June 2007 Archives

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-Aziz on TV a few days ago:

"Brother, are you aware that your sons who go to Iraq are used only for bombings? They are the ones who carry out the bombings. It is not just me who says this, but also the Iraqi officials, including the Iraqi interior ministers that I have met.

...The Saudis are brought [to Iraq] in order to carry out bombings. ... Who are the ones who die? Are they senior officials? Are they soldiers in any army? No. The ones who die are innocent men, women, and children. Would you be pleased if your sons became tools of murder? This is the reality. Moreover, those who escape being killed come back here with deviant ideas, and they try to implement them in our society. Hence, security activity is insufficient if it is not accompanied by ideological activity. This is a virus in the body of this nation, and if we do not kill this virus, if we do not reach, diagnose, and kill it – it will remain. The men of the security agencies amputate a decaying organ in this body, but who should fight this deviant ideology, if not clerics and sheiks like you? I refer especially to the preachers and imams of the mosques."

And who would be president of a newly joined continent? Why, fearless -- er, feckless -- leader Moammar Gadhafi, of course, who has said Africa must "unite or die."

Still crazy after all these years...

Well, Bridget, I would say you and I really don't disagree. It was the Germans' obstructing the filming of "Valkyrie" that I objected to. But now, it seems, they've given that up. Which is to say, they're no longer using the powers of the state to discriminate against someone (Tom Cruise) on the basis of his religion. They just think Cruise and Scientology are creepy. No argument there.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call to revoke King-Harbor Hospital’s license is nothing but crass political granstanding. Arnie didn't lift a finger to help King when he had the chance now he wants to jump on the popular, but silly, and misguided Dump King bandwagon. His grandstanding is even more ludicrous in light of the fact that the hospital management has taken major steps to correct the deficiencies in the care and treatment of patients many of which have not been publicized or acknowledged. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also gave King-Harbor a passing grade on the actions it’s taken to date and have not cut-off funding.

Schwarzenegger has offered no viable alternative for the thousands of poor, underserved residents of South L.A. that rely on King for medical needs. Schwarzenegger should back off from his call to revoke King’s license and support the ongoing efforts of King’s management and staff to further improve services. After all, Arnie, don't you have more important things to worry about, like running a state!

Off biking through the beautiful Bay Area, then on to Napa and the Anderson Valley. Going to practice our Boontling. As we spin along on our tandem bike, under blue skies and with gentle breezes, under soaring gulls and improbably stately snowy egrets (Egrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention), my wife, the Fair Helenkela, murmurs, “Why do terrorists issue warnings on the net before trying to trigger explosions?” Kind of breaks the mood, but it is a fair question. It has a good answer, though not “good” in the moral sense.

Terrorists, aside from being cruel, violent and sociopathetic, are also terrible liars. They know that other terrorists are also terrible liars. There is no honor not only among thieves but also among terrorists. They do know, however, that their fellow terrorists would take credit (a perverse concept itself for the destruction of innocent lives) and rob them of their hard-earned achievements in destruction.

If I issue a threat to do a specific act, it is not so that society can be on alert or defuse the bomb. It is simply that by predicting the event, I can attach the name of my outfit to the carnage without fear of some other sociopaths grabbing the billing. It’s all about credits.

I don’t want to think about terrorists while getting away from it all. But there really is no getting away. As Joe Louis said, “You can run but you can’t hide.” But I’m going to try anyway.

We know that some time, some day we will get hit again. We just don’t know when, where or how hard. We also don’t know how this will make us feel or what we will want to do. All the pundits in the world cannot accurately predict whether when hit we will do what Spain did and retreat, withdraw and all but apologize or if we will more resemble England and keep going about our business.

Will we run towards the anti-war movement believing that neither Iraq nor homeland security has made us safer or will be go into full battle mode and look for some place to bomb?

I don’t know the answer. I do know that the chatter level is high and the 4th of July is an attractive and iconic moment. We will not be biking across the Golden Gate on Wednesday.

... or at least sympathize with the German position on the Scientologist playing anti-Nazi hero Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. The German defense ministry now says it has no qualms about allowing shooting of the film "Valkyrie" at German military sites. The International Herald Tribune has some feedback from Germans, including Josef Joffe, a German journalist: "Stauffenberg for Germans is like Jefferson and Lincoln, motherhood and apple pie all rolled into one. Germany is a country of established churches, and so Scientology is viewed as a cult and, worse, totalitarian and exploitative. A professing Scientologist in the role of Stauffenberg is like casting Judas as Jesus. It is secular blasphemy."

And, probably of more profound influence, Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg, the eldest son of Count von Stauffenberg: "Scientology is a totalitarian ideology. The fact that an avowed Scientologist like Cruise is supposed to play the victim of a totalitarian regime is purely sick."

Furthermore, I understand the Germans' sensitivity to cults. Why, they believe, replace one sordid history of fascism and mind-control by opening the door to more fascism and mind-control? It's for this reason that until recently they banned (along with several other EU nations) Sun Myung Moon from coming into the country to brainwash youths. Whereas the West goes with the PC term "new religious movements" for some of these groups that preach some sort of eventual world takeover or goal of ideological uniformity, the Germans, because of history, look at the cults in a whole different light. From a thought-provoking piece on the anti-cult movement in Germany:

"They are far too reactive; they see all new religions as bad; but, there is good reason, in Germany, for seeing some new religions as bad. This needs to be remembered, and taken into account, when we try to assess what is happening in Germany. Anyone who wants to persuade the Germans that they ought to treat Scientology, the Unification Church, or any other group better than they do, has got to remember the past. In pleading for tolerance, it is important to make very clear that the groups for which one is pleading are not genuine enemies of the constitution, who are trying to destroy the constitution, because these people do exist."

... and it might as well be me.

I'm amazed at the lack of a public outcry over the German government's efforts to stop the making of "Valkyrie" -- a film about the life of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Berlin's objection is that Stauffenberg, a German hero, would be played by Tom Cruise -- who is a Scientologist. And the Germans don't like Scientologists.

Now l make no apologies for the cruel joke that is L. Ron Hubbard's ridiculous sect. And I could understand why Deutschland would forbid shooting the film on government property if it were a promotional video for "Dianetics." But there is no church-state separation issue here. "Valkyrie" isn't about Scientology, it just so happens to star a Scientologist. Instead, this is a matter of religious freedom, with the German government discriminating against Cruise -- and everyone working with him on this project -- because of his religion.

Somehow, all this gets a pass from the chattering classes, probably because Scientology does little to elicit much sympathy. But imagine the hue and cry if, say, the Bush Administration tried to block the making of a film because its star were a Muslim, or even an atheist.

For a country with a vile history of mistreating religious minorities, you would think Germany would try a lot harder to respect religious freedom now. Or that the world would be more quick to condemn its intolerance.

If you were worried about the absence of FF blogger Earl Ofari Hutchinson, fear not. Earl just wrote in:

got so bogged down with King and Hilton that my blogging slipped as Arnie says I'll be back!

And that's good news. FYI, Jonathan Dobrer and Mariel Garza, both getting some well-deserved rest, will also return shortly!

We're sorry to report that Farfour, Hamas TV's answer to Mickey Mouse, has martyred his mouse self, thus moving on to meet up with 72 furry virgin rodents in the hereafter. From AP:

"A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode Friday.

In the final skit, 'Farfour' was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a 'terrorist.'

'Farfour was martyred while defending his land,' said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed 'by the killers of children,' she added."

MEMRI documented a previous, less fatal Farfour show, where the Mickey ripoff advocated the caliphate while his human counterparts blabbered " We will annihilate the Jews."

This would be insanely funny if it wasn't so sad that Palestinian kids' heads were being filled with this crap on a daily basis.

Haaretz, by the way, had a good piece last month on "Hamas' latest conquest: The Walt Disney Co."

Our friends at one of our NorCal sister papers, the San Jose Mercury News, are floating an idea so hideous we can only hope it fails to migrate down this way. The idea is "Drive the Speed Limit Day," which should be pretty self-explanatory.

Drive the speed limit? Drive the freaking speed limit?!? I wish I could drive the speed limit! As it is, I'll be lucky if I can go 30 mph on the 101 Freeway tonight, fighting holiday-weekend traffic.

Rest assured, on the rare chance I am able to (safely) exceed the legal limit, I won't be listening to the good folks at the Merc, but to the legendary Sammy Hagar:

When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.
And I can't get my car out of second gear.
What used to take two hours now takes all day.
Huh - It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.!

Go on & write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license n' all that jive
I can't drive 55!

... had no idea that it was physically as well as monetarily. This from the Houston Chronicle --

Four women who worked for Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s former subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root have filed federal lawsuits against the companies, claiming they endured sexual harassment and, in two cases rape, while working in Iraq. Attorneys say their clients encountered a sexually-charged atmosphere where women were repeatedly demeaned and solicited for sex despite reporting harassment to supervisors. The lawyers for women in the alleged rape cases say they are turning to the civil courts in part because they haven't been able to determine whether federal authorities are pursuing criminal prosecutions. KBR would not comment specifically on the cases, but a spokeswoman said sexual harassment is barred. Before being deployed to Iraq, all KBR employees are briefed on the company's code of business conduct, which "strictly prohibits sexual harassment by KBR employees," said KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne.

P.S.
It's good to know that KBR has a policy against sexual harassment, now if we could get them to work on that rape thing.

... any regime that sits atop an ocean of oil, yet still needs to ration gas to its rioting citizens, should have no trouble crumbling all by itself.

So while our mayor is out saving the world, the mayor of Philadelphia is up to something somewhat more pedestrian: He's waiting in line to buy an iPhone. And his constituents are taking advantage of the opportunity to give him an earful -- chewing him out for standing in line on a workday, rather than doing the city's business. The mayor, however, swears that, thanks to modern technology like the iPhone, he can do his work just as well on a street corner as he can in City Hall. (Great! Let's shut down City Hall!)

Oh, how fun it would be to see Antonio face his constituents in a similar manner. Of course, that would never happen here in L.A., where city pols have staffers to go wait in line (or babysit, right Rocky?) for them.

Come on, Philly, you call that a mayor?

Patrick's take on the death of immigration reform reminds me of this classic:

"Their boots make a cracking sound when they walk. Why don't we call them crackers?"

Over in the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Graham has a theory as to why Nancy Drew -- aged 16 to 18 in the original novels -- was made to be just 13 in the new movie: So she wouldn't have to be a skank. Writes Graham:

When Edward Stratemeyer invented the character in the 1930s, Nancy Drew followed the formula of the other books in his fiction factory: no touching, kissing or violence, according to Marvin Heiferman, co-author of "The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys," which chronicles the series' success. But when was the last time you saw a chaste 18-year-old in any Hollywood production? Quick, Nancy: Look 13.

In the books, Ned Nickerson, Nancy's "special friend," is a hunky college football player. Theirs is a chaste relationship; they dance sometimes and take strolls in the moonlight, but rarely do they even kiss. In the movie, there is no mention of college, and boyish Ned is little more than a sycophantic satellite for Nancy. They share one kiss, and it's fleeting and sweet, in one of Mr. Fleming's few nods to the original. But for a movie heroine to be sexually innocent these days, she can't have graduated from ninth grade yet.

What's more, Graham notes, whereas in the novels, Drew was celebrated within her community for being virtuous and smart, in the movie -- set in today's L.A. -- her exceptional ways make her an outcast:

At Hollywood High, with all her virtues, Miss Drew is a dweeb; this is a fundamental change in the character, even more so than her shifted age. Though she triumphs over the multiply pierced mean girls by the end of the film (Hey, I can perform an emergency tracheotomy with a pen, can you?), the young impressionable sorts to whom the film is marketed get this message: If you are a child of virtue, you will never fit in.

A sad message, although probably a realistic one that teens would do well to ponder: In today's youth culture, it's hard, if not impossible, to be both good and cool. So choose wisely. Would that our teens produce a lot more Nancy Drews, and far fewer Britney Spears.

The smoking-gun, slam-dunk evidence of Phil Spector's guilt came forth in in his trial yesterday, and, surprisingly, it was offered by the defense. I refer, of course, to the pathetic testimony of "expert" defense witness Dr. Vincent DiMaio, who delivered this exceedingly lame argument:

Look at Mr. Spector," DiMaio said at one point, drawing jurors' attention across the courtroom to the frail, diminutive defendant. "He has Parkinson's features. He trembles."...

"She was 25 years younger, 7 to 9 inches taller," DiMaio said. "She outweighed him by 25 pounds and was in better health than he was. ... Her reflexes would have been greater. Her strength greater."

Um, yes, doc, she was taller, younger, stronger. But he had a gun. I don't care if Lana Clarkson was built like Arnold, if Phil could pull a trigger, she would be no match.

If this is the best the defense can offer, it might as well throw in the towel now. The "Lana was stronger than Phil" line of reasoning is about as persuasive as this crazy picture above, which I found here.

Another advocate for local government from Friday's Daily News' letters ...

Mayor AWOL
Re "Mayor lobbying for immigration" (Briefly, June 27):

I understand that our stealth mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, and his entourage were in Washington, D.C., again — this time to support the Senate immigration bill. Isn't the L.A. mayor supposed to stay at home and take care of local matters?
I recall when Antonio was spending a lot of time in Florida working with the Kerry campaign while he was being paid to be a full-time L.A. councilman. I hope all of this is remembered when he is looking for votes again.

Gordon Brown just took over from Tony Blair as British prime minister, and just got his first shot across the bow with an attempted car bombing in Piccadilly Circus (above). From what they're saying on Sky News right now, the driver of the Mercedes that carried an explosive device crashed into a Dumpster just as nightclubs in the neighborhood were about to let out for the evening, then jumped out and ran away. They also noted that the anniversary of the 7/7 tube/bus bombings is swiftly approaching, and that this weekend is the big Concert for Diana. Scotland Yard won't comment on reports (which apparently are circulating widely, as I got such reports in my e-mail before I even knew about the story) that in addition to the confirmed gas cannisters in the vehicle, it was also packed with nails for maximum impact.

Of note to me is how the terrorists stepped up to the Mercedes. It attracts less attention from residents who probably expect terrorists to blow up a Dodge Neon, and shows greater cash access than some wayward wannabe terrorist kid crying in his malt vinegar while working at the fish-and-chips stand. Plus, it pretty much rules out the IRA -- no self-respecting Irishman would blow that much money on a demolition vehicle when he could spend it on suds.

