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Hillary Does Pasadena

Earlier today, I paid a brief visit to a Hillary Clinton book signing held at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA. The pics are here.

There were maybe 200-300 people waiting in line hoping to have her sign it. Across the street, there were 8-10 FReeper protesters, dressed as Hillary, Monica, and Clinnochio.

Supposedly, people had started lining up the night before. There didn't appear to be too very much going on, so I just took a few pics and left. The photographic muse wasn't with me that day, and I failed to take any of my trademark high art news shots. Plus, I should have used the flash on a few of these pics, especially the one of "Hillary" alone.

Unfortunately, no one took me up on my suggestion that we bloggers should visit Sid Blumenthal's book signings. Perhaps we can try again with Hillary. If you go to one of her book signings, link to me and send me your link and I'll link to your report, etc.

UPDATE: I'm ashamed to say this, but the LA Times has a better report here: "Clinton Draws Long Line, Short Tempers". But, surely the blogosphere can outdo both me and the LAT?

Posted to Politics at 10:31 PM | Comments (1)

San Jacinto Peak hike, June 28, 2003

On Saturday, I hiked up San Jacinto Peak outside of Palm Springs, CA. The pictures are here.

Originally, I had wanted to take a trip which had been listed on the Sierra Club's website. That trip was to Cornell Peak (near San Jacinto Peak), and it involves some Class 2 or 3 climbing. It sounded interesting. Here's a trip report from a past SC trip. However, when I got to the designated meeting place in Monrovia, there was only one other person there. He'd been waiting without luck for the trip's organizers to arrive. However, no one besides we two showed up.

However, my interest piqued, I decided to head off to Palm Springs by myself, perhaps to check out Cornell Peak. I had been up to San Jacinto Peak before, there are pictures from that trip here.

As before, I took the tram up. I asked a few people about Cornell, and as I got somewhat unclear and conflicting information, and since they said there wasn't even a use trail, and moreover a couple of the rangers said that no one else would be up there, I decided that just doing San Jacinto Peak would be the better option.

I took the heavily-used route from the upper tram station through Round Valley and to the peak, for a round-trip of about 11 miles with 2400' of gain. The hike itself is fairly easy; the problem is in going from Palm Springs at 450' to the summit at 10,804' in less than five hours. Time going up was about 3:15, time going down was about 2:15. I carried 3L of water with me, all of which I had drunk by the time I got back to the tram. I'd drunk 3+ liters while driving in, and I filled up at the tram stations as well.

I started from the Long Valley ranger station after 2pm, meaning that almost everyone else was going the other way. Unfortunately, one of my hiking poles' sections was stuck, and even with a ranger-supplied wrench I couldn't get it working. So, I decided not to use the poles, which would had made things a bit quicker and easier. However, as I had hardly used my power glutes during the hike, I was able to go up the cement ramp heading to the upper tram station without stopping by taking long slow rest-steps.

Epilogue: On a visit to REI earlier today, they replaced (free of charge) my two-year-old poles with a brand new pair.

UPDATE: Also, I wouldn't recommend starting as late as I did. I did that because a) I was slightly familiar with the route, b) I knew approximately how long it would take me, c) the sky was clear, d) I had a specific turn-around time which I would have stuck to, e) I knew there would be people both on the trail and camping at Round Valley, f) I had extra clothing, and g) I knew I could run back moderately quickly if the need arose.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

I demand a recount!

Listen up, you Democratic thugs! You and your Secretary of Internet think you can pull the wool over the eyes of the American people, but you can't!

There was obviously a systematic attempt to disenfranchize Internet voters, complete with hijacked TCP/IP packets which were deliberatly changed to favor Selected pResident Elect Dean.

I voted for Al Sharpton, and so did thousands and thousands others. Yet, all he received was 1677 votes? Just 0.53%? Obviously there was some Democratic monkey business going on here.

Count all the votes!
Count all the votes!
Count all the votes!
Count all the votes!

Posted to Politics at 11:17 AM | Comments (1)

Aloha means good riddance

Joanne Jacobs links to this article about a "Hawaiian Supremacist" professor at the University of Hawaii:

“We need to think very, very clearly about who the enemy is. The enemy is the United States of America and everyone who supports it.”

The statement transcribed above is but a small sampling of the venom and hatred that typically spills from the mouth of Haunani-Kay Trask, a Professor at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. A guru of the racial separation/ethnic nationalism movement, Trask routinely abuses her position an educator (and American tax dollars) to spread racist and anti-American doctrine throughout the University of Hawaii student body, sometimes violently opposing the dissenting voices that arise on campus and elsewhere on the Island...

However, Professor Trasks' racial instigation is not restricted to mere verbal assaults. On September 5th, 2002, the Honolulu Advisor reported, “threats of violence had intimidated the director of the Academy of Lifelong Learning and frightened away the elderly students who had signed up for [Professor Kenneth] Conklin’s course on Hawaiian sovereignty.”[11] In response to this incident, Professor Trask not only expressed her outrage that a man who opposes the racist elements of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement would be allowed to speak at the Center for Hawaiian Studies but also overtly endorsed physical violence as a means by which to protect the racist agenda of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. When asked to comment on the cancellation of the class due to threats of violence, Professor Trask responded that, “it’s great that somebody came back at [Professor Conklin] and threatened him.”[12]

Not even our Southwest separatists go this far.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:17 AM | Comments (0)

Do NOT see "Charlie's Angels 2"

I beg of you, please don't see the new Charlie's Angels movie. Not that I've seen it, and not that I ever will. But, for starters, let's look at some of the reviews:

"It's this summer's Cannonball Run."

"Watching Full Throttle is like being pummeled for two hours with a feather duster. It leaves no scars, but you do feel the pain."

"Full Throttle is a movie that could be a preview for itself: a sad reminder of what was, a hint of what might be, and with any luck, the foretelling of what will never be again."

Why the hostility about what is after just a crappy movie? For a hint, see this post from 10/10/2002:

...for the past few days they've been filming a big budget sequel of a certain movie at the Griffith Park Observatory. I know what movie it is, and I'll let you know if you want, but I don't want to give them any publicity so I won't put the name here in this extremely popular space.

What pisses me off is they're taking over the whole friggin' Obs. parking lot. The security guys, backed up by a real off-duty cop, won't let you stand where you can view what's going on...

It's not really the parking lot issue I'm angry about. It's the fact that since they're using public facilities to shoot their movie, and they want the public to go see their movie, the least they could do is let the public get a teensy bit closer. It'd still have been about 200' away, but they wouldn't even begrudge me that. So, I say fuck 'em, and I encourage you to do the same. Let Drew et al pay for their lifestyles some way other than with your money.

Posted to Celebrities at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)

Scalia has "nothing against homosexuals"

Here's what the Associated Press has to say in the Washington Post about the Texas sodomy case:

"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals."

Unfortunately, that's not a correct quote. Here's what he really said:

Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means...

That changes the meaning entirely, now doesn't it? He's not uttering the standard refrain akin to "some of my best friends are...," he's stating that he's not opposed to "... promoting..." In other words, the promotion is the object of "I have nothing against," not "homosexuals."

Posted to Politics at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

"Court curbs Microsoft Java distribution"

From this:

A federal appeals court dealt a legal blow to Sun Microsystems on Thursday, tossing out most of a preliminary injunction requiring Microsoft to carry its rival's version of an interpreter for the Java programming language...

Here's a nifty chart comparing SUNW and MSFT over the last 5 years.

Posted to Miscellania at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

The OC Register's collection of recall articles

So far it's just a small collection. It includes a link to an online discussion board which is in dire need of an index rather than just a big page with all the comments on it.

Posted to California at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

All straight, white, Christian males must Unite!

Wait, you can't say that!

Who the heck are you?

I'm your PC filter.

So, why can't I say that?

Because you'll be roasted and toasted throughout the blogosphere like a "heretic... in 15th-century Spain."

Point taken. But, what if I say something like this:

Now is the time in history when Blacks and Jews, along with Latinos, Asians, Women, Gays and all “others” have the potential to work together. Together we can eradicate not only racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, but also the poverty, corruption in government, destruction to our environment, corporate control, undermining of our civil liberties and a woman’s right to choose, and ongoing warfare that threaten us all. Now is the time to unite.

