"Lou’s Always Dreaming,"
Reflections of an evening with Lou Reed….by Duval Russell
Posted Dec. 2, 2006
Lou Reed - Song and Noise, Nov. 5, 2006
Laxson Auditorium, Chico, CA
"The image of the poet is in the breeze," and so it was that crisp fall evening when myself, "my wife," and about 1000 others Chicoans spent a few hours with Lou Reed. It’s been a few weeks since the show, the tears have dried up a bit and I decided to commit to silicon the memories and impressions of that night before hey "just slip away." Lou popped out on stage in a gray tee shirt and faded gray jeans, looking all of 125 lbs., about as skinny as my bony ass. He cast a figure of Dorian Grey since from my P.O.V. he hadn’t aged a bit since ‘82. He threw his open palms up and said, "Here I am." We could hardly believe it. No one was screaming out song titles, insults or throwing things at the stage. We shut the fuck up and gave Lou our complete attention for two hours. It took Lou a couple of songs to figure out that we were taking him seriously and he settled in and then he "whipped it on us Jim." Lou played with only longtime mate Fernando Saunders and Rob Wasserman, no drums. As Lou explained, "You miss a lot of things when you play with drums, … like the words!" Wasserman skillfully bowed an electronic upright bass through quad effects all night, while Fernando jumped on and off on electric cello, 5 string electric bass guitar ( looked like an old Music Man model ), a black strat with a skinny telecaster neck ( this looking like my current axe, besides the custom neck ), and sang the high parts. He was wearing Arabic robes and sported a blond wig, giving the impression that he was a woman. Then I noticed his height, hand size, etc… "hey," I said to myself, "that’s Fernando in drag." "Shaved his legs and then he was a she, I say hey man." So the poet’s voice and words were way up front, while he strummed his custom guitars and the strings through the house board were like a live string quartet. Simply beautiful.
If one came to the show looking for nostalgia, you may or may not have been satisfied. Lou performed none of the hits/classics that have made him a household name. The only oldie but moldy tune he did was "Femme Fatale", and he didn’t even sing that on the original. He took the beginning of that song to talk and imitate Nico, reliving conversations between him and the German bombshell from more than 40 years ago. He asked at one point, "How long have I been doing this?" "40 years!" "That’s not possible (in his best Ruth Gordon voice from "Rosemary’s Baby"). I wasn’t even born then." Most of the nostalgia came from a piece he called, "An Imaginary Page from Andy Warhol’s Diary." He played synth for this song and announced that Andy did keep a diary, "which I’ve read,…and read." So he takes you through a day in the life of Andy Warhol, doing it all in his best first hand imitation Andy voice and character. In this he gets around to mentioning and gossiping about others we may well know. He talks about John Cale and about Andy’s feelings about himself (Lou Reed). Other Factory regulars are mentioned only by first name, so one has to have dome their homework to get the gist. Talking as Andy being driven to the Factory, " there’s that park where the kids gather to play, what’s that? Frisbee. That looks like fun. I’d like to have some fun sometimes, but no, I’m always working." A good half of the set came from his 2003 release "The Raven". He seems to be satisfied with it and may deserve a purchase or download. He mentions playing the 310 club at 5:00 am, people who were there then had related that to us on all night underground gigs in San Francisco; it made hitting the stage at 4:30 am so much more tolerable.
Then at the end of the show the poet got really serious, almost morbid. He did this song call "Dreaming", which details the deterioration and death of someone close, some one he loved. The poet’s loss, our loss, our pain and hurt. "The last time I saw you, you were in your room sitting in your big red chair with a tube in your arm. Still smoking that cigarette. Man did you get skinny. They said when you went you went screaming. You deserved better than that. You were always laughing, but you never laughed at me. Dreaming, I’m always dreaming." At this point I mistakenly thought that Sylvia had died and I think to myself, "Alright Lou, you’re hitting a little too close to home to call this entertainment." We began to ball like children. Last year I had a close brush with lung cancer. My wife cried for four months. I'm still sick, just not dead. My wife and I had fallen in love to Lou’s songs about Sylvia, now we thought she was gone. I’m still here, but she’s not? We weep some more. So it turns out that "Dreaming" has nothing to do with the death of Sylvia, but we didn’t know that then. Its really about the decay and death of two loves in Lou’s life, Doc Pomus ( rock and roll legend) and Rotten Rita ( a tranny meth connect at the Factory back in the day ).
People asked me after the show, "Hey Duval, how was Lou Reed?" "He made me cry like a bitch," was my response, "I guess that’s what poets do."

