Westboro Baptist Church: Plans to Picket Funerals of Arizona Shooting Victims

The Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket the funerals of the victims of the Arizona shooting that occurred recently.  The shooting ended the lives of 6 people and put Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords in the hospital.  It occurred at a meet and greet set up by the Congresswoman.

The Westboro Baptist Church has become infamous for their practice of picketing funerals to spread their messages of hate.  The "Church" plans to picket the funerals of all the victims of the Arizona shooting and wants to raise money to help the shooter, Jared Lee Laughner, get off the hook for murdering 6 people and shooting 18.  

A group called Angel Wings plans on showing up on the day of the funeral to block the Westboro Baptist Church's messages of hate with 8x10 foot angel wings that will be worn by some of it's members.  The police are expected to be at the funerals to make sure that no violence occurs.

John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my blog at www.theforceofnature.net

Jared Loughner and Arizona Shootings All About Sarah Palin and Politics

This is a rejoinder to those who say the Arizona Shootings have nothing to do with politics. Totally wrong. Jared Lounghner, the 22-year old who shot 14 and killed six people is said to be against Government intrusion into our lives.

Well, doesn't that make him a libertarian? He's against "Big Government," and shot a U.S. Congresswoman, and yet the media is saying this has nothing to do with politics, and conservatives like Sarah Palin had no impact on him.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of in my life.

We have to return to sanity in America.  We've become unhinged.

Double Dose of Focker

While waiting in the theater for Little Fockers to begin it was basically assumed that the movie would end up being not very funny or impressive. This movie was the third in the series: Meet The Parents (2000) followed by Meet the Fockers (2004).

Six years after the the last movie this movie includes the children of Greg and Pam Focker: twins Sam and Henry are about to turn five and have a big birthday party.

Roz Focker now has a sex tv talk show, Bernie Focker is in Spain learning to flamenco and the Byrnes are dealing with "Dr. Bob" no longer being a part of the family. Jack Byrnes has a heart attack and tells Greg that he will need to be the "Godfocker" if anything happens to Jack.

Greg is working as a nurse and is offered by Andi Garcia (bubbly Jessica Alba) to be the spokesperson for a male enhancement pill that is safe for patients with heart conditions.

Not very impressed with Alba's performance, she is usually an amazing actress: but this role she was so flighty and it seemed like too much of an act, unreal. She was not very convincing as she used "dope" terminology and acted "hip."

There are really interesting scenes with Owen Wilson's character Kevin, including him getting Pam tattooed on his back.

There's a lot of dramatic irony and a lot of outrageous moments. This movie should be a four out of five, because it was quite hilarious at some points and kept entertained, but Alba's performance was not her best.

Academy MTV-U Oscars Correspondent Contest Has 10 Semifinalists

The popular contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and MTV-U heats up as 10 semifinalists have been named, and you can vote on the best ones at http://oscars.mtvU.com. 

Here they are:

Hofstra University, Long Island, NY – Luz Pena (anchor) and Philip Robibero (videographer)
Madonna University, Livonia, MI – Idamarie Tedesco (anchor) and Walid Jaward (videographer)
Madonna University – Sara Simnitch (anchor) and Adam Woloszyk (videographer)
New Mexico State University – Brandi Parrell (anchor) and Angela Hardenburg (videographer)
New York University – Nataliz Jimenez (anchor) and Carla Bernal (videographer)
University of Georgia, Athens – Blake Mitchell (anchor) and David Torcivia (videographer)
University of Miami, Florida – Scotty Braun (anchor) and Alexandra Cotoulas (videographer)
University of Missouri, Columbia – Alex Holley (anchor) and Ryan Brown (videographer)
University of Missouri, Columbia – Erica Coghill (anchor) and John Regan (videographer)
University of Southern California, Los Angeles – Sarah Erickson (anchor) and Joel Kutz (videographer)

According to The Academy:

On February 2, the three teams with the most online votes, and as agreed upon by the Academy and mtvU, will advance to the final round of the competition. Fans can continue to cast their votes for their favorite team from February 7 to February 18, as they compete for the grand prize. All three teams will be flown to Los Angeles to cover Academy Awards pre-events, including the Animated Feature Symposium, Foreign Language Film Award media op, the Makeup Artist and Hairstylist Symposium and the Governors Ball preview.


