I'm on vacation but will be back the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Normally, when a major clean-up effort for a polluted site is announced-- an effort which will bring to bear the resources of both the local and federal government-- environmentalists are happy. But this is Orange County, where the eco-friendly have often seen their green hopes fade to grey (and then get paved), so the announcement yesterday at Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park that the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will be joining the county to detox and otherwise improve Aliso Creek was greeted with suspicion by enviromentalists.

"They promised us we would have an opportunity to bring in our own scientists for a second opinion or a peer review for this super project. And — wham, bam — we have a press conference announcing it," said Penny Elia, chairwoman of the Sierra Club's Save Hobo Aliso Task Force.

Representatives from the Surfrider Foundation, another environmental group, said they were waiting for more information.

Latest Los Angeles Times piece: my unperfect Spanish. Awright, pochos and wabs: go at it! And gabachos: how important is it to learn Spanish in these days of reconquista? Also, enjoy an oldie-but-goodie interview in the Utne Reader that appears in this month's edition!

Couldn't help but take a gander at the latest Honk! column in the Register, which is a must-read for anyone who can get past the fact that writer Jim Radcliffe looks far too happy to be a local transportation columnist. Unless, of course, it's driven him barking mad, in which case the grin makes sense. The column's title promises a Biblical smackdown, with Radcliffe as Moses (only more smiley):

Fact of the week: The Register has reported that the planned 16-mile extension of the Foothill (241) Toll Road will cost an estimated $875 million (in 2008 dollars) to construct. Which, thankfully, is accurate.

But when all costs are included – like for environmental research and a $120 million deal to get a sister toll road not to sue – the projected bill is $1.1 billion. Not included are to-be-determined financing costs.

Check out the Register's March 24 article re: the toll road's legal troubles. Clare then-Climaco (now Venegas), TCA spokesperson-turned-Lincoln-Club-head had this to say:

Because of skyrocketing construction costs, toll-road officials say each month the project is delayed adds about $3 million to the price, although construction is not scheduled to begin until 2008

That raises Radcliffe's estimate of $1.1 Billion to $1,496,000,000. And let's not even consider the fact that the $875 Million figure has been around for years now - but with today's gas prices, how can that possibly be? Won't every single construction vehicle be more expensive to get to and from the site? Won't every single piece of construction material be more expensive to deliver to the site? How can the Transportation Corridor Agencies POSSIBLY expect us to still believe that the construction cost for the Foothill-South will be a mere $875 Million?

I'm more than willing to take your opinions on this one - especially if you're TCA spokesperson Lisa Telles.

Usually when a regular columnist for one of the major news magazines begins to chew through the restraints of received ideas and government press releases, it is, to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson, "like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." Jonathan Alter's latest column in Newsweek illustrates the point.

"I don't think anybody's getting the Bush strategy," historian Douglas Brinkley, director of Tulane University's Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization and the author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, tells Frank Rich in Rich's Sunday New York Times column.

"The crucial point is that the inaction is deliberate — the inaction is the action." As [Brinkley] sees it, the administration, tacitly abetted by New Orleans's opportunistic mayor, Ray Nagin, is encouraging selective inertia, whether in the rebuilding of the levees ("Only Band-Aids have been put on them"), the rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward or the restoration of the wetlands. The destination: a smaller city, with a large portion of its former black population permanently dispersed. "Out of the Katrina debacle, Bush is making political gains," Mr. Brinkley says incredulously. "The last blue state in the Old South is turning into a red state."

County Supervisor Tom Wilson's most recent e-newsletter (Fifth District Report) contained the following juicy tidbit:

The City of Laguna Beach and the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce are hosting a Save Trestles- Bluewater Concert Series on Thursday August 31st from 8-11 p.m. at Club M (680 South Coast Hwy). Cost is $10 pre-sale and $15 at the door. For more information please call 949-842-2260 (Rick Conkey).

