Spooky

Twisted, amoral Palestinian woman:

A badly burned Palestinian woman was alternately defiant and tearful Monday after Israeli soldiers caught her trying to enter Israel with 22 pounds of explosives hidden on her body.

The woman, who suffered serious burns on her hands, feet and neck in a kitchen explosion five months ago, had been granted permission to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment when she raised the suspicion of soldiers at the Erez checkpoint.

Run, Joe, Run!

MBNA has systematically raped millions from coast to coast. Putting a human face on the Beast will do wonders for Joe Biden's popularity:

Cool Spring

Sacramento has had a pretty cool spring. Blame seems to lie with a ridge parked over the middle of the country, forcing troughs onto both coasts, and not the usual suspects (like El Nino):

A temperature map compiled by the climate center shows that most regions of California, especially the northern three-quarters, have been cooler than normal since March 18.

In Sacramento, it's telling to count the number of days reaching or exceeding 100 degrees so far: Zero.

According to Don Noxon, a National Weather Service forecaster in Sacramento, we usually hit the century mark five times by the end of June.

We're behind on 90-degree days, too. April, May and June usually produce 22 days of 90 or above. We've had nine.

As for rain, this was California's 21st-wettest spring since 1895, said Anne Waple, a research climatologist at the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina. "I think it might be especially noticeable because last spring was the fourth-driest," she said.

Average rainfall for the state in March, April and May this year was 7.78 inches, compared with 1.94 inches for the same period in 2004. Normal is 5.61 inches.

...Over the winter, an El Nino, a pool of abnormally warm water that has the potential to influence weather around the world, formed in the Pacific Ocean. But the El Nino was very weak and is gone. "We saw very few global effects from it," Waple said.

The FBI is a Cult

Talk about bizarre stuff! The FBI admits that expertise is of no relevance for a career in the FBI: it's all about 'leadership':

"You need leadership. You don't need subject matter expertise," Executive Assistant Director Gary Bald recently testified in a little noticed employment case now catching the eye of Congress. "It is certainly not what I look for in selecting an official for a position in a counterterrorism position."

..."A bombing case is a bombing case," said Dale Watson, the FBI's terrorism chief in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001. "A crime scene in a bank robbery case is the same as a crime scene, you know, across the board."

Watson couldn't describe the difference between Shiites and Sunnis, the two major groups of Muslims. "Not technically, no," Watson answered when asked the question.

Bald, the FBI's current anti-terrorism chief, said his first training in that area came "on the job" when he moved to headquarters to oversee anti-terrorism strategy two years ago. When asked about his grasp of Middle Eastern culture and history, he replied: "I wish that I had it. It would be nice."

...The hundreds of pages of testimony obtained by The Associated Press contrast with assurances Mueller has repeatedly given Congress that he was building a new FBI, from top to bottom, with experts able to stop terrorist attacks before they occurred, not solve them afterward.

...Daniel Byman, a national security expert who worked on both congressional and presidential investigations of terrorism and intelligence failures, reviewed the Youssef case for the court. Byman concluded the FBI overall remains woefully weak in expertise on the Middle East, terrorism and intelligence liaison.

"Many of its officers, including those quite skilled in other aspects of the bureau's work, lack the skills to work with foreign governments or even their U.S. counterparts," Byman concluded.

Watson testified he could not recall a single meeting in the aftermath of Sept. 11 in which FBI leaders discussed the type of skills or training needed for counterterrorism.

Youssef's lawyer, Steve Kohn, pressed further.

"What skill sets would they need to better identify, penetrate and/or prevent a future Osama bin Laden-style terrorist attack?" Kohn asked.

Watson answered: "They would need to understand the attorney general guidelines for counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigation."

"Anything else?" the lawyer inquired.

"No," Watson answered.

...Pat D'Amuro, one of the FBI's most-experienced senior terrorism managers, testified he didn't conduct a systematic search for the bureau's most talented Middle Eastern and terrorism agents worldwide after Sept. 11. Instead, he said, he brought to Washington the agents he personally knew had worked successfully on al-Qaida and other terrorism cases.

El Dorado County Asbestos

As co-worker Earl notes, it's hard to justify studies of environmental (as opposed to occupational) exposure to asbestos air pollution, even when the need seems urgent:

The Lung Association's Withycombe speculated that a lung tissue study has yet to attract much support because there are so many competing priorities for state and federal agencies, and so many diseases that are demonstrably killing more people.

