A new AP report shows that Mr. Hasan had an "Allah is Love" sticker on his car's bumper that was either partially or fully ripped off by a soldier that also cause 4 figure damage by keying the vehicle.  Apparently the arrest and fine for the offending soldier did not help the army psychologist get over the incident.

Many more details I hadn't encountered before at an AP article on Google Servers which seems to self update, though you'd have to refresh or reload the article occasionally to catch the new information.

ABC news is reporting that Nadal Malik Hasan suffered from stresses like those he treated in others.  At the same time he was targeted for racial taunting, called "Camel Jockey" by others with whom he interacted in the armed forces.

Like the rape victims who are blamed for their own problems because they went to a latrine at night, I wonder if superiors wouldn't listen to Mr. Hasan., or if they were part of the problem.

See details at "Nadal Malik Hasan, Suspected Fort Hood Shooter, Was Called "Camel Jockey" ".

In which their source, a former FBI agent tells them he believes it possible that Hasan ultimately felt he would save lives via a shooting rampage and did not want to survive the attack.  

If we try to coordinate the two possible impulses from Mr. Hasan we might have something like a compassionate Columbine Killer.  

I'm just saying.

AP report on Hasan's Suicide bomber writings on Internet

Re-enactment of Calvary Charge

Fort Hood in Happier Days. 

Wait. What century is this?
It's sad to think that the US Army that fought to stop slavery and keep the union together now with the rest of the military is the clearest form of non-punitive slavery in the nation.

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "The U.S. Army" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/ / CC BY 2.0

The Fort Hood shootings should show that the slavery of the military needs to end.

People are wanting out, yet are virtually treated like escaping slaves though whipping is out I think, if they try to avoid repeated deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

It might be one thing if there is a huge military venture that must be done to actually stop most of the world from being enslaved, but neither the Afghan nor the Iraq Conflict suits that bill. The World Wars probably did, but it seems that the slavery system that the military runs on, helps ensure that corrupt administrations can start wars they have no idea how to end, nor any justification for fighting.

And to think that the members of our military which is there to protect our nation and it's rights is denied their rights, not only for the term of their promised enlistment, but far beyond the period for which they signed.

Our enlisted personnel have all the rights given the Bristish Royal Navy in the 16th century, and from what I've read that wasn't many.

Army Strong should read Army Enslaved. 

Los Angeles, Aerial View

Can the LAPD be a force for good in the inner city?

'The installation of William Bratton's hand picked successor may still bring change, but will it be in the right direction?

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "kla4067" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84263554@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Lock Up Those sneaky Oompaloompas!  They've been tagging again!

And the legacy of former police chief Bill Bratton lives on.

Bratton's hand picked successor, Charlie Beck, is stepping into his shoes if the Mayor of Los Angeles has his way, but the LA Times wants to school us in "Behind closed doors, Los Angeles police chief pick was no shoo-in " that the man had to overcome extra resistance because he was  the favorite of the former police chief, who had become an expert in manipulating Los Angeles area officials.  

The hypocrisy is rising like bile, but the report goes through all the people who supposedly resisted the manipulation of the retiring chief. Before, in fact, they selected his choice.

He's the best man, they proclaim, just like William Bratton said.

The police commission, currently consisting of 3 men, chooses at least three candidates from which the Mayor selects his choice for a successor to a departing police chief with the approval and of the City Council.  The Times is very clear in saying that Bratton's behind the scenes pressure for his favorite actually made them all more wary of selecting the man.  Maybe it did, but someone or something made them decide in the end to extend something like Bratton's odious reign over Los Angeles.

Is Bratton's hand picked successor going to recognize, as the former chief couldn't ( though the County Sheriff and department heads of nearby cities do) that there is a race war is ongoing in Southern California?   I'm not going to be holding my breath.

Could part of Beck's appeal may be the tough but ruggedly well. acceptable police chief looks and a mustache that's almost like Bernard Kerik's.  Okay looks aren't everything to some of us, but for some like a certain former president I might name, looks counted for a lot.

