Farmers market tragedy

An acquaintance, I’ve learned, was at the Santa Monica Farmers Market when the car drove through the crowd, killing ten people. She saw it coming, got out of the way, and was injured by flying debris. She, like I, am skeptical of the old-man-confusing-the-gas-for-the-brake theory.

She says the car swerved back and forth, hitting booths on one side, then hitting booths on the other. It did not appear to be out of control.

Most damning, she said that after 2 1/2 blocks of carnage, after the car had driven the entire length of the Farmers Market and was just outside the market area - the driver put on the brakes and stopped voluntarily. 

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Stop the Patriot Act rally.  Hollywood

Did you know that under Patriot Act I, which is law now, the FBI can force libraries and bookstores to give them the reading records of patrons -and if they tell anyone the FBI is doing this, that they can be arrested?

Did you know that under Patriot Act II, if it passes, they can revoke the citizenship of anyone - including those born here - with no appeal possible?

Fascism is not too strong a word to use. 

Not your mother’s librarian!

Wendy McPherson; librarian, union member, Socialist, lesbian, speaking to the crowd.

Librarians have been actively and massively organizing against the Patriot Act since the day after it passed. They are understandably angered the FBI can request reading records of anyone and that they can be arrested if they divulge this.

One library started posting a sign that says “The FBI was not here today (watch for this sign)”. Which implies if the FBI was there today, then the sign would vanish.

Other librarians now destroy reading records after the book is returned.

And, oh yeah, they don’t wear their hair in buns any more…

PS There’re more photos on my camblog.

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Stop the Patriot act rally. 2 of 4

Hassan Hassan, prior to speaking at the rally. We’ve detailed his nightmarish immigration battle.

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Stop the Patriot act rally. 3 of 4

Best t-shirt!

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Stop the Patriot act rally.  4 of 4

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The dog ate mothers toes

Poetry.com is having a poetry contest.  Humor columist Dave Barry recently posted in his blog, Hey wouldn’t it be fun if we entered poems with the phrase “the dog ate mothers toes” with a first name of “Freemont”. Then we could search poetry.com for poems by that name!

There are now over 500 entries! You can search for them too! First name “Freemont”.

Dave proudly notes

“The poetry.com site now has more than 500 poems by people coincidentally named Freemont concerning the consumption of mother’s toes by the dog. Some of these poems are genuinely alarming.

This blog is SO very proud of you all. Just think: If you were to take all that energy, creativity and talent, and apply it to something truly useful — something that would benefit humankind — this blog would be very disappointed.”

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Goodbye to Blair?

“British Prime Minister Tony Blair is under mounting pressure following the suicide of a weapons expert involved in a dispute over a government dossier used to justify going to war in Iraq.

Former Labour party minister Glenda Jackson said Mr. Blair should, in her words, “bite the bullet” and step down because of the potential damage from an inquiry into David Kelly’s death.”

One hopes Blair will fall soon, to be followed by Bush. Of course the Brits do have an advantage here, as their media has actual teeth and spine.

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The war before the war

U.S. air raids in ‘02 prepared for war in Iraq

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Ladies - just for you

Order a husband!!

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Davis recall election a virtual certainty

“Legal efforts to delay a vote on the recall suffered a setback, while a separate court challenge filed to speed up the process advanced. A Sacramento court ordered officials to conduct a running count of the valid signatures on petitions calling for Davis’ ouster and a Los Angeles judge rejected an attempt to slow the process, even temporarily.”

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