Apparently the Supervisors voted 4-1 to pass the resolution, so I went back and listened to that particular meeting to see if maybe that odd man out was Wilson, which would explain his contradictory behavior. Instead I found the one nay vote came not from Wilson, but from Supervisor Lou Correa. Good for you, Lou. So what's Wilson doing, supporting the toll road on one day and advertising for a Save Trestles event the next?

Your guess is as good as mine.

FINAL THOUGHT: As the TCA is a Joint Powers Authority, it takes members from local City Councils, OCTA, and the Board of Supervisors. Tom Wilson sits on both the Foothill/Eastern TCA (the guys specifically in charge of Foothill-South) as well as the BOS. Natch.

The 24th is also the day of the Orange County Race for the Cure - namely the cure for breast cancer. The Race, held at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, is part of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's vicious paramilitary action against malignant mammaries.

The Kids are encouraging friends and fans to join them on the day, including Irvine-based experimental hardcore band Thrice and the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment, a hip young non-profit that raises cash for those women unable to afford chemo or other medications. How hip are they? They've already got a MySpace, baby.

Thrice donated proceeds from their third album, The Artist in the Ambulance, to the Savio Endowment and have raced for the cure before. Also in attendance will be what was once the band Hot Water Music (named after the Bukowski novel), members of which have now recombined into The Draft.
So here's the deal: you wanna see the Cold War Kids, you gots to walk the 5K. That and some minor details:

1. Download the entry form from www.syrentha.org/ocrftc.pdf
   


2. Mail the form, a $40 check made payable to the Syrentha Savio Endowment, and your t-shirt size to: The Syrentha Savio Endowment, P.O. Box 245,Kensington, MD 20895


3. Do this by Sept. 4


4. Rock out to the Cold War Kids at a very private gig

...right before the beginning of Nigger Wetback Chink: "White Power".

You may remember this Arnold Schwarzenegger commercial from the recall election, which described how Sacramento works: "Here's how it works. Money goes in. Favors go out. The people lose. We need to send a message. Game over." Well, if you thought you were sending a message by voting for Schwarzenegger, you were wrong. Because in the land of Governor Schwarzenegger, it's still Game On.

In this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune, Bill Ainsworth reports that "Schwarzenegger has carried on the political tradition of providing favors – in the form of coveted state appointments – to generous campaign donors."

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said the building industry has become increasingly powerful since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office.

"Let me put it this way: The governor is the tractor, and they're working the gears," Florez said. "And you can quote me."

With the first anniversary of the nightmarish devastation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans by Hurricance Katerina (with the assistance of the Bush administration) looming, and the major news media already gearing up for their fifth anniversary of 9/11 extravaganzas, the UK newspaper The Independent directs our attention to another black mark on the calendar.

A miserable milestone was passed the other day. America's (and Britain's) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War. Yes, this conflict has outlasted a war that ended with total victory over Nazi Germany. Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941. Exactly 1,244 days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered. The US invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, and this weekend it is 1,267 days later, with no end in sight.

Sticklers among you will have noted that the interval between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese surrender on 2 September, 1945 was 1,364 days. But even that record will tumble at the start of December. And if you do measure Iraq against the longer American war with Japan, the contrast is even starker. Victory in the Pacific was even more conclusive than in Europe. It produced no post-war entanglement with the Soviets and no Berlin airlift. The Iraq war unfolded the other way round: Baghdad fell barely three weeks after the invasion. Since then, however, it's been downhill all the way.

A dispatch arrives from the cutting edge of science, where the wonders never cease:

Tongue made from buttocks

A Polish man who had his tongue removed has had a new one made using tissue taken from his buttocks.

Jarislav Ernst, 23, from Gliwice, now has a functioning tongue made from his backside after surgery at the Oncology Clinic in Gliwice's General Hospital.

Head doctor Stanislaw Poltorek said: "The new tongue is alive and well-supplied with blood, and the patient is doing well."

Mr Ernst's tongue was removed after it was diagnosed with cancer.

Dr Poltorek added: "We removed the tumour-filled tongue, checking that there were no remaining cancerous cells around the patient's mouth, then collected skin, fat and nerve tissue from the man's buttocks and modelled that into a new tongue, which we sewed into his mouth."

