche adherents?
Yes, they made a brief appearance with their megaphone. They were hassled by the crowd, one of whom reached in and turned on their megaphone's siren. They soon left.

Can't we all just get along?
The cops were baited with "Bush doesn't care about you, you aren't middle-class, you're blue-collar." Several references were made to racism, only white people [get the good things of life], blah blah blah.

Nudity?
I could see the panties of one of the powder ladies, but other than that, no.

Deja vu?
I saw a couple people from the other day's downtown L.A. protest, and I recognized one of the LaRouchians from the downtown L.A. protest of a couple months back. Another day, another "peace" protest.

Flag Burning?
One instance thereof.

Other incidents?
A sudden loud explosion turned out to be someone slashing a tire or something. A Fox reporter and his cameraman rushed over to see what was happening, when they were swarmed by the "peace"niks, who got into their faces about Fox's "biased" coverage (OK, even I admit the quotes might not be needed). They asked why they were shooting a tire exploding, when they should be shooting the sit-in. Which, of course, is what they had been doing immediately before and after. A couple of the protesters (including one who was old enough to know better) shoved them a bit, until their adult supervisors arrived and told them not to touch the newsies or their camera. Strangely enough, the news reporter refused both of my attempts to get his name.

UPDATE: KNBC says there were 78 arrests.

UPDATE 2: Skippy has another report here. As he points out, at times the crowd was chanting "The whole world was watching." Perhaps not. There were however, at least a few hundred protesters with still and video cameras, and the cops had a few video cameras of their own. Which helps keep both sides honest.

In any case, for some reason a certain very well-known blogger has not linked to my two latest reports from "peace" protests; maybe he wants more pro-war protests. Unfortunately, I still think it's necessary to get these things out there.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 06:29 PM | Comments (1)

'Thousands of Furious Arabs Protest War'

According to this:

AMMAN, Jordan - Furious Arabs stormed Middle Eastern streets Friday, screaming "Death to America" and demanding vengeance for the invasion of Iraq...

In Beirut, Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah used his Friday sermon to denounce both the United States and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"We call on the Iraqi people to topple the tyrant who has destroyed Iraq and thrown the Arab and Islamic world into disarray," said Fadlallah, a Shiite.

But, he added, he rejected "Iraq's occupation by the arrogant powers, particularly America..."

In Amman, 4,000 Palestinians jammed into a mosque courtyard to hear Hamza Mansour, a cleric leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, urge them to fight back with car bombs and martyr themselves to Allah...

In his sermon, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik of Al-Azhar Mosque, called for jihad - holy war - to support Iraqis...

"This attack is not on Iraq, it is an attack on Islam itself," Syed Ahmed Bukhari told 6,000 followers at Friday prayers in India's largest mosque, in New Delhi.

"The war between right and wrong has begun," he said. "This is a jihad. We have to sacrifice our lives for Islam."

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Hell Rains Down on Iraqis"

BAGHDAD, 22 March 2003 — The United States and Britain unleashed a devastating air assault on this city yesterday as their ground forces thrust deep into Iraqi territory toward the capital. The air attack triggered giant fireballs, deafening explosions and huge mushroom clouds above the city center... Imams at Iraqi mosques condemned the US-led offensive and urged the public to fight against the US and British forces. Iraqi Television showed Dr. Abdullatif Hameem, imam of Baghdad’s central mosque, carrying an AK-47 rifle in his hand while delivering the Friday sermon, and threatening the US forces... Baghdad has offered attractive rewards to every Iraqi soldier who downs an enemy plane or missile or captures a US or British soldier... Several road accidents were reported in Baghdad and the surrounding cities. In one incident, a car carrying an eight-member family overturned following an explosion, killing the whole family who were fleeing the bombing... "We are, no doubt, the victors,” [Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim] Ahmed said, his voice sporadically drowned out by violent explosions

'My Dear Americans' is also pretty funny. But, the points he raises need to be countered over and over again, otherwise they'll gain a foothold in the Arab street.

Also, 'Stay Calm on Iraq, France Warns Its Young Muslims' is interesting.

Posted to Iraq at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

'Iraqis hunted in Mexico'

According to this:

CIA sources have revealed that several Iraqis are being hunted in Mexico.

The six suspects are thought to have chemical and biological weapons with them.

According to reports, the men have tried to persuade smugglers, who profit from helping people cross the Mexican border into the US, to get them into America...

Posted to Iraq at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Special-Ed classes for "peace" protesters?

According to 'Protester picks wrong spot to lock himself': Jody Mason padlocked himself to an entrance of the Washington State Grange building at 924 Capitol Way S., thinking it was a sub-office of the U.S. Department of Energy... He told employees he'd chained himself to the building in civil disobedience Monday night after listening to President Bush's televised ultimatum to Saddam Hussein... Police officers used heavy-duty bolt cutters to free Mason.

"He asked for help because he didn't have the key," Olympia police Cmdr. Steve Nelson said... Mason wasn't arrested and won't face any charges. Officers let him go and didn't take his name, Nelson said.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

No comment

Posted to Iraq at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

Nancy Pelosi's cake

She wants to have it and eat it too. According to an interview on NBC, she hoped that the war had ended with the target-of-opportunity strike, and she wants it to end as soon as possible to avoid any further loss of life. However, she also admits that those who are being liberated are quite happy for our efforts. Maybe she's having a bit of a reality attack.

Posted to Iraq at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

Where's Tariq?

Maybe they're still sewing his body parts back together, because he was supposed to hold a news conference a couple hours ago. Instead, belatedly, we get Mohammed al Sahaf, Iraq's Minister of Propaganda Information Minister. "The U.S. is a gang, violating international law, war criminals, the U.S. is no better than Al Capone's gang, etc. etc." The Interior Minister claims that Umm Qasr is free. Supposedly, the helicopter was shot down by Iraq, and was not an accident.

So, where's Tariq?

Posted to Iraq at 02:23 AM | Comments (0)

'See no evil'

According to this Salon (yes, Salon) article:

And in protest marches, antiwar advertising and local arts events, the evidence leaves one to wonder whether this highly visible bloc of the left has weighed these issues -- weighed life by life the repression of the 24 million Iraqis who live in a ruthless police state, not to mention the thousands or tens of thousands who have been imprisoned without trial, tortured, exiled or killed. Instead, it sometimes seems that the left is so averse to war, especially war waged by America, that it is prepared to turn a blind eye to even the most ghastly realities. Perhaps it is because the left no longer sees these realities that its antiwar arguments tend to justify continuation of the status quo... Today, the explicit anti-totalitarian impulse has been narrowed and diminished in leftist culture. Instead, the fundamental leftist reflex has evolved into something related, and yet quite different: antiwar, anti-America, and anti-American authority...