The article reveals that Michel Moore presented the commission with ways to shake up the LAPD, and  find cost savings.  It also notes that people recognize that Moore is very intelligent and more independent of Willam Bratton than the other two choices from the commission were.  The commission tossed out applications from people recognized as demographically superior for the city, and at least two unknown applicants from without the LAPD, one of which I earlier surmized might be Paul M. Walters, the chief and the Santa Ana Police Department and whom I favor because people working with minority and poor youths in the city said he would be good for LA when he had applied for the position the year William Bratton was chosen.

The article also shows that LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who's job it was to select between the commission's three choices at first favored Michel Moore and got a lot of positive input from important people in the city on him, so of course. 

No wait.  He went with Bill Bratton's man. I wonder how high, now east coast situated, Bratton's phone bill will be for the week, unless he snuck back and whispered into keyholes.

Beck, currently Deputy Chief in the LAPD promises the city a virtual continuation of Bratton's policy of locking up youths for petty crimes and getting them on the track of unemployability ("cracking down on small crimes as a way of preventing big crimes" -- Times). Yeah, that will help. 

He does give lip service to anti-gang measures that might in our imagination include real jobs programs, or not.  In fact, what I read here doesn't give me a clue.

And I don't see Fr Greg Boyle standing up with him so I'm not impressed. 

Beck proclaimed as reported in the Times "Charlie Beck vows to focus on gang violence, quality-of-life crimes and more 'transparency' as LAPD chief" that reducing crime helps business in the city and therefore adds jobs (but those jobs not for those whom you've made unemployable or dead in the process, Sir.  Outsiders are likely to come in for those jobs rather than people from the ghettos.)

I has been long noted that crime has decreased during William Bratton's term, and in fact the piece on the selection of Beck notes that one of the arguments for choosing Bratton's crony is that maybe that crime reduction would reverse if they didn't.

In braver days the LA Times noted that the crime reduction in LA was more the result of gentrification which drove a portion of the desperate poor out of LA city limits than of police programs which have mostly consisted, under Bratton, of locking up minority youths for every small crime, especially tagging.

That makes many a young man virtually incapapble of getting a job, and they think such a person won't sell drugs or run a prostitution ring? 

From what I've seen the gentrification of LA neighborhoods which were difficult to recover and still can be dangerous even in the most affluent areas was a result of rising gas prices and ecologically minded commuters.  Instead of moving further and further away some people who worked in Los Angeles, especially those making very good incomes chose to move closer.  There were, even at that time, still neighborhoods that were beautiful with large old houses.  People with money moving into Los Angeles and some redevelopment worked to push home prices and rents up.  Rising rents and home prices pushed families in poverty out of the area.   

But kudos to the professional LA Times reporters for getting the self serving statements from city officials, and even hinting that things might not all be as the officials claim they are, though that is placed way down in the piece where many people don't even go often if they are presented with a coverup at the top.  I don't think hiding the truth between lines is good, valid news gathering by itself.   Nor can we rely on professional analysts who like the pupblisher, editors, and reporters at a mainstream news organization rely on ad from the most powerful and wealthy businesses and other interests for their better than average salaries. 

The Los Angeles City Council  has to approve Beck's appointment. but seeing that Bratton got the council to reappoint him soon after calling the entire group some very nasty names the last time he was up for renewal, I don't see a problem, just a bigger phone bill for the former chief.

But hold on there, pardner.  The Times assures us that "Beck's style and strategy are notably different from Bratton's "  and manage to make him sound scarier than the former chief.

Beck claims to be just one of the boys in blue if I might paraphrase his words, but being too cozy with a crew that formerly has committed some attrocious  crimes taken some unavoidable actions that local citizens have found distasteful, that is not reassuring,

He also claims he will give more head to lower level commanders.

No really, Dude.  Are you up to date on the history of the LAPD?

His focus on gangs gangs gangs sounds really dangerous.  I hope he has something hidden like a special secret candy that he can drag out and change the picture. We don't need to see more of the same, whether pre-Bratton or during Boston Bill's tenure coming out of Los Angeles and it's police department.

