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L.A. City Council: Stop "multitasking", start paying attention
From this:
A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the Los Angeles City Council must hold a new hearing on a controversial strip club because its members were too busy eating, talking on the telephone or doing other activities to listen to the public's testimony...
...Neighborhood activists from across the city have long complained that council members -- as well as the county Board of Supervisors -- show a lack of respect to them at their meetings. The issue surfaced repeatedly in 2002, when community leaders in the Harbor Area, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley tried to break away and form their own cities...
...A spokeswoman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said the city is studying the decision. But Councilman Dennis Zine defended his colleagues, saying their jobs require that they sign documents, read reports and hold other conversations even while meetings are taking place.
"We're basically multi-tasking," he said. "Good, bad or indifferent, that's unfortunately what's required to keep pace with the activities taking place in the council."
Councilwoman Janice Hahn struck a more conciliatory note, saying she and other council members should try harder to give the public their undivided attention. Still, she argued that she listens even while she talks privately with a colleague.
"I can only speak for myself, but if I'm eating, I certainly am listening," she added...
...Diamond said the council's behavior gives the public the impression that council meetings are "fixed," with all of its decisions being arranged in advance. The real business, he argued, is conducted behind the scenes with lobbyists and political allies...
Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:44 AM | Comments (1)
Libertarianism reaches a new low
Ayn Rand Institute: U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims
The ferret candidate and Mr. Druid were funny. But this is just sad.
(Via Josh)
Posted to Politics at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
Lil' Marky wants some attention
Aw what the heck. Just so we know what's wrong with San Francisco:
Do you care much that greasy ol' Pizza Hut gave tens of thousands in PAC money to the GOP last year? How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out their happily toxic semirancid meatlike substances just long enough to write a fat check to the conservative Right? Isn't that weirdly fascinating, in a depressing and indigestible sort of way?
Does it matter a whit that, say, Fruit of the Loom underwear gave nearly 100 percent of its corporate donations to tighty-whitey-wearing Republicans, nearly every one of whom I'm guessing wouldn't know appetizing undergarments from a flap of burlap and some string?
[etc. etc. etc.]
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
"[California's] middle class hinges on Bush's immigration policies"
Dan Stein of FAIR has a guest editorial about the impact of illegal immigration on California here:
...One week after his re-election, President Bush dusted off an immigration proposal first made in January 2004 that proved to be so wildly unpopular with voters that it was not only pulled off the table, but shoved to the back of the closet for the duration of the campaign. The Bush plan -- now back on the agenda -- calls for turning current illegal aliens into guest workers for six years (what happens to them at the end of six year is apparently a problem for some future president to grapple with), and allowing unlimited numbers of new guest workers to enter the country.
The Bush proposal would be a viable solution if the problem of mass illegal immigration were merely a question of legality. As Californians have understood for decades, the problem is not just about people breaking the law. The phenomenon of mass illegal immigration has profound consequences on labor markets, education, public health and the fiscal solvency of state and local governments...
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:26 AM | Comments (1)
SPOD: Alternatives to the Pet Rock
Continuing with our Strange Pet of the Day feature.
Is a Pet Rock slightly too inanimate for you? Would you like an alternative that is almost as inanimate as a Pet Rock but which is still occasionally capable of some observable movement?
Your problems are all solved. Can you guess which pet this is based on this snippet of the FAQ for that pet?
12) They do not seem to be climbing on the tree branch I have for them in the cage - at least not very much - is this ok?
Don't worry, they're probably climbing while you're sleeping. Even if you don't see your [MYSTERY PET] climbing, you should still provide pieces of wood and coral for them...
18) I think my [MYSTERY PET] is dead but I'm not sure...
If you really are not sure whether your [MYSTERY PET] is dead or just [DELETED], or if you think it's dead but you just don't want to accidentally throw away a living [MYSTERY PET], the best thing to do until you have more experience with [MYSTERY PET] is to leave the [MYSTERY PET] in the cage for about a week. If it is dead, you'll know because it will give off a strong, [DELETED] odor after a few days...
Can you guess the [MYSTERY PET]? We know it's not a dog, or even a cat. Could it be a snake? No, even they move occasionally. It's certainly not a Wackalookaburribarwall.
Give up?
Here's a hint: you've probably eaten pounds of this pet's close relatives. So, you know it's not a really strange animal.
Here's another hint: the people who own this as a pet and not a future food item are apparently serious. This does not appear to be a joke.
OK, final hint: you've probably eaten lots of this pet's relatives if you're near the Chesapeake Bay.
The MYSTERY PET is the hermit crab. You can read about Assateague, Tiger, Ossippee, Wallops, Isabella, Bolivia, the late Antonio, Fenwick, Santana, and Arista here. There are pictures of hermit crab pets here. The aforementioned FAQ is here.
And, to learn how to handle crabs, click the following picture:
Posted to WackyHumor at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
My 2005 Resolutions
Here's mine:
1. Post more cheesecake photos like the women's Olympics beach volleyball pics available in this category.
2. Continue harping on scams.
3. Climb 5.7c, maybe even 5.7d or even 5.8.
4. Climb Mt. Hood or some other technical snow climb.
5. Lose enough weight and increase conditioning to do #4.
6. Improve my google ranking through keywords and placing the URL to this blog in messages posted to various non-blog forums around the web so that people around the world can come to this site and learn.
7. Think up a name for a software product I have that lacks almost all but a name. This one has stumped me for a while.
8. Promote BigMediaBlog.com
9. Kick my $200-a-day heroin habit.
Posted to Bloggage at 11:54 PM | Comments (5)
"Mi Casa Es Su Casa? Get Real"
[...Describes an anti-illegal immigration group in Utah...] GOP activists such as Sears spell trouble for George W. Bush. As the President woos Hispanic voters with Cabinet appointments, political appeals, and immigrant-friendly policies, a rebellion is bubbling up through his party's ranks. The reason: The influx of illegals is hitting such solidly red states as Arizona and Utah particularly hard. "The problem seems to get more attention during times of fiscal distress for the states," says Jeffrey S. Passel, who studies immigration at the Urban Institute in Washington.
Look for the clash to intensify in late January. Although the issue got put on the back burner in the wake of September 11, the President plans to push once more for partial amnesty and a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants. But that call will run smack into rank-and-file Republican pressure to crack down on illegals...
The intraparty crossfire has Corporate America worried. The agriculture, hotel, and restaurant industries rely on low-wage immigrants -- many of them illegals who evade hiring controls. "There are probably 6 million or more [undocumented workers] who are raising children and paying taxes and are the backbone of some industries," says Sandra Boyd, a vice-president at the National Association of Manufacturers. "It's ridiculous to think we would deport them all..."
I have a few cavils with the article, but their tone is generally favorable so I won't complain that much.
I'll note that not only is Ms. Boyd with the National Association of Manufacturers, she's also a board member of the National Immigration Forum along with several other fine people from the ACLU, the National Council of the Race, CARECEN of L.A., SEIU, the National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The left and right elites, working together against the rest of us.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)
What's a good "liberal" to do?
Apparently some "liberals" are boycotting Amazon because their employees donate to Republicans in a 60-40 ratio over Democrats.
Per Pandagon:
I'll certainly buy more from Barnes and Nobles (91% Democrat) and Borders (100% Democrat), but I don't know that giving up Amazon is the right thing to do...
Apparently they didn't get the memo. B&N and Borders are evil! Shouldn't "liberals" only patronize local bookshop collectives?
Posted to Bloggage at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
"[Kansas] Ed board member wants lessons on immigration drawbacks"
From this:
A state Board of Education member says students studying immigration should learn about the effect illegal immigrants have on crime rates, education costs and language barriers...
As one might expect, the media and "immigrants rights" groups are up in arms. The very thought that someone would not want to present immigration as a natural good with no faults at all!
Connie Morris, no stranger to criticism for her opposition to state-funded education for the children of illegal immigrants, says proposed curriculum on immigration should include study of possible drawbacks of illegal immigration.
"It's facts; it's history," Morris said. "Our children should not be subjected to inaccurate, one-sided dogma."
Morris was responding to proposed additions to state social science standards. Earlier this month, the state board adopted one of her suggestions on lessons regarding illegal immigrants, but it toned down her language, removing negative connotations...
One of those up in arms is from the Kansas Families United for Public Education. There's a whole page on their financial ties here.
The other is Elias Garcia, who had this to say on another occasion:
"Hispanics are doing the Lord's work -- we're populating this earth, basically," said Elias Garcia, executive director of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs. "Quite bluntly, let me say that we're not going anywhere. This is our home."
