Recently in absurdity Category

"Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin, routinely airbrushed his enemies out of images. In this photo, a commissar was removed from the original photograph after falling out of favor with Stalin."

Tuesday, New York Times: On a talk show last fall, a prominent political analyst named Mikhail G. Delyagin had some tart words about Vladimir V. Putin. When the program was later televised, Mr. Delyagin was not.
Not only were his remarks cut -- he was also digitally erased from the show, like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo.

"except in certain limited circumstances.."
-uhm. no thanks.

We had a Phil Spector story on our front page. Underneath? Results from our online poll saying that 92 percent of our readers believe that Spector killed Lana Clarkson. Our placement should have been better.

The LA Times gives some suggestions on what Paris Hilton should do next. None of them has her shutting up and going away. *sigh*

I should have blogged on this last week. The latest calls for assassinating the author by Islamic fanatics should have, as Tim Rutten notes, been loudly condemned by every writer, blogger, newspaper and editorial in this country. Instead, it was swept aside within the next news cycle. Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy, and the continued threatened and real violence to end it should prompt us all to stand up and fight.

While we are not out of the woods yet, there is a lawsuit, we're getting close to the end of saga of the' two campaign sign teens.'
"This case basically involves two opposing factions involved in a local election," Booth wrote. "The complaining witness/victim was one of the incumbents. The suspects were all backing an opposition slate" about says it all.
- So what do we know?
A mother paid her daughter and friend to put stickers on signs of her husband's political opponents.
One of those opponents decided to have them arrested.
Instead of a citation, police actually arrest the girls.
Mother calls everyone, including us, to put a tale of abuse of power in the paper on the air.
That succeeds. (eventually)
City has a sign ordinance that is used to charge the girls, but the law is ambigous, possibly unconstitutional, and never really abided by. Except in this case.
DA declines to file charges.
Police refile charges.
Teens file lawsuit.
DA again declines to file lawsuit.
- Have I missed anything? I think the only one coming out of this looking good is the DA's office.

And what did Claremont learn from the reaction that Pomona received when it sent a threatening letter to a local blog? Apparently nothing.
From the DBulletin: "Former Claremont Mayor Diann Ring said she thinks the blog in her city is potentially heading toward litigation as well.
The Claremont Insider - also penned by an anonymous blogger - writes about Claremont city officials and the "goofy, too-serious, power types that run most of the town's service organizations, charities and city commissions."'
-- This all started with local blog Foothill Cities getting a 'cease and desist' letter from Pomona for posting reasons about its city manager resigning. It was overreaching by the city. And that's just from the experts. The city of Fontana should be the model for how to deal with blogs with the mayor and others posting: "Fontana's Director of Public Works Curtis Aaron also logs into the forums with regularity and answers the residents' questions.
"Most of 'em are usually people speaking out about something they don't understand or are frustrated with," Aaron said. "If there's something going on there that's an issue, we don't wait for it to get out of hand. We keep an eye on the blogs, and ... we can get on it right away."'

I'm not a lawyer, but Glenn Reynolds, from Instapundit and Eugene Volokh are law professors. The point they make about the cease and desist letter sent to Foothill Cities is why did a city attorney get involved: "Even assuming Alvarez-Glasman has a legal leg to stand on here -- which is far from clear -- why is the City Attorney making legal threats on behalf of a private interest? Because the city has no interest in not being libeled, and the City Manager's interest is a personal one. Does the City Attorney routinely do personal legal work for city officials?"

I went to a talk by David Wallis the other day on the scarcity and slow demise of the cartoonist. I'll post more on my thoughts on that later.

Our state Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, (left) gets locked out of his office when state Sen. Don Perata, president pro tem, decides to act like a juvenile.

As I said earlier, the arrest of two teens caught defacing a politician's sign apparently hanging in a public right of way, which would make it illegal, was a minor story for us. Now I see on the local CBS news that there are people protesting the arrest. This on top of Saturday's L.A. Times oddly written story. Sheesh. Sometimes you never know what people are going to rally around. I'll post the video if I can find it.