Of course, no one listens to what Babs says, but similar things are said by many other "liberals," for an example, see the end of this post. The titular phrase is nothing more than the natural corollary to the quote above. You can't spell "divisive" without the root of "divide," can you?

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

Eugenics means good genes!

Every child born in the UK could be genetically screened and the data stored to plan their future healthcare under government proposals for a massive expansion of genetic testing.

Links to my previous "Mark of the Beast" posts start here.

Posted to Privacy at 11:32 PM | Comments (2)

Select-a-President, quizilla-style

This multiple-choice quiz matches you up with your most to least favorite presidential candidiates.

Here are my results:

1. Bush, George W. - US President (100%)
2. Libertarian Candidate (82%)
3. Buchanan, Patrick J. Reform/Republican (73%)
4. McCain, Senator John, AZ- Republican (58%)
5. Bayh, Senator Evan, IN - Democrat (56%)
6. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (55%)
7. Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham, NY - Democrat (53%)
8. Daschle, Senate Minority Leader Tom, SD - Democrat (52%)
9. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (51%)
10. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (51%)
11. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (51%)
12. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (50%)
[...]
30. Gore, Former Vice-President Al - Democrat (1%)
31. Hart, Former Senator Gary, CO - Democrat (-8%)
32. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-10%)
33. Clark, Retired Army General Wesley K "Wes" Arkansas - Democrat (-10%)

The top three are pretty far apart, and I'm very very scared about the Hildebeest being so high. Hey, at least it's somewhat entertaining, right?

(Via my bud Jesse).

Posted to Politics at 10:25 PM | Comments (2)

What if Gray Davis resigns?

Even if he ends up resigning, Cruz Bustamante* would probably only be the temporary Governor; as long as all the other conditions of the recall had been met, the recall election would go forward, and the winner would be the new Governor.

That's discussed here, and the Elections Code Section in question says this:

11302.
If a vacancy occurs in an office after a recall petition is filed against the vacating officer, the recall election shall nevertheless proceed. The vacancy shall be filled as provided by law, but any person appointed to fill the vacancy shall hold office only until a successor is selected in accordance with Article 4 (commencing with Section 11360) or Article (commencing with Section 11380), and the successor qualifies for that office.

*Bustamante is a former member of the racial separatist organization Mecha.

Posted to California at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

.la Registrar sold me domain names that were "technically already reserved"

Back on June 13, I registered 8 domain names in the new .la domain. (See my triumphant posting here.)

However, some of the domains didn't work when I tried to forward them to URLs at my site. I sent an email to dreamhost, and I've now been informed that they "had a problem with our registration system on the 13th and 14th, and the http://www.la/ was erroneously giving out some domains that were technically already reserved..."

Three of the domains I registered work as expected; the five ones that don't work are:

active.la
insider.la
living.la
meet.la
run.la

The price for the first four was $50/year, the price for run.la was marked as "premium" at $100/year.

They inform me that they've refunded my money for those domains ($300), and are giving me an additional $50 credit. However, I had already started work on run.la, which I think would have been quite a popular site. I was looking forward to placing a personals service at meet.la, and various other services at the other domains.

Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?

Posted to Miscellania at 10:42 PM | Comments (1)

New computer changes all rules

"The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world’s fastest desktop computer,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO [news -- web site -- personality cult]. “IBM offers the most advanced processor design and manufacturing expertise on earth, and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship."

Posted to Miscellania at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

Dear friend,

I'm writing to ask you to take part in MoveOn.org's presidential primary. Too often, the real choices in presidential nomination processes are made long before the real primaries. Pundits, pollsters and big donors shouldn't be the only voices that count at this early and important stage of the process.

MoveOn's primary will give at least 1.4 million people the opportunity to make their voices heard. You can be one of them by registering to vote in the MoveOn Primary here:
http://www.moveon.org/pac/reg/

Sharpton/Dean 2004, the team that can win!

Posted to Politics at 11:39 AM | Comments (1)

Holy fucking shit

This picture courtesy of John C. Dvorak. Yeah, the guy who goes to the conventions about those computer things.

It gets even worse. See Bob's pic here. In addition to partially and fully hydrogenated fats, I'm laying off all forms of soy and "canola."

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:34 PM | Comments (2)

Beverly Hills hair stylist Jose Eber captured by French police

From this:

The leader of France's anti-globalisation movement... was snatched from his bed at dawn yesterday and taken to prison by helicopter...

...[He] was inspired to political activism when America imposed tariffs on French cheeses and paté de foie gras as revenge for the European Union's ban on American hormone-treated beef.

In 1999, he led an attack on a McDonald's restaurant being built near his home in Larzac, south-western France, driving his tractor over the site and causing £80,000 of damage...

His latest conviction was for destroying genetically modified rice and maize samples, for which he must now serve two consecutive sentences of six and four months.

M Perben said President Jacques Chirac might include Bové in his annual Bastille Day pardons on July 14.

UPDATE: I just realized, this isn't about Beverly Hills hairstylist Jose Eber, it's about Jose Bove, the CESM guy who drives tractors into McDonalds's. Please forgive the error.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:37 PM | Comments (5)

Jesse Jackson promises hope, growth, opportunity

I'm very surprised by this story from the Washington Post:

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. - The Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the streets where rioting broke out this week, but he turned his attention across the river to the town's wealthier neighbor, St. Joseph, saying the residents of Benton Harbor should look across the river for an example of how to do things.

"Rather than attempting to shake-down corporations who are afraid of being called 'racist,' I think we should look inward, and attempt to solve our problems ourselves. Rather than trying to get money out of the guilty white residents of St. Joseph, or accusing them of conspiring against us, why don't we just get something done ourselves? There will be no more trivial law suits. There will be no more law suits based on a persecution complex.

Biblically speaking, the bible does not support socialism, and neither will I! Furthermore, I hereby denounce Bill Clinton and my role as his Spiritual Advisor," he continued.

Wait, I'm sorry, that was just the Alternate Universe Jesse Jackson. Here's the real version.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

"The year aliens became alien"

Here's a comparison between past and present immigration into Britain:

What is so striking when comparing then and now is the difference in the mentalité of the British state. The Conservative government which passed the 1905 Act did not hesitate to protect British interests. It also had very clear ideas as to what constituted an ‘undesirable’ immigrant. Although only 30 per cent of adults had the vote at that time, the Balfour government nevertheless responded to democratic pressure to restrict immigration.

In contrast, the Blair government seems to want to do everything it can to erode British national identity, for which there can be no more potent solvent than mass immigration. Rather than try to ascertain exactly what is going on, how much it is all costing and what can be done to stop it, as a royal commission would have done, it pretends that nothing is wrong and denounces as a racist anyone who suggests otherwise. For such an egalitarian, non-judgmental government, the idea that anyone could be an ‘undesirable’ immigrant is elitist nonsense...

Posted to Immigration2003 at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

"Anarchy on our borders"

Here's a transcript of a Michele Malkin speech:

The voice of New Americans who reject political correctness and the cult of multiculturalism has been sorely missing from the debate on immigration policy. September 11 helped shatter that silence. Over the past year, I've heard from countless readers, first- and second-generation Americans like myself and my family, who reject open borders and immigration anarchy. We are sick and tired of watching our government allow illegal line-jumpers, killers and America-haters to flood our gates and threaten our safety. We are sick and tired of watching ethnic-minority leaders cry "racism" whenever Congress attempts to shore up our borders. And we are especially sick and tired of business leaders, lobbyists, and lawmakers from both major parties caving in, forsaking leadership – and selling out our national security.

Highly recommended.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

"A Washington Bouquet: Hire a Lawmaker's Kid"

The L.A. Times piles on Orrin Hatch et fils.

The internet comments.

The DREAM Act.

It's time for a challenger who's not an ijit.

Posted to Politics at 09:20 PM | Comments (1)

"A Liberal Push in L.A. City Hall"

Socialism, ahoy! There's a new progressive movement afoot in L.A., according to no less than this L.A. Times editorial:

With the election of Antonio Villaraigosa and Martin Ludlow to the Los Angeles City Council, progressivism has reached critical mass in city government. On July 1, the two newcomers will join ideological and political allies Eric Garcetti and Ed Reyes in bringing a broad social vision of equity and justice to such city problems as housing, jobs, transportation and public safety...