His other statements make it clear that among those "Hispanics" of which he speaks are a large number of illegal aliens. The reader is invited to imagine the uproar if a white person had said the same thing, especially referring to white illegal aliens.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
"Mexico's consul general visits day labor center"
Last paragraph:
"He basically told us to stay on a straight path and avoid getting into trouble," Hilario Morales, 48, a day laborer [and presumably an illegal alien --LW] from Oaxaca, said after the consul general's visit.
Whole thing here, but I think you can figure out what it's about from that paragraph alone.
Posted to Immigration_consul at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
An epistle directly from the hands of David Dreier
You have to see this handwritten letter [200k PDF] from Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) to believe it. It looks like something a kidnapper who'd run out of newspapers to clip would have sent.
Via John & Ken's post here.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
I just drove in from the westside and boy are my forearms tired
I haven't been to a rock climbing gym since March and the last time I climbed outside was when I pulled myself up the Third Flatiron outside Boulder last year. I would have taken a hike today but, since thunderstorms were still predicted, I decided to brave the drive and go to a climbing gym in the South Bay instead. In the past I've gone to the L.A. Rock Gym in Hawthorne. Over a year ago they changed ownership and they're now called Beach City Rocks. Shortly before they changed hands I bought a punchcard for $100 that entitled me to eight visits.
The last time I went to Beach City Rocks was in March. For some reason one of the new owners didn't seem to like me all that much. As they say in the Beach Cities, I kept picking up some very bad vibes from her. I don't think there's anything I said or did that could have caused that. In any case I was feeling quite unwelcome. So, after finishing my time with the self-belay device I asked for the money back for the remaining three visits I had on the card. She said that was the prior owner's responsibility and that she wouldn't give me money back. She did say I could use up the card.
However, when I went back there earlier today I was told they no longer accepted those cards. She claimed that in our earlier conversation she had told me that they would no longer accept the cards, which is not what she had told me before. She said the card was from L.A. Rock Gym, and they were a different company. She did offer to give me a rebate on one of their new cards, but I declined the offer. I just wanted to use up the three remaining visits that I'd already paid for. Based on those bad vibes I wasn't interested in doing any business with the new owners.
Despite telling me the opposite of what she had told me before, she might indeed have a point. Or, she might not. When they bought the company I'd tend to think they would have had to deal with the prior company's assets and liabilities, one of the latter being cards such as mine. What of the non-card-based memberships? Were they terminated and the money refunded when the company changed hands?
In the past I've seen reports of health clubs changing owners and I was under the impression that clubs had to honor prior memberships. However, glancing at the law doesn't show anything about that. Perhaps it's in some other section.
In any case, I won't be going back to Beach City Rocks unless they change owners again.
However, after that unfortunate incident I drove to Rockreation in West L.A. I was able to meet someone else who needed a belayer and I spent a couple hours climbing a few 5.6's and a couple 5.7's and some other easy things. I'm sure you're impressed just as long as you don't know what those numbers mean. Hey, it has been 9 months, OK? If you're in the market for a rock climbing gym, I'd suggest you go to Rockreation instead, even if it means a longer drive for you.
Posted to OutdoorSports at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)
SPOD: Have plenty of Band-Aids on hand
Continuing our Strange Pet of the Day series, we come to one of my favorites, crocodiles and alligators. Many people are confused over the differences between them. I use this handy mnemonic: with alligators, you have to be "all" the way in before you lose consciousness and begin to be digested, but crocs prefer to viciously tear their food to pieces first, thus you endure less pain all things considered.
There's information on keeping gators and crocs as pets here, including this intriguing bit:
...At the same time, however, there has recently been a disturbing tendency for certain authorities (both legitimate and self-appointed) to seize captive crocodilians in the UK in what can be described at best as devious tactics and at worst as outright theft. Certainly in cases where owners have legitimate paperwork, the excuses for these raids have been very flimsy, and even in one case where the owner did not possess a DWA license for these particular animals, this was at least partly because the local authority had told him in advance that they would never grant him a licence, and the vet employed by that authority had openly expressed a loathing of crocodilians and reptiles in general. It is also highly suspicious that the animals thus seized turned up in Portugal at premises run by a friend of the so-called "expert" who had played a large part in these proceedings. It was generally agreed in court that the crocodiles kept by the local man had been well looked after. There is doubtless more unpleasantness to be exposed to the public gaze in this particular case, so watch this space...
The page was last updated in April 2003...
When I was in Arkansas, I visited an alligator farm.
There's more on the Reptilian Agenda here.
Posted to WackyHumor at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)
Perhaps you should choose MasterCard (or just cash) instead
Visa hopes to entice Latinos into money-transfer business:
Eager to accelerate the growing trend away from the use of cash and checks, Visa International is pushing plastic in Latin America.
Visa — composed of thousands of banks that issue credit and debit cards — has launched an aggressive campaign to capture a bigger piece of the $40 billion in remittance payments migrant workers annually send to their families in Latin America...
Many of those sending remittances are illegal aliens, and the banking lobby supports the use of Mickey Mouse foreign ID cards that those illegal aliens use to open bank accounts as described in "Their money or your safety". Remittances are bad for the reasons outlined here. See also "The Fastest Way To [profit from illegal immigration]" for information on Western Union.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
NYT's immigration "reform"
In "A Passion for Immigration Reform" the NYT offers the usual canards ("jobs Americans won't do") and lies ("anti-immigrant group") and confusion (what exactly is "amnesty", and isn't giving "immigrants" a green card "amnesty"?)
For the truth about this matter, see the following:
Bush Immigration Plan Would Allegedly 'Destroy the Middle Class'
Homeland insecurity: The year in review
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:15 PM | Comments (1)
"Bush Biking, Relaxing at Texas Ranch"
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas - Besides monitoring the devastating earthquake in Southeast Asia, President Bush is biking and strolling around his ranch here and pondering tax reform and other goals in his second term...
Now, if I didn't fully support most forms of anti-Bush thought, I would think the reporter and the headline writer were trying to make Bush look bad. However, some forms of "liberal" bias I'm forced to accept and encourage.
Posted to Politics at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)
SPOD: Devil Dogs
Today's Strange Pet of the Day (SPOD explained here) are Devil Dogs. You might not be familiar with the name, as they're called both "Devil Dogs" and "Wackalookaburribarwalls" in Australia, "Les Envois d'Enfer" in France and the Low Countries, "Devil Dogs" in most of the rest of Europe, and "Wallabies" in the UK and the U.S.
Whatever their local name, they represent 30-40 kgs of hopping, hermaphroditic, furry fun with a "wild" streak. Although there has been much misinformation provided about these feral beasts, some of it is not true. Weekly inspections by a licensed Exotic Animals Veterinarian can help control their prediliction for rabidity. And, careful and continual monitoring of their glycemic index can avoid most bouts of clawing and general annihilatory behavior.
For more on keeping Wackalookaburribarwalls as pets, see this.
Posted to WackyHumor at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)
"Ex-official tells of Homeland Security failures"
From this:
The government agency responsible for protecting the nation against terrorist attack is a dysfunctional, poorly managed bureaucracy that has failed to plug serious holes in the nation's safety net, the Department of Homeland Security's former internal watchdog warns.
Clark Kent Ervin, who served as the department's inspector general until earlier this month, said in an interview last week that airport security isn't tight enough and that little has been done to safeguard other forms of mass transit. Ervin said ports remain vulnerable to terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the country. He added that immigration and customs investigators are hampered in their efforts to track down illegal immigrants because they often lack gas money for their cars.
"There are still all these security gaps in the country that have yet to be closed," Ervin said. Meanwhile, he added, Homeland Security officials have wasted millions of dollars because of "chaotic and disorganized" accounting practices, lavish spending on social occasions and employee bonuses and a failure to require competitive bidding for some projects.
Asked what's wrong with the department, he said, "It's difficult to figure out where to start..."
The rest of the article discusses the good job Ervin did, and the circumstances under which he's no longer employed. Those two things would seem to be related.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
"Taking license with hijacker ID rumor"
Lisa Friedman from the Long Beach Press-Telegram's National Bureau (they have a National Bureau?) takes issue with the statement that the 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses. She repeatedly refers to it as false, an urban legend, etc. etc. However, she provides no contrary proof that they did not have those licenses.
It closes with this humorous bit from the National Council of The Race:
...Opponents of the national driver's license standard say they are angry at the ease with which the false statistic gained currency.
"It's so frustrating and so maddening to listen to what they've been getting away with saying," said Michelle Waslin, an immigration policy expert with the National Council of La Raza.
Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
"Report: U.S. is waging `war on immigrants'"
When foreign nationals arrive at Miami International Airport and ask for asylum, some wind up criminally charged for trying to sneak into the country with false papers. Others are detained, some for months, before their cases are decided.
Prosecution and detention of asylum seekers are among the examples cited in a new report by a Miami-based immigrant rights group of what it says is growing intimidation of refugees and undocumented migrants in Florida and across the country.