The grand prize-winning team will be revealed on Saturday, February 26, at an Academy press conference. The anchor and videographer will be awarded a spot on the red carpet for the 83rd Academy Awards arrivals, as well as credentials for access to backstage press rooms. The winning team's coverage will be aired on MTV News and mtvU, while the two finalist teams will receive bleacher seats along the red carpet and admission to an Oscar viewing party.


The ten semifinalist teams were selected by the Academy and mtvU from videos submitted for the competition. The judging criteria included originality, creativity and how compelling the video was overall. The competition was open to college students who work in teams of two – one anchor and one videographer – and also reside in the United States.


For a complete list of rules and regulations for the Oscar Correspondent Contest, visit http://oscars.mtvu.com.

The Oscars will be held Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and televised live on the ABC Television Network.

Arizona Shooting Causes Increase In Glock Gun Purchases In Arizona

In yet another sign of how sick our society has become, sales of the Glock gun used by Jared Loughner in gunning down 14 people, including U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people, including US District Judge John Roll, have increased.

You got that right. Increased in Arizona. Maybe you don't want to go to Arizona.

According to Bloomberg, Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix has doubled their sales after the shooting, which happened on Saturday. One-day sales of handguns jumped 60 percent in Arizona on January 10th.

Just what the hell is going on down there in Arizona? How about outlawing Glocks and other semi-automatic guns! You don't need one, anyway.

Oakland News: Southy New Restaurant, Arizona Shooting, Oakland Raiders

This edition of Oakland News has a lot of information for you.

First, if you've ever eaten at the North Oakland restaurant called Wood Tavern at 6317 College Avenue (with the best half-chicken in Oakland, if not the SF Bay Area), then you'll be able to picture it's new spring-off called "Southy."

Why that name? Because it's going to be right next door and south of The Wood Tavern. Set to open in about 10 days, Southy's going to cater to a younger crowd. There's going to be a sliding door to deliver take out orders, to which I suggest offering sliders to go with that slider!

Also, on the Oakland / College Avenue restaurant gossip beat, if you're wondering how some eateries are doing, I understand that one of them, once a large, popular place this blogger visited regularly, eventually fell off and started "floating" its liquor accounts.

Let's say you own a restaurant in Oakland. As I understand it, if you purchase beer, you have 30 days to pay the beer vendor for the volume you bought. That means you can make the money to pay the person. If you don't pay within 30 days you lose the account. What this one establishment - since closed, then split into two, and now is being remodeled - did was float liquor account after liquor account, allowing each one for beer to expire, then setting up new ones with other distributors. Eventually, it caught up to them.

Are there any restaurants taking up that practice now? My source says no. In fact, my source asserts that the Oakland Restaurant scene is hotter than ever, especially downtown and because of The Fox Theater.

The Fox sells out concerts, and so brings about 2,000 to 3,000 people downtown per show, many who eat before or after performances, keeping eateries like Flora across from the Fox and Luka's on Grand and Telegraph active, and creating enough of a market and word-of-mouth for other places like Lake Chalet on Lake Marritt, as well as old establishments like The Alley, which is both a bar and restaurant (great steaks).

Shifting Gears: Arizona Shooting Candlelight Vigil

The East Bay Young Democrats will hold a candlelight vigil for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the victims of the Arizona Shootings in front of Oakland City Hall, at Frank Ogawa Plaza from 5 PM to 6:30 PM on Wednesday, January 12th (that's tomorrow). The community co-sponsors listed are Cal Berkeley Democrats, Courage Campaign, CREDO Action, City of Alameda Democratic Club, East Bay Democracy For America, NWPC-AN, South County Young Democrats, and Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.