[from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs, etc. etc. etc. Maybe we won't kill as many people as all the past experiments did, etc. etc. etc.]

All you need to know about Antonio Villaraigosa can be found right here. Note especially this page, where he refuses to disavow his past membership (including President of the UCLA chapter) in the racial separatist organization Mecha.

The authors of this piece are from this organization. I think Oxy College is private, otherwise I'd complain about misuse of public funds.

(Via L.A. Observed)

Posted to Los_Angeles at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

"What's the Joint Terrorism Task Force Doing in the Tiny Town of Rachel?"

Drudge links to this story about the FBI etc. raiding the house of a desert-rat-Area-51 type of guy:

He's prowled the hills and deserts of Lincoln County for several years now, has photographed exotic aircraft in the skies, and keeps an eye on the top secret base known as Area 51. He's even written a book about the place. Over the past few months, he's discovered that the military has been installing secret sensor devices on public lands surrounding the base. Using a frequency counter device, he can tell when his vehicle trips a sensor. When that happens, he looks for the hard-to-spot wire atop the device, and then he digs them up, takes pictures, and puts them back.

Because of this - or perhaps not because of it, no one's talking - the FBI and Friends seized his computer etc.

Strangely enough, just a few weeks ago I was perusing the website ufomind.com, which includes a page about Chuck Clark, the guy whose house was searched.

Posted to Privacy at 08:56 PM | Comments (1)

Ann Coulter's got a blog!

Ann Coulter's blog starts Monday. In the meantime, buy her new book
Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.

Posted to Politics at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)

Marisleysis' older, down-and-out sister

What is it about me that attracts blonde, crazy, down-and-out-and-almost-street-people Latina-Americans? Why do they pick up on me? Is it a signal I send out? Some pheromine or something?

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

Osama, the "agrarian reformer"

Drudge has short excerpts from Ann Coulter's new book
Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, including this:

Why is the relative patriotism of the two parties the only issue that is out of bounds for discussion? Why can’t we ask: Who is more patriotic -- Democrats or Republicans? You could win that case in court.

At least we can be thankful that in the war on terrorism, we were spared the spectacle of liberals calling Osama bin Laden an “agrarian reformer.”

Posted to Politics at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

Immigration and the Law FAQ

Here's a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Immigration and the Law. The next time I see a newspaper using euphemisms for "illegal alien," I'll send them a link to this.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

Obligatory Jayson Blair content

Historians of this blog will note that I haven't previously posted on the various NYT scandals (this doesn't count).

For my obligatory NYT-scandal content, let me direct you to this flashback from the NYT of November 12, 2002: "Colleges Find Diversity Is Not Just Numbers".

Regarding this article, this post says "It is tempting to treat this article as an unintentional parody."

The WeeklyStandard article "Dartmouth Does Diversity" says:

THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF WAR, it faces the likelihood of another terrorist attack, and the New York Times is worried that Americans are not paying enough attention to race and gender. Two front-page articles on November 12--one on college diversity programs, the other on a golf club's all-male membership policy--offer a stunning demonstration of the loony irrelevance of Howell Raines's Times...

But this dreary monotony is just the point. The diversity industry, of which the New York Times is an integral part, perpetuates itself by constantly repackaging as new old nostrums about alleged ethnic friction and its therapeutic solution...

The college diversity scam contains four perennial features: (1) administrative deceit; (2) the pretense of acute minority and female fragility; (3) the hypocritical insistence on having it both ways; and (4) assiduous avoidance of the one true difference problem on campus...

...The second standard assumption of college diversity discourse is the psychological frailty of non-white and female students. According to the Times, an "internal" Dartmouth report (actually produced by the Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity) found that minority students "felt damaged" by the college. Not just minority students, however. In the hyperventilating style favored by difference ideologues, the report's authors wrote that to hear from "students of color, women of all races and gay, lesbian or bisexual students who felt hurt, unvalued and ultimately less important to the mission of the college than others was searing indeed."

That "others" is particularly choice. By elimination, the only group not feeling pain at Dartmouth, it would seem, are heterosexual white males. The committee could have had the courage to name those insensate boors...

The rest of the article is pretty good as well.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

"Moose Resigns as Montgomery Police Chief"

From the WaPo:

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose has resigned in order to free himself from the ethical concerns surrounding his plans to write a personal account of last fall's sniper manhunt... Moose, who became a national hero [huh? --lw] as the sturdy face of the sniper task force...

The county Ethics Commission had ruled in March that Moose should halt work on the book project, but on Friday his publisher, E.P. Dutton, listed the book for sale on the Amazon.com Web site. [The book is
Three Weeks in October]

See also Michelle Malkin's "Charles 'show me the money' Moose":

Instead of following the law, he and his big-mouthed wife, an image consultant and CEO of Chief Moose Inc., have hurled reckless charges of racism at county employees. Mrs. Moose whined to the panel that the couple resented having to answer to "a fully white group to give him permission to make some money." She likened her spouse to Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela as a civil-rights trailblazer who "stood for principle."

His wife has targeted not just county employees, but Marriot Hotels as well: "Marriott paid Moose big bucks after racism charge?":

"Hotel security asked to see his key, as is standard practice, and his reply was, 'Don't you know who I am? I'm Chief Moose!'" he said.

The last article has several links to other Moose stories.

Click the "Sniper" link directly below for my contemporaneous coverage of the Beltway Sniper case.

Posted to Sniper at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

A real peoples' constitution, A.N.S.W.E.R.-style

Here's a transcript of a video secretly shot at a recent A.N.S.W.E.R. meeting by ProtestWarrior:

MODERATOR:
So let's get started on the portion of the agenda where we all get a chance to talk, and I would like to appeal to my fellow European American males to not be the first ones to shoot your hands up or to get up on the floor, but to give everyone else a chance to speak first and try not to dominate the discussion...

...OLD MAN:
I hate to point out that the Constitution itself sucks; there's a lot wrong with it. There's no right to healthcare, no right to education, no right to jobs, none of that is in there. Racism, anti-gay bigotry, none of that is outlawed by the Constitution. Those are the things that need to be in a real peoples' constitution. It's important to point out because we keep defending the Constitution, but it's a Constitution that's extremely weak and does not represent what people need. And when we defend the Constitution we have to go one step further and say "this is what a real constitution should look like..."

...BRIAN:
And Cuba, Cuba is an occupied country, even though they had the revolution in '59, the naval base, the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo occupies a huge section of Cuba and the U.S. won't leave and that's where they built all the prisons.

Click the category link below for my "peace" movement coverage.

(Via Balloon Juice.)

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)

'Saudi "Ally" Funds Hamas'

From this:

At a news conference called here to claim that the Saudi Arabian government was cracking down on terrorism, a top Saudi Arabian official yesterday refused to condemn the terrorist group Hamas.

Adel Al-Jubeir’s refusal to condemn Hamas came on a day when the Bush administration was blaming the terrorist group for the recent attacks on Israel...

...[Al-Jubeir] also denied that the Saudi government directly funded Hamas, although he said some money could indirectly go to its "political wing..."

[A] critic of the Saudi government, Ali Al-Ahmed, who runs the Saudi Institute here, said there is no doubt of the Saudi link to Hamas, and said he was not surprised either that Mr. Al-Jubeir did not condemn the group.

"He can’t. He’d be fried back home. He wouldn’t be the spokesman any longer," he said.

Posted to TheSaudis at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)

How did I know Ibrahim would be against it?

TalkLeft links to the NYT article "Bush Issues Federal Ban on Racial Profiling", which includes this line:

Arab-American and civil rights groups said the exemptions in the White House policy would give the authorities legal justification to single out Middle Easterners and others who may fall under suspicion, and they questioned whether the new policy — issued as "guidance" — would be aggressively enforced.

As soon as I read that, I immediately went into CAIR/Ibrahim Hooper watch-mode. Which Arab-American group could the NYT be referring to? Hmmm... There's no mention of the specific group here on Page 1 of the article.

But, turning to Page 2, well, there it is in all its "mainstream" glory:

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the new policy would do little to mollify Arab-Americans.