Western Suspension End of the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge (at dusk)

This is not the part of the bridge that collapsed

This is the more elegant San Francisco side of the bridge, which is of a suspension design. The Oakland side is of a cantilevered design which proved faulty in a 1989 quake and problematic since. The cheap way to fix the eastern side of the bridge may not be the style which has survived recent local earthquakes

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "Bill Lim" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_lim/ / CC BY 2.0

Welcome to a beautiful example of how mainstream news covers for business  interests and pro-business/big-money politics.

A journalist probably a columnist does a great job of barely concealing his disgust with anyone who might have some outrage over the fact that parts of the San Fransisco-Oakland Bay Bridge fell down unless it's aimed mostly at Democrats in state government with an aside at "government agencies"one of which is er the Navy.  

Funny how those armed forces become "government agencies" when someone wants to make a point about the 'uselessness of government', a common mantra among the libertarian types who are most useful to the mainstream news business.  Back when we were invading countries because we saw terrorists behind every under-utilized oil field, or pipeline route in the world, our citizens in military uniforms were a valiant force, and our saviors.

Read Tom Barnidge's piece from The Oakland Tribune at Inside Inland Bay.

Laugh your self silly as he clumsily avoids talking about the elephant in the room...er ... state.

Proposition 13

The granddaddy of the don't tax the rich or business laws shunted into power by a 1978 initiative that pulled the wool over the eyes of California voters and carried it's own impossible to break vault of protection.   Though the proposition did not need a 2/3rds vote to pass, all tax raising in the state has taken 2/3rds vote keeping the state under the control of it's Republican minority.  Our primary, secondary, and college level schools have suffered as has infrastructure and social services.

But through their lock on the echo chamber of mainstream news big business and right wing interests have been able to keep Californians who live in a state with the 1/8th largest economy in the world in a state of social and infrastructure poverty.

The Loma Prieta Quake happened just about 11 years after Prop 13.  

Mr. Barnidge notes that a proposal for a new bridge was approved in 1996.  Probably, like most infrastructure after the 1978 measure, it was utilitarian and drab design and Barnidge makes a big point of saying that Jerry Brown, then the Mayor of Oakland and currently the only candidate running for the Democratic nomination for next year's governor's race,  objected to the look of the bridge.

And, yes, each year the cost of the new bridge rose through three governors, etc. Blah Blah.

It just amazes me how the columnist can ignore what Proposition 13 did to our state.  It was ostensibly about saving middle class people from rising property taxes, but really took the burden off business which does not move as often as families, and the provision to allow a little over 1/3 of the legislature to control the state. Later measures gave protection to older folks who move and to various sectors of the population putting more and more of the property tax burden onto families. The measure was so onerous especially to cities and counties that the state gave money back to the local communities from what it had left and --wait for it-- this year the state government couldn't even do that.  Sacramento considers the hold back a loan from the local governments, but it's a forced loan at a time when communities were already hurting badly.

The legislature did have a plan last December to break the Proposition 13  anti democratic demand for 2/3rds approval which may have forced a constitutional convention in the end, but Governor Schwarzenegger refused to sign it, knowing, I imagine just how powerful the obstructionist provision of the measure is in the state.  And how valuable it has been to the political right wing.  That led to long sessions in the winter, spring and summer in which patchwork deals were made that always ignore the  Democratic majority in the state and make us always more like a Southern domain in terms of our infrastructure and educational system.

Now lets talk about the construction.  A repair from a problem that developed on Labor Day is involved in the latest Bay Bridge near disaster.  Mr. Barnidge  confirms what I suspected,  that C.C. Myers was involved in the repair.  The construction company (named after it's it's main man, though its website says it's 'employee owned') contributes widely to political campaigns inthe state (which has an allowance for business contribution) as does Myers the man.  Libertarian groups have been known to promote Myers the man as a good candidate for governor.

CC Myers seems to win every contract calling for quick repair of infrastructure in California.  As local reports noted after the LA truck tunnel fire, it also gets breathtaking amounts of money up front for quick, but supposedly quality repair.  It gets astounding bonuses if it finishes those miraculously quick jobs early. 