The report of more than 150 pages, Securing Our Borders: Post-9/11 Scapegoating of Immigrants, is the first comprehensive account of the local and regional impact of immigration measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks...
Wow, it sounds damning. Who wrote it?
...The report was written by Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Kathie Klarreich, a freelance journalist who specializes in Haitian issues. The report is scheduled to be released next month. The Miami Herald obtained a draft...
While I have no prior knowledge of those two fine scribes - who were able to crank out a full 150 pages - I do have google. Let's try a search for '"Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center" "ford foundation"'. Holy Multiculturalists! 54 choices.
Let's try this one:
The Four Freedoms Fund (FFF) is a foundation collaborative that includes the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute (OSI), Joyce Foundation and Mertz Gilmore Foundation. The Fund, started in 2003, was created to promote immigrant civic participation; build capacity among vulnerable groups after Sept. 11; and develop a network of organizations that support immigrant integration and protect civil liberties. Initial grants totaled $2.6 million and were distributed to 45 organizations...
[...a grantee includes...]
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), Miami – Funded by the Ford Foundation to strengthen FIAC advocacy and legal representation work on behalf of immigrants and refugees in South Florida.
I don't have the report, but I think we can understand exactly where it's coming from.
This article is from Knight-Ridder, and it's available here under the much less alarming title "Report examines impact of immigration measures since Sept. 11".
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
"Lawmakers resubmit special tuition bill for undocumented immigrants [Mass.]"
From this:
BOSTON -- Legislators have reintroduced a bill that would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to attend state colleges and pay regular tuition.
In June, Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed the legislation, known as the In-State Tuition Bill. This month, Rep. Marie St. Fleur, D-Suffolk, and Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge, re-introduced the bill...
Immigrant students gathered at the Statehouse recently to support the bill.
The proposed legislation would allow the children of undocumented immigrants, who have attended state high schools for at least three years and graduated, to attend state public colleges and pay the in-state tuition.
Children of undocumented immigrants are currently forced to pay out-of-state tuition when they try to attend public colleges and universities...
Please contact feedback@s-t.com and let them know that "undocumented immigrant" is not the correct phrase. "Illegal alien" is the phrase used in the U.S. Code (example) and it's the phrase they should be using.
The 12/01/04 Boston Globe article on this bill also used "undocumented" and it included a race-baiting quote from Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:07 AM | Comments (1)
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS SITE!!!
The best way to support this site would be to buy one or more Rejuvenique RJV10KIT Facial Toning Mask Kits, as currently or formerly endorsed by TV Megastar Linda Evans.
Whatever you do, pay no attention to this page, this page, this page (the fact that the inventor is from Clearwater, FL is reportedly not a coincidence) or this page.
Posted to WackyHumor at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
SPOD: Strange Pet of the Day
Herewith a new series, inspired by the ferret-owning Libertarian candidate for CA Lieutenant Governor.
Today's SPOD: Triops.
Introduction here:
Triops grow as large as most freshwater community fish and they do so in a day to day manner that always amazes. Their behavior is as interesting as almost any fish and they do engage in those "aqua-batics" as Triops, Inc. claims on their packaging. Their Klingon behavior with one another also never ceases to entertain. Nothing like watching one of your triops parade happily about the tank carrying the head of one of its dead comrades like some bizarre trophy while it cannibalizes it to bring a lump to your throat. They are easy to care for and maintain, plus they require a minimum of equipment and space. Unlike fish, you don't need to get anyone to take care of the tank when you leave town for a month - just drain it and refill it when you get back to start the process over again.
Other pages from that author here. Pics of triops here. Vids here.
Posted to WackyHumor at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)
How would you like it if this happened to you?
Let's say you ran the second-largest corporation in America, with 5055 employees working for you.
Suddenly, you're forced out of the corporation over some minor matters.
How would you feel? Wouldn't you want to be compensated for your sweat and toil over the years? If this happened to you, I'm sure you'd agree this is only fair:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Franklin Raines, who was forced out as Fannie Mae's chief executive after five years, is slated to receive a monthly pension of more than $114,000 for life, according to documents the mortgage lending giant filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The documents also reveal that Raines has deferred compensation of $8.7 million to be paid out through 2020 and owns more than $5.5 million in Fannie Mae's stock... [...the amount might be disputable...]
[...But,...] either way, Raines is slated to take home more than $1.3 million annually, plus benefits such as life and health insurance...
Fair is fair!
Posted to Politics at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)
"L.A.'s Mayoral Debates Notable for Man Who Isn't There"
As previously noted not just once or twice but thrice, both of L.A.'s mayoral debates have reflected L.A.'s rich political spectrum: all five candidates who were invited to the debates were Democrats.
Now, this is getting a bit of attention from the minor MSM:
So far, there have been two televised debates for L.A.'s 2005 mayoral election. In each, the supposedly reform-minded sponsors took the path of expediency by inviting only professional politicians. For all the talk among liberals and reformers about demanding that free air time be provided to candidates, when push came to shove the League of Women Voters and the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters excluded all the unfunded and underfunded candidates from their debates.
We got to see Mayor James Hahn go up against four challengers. Missing were seven other people who have qualified to be on the March primary election ballot.
The ones invited were all men and interestingly enough, all Democrats. The one Republican who might make a respectable showing was pointedly excluded...
One might have thought that given a chance, the League of Women Voters and the L.A. League of Conservation Voters would at least take a stab - just one tiny little shot - at this most sacred of liberal goals. Why not let some of the small-money candidates come to the party too? Let them try to sell their ideas. Give them a chance to have their say with the voters. Perhaps one or two, untainted by the stain of political contributions, would surface as legitimate candidates.
That didn't happen. Whoever they are, whatever they would try to communicate, they were excluded.
When questioned about the choice of who gets to participate and who doesn't, the debate sponsors' answer comes down to one dreary little word, a word that aptly summarizes the conflicted motives in our liberal universe.
That word is viable...
Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:02 AM | Comments (1)
Could our collective memories have erasers?
Thanks to Betsy's Page, I learned that Hugh Hewitt's yet-to-be-published book Blog is climbing the Amazon sale ranks, breaking the Top 1000 and then the Top 500 today. I received a recent draft of the book last week and finished it...
Good for you!
UPDATE: Also, thanks to Hugh for including Blogs For Bush in his "must visit at least weekly" list!
Intrigued, I clicked over to Hugh's site. Unfortunately, it's not as bad as I'd hoped:
A year ago you had probably not heard of Powerline, KerrySpot, INDC Journal, BlogsforBush, the Belmont Club, LGF, Jeff Jarvis, RadioBlogger, One Hand Clapping, Shot in the Dark, Beldar, RatherBiased, Professor Bainbridge, VodkaPundit, TriGeekDreams, Scrappleface, Bill Hobbes, Blackfive, RedState, Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, RightWingNews, JohnMarkReynolds, PoliPundit, The Fourth Rail, StonesCryOut, CadetHappy, BrainShavings, Al Mohler, Betsy's Page, Smash, Patrick Ruffini, Captain's Quarters, Wizbang... (This is my "must visit at least weekly" list, along with others named above or below.)
I've never heard of a few of those, and, except for a few of the rest I think we'd all be better off if most of them would just go rest on their laurels.
Posted to Bloggage at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
The 2004 BushBot Blog Awards
[Cross-posted to the comments at BigMediaBlog.com]
What if the BushBot Blogs gave out an award for the most notable blogging events of 2004? What if they reciprocated the links in the article, propping each other up? I posit it would look an awful lot like this TechCentralStation post.
Posted to Bloggage at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
If it were a "Best Of" list, I would no doubt be on it
LABlogs selects Notable Blogs of 2004. The disclaimer gives me hope:
...from the beginning want to state that this is NOT a "Best Of" list. I would like to point out some notable Los Angeles based blogs, mostly because I personally appreciate the writing that they do. Of course, no matter what I say, someone is going to feel left out and there is not much more I can say, except that this list doesn't mean crap, it isn't based on votes, is only a glimpse at the tremendous community that is out there and is entirely by my own hand, so blame me if you feel shafted.
OK, I will.
Posted to Bloggage at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
Happy socialist racist separatism from Karl Rove!
Text of President Bush's Kwanzaa 2004 message:
I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa.
During Kwanzaa, millions of African Americans and people of African descent gather to celebrate their heritage and ancestry. Kwanzaa celebrations provide an opportunity to focus on the importance of family, community, and history, and to reflect on the Nguzo Saba or seven principles of African culture.
These principles emphasize
* unity
* self-determination
* collective work and responsibility,
* cooperative economics
* purpose
* creativity
* faith [listified by LW]
Kwanzaa strengthens the ties that bind communities across America and around the world and reflects the great promise and diversity of America.
Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a joyous Kwanzaa.