I'm a big fan of scary films, and "1408" tends to evoke one of the best ones, "The Shining" (both being Stephen King stories). Besides offering lots of good, genuine frights, this film proves two very important points:

a) Carpenters music IS the root of all evil. I knew it!

b) Samuel L. Jackson can still drop a silky, lyrical F-bomb like no one else.

(That's star John Cusack, by the way, listening to James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"...)

So the James Blunt song that my last boyfriend had christened as the top radio tune that made him think of me has just been named the "Most Irritating Song Ever."

There are no words...

In her Larry King interview, Paris Hilton complained that her jail strip search "was ... the most humiliating experience of my life. I never had to do that in front of somebody you don't even know. It's pretty embarrassing."

Surely it is, Paris. But more embarrassing than starring in a widely released, widely viewed sex tape?

"It's pretty gross taking your clothes off in front of someone," Hilton told King, evidencing a new-found sense of modesty. Well, better late than never.

In his thoughtful reflection on the Supreme Court's affirmative-action ruling, Jonathan raises the prospect of people trying to fake membership in this or that race in order to achieve certain benefits. Jonathan writes:

If you think that I am being unrealistic and people won’t petition to change race to get benefits, you haven’t been paying attention to highly motivated parents who are getting their kids diagnoses of attention deficit disorder in order to get them more time on tests.

True enough. Also witness those who suddenly decided they were "Native Americans" after tribes were allowed to open casinos. Or, personally, I have a friend who has one white parent and one Asian one. When he applied to college, he carefully kept the Asian parent a secret -- and marked "white" on all the forms -- knowing that Asians, generally, are discriminated against in admissions, for fear that there are "too many" of them in higher education.

Is this healthy? Getting people to obsess over ethnicity, to deny their own family members and heritage? I'm with Jonathan, I don't want a government that looks at me as a member of a race, rather than as an individual.

Whatever happened to the content of our character?

Former spy + judo champ = bad boy for wonkettes! But the polonium 210 thing was a definite turnoff -- I mean, you couldn't even feel comfortable drinking a Diet Coke next to the guy...

P.S. Viktor Yushchenko was hot -- especially with that orange scarf -- until he got poisoned.

I marched for integration, picketed for fair housing and contributed time and money to the Congress of Racial Equality. I may shock you in writing that I think the Supreme Court got it right today in ruling that the use of race to determine admissions or placement in public education is the wrong way to advance the agreed upon social benefits of integration. I believe that Justice must be blind and the scales should not be tipped by considerations of race. When the blindfold slips, history indicates that Justice is diminished.

I grew up in a liberal household and was taught that racial discrimination was wrong. I grew up being taught that the use of race or religion (we didn’t know the word “ethnic” back then) in public accommodations, school admissions or employment was both wrong and dangerous.

I saw the films of the bodies being bulldozed in the Nazi death camps following WWII and knew that most were Jews and had been murdered because they were Jews. I was taught that Jim Crow was a symbol of great and continuing evil and that Negroes (this is way before Black and Afro-American came into use) were oppressed and had every bit the talent, intellect and potential as any other group.

My very first act of civil disobedience occurred in junior high school when I applied for a summer job and the form asked for a picture. I knew that pictures were used to discern the race of an applicant and so I refused. I have continued to refuse to check the box, now apparently legal, asking my race. I always check “other” and write “human.”

The question of race was always used to keep minorities and the less powerful out. Quotas made sure that even liberal institutions didn’t get too “dark” or Jewish. Back then, the establishment didn’t worry about Asians or Hispanics. Today, they do. They worry about universities being too Asian and not Hispanic enough. Tragically, there is still the problem that our major institutions of learning and industry fail in outreach to African Americans.

As a matter of fairness it seems instinctively right to try to make good, to remediate our all too real sins of commission against people of color. But there are two very major problems with our good intentions. One has to do with the logic of learning.

I wish Bridget would find better heartthrobs. Benjamin Netanyahu is just another failed politician. No land for peace he says during elections, then he gives Hebron to Arafat. No negotiating with terrorists he howls and negotiates with Arafat in the Wye River Accords. Terrorists are scum he says and goes to the Israeli celebration of the 60th anniversary of the King David Hotel terrorist bombing by the Irgun (organized by former Prime Minister Menachem Begin).

Nope, Bridget can do a lot better than Bibi.

Well, never mind that Congress is too inept to craft a passable immigration-reform bill, even though the need for some kind of reform couldn't be more clear. Neither that august body's ineptitude nor its dismal public-approval ratings -- 14 percent, according to Pew -- was enough to dissuade our pols from taking a pay raise. In its typical backwards way of doing things, the House voted yesterday against not giving itself a raise -- that is, it voted for a pay hike -- $4,400 per pol, bumping up salaries to about $170k a year.

Only politicians could think: "Hmmm, we do nothing, and our constituents hate us. Clearly we deserve more money!"

Ah, remember when Democrats were promising that things would be different when they took over, that we'd get a more honest, less self-serving government?

Remember the immortal words of The Who: "Meet the new boss -- same as the old boss."

I may be a little behind the times, but thanks to the Daily Show I just discovered Conservapedia , the right-wing fundamentalist Christian version of Wikipedia, started by homeschool students in 2006 to counter the rampant "liberal bias" (what most of the world calls "common knowledge") of the popular online encylopedia. In fact, Conservapedia's own study found that Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the American public. Six, people! That's, like, a lot.

Conservapedia is filed with information with Christian values and fun facts such as:
"Anal sex can be an important risk factor for intestinal parasitism." Who knew?

The page operates with this mission: Principals first, facts later.

We have certain principles that we adhere to, and we are up-front about them. Beyond that we welcome the facts

Senaturd: (noun) An elected U.S. representative characterized by political craveness; a person whose actions helped stall immigration reform for another year, a politican whose fear of pissing off one group of angry constituents acheived the result of takign an action that pleases absolutely no one.

Another year, another failed attempt at immigration reform.

A reluctant warrior from Thursday's letters to the editor.

Conserving water?

Re "Dealing with drought, sizzling summer" (June 7):

We have been asked to start being more conservative in our water usage. I think that any effort to further reduce the water used by my family will be put on the back burner until there is some sort of a moratorium on building in this city. We are asked to conserve, but it seems that those efforts are only to feed into the new apartments and condominiums that are springing up in every square inch of open space left in this city.

What good is conservation when the influx of new people will only further burden our diminishing water supply? I will not further reduce my water usage in order to squeeze more people into our already overburdened landscape.

I have just a few words for Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, pictured left: Head On -- apply directly to the forehead!

Hugo, by the way, is in Russia to go submarine shopping. And he's just been analyzed as a malignant narcissist with a messianic complex. Big surprise there!

(In the case of his chin fur, literally.) From the Moscow Times:

"A man formerly held in the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was killed Wednesday in a shootout with security agents in Kabardino-Balkariya, the Federal Security Service said.

...The statement said (Ruslan) Odizhev was a suspect in the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk and that he took part in a 2005 attack on police and government facilities in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya. That attack left 139 people dead, including 94 militants.

The FSB said Odizhev was the 'spiritual leader' of Yarmuk, an Islamic extremist organization connected to an array of violence in the region.

The regional prosecutor's office said Odizhev was killed in Nalchik and that three homemade explosive devices were found on his body. ...Odizhev was one of seven Russians released from Guantanamo Bay in 2004."

Late Tuesday, before my column on Daniel Pearl went to press, I double-checked the Reporters Without Borders Web site, confirming the statistic of 47 reporters killed thus far this year. Peeking at the site a few moments ago, I saw the number had gone up to 50.

Hey, I didn't say it was about something serious or anything like that...

Goof on Dick Cheney as you will, but Wonkette observed a few years back that Lynne Cheney appears to be a pretty lucky woman...

And I wouldn't call Bibi Netanyahu a "strongman"; I'd call him a "realist". Now that's hot!

A NY TImes/CBS poll found that young Americans between 17 and 29 are much more likely to lean left and are crazy optimists. Gives an old Gen X liberal-lite slacker like myself hope for the future.

Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee writes about how California's GOP Congressional delegation has developed a sudden penchant for redistricting -- despite opposing it just a few years ago. Gee, what could have changed their minds? Walter explains:

They know that Democrats would still control the Legislature and that it's likely that a Democrat would be elected governor in 2010, thus giving their partisan rivals almost total power over their political careers. Democrats could grab five or six GOP seats, and they might be inclined to do so if they believe they need those seats to maintain House control in the 2012 elections.

Such base political considerations, by the way, are also why the state's Democratic Congressional delegation now opposes redistricting. Neither side gives a fig for fair elections; they just prefer whichever system will help them out, fair or not.

This whole saga reminds me of the disingenuous debate over filibustering we saw in the Senate a few years ago, where (then-majority) Republicans acted like the filibuster was an assault on democracy, and (then-minority) Democrats pretended as though it were a sacred practice. Anyone doubt that the parties have flipped positions on that matter since then?

And they'll surely flip, spin, and fudge on redistricting countless times again -- all the more reason why they shouldn't be trusted with the process in the first place.

Bridget might be crushing on the Israeli strongman, but my heart belongs to the Orginal Dick -- the smokin' hot Vice president Cheney who doesn't let anyone push him around. He certainly doesn't let any executive oversignt weenies tell him what's what. Cross him and you better leave town. Look at that scowl! Does he want to kiss me or shoot me in the face?

And don't even get me started on Papichulo Gonzo. Nothing says sexy like a little torture in the afternoon.

Northwest Valley Councilman Greig Smith today has introduced a motion calling for an audit of the city fleet of vehicles and a comprehensive review of City policy on fleet vehicle use _ which would include all those of his council colleagues and their staffs

Hmmm, it will be interesting to see if the L.A. City Council is willing to have anyone examine this particularly precious perk -- free car or SUV, free gas, free maintenence. Not a bad deal.

Just an reminder that it was a city-owned car that got City Attorney Rockey Delgadillo in so much hot water

Although it generated much less controversy this year than in years past -- perhaps because everyone is so fixated on immigration reform in Washington instead -- State Sen. Gil Cedillo once again proposed his yearly bill to give driver's license to illegal immigrants. But the the bill was quietly killed earlier this week. That legislation has died more times than Freddy Krueger.

Give One Bill Gil credit: The man is persistent.

Now we can only hope Washington will come up with a coherent plan to identify the millions of invisible people in our midst, because Sacramento surely won't.

This one comes by way of Dan Shaughnessy at the Boston Globe: What are the four colleges/universities that have produced both a U.S. president and at least one Super Bowl-winning quarterback?

Highlight the invisible text below to see the answer:
U. Michigan (Gerald Ford, Tom Brady); Stanford (Herbert Hoover, Jim Plunkett and John Elway); U.S. Naval Academy (Jimmy Carter, Roger Staubach), and Miami of Ohio (Benjamin Harrison, Ben Roethlisberger).

Remember the Subservient Chicken, that absolutely pointless yet time-sucking site in which sone dude dressed as a chicken would sumit to your every command? Well, for more politicially minded fools, uh, I mean folks, there's a new version, Subservient President.

He doesn't do much, but I think that was the point. You can get him to pick his nose, though.

I should add that the applause for the film at the CAIR screening was very lackluster; it seemed like it did not go over well. The CAIR rep on the panel also decried the film for showing that "torture's OK... it's never OK." The Pakistani captain in the film, clearly portrayed as a good guy, strings a guy up from the ceiling to find out who kidnapped Daniel Pearl. The movie pretty much makes clear that this is the only way the captain would have gotten the information out of the guy -- particularly as they were racing against the clock to try to get Pearl back alive. (Paramount PR later told me that, in real life, the captain became godfather to Pearl's son.)

In today's Daily News, Bridget gives her blessing to the new Daniel Pearl movie, "A Mighty Heart." Now, Bridget is, to put it mildly, no apologist for Islamist terror. So when she writes, "The film, although the product of less-than-conservative Hollywood talent, admirably resists descending into an anti-American screed," I assume she's right that it's reasonably fair in its treatment of sensitive issues.

So I was surprised to come across this oped from Youssef M. Ibrahim, denouncing AMH for giving "a free pass to terror." Key quotes:

My strongest reservation in "A Mighty Heart" is the absurd political correctness that permeates the film; its writers, producers, and directors do not even mention fanatical Islam to avoid offering offense....

If I were a Muslim who had just watched "A Mighty Heart" in a theater in Dearborn, Mich., Karachi, or Cairo, the only impressions that I would probably be left with is that the man got what he deserved and that Karachi is really one hell of a messy place. Beyond that, I would not have a clue that my Muslim compatriots had anything to do with it.

I haven't seen the movie, so I have no opinion on the matter, but I'm curious to see how this plays out. Perhaps Ibrahim's outrage squares with Bridget's observation that "both sides of the political aisle can find snippets of the script to make or break their preconceived assertions about war, terrorism and Islamic extremism."

In response to my column today on the Daniel Pearl murder:

"You ought to write more bluntly."

Then he says I should have seen Ann Coulter's "extremely detailed review (of "A Mighty Heart")... which was long enough to delve into some of the more sleazy themes." Natch! Well, truth be told I don't read Coulter and have no desire to be another Coulter. I don't believe in writing something inflammatory just to anger your ideological opponents; but I've never been accused of not being blunt enough!

I know there's been a lot of picking at the movie over its portrayal of the Pearl murder, and for frankly not being as graphic and bloody as the actual murder was. For good or bad, the movie has a sharp focus on the people looking for Pearl, and we share the fear of the unknown that they all felt about not knowing what was happening to Pearl from hour to hour. To me, that seems the clear reason for not showing more, though they did have the option of replicating more of the beheading video at the end. Yet a good point I saw last night from a conservative writer: The movie was dedicated to Pearl's young son, and he'll be seeing it someday. Plus, with a few taps of the Google, viewers can watch the real Pearl beheading video -- and it ain't pretty.

He will be if a lawyer out in Whittier gets his way. Attorney Allen P. Wilkinson has filed three separate complaints about L.A.'s top law-enforcer, which, theoretically anyway, could result in Rocky's disbarment.

"He is a public official in charge of enforcing the law and he is committing what may be criminal acts," said Wilkinson. "This is just a matter of professional ethics. As lawyers, we should be held to the highest standards."

No argument there. Good to see someone trying to hold Delgadillo accountable.

...because he's a member of the NRA...

...then turns around and dresses her kid in an ammo belt and skull cap, and puts the photo (click here) on her Web site.

"Mommy, I wanna be like Zar-kee-wee!"

"OK, sweetie, just don't be a Republican. Now go pack some heat!"

John is going to die and he knows it. He knows it, not in the way we all abstractly know we are going, some day, to die. John’s sun is setting not over some far horizon but a near-by hill. On this sunny summer day in Encino, death’s dark shadow is falling.

