"Pat" Morita of "The Karate Kid" Dies - Another Zeitgeist Signpost

And he was a big one, because in my view Morita was the picture of the assention of Asians in American popular culture. He went from playing roles that were somewhat "less than" to one that gained him true respect as an actor: that of "Mr. Miyagi" in "The Karate Kid." How many people loved it when he smoothly beat the crap out of that bully and his so-called martial arts teacher in the second "Kid" film? But far beyond that, Morita became a massive part of American Culture and he served the mantle of icon with dignity. He will be missed but never forgotten.

California Population 33,871,648 : Already Majority Minority, Latinos to Outnumber Whites By 2020

SACRAMENTO — Researchers said Tuesday that aging infrastructure is not the only growing pain the governor and his successors face — by 2020, the state is projected to gain
10 million people who will strain services ranging from education to social programs.

The California Budget Project, an independent think tank that concentrates on concerns of the poor and middle class, released a demographic report that also indicates as the state grows by a third, diversity will increase to the point where Latinos outnumber whites.

In addition, a much greater percentage of the population will be elderly.

He Pulled a Truck With His Penis

I guess The Oakland Tribune has a slow news day. And no way am I posting a photo with this story.

Bay Area grandmaster of Qigong pulls truck with penis
By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER

FREMONT — The ancient Greeks worshipped it. Freud said women envy it. And Tuesday, a man pulled a truck with it.
Yes, you read that right.

He pulled a truck with his penis.

Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng, best known for his "Iron Crotch," attached himself not once but twice to a rental moving truck and pulled it several yards across a parking lot in Fremont. In lace-up leather boots and a black tank top, the 50-year-old tied a strip of blue fabric around the base of his penis and testicles and tugged to make sure it was on tight. An assistant kicked him hard between the legs before he lashedhimself to the vehicle.

He groaned, grunted and pressed against two men for resistance.

Then, slowly, the truck began to roll forward.

About 20 people, most of whom study Qigong, the ancient Chinese art of movement and breathing to increase energy, gathered for the truck pull in an unassuming office park just off Interstate 880.

________________________________________________________

His website doesn't really explain how he excercises at all. Oh well.

Irag Leaders Want US Timetable to Get Out! - Bush Administration Backed Into Corner

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Leaders of Iraq's sharply divided Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis called Monday for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in the country and said Iraq's opposition had a ``legitimate right'' of resistance.

The final communique, hammered out at the end of three days of negotiations at a preparatory reconciliation conference under the auspices of the Arab League, condemned terrorism, but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.

The participants in Cairo agreed on ``calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation'' and end terror attacks.

The conference was attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, as well as leading Sunni politicians.

_____________________________________________________

This is the first clear signal that the US should get out. Between calls to get out here, and this one from Iraq itself, the Bush Administration has no real excuse.

Not Just Debra Lafave: Other Teacher / Student Sex Scandals From 1990 to Present (2005)

Someone asked if male teachers have ever been changed with sex with a student / minor.

Ringo at the "Straight Dope Message Board" googled around an extensive list of teachers involved in sex scandals.
But not one of the 40 names listed -- not one -- is a man. Moreover, only four of the cases listed were before the year 2000. So, in five years we have had an average of seven cases a year.

1990 Pamela Smart
1996 Mary Kay Letourneau
1998 Denise McBryde
1998 Julie Feil
2000 Judith Christensen (attempt turned around by the student to blackmail}
2001 Beth Friedman
2001 Amber Williams
2003 Adrianne Hockett
2003 Kelly Lynn Dalecki
2004 Nicole Pomerleau
2004 Sheryl Jean Graham (PTA President)
2004 Debra LaFave
2004 Carol Flannigan
2004 Lisa Suitter
2004 Amber Jennings
2004 Melissa Michelle Deel
2005 Sarah Suzanne Bench-Salorio
2005 Rebecca Boicelli
2005 Katherine Tew
2005 Toni Lynn Woods
2005 Janay Jill Willson
2005 LaDonna Rangel
2005 Sylvia Johnson (not a teacher - "Cool Mom")
2005 Melissa Daw Green
2005 Kimberly Merson
2005 Margaret De Barraicua
2005 Susanne Eble
2005 Kathy Denise White
2005 Morgan Lee Brown (camp counselor)
2005 Donna Carr Galloway
2005 Angela Stellwag
2005 Pamela Turner
2005 Rachelle Vantucci
2005 Tammy Lee Huggins
2005 Bethany Sherill
2005 Lakina Stutts (school bus driver)
2005 Tracie Mokry
2005 Denise Bongers (not a teacher)
2005 Stephanie Bissell (not a teacher)
2005 Debra Lafave

Debra Lafave Pleads Guilty to Sex With 14-Year Old (But Man Look At The Shot of Her On The Bike!)