Reply: Naomi Vice
http://www.myspace.com/naomivice
Date: Dec 2 2006 6:32 PM
Subject: RE: Lou's Always Dreaming
Great review........ I was actually in a band with Rob wasserman around 1973. We played Dixie land jazz and I sang and played violin. Dan Hicks is now married to claire wasserman , Robs x.
The band played at the holiday inn in china town and i,d have to drive to marin pretty shit faced at 2;30 in the morning. I saw nico perform at the on broadway but I don,t remember what year. she was solo and was playing some wierd keyboard. She was fabulous, she was nico. My favorite andy worhol charactor was viva. Inabout 1995 i was in a band and a drag queen was nico, I was john cale and my friend lou read was lou reed. We did the songs from the album with the banana on it at the paradise lounge for awhile.around 1974 I was down in Hollywood and ran into tom baker a real andy worhol charactor (I Man) we hung out. also I,m a friend of hollywoodlawn. We had the same manager in 1978 and we partied together.If i had stayed in ny I may have been in that scene. When dan hicks and the hot licks played max,s kansas city in new york some of andy,s crowd were there. All i remeber was there was herion at our front door when we stayed in ny and played there in 71or72?It reminded me when I saw that movie about jim morrison and the scene when they play nyc. all of a sudden the drugs changed from the west coast to the east at that time and the vibe was so F****** different.I think that was the beginning of the hot licks trip into nodland.
Good article duval... yeah, naomivice


Dirk Dirksen -- 'pope of punk' amused, insulted S.F. crowds
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Dirk Dirksen, the godfather of San Francisco punk rock and the often abrasive ringmaster of the North Beach punk emporium Mabuhay Gardens, died unexpectedly in his sleep Monday night. He was 69.
Mr. Dirksen presented acts such as the Dead Kennedys, Devo, the Ramones, Flipper, the Mutants, the Nuns, Black Flag, the Go-Go's and literally thousands more in the 10 years he operated the Broadway nightclub, fondly known as the Fab Mab.
Mr. Dirksen, who called himself "the pope of punk," was known for peppering audiences and performers alike with abuse and insults.
"I'm sorry to see you're that easily pleased," he told the crowd at the end of one band's performance. "You should try and show some intelligence and sophistication and not just accept any slop that's thrown in your trough."
He turned to the musicians, who were trying to stalk off the stage, thinking he was not going to let the band have an encore.
"I'll give you one," he said, "but only because the next group is an absolute pimple in the armpit of progress. Now everybody, please pay attention because it's time to play 'People Are Stupid.' "
"He was super obnoxious onstage," said Penelope Houston of the Avengers. "He would stand there with that little dog under his arm, being a target for whatever they wanted to throw. At the same time, he loved all those people. In a way, they were his family."
The dog's name was Dummy.
Mr. Dirksen once estimated that his nose had been broken seven times during his years as a nightclub impresario.
Among the highlights of the Mabuhay's annual calendar was always his birthday celebration, where each year he dreamed up a different mock torture for himself -- flogging, beheading, etc. One year he had himself burned at the stake.
Mr. Dirksen, who operated the Dirksen-Malloy Productions video firm since leaving the nightclub business in 1984, also worked with the children in the Mission Recreation Center, across the street from where he lived, teaching cooking and helping resolve disputes. He hosted the various Mabuhay reunion events, including a Fillmore Auditorium show last April with members of the Dead Kennedys, the Mutants and Flipper, or the Contractions' recent reunion at the Café du Nord. Only last weekend, he attended the show by the Mutants at Lennon Studios.
Born in Braunschweig, Germany, in 1937, he followed his father, a professor of aerodynamics, to this country in 1948. The family eventually settled in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey. He served in the Army as a public relations expert and made his show business debut in 1957, producing an all-night live television remote from a Wilshire Boulevard auto dealership featuring neophyte and amateur entertainers called "Rocket to Stardom." An unknown Lenny Bruce once appeared on the 12-hour weekly broadcast.
He attended San Jose State but dropped out to open a surfing business in Santa Cruz. He worked as a producer on an ABC-TV series about surfing and served as tour manager with acts such as Ray Charles, the Supremes, Iron Butterfly and the Doors. He also managed the 1968 presidential campaign of comedian Pat Paulsen.
He moved to San Francisco in 1974 and, two nights later, stumbled into the Mabuhay Gardens. He started presenting late-night events at the club featuring Les Nickelettes, an all-female guerrilla comedy troupe. Whoopi Goldberg made an early appearance at the club.
When punk rock emerged on the scene, Mr. Dirksen immediately began to book the unruly bands. He presided over his impolite empire with an enduring patience and a sly smile. Robin Williams once described comedy hell as "opening for the Ramones at the Mabuhay Gardens."
"He was a father figure to me and a lot of other punks," said Kathy Peck of the Contractions. "Louie of the Vktms said we thought he hated us, but he loved us."
Mr. Dirksen produced the recent video documentary on the Mutants and had been involved in video production since leaving the Mab, including a long-running, late-night San Francisco cable access show called "Cosmos S.F."
He underwent heart surgery in 1990.
He is survived by his longtime partner, Damon Malloy, and two sisters, Molly Dirksen of Bethesda, Md., and Theodore Ernst-Dirksen of Los Angeles.
Memorial plans are pending.