From Weekly staffer Kater Perez (shown here getting Marissa'd):

Should we consider it a charitable cause—like Save the Whales and Free Tommy Chong—or a desperate cry for sanity from nighttime teen soap opera junkies who can't stand the thought of losing a favorite character? Whatever it is, the folks behind SaveMarissa.com and SaveMarissaTshirt.com are on a mission: to save Marissa Cooper, or rather, save actress Mischa Barton, who plays Marissa, from her demise on Fox's The O.C.

Last season's cliffhanger horrified Mischa fans the globe over when lovely Marissa apparently died in her Chinoan true love's arms after a fiery car crash. There has been a resulting international outcry to bring Marissa back to life, be it by a heavenly miracle, a J.R. Ewing-type dream-sequence or good old fashioned black magic. To that end, t-shirts adorned with Mischa's/Marissa's mug are must-have fashion pieces for true blue (orange?) O.C. fanatics--bringing to mind the Free Winona tees that accompanied long-forgotten actress Winona Ryder's shoplifting woes.

Why dump Marissa—and not, say, her Cruella-esque mumsie Julie—has lit up the message boards. Rumors are that Mischa wanted to leave TV to pursue the big screen, that she wasn't being paid what she thought she was worth and that show creator Josh Schwartz simply wanted to shake things up as the once mighty soap's popularity has started to wane. No one's telling and now that many of next season's shows are already in the can, it'll only be a matter of time before we know if the Save Marissa campaign worked.

Does it even matter? Having never once watched The O.C., I can't even tell Mischa and Marissa and Peter Gallagher apart. But if there's a petition, I'll sign it. If someone's taking a collection, I'll throw a couple bucks in. And if there's a t-shirt to wear, I'll sport it. Guess I'm just a sucker for charities that way.

What's a frothing-at-the-mouth preacher, who's been named one of the Top 10 Power Broker of the Religious Right and can squeeze more than $6 million a year out of the faithful (and/or gullible), got to do to get a public display of affection from the California Republican Party? If you know, you should contact OC Weekly favorite Rev. Lou Sheldon, the barking mad Moses of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, because while the state GOP is willing to hug Rev. Lou and his flock/political machine to its bosom when closeted away with the hot-eyed rightwing of the party, it doesn't want to be seen by the general public to be keeping company with Lou.

As the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Ben Lopez, the chief lobbyist and spokesman for the Traditional Values Coalition -- the Anaheim-based evangelical advocacy group led by the controversial Rev. Lou Sheldon -- has been fired from his new job as an outreach worker with the California Republican Party, sources said Tuesday.
Lopez's hiring had been hailed by conservatives, who have been concerned about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's moves to the political center, when it was made public late last week as the state Republican Party opened its convention.

[...]

The hiring was seen as a move aimed specifically to shore up the governor's re-election support among evangelicals, who are a key voting group for state Republicans.
Patrick Dorinson, the California Republican Party communications director, rejected that characterization, saying Tuesday that Lopez's work "was through the convention, and that work is now completed."
Yet on Sunday, Dorinson had given no indication that Lopez's job with the party would end.
Dorinson on Sunday said only that Lopez was "not authorized to be a media spokesperson" for the GOP and would not be permitted to talk to the press in an official capacity.
Lopez could not be reached Tuesday for comment, but sources said he was informed of the termination and "given different reasons" for it.

Other members of the state GOP are a little less sunny than Lopez, according to Marinucci:

Several GOP insiders, speaking not for attribution, called the hiring of Lopez, a top Traditional Values Coalition official, a rare misstep because of Sheldon's high profile. And they said Schwarzenegger's camp, aiming to squelch the rising controversy, quickly cut its losses by dumping Lopez.