Let's pause and reflect on those seven principles ("Nguzo Saba"):
...in The Seven Principles of the [Symbionese Liberation Army], ["Cinque"] DeFreeze gives the meaning of each head in Swahili, Spanish, and English. You'll recognize these as being the seven principles of Kwanzaa, the African-American year-end celebration, first celebrated in 1966:
* Umoja: Unity
* Kujichagulia: Self Determination
* Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility
* Ujamaa: Cooperative Production
* Nia: Purpose
* Kuumba: Creativity
* Imani: Faith
If I have the dates correct, Kwanzaa was celebrated before Cinque's manifesto. Nevertheless, the very fact that the SLA considered that philosophy to be aligned with theirs should give a (principled) politician pause. Of course...
Even if Kwanzaa came before the SLA's manifesto, consider for instance Ujima/Ujamaa:
...so I posted [a Kwanzaa card] on my dormitory door [in Tanzania]. It wasn't long before some of my Tanzanian floor mates were milling around outside my dorm room, asking "What the fuck's up with that card?" Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of them felt it was one of the most bizarre holidays they had ever heard of; not one had even heard of it before. The use of Swahili terms for something rather far-removed from anything connected to the cultures of East Africa threw them for a complete loop, and I have to wonder whether or not the creators of Kwanzaa were sufficiently familiar with the political overtones of the term used for the fouth principle, Ujamaa - it's translated on the Kwanzaa homepage as "cooperative economics," but in the Tanzanian context, it meant roughly twenty years of late President Julius Nyerere's own special blend of African Socialism. Now, Mwalimu Nyerere was a nice enough guy and all, and most Tanzanians still respect him despite his running a de-facto one-party state for most of his time in office. That being said, very few people had anything positive to say about Ujamaa, which left Tanzania, by the time I got there, the fourth poorest country on the planet with an annual GDP per capita of US$150 (and the three countries below it - Mozambique, Afghanistan, and if memory serves me right, Ethiopia - were war-torn hellholes that at least had proper excuses for being dirt poor)...
Continuing on, we could read about the much less than stellar past of Kwanzaa's founder. See Ann Coulter's "Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI" from 2002. Or Mona Charen's "Kwanzaa born of separatism, radicalism". Or "The True Spirit of Kwanzaa". Of course, if you want the PC version, see CNN's guide to the holiday.
We could wonder why President Bush is encouraging racial separatism and socialism, but, does that really come as that much of a surprise and, as with his other moves, is wondering why really all that productive?
Posted to Politics at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)
But, they're good-hearted!
Forgive me if I missed the media coverage of the international dustup between Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles and the Mexican government the other day. The media downplay stories they perceive as "blaming the victim," particularly on the hands-off topic of illegal immigration.
Romero has gone against the tide before. Now she's rattling cages over the 28,672 foreigners in California prisons who cost taxpayers a staggering sum to feed and house, one-half of whom are illegal aliens from Mexico...
[...at Romero's prison system hearing in Los Angeles on Dec. 16...] diplomats from the consulates of Canada, Germany and Sweden testified about fixing a flawed country-to-country prisoner transfer program the Schwarzenegger administration hopes can someday send up to 6,400 eligible prisoners home -- mostly to Mexico. The behavior of the Canadians, Swedes and Germans stood in stark contrast to that of the Mexicans. In a bizarre bit of public theater that reminded me of my year in Czechoslovakia in 1991, where I observed bumbling ex-Communist officials firsthand, the Mexican government boycotted Romero's hearing, offering one of the lamest official fibs I've ever heard...
But the Mexicans do nothing but double talk on illegal immigration. On the prisoner issue, Mexico strictly limits the number of prisoners it takes back -- yet comically insists it has no limits. Pathetic. According to the California Board of Prison Terms, "all other nations accept all of their prisoners for transfer." Except Mexico.
In 2003, Mexico took back only 109 prisoners from the U.S., even though in California alone, 17,500 prisoners are Mexican nationals -- including more than 14,000 illegal aliens. And get this: Mexico won't take back those who've been here longer than five years. Just because.
Our biased media hate placing even a smidgen of blame on Mexico for illegal immigration. But in fact, most solutions won't be found in Sacramento or Washington. The lasting fixes must come from Mexico's legislature, courts and President Vicente Fox -- or more likely, his successor...
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:54 PM | Comments (2)
"Should the U.S. get tough on illegal workers? Yes"
Mark Krikorian of CIS:
Sometimes it seems that the only people who are expected to comply with the immigration law are nominees for cabinet posts...
...A humane but uncompromising effort would welcome legal newcomers but do everything possible to prevent illegals from entering the country and prevent those who got through from living a normal life here.
Such a policy would cause the illegal population to start declining through attrition, eventually reducing the problem to a manageable nuisance rather than today's crisis...
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Shhhhhh!
The El Paso Times offers up "Guest-worker plan is needed, but not under pressure". While certainly not as bad as other pro-amnesty editorials, it slightly sneakily tries to give Mexico some helpful words of advice. After issuing the usual canards ("Mexicans working illegally in this country take jobs that Americans won't take", etc.), it offers some words of wisdom to Mexico:
But President Vicente Fox and other officials need to exercise some care when trying to pressure and influence U.S. officials and public sentiment about an immigration program.
The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Mexican government officials are planning to lobby in the United States at several levels on behalf of the undocumented workers.
A little attention is needed here because this is a domestic issue, and the Mexican government must exercise caution...
Hey, thanks, maybe next time they'll hire you or something.
Continuing:
...There's a good deal of opposition in Congress, opposition that could be solidified and even expanded if Mexico is too heavy-handed about "selling" an immigration program...
Aw, c'mon. I say we let them spend some money on commercials and buying spokesmen. Let's see what they have to say, OK?
(Shhh... I know...)
Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)
TAP-bashing
I'm always up for a jolly good round of TAP-bashing, and apparently Steve Sailer is involved in some kind of dispute with The American Prospect.
Posted to Bloggage at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)
"ID System Gets in Face of Criminals"
The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking half a million dollars from the federal government to expand the use of advanced facial-recognition systems to identify criminal suspects.
Police officials say the technology could be an important step in fighting crime.
"It's like a mobile electronic mug book," said Rampart Division Capt. Charles Beck. "It's not a silver bullet, but we wouldn't use it unless it helped us make arrests."
Civil liberties advocates are less enthusiastic about the technology, questioning its reliability and the privacy issues it raises...
Similar (re-written?) AP report here.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)
"Immigration bill won't come easy in new Congress"
WASHINGTON - Everyone considers immigration reform a top priority when Congress reconvenes next month.
But no one agrees what "reform" means.
"I fully understand the politics of immigration reform," President Bush assured reporters this week.
Many lawmakers, including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, call tougher enforcement the centerpiece of reform. Many others interpret reform as a code word for a guest-worker program that puts illegal immigrants on track toward a green card.
This apparent contradiction could doom legislation. Or perhaps Capitol Hill's long immigration stalemate could be broken by some deft combination of getting tough and giving hope...
The "giving hope" part is then defined as passing AgJobs, a horrible amnesty program. Coverage of AgJobs starts here. Somewhat surprisingly, the SacBee pimped for AgJobs at least once before.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:34 PM | Comments (1)
Immigration "reform," McCain-Kennedy-Arizona Republic style
WASHINGTON - Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy are working together to draft a bipartisan bill for comprehensive immigration reform to introduce in the new session of Congress.In addition to the "news" that John McCain is completely on the wrong side of immigration matters, I'm going to hazard a guess that Ira Mehlman of FAIR was misquoted vis-a-vis the "immigration foes" bit. The author's information is billy.house@arizonarepublic.com or at 1-(202)-906-8136.
The efforts, bolstered by President Bush's reiteration on Monday that he wants to give temporary legal status to any "willing worker" who has found a job Americans do not want, come as many Republicans in Congress are pointing to the threat of terrorism as a reason to further restrict immigration...
[...quotes from "immigrant advocacy groups" deleted...]
...Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, said that even if the White House gets behind a guest worker bill sponsored by McCain and Kennedy, or anyone else, the measure will face "serious opposition," from immigration foes, including many Republicans in the U.S. House.
"The president doesn't have to run (for office) again. House members are always running for re-election," he said.
5/14/05 UPDATE: McCain and Kennedy have introduced their "2005 Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act".
Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:29 PM | Comments (4)
How unlikely is this?
I'd say this image has very little chance of happening:
Very, very little chance. It would probably never happen.
(Via Fark's Best Photoshop of 2004 contest. The Gigli one is pretty funny too.)
Posted to WackyHumor at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)
"You're wrong, Mr. President"
President Bush says he wants to revamp an immigration system that is "not working" and is "not compassionate" through a program that can't work and would be anything but "compassionate" to Americans forced to pick up the tab.