"There seem to be a lot of `buts' and `howevers' here that would allow profiling of Arabs and Muslims to continue," Mr. Hooper said.

He said he found the policy paradoxical in light of a report from the Justice Department this month criticizing the detentions of hundreds of illegal immigrants, most of them Middle Eastern, after the 9/11 attacks.

"This is a problem that's certainly widespread, and I don't think this policy does anything to help the situation," Mr. Hooper said.

If you aren't familiar with CAIR, see the post "Undesirable influence" and many of the other posts in the Terrorism category. One of the links is to this article:

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he supports [the U.S. adopting sharia law].

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

CAIR is currently taking money from Saudis to put "educational" materials in U.S. libraries.

As for the NYT, while they're introspecting, perhaps they should review their "who do we go to for soundbites and how do we describe them" file.

Posted to Terrorism at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

L.A. River renovation presentation report

The meeting (see this for the details) was a bit less than interesting, and I was only there for a few minutes, but that was probably because I wasn't familiar with their plans and I hadn't had time to peruse their handouts. I'd suggest picking up the handouts and studying them. The only things that really stood out were one "remediation" method, and one housing-related proposal.

Apparently, brownfields can be cleaned by planting poplar trees. The trees' roots suck up the toxic materials from the ground water, and then can be extirpated and disposed of. It apparently takes a couple cycles to get rid of all the toxics.

The other proposal would be to create a housing/park development on the Taylor Yards. a small amount of housing would be dispersed throughout the park.

I'm going to investigate various aspects of this matter, such as how much money has been spent and the status of their proposal and report back.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

Wow, this frozen Coke is great!

Have you tried Frozen Coke yet? It's a great new drink, and I think I'm going to be drinking lots more of it in the future. I hear you can get it at BurgerKing:

The Frozen Coke promotion was conducted at Burger King outlets in Richmond, Va., in March 2000. An internal company document filed as part of the lawsuit said the tactic was to hire an outside consultant to spend up to $10,000 to buy value meals at Burger Kings in Richmond, boosting demand for Frozen Coke and other frozen drinks.

The suit says the Richmond promotion resulted in a $65 million Frozen Coke investment by Miami-based Burger King.

Posted to WackyHumor at 05:22 PM | Comments (3)

Microsoft Launches Legal Blitz Vs. Spammers

From this:

In one case, Microsoft accuses two Dayton, Ohio, companies, Email Gold and NetGold, and three individuals of sending repeated offers for a how-to spam kit to its members using falsified MSN and Hotmail domains. In another case, Microsoft alleges a Haddonfield, N.J., company, The E-Offer Store, sent spam using fake subject lines. Other cases involve either false subject lines or spoofed domain names. Two cases list the defendants as John Doe...

Posted to Miscellania at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

Why am I not surprised?

Drudge's current headline is to "Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading":

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet.

The surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads.

During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws.

"I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights."

Orrin Hatch is also co-sponsor of a bill to give illegal aliens a better college tuition rate than U.S. citizens. Yes, according to him, some U.S. citizens should pay more tuition than citizens of another country.

Posted to Politics at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)

"this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation"

The title is a quote from General Wesley Clark. He's taken to task for it here. The original quote is here.

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

L.A. River renovation presentation 6/17 and 6/18

Via email, there will be a presentation concerning L.A. River renovation Tuesday and Wednesday:

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design Los Angeles River Studio presentation schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, June 17th 6:30-reception-7pm 9pm-presentations, Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, 570 West Avenue 26

Wednesday, June 18th-10am-11:30am Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, 570 West Avenue 26

Wednesday, June 18th, 12:30-2pm-Los Angeles County Department of Public Works building, conference room A, 900 S. Fremont, Alhambra

The variety of times and locations is to accommodate as many people as possible. Each presentation will be similar in nature.

I might go to one of these, and, if so, I'll be kind enough to report on it here.

However, why the gosh darn heck do we need a bunch of East Coasters to help renovate a Los Angeles river? I dunno, but as this blurb says, they've got a scheme:

Design Students Display Visions for L.A, River – Their ideas, including parkland, housing and an urban lake, have no price tags and would take decades to realize.
Jan 23, Los Angeles Times, by Kenneth Reich, Times Staff Writer
A team of 12 students from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design has developed a scheme for transforming four miles of the Los Angeles River into a river park.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

"Undesirable influence"

Here's a good backgrounder on the "undesirable influence" that CAIR and other "mainstream" groups have:

Readers of this column were not surprised by the news article that led the front page of Wall Street Journal last Wednesday. They are already aware that a number of Arab- and Muslim-American organizations and representatives that support Hamas and other militant Islamic (or “Islamist”) terrorist groups have gained unwarranted access to the White House and top Bush Administration officials...

Even those who have followed this story on these pages and elsewhere, however, might have been surprised at the response Karl Rove, President Bush’s top political advisor, gave the authors of the Journal article: “‘What's the evidence’ of undesirable influence? he says. ‘There's no there there.’”

Actually, the evidence of undesirable influence is unmistakable to anyone willing to look for it. Past and present leaders of the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the American Muslim Alliance, for example, have publicly expressed support for those engaged in “armed struggle” against Israel and the United States... [more about the "Wahhabi Lobby", al-Arian, etc. etc.]

Posted to Terrorism at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

Oscar-nominated director Ang Lee practices Tai Chi

From this article about some movie:

Parts of the "The Hulk" move as slowly as the laid-back martial art of tai chi, which Lee practices each morning.

When I see something like that, I wonder where it came from. I mean, Ang Lee's (whoever the fsck that is) association with Tai Chi is well-known. Did the reporter already know about it? Did the reporter read it in Ang's bio? Did Ang mention it in his interview?

Did the reporter write it down somewhere, knowing he was going to mention it somewhere in his article, and, when he found the opportunity, he used it? Did the reporter watch the scenes and, knowing about the Ang Lee-Tai Chi connection, realize what Ang Lee was getting at?

Here's my version:

The Lonewacko Blog is as thrill-packed as the sports of rock climbing and mountain biking, two sports which Lonewacko occasionally vainly tries to practice.

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

"Is anyone fooled by claims that the media aren't liberal?"

From the editorial "Big Dumb Lie" about Eric Alterman's latest opus:

...But because Mr. Alterman and friends can't conceive of a media they would ever consider too liberal, they lament any rightward drift at all, and declare it dangerous and unwarranted. Moreover, they are highly selective in their gaze. Mr. Alterman looks to the handful of conservative media outlets and ignores the horde of liberal ones. He fulminates about the influence of the "wild men" at The Wall Street Journal editorial page, for instance, but barely mentions New York Times editorialists. Indeed, at times it seems Mr. Alterman has never even heard that the Times exists, let alone that it is both extremely liberal and more influential than any other news organ.

Mr. Alterman rails against the conservative perfidy of Fox News, yet sees little to no evidence that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or MSNBC might be liberal. Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Harper's, NPR, etc. don't warrant much attention or worry. But he insists that the (vastly tinier) Weekly Standard has dangerous influence.

The Bradley, Olin and Scaife foundations are said to be wreaking havoc on the gullible masses. But the (hugely richer and highly liberal) Ford, Rockefeller and Pew foundations don't merit any mention at all. The American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are claimed to pull the country to the right, but Harvard, Berkeley, etc. seem to have no gravitational mass at all in his eyes. It's as if Mr. Alterman scans the whole political landscape through the lenses of some novelty glasses which can only pick up conservatives...

Posted to Politics at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

Are you a sick, horrible person?

Here's today's test:

Daniel Cruz Romero, 34, was killed Friday after being caught in a meat-processing machine at Michael Angelo's Gourmet Foods, a frozen food manufacturer in northern Travis County. Romero had complained to a former co-worker he was having trouble with the machine, the Austin American-Statesman reported for Saturday's editions.

Romero's entire body went through the machine, police said.

"He came to us in fragments," said Dr. Elizabeth Peacock, deputy medical examiner in Travis County.

Posted to Miscellania at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

I'm back from the Verdugo swamplands

Earlier today, I pushed and carried my bike up the large firebreak on the southwest side of the Verdugos. That's the firebreak that's visible for miles and that goes up above the Brand Library. I made it up to about 50' below the fire road before I turned around. Close enough. The ride down was lots more fun than the trip up.