One can't wonder but what was going through her mind as she was doing this. Debra Lafave pleads guilty to sex with one of her students. She's not going to receive any jail time at all.

Wow. She's blessed. In America, considering her looks -- and that she's blond -- someone will approach her with a book or movie deal. Well, she can't take advantage of it because of her plea bargain deal, but what about the victim? And where did this photo come from? And she's married. But what's interesting is that the husband is totally silent. The real story is whatever pain he may be going through -- assuming they're not separated or he's not in some affair himself. Geez.

This kind of news -- she was a teacher -- is all too common today. Why? Or is it that it's always been part of our society, but in an internet age, we learn more about our culture, faster. Or is it that 14-year olds are more curious about sex and 25-year old women feel more liberated to do someting like this? Maybe's it's both. (Photo from Google)

President Bush Seeks Quick Exit From Press - Doors Locked - Is This The Shape Of Things To Come?

If you've not seen this video, click on the title post link. President Bush was trying to walk -- just walk away -- from questions being thrown at him at a news conference in Beijing, China on Sunday. He stopped talking, walked over to a large door, pulled on it, and it didn't open. So, he kept pulling on it; it didn't open. Embarassed, he suddenly realized how he looked and stood almost motionless for a full second. Then, he searched for another way out -- saying "I'm trying to escape and I can't."

This may be a preview of future legal problems the Administration may not be able to escape from.

(Photo from BBC.)

The Head- Scratching Success Of The Harry Potter Movies

They're not all that good. They don't contain massively important social commentary. They don't feature big established stars. But with all this, the Harry Potter Movie Series continues to rake in the dough. This third installment -- "The Goblet of Fire" -- took in over $100 million since it's open on Friday.

What's the deal? What kind of hold does this series have on us, and why?

More soon.

Jean Schmidt Calls Murtha A Coward - Should Appologize

Schmidt, a brand new Republican congressional representative from Ohio, did this according to a Washington Post Article:

"...Members were heatedly debating a procedural rule concerning the Hunter resolution when Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) was recognized at 5:20 p.m. Schmidt won a special election in August, defeating Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, and is so new to Congress that some colleagues do not know her name.

She told colleagues that "a few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp," an Ohio legislator and Marine Corps Reserve officer. "He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

Dozens of Democrats erupted at once, pointing angrily at Schmidt and shouting repeatedly, "Take her words down" -- the House term for retracting a statement. For a moment Schmidt tried to keep speaking, but the uproar continued and several GOP colleagues surrounded her as she sat down, looking slightly dazed. Presiding officer Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) gaveled in vain for order as Democrats continued shouting for Schmidt to take back her words. Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.) yelled "You guys are pathetic!" from the far end of the Democratic section to the GOP side.

Just as matters seemed to calm a bit, Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) suddenly charged across the aisle to the GOP seats, jabbing his finger furiously at a small group of GOP members and shouting, "Say Murtha's name!" Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), who had led the chants for striking Schmidt's comments, gently guided Ford by the arm back to the minority party's side.

At 5:31, when order was finally restored, Schmidt rose again and said softly, "My words were not directed at any member of the House." She asked that they "be withdrawn" from the record..."

I think she should go one step further and officially appology to Representative Murtha.

If for no other reason than to cause us -- America -- to focus on improving our country, I do think we should divert our resources away from Iraq, and that includes bring the Troups home.

Stanford pair defends satire in Cal Berkeley - Aimed video - From Today's Oakland Tribune

--Why is it always that someone uses racial stereotypes as the basis for stupid humor? I was told that the reason Dave Chappell stopped his program was white audiences didn't get that he was making a social comment about how African Americans are referred to in America. He believed some took his humor as a serious statement about how blacks are. Unfortunately, many people aren't detaiiled thinkers, and actually learn to be racist from race humor. Not good...Zennie

Perhaps it might have been best to leave the social commentary to Dave Chappelle.
Two Stanford University students who made a video that uses fraternity and racial

stereotypes to mock rival UC Berk-

eley students defended their work Thursday as a comical jab at stereotypes that intends to "bring some levity to a campus that tends to be stifled by contrived political correctness."