During his end-of-the-year news conference, the president formally revived his expanded "guest worker" proposal first laid out as a set of "principles" a year ago. But the Bush plan is quite unprincipled and, by any other name, another in a long line of amnesty programs. Bush confidante and former Montana Gov. Mark Racicot disputed that characterization to me during the fall campaign. But that's exactly what it is. And it will do what amnesty programs do best -- fail...
And, from George Putnam:
It is this reporter's opinion that the president of the United States refuses to change his approach to an open door policy. Oh, he will deny that he favors amnesty or graduating citizenship, but it's all there. It's what he says repeatedly over and over again, as he did in his December 20 news conference proposing allowing workers in other countries to enter or remain in the U.S. legally to FILL JOBS AMERICANS WILL NOT DO.
When asked a question about his plan to reform U.S. immigration policy, the president responded half a dozen times: FILL JOBS AMERICANS WILL NOT DO.
As a youngster of what Tom Brokaw describes as "the greatest generation" - Depression, WWII, growing up in America - I never, working in the farmlands of the Midwest, ran across a job or participated in a job Americans would not do. We planted, harvested, threshed, milked 10 cows by hand, slopped the hogs, made certain that all the farm animals were cared for, and worked sunup to sundown to put food on the table ... and ended up paid as little as a dollar for a day's work. Not only were these jobs Americans would do, WE did them! We learned the work ethic as part of our day-to-day education.
At White House news conferences, they do not allow follow-up questions. May I now join Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in asking the president the following:
[...FAIR's questions for Bush...]
Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:11 PM | Comments (1)
"'Bush refugees' arrive in Canada"
"Initial influx of distraught Democratic voters get visas".
Next year: unveiling the plans for the new high-speed rail line linking Seattle and San Francisco with Vacouver.
Posted to Politics at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
The price of "cheap" labor is about to go up
Wal*Mart is facing a class action lawsuit from former janitors:
After the raids, nine of the immigrants filed a suit in state court in New Jersey, with Cuban lawyer Gilberto Garcia of law firm Garcia and Kricko. Before that case developed, New York City attorney James L. Linsey of Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, contacted Garcia, and the two decided they had a case that was more far-reaching than a state court complaint. Together, they filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of affected Wal-Mart janitors last November. The case, Zavala v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , makes claims against the company for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, including overtime violations and minimum pay violations. In addition, it charges Wal-Mart with forced labor, false imprisonment and civil rights violations. To top it off, the lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart--specifically the "Wal-Mart Enterprise"--violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, for operating in criminal conspiracy with its cleaning contractors...
There are 17 class representatives in the lawsuit, including Victor Zavala of Mexico, for whom the case is named, each with a similar story that, even in dry legal language, shows a known pattern of abuse at the hands of Wal-Mart's contractors. Zavala worked for Wal-Mart for 36 months for a weekly sum of $500. Many others in the suit were paid only $350 a week. Though Zavala and the others were obligated to work seven days a week, for 60 hours or more, they received no overtime pay. They and others were locked in the stores at night and could not leave unless a Wal-Mart store manager came to release them. As Linsey explains, the janitors were locked in to prevent "inventory shrinkage." The janitors received no sick leave pay and had no taxes withheld from their pay. Of the meager wages they earned, many of the workers were required to pay an additional $500 "security deposit" to their employers to ensure that they would not leave, a sum that was never returned.
One of the janitors, Antonio Flores, who is diabetic, cut his hand severely while working for Wal-Mart. The lawsuit states "because he was locked in, he was forced to wait until the next morning to go to a hospital." One 26-year-old man from the Czech Republic spoke to the Prague Post last year about his three-day experience working for Wal-Mart, a job he quit due to the horrible conditions. Ondra, who refused to give his last name, said, "I met two [Czech] guys. They were in Chicago for two years. All they did was work, cleaning every day, 365 days a year. They had never been to the downtown Chicago Loop. ...It's slavery..."
The lawsuit is described at walmartjanitors.com.
While many of the supporters of suits like this will be the usual "liberal" suspects, they could play a key role in limiting illegal immigration. These suits could lead to both negative publicity and large settlements. The former would cost the companies sales, and the latter would increase their cost of doing business. That would have the effect of making illegal labor less desirable.
That would cause the businesses to push all the harder for some sort of "guest" worker program. However, it might also cause some of them to make the decision that "cheap" illegal labor just isn't worth it, and that it's better to use automation or raise wages to attract legal workers.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:54 AM | Comments (3)
If they went to Utah their heads would explode...
It's only 80 miles from the headquarters of the L.A. Times to Murrieta deep in "red California."
But, to the L.A. Times, it's like going to Mars: "In GOP They Trust":
...This devout Mormon couple, whose Boy Scout son Christopher marched on Veterans Day with his uniformed pals from Troop 524, will not see a movie that is rated R. They lump Whoopi Goldberg in with Dan Rather, the Dixie Chicks with CNN. They put Moore, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and most of Hollywood in the same bad grab bag of the biased and the out-of-touch...
So where do the Blantons get their information? For Bruce, at least, the same place as many of his neighbors, men and women whose affordable homes are here in Murrieta but whose jobs are geographically undesirable. Trapped in their cars en route to the office, they listen to talk radio on their long commutes...
Joe Russo remembers the daily commute to Orange County from Encinitas, where he couldn't afford to buy a house and his wife, Juliana, had to work. That's the only way they could make ends meet. It was 1998. "On my commutes, I'd listen to Christian radio, getting a daily infusion while driving on the road," he said. "You have a lot of time on the road to think..."
[Russo's wife] says many of her family values likely come from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the conservative talk radio personality and self-help author, whose books she reads when she can find the time in her hectic days with her two young children...
"Now I see the family values and the goodness of people," [another featuree] said, as she made Sunday dinner after Mass. "I thought you could be a good person and a good friend if you didn't live my values. Now, I trust the ones who follow my values. That's what I'm learning, living out here."
See also 2003's "Conservatives in the Mist".
Posted to Politics at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
"Why I Am Running For Lieutenant Governor"
The following is a real statement from a real candidate from a couple years back. Today's fun contest: how many sentences (or words) does it take before you correctly figure out the person's party, replaced in the following with "[MYSTERY PARTY]"?
My experiences over the past ten years have inspired and prepared me to run for Lieutenant Governor. While the [MYSTERY PARTY] would do well to run a "name" candidate, or someone with wide voter-appeal for Governor, as someone who has gained a degree of notoriety working for ferret legalization, I can show voters and non-voters a real example why they should support the [MYSTERY PARTY] for their own self-interest.
At the risk of appearing to be a one-issue candidate, I intend to show California voters what many would consider a small infringement of freedom is actually another instance of disappearing liberty and the great threat we face if we let this go unchallenged.
After 2 terms as chairman of the [MYSTERY PARTY] of California (where we doubled membership) ended in 1993, I thought it was time to get serious over the ferret issue. Ferret owners previously relied on their solid documentation that ferrets were safe pets, but the state of California continued to make up outlandish stories about domestic ferrets.
I formed Ferrets Anonymous that year, and when my chairmanship of that organization ended in 1998 it had a mailing list of 6,000 names. During my chairmanship I was on CBS This Morning, had a full page article in People Magazine numerous articles in newspapers, television and radio.. Back then, because of the absolute absurdity of what our opponents in the state government were saying, it was fun to debunk them and the media enjoyed covering ferrets.
The fun ended in 1998 when my ferret was removed from his vet and euthanized while he was in quarantine for biting a cameraman. I had helped many people get their ferrets through quarantine, but when the state of California learned that my ferret was in quarantine, the Department of Health Services ordered him picked up and destroyed immediately. To lose a ferret, a cherished family member, because I made fun of our opponents almost ruined me...
...I could go on at great length about my legal battles. But I won't let the emotional and financial drain from those battles stop me. I'm not going to surrender. I'm going to fight back the best way I can, by running for Lieutenant Governor...
It gets - believe it or not - even better... And, when you read about his erstwhile running mate, it gets even better...
UPDATE: The Ferret Candidate inspired my Strange Pet of the Day series. Latest entry in that series here.
Posted to Politics at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
"SEIU's Hostile Leftist Takeover"
Here's a roundup of SEIU's far-left leanings and their influence on other unions.
The SEIU opposed in Prop. 200. There's a Soros connection. They supported California's Prop. 56. And, there's another roundup of their activities in "How Socialist Unions Rule the Democratic Party".
Posted to Politics at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
Life is about to get a lot safer!
Once inserted into a human, [the RFID chip from VeriChip] can be tracked by GPS technology and the information relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference...
Previous VeriChip coverage is here. Get Chipped[TM]!