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:06 AM | Comments (0)

It's all about the oilfields of Kirkuk

Apparently they've been secured: U.S. special forces may have secured the Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq, the BBC said on Friday, quoting unnamed intelligence sources. "The oil fields of Kirkuk which are the busiest in Iraq may have been already secured by American special forces," correspondent John Simpson told BBC World television from the region's front line.

Posted to Iraq at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

Maybe you could convene a Commission or print some brochures or something...

According to 'Annan Seeks to Oversee Oil-for-Food Program':

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council today to put him in charge of a humanitarian program that uses billions of dollars in Iraqi oil proceeds to pay for the delivery of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to needy Iraqi civilians.

The United States and Britain supported Annan's request for control of the oil-for-food program in their own resolution, to be presented to the council Friday. It would grant the United Nations power for at least 30 days to replace the Iraqi government as the chief supplier of food and other essential goods to millions of Iraqis.

It's good that the U.N. has something to keep them slightly relevant, and it's good PR to make the rebuilding more of an international thing; it's bad to give them the possibility of bogging this thing down and UNifying it.

Posted to Iraq at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

Even the locals have Telestrators

Posted to Iraq at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

Live from the local news front

Posted to Iraq at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

"Bush, You Racist, You're The Terrorist"

I went to the peace protest in downtown L.A. earlier today, and the pics are here. Only a few hundred people showed up, and it was a peaceful protest, with the organizers working with the cops, and vice versa. This was in contrast to today's Westwood protest, yesterday's Westwood protest, and last month's Hollywood protest. And, it was the antithesis of the recent S.F. protests. (Going to the Westwood version of the protest would have been a better bet, but I had to go downtown anyway, and until I'm a paid blogger I'm not driving to the Westside during rush hour. I got the feeling that Christina and the L.A. Times photog also wished they'd been at the Westwood protest instead.)

This was held next to Olvera Street, and it had a Hispanic flavor. I spoke briefly with KTTV's Christina Gonzalez, who's even prettier in person than she is on the TV. In other words, she's hot. (The other young lady to whom I gave this blog's URL is also quite attractive, but she's not on the TV.)

Same old speeches. "We know Saddam has WMD because we've got the receipts yuck yuck yuck..." The Bus Rider's Union was there, banging a few drums. Apparently, the Los Angeles Public Library librarians passed their own anti-war resolution. Their representative made it clear that their resolution had preceeded the one from the City Council. Nothing like claiming the moral high ground. One of the slogan-leaders began enumerating a list of special interest groups, asking "are there any Latinos here?" "are there any [fill in the SIG here]." He got to "Are there any gays or lesbians here?" and then he realized that he couldn't think of any other SIGs.

Waving the Mexican flag is more than a bit bothersome, but I guess it's better than waving an Iraqi flag. After an hour of speeches and such, the marchers started their brief march down Los Angeles St., chanting, en Espanol, "Bush, You Racist, You're The Terrorist."

In other words, just another peace protest.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)

Did Saddam bite it?

WaPo says that Saddam's former girlfriend says the Saddam who was on TV after the recent target-of-opportunity strike was not the real Saddam. Uday is also supposed to have had a brain hemorrage.

Posted to Iraq at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

Ricin found in Paris railway station locker

More here and here. No word on why they opened the locker; perhaps it was abandoned or they got a tip.

UPDATE: There's more here.

Posted to Terrorism at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Al Gore joins Apple board

Details here. Does the PRC have a computer company that Bubba could advise?

I'll post pics from my trip later.

Posted to Celebrities at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

Back in a couple days

I'm off to do some of this, this, and this.

Posted to Miscellania at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

PCWatch

The blog pcwatch.blogspot.com deals with the not infrequent excesses of Political Correctness. It's mainly UK-orientated, but hopefully they'll include more U.S. stuff in the future.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

Less John Wayne, more JFK

Friedman's latest column 'Repairing the World' is interesting:

I am glad Mr. Bush is meeting with Tony Blair. In fact, I wish he would turn over leadership on the whole Iraq crisis to him. Mr. Blair has an international vision that Mr. Bush sorely needs. "President Bush should be in charge of marshaling the power for this war," says the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen, "and Tony Blair should be in charge of the vision for which that power should be applied..."

Yes, some people and nations are just jealous of America's power and that's why they oppose us on Iraq. But there is something more to the opposition. I deeply identify with the president's vision of ending Saddam Hussein's tyranny and building a more decent, progressive Iraq. If done right, it could be so important to the future of the Arab-Muslim world, which is why I won't give up on this war. But can this Bush team be counted on to do it right? Mr. Bush's greatest weakness is that too many people, at home and abroad, smell that he's not really interested in repairing the world. Everything is about the war on terrorism...

Virtually all of Mr. Bush's speeches are about how we're going to protect ourselves and whom we're going to hit next. America as a beacon of optimism — America as the world's chief carpenter, not just cop — is gone. We need a little less John Wayne and a little more J.F.K.

As I've said many times in the past (OK, who cares, but anyway), we need better PR.

The moral high-ground has been ceded by default to people who hold up U.S. flags in the shapes of swastikas. Instead of anti-war protesters being seen as supporters of tyranny, they're acclaimed as heroes.

Foreigners hate us, and blame all their woes on us. Where's the campaign to point out the good we do, and answer the snide critics who Blame America First?

John Wayne is good, but we should mix in a little JFK.

Posted to Politics at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

VRWCSC: The Vast Right-Wing Cloud-Seeding Conspiracy

I was going to go to the peace protest today in downtown L.A. However, since it's been raining heavily all day including lightning, and since my camera isn't compatible with the rain, I think I'll skip it. Gosh, I hope they didn't make their swastikas and Fuck Bush signs using water-soluble paint.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

Maybe we should teach them to find Japan on a map first

According to this:

California students would be required to master a second language before graduating from high school under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Legislature.

The bill is part of an ambitious proposal to restructure California's education bureaucracy, and set rigorous academic goals for students and higher standards for teachers.

Written by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, the second language bill includes the 20-year goal of graduating students speak more than one language fluently.

"They do it in Europe. They do it in Asia. [Yeah, they do it in Canada too/ils le faisent en Canada aussi. I don't know whether they do it in the Balkans or not --ed.] I don't know why we can't do it,'' said Sen. Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach. "The more languages you learn, the more powerful you become.''

That leaves out a couple paragraphs, found at the end of this:

There are a handful of dual language immersion schools in California that do produce students who speak a second language, said Sen. Dede Alpert, D-Coronado.