I don't see why the state can't get some claw-back if some of those rapid repairs don't work.  And if any citizens or visitors have been injured, of course they are due compensation.  

I suggest that some of the higher 'cost' of construction on the new Bay Bridge is due to political campaign donations not only by the CC Myers company, but by many other interested builders and suppliers in the state or out of it.

Mr. Barnidge would like you to think the Democratic majority of the state legislature, and the likely Democratic candidate for governor next year are responsible for the latest Bay Bridge disaster, but the real cause is the neutering of democracy in the state via a dishonest initiative campaign.  Beyond that I don't know why the columnist wants to disconnect big builders from responsibility to do their jobs so that their employees as well as users of infrastructure are safe.  I'm sure he would feel differently if a big chunk of bridge came crashing down on his car.

It's not just the Bay Bridge.  This is a problem for our entire state.  And the oligarchic nature of our mainstream news system is another.

There is more information on the CC Myers connection to the recent collapse on the Bay Bridge at SF Chronicle. I am adding this link in case you need more information.  I did not seek it out until I had finished this post and did not use any information from it.

I won't even deal with Mr. Barnidge's sneer at Oakland.   That just showed what a jerk he is.

Note, I also borrowed some information from the man who posted the picture at the top of this post on Flickr.  You can reach the original location of the Creative Commons picture and Bill Lim's notes by clicking on the image above.

By LA Lady:

As an effort to legalize recreational marijuana in California gains steam, one intrepid reporter who thinks it should be legalized goes undercover to sniff out the vagaries of the state's Medical Marijuana law and it's human enablers right now.  He all but admits his efforts could hurt medical marijuana dispensaries which are the safest way to get the herb to sick and often elderly people now, sending Granny back to the bad neighborhoods to deal with criminal pushers.  Or maybe she can just die because there doesn't seem to be a substitute for people on chemotherapy or otherwise finding it hard to to keep food down or an appetite up or you wouldn't have elderly women seeking out the drug in the first place.

The first I heard about the reporter's efforts was from a tweet.

Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times Metro guy, has a twitter account.  My brother in law follows him and the other day I was by for lunch when he said "Wow, Steve Lopez might be getting arrested".

It turned out that the writer had just tweeted that he had gotten a recommendation from a gynecologist for medical marijuana and was off to find a dispensary.

Well, he and my sister and I had just been reading and writing about the new anti-medical marijuana campaign going in the city.  A man getting a recommendation from a gynecologist seemed just the kind of scenario that might spell trouble for a seeker.

After work I called and he hadn't heard anything more so I checked at the newspaper's website.  Nothing.

Well, except an earlier report on Lopez sharing a cigar with the City Attorney who is the lead man on the anti Medical Marijuana jihad. Trutanich bought the cigars which are described as extra large by the reporter. Now in the old days the stories go that city officials that wanted  the news to cover a story their way brought along a bribe.  I don't know if a cigar can be called a bribe.  What if it's a really big one?  Okay then what if its a really big Cuban?   If I were a cigar smoker, I don't know... it might.

But in any case Lopez already liked Trutanich (and cigars, I guess) thinking the man some describe as a thug would help clean up the city.

So Lopez is on the ins with the City Attorney.  All worries about the reporter getting arrested vanished, but not those of Lopez' on a job like James O' Keefe's against ACORN.

His first report, one about visiting a doctor to get a recommendation for medical marijuana does nothing to assuage the fear of an espionage type situation.

Though I doubt Lopez could hide his name or would want to, needing a resulting recommendation to match his official ID, I read nothing in Mr. Lopez report that shows the doctor knew his true intent, which was to expose an easy access medical marijuana system.

Because we all want Grandma to have to wait 2 months for approval while in chemotherapy or suffering from some other debilitating condition if she makes it. Right?

Yet, Mr. Lopez assures us, his heart is in the right place because he actually wants recreational marijuana legalized.  If Granny only has to visit pushers for her Medical MJ for 5 years before that happens, then see, it's all for the good, I guess.  And the best way to get MJ legalized for recreation use is to get it banned as a medicine, I guess his thinking goes.