Michael Moore’s new movie SiCKO looks at the problems and frustrations of our healthcare industry and how profit has taken both the care and health from our system. He also examines the uninsured and how everyone pays for them and they still don’t get first-rate care. A classic lose-lose. Moore’s new movie opening this week is coincidental to my subject. I learned about John’s condition on Saturday when I noticed that he seemed to be in pain and asked him what was wrong.

John has cancer and needs an operation. He has insurance but they have effectively just said no to his doctor’s request for the surgery to remove the rapidly growing tumor in his abdomen.

I wonder what medical insurance is for, if not to remove cancer. The answer is that the purpose of private insurance companies is to collect premiums and withhold services in the interests’ of their shareholders.

John’s insurance company did not exactly “decline” his doctor’s request. They are “studying” it and will get back to him. They are studying the policy to death—John’s death. One immutable law of medicine is that the dead don’t need benefits.

Since I've just accused Chris of having a crush on Paris, I will air my own personal crush: I've got a crush on Bibi. Benjamin Netanyahu, unlikely to ever land in a Lynwood jail, is smokin' sexy, particularly when he tells Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to shove it where the sun don't shine. I'm still working on the YouTube video to properly air my crush and get equal time on Fox News.

That's right, I own all four seasons of "The Simple Life" on DVD. Chris' obvious crush on Paris notwithstanding, he makes the point about Darfur coverage not making the front page. As someone who writes about Darfur and Vietnam and Iran and Turkey and the EU and all that crap that many American readers have to be beaten over the head with to get their attention, I also find the focus on trivial news (and the live jail-to-mansion coverage on TV at 1 a.m. this morning) frustrating. Conversely, as someone who writes about death and destruction and terrorism and fanaticism and political prisoners, it's nice to escape once in a while by popping on a DVD about Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie trying to make it on a farm in a podunk town. Mindless reality TV can be fun, and lots of news consumers probably have the same affection for mindless celebrity news, judging by the success of TMZ.com (my hat's off to Harvey Levin, whom I remember as the guy who asked people in Times Square what they thought about cases during "The People's Court").

But if could put a hard-news spin on Paris' contribution through her reality TV work, it would be this: Through her travels on "The Simple Life," she has helped expose the ugly bias that exists across the Heartland against Californians. We may talk with funny accents, wear colors and use the words "like" and "hot" a seemingly excessive number of times, but dammit, we're people too!

Our ever-articulate president, speaking at a press conference about whether comprehensive immigration reform means amnesty:

You know, I've heard all the rhetoric -- you've heard it, too -- about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.

Everybody got that?

From Mike Peters' cartoon series Mother Goose and Grimm.

Hah! Sucka.

If you're reading this now it's because the headline intrigued you. (Legal disclaimer: the headline of this blog item is not true in any sense and merely used as an example of sensational coverage about celebrities intended to point out out bad media behavior. Paris Hilton never ate my baby, because I don't have one. Furthermore, If I did have a baby I strongly believe that Ms. Hilton would refrain from eating it, because that's wrong and gross.)

If the headline was Darfur warlord ate my baby, chances are no one would car. Don't warlords always eat babies? Yawn.

I'm not blaming you for getting excited about Ms. Hilton's outrageous behavior. In fact, I blame me and my media cohorts for preempting coverage about things that might really affect your lives for "breaking news" about what Paris was wearing when she was sprung from her three-week county jail stay, what she learned from that life-changing experience, whether she had any new jail tats to show off and all the endless jabbering about whether the incarceration would change the wealthy heirress.

I'm sorry. I really am, but.. but.. ANNA NICOLE'S BUTT INFECTION!.. Ack! Sorry. I just can't seem to help myself... ANGELINA JOLIE HAS A FAKE LEG!... GEORGE CLOONEY HAS OPINIONS! ...BRAD PITT. BRAD PITT. BRAD PITT....aaaaaaaa

I'm thinking about today's L.A. Times story about the proliferation of cell phones in state prisons, this line in particular:

Some of the cellphones are smuggled in pieces, secreted in packages, books and body cavities. Multiple people can use the same phone.

On a less scatological note, isn't this problem easily fixed? Doesn't technology exist to block out cell-phone frequencies? Why not put that technology to use in our prisons?

Allow me to posit a conspiracy theory, using the Oliver Stone method of logical deduction...

Q: Who stood most to gain from Paris Hilton's release today?
A: Rocky Delgadillo. No one's talking about him and his wife any more.

Q: Right. And who's most responsible for Hilton's being released today, and not three weeks ago?
A: Rocky, I guess, seeing that he was the one who demanded to have her put back in jail after Sheriff Baca sprung her early.

Q: Shrewd, no? He engineered to have her released at precisely the time he would need a media distraction.
A: But how could he have known he would need a media distraction? I mean, he didn't know all his skeletons would come tumbling out of the closet this month.

Q: Unless he was the one who opened the closet door, so to speak.
A: Huh? Why would Rocky reveal his own dirt?

Q: He could have his reasons.
A: What reason would he have for wanting to make his wife look like a scofflaw and a flake?

Q: Ah, you've answered your own question. She cheats on her taxes. She gets him into trouble. She wrecks the car. She looks a lot worse than him in all this, no?
A: I guess, but why would he want to do that?

Q: Politicians are funny that way. Besides, marital problems do seem to be common in City Hall these days.
A: Maybe, but in the process he's destroyed his own political career.

Q: Or has he? What if he could somehow get everyone to forget about all this damaging information after it's served its initial purpose --
A: By getting us all to focus on Paris instead!

Q: Ah, now you see. (Cue: music.)

From an intra-office debate this morning arises the question: Who's fault is it that we (meaning America, collectively) are Paris Hilton crazy? Why are we so absorbed with this trivial story?

One school of thought says, it's the media's fault. The press gives us 24-7 Paris coverage, so Paris is all we talk about.

I take the opposite point of view: The press gives us what we want, for better or for (much) worse. Here at the Daily News, we see which front-page designs sell more copies, which online stories get the most hits. And it ain't the ones about Darfur. You can say the media should strive for more than the lowest common denominator, but then again, we're also striving for a steady paycheck.

To which the blame-the-media types respond: We only want Paris because that's what we've been trained to want. Our appetites are shaped by our culture, which, in turn, is shaped by the media.

I can accept that -- to a degree. No doubt, the more pop-culture garbage we ingest, the more of it we crave (kind of like fast food). But we still always have the option of not indulging, to "just say no," as it were. I, for one, don't troll the net looking for Paris coverage. I've never purchased People magazine. I have no interest in watching her interview on Larry King.

Of course, I am part of a small minority of dorks. But it's a free country, and I retain my free will, MTV or not. And as long as huge portions of the society continue to crave Paris, huge portions of Paris will continue to come our way.

As Gov. Arnold trots about the globe, hob-nobbing with foreign dignitaries all too eager to bask in the glow of his celebrity -- I don't remember Gray Davis getting the international VIP treatment -- some folks back home are complaining. The Daily News' own Harrison Sheppard reports:

Some critics think the governor ought to spend more time in California focused on domestic problems -- especially when there is a wildfire burning near Lake Tahoe and a constitutional deadline for the state budget approaching in less than a week -- and less time running around the globe as if he is a world leader....

A small group from California Young Democrats protested the governor's trip on the grounds of the Capitol on Monday, releasing a statement headlined "Schwarzenegger Fiddles in France While Tahoe Burns" and delivering "Wish You Were Here" postcards to his office.

My favorite quote comes from Bob Mulholland, California Democratic Party hitman and arguably the most partisan person in all of Sacramento (and that's saying something!):

It's just all about Arnold. It's not about the people of California. And if he stays there long enough, he'll see the smoke from the Lake Tahoe fire blowing over Europe.

Give Bob his due -- he always has the best lines.

Interesting, to me, though, that L.A.'s biggest political stars -- Arnold, Antonio, Bratton -- all choose to get out of town as much as humanly possible. What does that tell us?

So I realize the Mexica Movement is taken worth a grain of salt by basically everybody, and weighed whether or not it was worth giving them any more ink to address their recent libelous statements about me. Their first reaction to my column on the Mexicas was in the form of two letters to the editor, one to the Daily News and one to the Daily Breeze. The letter writer, Carlos Cordova, said that I wrote for WorldNetDaily.com, which I never have, and finished with a grossly insulting insinuation that my piece was tied to white supremacist groups. The Daily News cut those parts from the letter before publication, yet the Daily Breeze ran it in full. After I contacted the Daily Breeze about the letter-writer's errors, they graciously ran a correction in the next issue.

Looking at the Mexicas' most updated post about my column, Cordova's latest letter contains extra tidbits that apparently were not included in his drafts to the newspapers. While keeping the erroneous WorldNetDaily reference in there, he adds that I contribute to Jewish World Review's Political Mavens -- which is true; other "notoriously right-wing" contributors include former Mayor Richard Riordan, director David Zucker and "24" producer Joel Surnow -- and adds a reference to Klan bastard David Duke at the end, again suggesting collusion.

In an updated intro on their site, they state that I support "white supremacists" and have "ties to white supremacists." This, of course, is pure libel, and purely disgusting as well. In context, though, this group will call anyone who is against illegal immigration or in favor of immigration reform a white supremacist, realizing that vile phrase has a lot of bomb-throwing power. All racial or ethnic supremacist groups, groups that practice the belief that their race or ethnicity is superior, are equally evil and deplorable. This includes white, black, and Mexican or indigenous groups. All racism is bad. "White power," "black power," "brown power" -- all bad.

And for the record, I support the Senate compromise legislation on immigration reform. Needless to say, the Mexicas' assessments of my supposed allegiances and alliances are so off base there are no words to describe it.

Jonathan raises a good point about the "bong hits" case, but it seems to me an over-reach to see the kid's banner as "religious" speech, just because it happened to contain the word "Jesus." Indeed, the school's complaint was that the banner could be read to endorse drug use -- not that it promoted a sectarian message -- and as such, the Court ruled that the school had a legitimate reason to censor.

That said, it's amusing that the justices who lined up in support of "Bong Hits for Jesus" probably would have ruled against the kid in a Potomac heartbeat had his banner had simply read, "John 3:16."

This is what I love love love about new media: On Sunday, I was chatting with St. Louis blogger Gateway Pundit about how we might drum up publicity for the case of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest and editor of a pro-democracy publication in Vietnam who was recently sentenced to eight years in prison (and not the first time he's sat behind bars for the cause of freedom). An hour later, the People's Democratic Party chairman and I were discussing creating a Web site to get the word out. By last night, the new blog was up and running. I love the Internet age!!

Click over and learn more about Father Ly. The image of guards clapping a hand over his mouth at his trial (as he said "Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam!" after the sham guilty verdict was read) is being widely circulated around the Web, much to the chagrin of the regime. We turned this image into the sidebar bug that you see, and hope as many bloggers as possible will stick it on their sites. We like to call that "igniting a blogstorm" in the name of freedom and democracy!!

They say that bad cases make bad laws and the Bong Hits for Jesus kid is a nearly perfect example. Yes, his signage was rude, disrespectful and meant to annoy. It succeeded on all counts. But here’s the problem. This case did not line up with the usual suspects fighting each other.

You see what was at stake wasn’t simply free speech but the ability of schools and government to regulate religious speech. The narrow question was whether this kid’s right of religious expression could be abridged by the schools. Some very non-liberal religious groups lined up on the side of the kid’s rights, but certainly not the content.

For example: The American Center for Law & Justice (founded by Pat Robertson), Liberty Legal Institute and the very conservative Rutherford Institute. They objected to the tone of the protest but filed amicus briefs to protect religious speech from being labeled as disruptive and banned.

Spokane's Spokesman-Review has stopped running columns from the New York Times' house "ethicist" Randy Cohen. The reason, as Mariel noted last week, is that Cohen was violating his own employer's ethics policy by giving money to political campaigns.

The best part of the story, though, is Spokesman-Review features' editor Ken Paulman's satirical take on how Cohen would answer his own ethical conundrum, were it posed by a reader:

Q: My employer has a clear policy against campaign contributions. I think I should be exempt from this policy and allowed to make donations, because I don't see any difference between this and other forms of civic involvement. What should I do?

A: By all means, ignore the policy, quietly make your contribution, and hope that no one finds out. If you get caught, agree to abide by the policy in the future, but don't acknowledge any wrongdoing - you'll be able to rationalize it after the fact.

H/T: Best of The Web Today.

The Supreme Court issued two notable free-speech rulings today. In one, it struck down the provision of the McCain-Feingold Act that bars some political advertising in the final weeks of a campaign. In the other, it ruled against the kid who unfurled a "Bong Hits for Jesus" banner above his high school (and, coincidentally, later got busted for selling pot).

Makes sense to me. The First Amendment's free-speech clause is, first and foremost, about protecting political speech -- especially during election season -- not protecting the right of some teenage punk to act like, well, a teenage punk.

Chris is right that the major sin is Cheney signing off on torture. However, Halliburton and Libby form part of the context of Cheney’s view that laws, presidential directives, subpoenas, and the Constitution itself, do not apply to him. The theme is lawlessness.

Among the great ironies of the Cheney Administration (He is, after all, his own unique branch of government, being, he claims, neither wholly executive nor wholly legislative) is that for a self-proclaimed conservative, he breaks most of the key values of classical conservatives. He is a moral relativist, believing that if he believes it is good, it is good. If he believes it serves his interests, it is permissible—maybe even mandatory. He is a Jacques Derrida follower in the extreme having deconstructed the meaning of the Constitution and re-assembled it to say what he believes. There is no objective truth, only opportunities to advance what he believes are in his, therefore President Bush’s and therefore the nation’s interests.

Torture? Well, it isn’t torture if he doesn’t believe it’s torture. Discomfort? Okay. Distress? Fine. Fear? Of course. You can bend the prisoner, strain the muscles and ligaments, and if a bone breaks, well, accidents happen. It should be fine, so long as you didn’t intend to break the bone. Intent is everything. Law is nothing.

No records. No memos. No compliance. No accountability. But there is a pattern.

If you want a real reason to fear Dick Cheney, this is it:

The subject now was more elemental: How much suffering could U.S. personnel inflict on an enemy to make him talk? Cheney's lawyer feared that future prosecutors, with motives "difficult to predict," might bring criminal charges against interrogators or Bush administration officials....