Expanding that to a statewide mandate "is something we would roll out gradually," she said.

I couldn't find this exact bill online, but perhaps it's derived from this one, which was introduced last year:

...(a) Learning a second language enhances a pupil's academic skills by increasing reading, writing, and mathematics abilities, thereby improving scores on verbal and nonverbal performance tests. (b) Requiring all pupils to learn a second language helps pupils from different backgrounds to interact with each other and build self-esteem... (e) To be most effective in today's global society, a person must have a knowledge of other cultures and the ability to interact with people from different cultures in both California and throughout the world. (f) More than 70 federal agencies and numerous state agencies desire to hire persons who are fluent in languages other than English, and shortages in bilingual personnel have adversely affected national and state operations and security.

Let me begin with what I think this is: just a cheap, cynical way to establish Spanish as a de facto second language in California.

In any case, perhaps we should concentrate on the basics first. If they want to go on to the Defense Language Institute later and help our national security, let them. But, if they can't even locate Japan on a map, a second language isn't going to do them much good.

I'm not familiar with John Vasconcellos, the bill's sponsor. However, a look at his biography is a bit "interesting." He's described as:

'the Johnny Appleseed of Self Esteem'...

[his commitments are] ...redesigning society to encourage development of healthy, self-realizing, responsible human beings;
developing a new human politics based on belief we human beings are innately inclined toward becoming life-affirming, constructive, responsible, trustworthy;

[and he invites you]

To enlist as a partner in moving all Californians, individually and altogether - TOWARD A NEW HUMAN POLITICS,
TOWARD A HEALTHIER STATE!
TOWARD A STATE OF ESTEEM

Even Doonsebury made fun of his self-esteem preoccupation, so you know there's a problem. The links on this page look "interesting" as well.

He also sent a gushing fan letter to Sean Penn thanking him for his opposition to the war in Iraq. And, he appears to have filed an amicus brief concerning Bakke together with a list of questionable organizations, including Mecha.

UPDATE: Vasconcellos isn't just a self-esteem nut, he's also not opposed to ceding California to Mexico.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

What assimilation policy?

Eugene Volokh discusses this Guardian article in two posts: first and second:

But if the Le Monde correspondent, and others who have made this point (both in the anti-war context and outside) about other European countries, are right, then it shows that the French and other Europeans have made a very bad mistake with their immigration policy, assimilation policy (or nonassimilation policy), or both.

As I mentioned in a post on this blog's very first day, "letting in immigrants [equals] letting in your future rulers." I had in mind immigrants participating in the ruling of the nation through the ballot-box, and sometimes providing a swing vote that could materially change the nation's laws. But it sounds like the Le Monde correspondent believes that the immigrants have started ruling France in another way -- through "domestic conflagration and terrorism." And the worst of it all is that he seems to see nothing wrong with that; he seems to have accepted it as just part of the new French political reality. Terrifying.

Permittez-moi to answer in link form:

Here's 'Immigration in France: A Short History'. He doesn't seem to see much of a problem.

For the other side, here's just two of the many articles I could link to:
'The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris'

"the face of Islamism in Europe"

There are parallels between the European situation and that here. Read this post and all of the items it links to.

Now, our situation is not exactly the same as that in Europe. However, the same forces and (arguably traitorous) actors that caused the situation there caused the situation here (see the comments to this post).

Is it really acceptable that there are more than 10 million citizens of other countries in the U.S. illegally? Especially since many of them have no need to or interest in assimilating and becoming American? Don't you think that gives their home (i.e., "real") country the teensiest bit of influence on our policies? Is giving another country influence on our internal politics a good thing?

Do you think it's healthy that a country is allowed to lobby local and state governments to do an end-around of the U.S.'s immigration laws?

When Mexico's former foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, said that the Mexican goverment was going to begin "propagating militant activities" in the U.S., and no one except for me and a few other bloggers paid any attention, doesn't that indicate a very major problem? When a Mexican official says "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first'", ('Mexico’s Northern Strategy') doesn't that raise an alarm bell or two?

Maybe we should have a national debate about this issue before we go any further down the same road as Europe.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

The evils of outlander words

With this push to rid the English tongue of outlander words, I would like to say we should get rid of all Norsemen/Outlander (in other words, Norman) words and other things. 1441 my ass. I say No On 1066.

(All of the words in this and the foregoing are of good, Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic origin. Oops.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)

'Brainstorms brew in L.A.'

This L.A. Times story on intellectually-orientated events in L.A. seems to have an unhealty affinity for NYC. No less than six occurences of 'york':

"The only thing wrong with intellectual life in L.A. is that people keep asking if there's intellectual life in L.A.," New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger said before speaking at a recent LACMA debate. "The last remnant of provinciality is asking that question."

He's from New York City, so it must be true.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

Latest on the La Habra 9/11 memorial

Via CroooowBlog comes this article:

Police early Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old woman who witnesses said showed up at the memorial late Tuesday, claimed responsibility for burning some of the flags and pushed Chandler while saying the memorial endorsed the looming war in Iraq.

Jennifer Quintana, whom police identified only as an Orange County resident, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor assault and released.

Quintana, who identified herself as a Fullerton College student, argued over the memorial with a crowd of about 25 people when she showed up at the site.

"It's an American flag, obviously it has everything to do with the war," she told the crowd. "There should be no war, just peace and togetherness."

Witnesses said Quintana grabbed Chandler as they argued.

"I told her to get her ignorant hands off me and she started to poke at me, so we called the police," Chandler said.

Police took Quintana in for questioning, and booked her into jail around midnight, police said. She was cited and released around 6 a.m. police said. They are still investigating whether Quintana was responsible for any of last weekend's vandalism.

He also links to the article 'Iraq Says U.N. Weapons Inspector Dies in Road Accident'. [yes, like the Abu Nidal suicide.] Hopefully someone was keeping track of what this inspector was doing shortly before the accident.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 03:01 PM | Comments (1)

Grapes of Wrath

Tom Friedman has an interesting column:

And that is what makes me so sad about this moment. It appears we are on the verge of going to war in a way that will burst all the national solidarity and good will that followed 9/11, within our own country and the world...

Which explains my third gut feeling — that to succeed in such an undertaking, in a country with so many wounds and pent-up resentments, will require an unrushed process that is viewed as legitimate in Iraq, the region and the world. It cannot be done if we are looking over our shoulders every day, which is why U.N. approval and allied support are so important...