Still if we think of the ways that news is usually gathered.  Either a journalist uses secret or open third party sources or he or she goes directly to the primary source.   The latter method is the one Mr. Lopez used with City Attorney Trutanich, and see, he got a cigar for his honesty.

Even sixty minutes doesn't use the spy act or at least didn't the last time I watched.  They go to try to talk to unhappy sources openly even if a door is shut in their faces.

But intrepid reporter Lopez entered a doctor's office claiming to need medical marijuana for back pain, a condition he says he actually controls somewhat through stretching and pain killers.  Boy I hope Mr. Lopez doesn't realize that MJ does a lot better job than a stretch and pill just as he is instrumental on getting it nearly banned.  As an active person I get pains in the muscles and joints too.  I'm not that impressed with Ibuprofen, and won't touch the heavier stuff which is even worse for the heart.

Therefore, the doctor is thinking he's doing a good service for a man who has pain, and the man really is just getting a story.  This makes me think of James O'keefe who, posing as a pimp went into ACORN offices with a young woman posing as a stripper to get off-hand advice from working people, and then used secret video to send a negative view of the organization to the public.

As far as I know real journalists do not go spying on their subjects, at least since a trial case in which some Georgia reporters who took jobs at a grocery store and taped actions that many thought were unhealthy and dangerous in a food provisioning environment.  The trial jury ruled that lies on the journalists' applications caused were against the law and awarded the grocery a large compensation award.

But in general, if a journalist doesn't use video, doesn't lie on an application, and  still manages to go undercover is it okay to misrepresent him or herself as to their needs?

It is a common tactic for Fox News opinion show leads to send around "producers" to harass subjects they couldn't get to stand for harassment in their studios.  But even those people, though they stalk their subjects and catch them off-guard, are known to, and exhibit their motives to their prey.

But, of course, the doctor should know, Steve Lopez, shouldn't he?  The man is big at the Times. So unless the  doctor lives in the Valley areas where the LA Daily News is popular or maybe the Doctor takes one of the more local and great valley papers that I checked out during the recent fires, he should know Steve Lopez. 

The doctor was in Glendale, a city known as one of the valley cities.  Still Steve Lopez gave his name, and cited a valid pain, though he doesn't say he was there mostly for a report that could destroy the medical marijuana system in the Los Angeles area.

Well, Mr. Lopez got his recommendation, and says he'll have a report on his visit(s) to dispensaries on Sunday.  You can read his originals on Trutanich and the visit to the doctor via links below.

Maybe you don't feel funny about the way Lopez openly approached Trutanich (after setting up a meeting) and accepted a cigar from the guy, who had the opportunity to even bring a spokesperson along, and then visited a doctor under with a purpose that wasn't quite honestly expressed.

To City official : Thanks for the cigar!  (And then writes a pretty nice piece about a man that has much of Los Angeles cringing.)

To Doctor:  I need help for pain please give me a recommendation for medical marijuana!  (After which I will write a piece that might cost you your license.  Lopez doesn't name the doctor, but he shouldn't be to hard to track down, especially for the City Attorney's or County DA's office)

I just seems the bar levels aren't quite equal between Lopez and City officials  and Lopez and a private citizen.

And since Lopez visit to the doctor was just days after meeting with the City Attorney, it makes me wonder if one of the things Lopez didn't report on in his piece about meeting with Trutanich was a suggestion to go undercover.  I mean, how does an otherwise honest journalist suddenly decide to do gotcha journalism similar to that done by a right wing attack dog like James O'Keefe?

See reports:

NY Times: Push to Legalize Marijuana Gains Ground in California

The NYT report shows that even if a proposed initiative in California should pass next year,  the law would still be illegal at the national level.  My experience tells me that gaining legality at the national level would be about as easy as getting single payer health care mandated for everyone.  

It won't happen is my feeling.  The Obama administration has gone as far as it can go.  The huge liquor lobbies will make the Health Care Lobbies look like kindergarteners.