A Stanford University dean, on the other hand, called the video "sophomoric, of questionable taste, insensitive and not very funny."

Still, Dean of Student Affairs Greg Boardman said the students are entitled toexpress their opinions and will not get into any trouble.

"Our initial review suggests this video does not necessarily rise to the level of requiring university action," Boardman wrote in a brief statement released Thursday.

The video "does not accurately represent either Stanford or Cal students," the statement said. "That said, we recognize our students' freedom of speech rights, even when we disagree with the form that speech takes."

The video is on the Stanford server, where each student receives space for personal use, the statement said.

The 10-minute video, which hit the Internet circuit just days before Saturday's Big Game between bitter rivals Stanford and Cal, features footage of raucous Cal parties, a man-on-the-street interview of a girl saying "unicorn" when she meant to say "unicycle" and interviews with homeless people and a woman on a street corner waxing philosophical that Cal's "meditative" backbone gives the football team an edge over Stanford's.

But it also flashes a "Baja Fresh" Tex-Mex restaurant logo across the screen as a Latina girl dances and jokes that her hoop earrings were a gift from her 15th birthday, or quinceanera; implies that a student of Indian descent would be better served by a computer science major than an American Studies major; and rhetorically surmises that Stanford keeps losing to the Bears because Stanford's "black people (are) in the audience" rather than on the field.

Alex and Walter, the Stanford students who made the video and who declined to give their last names, said they were poking fun at both colleges' images. They took issue




Advertisement



with a column by Oakland Tribune columnist Candace Murphy that says the video crosses the line from rivalry into racism.
"One must recognize that the 'racist' jokes that you take issue with are an isolated component of our satiric ambit," Alex and Walter wrote in an e-mail. "We did not invent the stereotypes that we invoke and are just exposing them in the context of two very elite schools — an audience that is mature enough to adequately process such humor."

The students said they've received "positive and supportive" e-mails, many from UC Berkeley students. "Obviously, people recognize the universality of the humor and the undercurrent of social commentary that is completely unrelated to a rivalry which we don't particularly care about."


A handful of UC Berkeley students who had seen the video said they thought it was funny but could see how it might offend some people. They said the video uses old and widely viewed footage from a party a couple of years ago as well as some new footage.

"It started off by them saying, OK, we suck at football, but look at how stupid Cal is," said freshman Jaime Beacom, 19 — who was approached last week by two guys with a video camera who said they were making a video for a student-run television show.

Beacom ended up on the cutting-room floor.

"I said some bad things about Stanford, which wasn't what they wanted," Beacom said.

Still, parts of the video were racist, he said.

"It didn't bother me," he said, "but I could totally see how it would bother some people."


The rumor on Sproul Plaza, by the way, is that a group of Cal students are this instant making a rebuttal video.

Bush Restricted Intelligence Information to Congress in 2001 - Pass It On

October 5, 2001 Administration memo restricting Congressional access to classified information - a decree that briefings with sensitive information be limited to eight of the 535 members of Congress, a move that reinforced a trend toward secrecy that characterized Bush's government from the start.

See: Downing Street Memos

Fixing An Argument For The War In Iraq - From The Downing Street Memos (www.downingstreetmemo.com)

This was lifted directly from their site. Please go to it for the actual documents:

The other Downing Street Documents and Memos
Located on The Memos page

Cabinet Office briefing paper: Conditions for military action
The Sunday Times, June 12, 2005

Plain text transcription
July 22, 2002 briefing paper, generated for participants for the secret meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, says that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office legal advice

The Sunday Times, June 19, 2005
Plain text transcription
This is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office legal advice appended as Annex A to the Cabinet Office briefing paper on Iraq of July 21, 2002. This advice was originally written in March 2002.

Goldsmith Legal Opinion
The Guardian, April 28, 2005
PDF scanned document
March 7, 2003 formerly confidential paper detailing British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's advice on the legality of the Iraq war. The government had previously resisted all attempts to secure its release.
Wilmshurst resignation letter (uncensored version)

BBC, March 24, 2005
March 18, 2003 minute from Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Deputy Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office, to Michael Wood (The Legal Adviser), copied to the Private Secretary, the Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Alan Charlton (Director Personnel) and Andrew Patrick (Press Office). Wilmshurst resigned in March 2003 because she did not believe the war with Iraq was legal. Her letter was released by the Foreign Office to the BBC News website under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Press line" document regarding Wilmshurst resignation
Foreign and Commonwealth Office PDF link
March 18, 2003 press line document regarding Foreign Office deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst's resignation after 20 years’ service on the point of whether military action in Iraq without proper UN security council authorisation was lawful under international law.