So, Mr. President, before you shake the dice on a legitimate but audacious war, please, shake the dice just once on some courageous diplomacy. Pick up where Woodrow Wilson left off: fly to Paris, bring the leaders of France, Russia, China and Britain together, along with the chairman of the Arab League summit, and offer them any reasonable amount of time for more inspections — if they will agree on specific disarmament benchmarks Saddam has to meet and support an automatic U.N. authorization of force if he doesn't. If France [et al. --ed.] still snubs you, the world will see that you are the one trying to preserve collective security, while France only wants to make mischief. That will be very important to the legitimacy of any war.

I think he makes some good points. At the very least, it's obvious that the PR side of this has been severly botched, both here and abroad. The occasionally perfidious nature of the "peace" protesters has not helped, but it has not been dealt with either. And, we have not made our case as strongly as we could have overseas.

The "specific disarmament benchmarks" argument is what Zbigniew Brzezinski makes here:

I think what we need, and I think the British are moving in that direction, is precisely what has been mentioned; namely, a series of more specific thresholds, more specific objectives -- defined so clearly that we'll know whether they're complying or not...we need a series of deadlines on VX, on anthrax, on other sort of items, perhaps biological weapons, delivery systems, indicating data and indicating datelines by which they're dismantling and elimination is completed.

However, Zbig apparently doesn't want regime change.

Posted to Iraq at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

Some 9/11 conspirators entered via Mexico?

That's what this says:

Some of the terrorists who helped with the September 11th attacks are now reported to have entered the country through Hidalgo County. State Representative Kino Flores, who sits on the state homeland security board, in an exclusive with Newschannel Five tells us these terrorists are said to have helped with the operation. Since then, the Valley's International Crossings have been under a tight watch with all incoming traffic being closely monitored.

As I parse this, he's referring not to those who were on the planes, but those who assisted them and weren't killed in the attacks. I wasn't able to find any additional information on this, but I sent him an email and will report back if I receive a reply.

Posted to Terrorism at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

'Peace activists seek new idiom'

According to this:

"Hell No, We Won't Go!" has morphed into "Peace is Patriotic" in the modern anti-war lexicon, as peace strategists urge their followers to embrace the flag rather than burn it. Aware that screaming denunciations of the United States might alienate mainstream Americans, some leaders of the peace movement are borrowing a tool from the right and using patriotism to sell peace.

"It's an epiphany the left has experienced," said Susan C. Strong, an activist and researcher who studies language...

Strong, a former teacher of rhetoric and argumentation in Berkeley, has a Web site she calls the Metaphor Project. On it, she's collected a raft of catch phrases and clichÈs for peace advocates to weave into their conversations with Middle America...

She cited a sample slogan. "Win without War. It fits another American core value: We like to win!"...

"Speak American," she said. "Strip down to the simple, metaphoric Anglo Saxon. Leave out long words, complex explanations, historical analysis or arguments supported by lots of reasons, facts, statistics."

Wellll, golllyy. I reckon that that thar fancy Berkeley perfesser lady has figgered out how to talk to Middle Ammuuhhrrrruuuhhhkuhhhhh.

Look, at least A.N.S.W.E.R. is semi-upfront about being a Saddam and North Korea-supporting front organization. Now, she's suggesting that "peace" protesters should change their shtick, even if they don't believe it. Just as long as they put on a good show for Middle America and wrap themselves in the flag, it doesn't matter that they're wearing a Bush-with-the-s-as-a-swastika T-Shirt underneath it.

When Strong refers to "historical analysis or arguments supported by lots of reasons, facts, statistics," I believe she might have confused the pro-war side with the strident whiners from her side. While there are a few exceptions, most of the arguments from the anti-war side fall into the Sheryl Crow/Yoko Ono/"Imagine Peace"/"...bad for your karma..." camp or the RESIDENT SHRUB IS A NAZI WHO WANTS TO NAPALM OSAMA DAY CAR CENTERS IN BAGHDAD AND PAVE ALASKA FOR THE CARLYLE GROUP camp. There is no nuanced, fact-based argument for 99% of the "peace" protesters to soft-soap. And "fuck" is a pretty basic Anglo-Saxon word, so they've already got the etymology front covered.

And, if you want to know what Susan Strong agrees with, search for "Susan C. Strong" here. The letter she endorses starts below her name, and continues in the next column at the start of the same (physical, not HTML) page.

One suggestion for Susan: skip the fake metaphors, and move straight into NLP. That's one way to penetrate deep into your target market.

(I note also that being a professor from Berkeley doesn't mean one was a UCB professor, and if she had been one, she would no doubt have identified herself as such.)

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 04:33 PM | Comments (1)

Note to Drudge

Hey Matt! Love the site, but I gotta tell ya, Madonna could twist herself into a pretzel and no one would care. If she was ever attractive, that was many many years in the past. Although, I do appreciate you linking to the story '[Yoko] Ono waging full-page ad campaign for peace'; now I know the "peace" movement is officially bankrupt. Sometimes minimalism is just an excuse for having nothing to say. Via a pop-up ad (no, really), I found out about what appears to be a worthy cause: National Geographic and a couple NGOs have created a fund to educate the "Forgotten Girls" of Afghanistan.

Posted to Miscellania at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

Gray Davis has figured out a way to get us out of the mess he created

ColdFury links to this SacBee story:

Lawyers for Gov. Gray Davis and state Controller Steve Westly announced an agreement Monday that ended a weeks-long impasse over midyear budget cuts and could lead to a tripling of the annual vehicle license fee -- without a vote of the Legislature or the public.

Posted to California at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

Linda Chavez: naked?

I wish. Sure, she's a little on the tough side, and she needs to ditch the perm, and she's a bit of a prude, but, what do we get instead? Robert Reich.

Posted to WackyHumor at 12:52 PM | Comments (4)

Up to 10,000 Russian volunteers ready to help defend Iraq

Welcome to this week's "There's no truth in Pravda" posting.

According to the 2/26/03 article 'Russian Muslims ready to fight on Iraqi side':

Thousands of Russian Muslims are prepared to go to Iraq to "defend the Iraqi people" from US attacks if war breaks out, the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainuddin, said Wednesday.

"There are dozens now, and soon there will be hundreds and thousands," he told a press conference...

The article includes a picture of maybe a couple hundred people in a city square. One wonders exactly what they're there for, but there appears to be no relation between the picture and its article. Poetic license I wager.

Then, let's turn to the real Pravda. Unfortunately, I was unable to find either of the following two articles in Russian; I'm sure they would have been even funnier. But, perhaps they weren't meant for domestic consumption.

According to the 3/6/03 article 'Thousands of Russians volunteer to defend Iraq':

Around ten thousand Russian citizens have applied for entry visas into Iraq to defend this country against the planned aggression by the warmongering USA and UK, according to the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow.