LAT -- Steve Lopez: Over cigars, getting a handle on Trutanich

LAT -- Steve Lopez: A visit to the medical marijuana doctor

That Bag of Treats No Longer Needs to Be a Thing of Fear Says Reporter

Though this guy should have had his stash X-Rayed for Hidden Spikes

Still we can ask why Mainstream News didn't tell us this decades ago when the fears started?

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "darkpatator" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkpatator/ / CC BY 2.0

A well resourced report at the Tampa Bay Times shows that no one appears to have ever been poisoned by Halloween candy.

Instances in which kids have supposedly been poisoned by their Trick or Treating stash have been shown to be coverups for crimes of a parent.

IIRC the razor blade in apples was shown to be crock earlier, and the St. Petersburg Times report "Poisoned candy turns out to be a Halloween myth " asserts that no tale of tampered Halloween treats is true.  See original for detail.

Says that 911 was cause of extra worry (though I remember the fears starting long before).

The SPT report is good, but misses when it blames all us all for the problem.

The problem is lousy mainstream reporting though I'm not pointing the finger at the Times or reporter Sharon Kennedy Wynne for that.

 She is not responsible for the fact that the news most people watch every night, that local newscast in which the anchors are promoted as major stars only contains 5 minutes of real national news (or is that 5 minutes of national and local news), and then goes on to celebrity gossip, weather and sports.

Those Who Really Fear Halloween

Cold weather spells doom for pumpkins.

If the Jack-o-lantern seeking families don't get them, the pies will.

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "Plutor" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plutor/ / CC BY 2.0

What was needed in the late 80s and throughout the 90s when these stories came out was for the findings by police and court trials that parents actions led to their own children's probems to be trumpeted as widely as the claims of strangers handing out poisoned treats.

Some of the earliest claims were about Halloween poisonings involved homemade treats.  Did mainstream news ever check out whether those claims might have been started by the candy industry?  Are you kidding?  Mess with big business if they don't need to do so?  Not going to happen.

Now there is a chance to break the myths, and I hate to admit it, but gossip sites and such may be part of the key, but you are too.

Between blogs, gossip sites, (and the perennial gossip offered up when you use AOL or Yahoo whether you want it or not) Facebook, Twitter, etc., we realy could get the message out.

So all us evil news repeaters can be shown to have a very valuable purpose, because if news isn't repeated then people don't get to know what they need to learn to run their own government to benefit themselves, not just the fat cats.

Repeat the news that, as of yet, no one has been poisoned by tampered Halloween candy.

Let's show Mainstream that we can get the news that is needed out.  Maybe this time they will get the message.

There was a system in place to pick the new police chief in Los Angeles, that we were informed about in August, a couple of months ago thanks to the LA Times "La Now" blog in "How Los Angeles will search for the next LAPD chief".  The personnel department would present a list of candidates with at least 6 names to the Police Commission which would whittle the names down to three and send those to the mayor to make a choice.

Just like the departing Chief William Bratton had ordered, the three presented today were insiders to the department.   I'm guessing that the guy didn't want chance of being too upstaged by his successor, though there might be other reasons, too.  Knowing that anyone who stood his tenure wasn't a threat to the great Wizard of LA (Bratton himself.)

Well, the whittling has been done and the result you may be happy to know is three white guys.

Three insider white guys just like Bill Bratton ordered?  Police Commission head John Mack who is black, asserted that that results showed that racism is dead in Los Angeles because minority members helped promote the white men, and indeed with Mack and a woman on the commission board selecting the candidates that could be said.  

I find it strange though that the selection mirrored Bratton's call for an insider so closely.  What else did Bratton tell the commission on the down low?  Bratton's going, but he appears to still have sway in LA.  And I guess I'll still do my best to stay out of the city limits if the LAPD is going to be run by a clone.

News media have hinted that the old white man selections might not fit Los Angeles.  Just days ago a local NPR station report surmized that we might have  a black, hispanic, and or a woman for the next chief, as there were excellent choices in those categories.