On the way back, I took the fireroad mentioned in this post. In that post, I approached that fire road from below, only to find out it was washed out, complete with a creepy little stream.

This time, there was a little more water there, and it was green, fast becoming a mini-swamp. I tried to avoid it as much as possible, and I think I'll make that a permanent decision. This was only about 1400' of gain, but that firebreak is maybe 1.5 miles and pretty stepped and loose, making bike pushing fairly difficult. The library is in the center of this topo map, and the destination is the radio facility up the firebreak.

Next time I'll just take the (un-washed-out) fireroad up and down.

That's about 3800' of gain this week, down from close to 5000' last week. But, I also took a short bike ride and went to the climbing gym one day.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)

"this recall is going nowhere"

From this:

Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman trying to become California's next governor by financing a recall campaign against Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, on Saturday suggested the GOP unite by nominating a single candidate to seek the governorship and by focusing on the state's $38.2 billion budget shortfall instead of rigid ideology...

Before a recall election can be held, supporters must submit to the state nearly 900,000 valid signatures of voter support by September.

Issa, whose $800,000 in contributions has fueled pro-recall group Rescue California, told the audience that more than 700,000 signatures already have been collected. Less than half that had been submitted to elections officials as of last week...

Told Friday about the wine country retreat, Davis' message to Issa was, "Have a good time. But this recall is going nowhere..."

In his remarks, Issa suggested state party leaders hold a convention to narrow what could be a large field of GOP contenders that might include actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Sen. Tom McClintock of Simi Valley, last year's GOP gubernatorial nominee, Bill Simon, and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan [and Issa himself]...

Asked by reporters to be more specific, [President Bush's point man in California, businessman Gerald Parsky] said, "A Republican governor in California would be helpful. A Democratic governor is not helpful. Whether that Democratic governor is Gray Davis or another Democrat, that's not helpful."

And, from this:

Davis says the movement is being pushed by a bunch of losers.

He says he won the governor's race last November fair and square.

Posted to California at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

Domains for sale

The following domains are now for sale:

inside.la
insider.la
blog.la
active.la
meet.la
living.la
relocate.la
run.la

These are from the new .la top-level domain. Let's hope I didn't just piss away $450.

Posted to Miscellania at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)

Mark Morford crawls back to reality

From this S.F. Chronical:

[usual run-on sentences and hippie references deleted] ...And Kucinich's Department of Peace? Ha. What a joke. What a sad, far-fetched, disheartening, impossible joke.

Posted to Politics at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Savage, towel-snapper

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette's editorial "Who’s listening to this All-American jerk?":

I was flipping around the radio dial one afternoon when I heard a familiar voice.
The last time I heard that voice was to the accompaniment of a leering grin and towels snapping in a locker room.

"Gotcha!" the voice had been saying. Snap! "Gotcha good, didn't I, queer?" Snap! "That'll teach you to mess with Mike."

Mike was the terror of my high school locker room. Snapping towels at young boys' private parts. Getting freshmen in a headlock and rubbing their faces in his armpits. Calling all the boys "queers!" and "wimps!" He was a class act then. Now he's the voice of America.

". . . another thing these limousine liberals who are perverting America want you to believe," he was telling his talk radio audience...

Strangely enough, "Mike's" last name is not given. Yet, "Mike" is identified as having "millions of listeners nationwide" and we're told that "his book is a best seller." It certainly sounds like Savage, doesn't it? Who else could it be? So, unless the author is non-wimpy enough to come right out and say who he's referring to, let's assume he's referring to Savage.

And, let's look at this article a bit closer:

There he was revving his Camaro and screeching past some VW, shouting "queer!" When would he grow up? Thank God we'd never have to see him again after high school.

So, the author went to high school with Savage, and Savage drove a Camaro in high school.

But, let's do the math. According to this article, Savage is 60, meaning that he would have been about 18 in 1961.

The Camaro was introduced in 1966.

The editorial is, of course, intentionally obscure regarding "Mike's" identity. Yet, it's pretty obviously that he intends it to be Savage. So, was he confused about the make of the car? How many high schoolers in 1961 in The Bronx drove cars anyway?

Maybe the "Mike" referred to by the article and Savage are not the same, and the author is just trying to say they're mentally and emotionally the same. Perhaps this is a leftie-smear-by-characterization. But, that can't be, can it:

People tune in to hear him rant about liberals and "wimps" and immigrants...

As far as I know, Savage is not opposed to legal immigration, just the illegal kind. But, as I've pointed out many times before, that appears to be an easy mistake for a "liberal" to make.

So, who is this "Mike?" A fictional character? Or, more likely, this is just a "factual account," leftie-style.

Posted to Politics at 08:16 PM | Comments (4)

Passports are about to get a lot safer!

From this:

The passport office has begun digitizing the photographs of millions of Canadians whose mugshots may end up in a United Nations-sanctioned global facial recognition database. The move is to meet standards set by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which requires a tiny computer chip with a person's picture and basic information be input into every passport from its 188 member states...

The UN body said the global database can be used to nab or monitor terrorists, fugitives and others sought by police...

"At some point every Canadian passport will have a chip inside," [Jacques] Perron [of the Canadian Passport Office] said. "There is nothing to prevent nations from collecting data and putting them on a database..."

...officials are using facial recognition to screen people applying for passports to curb fraud.

ICAO spokesman Denis Chagnon said facial recognition will increase air security and speed up the flow of passengers.

"If police are trying to find someone their face can be flagged on a database," Chagnon said. "Anyone who holds a passport will become part of a global database."

Ain't nuthin like a giant global database with everyone's picture in it. This will definitely sharply increase everyone's safety. And, the fact that the UN is involved just gives it that extra bit of legitimacy.

Links to my previous "Mark of the Beast" posts start here.

Posted to Privacy at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

Today's blog babage

Frequent "liberal" commentator "PG," from this.

10/13/04 UPDATE: Over a year after the original post, I get an email asking me to remove the picture. So, I replaced it with a different picture.

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

Holy goddess of mercy

Tennis legend Iroda Tulyaganova, shown here demostrating the new SportsBra By Bechtel. (This is at one of those geocities-type sites that won't let you inline or link directly to images, but trust me on this.)

Posted to Celebrities at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

You're invited to the Burbank Community Block Party!

I just got this invite via email, and it sounds really good! Apparently, the City of Burbank (of which I am unfortunately not a resident) is holding a big block party on Saturday, June 21!

Sponsored by Assemblyman Dario Frommer and the City of Burbank, who tell us:

It’s the people and organizations behind the scenes that make Burbank such a great place to live. Come learn more about city services and discuss legislative issues important to you.

• Free food and drinks
• Events for seniors
and kids
• Free fingerprinting for kids
• Local organizations and businesses will
provide free information and prizes
• Free music and entertainment
• Booths and activities for the entire family

Sounds great! I especially like the comforting picture of the police officer and the children.

Oh, did I mention, there's going to be free fingerprinting! That just makes this wonderful day of celebrating the State and all it brings us all that more special.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)

Howard Dean can win!

Via this post comes this post which says:

After I attended the Howard Dean meetup this week... at The Metro, a gay bar in the Castro. I... signed up to volunteer... to do "outreach" activites, including, apparently, going to gay bars and talking to people about Dean. Well... a genuine excuse to [go] up to strange guys without having to worry about an opening line.

Good luck, but I don't think it's going to work unless someone is either crazy, drugged, or otherwise already fairly pro-Dean.

However, as my own form of outreach, I herewith present something that just might work:

"Hello, I'm Stacy, and welcome to Fry's!"

"Hi Stacy... say, can you tell me where the CDRs are?"

"They're on aisle 6A."

"Thanks. [Looks at Stacy's tan, chuckles.] Do they sell tanning beds here too?"

"No, that's a beach tan!"

"Really. What's your favorite beach, Stacy?"

"Oh, I like Trancas."

"Really. I bet you sometimes find yourself daydreaming about being at Trancas while you're working here at Fry's, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, sometimes."

"What would it be like if you were at the beach right now? Can you imagine walking along the shoreline, putting down your towel, and feeling the cool sand under you? You kick back and relax. Can you hear the waves gently crashing on the shore, Stacy?