Hutton Report
PDF document
Hutton Inquiry website
January 28, 2004 final report of the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, the British intelligence officer whose public criticism of the Blair administration's manipulation of intelligence produced an uproar that ultimately resulted in Dr. Kelly taking his own life.

Butler Review
PDF document
July 14, 2004 final report of the Butler Inquiry, the UK government's investigation into prewar intelligence failures.
Administration Policy Memo restricting Congressional
access to classified information

PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
October 5, 2001 Administration memo restricting Congressional access to classified information - a decree that briefings with sensitive information be limited to eight of the 535 members of Congress, a move that reinforced a trend toward secrecy that characterized Bush's government from the start.
National Intelligence Estimate:
Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction

Unclassified public version
PDF document
October, 2002 edited CIA intelligence estimate about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, unclassified and slickly packaged for public release
National Intelligence Estimate:
[redacted] Iraq's Continuing Programs for
Weapons of Mass Destruction

PDF scanned document
October, 2002 controversial CIA intelligence estimate about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction released in response to an FOIA request, severely redacted. This copy of the estimate, NIE 2002-16HC, October 2002, Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, consists almost entirely of whited-out pages.

Only 14 of the 93 pages provided actually contain text, and all of the text except for the two title pages and the two pages listing National Intelligence Council members had previously been released in July 2003 in a document titled Key Judgements (from October 2002 NIE).
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Report on U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar
Intelligence Assessments
PDF document

July 7, 2004 report on Phase I of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence review of prewar intelligence on Iraq's WMD capabilities. Since Phase I was only concerned with the quality and analysis of the intelligence, this report does not address how that intelligence was used or whether the administration's public statements were an accurate reflection of it.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Report on U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar
Intelligence Assessments - Conclusions
PDF document

A list of conclusions drawn from the July 7, 2004 report on Phase I of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence review of prewar intelligence on Iraq's WMD capabilities (above).
Iraq on the Record
PDF document

March 16, 2004 Congressional report compiled at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) on the administration's misleading public statements about Iraq leading up to the war.
Administration Security Breaches
Involving Valerie Plame Wilson
PDF document

July 22, 2005 - On July 14, 2003, columnist Robert Novak revealed that the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a covert CIA agent. This disclosure of classified information has triggered a criminal investigation by a Special Counsel and led to calls for congressional investigations.

The Novak column, however, appears to be only one of multiple leaks of Ms. Wilson’s identity. As this fact sheet documents, there appear to be at least 11 separate instances in which Administration officials disclosed information about Ms. Wilson’s identity and association with the CIA.
Karl Rove’s Nondisclosure Agreement
PDF document
July 15, 2005 - Mr. Rove, through his attorney, has raised the implication that there is a distinction between releasing classified information to someone not authorized to receive it and confirming classified information from someone not authorized to have it. In fact, there is no such distinction under the nondisclosure agreement Mr. Rove signed.
Scans of the Forged Niger Documents
#1 - 124.1k JPEG image
#2 - 135k JPEG image
#3 - 151.3k JPEG image
#4 - 196.2k JPEG image
#5 - 160k JPEG image
Ecco il falso dossier sull'uranio di Saddam (article in Italian)
July 16, 2003 - These five images appeared in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on July 16, 2003.
Interview with Hussein Kamel
PDF document
August 22, 1995 - Gen. Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's Military Industrialization Corporation, in charge of Iraq's weapons programme, defected to Jordan on the night of 7 August 1995, together with his brother Col. Saddam Kamel. Hussein Kamel took crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to UNSCOM. Iraq responded by revealing a major store of documents that showed that Iraq had begun an unsuccessful crash programme to develop a nuclear bomb (on 20 August 1995). Hussein and Saddam Kamel agreed to return to Iraq, where they were assassinated (23 February 1996). The interview was conducted in Amman on 22 August 1995, 15 days after Kamel left Iraq.

"I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed" (p. 13).
Kamel specifically discussed the significance of anthrax, which he portrayed as the "main focus" of the biological programme (pp.7-8).
Smidovich asked Kamel: "were weapons and agents destroyed?" Kamel replied: "nothing remained."