"Why would they want to give the Democratic Party and Phil Angelides a gift on a silver platter?" said a GOP strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity. The decision presented the ammunition for political opponents to "call into question: is this the new Arnold or the right-winger we had last year?"

population: you.

see, tuck (can i call you tuck? of course i can!), i used to love mostly everything about you: your cute wittle lisp, your cute wittle bow tie, your cute wittle suits. sure, i would leave the volume on the TV wayyyyy down, so that i could barely hear that lisp (for sanity's sake) but still, dear, you were my number one geek fantasy.

until now.

SRSLY, carl (can i call you carl? why not!)?

you look as though you've been entertainig some heavy feathered-hair fantasies about Larry Wilcox--you know, that guy from CHiPs who isn't named Erik Estrada. the bow tie? gone. the suit? poof. the lisp? probably there, but can't be lisping very much if you're on mothereffing Dancing with the Stars!

and so, tuck, carl, or whatever your real first name is, i have to break it off with you. you are no longer my number one geek love fantasy. you're not even in the top 10.

you killed my love and i hate you.
back to colbert i go . . .

Perhaps it's only logical that in a state which has a man still trading on his movie role as a killer cyborg from the future as governor, politics would grow closer to comic books. Or perhaps it isn't. Either way, it's California.

At last weekend's state GOP convention, the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci spotted TV's ex-Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno.

And guess what? [Ferrigno] says he's thinking about going into politics one day, too. "I have a feeling I'm going to get dragged into it," he said at a Friday dinner for statewide GOP candidates. "I would love to get involved in reforming California."

Meanwhile, Batman has been spotted in Sacramento. The man behind the bat-mask this time is Kevin Baker of the California Nurses Association, who is dressing up in cowl and cape as part of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights' "Crashing the Dash for Cash". The Dash for Cash is the Foundation's name for the flurry of fundraisers during the last days of state legislature's session, and it wants to highlight this year's dash in order to promote Proposition 89.

Prop 89 is, to use the Bee columnist Peter Schrag's description,

the California Nurses Association's "clean money" initiative, which would provide public funding to all qualifying state political candidates who agree to tight contribution and spending limits... It would put much stricter limits on contributions to privately funded candidates, to ballot measures controlled by candidates and officeholders and on corporate contributions to any ballot measure.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights has been dispatching video crews to these end of the session political fundraisers-- not all with a superhero in tow-- in hopes of stirring public disgust with the Sacramento money-go-round via You Tube. You can see all the videos at the Channel 89 homepage. You can also sign up there for a contest to see who can crash the most fundraisers; the winner receives Sacramento Kings tickets. You don't need to dress up like a superhero to participate, though if you do, the Hulk wouldn't be such a bad choice. After all, we know how much politicians like the color green.

Just when you think the government's a complete and total failure, something happens to restore your faith.

Why, just this afternoon I was perusing the Governor's website, filling out a webmail information request on Chuck DeVore's industrial hemp bill and bemoaning my lack of decent contacts up in Sac-Town, when something caught my eye.

A quick visit to www.govmail.ca.gov brings up a helpful, simple page where you can list your contact details, your email, the issue with which you're concerned and even if you support or oppose it. What are some of the major hot-button issues, you ask?

• Caltrans (think potholes)


• CDCR (Corrections and Rehabilitation - they ought to change it to CDCP for Punishment)


• DMV concerns (it's the car culture, people)


• Illegal immigration (got a minute, man?)


• Marine Life Protection Act (We've got an awful lot of coastline, but some of those sea lions are just begging for death)

That's right kids, whether you want to protect inland San Onofre State Beach/safeguard a Juaneno Indian sacred site/protect the Donna O'Neill Conservancy/not waste money on a road that would only make traffic worse, or would rather just pave one of the last relatively untouched coastal canyons in Southern California; either way, all you have to do is visit www.govmail.ca.gov and click the mouse a few times. Maybe type out an affirmative or negative phrase or two.
Check it out, why don't you?

If you're one of those people who are worried that President Bush doesn't seem to have a plan for Iraq, worry no more.  He does have a plan, as he explained at a press conference this morning.

We're not leaving so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake.

(If you don't recognize the title of this post, click here.)

