this page:
November 30 - December 6, 2007
Repetition does not transform
a lie into a truth.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt
The truth
is that Bush just likes to blow things up
-- in Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.
-- U.S. Representative Pete Stark
18 October 2007
Thursday
6 December 2007
Deep End News
Slow Loc@l
Jonestown County Justice: no news
on Hamburg sex-crime charges --
You wouldn't know it from reading
the local
"news" (or from local radio news), but child molesting charges against Matt Hamburg (brother of Laura Hamburg, presumptive family fall girl in the recent no-arrest bust of a major marijuana operation at the Hamburg plantation south of Ukiah [1, 2],
and son of Dan Hamburg, the former one-term Democratic Congressman turned Green Party godfather and gentleman farmer), are going forward -- charged (MCUKCRNT 07-81057) as misdemeanors.
Hamburg's charged with two counts of sexual battery [PC243.4 (e)(1)], annoying or molesting a child [PC647.6 (a)], terrorist threat [PC422], and false imprisonment [PC236].
A restraining order issued 4 December orders Hamburg -- represented at this point by
Deputy Public Defender Linda Thompson -- to stay away from his victims (a girl and a boy named yesterday -- as the charges were not -- in a local weekly "newspaper" editorially afflilated with MediaNewsGroup's Ukiah Daily Journal).
Hamburg's violation date was 11 November.
Scheduled court dates (all in Department B, Courthouse,
Ukiah):
Pretrial conference December 14, 8:30 a.m.
Motions in limine December 27, 1:30 p.m.
Jury trial set/held: December 31, 10 a.m.
"Impeaching our president doesn't show lack of support for our troops. It shows the people are angry with the president."More north coast child molesters:
Kenneth E. Davidson was a physical therapist in Willits and Covelo for 25 yearsJudge Clayton Brennan sentences Davidson
to the maximum term of 16 years
Linda Williams, WillitsNews
Messages seeking comment from Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos had not been returned as of Wednesday evening.
The Dub Club . . .
Bye-bye, "Benchmarks" . . .
The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision to suspend sessions after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to their government jobs. The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States ...Iraqi parliament closes shop for month,
ends work on U.S.-backed legislation
Kim Gamel, AP
Wanna bet? . . .
CIA destroyed al-Qaida interrogation video
Robert Windrem, nbc
. . . will rely heavily on private contractors, including Boeing, BAE Systems, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).The federal indictment . . . did not mention at least six other fires in Senate office buildings since late September.
U.S. Capitol Police officer accused in Senate fire
AP
Following the election McHaney worked for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.Man caught in child-sex sting worked for Kerry
Matthew Daly, AP
It was not immediately clear whether the fragments were of any use to investigators, however.Italy mob boss swallowed secrets before dying
Reuters
"Joseph Smith said he received the word of God from an angel named Moroni, who guided him to tablets that told the story of the Book of Mormon about an ancient civilization of Israelites sent by God to America. Smith could read and translate the tablets -- written in what he called "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics -- with the help of special transparent stones he used as spectacles." -- BBC
Wednesday
5 December 2007
Today: Ukiah City Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Sheriff's office at 463-4096.
Romance of the vine . . .
Former Sebastiani family winery
set to be sold in bankruptcy court
Kevin McCallum, PressDemocrat
More north coast child molesters:
Ex-Hayward cop in prison for child sexBerkeley Sea Scouts leader held for multiple molest
The Dub Club . . .
Say so long to Pelosi and Thompson:
"Benchmarks" are baack . . .
"I believe that a secure, stable Iraq is within reach," Gates said, adding however: "We need to be patient."Iraqi police officers demonstrated outside a station in eastern Baghdad, calling for the release of a colleague detained by U.S. forces.
Tuesday
4 December 2007
It could be him on a cellphone," he said, pointing to a farmer standing in a marijuana field . . .
."They are everywhere. The Taliban all have some kind of early-warning system. They use cellphones," he said.
Afghan criticism of U.S. efforts risesDavid Rogers, wsj: House and Senate Democrats have balked thus far at providing new money for the war in Iraq without some change of policy by President Bush. But Democratic leaders are looking at the option of advancing more money for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan as a way to ease the strain on the Pentagon.