In a radio interview last fall, Cheney said, "We don't torture." What he did not acknowledge, according to Alberto J. Mora, who served then as the Bush-appointed Navy general counsel, was that the new legal framework was designed specifically to avoid a ban on cruelty. In international law, Mora said, cruelty is defined as "the imposition of severe physical or mental pain or suffering." He added: "Torture is an extreme version of cruelty."

The Justice Department delivered a classified opinion on Aug. 1, 2002, stating that the U.S. law against torture "prohibits only the worst forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" and therefore permits many others.... Distributed under the signature of Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, the opinion also narrowed the definition of "torture" to mean only suffering "equivalent in intensity" to the pain of "organ failure ..... or even death."...

That same day, Aug. 1, 2002, Yoo signed off on a second secret opinion, the contents of which have never been made public. According to a source with direct knowledge, that opinion approved as lawful a long list of interrogation techniques proposed by the CIA -- including waterboarding, a form of near-drowning that the U.S. government has prosecuted as a war crime since at least 1901. The opinion drew the line against one request: threatening to bury a prisoner alive.

I wish we would spend a fraction of the energy, time, and money we've wasted over the trumped-up Valerie Plame case looking into the administration's immoral and illegal torture policies.

If there were a disease that caused excessive hubris in politicians, Rocky Delgadillo would have it bad. But eh wouldn't be the only California pol. In this week's Viewpoint column, I invent such a disease as a way to explain the incresingly odd behavior of some of our leaders

Since Mariel had so much fun smacking me about for what she believes was the mischaracterization of "No Guns" as a gun-control group, I can't help but respond to her characterization of the GOP as a "rabid" anti-immigration party. After all, two leading voices on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform are the GOP's last national candidate (Bush) and the man who may be its next (McCain). Here in California, the state's top Republican (Arnold) is also no strident immigration critic.

Michael Kamburowski -- the illegal Aussie / GOP operative -- is, according to the Chronicle, "a former registered lobbyist for Americans for Tax Reform and a top operative for the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, both founded by conservative activist Grover Norquist." And Norquist, it should be noted, is also no anti-immigration fanatic. Here's what the decidely right-wing WorldNet Daily had to say about Norquist two years ago:

Norquist champions an extreme libertarian view about illegal immigration – essentially advocating open borders without regard for the associated security, financial or social implications. He makes no secret of his contempt for conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly who rightly disagree. He told the New Yorker, "I think Phyllis's theory is: Foreigners suck."

Say what you will about these Republicans' attitude toward immigration, but there doesn't seem to be anything hypocritical (or racist) about it.

The party of immigrant bashing shows its true colors, or rather how color influences the rabid "send 'em all home" rhetoric it now employs. Apparenty not only does the party not condemn the millions of WASP immigrants in this country illegally, such as all those Candadian doing the comedy jobs Americans don't want, it hires them!

This from the SF Chron:

Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party's chief operating officer, abruptly resigned Sunday -- less than 24 hours after The Chronicle reported he had been ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and now has a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.

And it just keeps getting better...

Kamburowski is a former registered lobbyist for Americans for Tax Reform and a top operative for the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, both founded by conservative activist Grover Norquist. Nehring -- also a former senior adviser and consultant to Norquist's Washington, D.C., operation -- worked with Kamburowski at Americans for Tax Reform in the 1990s.

The Chronicle reported Sunday that court records indicate Kamburowski, who arrived in the United States in 1995, was ordered deported by U.S. immigration officials in 2001. He was jailed three years later for about one month at the Wachenhut prison in Jamaica, N.Y., in connection with the immigration matter, according to federal court documents.

How psyched is Lt. Gov. John Garamendi that Arnold is traipsing around Europe, hanging out with Tony Blair and some important French dude while Tahoe is burning down? Well, the LG is filling the leadership void with important words for those affected by the raging fire in the forests south of the big lake, signing important pieces of paper and holding press conferences.

Christine Peters, a neighbor, is one of the few people who is fighting LAUSD over a proposed new school in the heaily gentrifiying Echo Park area, which comes to the board again tonight (see press release from Peters after the jump). The LAUSD condemed homes just south of Sunset in order to build a new school even though all the evidence points to the fact that they don't need one there.

The local school has lost half of its attendence in over the past five years. Surrounding elementary schools have lost a lot of students. And there's already a vacant LAUSD school site a few blocks away. Why? Because the hispter professionals are displacing immigrant familes, and hispters can afford not to send their children, if they have any, to public school.

David Frum of National Review has written about his "conversion" on immigration. He used to favor a more liberal policy, but now he's become a restrictionist. Though I don't find the reasons for his change of heart compelling -- I think that rationalizing and liberalizing our immigration system go hand in hand -- I am heartened by his honest treatment of the many yahoos to be found in the anti-immigration fever swamps:

In the late 1980s, a group of self-described "paleoconservatives" had congealed around the magazine Chronicles. For them, the great issue was not incomes, but race. They mixed their ferocious hostility to immigration with savage denunciations of the civil-rights movement of the 1960s--and, for that matter, the Union cause in the 1860s.

The just-hatched Internet then started to sprout websites devoted entirely to the immigration issue. All too often, the immigration reformers decided to perceive no-enemies-to-the-racialist-right. They might be exclusionist at the borders of the nation; at their own port of entry, however, they lifted their lamp to welcome people who wanted to argue the intellectual inferiority of African Americans, or compared federal law-enforcement agents to the Gestapo, or insisted the Jews had brought the Holocaust upon themselves, or despised America's Spanish-speaking neighbors as inferiors and enemies, or dined with David Duke. Has ever a cause been worse served by its alleged advocates?

You'll recall that I wrote what was, I thought, a fair post on this subject a couple weeks ago, noting that the racists are to the restrictionist cause what the reconquista types are to pro-immigration groups -- a pox and a liability. But this observation generated some angry e-mail, in which readers complained that I was calling all restrictionists racists, which I explicitly did not.

It's nice to see a restrictionist admit the obvious: The movement needs to purge its own ranks -- for its own good and that of the country.

"Your Opinions" has space for repetitive trivial letters, but no space for my numerous serious letters.
So I cancelled my subscription and you can shove the "Daily Rag" up you editorial a$$.

Paris Hilton is due to be released at any time, and after her come-to-Jesus moment of twentysomething harrowing days behind bars (likely laughing at Rocky Delgadillo the whole way) she's determined to do something positive with her life. (After she throws down at Caesar's Palace with Jell-O shots and scantily-clad men, that is.) I thought that's what "The Simple Life" was, but apparently she's thinking more along the lines of helping kids with cancer or something like that. I, however, believe she could do a great service by starting a mugshot makeover service. Harvey Levin might have fewer damning pictures to run, but celebrity troublemakers everywhere would be eternally grateful:

(That's Paris' mug from her Sept. 2006 arrest, and Nick Nolte after dropping a hairdryer in the bathtub.)

The timing of this is particularly unsettling, as we've all been reminded of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and beheading in the movie "A Mighty Heart": After more than 100 days in captivity in Gaza, the al-Qaida linked group holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has released a video titled "Alan's Appeal." Johnston appears to be wearing a suicide bomb belt in the video:

"I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there is an attempt to storm the area. They say they are ready to turn the hideout into what they describe as a death zone if there is an attempt to free me by force."

The AP described Johnston as nervous, stressed out and "jittery."

When Israel rolled out of the Gaza Strip, al-Qaida elements rolled in. I doubt Hamas has cared till now, since they have a common goal of obliterating Israel. The militant elements and increasing lawlessness only fed Hamas' power and tunnel-vision goal of Israeli destruction. Gaza is the anarchist pit it is today because of Hamas, and if Alan Johnston is killed they will also have his blood on their hands.

God help Alan.

Our own Sue Doyle, out at the immgration-rights rally in Hollywood today, reports that only about 1,000 demonstrators showed up though organizers had predicted/expected 15,000:

"Turnout at an immigrant rights' rally was far lower than expected today, with many speculating potential marchers chose to stay home to watch the game between the Mexican and U.S. national soccer teams.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup rivalry between Mexico and the U.S. kicked off in Chicago at noon Pacific time, just as the rally began in front of the Kodak Theater."

The U.S. came from behind to beat Mexico, 2-1.

This as Bush hopes to finally score a "GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!" on immigration reform this week in the Senate...

(By the way, the photo's from the soccer game, not the immigrant-rights rally. You may have figured that out.)

"Chemical Ali" is going to the gallows, a small consolation for the people of Iraqi Kurdistan who lost 180,000 in the Anfal genocide. During the trial a taped conversation between Ali (who is Saddam Hussein's cousin) and Saddam was played:

"'I will strike them with chemical weapons and kill them all and damn anyone who is going to say anything,' a voice identified by prosecutors as 'Chemical Ali' Hassan al-Majeed is heard saying.

'Yes it's effective, especially on those who don't wear a mask immediately, as we understand,' a voice identified as Saddam is heard saying on another tape.

'Sir, does it exterminate thousands?' a voice asks back.

'Yes, it exterminates thousands and forces them not to eat or drink and they will have to evacuate their homes without taking anything with them, until we can finally purge them,' the voice identified as Saddam answers."

Kurds are rightly frustrated that the verdict today doesn't relate to Halabja, the chemical-gas attack that killed 5,000 townspeople in March 1988, leaving the streets littered with bodies including mothers clutching their children. (Many graphic photos of the slaughter and accounts can be found here, and I encourage everyone to learn more about this dark moment in history, and the darkest deeds of Saddam and crew.

It ended as we thought it might, and feared it would: Ohio mum Jessie Davis, set to give birth to a baby girl on July 3, was found dead, and the reported father of her 2-year-old son and unborn child, married patrolman Bobby Cutts Jr., will be charged with two counts of murder in her death. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that the toddler seems to have witnessed at least some of the crime, as indicated by his statements.

Listening to Fox News on Sirius on the way into the newsroom, I heard the head of the search effort confirm that their teams had not found Davis' body, lending credence to rumor that Cutts or someone else had led police to the body. I also heard a racial element brought up -- initial concern from the NAACP that Jessie would be found safe, and concern that no one would rush to judgment against the African-American Cutts.

But this isn't a racial issue. It's an issue of the intimate partner of a pregnant woman usually being the first suspect in such a slaying, the man with the most emotional involvement and most to lose or gain -- either from the new life, or from the mother and child's deaths. Cutts, who is also the father of Los Angeles model and actress Nikki Giavasis' child, has had a couple of legal dust-ups, though being a policeman himself. The facts will come out in the trial, and I hope that those who would use the trial to advance any sort of agenda will refrain from doing so.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet was greeted by protesters at the St. Regis Monarch Resort in Dana Point yesterday -- Vietnamese bravely speaking out against the communist government's abysmal human-rights record. "People in Vietnam, cannot speak, cannot express their feelings, so we here in the freedom land, we speak for them," Minh Vo of Lawndale, who took a bus to the protest, told KABC-7.

Think she's not being serious? Straight from the horse's mouth, Nguyen Duc Binh, ideology chief of Vietnam's Communist Party, has said, “Open discussion is dangerous."

Last night I went over to Paramount for a screening of "A Mighty Heart," the story of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter (and Encino's own) Daniel Pearl as related by his wife, Mariane, above left, who was portrayed by Angelina Jolie. (The other part of the tabloid twosome, Brad Pitt, was a producer.) The film, which opens today, is very, very good, and faithful to the facts of the case. Considering it was directed by Michael Winterbottom ("The Road to Guantanamo"), the movie resists descent into condemnation of the U.S. War on Terror -- in fact, in one scene where the Pakistani authorities hang a guy from the ceiling to obtain needed info about Pearl's kidnappers, the American security services official is clearly disturbed (though also says later that he, like many of us, would like to see Pearl's kidnappers and beheaders strung up and flogged). There are a few clips of Gitmo throughout the film, clips that related to the kidnappers' demands that the U.S. release terror suspects. The film was done before the hairified Khalid Sheik Mohammed claimed in March that he was the one who killed Pearl, but there was a footnote stating at the end that Mohammed reportedly committed the slaying -- and that he currently sits in Gitmo.

So the film was good. The panel discussion afterward was not. Hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the panel also featured a rabbi from the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting. If you're noticing a pattern, you're right: Pegged as a diverse discussion, it was instead people who all thought the same yet listed different religions on their curriculum vitae. My "date," Dan from Gay Patriot, referring to a recent report that CAIR's membership has dropped 90 percent since 9-11, wondered aloud if CAIR's entire membership was there in the Sherry Lansing Theatre.

I don't want to spoil my next column, so I won't go too much into the evening here. One highlight of the night, though, was a short address by the Pakistani consul general, who congratulated the film's producers "for finding the worst slums of Karachi!"

Sucks to be them, after a new Gallup poll showed American confidence in Congress at an all-time, pathetic low: 14 percent. To put that into context, Bush has also hit a new polling low, but still has 26 percent approval. AND the Gallup poll found that Americans had slightly more confidence in HMOs than Congress! Ouch!

That big, giant crashing sound you hear, by the way, is the "mandate" falling to the floor and shattering into little bitty pieces...

UPDATE: Chris wrote stuff on this earlier. I'm just coming back from my days off and a mind-numbing CAIR rally last night, so forgive me. Congress still sucks!

Gee, nothing like a few sharp words to draw some attention! Apparently my little repartee with Mariel (and to a lesser extent, Jonathan) today got the interest of the folks over at Mayor Sam:

There hasn't been a dust-up at any of the Times blogs yet to date that is like the one at the Daily News blog friendlyfire between lite-right Chris Weinkopf and resident Mexican American (her description, not mine) Mariel Garza.

It turns out that for people who write for print, both Chris and Mariel as bloggers are refreshingly incautious.

Hmm, I guess I'll take that as a compliment! Although less flattering is this response in the post's combox:

Boring! Mayor Sam delete post

That's because if you want the real heavy-duty sparring, you have to read our comboxes.

Chris raises good and valid points in his response to me. There is a lot of Democratic money. When you get rich enough, you can afford to be a Democrat again. For example when Bloomberg was only a multi-millionaire he was a Democrat. When he became a billionaire he went Republican. And now that he’s a multi-billionaire, he’s moving back towards the center. I’m sure following the 2008 election he’ll rejoin the Democrats.

The super rich business people give to both sides. They have to protect themselves. After Fox’s presidential victory in Mexico, I was interviewing a very wealthy industrialist and wondered if he were happy and proud that Mexico was finally a two party nation. He shook his head sadly and remarked ruefully that he was distraught because now he’d have to pay twice as much in bribes (the word he used was mordida. We call it contributions).