The Los Diablos Times just chimed in (read: posted an AP release) on the luxurious conditions of John Mark Karr's flight to California. Karr, in case you're allergic to the 24-hour news cycle, is the guy who says he killed six-year old beauty queen (a truly shudder-worthy compound adjective) JonBenet Ramsey. It's said he apparently knows apparently secret details about the murder scene.

He'll stay for an indefinite period of time - fathers, lock up your daughters! (No, really. I mean it.) It'll be a return of sorts, as Karr spent some time substitute-teaching in Sonoma County. Unsurprisingly, he was terminated for possessing kiddie-porn, absconded and is still wanted there. Creepily, CrimeBlog.us contains links to a MySpace account said to be for a John Mark Karr II in Petaluma, CA. The age for the profile is said to be 15, though it has since been closed.

Karr's current MySpace account lists his address as Thailand. Okay, it's probably not actually his MySpace - unless he's got a great sense of humor. One Night in Bangkok? Come on. Also, I don't think Karr would say he doesn't want kids.

The Times article lists the various delicacies Karr enjoyed in his business class seat.

Before takeoff, he sipped champagne. During dinner, Karr had pate, salad with walnut dressing and fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli. Karr had a beer before a glass of French chardonnay with the main course.

Karr went so far as to clink glasses with his single-serving friend, investigator Mark Spray of the Boulder County District Attorney's office. I wonder if they hoped he would say something like, "Here's to the undisputable fact that I killed JonBenet Ramsey!" I guess there's always a chance of some enlightening Truth or Dare—you get all kinds of buzzed when you drink up in the wild blue yonder.

Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the royal treatment during Sunday's journey -- king prawns, champagne, French wine -- was "a brilliant move."

Yeah yeah yeah, maybe he'll feel comfortable. Maybe he'll get all maudlin and loquacious. Or maybe he'll admit that he actually didn't kill JonBenet.

I'm hoping for the last one actually. I mean, come on—prawns? Beer and chardonnay? It's a festival of the senses at 38,000 feet. I'm starting to think that maybe I'm the one who killed JonBenet. I mean, it's possible. There's some worrisome gaps in my recollection of the past 25 years. And I could use a flight to Colorado; my sister's got peeps in Boulder.

Which brings me to my point: unless the Boulder DA is abso-fucking-lutely certain that Karr's the kid-killer in question, it's pretty monstrously stupid to give him the royal treatment unless they are. It's practically an incentive to any whack-job who dreams of fame, fortune and flying first-class.

Plus, chicks dig famous cons. Trust me, I saw it on E! TV.

...After reading his excellent summary of his coming book on Gary Webb, leave comments here. For those of who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, read the link--then leave your comments here.

Like any good Republican--and only good Republicans--we got to participate in a telephone poll last night. One of the first questions the young lady on the other end of the line asked was, if the election was held today, who would I support, "Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, or Phil Anga ... Angluuuuh ... Auuuunglish ... I'm sorry, I cannot pronounce his name."
"Angelides?" we offered.
"Oh, is that how you say it? Angelides, the state treasurer."
Now, truth be told, we don't know which of these tongue-twisting crackers we're going to ultimately vote for (like it matters the way Republicans have rigged elections in this country). But we do believe in fairness so, just to see where this deal was going, we replied:
"Phil Anga ... Angluuuuh ... Auuuunglish ... aw, the second guy, the one who doesn't call our home state 'Callyfornyia.'"
"Angelides?" she shot back perfectly.
"Yeah, that one, the one who wants to take the state backwards."
From there on in, we answered everything as raging Left as possible. The questions concerned mostly the campaign-finance proposition that'll be on the next ballot, and the more the pollster brought up the gloom and doom that will befall this state should the measure pass, the more we replied we strongly support it.
Then it go to who we'd trust when it came to their views on the subject.
"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce?" she asked. (They oppose campaign-finance reform.)
"Those pinko commie bastards?" we replied. "Strongly disagree!"
"The California Nurses Association?" (They support the proposition.)
"Mmmmm, nurses. Whatever they're selling, we're buying. Strongly agree!"
This went on and on and on--must they always call at the dinner hour?--and we predict that when we answered we're Republicans who like the direction the state is going under Schwarzy and are very dubious of the Demo-gripped state Legislature--well, it must've thrown their whole Automated Answer Oscillator 3000 into a tizzy.
Please call again.