And an LA Times report "Three insiders being considered for LAPD chief " appears to concur, mentioning Assistant Chiefs Earl Paysinger, and Sharon Papa as very good substitutions, especially over Deputy Chief Moore.

It would be fun to wonder at Moore's identification by the department as "Hispanic" because his father is half Basque, but Moore seems to be a decent guy after reading his take on the deaths of the Rajaram family a little over a year ago, though, of course any police chief needs to understand the problems that face families who live nowhere near gated communities as well. 

I'm not finding much else on any of the candidates this morning.

I'd be particularly interested to now if one of them was involved with ordering any of the actions surrounding the May 1, 2007 police riot in McArthur Park.  This is not just words I'm saying but was also noted by LA Times writers such as in "Initial outrage at LAPD not enough".

Also under consideration would be any actions taken by the up and coming officers during the Rampart Scandal.  (Reports on both can be found at "LAPD.com Police Commission ") .  I'm guessing that those obvious angles have been covered, already.

I guess I have some printing and reading to do.  (But first I'll have to buy paper.  I don't have the 100+ sheets I'd need to print out the reports even double sided).

Joel Rubin at the LA Times "LA Now" Blog  did report in "L.A. Police Commission conceals the identities of 2 outside candidates applying to be next LAPD chief" that there were two outside candidates that applied for the position, but their names were kept secret. It actually got dramatic.  Read original at link for details.

I believe Paul M. Walters, the current police chief of Santa Ana, California applied for the position during the interval in which William Bratton was first under consideration.  People I knew who knew the problems of Los Angeles and cared thought he would be a great chief who had unique ideas about dealing with our gang problems.  Okay, he looks white, too.  I'm just saying. (Bratton was selected by an outside group, not the commission and then Mayor James Hahn approved him.) 

Walters was one of two finalists for Orange County Sheriff after one time Karl Rove favorite Mike Carona resigned while fighting serious legal charges, and it has been well identified that Walters is ready for a move up after improving relations in the once dangerous city he still leads.  I don't know enough to say whether he or the current OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was or was not better and I applaud the decision by the county to move towards diversity, especially as it seemed to leave Walters still looking for that bigger position he probably deserves.  (Bratton couldn't last forever, I thought.)

Why would Bratton insist on an insider?  I'm think that there are skeletons that need to be kept in closets to keep the departing chief reputation standing up bright and shiny.  He needs continued control.

Is that what he demanded after leaving the NYPD? Like in LA, the mayor has the final say, but Bratton seems to have a peculiar almost hypnotic sway over mayors.  (Read Villaraigosa's over the top praise of Bratton in LA Times article above).

I ask, because the year after Bratton left the NYPD Police Chief position some officers used torture on one Abner Louima.  It seems likely to me that the past is more of an influence on that action than the future, and that past (past attitude past training) was influenced more by William Bratton than by his successor.   Indeed nothing that Bratton or his successors did stopped the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999, either.

There probably pleanty of reasons that people turned against the Los Angeles mayor, James Hahn as he sought reelection.  One of those reasons, for the poor people at least was William Bratton.

The last thing we need is a Bratton approved successor here, if he (as it turns out) is going to hide the worst things happening in the LAPD until another horror greets us in the morning paper.

But I have to credit the leaving chief with a good laugh.  He told one radio host that he was a bit affronted by LA's police commission.  When in NYC he was the commissioner as well as the police chief and there was no commission he informed us.  The thought of Bratton going up on the roof to send the Bat Signal brought  a little laugh to my day, but his ideas on policing are the same old, blame the poor, crap that set up some really bad incidents during his tenure in Los Angeles.

I'm happy to know that he's going.   I'd rather have an outsider become chief so that he or she could look into what really happened during the last 6 years.   Walters would have been a great one, in my humble opinion.

But This Is LA.

And one thing that has never been great is it's police department.  

Why should that change now.

Strap in Citizen

Government funded privatized space exploration is being urged.