My own non-scientific polling on reaction to the news that media contributions are overwhelmingly directed at Democrats is that liberals say, “Of course. Bright, creative, educated people are going to more liberal than not.” Even I am willing to see this as hubris. There are lots of bright, articulate and creative conservatives. They are however, as a group, far too smart to try to earn their living in journalism and putting ink on dead trees.

Jonathan has written what I think to be a compelling argument for why journalists should give to the political causes of their choice. After all, better that one's biases be laid bare for all to see, and the public can judge the fairness of his or her work. I couldn't agree more.

Jonathan says it's "mostly conservative people" who are upset by this practice. That hasn't been my experience. The one person to complain about journalists giving to campaigns at this site is Mariel, and no one's ever accused her of being a conservative! As for what I've heard from actual conservatives, the complaint isn't about journalists' giving money to pols -- most, I suspect, would agree with Jonathan on this point -- but that the pols collecting the money here are overwhelmingly liberal. This, conservatives say, is evidence of liberal media bias. To which charge Jonathan replies:

Does anyone seriously think that if we were to search the political giving records of the publishers, owners, shareholders and boards of directors of the major media conglomerates that the vast preponderance of their contributions would not go to Republican candidates and conservative causes?

I'll bite. Yes, I do seriously think that the "vast preponderance" of their contributions would not go to Republican candidates and conservative causes.

Hey, in the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?" There's no need for Chris and Mariel to take up arms on this.

There are at least two distinct issues. One is the government's tradition of funding frauds in the "community" who siphon money out of the system and deliver wealth only to themselves. These programs tend to combine the worst of capitalism (greed) and government (inefficiency)--an unbeatable pairing. The other issue is the guns.

As someone who has hunted far more the Mitt Romney (an admittedly low bar), I do not hate guns. I once carried my ACLU card next to my NRA card. I would, however, prefer that we eliminate weapons from our streets that are only designed to kill people. Few hunters need Uzies or hollow point or armor piercing rounds to hunt anything other than people.

The NYTimes wonders today at the exploding death rate from gunfire in Oakland. It is no mystery. Gun deaths are caused by guns

Yes, it is true that people kill people, but guns, automatic weapons of large caliber, make it so much easier.

For the safety of all, let's keep high caliber weapons out of the hands of writers.

Mariel, I never characterized No Guns as a gun-control group. I characterized Big Weasel as a "voice" for gun control.

Anyway, you're right that TV reporters can engage in sloppy reporting, but as you've noted, they''re not alone.

Chris's evidence in the previous post backing up his incorrect characterization of No Guns as a gun control group (rather than a sham anti-gang program in LA) is pretty pathetic. Chris, really. One news story from a local TV station? You and I very well know that TV people often engage in sloppy reporting and this seems to be just that case.

C'mon. Just do like Rocky and admit you were wrong.

Mariel, please note that I never called No Guns a gun-control group, and I said that it worked on "anti-gang efforts." I was just pointing out the irony of Big Weasel's being a "voice" for gun control -- which is how he has been described in the press.

Anyway, this was no attempt to "craft evidence" for my argument -- unless you mean my argument that city gang programs don't work. I made no argument about gun control whatsoever, except to note the humorous irony (kind of like when Ted Haggard got busted for having sex with a gay prostitute). But I don't for a second pretend that the hypocrisy of one man damns an entire cause; if it did, there would be no worthwhile causes out there.

Big Weasel's actions reflect on him alone -- as should mine.

Sorry Chris, but I just have to call you out on the jab at some "gun control" group, in the entry below. "No Guns" might sound like a gun control org, but it's just a catchy name for a questional gang-intervention program in Los Angeles.

Sadly, I find this typical conservative knee-jerk reaction from gun nuts who craft evidence for their argument in places where it doesn't exists. This is case in point. Anyhow, the LA Weekly did a great story a few weeks back the group's founder.

Peggy Noonan writes about what she surmises to be the dark underside of Hillary Clinton's otherwise flowers-and-smiles campaign approach:

It is a new Web site called HillaryIs44.com. It is rather mysterious. It does not divulge who is running the site, or who staffs it. It is not interactive; it has one informative voice, and its target audience seems to be journalists and free-lance oppo artists. ...

Encouraging readers to send in "confidential tips," its primary target and obvious obsession is Barack Obama. "Senator Barack Obama (D-Rezko) is busy lately lying about President Bill Clinton" and "attacking entire communities." "We have written extensively on Obama, and his indicted slumlord friend Antoin 'Tony' Rezko. We have repeatedly warned David Axelrod, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama that this story is not going away." The Obama campaign is "still posing as innocents incapable of doing anything unsavory even as evidence mounts that unsavory is their favorite dish." "Dirty Obama Smear" and "Obama's Dirty Mud Politics" are two recent headlines.

This appears to be the subterranean part of Hillary's campaign, the part that quietly coexists with the warm, chuckling lady playing the jukebox with her husband. It coexists with the Maya Angelou part, the listening tour part, the filmed parts.

It is the war room part. I suspect the site is a back door to that war room.

Political Contributions by the Press
Jonathan Dobrer

People, well, mostly conservative people, are shocked, shocked that members of the press contribute to political parties, causes and candidates. This seems to violate some ethical duty to non-partisan objectivity and compromises what is left of journalistic integrity.

Journalists, according to this view, are supposed to be above the fray and be without passion, viewpoint or any demonstration of involvement with the issues of the day—both great and small.

Somehow, they seem to believe that Star Trek’s “prime directive” of non-interference is an ethical duty. Frankly, I don’t think this is even a close call. Journalists take no vows of political celibacy, nor are they bound to be indifferent to the moral issues of our time.

On the contrary, one of the great faults in journalism, in all media, is pretending to even-handedness. When an Op-Ed page runs two equal columns—point-counterpoint—it presents the sides as being of equal weight. This is often not true, and mainstream science, politics or ethical issues seem to be no stronger than fringe and marginal opinion.

This is mockery of “objectivity,” and the paradox is that these presentations imply that there is no objective truth. One idea is as true as another.

Add Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to the chorus of those defending Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for making the common-sense observation that watching Spanish TV is no way to learn English:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, told reporters yesterday that Schwarzenegger's view is shared by many first-generation immigrants, including about a third of the speaker's relatives.

“First-generation immigrants, when they come here, they either want you to speak your language and to keep you real close to your customs or they want you to totally assimilate because they don't want anyone to discriminate,” Núñez said.

“And Governor Schwarzenegger, I think, is simply expressing as a first-generation immigrant a belief that is prevalent among first-generation immigrants – it's the truth,” he said.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

An anguished Kathy Hilton loudly complained to Fox News show host Greta Van Susteren that her daughter spends long hours staring at the ceiling in her private cell at the Los Angeles County Jail. That ignited more public wails that since being dumped back in jail, Hilton continues to get the red carpet treatment. A relay of guards, psychologists, and doctors stumbled over each other to cater to her whims in her private cell.

This was not a totally bad thing. The public rage over Hilton’s royal treatment momentarily cast a flicker of glare on the plight of the hundreds of other women in the L.A. County jail that suffer mental disorders but don’t have a private room and a wave of doting jail personnel that deal with their medical needs. It’s not malicious or deliberate neglect on the part of authorities, or even that Hilton threw her privileged weight around to get upscale treatment.
The L.A. County jails do medical exams, intake screenings, and interviews to determine the proper treatment and medication for a prisoner. But massive overcrowding and the revolving door nature of prisoners coming and going in urban jails, makes it virtually impossible for jail authorities to provide private rooms or cells for any but the worst medical cases, or in Hilton’s case, the most privileged. L.A. County Jail is no exception to this rule. Though Hilton is a glaring example of the favored status that some prisoners receive, she’s hardly the only one. There’s a troubling pecking order in many jails that determine who get timely medical attention, and who doesn’t. That order is riddled with class, race and gender bias.

... because he's likely headed for the slammer. On gun charges:

LOS ANGELES - The founder of an anti-violence group called No Guns pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal weapons charges.

Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin is accused of selling an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers to undercover federal agents last fall. He could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

What's more, City Hall paid this big weasel $1.5 million as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts.

Gee, might this be a sign that City Hall's anti-gang programs aren't working?

"No More Kings" This one's for Emperor Cheney.

Praise for the Senate's vote to raise fuel-efficiency standards comes by way of Republicans for Environmental Protection, a group whose motto, as the above image shows, is "Conservation is Conservative." The REP press release says:

"The benefits of enacting stronger fuel economy standards are too significant to be ignored. This is one of the biggest steps that Congress can take to reduce the burden of high gasoline prices for the American consumer. It is also the best thing that Congress can do to ensure that Detroit's automakers produce vehicles that can compete in the face of high energy prices," REP Government Affairs Director David Jenkins said.

"There is nothing conservative about waste. Energy conservation, the practice of minimizing waste, is something every conservative should support," Jenkins said.

And, of course, there's also a foreign-policy argument to be made that reducing gas consumption would choke off the revenue stream for Islamist terrorists.

The New York Post reports that NBC will pay Paris Hilton $1 million for her first post-jail interview. Scratch that: News-gathering organizations don't pay for interviews, remember? They'll just probably pay her and/or her family $1 million for "help" assembling pictures or some such, and then Paris will just so happen to give them an interview. Jail will turn out to have been a rather profitable experience for the gal the Post describes as the "celebrity heirhead":

The "Today" windfall alone will mean $43,578 a day for her three-plus weeks staring at the four walls of the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, Calif., and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown L.A.

The Post has learned that the cunning con also inked a deal to sell her first photos to Getty Images,. They will run in People magazine, along with the first print interview, next Friday.

The Getty deal is worth a staggering $300,000, sources said.

The Post's headline, as usual, says it all: "So crime does pay, Paris."

I must confess I get a kick out of this Mötley Crüe (don't forget the umlauts) lawsuit against the band's manager. Among other things, the rockers seem to think that defendant made them look stupid -- which is pretty funny, as the band has done that just fine, all by itself, for two decades.

A follow-up to Mariel's post on reporters who give to political causes: The MSNBC survey found that: "Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties."

Really? Journalists lean to the left? You don't say! The report adds:

The pattern of donations, with nearly nine out of 10 giving to Democratic candidates and causes, appears to confirm a leftward tilt in newsrooms — at least among the donors, who are a tiny fraction of the roughly 100,000 staffers in newsrooms across the nation.

On what may or may not be an unrelated note, a new Gallup poll finds that only 23 percent of Americans have confidence in TV news (down from 31 percent a year ago), and 22 percent have confidence in newspapers (down from 30 percent a year ago).

But we in the media need not despair! We still rate better than Congress, which comes in dead last of all the ranked institutions, rating below even HMOs. Congress got just 14 percent of the public's confidence -- down from 19 percent last year, suggesting that the Pelosi Revolution hasn't done much to change the public's mind about politicians.

All of which indicates that the relationship between politics and the media is as dysfunctional as Tony Blair says it is.

* UPDATE: I originally misquoted the stat on Congress, it's since been corrected.

This week in my column I wrote about Hrant Dink (pictured), the ethnic Armenian editor who was assassinated in Turkey after angering ultra-nationalists with his acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. But there are other vital press-freedom cases around the globe that deserve attention as well:

ALAN JOHNSTON: The BBC correspondent has been held longer than any other foreign hostage in Gaza -- Wednesday marked his 100th day in captivity. Since Hamas took over the already lawless Strip, the outlook is even more grim for Johnston's safe return. The group claiming to hold Johnston reportedly has links to al-Qaida.

FATHER NGUYEN VAN LY: The Roman Catholic priest and editor of a pro-democracy publication was recently sentenced to eight years in prison, part of a government crackdown on democracy activists.

THE NEW YOUTH 4: Jin Haike, journalist Xu Wei, Yang Zili and freelance writer Zhang Honghai are serving from eight to 10 years behind bars for establishing the New Youth Society, writing articles that explored democracy and reform in China.

SAMIR SADAGATOGLU and RAFIK TAGI: In a case that I'm surprised hasn't cause more outrage, two Azeri journalists were imprisoned for an article in weekly newspaper Senet that was deemed insulting to Islam. The article, written by Tagi, explored the peace, tolerance and stability in European nations as opposed to traditionally Muslim societies. Sadagatoglu, the editor, got a longer sentence than Tagi. Both men are Muslim.

These short profiles only scratch the surface of the penalties faced by journalists around the globe for simply exercising freedom of expression. Read about more disturbing cases at Reporters Without Borders.

So my mom's freaking out about my upcoming trip to Tunisia, even though the last al-Qaida attack there was in 2002 and the government is providing extra security to our press party.

But let's face it -- the danger of North Africa pales in comparison to the danger of being pregnant! If it isn't some crazy person who wants to steal the newborn baby, it's a father-to-be who doesn't want the kid or some relationship strife or whatnot. After seeing all these cases, and noting that homicide is the leading cause of death for a mother-to-be after pregnancy complications, what can a woman say but "WHEW ... At least I'm not pregnant!"

In response to Salman Rushdie's impending knighthood, some Pakistani clerics have decided to honor Osama bin Laden. From Al-Jazeera:

"Allama Tahir Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, said on Thursday that the group would give bin Laden the title "Saifullah" - which means 'Sword of God' - for 'serving Muslims by waging jihad against infidels'. 'If Britain can give a knighthood to Rushdie, we too have the right to make awards to our leaders and heroes,' Ashrafi said.

He said that while he was not in contact with bin Laden, the reward would reach the fugitive al-Qaeda chief 'at an appropriate time'."

Like next Saturday at brunch? Not in contact -- whatever!

The really amusing part is that they're gleefully rubbing their hands together, thinking that this is actually a "we'll show them!" move. But whereas a novelist being granted knighthood results in death threats and overt approval of revenge suicide bombings, our response to Osama getting some silly award mainly elicits eye-rolling. Which is the normal reaction?

VP Cheney Not Executive Material

Vice President Cheney claims that he does not have to follow the rules that bind other members of the Executive Branch of government. We have always sensed that he believes the rules don’t apply to him. It is his unique rationale however that makes his regular rule breaking seem insipid and uninspired. His theory of why he doesn’t have to submit his records to the archives, and why it is fine and proper for him to destroy his phone records and visitor logs and not to protect secret information as others are mandated to is so creative as to be nearly admirable—as theory.

The Vice President of the United States is asserting that he is not a member of the Executive branch! Wow! A whole new “estate.” (And God knows he can afford a whole new estate, maybe even a whole state, on his Halliburton holdings.)

The argument is that the Vice President is not really wholly under the Executive because there are also Constitutionally prescribed Legislative duties, such a presiding over the Senate and voting in case of a tie.