Iraqi Ambassador to Moscow, Abbas Khalaf, declared last week that the Embassy had received around 3,500 requests, a number which has multiplied in the last few days, according to sources in the same Embassy.

The requests come from young males, some with combat experience, who describe themselves as “volunteers” who are willing to defend Iraq against the illegal armed aggression of the USA and the United Kingdom, two countries which continue to follow a belligerent stance on crisis management, wholly outside the generally accepted concepts of a New World Order based upon multilateralist approaches to problem solving, based upon the United Nations Organisation, a position championed by president Putin’s Russian Federation.

For those who present an adequate reason for travelling to Iraq, the Embassy provides a visa and transportation, free of charge.

Just 14 hours later, Pravda files 'Number of Russian Volunteers Willing to Go to Iraq Exceeds 7,000'

The number of Russian volunteers willing to go to Iraq has already exceeded 7,000 people. This information was given by Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Abbas Khalaf at a press conference held on Friday in Moscow.

Letters to the effect come from Russia's different regions, not only Muslim ones, he pointed out. "There are several thousand people ready to defend Iraq in Daghestan alone," the Ambassador pointed out. However, now there is no need for it, he said.

"We receive all letters and register them, but we do not intend to provide visas to all those willing to leave for Iraq," the Ambassador stressed. On behalf of the Russian government, Abbas Khalaf thanked all Russian citizens who expressed their desire to help Iraq in its hour of need. Among Russian volunteers there are a lot of women willing to go to Iraq in order to provide medical assistance if needed, the Ambassador pointed out.

Bghdad does not expect any financial assistance from Russia in case of war, the Ambassador stressed. "All we need is moral support," he concluded.

Hmmm... I wonder what our buddy Putin thinks of all this. And, perhaps we should distinguish between, just as an extreme example, an ethnic Russian orthodox Muscovite and a Wahabbist resident of Dagestan, both of whom may be Russian citizens. The article 'Meet Saddam Hussein - the schoolboy' has more on Dagestan, as does 'Will Dagestan Go the Way of Chechnya?'

Posted to Iraq at 10:57 PM | Comments (1)

Where the hell did all these anti-Hollywood blogs come from?

www.boycott-hollywood.us, www.hollywoodhalfwits.com, Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits, VikingPhoenix (huh?), DumbCelebs, and all the rest.

Hollywood Halfwits refuses to correct the Janeane Garofalo quote, which I corrected here.

As the comments to this post show, boycott-hollywood doesn't get Garofalo's humor.

DumbCelebs, to his or her credit, does correct the misconception.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:18 PM | Comments (1)

Dazed progressive confesses to La Habra 9/11 Incident

[Newer information will be put in this post.]

I just saw on the TV news confirmation of this post. A kinda dazed or stoned-looking young progressive college student type confessed to putting up the Bob Dylan sign and burning or slashing a couple of the flags. She claims to have done it to express "peace," and, since she put everything back in its place, thinks it's OK.

The police didn't arrest her, because they're waiting for the owner of the RV lot which contains the memorial to press charges.

I'm still waiting for that to happen as well, and until that time I'm still a bit skeptical.

Oh, and by the way, she was wearing pink too.

UPDATE: KABC TV reports that the dazed peacenik might have touched, grabbed, and perhaps even committed assault against one of the memorial's supporters tonight. According to KABC, she and one of her cohorts were questioned by police, but the implication was that they were subsequently released.

UPDATE 2: As pointed out in the comments, the progressive was arrested:

A 19-year-old Orange County woman is free today [Weds.] after La Habra police arrested her for allegedly assaulting a woman who maintains a patriotic display on a fence here...

Jennifer Quintana was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor assault Tuesday after police responded to a call that she had pushed and poked two women [at the memorial]...

Knapp reported that when Quintana came on the scene Tuesday evening she pushed one woman out of the way, then grabbed and poked Tracey Chandler, the Whittier mother of four who has maintained the memorial...

...the incident began Saturday when police witnessed three individuals rearranging signs on the fence. The police came back a second time on Saturday. Sunday afternoon, police were dispatched back to the fence to take a crime report. This time, they said there was substantial damage, which they believe was done early Sunday morning.

"We are hoping to tie together all events and have it to the district attorney by the end of the week,' said Knapp.

Chandler said she was more shocked by Quintana's actions at the fence than by the original destruction of the memorial.

"She walked through the crowd saying 'They can't arrest me, they won't do (expletive) to me,' said Chandler. "To do that, to walk through a crowd of angry people, well she must be one hamburger short of a Happy Meal.'

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 09:54 PM | Comments (3)

Let's get memetical

I just tried to contact the La Habra PD for more information on the 9/11 memorial which was apparently trashed by peace protesters. Only their PR department is giving out information, and there were four other callers ahead of me, so I'll try later.

Lord knows, I'm no big fan of peace protesters, but it's always good to keep an open mind. Did the cops really witness this act of vandalism? Did they just let it go on as described? Did they really make such "interesting" comments as "For this to be vandalism, there had to be an ill-will intent" (La Habra Police Capt. John Rees)?

I tend to believe that he actually said that, since it was printed in the Whittier Daily News. However, is there the possibility that those who put up this memorial would have trashed it themselves to get publicity and sympathy? From what I've heard, it was put up by an OC soccer mom, and that wouldn't seem to fit her M.O. Could gangs or teenagers have done it? Well, then why would they put up a Bob Dylan quote? Was it some fringe group like BAMN? Could it even have been a COINTELPRO type of thing, designed to make peace protesters look bad and get traffic for certain unspecified bloggers? Enquiring bloggers want to know.

UPDATE: The John and Ken Show is trying to raise money for the memorial. Just click on the link to the La Habra RV Center here. HereticalIdeas posts an email from another skeptic. There's a report based on the Whittier Daily News article here.

UPDATE 2: Apparently the owner of the property on which the memorial was constructed is willing to file a complaint. However, the police don't have an idea who the perps were, and are looking for help finding them.

Then there's this:

I just spoke to Debbie Pfeiffer [author of the Whittier Daily News article] on the phone, hoping to clarify what the police actually saw. Apparently officers witnessed relatively minor vandalism on Saturday afternoon, but did not interfere. The major destruction was committed Saturday night, and the police were called back more than once, but made no arrests. Whether they saw anything on those occasions isn't clear. Debbie wouldn't comment on who it was who saw the police watching during the afternoon -- reasonable enough for a reporter to protect her sources -- and wasn't aware of any photos of the events. She did reiterate that "free speech" was in fact the reason given by the police for refusing to protect the display or charge the vandals.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

'Case raises questions about Bonior's Islamist support'

According to this:

Nevertheless, Michigan's (former) Congressman David Bonior employed Abdullah al-Arian as an intern -- even though he was a Florida resident going to college in North Carolina.

