Camp Ped

More excellent investigative journalism from New Times L.A. who broke the L.A. pedo-priest story and who have tracked it with bulldog intensity ever since.

Long after Roman Catholic leaders knew pedo-priests couldn’t be cured, Cardinal Roger Mahony kept packing off his worst offenders to a notorious New Mexico rehab center.

And then routinely released them to unsuspecting parishes.  Again and again and again.  More concerned, it appears, with covering up bad publicity for the Church than with making sure the priests didn’t molest children again.  Harsh words?  Yes.  But demonstrably true.

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Venezuela nearing the brink again?

After the recent aborted Venezuela coup attempt, investigative reporter Greg Palast said he expected another coup attempt within months, and that this time President Chavez would be killed and the coup would succeed.

The wide streets and white-washed houses in this city’s affluent east end are deceptively calm, with tropical birds and lush mango trees providing a country feel just minutes from the chaotic downtown.
But here in the Sorocaima neighborhood, residents are preparing for the worst: a possibly violent confrontation between the multitudes of poor who support the country’s mercurial president, Hugo Chávez, and his increasingly restive opponents. Taking precautions, the neighborhood’s people have put up razor wire and electrified fences, set up citizen patrols, erected street barricades and purchased arms.

For Venezuela, a Move Revives to Oust Chávez [New York Times: International News]

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Valley Secession

“Secession Watch tonight posted its take on a fascinating and revealing profile in the September issue of Los Angeles magazine on Ron Kaye, managing editor of the L.A. Daily News.  Kaye takes pride in inventing and stoking the paper’s tabloid-style crusade on behalf of San Fernando Valley secession, even as he wonders if cityhood would be any improvement and questions if Valley VOTE is too white.  Over Marlboros and martinis with writer Charles Rappleye,  Kaye explains that promoting secession and the paper’s Valley-first credo is an expression of his personal idealism.  

Kaye, described as a reformed radical who left Santa Monica for Van Nuys, insists without irony, “This [the Valley] is the dream of mankind.”  A job applicant, however, says Kaye told her the paper’s ethic was narrow:  “We’re not interested in the problems of the poor people in the San Fernando Valley, we’re interested in the problems of the middle class.”  Secession Watch suggests that Kaye’s and the Daily News’  shrill persona, which makes some minorities in the New Valley uneasy, may prove to be bad for business as the fast-changing Valley becomes ever more like the rest of Los Angeles. 

The Los Angeles magazine issue is on newstands but not yet on-line. The full Secession Watch item is here

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What a surprise

Bush snubs earth summit.

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When your hopes are washed away….

Most will say a raindrop, as it sparkles on a leaf while the evening sun sets, is a very beautiful thing, but when billions of those tiny raindrops crash into rivers and force them to rise so high that they leave their natural bed, the situation quickly gets out of hand. I live in Austria and we have seen the first flooding since 1859 in the last couple of days. Is this our fault? Have we manipulated nature once too often or is it simply a contretemps? [kuro5hin.org]

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Enthusiasm wanes for the battle of Dr. Evil and Mini-Me

 With all the nastiness, plot twists and power struggles of the 2002 California gubernatorial race between Gray Davis and Bill Simon, it’s starting to look like a grudge match between two movie villains — say, Dr. Evil and Mini-Me. And California voters are increasingly turned off, complaining that a political choice between a megalomaniac and his evil clone is no choice at all.

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Gray Davis wallows at money trough, Chapter 947

After accepting $150,000 in political contributions from a California weight-loss company two years ago, Gov. Gray Davis decided the state would await federal action and not advise the public of the possible ill effects of the company’s widely marketed herbal diet pills.

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Tomb curse strikes again

A legendary curse that has protected the tomb of Genghis Khan from discovery for 800 years appears to have struck again after a US expedition that claimed to have located the grave abruptly pulled out of Mongolia.  The Genghis Khan geo-historical expedition suddenly ended after a string of “unfortunate accidents”.

A 3km-long wall filled with snakes protects the suspected site of the tomb and workers on the expedition were bitten by the snakes. Then cars rolled off hillsides for no apparent reason.  The final blow came when former Mongolian prime minister Dashiin Byambasuren accused the team of desecrating a sacred site.

The whereabouts of the 13th-century warlord’s remains is one of archeology’s last great mysteries. According to legend, the tomb will never be found.

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