In this original theory, he sets up a whole new way of achieving vice presidential supremacy—almost certainly not envisioned by the Founders. According to Cheney’s reasoning, the most powerful position in the American system is the Vice President, for in this office the Executive and Legislative meet. Like a Colossus, it bestrides the other two. Now, if he could only gain control of the Judicial, by putting his people in the Attorney General’s office and guiding Supreme Court nominations…

If this sells, the office of Vice President will be worth far more than the “warm bucket of spit” that Vice President John Nance Garner called it. In leaving the Executive branch, all Cheney would have to give up in trade for this unprecedented power, would be executive privilege. Might want to re-think this one.

Now they just need to invent a machine that can raise our kids, landscape our lawns, and man the drive-thru window.

The Wall Street Journal today features the text of a speech in which Tony Blair rips the media for its sensationalism and for blurring the line between reporting and advocacy. He offers some spot-on observations:

I was profoundly dismayed to read MSNBC's list of 144 journalists who have contributed to political campaigns . But even more than that, I was suprised that so many were newspaper reporters. You kinda expect that from TV people.

Shame on them. Rule No. 1 is not to enter into conflicts of interest. And I don't know what's more C of I than donatintg to a political campaign. Copy editors and designers are less shameful, but reporters covering the Iraq war? That's bad.

I did enjoy seeing LA Timesers on the list. I guess the general haughtiness of the staff there doesn't necessarily extend to ethical excellence. II'd like to point out with some smugness that there are no L.A. Daily Newers, and not just because they don't pay us enough to be giving any away. There aren't any MediaNews companies (which owns the DN) on the list either.

Special wag of the finger to Randy Cohen ethics columnist for The New York Times.

UPDATE: On closer reading, there were a couple Media News paper employees listed. My bad:

San Jose Mercury News, Rachel Wilner, sports editor, $250 to John Kerry in June 2004.

Wilner said her understanding was that the paper's policy allows contributions unless it would present the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif., Robert Taylor, fine arts reporter, $500 to the Democratic National Committee, October 2004.

"I write about visual arts for the Times," Taylor said. "I'm a features writer and reviewer. If I were a political reporter, I might have made a different decision."

Bridget may be bent out of shape about "Office Space" being snubbed on the AFI top film list, but there is a far greater outrage here. Its name is "Titanic" (No. 83 on the AFI list).

How can any movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio possibly be eligible for such an honor? Let alone one that inflicted an excruciating Celine Dion theme song on the world?

Really, "Titanic" had some awesome effects, but with its stock characters, cliched dialogue, and wretched plot, has there ever been a worse "great" movie? I mean, "Jurassic Park" had some snazzy effects, too, but no serious person would ever think of putting it on any "Best of" list.

Yet what always bugged me most about this overrated abomination was the ending -- spoiler alert for the one person who hasn't seen it. It's when the Kate Winslet character dies and goes to "heaven," where she is greeted not by her husband of half a century, or her kids, or her parents, but ... some guy she did on a boat 80 years ago.

Then again, seeing that she was being sent to spend eternity on the set of this movie, maybe it wasn't Heaven after all, but Hell.

From Thursday's Daily News letters:

Betrayal at the top

Re "It's official: 2nd term for Bratton" (June 20): As the wife of an LAPD officer, I am disgusted that Bratton was appointed for another term as police chief. He could not be more undeserving of this honored position. He turned his back on these devoted, hardworking officers when he did not stand by them after the MacArthur Park incident. It is obvious that they did exactly what they were trained to do. No wonder the morale is down in the department.

Being a police officer can be a lonely life for the officer and his wife and children. But nothing could be more upsetting than to have the "father" of the LAPD betray his "family." He let politics get in the way of performing his duty as police chief.

Again "Citizen Kane" is No. 1. Again a colossal snub for cinematic classic "Office Space."

I believe Orson Welles has Milton's stapler...

As a Catholic, this is how I envision confession now:

"Bless me, Father, for I have driven like a bat out of hell in the car-pool lane with no passengers."

"For your penance, say two Our Fathers and ride the Blue Line for a week."

Another defeat for Assemblyman Lloyd Levine: Not only did the Assembly fail to pass his euthanasia bill, but now Sacramento is actively working on initiatives to discourage suicide.

This is encouraging news. Far better to give the hopeless hope than to give them hemlock.

Police Release More Detail About Juneteenth Violence
By Jon Byman
"Some people think the violence takes away from the real meaning of Juneteenth."

Think so?

The news is buzzing with the story of a mob beating to death a motorist during Juneteenth celebrations in Texas. The AP reports:

An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl, police said Wednesday.

Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night.

The driver had stopped to check on the little girl at the entrance to an apartment complex when a group of men attacked him, authorities said. The passenger, David Rivas Morales, 40, got out to try to help the driver, but the crowd turned on him, said police Commander Harold Piatt.

Morales was beaten to death by as many as 20 men and left lying in a parking lot, Piatt said. A preliminary autopsy listed blunt force trauma as the cause of death.

The little girl, 3 or 4 years old, was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Now the AP mentions no races, but given that it was a Juneteenth celebration, it's quite possible the crowd was predominantly African-American. And the victim's last name -- Morales -- suggest he was a Latino. That doesn't mean race was a factor, but usually when a mob of one color kills someone of another, the story quickly develops a racial angle. We'll see where this one goes ...

* Update: A mob smashed up a car and beat up another motorist after a Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee. Once again, though, the news story excludes any racial details.

Everyone who's anyone -- or at least who is an A-list L.A. Latino politician -- will be at fake swearing in of Yolie Flores Aguilar tonight. Yolie, you may remember, is one of MAV's super ninja school reformers.

MAV himself (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, of course) will be doing the swearing in honors even though: 1) this is not a real swearing in; 2) MAV has no authority to swear in candidates; and 3) Yolie can't take office until July.

The event is, of course, symbolic of the not-at-all fake power that MAV now wields over LAUSD with his quorum. So, real or not, it counts.

Remember Tennie Pierce, the firefighter who claimed racism (and sought $2.7 million) because some buddies slipped dog food into his firehouse dinner? Well, it turns out that he's not alone in issuing seemingly overblown accusations. As the Daily News' Eugene Tong reports:

In a legal victory for the beleaguered Los Angeles Fire Department, a jury declined Tuesday to award damages to an African-American firefighter who claimed he suffered harassment and retaliation after he complained about racism in the agency.

Jabari S. Jumaane, a 21-year LAFD veteran now stationed at a midcity firehouse, filed suit in 2003, seeking more than $7 million. After deliberating a day, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided in favor of the city....

Jumaane, now 46, had claimed suspensions in 1999 and 2001 for poor job performance and violating department vehicle regulations were actually acts of retaliation for speaking out against racist depictions of African-Americans within the department.

But Deputy City Attorney Robert S. Brown argued that Jumaane's 1999 suspension came while he was an inspector and was found doing paperwork at the office rather than supervising brush clearance, and once failed to show up for work for a week without calling.

Apparently the court agreed with the city -- Jumaane got in trouble for his job performance, not for complaining about racism.

None of which is to downplay the various real and documented cases of discrimination in the LAFD. But clearly some opportunists have come to see the department's notorious reputation as an easy path to millions. By failing to police its own employees, the LAFD thus risks not only subjecting them to harassment, but itself to extortion.

In accepting his reappointment for five more years as chief of the LAPD, William Bratton remarked, "This is a city and a department we have come to love" -- which is pretty funny, given how much time he chooses to spend out of town.

Apparently absence really does make the heart grow fonder!

Jonathan raises the fair point that trying to determine who is fit -- or unfit -- to vote would be a risky process ripe for abuse. That said, we also get abuse now. When I was in college, I worked part-time in a home for mentally handicapped adults. One year, one of the supervisors drove all the residents to the polling station, and told them they had to all vote for Candidate A, because if Candidate B won, their group home would be shut down.

Still, I suppose I'm with Jonathan: I prefer the imperfect system we have now of letting all non-felon adults, competent or otherwise, vote, to a system in which the politicians themselves decide who's worthy. But let's not kid ourselves -- especially amidst all the breathless talk about electronic voting machines, etc. -- there will never be a flawless voting system, and there will always be abuses. (By both sides, too.)

More hair-raising revelations from Michelle Delgadillo's driving history in today's L.A. Times:

Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's wife has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court nearly nine years ago on charges of driving without insurance, with a suspended license and in an unregistered car, court records and officials confirmed Tuesday.

This saga has inspired me to tap my inner Weird Al, and come up with some new verses to the Beatles' classic, "Michelle":

Michelle, ma belle.
You are sweet tho you don't drive so well,
My Michelle.

Michelle, ma belle.
Vos voitures sont detruit, c'est terrible
C'est tres terrible.

I fear you, I fear you, I fear you.
No matter what road we're on,
When you're in the Yukon.

With all due respect to the Vatican's warm and fuzzy driving commandments, I have a list of my own which are more fitting for Southern California's incomparable driving experience:

1. You must not drive slow in the fast lane.
2. Secure the junk in the back of the truck. A stray ladder in the No. 3 lane can kill.
3. Don't violate the HOV by crossing the double yellow lines between the carpool land the rest of traffic.
4. Put the finger away. What would Jesus do if cut off? Probably not that.
5. Do not use your horn as a weapon.
6. Do not tailgate, unless they really, really deserve it.
7. Do not wait until the last minute to merge to that lane that's transitioning to another freeway so that you are forced to come to a stop and back up freeflowing traffic until you can get over. People who do this have a special corner of hell reserved for them.
8. Do not try to wash your windshield while at full speed on the freeway. Not only is it annoying to people behind you who get splatted, but it is dangerous to obscure your view for any length of time.
9. Do not throw your burning butts out the window. It is dangerous, illegal and incredibly ugly.
10. Do not take out your frustrations on other motorists. It is not their fault your life sucks.

OK, no complaining next time you don't get pretzels on an airplane flight. Your situation can't be anywhere near as bad as Collin Brock's. The Washington resident was on board Continental Airlines flight 1970 from Amsterdam to Newark last week when he "was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours." That's because, as the news story explains, "Passengers ... had to hold their noses for hours as sewage overflowed from toilets while they were high over the Atlantic."

Yikes. Sounds like the airline ought to change its name to Incontinental.

Thank you very much. (Click here here for rimshot.)

Lead letter from Wednesday's Daily News Your Opinion column:

Fox in the henhouse

Re "I'm sorry" (June 19):
Well, well, Rocky Delgadillo paid the money back. How big of him. I'm sure his conscience was bothering him - or maybe not. He just got caught. Did he pay for the gas used? I'm sure this was the first time. And this man is paid to do city business. And a GMC Yukon. How many of you can afford a Yukon? How many get free gas?
He and his wife should be in their cells next to Paris. You mean he did not know his wife had a suspended license? A lot of people are in prison who made "a mistake." As I see it, he lied, he cheated, and he stole.

- Allen Karpinski
Studio City

The Daily News opinion page this morning calls on L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's to turn in the keys to his city-paid car. Clearly, he and his wife are not to be trusted with city property.

Here's an excerpt:

The ultimate punishment that Rocky Delgadillo will receive for misusing his city SUV, lying about it and stealing from the public will likely be doled out on a future election. He's done more damage to his future career than his wife could ever inflict on his taxpayer-funded car.

Still, the city Ethics Commission may still devise some fitting fine or punishment. Meanwhile, Delgadillo should turn in his GMC Yukon - if for no other reason than to get it out of the hands of Michelle Delgadillo.

Not everyone is happy about Chief William Bratton getting another five-year term to lead the LAPD. In an op-ed column in the Daily News today, Xavier Hermosilla provides a litany of reasons why Chief Bratton didn't deserve to keep his job.

The great states of Maine and Rhode Island are in great states of turmoil pondering if the insane and demented ought to be able to vote. No. Really. I’m not making this up.

This is an issue that just begs for satire. I mean, it virtually writes itself, crying out for such cheap jokes as, “Why shouldn’t the insane and demented get to vote? After all, they obviously get elected.? This also begs for us to do polling in mental hospitals and see which candidates you’d, well, have to be crazy to vote for.

Cal State, UC, LACCD, LAUSD... all of these proud graduates are stepping on stages to receive their diplomas with much pomp and circumstance. So glad to see that al-Qaida got in the spirit of the season with their own suicide bomber training-camp graduation. There must have been a run on balloon bouquets and Class of 2007 teddy bears in Waziristan!

As Howard Stern said today on his Sirius show, "Did they get Bill Cosby to speak?"

This story gave me a new idea on how to fight al-Qaida from within: Enter the Delta Tau Chi pledge class...

Well, not exactly. But according to this report from E! News, FF's own Earl Ofari Hutchinson did try to meet with Paris Hilton -- or at least to give her a letter -- at her Lynwood jail on Sunday. Along with fellow members of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association and Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, EOH submitted a letter echoing a theme he has sounded here, that Hilton ought to speak out on behalf of female inmates:

Hilton, who has admitted to being "severely depressed" behind bars, needs to become "a poster girl for the mentally challenged," Hutchinson said.

I somehow suspect that's a title Paris won't be too eager to take on ...

Rosie O'Donnell is interested in replacing Bob Barker on CBS staple "The Price is Right." Intriguing. Can you imagine how that might play out? I have...

ANNOUNCER: Come on down, you're the next contestant on "The Price is Right"!

(Excited contestant, wearing an American flag T-shirt, runs down)

CONTESTANT: Hi Rosie!

ROSIE: What's with the shirt? Are you just here to rub your little brand of I'm-better-than-you patriotism in my face? I'll bet you voted for George Bush, didn't you? You think that being all proud of America justifies blowing up 1.2 million Iraqis? Did you ever think that the red on your little red, white and blue flag there represents the blood of the innocents from American imperialism? Like the 2 million Iraqis we've killed? Did that Hasselback broad send you??

* * *

ROSIE: OK, now you have to guess the price of this furniture set!

CONTESTANT #2: Umm... ummm.... $5,000!

ROSIE: What, do you think we're made of money? Do you think we'd endorse this nihilistic capitalistic system by featuring that fat-cat of a furniture set? We give them the publicity, you get the furniture, and they'll just probably turn around and give money to George W. Bush while millions of immigrants who are poor because of the Bush administration wait for the chance to make your chi-chi furniture!

* * *

ROSIE: Let's see what's behind the curtain!

CONTESTANT #3: Oh my God, it's a new car!!

ROSIE: That's right, we're giving you this gas-guzzler so you can fatten up the wallets of Big Oil as they rape the people of Iraq who were so much better under that dictator guy!