Any sins of the father should not be visited on his children. But it is not every day a congressman hires as his intern the son of a man who advocates damning America and allegedly conducting terrorism...

After Sami al-Arian's arrest, Bonior confirmed the message, issuing a statement in support of al-Arian that called the government's actions "very, very strange." Bonior noted he and al-Arian had worked together to prevent the government's use of secret evidence in anti-terrorism cases. He says al-Arian's opposition to secret evidence shows he "cares very deeply about civil rights and civil liberty."

There's another interpretation. Bonior's support for al-Arian and working to frustrate government cases against terror suspects -- demanding undercover sources be exposed to the public (and to the risk of terrorist retribution) -- sends a clear message of support for the radical Islamist agenda...

The George Will column 'Baghdad Bonior' from 10/03/02 is interesting as well.

The recent column 'Speak To Me, Ibrahim!' has a few questions that Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR won't answer, such as:

[3] CAIR’s stated intention in the library campaign is to help Americans learn about Islam "as a religion of peace and justice." How is this goal consistent with financing from Wahhabis, a sect so fanatical and extremist that it sanctions violence against non-Muslims and even against Muslims it considers heretical?

Posted to Terrorism at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

'State controller to audit South Gate after corruption scandal'

More here:

State Controller Steve Westly has launched an audit of this working class community of 96,000 that has been plagued with allegations of voter fraud and political corruption in recent months. "My aim in this process is to make certain that taxpayer funds have not been used improperly," Westly said in a release. "We endeavor to help the people of South Gate regain confidence in the financial stability of their city."

Xochilt, Xochilt, how did it all go so horribly wrong?

See also:

'Lame ducks drain municipal coffers'

'South Gate: Where City Hall's a Mix of Soap Opera and Bad Joke'

'Recalled Mayor Punches Councilman at Her Last Meeting'

In other news, comedian and regular Letterman guest George Miller has died.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

'Hispanics get affordable car loans'

The headline of this article sounds great! I'm all for everyone getting affordable car loans. But, let's read a bit further:

The first time Carlos Quezada bought a used car, he borrowed $8,000 and paid 30 percent interest on it over two years. The interest rate on his second used car wasn’t much better — 29 percent.

Portland-area lending agencies told the Mexico City native that the high interest was necessary because he couldn’t prove legal residence here and he didn’t have a credit history.

“Lenders are afraid that someone without legal papers will leave the country, but I have my whole family here,” said Quezada, 23.

Along came the Hacienda Community Credit Union, the first Hispanic credit union in Oregon.

Willing to look past a client’s immigration status and focused on the financial needs of the Hispanic community, Hacienda refinanced Quezada’s loan and offered him 10 percent interest — dropping his $200 monthly payment to $130...

Hispanics are the state’s fastest-growing minority and a huge potential market for companies that tailor their businesses to them...

Financial institutions have adjusted to try to capture this market, recruiting Hispanic clients and often accepting nontraditional forms of identification, such as the “matricula consular,” a card the Mexican embassy issues to its nationals.

...And most banks won’t lend to illegal residents, forcing many Hispanics to use private credit agencies...

Its three staff members and its two volunteers are bilingual and of Hispanic origin. When evaluating a loan application, they look at who might be a flight risk and who has settled in the state, regardless of legal residence...

Quezada, for example, has lived in Portland for eight years and works at a pizza restaurant. He is married and has two children who were born in Portland...

That lower interest rate also is attractive to car dealers... [including] Mike Berryman, general manager for Weston Kia in Gresham, a Portland suburb... Berryman said he sends potential Hispanic car buyers directly to Hacienda.

...Fernando Velez, who works for the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.

“I find [high loan rates for illegal aliens] despicable,” said Samuel Davila, executive director of the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs [a state agency].

[Hacienda executive director Yolanda Karp says] "But in the end, this will help people think twice before they give Hispanics 30 percent interest.”

In other words, we aren't talking about all Hispanics here. We're just talking about those who can't prove legal residence. In other words, Hacienda is giving loans to illegal aliens, and the mentioned car dealership and state agencies think that's just peachy.

Apparently, the author (AP reporter Peter Prengaman) and the newspaper who published this "news" report think that as well. There are no dissenting voices in this one-step-up-from-a-press-release article. No one in the article clarifies that we're talking about just Hispanice illegal aliens, and not Hispanic-Americans. No one answers, for instance, the question of whether this will just encourage further illegal immigration, and whether that's a good thing. No one brings up whether giving loans to illegal aliens might be breaking a law or two.

Perhaps we should ask the car dealership, the two state agencies, Hacienda, the Stateman Journal, and AP straight out: do you support illegal immigration?

Here's the press release from the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities, which granted Hacienda their charter, and the email address is apparently DCBS.Director@state.or.us

AP's Portland News Editor is Terrence Petty, and his FAX is (503) 228-5514.

The email address for Yolanda Karp is yolandak@cuao.org

The website for Weston Kia appears to be www.westonpontiac.com, with an email of gclark@westonpontiac.com

Contact info for the Statesman Journal is here.

UPDATE: This article also appears in The Olympian newspaper under the title 'Credit union helps Latinos buy cars'. Apparently, each newspaper chooses their headlines for the story, and both newspapers couldn't come right out and say something like "Credit union helps illegal aliens buy cars." Their email address is news@theolympian.com

Posted to Immigration2003 at 12:20 PM | Comments (3)

First they came for the model rocketeers...

According to 'U.S. May Require Fingerprinting and Study of Rocket Hobbyists':

Hobbyists who build and launch high-powered model rockets could soon be subject to background checks, fingerprinting and storage inspections.

Under new provisions set to go into effect May 24 under the Homeland Security Act, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would place further restrictions on the fuel that powers the rockets...

The new rules will require buyers of the rocket fuel ammonium perchlorate composite propellant to submit their fingerprints and photographs to the bureau. The government will check applicants' backgrounds to see if they are among those banned from possessing explosives, felons, for example.

Under the proposed rules, the government will also inspect the areas where permit holders store explosives at least once every three years.

Hobbyists have won the support of Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, who is drafting legislation to free rocketeers from the rules.

Aw, who cares? It's just a bunch of nerds, right? First they came for the model rocketeers, and I didn't care because I wasn't a model rocketeer. Then, they came for the chess club members, and I didn't care because I was actually concerned about bishops, kings, and queens being whittled down into deadly weapons.