There's a wave... there's another wave crashing...

You lie back, and completely relax. Feel a warm breeze gently waft over your body, Stacy... all your cares drift away on the breeze... feel your cares drift away... hear my voice blending with the rhythm of the waves... you relax more and more... you have no cares... you are completely and totally relaxed... clear your mind completely... the choice is clear... you are completely relaxed... vote for Dean... relax... no cares... vote for Dean..."

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

Let's go to Utah, again

The call has become urgent... As soon as I can acquire a notebook, I think it's time to load up the SUV with my bike, backpack, camera, and other miscellana and hit the road. I think I'm going to spend some time in Utah and Arizona.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

Pilgrim invaders and Cranes of Color

Geez Louise:

At the meeting, the senate also voted to approve a mural to be placed in the Commons. There was some concern voiced by the senate about the contents of the mural.

"I see some pilgrim invaders here," said Elisa Haro, academic affairs director. "It kind of reminds me of my colonization, and I don't like that."

The artist of the mural said that the pilgrim invaders were meant to be Shakespearean actors and that he would try to make that more clear.

Other concerns with the mural included the depiction of white cranes, which the senate demanded be changed to color cranes.

They were also concerned with the lack of a same sex couple depicted, which the artist agreed to add. The senate voted to approve the mural in light of the adjustments being made.

This is from the University of California at Riverside.

UCR hosts El Plan de Aztlan (link on this page).

UCR is where this phrase was uttered: "We shall overcome...by the vote if possible and violence if necessary."

UCR is the home to Armando Navarro.

(Link via this).

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)

"Did liberal-bashers cost Garofalo her sitcom?"

Unfortunately, it appears that her sitcom "Slice o' Life" has been cancelled:

Is the ghost of Sen. Joe McCarthy alive and well in Hollywood? That is certainly on the minds of many outspoken liberals in Tinsel-town these days. The latest conspiracy theory focuses on the just-announced axing by ABC of very vocal anti-Iraq war activist Janeane Garofalo's new sitcom, ''Slice o' Life...''

[...It was cancelled] just days before the show's pilot was scheduled to be taped in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A source close to Garofalo tells this column the actress and comedian was furious by the last-minute change and believes it's yet another example ''of a network bowing to the perceived power of the Bush administration. ... Janeane is convinced her politics and all the hate mail the right-wing lobby stirred up during the war is what is behind all this.''

An ABC spokeswoman denies that, saying this was a decision based strictly on the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of the show--with Garofalo's politics ''never coming into the decision-making process whatsoever.''

How can there be a conspiracy theory already? There's only four posts at DU.

As for McCarthyism, there's a long but interesting summary of how he was "bad news" here. Just because McCarthy might have been a "vicious smear artist" doesn't mean there weren't commies in Hollywood: "The Hollywood angle is different. They were Communists. They lied and dodged the question before the HUAC and the media now claims they were NOT Communists... [links in which they admitted they inserted commie propaganda in scripts, etc.]"

I don't think Garofalo is a Commie or a traitor. She just needs to be sent to the Lonewacko Reeducation Camp.

Posted to Celebrities at 12:02 AM | Comments (2)

"The US Already Has Been Invaded"

Here's a good introduction to the current state of the illegal immigration problem:

Mexico has launched an effort to reclaim [the Southwestern U.S.] and to lay siege to the rest of the nation by encouraging as many Mexicans as possible to come here either legally or illegally; mostly the latter...

America is a point of destination for every illegal immigrant who believes, with good reason, that if they can get in, they will ultimately be granted amnesty and, if they are caught, they can easily move to avoid deportation. They are right...

We need to put the breaks on a massive invasion and, if it continues, there will be so many illegal "citizens" the map of the United States may be re-drawn because we weren't paying attention.

Here's one small step: contact the Mayors and City Councilmembers of Petaluma and Sonoma as suggested at the end of this post and suggest they read this article.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 10:57 PM | Comments (1)

Blumenthal Book Signing Watch

I suggest we rightie bloggers visit Sidney Blumenthal's various book signings and ask him questions. Two signings have been covered so far, with at least three remaining to be covered. If anyone knows of any other scheduled signings, please let me know.

Here are the current reports in tabular form:

• Los Angeles, May 28: Lonewacko's report
• San Francisco, June 3: reason's report
• Chicago, June 7: [to be assigned]
• Boston, June 12: [to be assigned]
• Chicago, June 14: [to be assigned]

Posted to Politics at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)

Next protest, ahoy!

A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning a big protest on Friday, June 27 at 6pm in front of the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City. Despite the rush hour traffic, I just might cover it.

Here's the text of their flyer. Fisk at will:

Un-elected President George W Bush has carried out a war to
takeover Iraq for oil profits. That war has killed thousands of
innocent Iraqis. U.S. troops now occupy Iraq in colonial style in spite of mounting anger and resistance from the Iraqi people.
Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba are being threatened. At home, affirmative action, civil liberties and immigrant rights are under assault, joblessness is rising, and Bush is handing over
hundreds of billions of dollars to the already super-rich in the
form of a tax cut.
On June 27th, Bush will breeze into town and rub elbows with a group of hand-picked politicians, and local millionaires so he can rake in millions of dollars for the Republican Party. The thousands of people in Los Angeles who protested the war
against Iraq, will be out there in the streets to say no to the Bush program of war, occupation, racism and tax give-aways to the rich!

OCCUPATION IS NOT LIBERATION!
NO WAR FOR EMPIRE!
End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine! U.S. troops out of Korea, the Philippines, Colombia, and Afghanistan! U.S. hands off Cuba, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Syria & Iran! Money for jobs, housing, education, & healthcare - not for war! Defend Civil Liberties - no to Patriot Acts I & II! Stop the attacks on immigrant communities! No to racism and oppression at home!

Where does one start? Well, one doesn't start. One just laughs.

Links to my past coverage of "peace" protests are here.

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

"French Arrest Two Men in Sept. 11 Probe"

From this:

French authorities investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States have arrested two men - a Moroccan and a German believed to be a top al-Qaida recruiter - in the last two days at the Paris airport, judicial officials said Thursday.

The officials said they believe there's a link between the two suspects.

On Sunday, Karim Mehdi, a 34-year-old Moroccan, was taken into custody at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the officials said on condition of anonymity. He had arrived from Germany and planned to leave to the French island of La Reunion off southeastern Africa.

Mehdi allegedly was planning a terror attack against a tourist complex on the island, the officials said. Further details about the site or timing of the attack were not immediately available.

On Monday, Christian Ganczarski was apprehended at the airport and was to appear before an anti-terrorism judge in the coming days, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Ganczarski also allegedly had links to the April 2002 suicide bombing of a historic synagogue on Tunisia's tourist island of Djerba that killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists, the officials said.

(The previous entry linked to this article, which just mentioned Mehdi, and didn't have as many details as the one above.)

Posted to Terrorism at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

How do you like the new look?

Perhaps my reader (or my alternate reader) could comment on the new look? The only Windows scheme I like is "Desert," and I tried to get the blog to match it. Maybe I could find a line drawing of a cactus or something. I haven't yet figured out how to get rid of the white lines, or maybe I'll keep them.

I'd also like to point out that if the web had been designed by someone who knew what they were doing, this would be much easier. If professional software developers, people who have experience with different systems, object-oriented design, and the like had designed the web instead of a bunch of NGO workers, there would be no things like stylesheets, HTML, and all that other junk. Most likely billions (with a "B") would have been saved in productivity. But, whatcha gonna do?

Posted to Bloggage at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)

Lonewacko sets the tone

Reason has a report from a Sidney Blumenthal book signing here. It's pretty good, but, didn't I do something like that, like, last week?

Plus, my report is enhanced with a nice pic of Saint Sid.

Posted to Politics at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

Wanna meet Joe Rogan?

FearFactor has their crane set up in Griffith Park, and they'll be filming a stunt tomorrow. It's on the (closed) asphalt road above Bee Rock.

The thing at the end of the crane is two large plexiglass walls, each about 8' high and 30' wide. They're placed into an "X" shape (looking from above.) There are cheap plexiglass hand holds placed on each wall, and each wall also has several holes in it.