Mayor Jean Quan Needs To Tweet More Often

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has just 1,377 followers on Twitter, and she's now over a week into the job of Mayor. One reason why she has a small following is that she doesn't sent out enough Tweets. At best it's once a day.

Mayor Quan's got to designate someone to tweet and also tweet herself. Quan has a wealth of material in Oakland's City Services and helpful numbers to call. Then there's the news from her own website. Then there' retweeting of Oakland and SF Bay Area news. Her tweet count needs to be ahead of her follower count by almost two, right now, it's about half.

She also needs to tweet when she's out visiting and helping people from time to time. Newark Mayor Cory Booker's become the Twitter master for tweeting where he's helped his residents dig out of the massive snow storms that plagued his city.

Get to tweeting, Jean!

Oakland Homicides: Six In 11 Days?

That Oakland has had six homicides in 11 days is an outrage. We need to have a zero-tolerance gun policy here and enforce it. If a person brandishes a gun for any reason other than on-property or personal self-defense, they go to jail. Period. Note, that's even before shooting the gun. We have to stop this crap.

Also, Oakland Police need to send a patrol car up Grand Avenue, then Euclid Avenue and then around Adams Point between the hours of 1 AM and 3 AM. As I was returning home in a cab from San Francisco International Airport on the Friday before New Year's Eve, I saw young near-teenaged brothers walking around at that time, some without shirts on in the cold. Just what the heck were they doing out at that time of night and in Adams Point?

The sad fact is that a number of late-night crimes around the Lake have been committed by very young boys of color, many below 21 and 18 years of age. It's a reflection of Oakland's racial economic disparities; we have to get them off the habit of roaming streets and into clubs and other activities, and get jobs for their parents.

Al Davis And The Oakland Raiders

I'd wish the Oakland Raiders would just tell Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha they just don't have the money to pay him rather than making it look like he wasn't a top performer in 2010. One of the reasons his contract is voided is that he had fewer interceptions than in 2009. Well, how many times was he thrown to? Nnamdi Asomugha's one of the league's top corners, so some teams just aren't going to throw his way.

But let's face it: if the Raiders could afford Asomugha, they'd have kept him.

With a league high of game blackouts and a hyper-high unemployment rate damaging attendance in 2010, the Raiders just don't have the money to afford him for 2011. That's the problem.

Stay tuned.

Chevron Ecuador: NY Times Responds To Bias Claim, Says Plaintiffs Erred

Six days ago, I ran a blog post called Chevron Ecuador: NY Times Hides Bias, echoing the claims of other bloggers that the fact that the NY Times was a "friend of the court" (filing an amicus brief) supporting Crude Film Director Joe Berlinger's attempt to gain legal protection against giving up the outtakes from his movie Crude.

That movie, which purports to show that American Chevron Oil Company polluted the Ecuadorian Amazon, has hours of footage that was removed. As Law.com shown by presenting those videos, comments made by Steven Donziger in those removed clips, could have been damaging to Chevron's case - they were.

In the NY Times article this paragraph was 24 levels down:

But Floyd Abrams, the First Amendment lawyer who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Mr. Berlinger that was signed by 13 news organizations, including The New York Times Company, said on Friday that it was “just not the law” that an investigative journalist cannot be compelled to turn over materials, confidential or otherwise.

The only point we were making is that the mention of the New York Times as a "friend" of the Crude Director should have been placed higher in the article. But John's emailed response is...

The piece is not an attack on Chevron, and describes in detail what a disaster for the plaintiffs the outtakes have been.

Schwartz also says the reason the paragraph was 24 levels down was because it was mentioned it in another NYTimes article, before and in a higher position.

Perhaps it's fair to speculate that, had the New York Times been aware of the exact contents of the outtakes, it may not have filed the amicus brief at all.

Meanwhile, the outtakes have changed the game for the plaintiffs, especially lead attorney Steve Donziger. Aside from Donziger's ideas about threatening Ecuadorian judges, the finding that he wrote a report by a supposedly neutral court-appointed expert may cause harm to his ability to practice law in the future.

What Donziger did was unethical. Period.

Stay tuned.