As everyone knows, many Mexicans are fat and nowhere is this more evident than SanTana, which according to the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, has some of the most obese people in the state. Fighting the good fight against fat is the bad-ass non-profit, Latino Health Access, but they've finally gone too far. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the SanTana City Council is expected to pass an ordinance requiring city vending machines to stock healthy snacks. Behind the push is LHA. "We don't want to be the food police," LHA director of policy Leah Fraser (note to Times copy editors: you misspelled her last name as "Frazier." Spell-check!) told reporter Dave McKibben. "But employees' only choices shouldn't be junk food." Sorry, Leah, but leaning on the council (especially on councilmember José Solorio and Mayor Miguel Pulido, both the worst kind of Latinos--vegetarians) to pass such a law is nothing less than declaring a Haditha on SanTana's fatties. The funniest part of the story, however, were the comments of one Maribel Carmona, who told McKibben the ordinance "would be good for health-conscious people...But I'm not one of those people. I wish I was." At the time, according to McKibben, she "complemented her pasta with an orange soda." The Times website doesn't run Carmona's picture, but their dead-tree edition did...and honey be big.

In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained.

Interestingly-- or perhaps that should be Depressingly-- the cable news channels seem much more interested in the JonBenet Ramsey case.

From the UK newspaper The Independent:

[UK Deputy Prime Minister] John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a single word: crap.

Chances are if you were caught sneaking off to a baseball game instead of doing your job, you'd get in trouble. And if your job was a position of great public trust, in which you were literally holding a person's life in your hands, and you refused to return to work after you were contacted at the ballpark, you'd expect a stiffer reprimand than just a firm talking to, wouldn't you? If you answered Yes to that question, then you're not Riverside County Superior Court Judge Paul E. Zellerbach, perhaps the biggest fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the Pacific Time Zone, and almost certainly the Angels' most irresponsible fan (non-beer-induced-behavior division).

Judge Zellerbach was "publicly admonished" yesterday by the state Commission on Judicial Performance for, as the Los Angeles Times reports, "refusing to return from an Angels playoff game [the October 4, 2004 Angels-Red Sox game] to handle a verdict in a murder trial and turning down the attorneys' request to allow another judge to receive the jury's verdict." Zellerbach almost got off with a lesser reprimand, as the Times notes: "Six members of the commission voted for public admonishment, and four voted for a private admonishment." Would the penalty for ducking out on the verdict in a murder case have been harsher if it hadn't been a playoff game? One imagines Zellerbach pleading his case before the commission-- "But they were playoff tickets!" he whines passionately-- seeing compassion in the eyes of the four who voted for a private "Tut-tutting", only to suffer the sting of a public pronouncement of "Naughty" at the hands of the stone-hearted six.

Still, I'm pretty sure that Judge Zellerbach will be able to bear the burden of his public admonishment. For one thing, as the Associated Press explains, the admonishment "carries no consequences." And more importantly, the Angels won last night.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, "School-age children from Spanish-speaking households in San Diego County and throughout California are gaining English fluency at record rates". While this is excellent news, the news for adults is a little dimmer.

Meanwhile, English fluency among adult Spanish speakers dropped from 50 percent in 1990 and 2000 to 48 percent in 2005. The census reports a more precipitous decline for those 65 and older. The fluency rate for this group dropped from 45 percent in 1990 to 35 percent in 2005.

That result will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed these polls over the years-- or listened to the callers on talk radio. And of course, it's not just in the dwarf/justice nexus that adults fail to shine. Turns out, they don't know much about non-comic book science, either.

Asked what planet Superman was from, 60% named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37% knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

Science is getting short shrift in many California classrooms.