I'm just guessing, but it looks like they're going to suspend the structure in the air, placing flags in the holes. Then, the contestants have to use the handholds to move along each wall, removing flags as they go. Perhaps they will also try to rotate the structure for more fun. That's just a guess. I'd imagine that it's hard to smear on plexiglass.

If you want to go bother Joe, apparently they're going to be filming this tomorrow early morning.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 08:50 PM | Comments (56)

"Napa council OKs Mexican ID card"

From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

An ID card issued by the Mexican government [see this backgrounder on these "Matricula Consular" cards]gained significant backing Tuesday in Wine Country as the Napa City Council voted unanimously to recognize it as valid identification...

The cards, however, have become a hot-button issue in the immigration debate, with critics saying they give legitimacy to illegal immigrants and pose a threat to homeland security...

"It's a symbolic gesture as well as it does help our police," Napa Mayor Ed Henderson said. "It provides dignity to our Hispanic workers..."

The City Council vote was met with cheers by the audience of about three dozen people, including San Franciso's consul general of Mexico.

"I always say the hardest part is getting the first one to do it," said Consul General Georgina Lagos Donde, adding that she hopes the Napa vote influences other cities in Wine Country, which relies heavily on Mexican vineyard labor.

"I've already been in touch with the mayors of Sonoma and Petaluma," she said.

Napa Police Chief Dan Monez spearheaded the effort to accept the cards... "They live here. They work here. Their kids go to school here. They shop in our stores ... It lets them be themselves."

Not everyone sees it that way.

A Colorado congressman [Tom Tancredo] has introduced legislation that would make it illegal for federal agencies to accept the card. And a number of cities, including New York, have refused to accept the cards, citing security questions.

In September, the California Legislature passed a resolution urging cities to accept the cards... In December 2001, San Francisco County became the first in the country to accept the cards as legal identification. Santa Clara County and Oakland since have passed similar resolutions...

This article is somewhat balanced. However, it uses the phrase "illegal immigrants" just once, referring to them elsewhere as "Mexican nationals living in the United States," "People without the legal paperwork to live north of the border," and "Hispanic workers." And, why isn't Tancredo named?

And, as I blogged in January:

12 House members questioned the propriety of the [Matricula Consular] cards...

"While the issuance of national identification cards is nothing new, providing them with the express purpose of evading U.S. law is something entirely different," the lawmakers said. "The active lobbying of local and state governments by consuls of foreign countries is, at least, a breach of international protocol deserving of a serious response by our government."

Apparently, Consul General Georgina Lagos Donde received no such serious response from the State Department, and is even able to make the outrageous statements reprinted above with impunity.

Perhaps the Napa officials who pushed this through should ask themselves which country they represent.

Note also that Nancy Pelosi tried to get a federal building in S.F. to accept these cards. As her spokeswoman explained, she was doing it for her "constituents." She also owns a couple of small vineyards in the Napa valley.

Contact information for Sonoma Mayor Dick Ashford is here.

Contact information for Petaluma Mayor David Glass is here.

Posted to Immigration_consul at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

"Mexican pols press for immigration, neglect home front, critics say"

From this highly recommended article:

While Mexican politicians continue to press the United States to improve the lives of illegal immigrants north of the border, they are failing to make urgently needed reforms that could help their countrymen stay home, political analysts said this week.

"Mexico has been totally incapable of resolving its own problems and is finding a convenient scapegoat in the United States," said Luis Rubio, president of the Center of Research for Development, a Mexico City public-policy think tank...

George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary, echoed the criticism. He said Fox is performing a familiar Mexican political maneuver: demanding that the United States be a migratory safety valve to relieve political and economic pressure at home.

"Fox's domestic agenda is paralyzed, so he's hoping the skies will open and there will be sunshine beaming from the United States in the form of an immigration accord," said Grayson.

See also our great State Department at work in "Powell urges Fox to be patient on U.S. immigration action." Perhaps Powell should read the other article.

Posted to Immigration2003 at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

"California 'Ganja Guru' Sentenced to Day in Jail"

From this:

Amid cheers from supporters, marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal was sentenced on Wednesday to a single day in jail for growing the drug in violation of federal law even though California allows its cultivation for medical use.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he handed down the light sentence because of the "extraordinary circumstances" of the case -- referring to the fact that growing marijuana for medical purposes was legal under a voter-approved California law...

Breyer sentenced Rosenthal to a single day in prison but gave him credit for time served so he walked out of court a free man. He also fined Rosenthal $1,300.

Posted to WarOnDrugs at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)

Diversity takes a holiday

Wouldn't it be nice if the diversity industry would take just one day off?

For instance, I did my once-a-week check of lablogs.com, and I found two posts about diversity.

The first concerns the medical school graduation at UCLA:

After the conferral of degrees and the administration of the Hippocratic Oath (which, of course, was adapted from the original to be more inclusive), the new doctors had a chance to project their diversity. One representative from each ethnic minority stood at the podium and said a few nice words in his or her native language. Swahili, German, French, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese...

...But the diversity rah-rah of the esteemed surgeon general just didn't resonate with me."

His complaint boils down not to the fact that the diversity industry might have major problems, but that his particular ethnic sub-group was not adequately represented. And, even if that were "addressed" by the diversity directorates of the land, one can imagine that there would then be the issue of, for instance, geographical representation. After having achieved a proportional number of Filipinos within the Asian-American And Pacific Islanders grouping, are too many of them from Manila and not enough from Mindanao? And, then there'd be the problem of...

The second diversity industry spotting is a bit more subtle.

A posting about the L.A. Public Library's "LA Kids Read Festival" includes the press release for the event:

Travel back to the Wild West and celebrate America's diversity at the Los Angeles Public Library's FREE L.A. Kids Read Festival on Saturday, June 7, 12 noon - 4 p.m., at the Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., downtown Los Angeles.

Don't we celebrate America's diversity 24/7/365 around these parts? Or must even a press release about a book fair include a nod to our favorite secular god? Did the writer put that in there subconsciously, as a bit of a nervous tic?

I'm going to call the LAPL tomorrow, find out who wrote that press release, and find out.

UPDATE: Sometimes the Lonewacko gets things wrong. Like 180 degrees wrong. The author of the first link informs me:

Actually, I *was* complaining about the problems of the diversity industry, as these sentences indicate:

"It then occurred to me that this experience highlighted one of the contradictions of affirmative action....

"I raise this point because I object to the presupposition of the affirmative action policy at hand."

My point was *not* that I wanted to be adequately represented, but that the whole idea of ethnic representation was stupid to begin with. The med school graduation showed that no matter how much UC holds itself up as the paragon of diversity and bends over backwards for minorities, it still finds a way to look like a hypocrite.

Of course, I didn't want to ruin my friend's special occasion by using such words as "stupid"; I tried to maintain the solemnity of the ceremony, while criticizing its flaws.

BTW, I worked on the Prop 209 campaign and had such derogatory phrases as "white man's slaves" thrown at me, so please believe me when I say that, even as a minority, I find the diversity industry as despicable as you do.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 05:49 PM | Comments (1)

I need help with this AllStar ballot

It's a bit complicated. I haven't taken a test in a while, and I don't even know if this is a #2 pencil. But, all I need to do is just fill in all the circles under where it says "Yankees," right?

Posted to OutdoorSports at 04:52 PM | Comments (1)

A young girl's diary is a private thing

I blogged a couple days ago about the high school student whose blog entry had triggered a visit from two "FBI agents."

Eugene Volokh (whose web site has recently moved to volokh.com) has some comments, interspersed with comments from an anonymous reader.

I have absolutely no idea who this anonymous reader might be. However, were I to provide information supporting said reader's points, I might point out this passage from "The FBI has been reading my diary":

The two lawmen held a sheaf of paper. "They had my journal printed out," Carter says. "A good stack of it, and I could tell that there were a lot of things highlighted."

Now, assuming she's telling the truth, why would they highlight so much of it? I just scanned google's cache of her diary, and the hacking part isn't in there. But, besides her hacking comment, what else caught their eye? Her bad poetry? Her song lyrics? Her chat transcript? Her longing to finally "get some?" Why would they highlight something other than the hacking comment? Perhaps some of her leftie comments caught their eye.