Anyways, if you're concerned about the slippery slope aspect of this attempt to tradeoff security for freedom, consider contacting your elected representatives. There's more information at the Amateur Rocketry Society of America and National Association of Rocketry sites, and there's background information on rocketry here.

Posted to Privacy at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)

Our wacky neighbor Khalid

I read this article before about the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, including this part:

Those held included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and 41-year-old Pakistani Ahmed Quddus... "Actually, he's a bit slow, he's not very clever, so I can't even begin to imagine that he could be involved with any terrorist organisation.

"He does not have any links with any terrorist organisation.

"They're saying such strange things about him in the press.

"He's been living in the neighbourhood for 15 years and everyone knows him to be a placid person," she said.

Ms Qudsia said her mother was a district administrator of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic political party, and her father a retired microbiologist who used to work for the United Nations and had lived abroad.

"He's a heart patient so we had to break the news gently to him," she said.

Aww. Qudus is a bit slow, and the dad's a heart patient. And we did what to them? We heartless bastardos!

Now, the first time I read this, I must have glazed over when I got to the bit about the microbiologist and his Islamist functionary wife.

Mark Steyn has more on them here:

The big-time terrorist was holed up in the home of a top World Health Organisation microbiologist, whose wife heads up one of the most radical Islamist political parties in the country. Is it normal for UN microbiologists to rent the spare room to terrorists known to be in the market for biological weapons?

There's a discrepancy between Steyn's characterization of them and the previous characterization, however, I think this deserves much more looking into by the U.N. or whomever.

Posted to Terrorism at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

Six degrees of Medea Benjamin

A new day, a new "peace" group: CodePink4Peace. That was started by, and using a mailing address of, Susan Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange. You might remember Global Exchange as the author of the inflated civilian death statistics in Afghanistan. Oh, and CodePink4Peace is not to be confused with just regular old CodePink, started by the Utne reader. Nina Utne's article about these groups, Medea, fasting, wearing pink, dealing with the glassy-eyed junkies at a crack hotel and the rest makes one wish for the simple, direct Raelian approach: "Whenever everybody undresses, the ego goes away and then we can make decisions."

An interesting project might be to try to draw a graph showing who leads which group. Perhaps it would even turn out there are more groups than leaders.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Why you should boycott eBay

RuminateThis links to a scary article about eBay's "privacy" policy. Apparently, all a law enforcement agency needs in order to obtain information on you from eBay is to FAX a request, no subpoena. Just a FAX, and eBay will send your name, address, buying history, the whole enchilada. I disagree with most everything else currently on her blog, but perhaps a boycott would be in order. I think the only time I've ever used eBay was when I bought something from half.com, so this one won't be that difficult for me.

Posted to Privacy at 01:01 PM | Comments (14)

I missed a war protest?

And this one actually sounds like it was fun:

The federal building in Westwood became a focal point for anti-war demonstrators on Saturday, with a handful of women stripping to their thongs and a separate group led by actor Danny Glover marching down Wilshire Boulevard to protest a possible war with Iraq.

The women who shed their clothes were followers of the Raelian sect, who believe that life on Earth was created by space aliens.

Convert me now!

"Whenever everybody undresses, the ego goes away and then we can make decisions," said protester Nadine Gary. "Imagine President Bush nude addressing the state of the union. Imagine Saddam Hussein nude."

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

More U.S.-supported U.S. separatism

Res Ipsa Loquitur links to this story about a CalTrans-approved park in San Diego to be called 'Chicano Park':

Aztlan will now be spelled out prominently with colored rocks along a section of the park near Logan Avenue. The Chicano Park logo, which features a map of the United States with the word Aztlán over the Southwest, will also be included as part of another art project for the park.

According to our state officials, this is all just A-OK. But, if you don't know what Aztlan is, the article 'Multiculturalism, Immigration and Aztlan' might clue you in to why this is not A-OK.

The homepage for the California Division of the Federal Highway Administration is here. Click on 'Directory' to see contact information, including that of Lance Yokota, their Civil Rights Program Manager.

Contact information for Caltran's Civil Rights Program is here, and the email address for Pedro Orso from Caltrans is Pedro_Orso-Delgado@dot.ca.gov , which you can get from http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/addrbook.pl The email address of the District 11 Public Information Officer is Olga_Estrada@dot.ca.gov

RIL also links to this interesting article 'Mexico’s Northern Strategy', which contains yet another series of damaging quotes, including this one I hadn't heard before. According to Juan Hernández, the the former head of Mexico's disbanded Presidential Council for Mexicans Abroad: "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think ‘Mexico first.’"

Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

'Effort to recall Davis dealt a pair of setbacks'

More here:

In a blow to the fledgling campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, California's pre-eminent Republican signature-gathering firm will not help sign up voters for fear of poisoning its relationships with other clients...

In the second development, lawyers for California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley told Costa that he must make at least 23 revisions to his proposed recall documents before he can begin collecting the 900,000 voter signatures needed to hold a special election to determine Davis' fate...

Costa was determined to press on despite both disappointments.

Posted to California at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

'CIA's Woolsey Tells Court: Iraq Involved in 9/11'

More here:

Former CIA Director James Woolsey offered bombshell testimony this week in a lawsuit brought by the families of World Trade Center victims that implicates Saddam Hussein in the 9/11 attacks...

None of his testimony is really a bombshell, it's just a reinforcement of the allegations contained in the complaint, which I excerpted here. Nevertheless, it's interesting that Clinton's former CIA Director is willing to testify about this.

Posted to Iraq at 02:08 PM | Comments (1)

Intern Val Zavala?

Mark A. R. Kleiman links to the American Prospect article 'Hoarse Whisperer: Bush's quiet but not-so-subtle bullying of Mexico', which takes as its source the Economist article 'Time to be counted':

A stream of American officials, sounding much more hostile than sorry, have been trekking south to argue the point. Most of the pressure, though, is coming from the grass-roots. Rogelio Ramírez de la O, an independent Mexican economist, argues that American boardrooms are discussing whether to cut back future investment in Mexico if the Mexicans disappoint them. One American diplomat has given warning that a Mexican No could “stir up feelings” against Mexicans in the United States. He draws comparisons with the Japanese-Americans who were interned after 1941, and wonders whether Mexico “wants to stir the fires of jingoism during a war”.

TAP goes off on a hysterical tear based on this supposed quote and based on a later speech from Bush, suggesting that Bush is threatening to intern Mexican-Americans.