Elementary schools have been spending more time on math and reading lessons to prepare students for standardized tests, leaving less time for other subjects.

That might be starting to change because children must learn about topics such as magnetism and molecules for new state science tests.

But science still is not getting enough attention, particularly in the early grades, some teachers and experts say.

Results of the fifth-grade test, the first of the state's new science tests, are not encouraging.

Costa Mesa-based band Supernova is taking on the Motley Crue drummer, reality TV God Mark Burnett and the CBS network over the band on Rock Star Supernova performing under just the name Supernova:

Rock band seeks to stop CBS and Mark Burnett's new band from performing under the name Supernova

Request for Preliminary Injunction Filed

San Diego, CA., (August 11, 2006) - Supernova - an Orange County, California rock and roll band that contributed its song "Chewbacca" to the cult movie "Clerks" - has filed for a preliminary injunction to halt the band being formed on the CBS television series "Rock Star Supernova" from performing or recording under the name "Supernova" alone. The request for the preliminary injunction follows a lawsuit Supernova filed on June 27, 2006 in United States District Court alleging trademark infringement against CBS Broadcasting, Mark Burnett Productions, performer Tommy Lee, and others.

Supernova claims that the parties intend illegally to use the (existing) band's name and trademark "Supernova". The band Supernova contacted Burnett immediately after learning about the proposed name for the TV show and has been in negotiations since before the June lawsuit was filed.

According to John Mizhir, Jr. an attorney with the law firm of Fish & Richardson that represents the band Supernova, " "Our client has taken legal action in order to preserve its rights to the name the band has worked so long and hard to establish. We tried to settle the matter quickly and fairly but after lengthy negotiations with CBS, Mark Burnett Productions and others, they left us with no options but to seek the preliminary injunction."

A hearing on the matter is sought within 28 days. Rock Star: Supernova is scheduled to air through September 27.

Founded in 1989 in Costa Mesa, California, plaintiff Supernova is made up of Jodey Lawrence, Art Mitchell, and David Collins. The band has released three full-length albums and has toured the United States extensively, participating in the Vans Warped Tour in 1995 and again in 1999.

"Rock Star: Supernova" is a TV show about a rock and roll band that will be made up of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, and former Guns n' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. The show's premise is the formation of a band to be called "Supernova," with fifteen vocalists competing for the role of lead singer. The show is being produced by reality television impresario Mark Burnett.

Mizhir, Anthony Fletcher and Greg Krakau, all with the national law firm of Fish & Richardson P.C., are representing the band Supernova in the legal action.

A story in this morning's New York Times on last month's heat wave makes for grim reading. According to the paper's examination of records, approximately 140 Californians died from the heat during the month of July, "a death toll unlike any the state had seen from high temperatures since 1955, state officials said, before air-conditioning went mainstream."

What is extraordinary about the death toll, aside from the high number, is the range of the heat's victims. Typically, it's the elderly who die during heat waves. But this time, "fewer than half of those who died in California were over 70, according to a compilation of the most recent coroners' reports, most of which are not yet complete."

In San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, for example, the average age of the 10 who died was 45.

[...]

"That was surprising to us, a real eye-opener," Sandy Fatland, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County coroner, said of the ages. "Perhaps when we are middle-aged, we don't have people around who make us take care of ourselves; and left to our own devices, we don't."

It's bad enough that Costa Mesa and its divisive Mayor Alan Mansoor are getting beat up by their own hometown Daily Pilot columnists (here and here, not to mention that paper's own readers here and, oh, by one of its more distinguished residents here). But now they are getting national unwanted exposure from the organization that Martin Luther King, Jr. helped found, the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose new Intelligence Report piece, The Tinderbox, takes on Mansoor, the City With a Heart and Minutemen co-founder Jim Gilchrist.

A sample graph:

That [Mansoor-led, anti-immigrant] campaign has transformed Costa Mesa into a closely watched and especially volatile tinderbox within the raging national debate over immigration. The success or failure of Mansoor's policies could set the tone for how other cities around the country deal with what is quickly emerging as one of the most divisive political issues in the United States. Outside activists from both sides of the debate have flocked to Costa Mesa and declared the city a critical battleground.