* * *

CONTESTANT #4: Cool, I get to play "Plinko"!

ROSIE: Who you calling a pinko? What kind of crazy right-wing fascist are you to call my social awareness communist? Did that Hasselback chick tell you to say that??

So Michael Bloomberg has bolted the GOP, a sign he may be considering a Ross Perot-like third-party bid for the presidency. Like Perot, he has mountains of cash to spend on his campaign. And like Perot, he could take votes away from the GOP -- although he's just as likely to steal votes away from the Democrats, too.

But there's a problem here.

Imagine an independent Bloomberg, running against Hillary for the Democrats and Rudy for the Republicans. See where we're headed? A three-way, all-New York race. (That is, if you can really call Clinton a New Yorker.) We'd also have three candidates who, despite differing bases and rhetoric, are actually not that far apart on most issues.

It's the political version of 57 channels and nothing on.

If Phil Spector is guilty of slaying Lana Clarkson, a lot of music industry feeders are guilty right along with him. Most of his biographies reveal a sick little fella who has been poking pistols in in people's faces for more than 30 years.

Spector was put on probation for a year in 1972 after pleading out to a misdemeanour of carrying a loaded firearm in a public place. He also pled guilty to a another misdemeanour of brandishing a firearm in a Beverly Hills hotel in 1975. That got him a stiff two years probation.

A string of music industry hustlers and celebrities got handguns stuffed in their faces. Hoping to do business off Spector or for whatever reasons, they did nothing about it. If they didn't want to call the cops on a sick dude, they could have had him committed for care. Do something, anything. But perhaps bizarre behavior is so common place in the field of pop music at the time that the incidences were no more than a good story to fascinate friends later.

Too bad Lana Clarkson isn't around to enjoy it.

L.A. Mayor Antonio V. apparently p-ed off NYC Mayor Bloomberg last night when he wasn't allowed as large a pro-him contingent at the Getty House's dinner because MAV had invited too many people to the party at his own house. It was tipped to the NY Post's gossip site apparently by a Bloomberg staffer. Oh, boo hoo. News to Bloomberg: When you are invited to dinner you should expect the host to dictate who the invitees are, not you.

Apparently, Bloomberg got over it enough to bask in the spotlight that follows the Governator and MAV around like white on rice, as you can see from the photo above.

The California Citizens Compensation Commission voted Monday to give 2.75 raises to state elected officials (except for Jerry Brown and Supe of Public Instruction, they get 5 percent raises). The new salaries range from governor at the top with $212,179 to the legislators at the bottom $116,208 . Don't cry for those poor legislators, though. Per diems add as much as $20,000 a year to their pay checks.

Looky here for a list of the new compensation levels

Names of the "citizen" commissioners after the jump. And by "citizen," they mean people who have benefitted from the state's political patronage system but aren't currently holding an elected position.

We're not talking chichis, but people who make spectacular public blunders and then compound them with even more spectacular blunders. That's a boob.

Today's word is in honor of Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo whose mishanding of his misuse of his city car was classic boobery.

After ducking questions for more than a week, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo admitted Monday that his wife was behind the wheel of his city-assigned SUV and driving with a suspended license when she damaged it in an accident three years ago.

His voice cracking with emotion, Delgadillo said he made a mistake and should have been more open about the collision and repairs. Under city policy, family members of employees are not allowed to drive city-assigned vehicles.

Consumer confidence in the Golden State has sunk to Gray Davis levels:

Californians' consumer confidence in the economy took a dive in the second quarter of 2007, plunging into the pool of pessimism by 19 index points.

Economist Esmael Adibi called the drop "astonishing" - the steepest he's seen since 2002 when Chapman University's Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research of Orange County began sending surveys to California residents.

Pain at the pump, despite recent price drops. Uncertainty over the housing market. Sticker shock in grocery stores. Those are among the conditions Adibi cited for the cold-water splash.

When people lack confidence in the economy, they spend less, the economy cools further, and ... tax revenues tank. All of which makes Gov. Schwarzenegger's tenuous budget plans look all the more ... Gray.

The 10 Commandments for Driving from the Vatican are actually translated from a far older document. Tragically, they up-dated the original. Here it is without the up-dates.
1. When saddling ass, make sure it is four-legged variety.
2. Always yield to a Centurian.
3. Speeds of over 5 miles per hour are injurious to thy health and that of thine ass.
4. All roads do not lead to Rome, some go to that bawdy house at Brendisi, which thou knowest well.
5. Middle aged guys do not look younger ridding a sporty ass bedecked in red.
6. Hold thy temper and resist road rage. Remember what Oedipus did when he lost it at an intersection? He killed the other guy—who turned out to be his dad.
7. Cardinal Rule: Always yield to a Bishop.
8. Drink not of the red wine before mounting. A pleasant rosé might be okay.
9. Don’t let your young children ride your ass.
10. Always yield to someone dressed in silks, ermine and gold. Could be someone important or thy wife’s strange cousin Sidney.

Immigration opponents riff on a TV-commercial classic ...

The Vatican has released The Drivers' Ten Commandments -- a document desperately needed here in L.A., the the motorists' version of Sodom and Gomorrah. The commandments are:

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

All in all a good list, although the translation to English leaves a little something to be desired. Anybody care to make any additions? I'll start with three:

11. Thou shall not apply make-up, talk on your cell phone, and eat a cheeseburger while trying to make a left-hand turn into four lanes of oncoming traffic.

12. Thou shall not drive 50 mph in the left lane.

13. Thou shall not scream at the motorist in front of you just because he or she had the good sense not to run that yellow light.

From Tuesday's Daily News Editorial Page

Burying the hatchet

Re Parks' crusade (Our Opinions, June 15):

You certainly did a hatchet job on former Chief Bernard Parks. Parks worked his way up in the Los Angeles Police Department and knows what some of the problems are. His criticism of Chief William Bratton along with others is certainly justified and should be addressed.

Chief Bratton's criticism of the MacArthur Park incident was deplorable. Here is a chief who wouldn't back up his own men and capitulated to the demonstrators. He no longer has the respect and backing of his officers and certainly does not merit being reappointed. Chiefs William Parker through Chief Daryl Gates were the pillars of the LAPD, and I'm proud of having served under them.

Retired LAPD detective

North Hills

Yes, the Iranian president has volunteered to serve as a human shield to keep the Natanz nuclear facilities from being attacked! When Mahmoud wakes up, of course:

Ahmadinejad said on Esfahan TV recently:

"If it helps you calm down, ask them just when they are planning to attack, and I myself will go to the people of Natanz, and we will sit down together in the nuclear facilities, and if they want to attack, they will have to attack us first."

Um, like that would actually keep anyone from attacking. "Don't fire -- you might hit Ahmadinejad!"

(Note & Confession: I wrote this, picked photo and put this up before crusing the site and seeing Birdgit Johnson's excellent piece--with virtually sdame photo--on same subject. Read hers!)

Salmon Rushdie is in trouble again, and the Muslim World is outraged. Leading Muslim scholars in Pakistan and Iran are calling for a renewal of the fatwa and death sentence given him 18 years ago. His crime then was his book, The Satanic Verses, which, they believed, portrayed Islam and the Prophet Mohammad in a bad light.

To our western sensibilities, ordering the execution of an author for religious reasons might seem to put Islam in a worse light than Rushdie’s novel. However, both Rushdie and Islam survived that crisis.

Now, however, the Queen of England has insulted Islam by recognizing Rushdie’s talent and accomplishments in the secular world. She has chosen to Knight the author. Religious authorities assure the devout that suicide bombing is justified to kill Sir Salmon.

This kind of attention is very bad for freedom of the press and a writer's peace of mind. It is however wonderful for book sales. Having bough The Satanic Verses 18 years ago and tried to wade through prose I found frankly turgid, I felt a bit cheated. Not so mad, however, as to have put out a contract on Sir Salmon.

Books beget death threats. Cartoons beget death threats. Going around unveiled, for a woman, beget, yes, death threats. Going around without a beard, for a man, beget, you guessed it, death threats.

There are habitually angry people who riot, issue death threats and burn flags (where do they get all the Israeli, American and English flags?). Everything makes them crabby. As a general rule if everything in the world is someone else’s fault and everything makes you go into a rage, you may have problems that are not about what you think they are about.

Having lived in the Muslim World very nicely, happily and been received with great generosity, I know that those radicals, those chronically offended, who speak in the name of Islam, do not represent Islam. They shame the generous hearts’ of the peaceful and compassionate.

Stuck in traffic? Unable to pull yourself away from all the Tivoed episodes of the Sopranos? If you missed the last Sherman Oaks Homeowners meeting no need to worry. Just check out the rocking NC video on YouTube. Up there now is a two exciting parts to Councilman Jack Weiss's recent visit with the SOHA. Yeehaw!

Bridget makes a good point about the limits of the anti-toy gun hysteria we see down in RPV. As a father of two boys, I've come to realize how absurd it would be to try to keep toy weapons out of my home, even if I wanted to.

If he had no toy weapons whatsoever, my three-year-old son would have no problem fashioning his own. Already, he fires his hand like a mock-pistol at unnamed "bad guys." He uses wooden spoons as "swords" with which he slays imaginary dragons. And even if we could somehow cut off his access to pretend weapons, that would not deter his enthusiasm for violence -- he loves tackling and wrestling anyone who will play along.

None of this bothers me, by the way. And yes, we let him play with toy weapons. (He bought a sword and shield from the dollar store, although he recently passed up a plastic gun in favor of a beach ball.) I'm not trying to raise a pacifist, I'm trying to raise a moral human being. And violence has a place in the moral order, namely, to protect the weak and innocent against the snares of the wicked. We authorize cops and soldiers, for example, to use violence to secure our rights, protect and our liberties and ensure the public order.

I'm not concerned about whether my son wants to play with toy weapons, but whether his play involves using them in the proper moral context. As long as his targets are "bad guys" and dragons, as long as he's pretending to be a soldier or a knight -- "I'm a good guy," he proudly boasts, "I protect people from bad guys!" -- then he's indulging natural boyhood fascinations in a way that's healthy and sound.

Blast away, kid.

Have you ever wondered how protesters, such as these Pakistanis PO'ed about Salman Rushdie's knighthood, get those flags so fast? No matter what the targeted country du jour, they always seem to have the appropriate banners at hand to torch and stomp upon. Like when the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten angered Muslims with the Muhammad cartoons: Suddenly, every corner of the Muslim world had a plentiful supply of Danish flags to barbecue. One of the most profitable jobs must be flag-seller -- watch your profits go up in smoke!

Speaking of Rushdie, Pakistan's religious affairs minister, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, said that knighting Rushdie would justify suicide bombings against Britain:

"This is an occasion for the world's 1.5billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision. ... If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so, unless the British government apologises and withdraws the 'sir' title."

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the insanity that defines our world today. Simply writing a book not only garners a fatwa, but is twisted into justification for slaughtering others as well.

by Jonathan Dobrer

Juneteenth is an under-appreciated holiday that has been of special significance to Black Americans, but should be embraced by all of us. Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of American slaves in Texas on June 19th, 1865. Freedom is certainly worth celebrating, and we can all take some measure of comfort that slavery was finally officially abolished in 1865. That slavery had ever existed in America is a lasting embarrassment for which our entire society is still paying. Slavery is America’s Original Sin.

There is more to the story of Juneteenth than the Texas slaves being told they were free and no longer subject to being sold, separated from families and abused as if they were not fully human. There is the question of the gap.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became law on January 1, 1863. That is when the slaves were freed. Somehow it took 18 months for the news to reach Texas. Even after Lee surrendered, it still took nearly six weeks before they slaves heard of their Emancipation.

At least some Texas slaveholders surely knew of the surrender, but still didn’t want to let their slaves go free.

The greater point is the gap that exists for all of us between what the facts are and when we really “get” the news. Sometimes the issues are trivial but when it is a question of freedom, time is of the essence.

When I was little, my mother took away the inch-long toy guns from all of our Star Wars figures in a move intended to promote nonviolence (which left Greedo, Boba Fett and others resigned to going mano a mano or doing battle with harsh language).

And apparently I grew up to be a big warmonger, so goes to show how the far the pint-size armament ban went.

The toy soldier ban in Palos Verdes reported by Chris is another in a long line of absurd bureaucratic cop-outs. I know that there have been elementary school children suspended for drawing pictures of guns. Can you imagine?

The artist Rene Magritte’s famous picture shows a painting of a pipe, and on the canvass is written in French, “This is not a pipe.” Seems pretty clear that it’s a picture of a pipe and not a real pipe. Trying to light up and smoke the canvas would not be a good idea. Most 5 year-olds get it.

Sadly, zero tolerance normally implies zero sense, judgment or responsibility. The not doubt well-meaning people at the Palos Verdes schools don’t have the sense of a 5 year-old and can’t distinguish a toy soldier from an armed terrorist.

Maybe written over the annual portrait of the PV school officials should be the words: “These are not educators.”

Five days later and everyone's still piling on the Governator for the ill-advised but genuine suggestion to turn off the TV in response to a reporter's question about how to improve exit exam pass rates among Spanish speakers. To recap, Arnold said they should turn off the Spanish-language television shows and put down the Spanish Language TV and turn on Three's Company and pick up the Daily News.

The latest person to use this for his own self-serving purposes is Phil Angelides, the millionaire grandson of Greek immigrants who is still quite sour about losing out last year to some teutonic meathead. In a e-mailed letters to newspaper editors, Angelides chides the Austrian-born Arnold for being mean, or something and for the "slap down" to immigrants. (Click here to read the PDF.)

The real question is not if Phil's right (he's not) , it's what office is he running for now.

Regardless of the larger issues of immigration, assimilation and heaving breasts on "La Eslava Isaura," Arnold's absolutely right, if not very delicate about it. And everyone knows it. Now, can we all just stop yapping about his non-issue and start worry about what the real meatheads in Washington are not doing about immigration?

from Monday's Daily News
No new car-pool lanes
Re "On the road alone in L.A." (June 14):

Your front-page story in Thursday's paper clearly illustrates the sheer folly of continuing to build car-pool lanes. I have said for many years car-pool lanes have never done what they were intended to do in Southern California. Your article supports this view.
The original intent was good. It was to encourage drivers to double up, removing many cars from the freeway. It has never happened. And now we have a master plan to widen the 405, seizing by eminent domain some 31 properties in the process. I say this is madness. I agree we obviously need to do something about gridlock, especially on the 405. However, another car-pool lane is not the answer.