While the Mexican government is at times an enemy-ally (for instance, the friendly gesture of teaching their schoolchildren that Mexico is the rightful owner of the U.S. Southwest), and there is a problem with forces of separatism (see this post for a summary), I have trouble believing that anyone would even suggest such a wacky plan. The major problem with this internment would be in finding non-Mexican-Americans to carry it out. Why, I'll even go on record as stating that if such an internment ever came to pass, I would personally offer refuge to Val Zavala.

Something must be wrong here. Hmmm... Could that something perhaps be a) the context or accuracy of the statements from the unnamed American diplomat, and/or b) TAP's analysis?

The Economist reporter does not state where this quote came from. Was it told to the reporter directly, or did he hear about it from a Mexican diplomat? How do we know that it's accurate? How do we know it's not just disinformation?

Specifically, how do we know that the reporter didn't hear it from a Mexican official who wanted to stir the pot? For instance, former foreign minister Castaneda's "propagating militant activities" comment.

As far as the grass-roots anti-French sentiment, as the TAP columnist reports, it's taken the form of boycotting French wine. I don't recall, say, Franco-Americans being beaten in the streets by armed mobs, do you? As with the internment, the TAP columnist goes off on yet another hysterical tear, suggesting somehow that if a grass-roots anti-Mexico sentiment developed, it would take an ugly form, rather than, for instance, people avoiding El Pollo Loco. Something that I would find difficult as well.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 03:25 PM | Comments (1)

'Suspected illegals worked in restricted area of NASA space center'

From this:

Four suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico were arrested while working in a restricted area of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA said Tuesday...The arrests came more than a month after NASA took unprecedented security measures for the launch of space shuttle Columbia, whose crew included an Israeli astronaut.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:11 PM | Comments (5)

'Protest over Muslim prayer nothing new for Legislature'

Here's a followup to the story of WA legislator McMahan not attending the Muslim prayer:

She said she did it as a patriotic act to protest U.S. Muslim leaders who she said did not condemn strongly enough the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

After a barrage of media calls from around the country, McMahan issued a statement late yesterday saying her actions had been misrepresented.

"For personal reasons, I chose to remain off of the House floor during the Imam's prayer. This action was not meant to make any public statement," she said in the written statement.

"I feel like the Islamic leaders in this country have not been vocal enough in condemning what happened."

Oh, but they have! Of course, you just need to understand what they're saying, and bring a special dictionary with you to understand their "condemnations."

Posted to Terrorism at 12:36 PM | Comments (2)

Black helicopters on the Rez

My good buddy Atrios, taking a break from whining Shrub-this "peace"-that, takes time to link to the 1992 SPY Magazine article 'Inside the Shadow CIA', which is about unsavory activities of the Wackenhut Corp.:

What? A big private company - one with a board of former CIA, FBI, and Pentagon officials; one in charge of protecting nuclear-weapons facilities, nuclear reactors, the Alaskan oil pipeline and more than a dozen American Embassies abroad; one with long-standing ties to a radical right-wing organization; one with 30,000 men and women under arms - secretly helped Iraq in its effort to obtain sophisticated weapons? And fueled unrest in Venezuela? This is all the plot of a new best-selling thriller, right? Or the ravings of some overheated conspiracy buff, right? Right? Wrong.

Examples: supposedly sending chemical weapons to Iraq, joining with the Cabazon Indians in Indio, CA to construct a bioweapons lab for the Contras, and other black ops, pseudo-CIA type of work. Including maintaining files on millions of Americans suspected of "derogatory" activities.

Most of the text of the article appears here, although I can't vouch for its completeness or accuracy.

There's more - including an OBL connection - here, and more on the Indians here.

There's more about Wackenhut's prison business in 'Wackenhut's Free Market in Human Misery' and 'Outback Nightmares & Refugee Dreams'

Some of this appears to be tinfoil material, some not. I just link to it and let you decide.

(Oh yeah: apparently FreeRepublic doesn't want people linking to americanpolitics.com articles for one reason or another. That site joins a list including americanpatrol.com and vdare.com)

Posted to Privacy at 02:18 PM | Comments (1)

I am venality personified

I would just like to let Dr. Pepper and any other corporate, political, state, or other sponsors know that I, a fully certified "key influence blogger," am willing to flog anything here for enough money.

Get Behind the Cow! On a Stump! Dude! Brah'! Whooo!

UPDATE: Stump Humpin' Glenn Reynolds links to more here, here, here, and here. For some reason, blogdex never links to me. There's something that Dr. Pepper really doesn't want you to know here.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:27 PM | Comments (2)

Married by the Blogosphere

Propose possible wives for me in the comments section. In a later post, I will allow you to vote on my new spouse. No Mick chicks please.

UPDATE: Jill from Married by America looks OK, for a career-orientated TV sport bimbo (no doubt a FOX station) from Long Guyland whose mom looks and talks like an old TS. Billie Jean has tons and tons of class. Jennifer is not a drunken ball-busting bitch.

CORRECTION: Jill is not a TV sports bimbo, she's actually the NY Islanders Arena Hostess/Announcer. Does Rupert own the Islanders?

UPDATE 2: Why are the contestants from either NY or Atlanta? Is Fox trying to get more ratings in those two areas? Or, were they on a budget and those are the only two areas they could fly into?

UPDATE 3: Here's some near-naked pics of Jill. Here's a story about her (they confuse "isle" with "aisle." Jaybus.) Here's Jill's site.

Here's a quote from Jill: "I'm saddened that I have to give up the [Miss Long Island] title because I don't think there's anything wrong with posing in Playboy."

Me neither.

Posted to WackyHumor at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

bigbrother4u2chat

From nealpollack.com comes the story 'Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron
over Chat-Room Visit'. A former public defender in NM was briefly detained by the Secret Service for supposedly making threats against Bush in a chat room. He says he's going to sue. There's more here.

He also testified about "measures proposed in both houses [of the NM legislature] would put the New Mexico Legislature on record as opposing the U.S. Patriot Act and direct state police not to aid federal authorities in actions infringing on civil liberties." Neither measure passed.

Posted to Privacy at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)

Some bloggers have more powerful glutes than others

Tomorrow I hope to bike in the L.A. Bike Tour, which is held on the same course as and right before the L.A. Marathon. The stats are pretty easy: about 20 miles, and it's not a race, so you can't exceed 9 MPH. However, I over-exerted my quads and glutes a couple days ago, and my left glute still hurts a bit. So, I might not finish.

I hope to attach the styrofoam donut you see in the photo to either my helmet or backpack, so as to give my fellow riders a bit of motivation.

After the ride, I'll go over to 6th and Fairfax and do this. (That's my arm encircled in red; hopefully because of the donut this time I'll get more of me in the paper.)

Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Another interesting Mark Morford column