Gates ... held talks with President Hamid Karzai in the evening. Both men admitted afterwards that attacks [are] increasing.
US Defence Secretary Gates calls for more help for Afghanistan
AFP
No privacy, no second opinions:
more "medical" corporations preying on the poor . . .
. . . 150,000 patients, many of whom are covered by Medi-Cal or lack insurance.
Authorities recommend that San Francisco-bound drivers use alternate routes, as traffic is jammed through the MacArthur Maze.
Perils of Petroleumism:
Massive Blockage on Bay BridgeOakland port worker crushed by truck
Sunday
2 December 2007
Consider that [
Naomi Wolf] is not making a guess. She is not even talking about the future. She is describing things that are already happening . . . You may know the expression "good Germans," referring to the dazed and confused populace that let Nazism rise to power . . .
Saturday
1 December 2007
Ukiah cannabis cartel . . .Young was hired in December 2005 by then-DA Norman Vroman after a 20-year career in the Mendocino County Public Health Department.
Second walk-out in three days (
see Thursday, below)Iraq parliament hit by walkout
over raid on Sunni leader
AP / AFP
"We're living in an Orwellian era."
Another reason to impeach:
Mike Adams, newstarget: "
This is happening, folks. You're LIVING through an amazing chapter of history right now. You're actually witnessing the downfall of a free nation and the rise of a superpower fascist state. You're actually part of it."
Note: "our" Congressman, Mike Thompson, voted "Yea" on the House version,
H.R. 1955 (official links:
1,
2)See Sunday 28 October 2007 (scroll down)
Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served eighteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
Philip Giraldi, huffingtonpost
"Anti-extremist" bill targets online thoughtcrime
Declan McCullagh, cnet
Bush also challenged . . . a law requiring him to keep in place an existing command structure for the Navy's Pacific fleet.
Another reason to impeach:
Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 Witnesses to be held secret at Guantanamo trial AFP
a few more reasons to impeach:
Cindy Taylor, Mike Widomski ... and Julie Myersrawstory: "Pelosi, through a spokesman, didn't directly comment on Nirenberg's venture."
Slow Loc@l
Hmmm: "Obsolete"? Among the Consent Calendar items on the Board of Supes Agenda for next Tuesday: "Adoption of
Resolution Authorizing the Destruction of Obsolete Personnel Records,
Background Files and Citizen Complaint Files [emphasis added] of the Office of the
Sheriff-Coroner".
Also on the Consent Calendar: resolutions honoring County Clerk Marsha Wharff and Godfather Al Beltrami, the two Jonestown County officials -- knocked out of action by a spider bite and a car crash, respectively -- who know the most about where the bodies are buried.
According to the Agenda, the BOS will convene, go into closed session, emerge from closed session for snacks and chat (honoring long-time employees who've yet to meet with career-ending mishaps) in Conference Room B at 10:30, meet as the Water Agency, go to lunch at noon.
In the afternoon, the Supes are scheduled to raise fees across the board (a "Public Hearing" timed for 1:30), finish off the Westport Municipal Advisory Council, and meet as the Air Quality District.
(Really, dear reader: if any of the foregoing strikes you as . . . far-fetched, take a look at the Agenda . . . )
Jonestown County Journalism: just where, do you suppose, does that "from the blog" business originate, that bloats the Sunday front page of the paid-for print edition of the dreadful Ukiah Daily Journal? This afternoon, the UDJ "blog" shows exactly one comment: "K.C., Why don't you just admit that you made a mistake with the TWK column. Everyone makes them you know. Being funny would be its only justification and it is clearly not."
At the PressDemocrat website, meanwhile, none of the comments on Mike Geniella's notably crummy piece on the arrest -- or whatever it was -- of Laura Hamburg mentions Geniella's presumably-deliberate error in describing the Hamburg-Cooperriders' short-lived "Newspaper-Type Product" -- a promotional
yuppie-shopper, heavy on cute, which appeared occasionally -- as "a weekly publication".
(For anybody who's curious, some of the website -- apparently the work of Hamburg's second ex-husband, Sid Cooperrider -- is still online.)
more Slow Loc@l . . .