At least that's what school officials in Rancho Palos Verdes think about these toy Army men, according to the Daily Breeze's report:

A fifth-grade promotion ceremony in Rancho Palos Verdes turned into a free-speech battleground Thursday, when students were asked to remove weapons from toys that had been placed on mortarboard caps because of the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons on campus. Each year, students decorate wide caps with princesses, football goal posts, zebras, guitars and other items to express their personalities and career goals. ...

On Thursday, before the ceremony, one boy was told he couldn't participate unless he agreed to clip off the tips of the plastic guns carried by the minuscule GIs on his cap.

Come on kid, inch-high homages to our soldiers in battle have no place in a public school! Put something on your mortarboard that your elementary-school officials may consider more appropriate ... like condoms.

Today's opinion page features an op-ed from former LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer, who -- with the help of $60 million from Bill Gates and Eli Broad -- is heading up a group that seeks to make education a top issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. All of which is fine and dandy, but it's humorous to see ol' Roy fulminating about America's high-school dropout crisis:

According to the latest "Diplomas Count" report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, more than 1.2 million students are dropouts. America's high-school graduation rate has slipped behind 18 other countries, and America's share of the world's college graduates has shrunk by half. Unless there is a dramatic shift, more than 12 million students will drop out nationwide over the next decade, resulting in a $3 trillion blow to our nation's economy. ...

America's education crisis will plague every family as income gaps widen and the economic security of our country is threatened.

Why, it's almost as though Romer forgets that he used to head up the nation's second-largest school district, which has the country's sixth-worst dropout rate. And during that time, when Romer was consumed with building new schools, the district did precious little about its dropout problem -- except argue about the numbers.

We could have used this kind of concern a few years earlier ...

Since Hamas seized control of Gaza and is continuing to make a big disaster of things there, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canned Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, outlawed Hamas militants, formed an emergency government, and concentrated on keeping the West Bank in one sane piece. Hamas whined that the move was illegal and tried to boost their P.R. by telling half-truths about their efforts to free BBC correspondent Alan Johnston from al-Qaida-linked forces.

Now, the U.S. is set to lift the embargo against the Palestinian government. Abbas will work with the Israeli government instead of trying to annihilate them. Gaza will continue to be poor, festering, violent, and more concerned with jihad than civil services. The West Bank will be able to flaunt its foreign aid at the Hamas Strip.

The big problem? Even more terrorist growth in Gaza, supported by Syria and Iran. Unchecked insanity. Time for a bold move -- like Abbas and Ehud Olmert uniting to strike Gaza.

China is crowing about the fact that 84 rare Siberian tigers have been born in captivity since March at a breeding center in the country's northeast Heilongjiang province. China also plans to "establish a gene bank for the endangered Siberian tigers within three years to ensure heredity diversity of the big cats" and release 620 of the tigers into the wild.

Surely before that point the Communist government will think it wise to implement a one-cub policy. After all, you can't have unchecked cub births being a strain on the country. Of course, this could lead to female cubs being killed in favor of males, and then you'll have a big lopsided male tiger population. Punitive sanctions, forced abortions, and general inhumanity could enforce this policy.

Of course, China may be content to treat tigers better than their people -- until, perhaps, they realize that Chinese women are becoming a rare species, as well.

The Italian designer died of a brain hemorrhage today. He was 62.

Our society quickly mourns the newsmakers, the political and religious movers and shakers, writers and orators who left tangible impacts on the world. But there's always a sense of loss for those like Ferre, who simply left the world a more beautiful, colorful, vibrant place by using his talents to the fullest.

Just look at Khomeini! (Who is dead, of course, but always looked mad, so fits this story well; as well as the fact that the ayatollah issued the fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989 for "The Satanic Verses.")

The Iranian government's response to Rushdie being knighted for his contributions to literature:

"Honouring and commending an apostate and hated figure will definitely put the British officials [in a position] of confrontation with Islamic societies. This act shows that insulting Islamic sacred [values] is not accidental. It is planned, organised, guided and supported by some Western countries."

This, of course, after Iran held a bunch of British sailors hostage and paraded them on TV in cheap suits, has been arming Iraq militants, has been arming the Taliban, is working on the destruction of Israel, is fast-forward on its "peaceful" nuclear program, and is basically doing its best to screw up any part of the world it can get its hands on.

And how could they not have enjoyed Rushdie's great cameo in "Bridget Jones's Diary"?

Jonathan makes excellent points. But without ski masks, what would al-Qaida news anchors wear on As-Sahab?

I wonder what Dan Rather has to say about this guy's anchor skills...

In a great breakthrough for peace, or perhaps a fashion statement, Hamas has banned ski masks. This is supposed to cut down on masked Muslims cutting each other down with automatic weapons. In its wisdom (sic.) Hamas has carved out an exception: Masks may be worn when shooting at Israelis.

In the immortal words of Andy Rooney, “Did you ever wonder…” Did you ever wonder where all these ski masks come from? I mean, who got the idea to bring thousands of ski masks to the Middle East? Given the absence of snow skiing opportunities in Gaza, I would think that anyone buying a ski mask is up to something nefarious. Like arms dealers, they must know that the end use is not recreational.

Maybe the way to peace is to ban the sale of ski masks totally. First step is to register all existing masks, then restrict their sale to proven killers of Israelis only. Finally, when peace is at hand and all the Israelis and non-conforming Muslims are dead, all the masks will be collected, burned and peace will reign for generations. Instead of disarmament, we'll have demastification.

Since Hamas members are no longer permitted to wear masks when killing fellow Muslims, Israelis may quickly go after any masked Muslims. As usual this is a Hamas policy not clearly thought through. But what else is new?

My apologies, Chris, for supplanting the photo of your cute tykes with a picture of a Hamas jihadist, but I had to seize the perfect opportunity for a Caption This. For those of you new to the blogosphere, Caption This is an interactive exercise where readers (and co-bloggers!) tell us what's really going on in the picture:

The first thing that sprang to my mind? "MSN outsources its customer help line to Gaza"

Have at it!

This Father's Day weekend, we''ll hear a lot about how wonderful and important dads are, which is great. But as the very blessed father of these three cuties above, all I can say is, don't overdo it on the thanking. Yes, we appreciate your gratitude, but no, this isn't some arduous burden we take on heroically. Fatherhood is beautifully transformative, incredibly challenging and at times maddeningly hard, but a true joy, in the truest sense of the word. Any thanks I get I want to redirect toward God, who put these amazing little people in my life; to my wife, from whom they derive their sweetness; and to the three amazing little people themselves, whom I love more than I ever thought imaginable.

When my wife and I learned we were expecting our first, a wise friend (and dad) said, "People will tell you this will change your life, which it will, but what they don't say is that kids make you laugh every day."

And they do. Every hour, really. In children there is an innocence, a sweetness that reminds us of how life is really meant to be lived -- with excitement, wonder and awe. My kids get the biggest kick out of the simplest things, be it washing the car, taking out the trash or eating popcorn. Their young perspective reminds me to take nothing for granted, and to look for the good in all things.

There's a reason why Scripture tells us we must be like a child to enter the Kingdom of God, and that's because children are endowed with a sense of faith and trust that we, the hardened and cynical adults, spend decades trying to re-find. But my kids help me to re-find it. Every day. I love being a dad.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Behold, Patrick O'Connor's color cartoon from Sunday's paper -- a sneak preview for FF readers.

Nah, he just now needs a chunk of his friggin' lung removed!

And yes, I'm still irked by Andrew Speaker's selfishness in exposing others to his disease through his worldwide hop, then going on TV and whining and blaming everybody else for his actions. And have they even figured out yet how Mr. Personal Injury Lawyer contracted the extremely drug-resistant strain? Ick.

I've been amazed at some of the hostile reactions I've received to my Tuesday post about extremists on both sides of the immigration debate. (The item also was adapted for and published in Wednesday's Daily News.) Below are some highlights from a long, rambling, and angry letter that denounces everything I said, while at the same time inadvertently confirming my observations:

You seem to equate the militant Mexican/Reconquistas/Brown berets to people (Americans) who believe that their nation should be able to, like every other country, enforce its soverignty and borders.

I never said that all restrictionists are like the reconquistas, only some. Why is that point so hard for some folks to understand?

You have no respect for Americans who are concerned with 1) People who break the law and demand the taxpayers to subsidize them by putting them on various welfare programs including paid-for section 8 housing, booting out the needy American citizens.

Um, no. I said, "most immigration restrictionists bring very practical, reasonable concerns -- not xenophobia or racism -- to the debate." But among their ranks there is also a fair amount of ignorance and hatred.

2) The destruction of our once-proud school system being flooded by illegal aliens and their anchor babies who are illiterate in any language ...

6) 1 out of every 10 Mexicans now resides in the U.S. Many, if not most, remain loyal to their Mother Mexico, and detest and resent the Yankee culture. They merely want to remake our nation in their former home's image. They resent having to learn English, don't want their children to learn it, and demand that all government services be given in Spanish ...

See, here's the problem: Once you've made the blanket statement that members of an entire nationality are "illiterate in any language," it's hard to make the case that there's no bigotry in your ranks. And when you say that most Latino immigrants "detest and resent Yankee culture," you're indicating that you've never dealt with many personally, and/or you've allowed the wackos on the other side of the debate to shape your perspective of them.

This is precisely what I was writing about when I wrote: "For the nativists, the reconquistas justify their nativism -- see, the Mexicans hate us and want to take us over! ... Politically disinterested Anglos and Latinos alike -- who want nothing to do with this whole debate, and just want to raise their families well -- can be frightened by the extremist language into adopting more radical positions of their own. ('I've got nothing against them, but so many of them seem to have something against us!')"

Anyway, I don't understand the defensiveness. There is no cause so pure, so good, that it's incapable of attracting creeps. And in the immigration debate, the creeps are out in abundance.

PS -- I've posted the entire message after the jump. Despite the overheated rhetoric, the author raises some fair questions. Too bad he undermines his own case through his own vitriol.

First of all, I'm not buying this study too much. I've always voted GOP, and after hours of being in front of a computer, commuting or running around at events all day, it's nice to plop in front of the TV for a little bit when I can squeeze it in. When I wake up, first thing I do is turn on the news. Before I go to bed, I check the news again. When you're deluged with reading and writing news all day long, it's nice to just escape once in a while with some occasionally mindless TV: my favorites include "Sex and the City," "The Tudors," "South Park," those VH-1 countdowns of the worst songs, etc., and VH-1's "Behind the Music," History Channel fare, and reality shows including "American Idol" and the highly amusing "The Girls Next Door." (I even met a conservative book editor last year who once wrote a column on why "Sex and the City" is really a conservative show, and having seen every episode umteen times I concurred with her points.)

Now from Carrie's Manolo Blahniks to Michael Medved's Townhall piece: Medved's a personable guy; a couple years back I gave him a ride from the airport and he was nice enough to chat with my mom (a huge fan) on my cell phone as we cruised up LaCienega toward a film festival. But paragraphs like this:

"Either way, the isolation associated with hours and hours in front of the tube leads to liberal values and viewpoints. In every election, single people prove vastly more likely to vote for Democrats than do married people: Republican Presidential candidates have won majorities of married voters even in elections where Democrats proved victorious overall (as with Bob Dole’s ill-starred race in 1996).

People who see themselves as alone in the world, with no network of spouses or fellow congregants, frequently turn to government as a source of support and comfort—just as they’d turn to television as a source of phony companionship. It makes sense that loneliness and helplessness and disconnection would breed both liberalism and heavy TV viewing; just as a vibrant family life, and communal participation, would produce less television and more conservative self-reliance."

That's just uncalled for. When will single people, divorced people, people without families (but who still happen to have values!), stop being the punching bag of conservatives who engage in the "my family is better than yours" arrogance? I ask this as a political conservative. Why is the wisdom of believing that first comes love, then comes marriage -- and not getting hitched just to be married and reproduce -- written off as loneliness and helplessness, rather than acknowledging that unmarried people add just as much to society as couples having kids? It gets really tiresome. This is a big reason why, when asked to describe my conservatism, I swing toward the libertarian-tinged conservatism described in my friend Brian Anderson's book "South Park Conservatives" (that, and I don't believe F-bombs in movies spell the end of humanity).

Medved continues:

"Wholesome stories (in the dated style of 'Leave it Beaver' or 'Father Knows Best') have gone out of fashion not because they don’t exist anymore (most of us actually live such stories) but because the desperate competition for viewer attention (among literally hundreds of cable channels, video games, DVD’s, and networks) promotes a bias for the bizarre. This in turn connects to a sense that the world’s gone mad, and requires some sort of radical (usually leftist governmental initiative to avert looming apocalypse."

Most people have "Leave it to Beaver" families? Now that's just wishful thinking!!

Friendly Fire's own Earl Ofari Hutchinson was on "Newshour" last night, talking about Mayor Villaraigosa and the the increasingly political clout of Latinos in the U.S. Here's the money quote. courtesy of EOH:

When a mayor meddles in education, brings politics and politicizes the education process, we're in trouble.

You can read, listen to, or watch the whole thing here.

The Paris Hilton imbroglio is not about Ms. Hilton. If it were neither Earl Ofari Hutchinson nor I would be writing about. Mr. Hutchinson got it right that Sheriff Baca didn’t do anything out of the ordinary in granting her early release. The great question is if Baca’s ordinary process and procedure is legal.

We have three branches of government—the executive, legislative and judicial—and they regularly contend with each other in a kind of dynamic tension. This is as it should be. Added to the three constitutional branches, we like to think of the press as the fourth estate—an overseer and process observer.

Sheriff Baca’s early release process introduces himself as another player that is extra-constitutional. The court, legislature or executive may delegate certain duties and rights, they may constitute parole boards, but where is it written that the Sheriff or Chief of Police can act as judge, jury and parole board all at once? Where is the process that insures due process for those sent to jail?

Though he may have acted with Ms. Hilton in a way consistent with past practice, what assurances does the public have, in the absence of a legally authorized series of checks and balances, that all will be treated fairly? It is almost always true that a benign despot offers efficiency, but the historic question has been how to assure continued benevolence?

There is a far deeper legal issue here and that is if the Sheriff must obey the court? It is one thing to regularly release prisoners early, and it is quite another to ignore the specific terms, signed into the sentence by the judge that forbad him from granting release at 10% of sentence and specifically enjoined the Sheriff from granting home release—even monitored. Can the sheriff ignore a court order?

If Sheriff Baca had a problem with the conditions of the sentence, the proper procedure would have been to take it to the judge or to take it up to the appellate level. Ignoring judges is a bad idea for Baca, but more importantly, it is a bad idea for our system of justice.