Dead Zone

They used to call them the "Taylor Lands," after the 1934 Taylor Act establishing their management: Western grazing lands so unproductive that no one wanted to buy them from the federal government. Ranches leased these lands, sometimes in a checkboard pattern intended to monopolize control over as much land as possible. The values of the leases were incorporated into the property value of the ranches, so ranchers felt they were virtually their own property. The Clinton Administration tried to improve management of these sorely abused lands, but that's now come to a halt.

"This is a whitewash. They took all of our science and reversed it 180 degrees," said Erick Campbell, a former BLM state biologist in Nevada and a 30-year bureau employee who retired this year. He was the author of sections of the report pertaining to the effect on wildlife and threatened and endangered species.

"They rewrote everything," Campbell said in an interview this week. "It's a crime.

"Campbell and the other retired bureau scientist who criticized the rules were among more than a dozen BLM specialists who contributed to the environmental impact statement. Others who worked on the original draft could not be reached or did not return calls seeking comment.

A bureau official acknowledged that changes were made in the analysis and said they were part of a standard editing and review process. Ranchers hailed the regulations as a signal of new openness from the administration.

Why We Can't Catch Bin Laden

This says it all.

Depressing Rumor

As to when the Australian Kylie tour can resume:

KYLIE fans holding on to tickets for her postponed Australian tour - prepare for a long wait.

Confidential understands a loose date for the rescheduled concerts will not be until January 2007.

The expected date is the first word of when Kylie might be well enough to return to the stage.

Pictures From Trip to NM

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to NM (June 11 - 13, 2005).


Sierra Nevada (background), Owens Valley (center), White Mountains (right foreground: where the ancient Bristlecone Pines live), southern reaches of Bishop, CA (right, at wing's leading edge), and Deep Springs Lake (lower left: Deep Springs hosts one of the most innovative, and arguably best, college programs in the entire nation). Friend Jerry and hiked in this region in August, 2000.


The heart of Death Valley: Badwater Basin and Dante's View.


Verde River Valley at Fort McDowell, AZ, just east of Phoenix.

On Monday, June 13th, my sister Michelle, her son Aaron, and I travelled to Corrales, NM, to see our old childhood haunts. So strange! Many changes there. The trees are all taller, for the most part, except for the really big cottonwoods, that are now dying out. Lots of new homes and shops, and fewer open fields.


I did not recognize our childhood home, on La Entrada Road! The people who now own the adobe house (purchased in 1990) have done many things with it, to the point where we could just walk past and not feel a sense of connection to it. In a way, my father's expansive vision for the place was eventually realized, by these new people. They are to be congratulated!


Sandoval Elementary School, where I started 1st grade (school remodeled shortly after I left, in about 1967).


A view from West Ella Drive, across Corrales and the Rio Grande Valley, towards Albuquerque's iconic Sandia Mountains.


Historic Old San Ysidro Church.

We visited the San Ysidro Cemetery, located just west of the Old Church, and chased a roadrunner and a jackrabbit around. My sister and I looked at numerous graves of our childhood friends and classmates. So many school chums already slammed six feet under, with deteriorating headstones and crosses on the ground above. And here we are, still walking around!


Ernest Martinez, a good friend of my dad and the family, before he was knifed in a bar brawl, allegedly by one of the Barros.


Rudy Gonzales, and his brother Clifford, were sitting in the Blake's Lota-Burger that was once at Rio Grande Blvd. and Corrales Rd. NW, when a car barreled over the sidewalk, came crashing through the plate glass windows, and killed them both.


Sammy Perea, former next door neighbor, and ambitious politician. He was a controversial Bernalillo County Treasurer (money alleged to have been misused during his tenure). Died very young.

Reminds me of a song: "People Who Died" from the Jim Carroll Band;

teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old
fell from the roof on east two-nine
cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
on 26 reds and a bottle of wine
bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
he looked like 65 when he died
he was a friend of mine

chorus:
those are people who died, died
those are people who died, died
those are people who died, died
those are people who died, died
they were all my friends, and they died

g-berg and georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
so they died of hepatitis in upper manhattan
sly in vietnam took a bullet in the head
bobby od'd on drano on the night that he was wed
they were two more friends of mine
two more friends that died / i miss 'em--they died

repeat chorus:

mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
judy jumped in front of a subway train
eddie got slit in the jugular vein
and eddie, I miss you more than all the others,
and i salute you brother/ this song is for you my brother

repeat chorus:

herbie pushed tony from the boys' club roof
tony thought that his rage was just some goof
but herbie sure gave tony some bitchen proof
"hey," herbie said, "tony, can you fly?"
but tony couldn't fly . . . tony died

repeat chorus:

brian got busted on a narco rap
he beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
he said, hey, i know it's dangerous,
but it sure beats riker's
but the next day he got offed
by the very same bikers

repeat chorus; repeat song to eddie

"Batman Begins"


After Persia's wedding, H., M., and myself went out to see the movie "Batman Begins." Most of the comic-book-based movies of late have proven to be pretty good, but "Batman Begins" is particularly good: in a separate class, really.