Roiled..er..not really. Unless of course you read the breathless prose of this LA Times story today.
"The 18-year-olds, Keleigh Marshall and Christina Giammalva, set out the night of Feb. 19 to engage in some mischief by putting stickers on the political signs of Glendora elected leaders. The stickers read, "This sign violates Glendora city ordinance," a reference to Glendora's law prohibiting campaign signs on public property.
Notwithstanding that law and an accompanying set of rules that regulate the placement of campaign material, the same council members who passed the regulations appeared to be violating them — and thus the protest by Marshall and Giammalva."
Notwithstanding that it's only later that you find out that Marshall is the daughter of a former council member, this reporter obviously accepted that the teens were just "protesting" the signs placement not the candidates themselves. Remember, when John Harrold, Paul Marshall and Richard Jacobs were recalled, Clifford was one of the people who replaced them and was supported by the group that was behind the recall effort.
We did a short story on the arrest, and after looking further into it decided it was a type of story that is blown out of proportion before it's near an election. There are many unanswerable questions and possible motivations. Politics as usual indeed.

Updated: put some added details in. Because we have a dumb pay wall for archives, I pasted two stories after the jump that gives some additional informatin on the recall, and other possible explanations for the "protest." Notice the attorney's name as well.

You gotta be kidding me.

Homeland Security committee: "Jefferson insists he has an honorable explanation, which he will provide when, and if, he's charged with a crime"

Will they just make up their minds?

According to AP, founder of the Minuteman Jim Gilchrist who has since been fired and accused of embezzlement, filed a lawsuit, saying the " the firings were illegal and that board members also illegally spent Minuteman money, seized its Web site and stole 20,000 pieces of letterhead."

I didn't see the “The Lives of Others," but Pan's Labryinth was the best movie, in a weak year, that I saw from last year.

Of course, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber may not be done.

Now here's a man who gets it. And another one.

"This was my best weekend yet at an All-Star game," said Miami guard Dwyane Wade. "They know how to put on a show here. They know how to do it … just a fabulous weekend everywhere you went.
"Every party was just amazing. The people out here were very excited about bringing basketball to Las Vegas, as well they should be. Hopefully, we can work it out and it could be a common stop. I would love to make this a common stop."
Which one would that be? this one, that one or maybe this.
But at least they are thinking of their future.

What if we fired all our reporters tomorrow and depended on volunteers and community newsletters for our information? I a big believer in citizen journalism, and there are already blogs slowly covering the happenings in parts of the San Gabriel Valley. But they complement the newspaper, they can't replace it. There are stories, such as the ones we are doing about Gary Miller, that take time: piles of document reading, multiple phone calls and continual rewrites. Local breaking news may be a perfect spot for local residents armed with videos and phone cameras. An all-volunteer
army benefits the military, but it would be disastrous for the news.

For the LA Galaxy, it's a good way to garner fan support. Have open tryouts and allow less talented or unproven soccer players believe for a weekend that they can make a major league team. But forcing 800 hopefuls to pay $130 for the privilege is crass. This is the same team that signed David Beckham to a $250 million contract. They reportedly extended two players hopes for another week. Meanwhile, the team pockets about $104,000, gets free publicity and
sinks a little lower to the level of other pro sports teams that squeeze everything they can from the fans.

Judge-Elect Lynn Diane Olson will be heading our way and will be presiding over cases in El Monte. Doesn't ring a bell? She owns a bagel shop in Manhattan Beach, was rated as "not qualified" by the LA County Bar Association and beat well regarded Judge Dzintra Janavs in a June election. Janavs was later appointed to an open seat by the governor (via LA Observed and heads up to Rod Leveque)

I have to admit I would have love Barry Zito for the Mets. He would have been a great addition as we dealt with an aging staff. But not for $126 million dollars. Unbelievable. I saw the tail end of the first pitcher to go over a $100 million. It was ugly. The Mets reportedly would have gone as high as $80 million for Zito. Is it worth $46 million to flounder and never make it the World Series? We'll see.

Congratulations! You are the Time magazine "Person of the Year."
(nothing like getting the joke from someone else)

No offence, but hearing about the whining and gloating of the rooms that the people paid to be built is just a little irritating.