The tech giants leading a new space race just got a person into space and back a few years ago. But they'd love to take over Space Exploration for NASA with you providing the ultimate funding. (Picture is of Laika, sent by the Soviets into space to see if a living being could survive the assent and conditions in orbit. She was never offered a chance to get down and lived until apparently dying of hunger when her food ran out.  For further information on Laika see Wikipedia or sub titled Swedish movie "My Life as a Dog").

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "Bobbie" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bojo/ / CC BY 2.0

So the help we could get from private space exploration through Internet billionaires and other Jor-els does turn out to be expected to be financed by you and I according to a Washington Post article (link at bottom).  This post does not rely heavily on that report, gleaning just the affirmation that more privatization of important government funcitons appears to be in the offing if private investors with a lot of extra money on their hands (like for political donations) get their way.

 I explained why privatizing space exploration (though leaving the bill at the government's doorstep) would not be a good idea in "Buzz Aldrin Wants A Robust Public Option -- On Space Exploration. Why the times have changed too much for such adventures.".

It would be like the US Postal System.  We could go from $.44 a letter to $5.00 a letter by privatizing our first class delivery like the Republicans want.  Or we can stick with what we have.

It always turns out to be more expensive to go private.

If we want to do space exploration we should do it via the government which does contract out to private industries a lot anyway.  I don't know what Mr. Aldrin meant by trying to imply it would be better to rely more on private industry.

We tried, during the Bush 43 administration, to privatize the contracting, quality control, and results evaluation itself for the Coast Guard, and ended up with a huge disaster that is well known except by the average American.

Is more space exploration a good stimulus boost?

The definition of good would be in order.

How about it creates a lot of jobs, without creating too much inflation.  

There certainly are ways to create jobs with the space program, but will the money spent produce enough gains here on earth to keep inflation down.

A few months ago we found a report that showed that inflation is not created if federal money that is spent creates value.

The money that does create more real value than that of the money spent does not create inflation. 

Money that is spent on destructive acts or ones that don't create as much value as they take do create inflation.

I'm not sure that space exploration does create more value to the average American than it takes.

And it looks pretty clear that we'd see a big transfer of wealth from the average American family to the multi-billionaires ex-computer and Internet techies and the big Wall Street banks that would make money off funding them.

We could go down that path and play the fool for jobs the world wants done, but I say we hold off until the 70% top tax rate is restored.

Otherwise lets use the stimulus to promote green energy, education, and medicine, sectors of the economy that have been proven to give extra value to the rest of we the people.

We've given enough away to the world. 

We've nearly broken the back of our economy fighting their wars.

We need to clean up the messes we've made.  That's only decent.

And then our government needs to focus on value to us, not on a world that wants us to finance their military or space adventures, not while the middle and working class are paying most of the bills while the wealthy get most of the benefits.

BTW, you might remember that recently the Techie Jor-Els had a little contest  recently in which one of them won a million dollars because his company proved he could get to and from space safely.  Compare that to the US government program that has gotten men to the moon and equipment to Mars.

So lets just rethink that privatization program even once the rich take their rightful place in the tax structure.

To read the report on NASA's possible plans see "Where will NASA's next giant step take us?" .

Don't miss the paragraph in which the Tech billionaire disses NASA's newest rocket.  I'm not saying I know more than he does, but does he know more than NASA?

* (Auto return at end of footnote) Jor-el was Superman's dad who had planned to rocket his family off the planet Krypton before the planet was destroyed, but only had a small test capsule finished before the end drew near and sent his baby son out in it.  First learning about the many space ventures by Tech billionaires made me wonder if they were seeking a way off the planet and to get there before the billions of tons of carbon their space race activities  were creating would make Terra unliveable.  In fact, of course, they can't possibly match the damage that industry and automobiles are producing.  Still they might want to put the money in technology to help cut down global climate change.  I'm not saying they would make as much doing so, especially if the privatized space program approved.  I'm just saying that there are billions of people on earth other than themselves and if they or their kids or grandkids are able to escape the destruction of our planet, it's going to be very lonely and not very lucrative living on some rock in space with only other techies to talk to. Return to * above.