The Sacramento News and Review review summarizes the movie well:

Stepping into the Batman role is Christian Bale, who establishes himself as the only man who should ever play Bruce Wayne for the next 20 or so years. He looks good in the suit and delivers the sort of angry, dangerous performance befitting the character. This isn’t the kind of superhero performance that will get him typecast, à la Christopher Reeve or Keaton. Bale delivers a real performance in a serious film, and I’m thinking he won’t have trouble being accepted as different characters in the future. Bale is too good an actor to be labeled.

Batman Begins, as the title suggests, is an origin story. It spends much of its time telling us why, and how, Wayne became Batman. Disillusioned and haunted by the death of his parents, Wayne goes on a sabbatical, winding up in a Far East mountain range under the tutelage of ninja leader Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) and the mysterious Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). When Wayne returns to the United States, he’s on a confused mission of justice and revenge. He reunites with his guardian and butler, Alfred (now played by a truly likable Michael Caine), and his childhood friend Rachel (Katie Holmes), now a powerful attorney.

To me, several themes and points-of-emphasis make the movie the perfect post 9/11 film:

• Gotham City is corrupt to its core, but honest people dared in years past to make it civilized, and struggle today to restore the glory years, nonetheless;
• There is a huge, huge gap between the public face of Bruce Wayne, and the private agony of Batman;
• Bruce Wayne spots the corruption in his ninja patrons (I didn't, until much too late) and turns the tables on them;

but above all:

• Bruce Wayne fights hard to confront and master his fears.

We all need to confront our real (and imagined) fears these days, and official corruption is on the rise. I have a sense these days of gathering reckoning in American political life, and this movie starkly anticipates the gathering storm.

Persia and Justin Marry

Persia Nelson and Justin Crates married today in the backyard of his parents' home (helpfully tended by Persia) near Fruitridge and 24th, near Sacramento Executive Airport. Lots of good people were there: mother Katherine, brother Alex and family from Nevada City, sister Kashi, etc. There were a large contingent of photographers there as well, particularly from "The Dark Room": Persia takes numerous portraits of her own, and is well known in the Sacramento-area photography community.


C.N. (left) and Persia greet guests at the door.


Bridesmaids: Kashi Albertsen (Persia's sister) at far right; Julianna Kemp-Samans (Alex's wife) third from left.


Justin presents the ring.


The happy couple.

Graduation

Friend Stacia just graduated from UCD, so the DMTC gang threw a party in her honor, at their communal apartment, where so many of the DMTC *stars* dwell (or at least loiter). Stacia injured her foot/ankle in an obscure accident with a chair, so we didn't make her leap and spin - much. We watched several episodes of "Family Guy" on DVD. I haven't watched the show, but I must admit it's very funny, with many musical theater references delivered with random, manic energy.

Portions of the DMTC scene shop will move over to the New Theater on Saturday. The money situation is coalescing - more news, maybe Monday or Tuesday.

Name Voyager

Wow! Elijah was the 625th most popular boys' name in the 60's, and its 31st now. Go figure!

"Fixing" Intelligence

The Downing Street Memos show that our intelligence problem has yet to be fixed, but maybe with some more help from the Brits, we can get to the bottom of it (from Armand Karlsen at B3ta):

A Bush Victory?

This could be spun as a victory for the Bush approach:

SEOUL, South Korea, June 17 - North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, said today that the nation was ready to resume negotiations over its nuclear program as early as next month, provided the United States treated it with respect, according to the South Korean government.

Bush wanted six-nation talks, and now he'll get them. But it still doesn't mean that Bush will know what to do with them. Already Kim Jong Il is shamelessly playing the South Koreans against the Americans - witness:

"If the regime's security is guaranteed, there is no reason to possess a single nuclear weapon," Mr. Chung quoted Mr. Kim as saying.

Having so badly lost everyone's confidence in his leadership by exaggerating North Korean nuclear ambitions, and downplaying Pakistani nuclear ambitions, Bush is now vulnerable to Kim Jong Il's bullying. I feel sorry for the Texas twerp!