Posted to Privacy at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)
Arnold: somewhat misquoted by the AP
Dan Walters has the scoop:
...This is what Schwarzenegger said in the transcript of the interview, which was conducted in English: "I think that right now the Republican Party is all the way from the right to the center. And the Democratic Party is all the way from the left to the center. And I like the Republican Party to cross that center line. Keep it to the right where it is, but I mean cross over that center line a little bit, because that would take immediately away 5 percent from the Democrats and be home free for good. That's the trick."
Hujer's German-language story, including that passage, was published in his newspaper on Saturday. International news agencies picked up the quotation, translating it back into English. The version that the Associated Press distributed quoted Schwarzenegger, inaccurately, as saying he wanted Republicans to move "a little to the left."
"I would like the Republican Party to cross this line, move a little further left and place more weight on the center. This would immediately give the party 5 percent more votes without it losing anything elsewhere," read the AP version, which was also distributed Saturday...
Posted to California at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
All illegal aliens to head to Trenton, New Jersey
TRENTON -- Mayor Doug Palmer issued an executive order yesterday, promising immigrants ["illegal aliens"] they will have access to city services without fear of being hassled, interrogated about their immigrant status or deported.
Here's what the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey has to say. What we need to do is translate this into Spanish and then get the Mexican press - both that in Mexico and that here - to print it:
"This fear, of having your family torn apart, of not having the right documentation on hand at the critical moment, goes against the grain in our city, because we are an open city...
We are a city whose mission explicitly recognizes that, as the people of Trenton have made us guardians of the public trust, we are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility, to seek excellence in the city’s operations, and to serve all the city’s people with respect and compassion...
Kids aren’t even going to school... [because of immigration raids...] Sick little children aren’t being taken to the doctor.
We have not been doing enough. We’ve got to reach way down into the immigrant community to explain what their rights are. This is an issue that affects everyone. This is a human rights issue.
...It is critically important that we ensure good relationships with all residents in order to get tips and information about actual crimes.
Communities where people are afraid to report crimes are unsafe and unstable... When rape, prostitution, domestic violence, theft, robbery, or beatings occur in the immigrant community, we want our response to be just as timely and as helpful as can be.
In fact, it is both our obligation and the individual immigrant’s right.
As an immigrant to Trenton, New Jersey, here are the services to which you have a right:
- Police and fire services
- General medical, mental health and public health services at clinics and emergency medical assistance, nutrition programs, programs for women and infants and children and for the disabled;
- Services dealing with non-conforming landlords, real estate tax payments or water/sewer bills, labor and employment enforcement, and access to the courts, schools, transportation services, shelter services and emergency disaster relief.
Other highlights include:
- Information in city files about an immigrant’s status will now be kept confidential, and only disseminated as required by law in the investigation of a case of illegal activity -- other than mere status as an undocumented alien -- or potential terrorist activity.
- City employees other than police officers "shall not inquire about a person’s immigration status" unless that information is necessary for the determination of program, service or benefit eligibility."
- Another section ordered that "Citizen children of undocumented parents have the same rights to public benefits as all other U.S. citizens. Undocumented parents may apply for their citizen children."
- Also, "A city employee required to establish the identity of a person seeking city services shall accept as valid photo identification."
Police officers are barred from inquiring about the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses, or others who call or approach them for help, unless they are investigating illegal activity.
However, they'll still "continue to cooperate with federal authorities in investigating and apprehending aliens suspected of criminal activity". But, it's gotta be really bad criminal activity. Just be cool and you'll be OK. Now, get a move on!
Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)
Fred Muscara, Nancy Serpis win the Dean Wheeler Award for Sensitive Excellence
If Sully can create awards, so can I.
From 'Santa' told to lose costume at Hampton school dance:
A student dressed as Santa Claus was told to remove the suit and white beard when he arrived at a Hampton [New Hampshire] Academy Junior High School dance last Friday...
Nancy Serpis, chairman of the Hampton School Board [insisted] the dance was a "holiday" event and that dressing as Santa Claus was "inappropriate..."
...Principal Fred Muscara, who declined to be interviewed for this story, is quoted telling a Hampton newspaper: "It was a holiday party. It was not a Christmas party. There is a separation of church and state. We have a lot of students that go to Hampton Academy Junior High that have different religions. We have to be sensitive to that..."
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)
"Ethics judge steals to fund brothel romp"
A top French judge is to be suspended after he allegedly stole a German colleague's credit card to pay for a prostitute, having earlier delivered an hour-long speech on ethics, reported The Times...
...The first time he had paid for the alleged sexual service with his own money, according to the report. The second time, he had allegedly paid with a credit card that he had nicked from a German prosecutor at the conference...
...Mr Hontang's alleged shenanigans came to light after he had complained to the owner of the brothel's service. The boss had noticed that he had not paid with his own credit card and alerted German police officers, who got on the case...
Those wacky cheese-eating surrender monkeys!
Posted to WackyHumor at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
Jennifer Aniston naked
[Important updates below]
Don't we all wish?
However, the sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the writer's assistant who worked for Friends for four months proceeds and is getting some attention from AP.
From "'Friends' lawsuit takes on tradition":
But if the tradition of the raucous, freewheeling "writers room" is the Hollywood status quo, Amaani Lyle is fighting it. The 31-year-old former writer's assistant for "Friends" has filed a lawsuit that has landed before the California Supreme Court.
Lyle alleges the raw sexual remarks that peppered writers' work sessions and conversations added up to harassment, even though they weren't aimed directly at her or other women in the room.
Her suit, which also alleges demeaning remarks were made about blacks and constitute racial harassment, names "Friends" producers Warner Bros. Television Productions and Bright Kauffman Crane Productions, as well as writers Adam Chase, Greg Malins and Andrew Reich.
Lyle worked for four months in 1999 before she was told she was a poor typist and fired. But Lyle, who is black, claims she was let go after pressing for black characters on the sexually charged NBC comedy about six pals in New York....
So, if I were fired for suggesting they introduce a character named Ozmodiar, I could sue too?
Now, here's the funniest part of the article:
"It's always very hard to describe the process of what writing a comedy series is really about," ["Murphy Brown" creator Diane English] said. "It involves so critically the ability to completely be open and let yourself go. It's the only way the really truly funny stuff is born."
For the even funnier bits, see the excerpts from the suit:
...74. [Three of the writers] regularly discussed making the character Joey a serial rapist...
...77. [Three of the writers used the terms] "dick," "schlong," and "cock."
...83. I can recall sitting around waiting to go home while writers were sitting around pretending to masturbate and continually talking about schlongs.
UPDATE: OK, so the title of this post is a bit mean. I mean, I don't have any pictures of Jennifer Aniston naked. However, here are some interesting Jennifer Aniston pics. Note that some of these sites are questionable, might have popups or worse, etc.:
big pic, fake or real?, naked on stomach, face + partial butt
older; might be fake; hiding her nips
older; long straight blonde-highlighted hair; barefoot; bordello setting
a "spicy" jennifer aniston gallery; appear to be real
You can buy the Office Space DVD here:
side butt in jeans shot; more here; warning: questionable site
And, my favorite so far:
big facial pic with a cherry in her mouth (warning: questionable foreign site)
A personal note to Jennifer: I'm sorry to hear about your breakup with Brad Pitt. Over time I hope you will recover from this unfortunate incident. Remember, there are many bloggers out here that care.
UPDATE 2: Man, that cherry pic is something else. Here are more Jennifer Aniston links.
UPDATE 3: Holy moley! Jen has had her sharks send letters about a new crop of photos that they claim photog Peter Brandt took from a mile away. Do you know how far a mile is? C'mon. He says it was only 300 yards, and topless pics are hard to sell anyway.
But, don't despair, as some other very interesting photos have been located here, here, here, here, and here, all via this. I don't think these are the ones in question. Photos that is.
UPDATE 4: For the ladies: Jennifer Aniston hair style: Sedu or T3 Tourmaline?
Posted to Celebrities at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
Have a very Merry Yulemass
If you'd like to enter into the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays debate, the L.A. Times has enough scary quotes in "School Yuletide Observances Shift Into Neutral" (also here) to fill your stocking to the brim.
The ironic thing about all this is that in their urge to strike against displays of Christianity, the secularists/multiculturalists/"liberals"/a-holes have brought the pagan part of Christmas to the fore. Mangers are verboten, but gift giving and Christmas trees are OK. Perhaps those in favor of a (real) holiday season could sue to stop all such favoritism towards paganism.
Even the word "yule", as used in the title of the L.A. Times article, is derived from a pre-conversion Germanic pagan festival. And, the word "holiday" is derived the Old English for "holy day". That formulation may have appeared in Germanic languages before the conversion to Christianity. In that case, a "holiday" would have meant a pagan festival and it now literally means a holy day.
There's more on the past history of the Winter Fest in the following:
Pagan Origins of Modern Christmas Traditions
When did Christmas become a political statement?
’Tis the time to feel offended, tra-la-la-la….
Public Schools: Are They Missing the Baby Jesus?