Further defending the anonymous reader:

Who else did they interview? If everyone knew about the rumors, did they interview others about the rumors?

As for the bug, they should have investigated that at least a little first. I'm sure there have been several cases which were investigated as murders only to find out that the "dead" person wasn't really dead. Did they attempt to determine whether a crime had actually been committed, or at least there was a strong likelihood of it? Shouldn't they have, for instance, called in a computer expert to see what was going on? Maybe they did this, or maybe they just took the school administrators' word for it that the system had been hacked and jumped in with the questioning. Maybe this was just a dry run for when they were to become real FBI agents.

Posted to Privacy at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

At least it's my left shoulder

I went to the climbing gym last Thursday. Right afterwards, the front part of my left shoulder hurt a bit. It didn't hurt that much the next day, so I went for a bike ride in the Verdugos and along the L.A. River. I went up behing the Brand Library, along the asphalt road that runs past the Doctor's House and becomes a dirt road after about a half a mile. It comes to a fork, and supposedly you're supposed to take the left fork. I was thinking of taking the right fork, but the road had collapsed. Once before I had, for the most part, carried my bike up the steep, stepped trail that leads behind the library along the firebreak that can be seen for miles, and then I had coasted down the road. I was trying to get over to that firebreak, which would mean taking the right fork.

Anyway, there's something creepy about the Verdugos. I mean, they only go up to about 3000', so there's no snowpack, right? So, when you're standing there looking at this fork trying to decide whether to go up the intact or collapsed fireroad, and you notice a little stream, and it appears that that little stream has recently started, one might wonder, where did that water come from? I saw some trucks further up the road, so maybe it was from a water truck. But, considering that I felt like I was in the middle of a toxic waste dump, and since pulling up on the handlebars was bothering me, I drove to the Zoo and took a flat ride along the river instead.

The next day, my shoulder hurt like hell, including a sore top part and pec. Today, I can almost lift my left hand above my head, but even so it's pretty painful.

I think I hurt my shoulder when I was trying to stem at the gym. I know I was really reaching for a hold with my right hand, and my right side didn't hurt afterwards, but, I think it was twisting my shoulder back trying an ill-advised stem move.

There is no lesson to this story, I'm just keeping you updated.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

"Berkeley Plans to Revive Looted Museum on Web"

Insty and others tell us that the Iraq museum looting was way overstated.

This LAT article says:

Galvanized by the ransacking of Iraq's National Museum, computer scientists, archeologists and art historians at UC Berkeley are hatching a plan to help the museum — and the war-scarred nation — resurrect at least some of what was lost.

The project, still in the planning stages, would use computers to recreate the museum's smashed or stolen vases, statues and cuneiform tablets from archived photos and historical records...

At least 38 of the national museum's major treasures are known to be missing, along with thousands of smaller, less valuable pieces. The facility is said to be so badly vandalized that it may take months or even years to figure out just what else was lost.

Their web site is at www.ecai.org/iraq

I reporteth, you decideth.

Posted to Iraq at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)

When is a hate crime not a hate crime, Part Two

The LAT has an article on actor Trev Broudy, who was allegedly "robbed" last year:

On Sept. 1, Broudy was saying goodbye to his friend Teddy Ulett when a man jumped out of a car and began swinging at Broudy's head with a bat.

A witness told sheriff's deputies that another attacker beat Broudy with a pipe. Ulett, who was in his car when the attack began, was hit in the arm, but managed to drive off.

Later this month, three men are scheduled to go on trial in the attack, which prosecutors say was an attempted robbery.

The suspects, who have pleaded not guilty, do not face hate crime charges. The district attorney said there was no evidence that prejudice was a factor.

As I discussed previously, the suspects reportedly said that they were out to "rob rich white people." Apparently DA Steve Cooley doesn't think that statement (assuming it's admissible) indicates prejudice, nor do the other circumstances of this "robbery."

Posted to Los_Angeles at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

LuAnne Platter, for real

Insty links to this FL court case involving prior restraint. While the legal aspects are troubling, I'd imagine that it will be reversed if there's an appeal. But, that's not why this is here.

This is here because I think I've found the real-world LuAnne Platter. LuAnne, you will recall, is a character on King of the Hill who performs with a group of puppets called the Manger Babies. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Starrletts!

UPDATE: Her comics get panned here.

Posted to Celebrities at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)

A personal message to Luna Nina

In this post, I linked to Luna Nina's site underneath the words "crappy daily journal blogs." In response, you sent me an email, and posted this entry which refers to me (at the end of the post):

I’m not gonna link to the site cuz I don’t wanna. But part of me is really entertained by the fact that someone who claims to ignore “crappy daily blogs” found enough time to link to me AND to leave me a bogus sappy comment...

First of all, I want to make it clear that it was just meant as a light-hearted joke, it's unfortunate that it was taken the wrong way. If I said your blog was great, the few people who visit this site, knowing me, would think I was being sarcastic. So, if I say your site is bad, they think it's good. I was, however, a bit upset that you don't have a picture of yourself at your site. If there is one, please let me know. As for the original comment, I'm sorry you found that "sappy." It wasn't meant that way...

It's just that, well, it's a bit difficult for me to express, but did you ever instantly know you were going to like and trust someone for a long, long time?

Maybe you only read their blog for a short while but it seemed that you had known them your whole life, as if there were a timeless connection between you.

As you read these words and remember those amazing feelings, it's good to know that sometimes life has a way of making us remember those things, right prior to discovering that we can experience those feelings again...

With me... in my experience, it's the kind of thing that can't be forced and no essay or words can create it. Words and appearances are only expressions, the vehicles that contain the essence that moves us. It can only happen naturally as the expression of an energy between two people, but when it does...it's just like that feeling of incredible bonding, when all the barriers melt and drop way, and two people come together, fused into one spiritual essence, the mingling of energies feeding one to the other, building and increasing and intensifying, mingling into an expression of aliveness that words can initiate but never capture fully.

It has instead to be indulged inside your own imagination...dwelled on, contemplated, experienced, deep, deep inside you. I do not know if you are the kind of person that can imagine enjoying that that kind connection, with someone wonderful who deeply moves you.

But if you could envision the possibility and feel it opening now before you, drawing you irresistibly forward, how powerfully could you feel that urge to learn more?

Posted to WackyHumor at 04:02 PM | Comments (1)

"Blog Entry Triggers Encounter with Phony FBI Agents"

Insty links to this report of a blogger getting a visit from Chapel Hill cops posing as FBI agents, when in reality they were still in the process of being assigned to FBI duty.

It links to the article "The FBI has been reading my diary".

Posted to Privacy at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

"Homegrown Homeland Defense"

Surprisingly, the NY Times has an article on Glenn Spencer's American Border Patrol, and it's not a hit piece for the most part:

This is the work of American Border Patrol, an emergent and entirely unofficial wing of the country's homeland defense. Last summer, Spencer moved with his wife out from Los Angeles to Sierra Vista, Ariz., to start A.B.P., what he calls a neighborhood watch of the Arizona border. Since this ranch is not a neighborhood but forsaken desert, A.B.P. is more accurately a roving bureau of traffic reporters, dedicated to documenting illegal immigration where it happens. With satellite dishes, ground sensors and dozens of ''hawkeye'' spotters to call in sightings, A.B.P. tracks S.B.I., films them and notifies the Border Patrol while they upload the film live to the Internet. In quasi-military operations like this one, Spencer estimates that A.B.P. has helped capture more than 3,300 illegal immigrants. ''Our policy is not to touch them,'' Spencer says. ''That's the Border Patrol's job. We just want to show people what is happening down here''...

The economics of drone surveillance are irrefutable, and a drone-security program has already picked up support from Republicans, like Senators John McCain (of Arizona) and Pete Domenici (of New Mexico) as well as Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary for border and transportation security...

Of course, some groups are not happy with ABP's attempts to bring this issue to wider notice. Why would that be? Surely, they believe that we should enforce our border and immigration laws, right?

Posted to Immigration2003 at 03:12 PM | Comments (2)

"Griffith Observatory Renovation and Expansion" pictures

There's a slideshow starting here.

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

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, Iraq, terrorism, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

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