Pin The Tail on the Donkey?

Kevin Drum is worried about whether the Democrats get the blame if Democrats push too hard to withdraw from Iraq, get their wish, and chaos in Iraq ensues:

Democrats will push for withdrawal, eventually they'll get their way, and the country will blame them for the resulting chaos and defeat. Dems will argue that it would have happened anyway, but the public won't buy it. The Republican party, which should get the blame, will get off scot free.

The American public was as baffled by the failure to win in Vietnam as any pundit. Their final take was something like, 'well, if we weren't going to do what was necessary to win (tantamount to genocide), we shouldn't have gotten involved.'

It would be reasonably easy to 'win' in Iraq: make it our ONLY military committment and flood it with troops and keep them there indefinitely. Bush won't do that: no one wants to do that. AMERICA won't do what is necessary to win. So, we probably shouldn't have gotten involved at all, and the sooner we cut our losses, the better.

The blame for an Iraqi civil war and a new dictatorship will fall on Bush, not on Democrats, whether the withdrawal comes before or after Bush leaves office. After all, hardly anyone blamed Ford or Carter for the Cambodian genocide. Especially after Congress tied Ford's hands in April 1975, it was understood by all that we were no longer going to be involved there, period. Such blame as there was fell on Nixon, because it was he who needlessly escalated the war there in 1971. Same here. Bush needlessly invaded Iraq in 2003: he gets the blame.

Bush will get credit for good intentions, but blame for bad execution. The entire venture has a Republican brand on it, and even if genocide occurs, under either a new Democratic administration, or a Republican administration with a Democratic Congress, responsibility can be laid fairly and squarely on the Republicans. New and unpleasant political realities in Iraq can also be blamed on ungrateful Iraqis. Democrats skate no matter what happens.

Victor Hugo Couldn't Make This Stuff Up

Come on, do it, you Power-Mad Ass!:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that a prosecutor has agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged gap in time from when her husband found her and called 911.

In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, Bush said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1990, and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

Get Fit Jam

Took Pepper's class for the first time in four or five years. Not fit, or at least not fit yet!

More Patience

OK, if John Bolton can be "the most patient man in America" (see below), the least I can do is imitate his serenity, and stop kissing up and kicking down. Here's the latest from Frontier:

We know you’re all eager for news on the rescheduled dates for Kylie’s Showgirl tour [Eager? EAGER? ME, EAGER? No! Patience, Marc, Patience! Remember, John Bolton!] and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued patience [Likewise, but ditch the thanks and get on with it, man!].

However Kylie’s health is our main concern at this point in time [Kylie's health is her concern - your concern is the freakin' tour! When is it going to be rescheduled? WHEN?], and we’re sure you’ll understand when we say that none of us want to have her back on tour prematurely [Prematurely? It's not like she fell off a stage like Patti Smith and broke every bone in her body, dammit. PATIENCE, Marc! Remember John Bolton!]. Kylie’s health and recovery remains the number one priority for The Frontier Touring Company right now [And mine too, dammit, but when is the tour going to be rescheduled?].

The latest news from Kylie’s doctors indicates that a definitive answer on Showgirl’s rescheduling is still a few weeks away [Doctors? Doctors are involved? Doctors can't schedule anything worth beans! That's why they have clerical help! I don't care what the doctors think, what do the receptionists think? PATIENCE!]. Your tickets remain valid [they'd better!], so make sure you keep them somewhere safe [mine are buried in the yard]. If you do wish a refund you’ll need to contact your original authorised point of purchase to organise this [I got one of them off E-Bay...I wonder if I'm screwed? But wait, Mandy, whom I purchased the ticket from, said she'd help, and she knows the outskirts of Brisbane like, well, like, she knows kangaroos and vegemite and other obscure Australian stuff, like getting refunds!].

As soon as we have information on new Showgirl dates for Australia we will let you know. Kylie loves performing in Australia and is as eager to be back on stage as you are to see her.

I remain, as always, a serene and above all, patient Kylie fan.

Old Negro Space Program

Watch the Old Negro Space Program. Also, do a search on "I Am Drugs", and watch that too.

The achievements of the Old Negro Space Program have been overshadowed by the antics of celebrities like Michael Jackson (I must admit I was distracted too: where else but America can a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white woman? But I digress....) Still, it's important to recall more obscure episodes from our recent space history.

Also, I like the positive, uplifting "I Am Drugs" vignettes.