Anthony Browne: Unholy war on Christmas
Generic greeting doesn’t leave Christians feeling merry
Bill White: A Merry Pagan Christmas And The Search For The True Meaning Of Christ
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
Merry XMas to Arizona
TUCSON - A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a restraining order blocking enforcement of a voter-approved initiative to deny illegal immigrants some public benefits.
The order means the initiative immediately becomes Arizona law...
Posted to Immigration2004 at 02:32 PM | Comments (2)
Pictures of the collapsed KFI tower
On the 19th a small plane hit the 750' tower of radio station KFI in La Mirada. The two people aboard the plane were killed in the crash, but the tower caused little damage on the ground.
Pictures of the collapsed tower are here, here, and here. A previous picture of the tower is here.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
When is an Asian-Pacific Islander not an Asian-Pacific Islander?
Your guess is probably close, but, to make it exact, here's a hint: Sacramento.
Now that your guess is almost 100% correct, here's the article.
"Two lawmakers seeking membership in Democrat-only Asian caucus":
Two Asian lawmakers are asking to be admitted to the Legislature's Asian-Pacific Islander Caucus, or be given money to start a club that will include Republican lawmakers.
Republican Assemblymen Alan Nakanishi, of Lodi, and Van Tran, of Garden Grove, said they're being unjustly excluded from the Democrat-only caucus, even though members of the vast Asian community in California have many varied political views...
They do?
..."I think the caucus represents only 50 percent - if that - of the (Asian) constituency," Tran said. "It should live up to its spirit, as Speaker Nunez said, to represent the great diversity of California. As it stands right now, it does not..."
...Asian Caucus Chairwoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, said the group debated whether to include Republicans when it formed in 2001, but members ultimately decided to be Democrats-only...
The only surprising thing in the article is that Leland Yee - whose very name instantly makes me roll my eyes - supports just one caucus.
Of course, whether we need race-oriented caucusi in the first place is quite an open question, not least because the Asian-Pacific Islander caucus costs (us) $100k a year.
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
"Mexico plans to step up immigration-policy pressure in 2005"
Mexican President Vicente Fox's renewed efforts to lobby for change in U.S. immigration policy may hurt his cause more than help it and could galvanize opposition in a divided American Congress, senior U.S. officials said.
The Mexican government is planning a multipronged effort in the United States on behalf of the millions of Mexicans working without proper documentation [i.e., illegal aliens]. Targets would include agricultural groups and Latino organizations...
...One senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Mexico should "work with us and remember that this is a domestic issue. It's not a Mexico-specific bill. ... If it's seen as a unilateral demand from the Mexican side, I think there will be plenty of people, particularly on the Hill, who will not receive that particularly well."
...A Mexican official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the sensitivities involved and said, "Mexico will take very careful steps" in its lobbying efforts. "We recognize that this is a very delicate matter."
Mexican officials say they plan to spend "hundreds of thousands" of dollars to promote the issue through its 47 Mexican consulates in the United States, focusing on regions that government officials consider crucial to success.
Mexico plans to hire lobbyists and to work closely with leading U.S. think tanks and universities to promote its national interests, the Mexican official said...
...The official said Mexico would launch the lobbying effort early next year, perhaps coinciding with the planned visit of Fox to Washington in late February or March...
...The migration issue ignites passion, especially among anti-immigration groups. [see the following note]
"Mexico's blatant foreign interference in U.S. domestic affairs," is the issue, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. The group favors reduced immigration. [but, the preceding paragraph implied they were "anti-immigration"]
"The Mexican consulates have gone from promoting trade and travel to Mexico to actively involving themselves in U.S. domestic affairs ... and the Bush administration has been irresponsible for not telling Mexico in a friendly but clear way that this is not acceptable," Krikorian said...
This is just more of the same, except now they're being completely open about what they intend to do. So, when we see a race group, university, or think tank supporting Mexico's position, we can ask whether they're being paid to do so.
On a minor note, you might want to contact grodrigue@dallasnews.com about the use of the euphemism for illegal aliens and the "anti-immigration" slam in the article.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 02:09 PM | Comments (1)
"President Bush To Fix Illegal Immigration Problem By Removing Immigration Laws"
This just in:
President Bush announced today that he will once and for all fix the problem with illegal immigration by making everyone a legal immigrant starting January 2005 and removing any immigration barriers for entering the U.S.
"Listen, the only reason we have illegal immigrants is because we have immigration laws." Stated President Bush, "If you remove those laws, then there is no problem! So, starting in January, not only will all 'illegal immigrants' be considered legal, but also all immigration laws will no longer exist. Therefore, I will be known as the president who fixed the immigration problem..."
I believe this is a joke, but nowadays it's so hard to tell.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:23 PM | Comments (1)
Barbara Boxer not "liberal" enough for some
From this:
It's an old adage that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Perhaps the latest example of this might be liberal California senator Barbara Boxer's support of the California Mission Preservation Act, a bill signed into law last week by the president. The Act sets aside $10 million over five years as funds for the restoration and preservation of California's twenty-one missions, their artwork, artifacts, and indigenous plants. Boxer emphasizes on her website that aside from their historical significance, the missions bring in substantial income for local businesses from tourists visiting the state. The Chicago Tribune offered a helpful comparison on that point—the missions bring more money into the state's economy than any other public attraction, excepting Disneyland.
All well and good, but there's a catch … one that Ms. Boxer has apparently decided to overlook. Nineteen of the twenty-one missions are owned by the Roman Catholic Church and, moreover, have active congregations. Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit in a federal court last week, asserting the bill violates the Constitution...
Here's the board for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. That organization has been around for 50 years, but I'm not familiar with them and I don't know if there's a tie to the Ford Foundation, PFAW, or other fine groups.
There's another report on the controversy in "Missions are dear to Californians, but should they get U.S. funds?"
In slightly related news, today's Disturbing Visual is the picture of Boxer and Feinstein at this link. Little sister/big sister? Barbara takes her Geritol? Feel free to provide your own disturbing tagline.
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)
"FAIR Letter to President Bush About His Guestworker Proposal"
FAIR on Bush's press conference:
At this morning's White House press conference, you were asked a question about your plan to reform U.S. immigration policy. In response to the question, you repeatedly made the point that your proposal entails allowing workers in other countries to enter or remain in the U.S. legally to fill "jobs that Americans will not do."
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and millions of Americans throughout the nation are highly troubled by your policy proposal. First, your proposal both forgives and rewards businesses that have flagrantly violated laws against the hiring of illegal aliens with a novel approach to sustaining for them a never-ending supply of cheap foreign labor. Second, your proposal both forgives and rewards illegal aliens who have and continue to be in violation of our immigration laws by making your guestworker/amnesty program available to them.
The American public has a right to be clear about your intentions and policymakers in Congress deserve a degree of certainty about the consequences of adopting your policy proposal. Your position on this proposal could be much more clearly clarified if you would address the following questions publicly...
They ask five questions that a) Bush couldn't answer, and b) no reporter will (probably) ever ask.
The question relating to Kerik would be a bit of a low blow, but, then again, if they can't even correctly vet their proposed head of the DHS how well are they going to do with 10 million citizens of another country, especially given that most of them are from a corrupt third-world country?
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)
Bush's Immigration Pet Phrases
Michelle Malkin provides several links you need to fully understand Bush's recent press conference.
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)
Mt. Lukens: Day Two
I've already visited Mt. Lukens - the highest point in the City of Los Angeles - and I don't necessarily want to go back. It's not that the view is that bad, it's just that the top is devoted to a very large antenna farm so it's not exactly an aesthete's dream.
However, when I went there I took an fairly gently-graded fire road. As a training hike, I wanted to take the Stone Canyon Trail, which gains 3200' in 8 miles round-trip. It doesn't go straight up, but that's still a workout.
Since the trail is said to be a bit difficult to find, I decided to scope it out first. Yesterday I drove up Big Tujunga Canyon Road in an attempt to follow these directions. First problem: the Wildwood Picnic Area was closed. It was later in the day and there was no sun in the canyon, so, rather than parking on the road then hiking down to the canyon bottom I decided to keep on driving. I'm not that familiar with the other hikes in that area and I was cutting it too close to go exploring.
So, earlier today (stop me if I'm boring you) I decided I'd try to explore the ways to Mt. Lukens from La Crescenta side. The link above mentions a route from the Deukmejian Wilderness Park at the northern tip of Glendale. However, there's no trail named the "Cresenta Valley Trail". There is a "Crescenta View Trail", as the guide pictured here shows. Yet, it seemed to me the Dunsmore Canyon Trail would be the one that would be the one to go to Mt. Lukens rather than the Crescenta View Trail. So, I took the Dunsmore trail up. After less than a mile, it dead-ended. There looked to be a very rough use trail at the end and I went up it about 10 feet until I decided it wasn't really a use trail at all and I didn't want to pick up dozens of ticks crawling through brush.