The usual suspects surface: gadfly Martin H. Millard spewing his self-described non-racist hate; former police chief Dave Snowden and outgoing chief John Hensley saying Mansoor's policies are making it tough on cops to build trust in the Latino neighborhoods; and City Councilwoman Katrina Foley wondering how the hell her city came to this point, where its other motto, City of the Arts has been shoved aside in favor of becoming the national immigration debate's epicenter.

But where Buchanan succeeds most in pushing this story forward is by talking with average folks, like a restaurant owner who is dealing with empty tables as a result of official and non-official boycotts on city businesses, and Billy Folsom, "a longhaired, tattooed biker and member of the National Rifle Association who repairs police cars for the City of Costa Mesa." Folsom relates this story as he nurses a drink at the pub owned by City Councilman Gary Monahan, Skosh Monahan's:

"I drive cop cars all day long, up and down one little street behind the cop shop." . . . [T]here's a stop sign and a little kid lives in the apartment there, a Hispanic boy maybe 4 years old. He loves to wave at policemen, which he thinks I am because he sees me in the cars everyday." Folsom smiles and waves back as part of his routine.

"Well, the City Council resolution was approved on a Tuesday night. On Thursday, I stop at the stop sign and here comes this little kid. But instead of a smile and a wave, the kid throws a clump of dirt at my car then runs away. That's what this has done to this city."

The online environmental Grist Magazine points to a New York Times story with this:

Words Fail Us
Hummer propaganda aimed at kids through McDonald's Happy Meals

Sometimes a story comes along that so perfectly captures a culture's pathologies that it should be put in a time capsule, so future generations ... oh, right, there won't be any future generations. It seems that, according to fast-food behemoth McDonald's, this is a "Hummer of a Summer." A new series of TV and radio ads depict happy families on their way to fatten their children and clog their arteries at McDonald's in GM's gas-guzzling Hummer. When they arrive, soon-to-be-obese boys can choose from eight different toy Hummers with their Happy Meal (happily, girls can learn their proper gender roles from Polly Pocket fashion dolls). Charlie Miller of Environmental Defense thinks it's kind of a bummer of a summer: "Anything that sends a message to kids that these are the cool vehicles to buy is the wrong message." At today's prices, it costs about $96 to fill up the gas tank of a Hummer H2 -- but don't worry, a double cheeseburger's only a buck.

Alex, of course, is right (see his post here) about the drudges at The Drudge Report– among the many kinds of bastards they are, warmongering bastards ranks pretty high since Bush the Younger took office. But I do think he missed the importance of another, much older Encourager of war and slaughter– about Whom, more in a moment.

First, I'd just like to say that it's nice to see that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahdadinejad is making an effort to get the details right in his imitation of the Ayatollah Khomeini. When the grim-visaged and long bearded Khomeini decided to give his first big American TV interview, he chose to speak to 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace. Now when it's time for the less grim and less beardy Ahdadinejad to speak, he chooses Wallace as well. To be expected really. Many of Ahdadinejad's moves deliberately echo Khomeini's.

That massive letter Ahdadinejad sent Bush in May, encouraging Bush to reform his corrupt ways and come to Islam was an imitation of a similar letter Khomeini sent Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. (Khomeini's letter itself was modeled on the letters the Prophet Mohammed sent to various rulers of his day.) And that notorious passage about "wiping Israel off the map"– actually, the line was more like erasing Israel from the pages of history– in one of Ahdadinejad's speeches was a quote from one of Khomeini's speeches. Following Khomeini, Ahdadinejad said that God would do the "wiping out" or "erasing" or whatever... and I suppose that's what really made the speech so threatening. Because in the Old Testament, which all three of the major monotheisms revere (in differing degrees), God shows Himself to be rather bloodthirsty when it comes to wiping out peoples.

I can think of a handful of examples off the top of my head.