So, back down and I asked at the Ranger's station (there had been no one there when I left). They told me both the Rim-of-the-Valley and the Crescenta View Trail go to Mt. Lukens, but they couldn't quite figure out what "Roy's" comment at the first link was talking about.
So, for Mt. Lukens: Day Three (which probably won't be tomorrow), I'll try one of those two, or I'll see if this Doske Road exists (Route 1 here). I believe that's also the route taken by Roy Randall. Or, I'll take one of the routes from the Wilderness park.
On the way up the Dunsmore trail, I noticed that I was being followed by a guy carrying a black case, and he was gaining on me (truly a rare occurence). As he passed me he asked, "You don't mind if I" - at this moment I thought he was going to say something like "fall back and let you pass me instead". However, what he said next "blew" me away: "You don't mind if I play my saxophone?" Well, that's a new one on me! He walked ahead then over onto a dam. As I hiked ahead and then back I had a musical soundtrack.
On the way back after my mini non-adventure, I was leaving a parking lot when I noticed an elderly gentleman collapsed on the sidewalk. He was bleeding from his mouth and he couldn't get up. I summoned the paramedics and he was hopefully OK.
Posted to OutdoorSports at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
"Fortress America's problem at the border"
The BBC has a "report" on illegal immigration into the U.S. The scare quotes are because it has all the insight that you'd expect, couple with a few errors, at least one of which has been corrected. As might be expected the correction isn't noted in the new version.
It's not a major correct, but it certainly is indicative.
Here's the first version, posted about four hours ago to FreeRepublic:
In the summer, the temperatures in Arizona soar to well beyond boiling point.
And, here's the version currently at the BBC's site:
In the summer, the temperatures in Arizona often soar to 40-45C (104-113F).
Read the FR link for some of the more substantial errors, including his description of the race-baiting film "A Day Without A Mexican."
You can send feedback through this form or contact the author directly: matt.frei@bbc.co.uk
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:25 AM | Comments (1)
Somewhere, a Zamboni cassandra is saying, "I told you so."
"Explosion causes more than $600,000 in damage to Duluth rink":
DULUTH, Minn. - Investigators were trying to determine on Monday the cause of the Sunday night explosions that destroyed a local ice arena and injured several broomball players and fans.
People inside the building said they suspected the explosion came from a room containing an ice-grooming machine, which are often known by the brand name Zamboni...
(Via Br'er Drudge)
Posted to Miscellania at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
Partayin' down with the Norwegian women's handball team
"'Handball girls' party all night":
Norway's national handball team, and thousands of their fans, were ecstatic after beating Denmark to win the European championship on Sunday. Their victory followed Saturday's decisive 44-29 win over the Hungarian national team, which was on home turf at the championships in Budapest.
The champagne flowed along with tears of joy when the winning female athletes, known collectively simply as the "handball girls" (håndballjentene), gathered for their victory party at a hotel in Budapest.
..."We're good in handball but quite good at partying also," said team captain Gro Hammerseng, as she helped teammates tackle a double-magnum bottle of bubbly...
Posted to WackyHumor at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
Today's comments
The "libertarians" at Reason Magazine have yet another post supporting illegal immigration. See my comments.
"Liberal" TalkLeft supports driver's licenses for illegal aliens. I supply the correct side of the argument here and in the extended entry.
The comment at TalkLeft:
First-We have an enormous number of illegal aliens in this country because that is the way a large slice of the electorate wants it to be. From cheap nannies to cheap farm workers and everywhere in between, many persons and businesses from accross the political spectrum benefit from the labor of illegal aliens.
The great majority of Americans are opposed to illegal immigration. It's the elites that benefit and that have caused the current situation, not the "electorate."
As for the organization, here's the board for their parent organization. Katrina VD Heuvel, Eric Alterman, the Ford Foundation, etc. etc. I suspect they're a "liberal" group.
As for their reasons:
First, the very fact that 13 million illegal aliens are already within our borders means that a perimeter-based defense is porous.
The problem isn't with the perimeter defense so much as with what happens behind the perimeter. "Liberals" try to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. That makes it easier to live here illegally. That increases the number of people trying to come here. That makes the job of defending the perimeter more difficult. Plus, those who employ illegal labor are rarely punished. Correct those issues and the perimeter defense would be much more effective.
As for the second reason, we reduce the size of the haystack by refusing to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. That will force many of them to self-deport and many fewer to come. That's an effective way to reduce the size of the haystack.
The "market" is already supplying fake documentation. If you reduce the number of illegals here, you would drive the price for fake documentation up. And, by improving the security of DLs, you'd make such counterfeiting more difficult.
I also think it's funny the various contortions of the language TL uses to describe illegal aliens. I'm sure TL has a copy of the U.S. Code handy. Look at, for instance, this. Yep, that's right. The U.S. Code uses the phrase "illegal aliens." That is the correct, legal term.
I also wonder why "liberals" would support cheap, exploited labor and massive corporate subsidies.
Much information on this subject is available in my Immigration category.
Posted to Bloggage at 11:17 AM | Comments (1)
Our borderline security
It remains to be seen whether intelligence reform legislation will produce substantive improvements in our national security. Republicans and Democrats alike certainly hope so, as do we all. But Congress and the White House failed to approve other reforms passed by the House of Representatives that would have ensured heightened border security and the ability to control immigrant documentation and identification, which the 9/11 commission recommended.
...However, more than three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it may seem ludicrous to many that we have reached only the stage of dialogue and debate instead of concrete action. While it is critically important that we have the best intelligence possible about the radical Islamist terrorists who would destroy this nation and its citizens, no amount of intelligence and improved analysis and communication can prevent an individual terrorist or group from entering our poorly protected ports and insecure, porous borders...
...Economic interests are dominating the discussion of immigration reform. Big business, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and organized labor both seek open borders--business to exploit the cheap labor that is provided by illegal aliens and labor organizations to add to their membership rolls. Incredibly, much of organized labor in this country, including the AFL-CIO, supports open borders even at the expense of its current members...
Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
"More Aggressive Congress Could Hinder Bush's Plans"
From this:
President Bush's second-term plans to reshape Social Security, immigration laws and other domestic programs are facing a stiff challenge from a group that was reliably accommodating in the president's first four years: congressional Republicans.
After essentially rubber-stamping much of Bush's first-term agenda, many House and Senate Republicans plan to assert themselves more forcefully to put their mark on domestic policy in the new year, according to several lawmakers...
...But the president's most nettlesome intra-party issue in early 2005 may be immigration, lawmakers said. Bush's goal of granting guest-worker status to large numbers of undocumented immigrants is about to collide head-on with House Republicans' push to crack down on illegal immigrants, in part by denying them driver's licenses...
"If the president wants to maintain credibility with House Republicans, he has to be engaged and willing to pass immigration reform that conservatives want," said Rep. Ray LaHood (Ill.), one of 57 House Republicans who voted against the intelligence bill Bush just signed into law. "If he does that, he will build a bridge" that could open the way to far-reaching changes to Social Security, the tax code and other policies, LaHood said. "If he's missing in action on that issue, he's going to have big problems..."
Posted to Politics at 12:33 AM | Comments (1)
Santa's visit to the little sex-slaves of Bangkok canceled
Merry XMas from Canada:
...What, Santa Claus real? You might as well say that there is no such thing as hunger, that poor children never sleep on the street while bankers bloat themselves on six-figure salaries. Virginia, some people even complain that not enough children are in prison. They say this though they know that to imprison a child is the surest way to turn a single mistake into a life of crime. Why do they want to lock away the children? Because they are so poor in spirit as to hate and fear the young.
What a world it would be, if only a jolly elf could come down once a year, and bring sweetness, light, and plum pudding to all the children of the world, one half of whom go without enough to eat. What a better place if one magic sled could do the job that a hundred aid organizations can never manage, because there are never enough resources.
Santa Claus won't be coming to the murdered children of Fallujah this year, nor to the little sex-slaves of Bangkok. He won't be visiting the children crippled by cluster bombs or torn open by shrapnel. There will be no Santa for the orphans of Afghanistan or Palestine. In the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, there will be no peace this Christmas.
Santa Claus does not exist, as surely as hatred and greed and violence rule the world. Alas Virginia, how dreary life is for Santa’s real helpers, the Asian children who labor to manufacture the war toys under your tree. There’s no childlike faith on the factory floor, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable their daily existence...
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 12:31 AM | Comments (1)
Germans to become less depressed, more cheerful
"Germans get taste of tropics an hour's drive from Berlin":
Winter-weary Germans basked yesterday in 70F temperatures amid palm trees and sandy beaches - only an hour's drive from Berlin.
At dawn yesterday, thousands of p