Population giving up on N.O.?
posted by George Piazza
Dec. 1, 2006
Yesterday's local paper cited a survey of people in New Orleans that were living in relatively stable conditions, i.e. not in a FEMA trailer (based on the fact that only 'land-lines' were called as opposed to cell phones), regarding plans for staying or leaving the city. A substantial one third of the people contacted said that they were seriously considering leaving the area. In view of the fact that these are the people who either did not sustain serious house damage or have repaired most or all of the damage to their homes, their willingness to consider pulling up stakes and getting out of here seems reflective of an underlying lack of confidence in the safety and future prospects of the New Orleans area. On a more personal level, my lady freind and I are of a similar mind, looking forward to relocating to Austin. My primary source of income comes from piano instrucition, but the underlying sense of instability seems to have many people here in 'survival mode;' Things like piano lessons are too much of a long range commitment and few feel justified in taking on such a 'hobby' amidst the overall sense of insecurity.
This again raises the spectre of an abandoned 'ghost town.' Granted, New Orleans has been a 'ghost town' of sorts for many, many years, but the ghosts mingled with the casual, debauched and carefree residents. Are we now looking forward to a town where the ghosts are alone and the only interests here revolve around the port infastructure? I have seen no city in the US like this one. Do we accept the dictates of nature and retreat from such a questionable geographic location or do we make a stand and create a levee fortifed Neuvo - Orleans' along the lines of Amsterdam?
It is still very strange here - the National Guard, invisible in the inner city and untouched west suburban areas, still lurk on the borders of destruction; the murder rate is out of hand and many fundamental systems are still spotty at the margins. On the surface, a stroll through the French Quarter presents a glimpse of 'party as usual,' but sniff a little closer and the reek of apprehension and unease is still lurking under the surface. The apartments are in worse shape and basic services are spotty, yet the rents continue to be raised and the cost of electricity & gas (as well as the billing process, which is a mess) will continue to escalate as the company fights its way out of bankruptcy. The rats seem to be retreating a bit (our apartment was overrun for a while, giving reality to the phrase 'I smell a rat'), but if the exterminaters take a day off, they would probably seize the chance to move back in to the more populated areas.
My lady Linda was bit a few months ago by a venomous spider (either a brown or black recluse); mosquitos are out of hand and fleas are having a field day. All of these issues can be beat back with time and effort (well, the spider bites particularly suck - the wounds are nowhere near a final healing stage).. And that is just a glimpse of our little story; everyone here has one; some more painful than others, and a few downright shocking.
But I ramble, heading toward no particular point.. Well, I guess that is the point. New Orleans has gone from casual to truly ambiguous. Do we stay and fight or give up on this very unique city?
If the rents are raised one more time, I think the latter is inevitable.
NOTE: Though I painted a bleak picture of N.O., there is still much charm here. Plaese come and support the city; this will help give the place a fighting chance. Almost everyone who comes here falls in love with the place, despite the current troubles. A piece of pseudo European style in the midst of the American Mega Mall. Be able to say you saw it!


NO ON 86 !!!
86 Cigarette Tax Initiative
Yes: 3,198,456 47.8
No: 3,482,592 52.2
Thanks Cali

GREEN PARTY OF BUTTE COUNTY MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 * 7:30PM
Chico Municipal Building
Reconsideration of Prop 86 - Duval Russell
Duval proposed that the GPBC change its neutral position on Prop 86 to a NO position. Duval's reasons were that this proposition is not about smoking, but rather about money to corporations. It amounts to a "poverty tax" and ends up outsourcing government services directly to large corporations like Kaiser, etc. rather than the money going into a general government fund, and that raising the price will increase crime, making cigarettes a commodity for illegal trafficking as the prices go up.
* proposal passed by consensus. - GPBC takes a NO position on 86.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"...George Orwell


Now I am eating Philippine
Posted by BJ
Oct. 4, 2006
Now I am eating Philippine cuisine, noodle soup for breakfast and sometimes Jesus music. If it were musically creative, I wouldn’t mind the lyrics. The culture is more American than Rwandan. More tropical than mountainous. I feel a comfort with the warmth and openness. I will stay with these friends until the house I will rent is ready, which I hope will be Sept.1st. In the middle of the afternoon there is a HUGE dust storm. Lucky for me I am indoors. We race around the large house closing windows. It’s a good sign that the rains are coming in a matter of weeks. Saturday my friends didn’t go to church because the service was in Kinyarwanda. Our discussion of religion was quite short. Once I said that everyone has the right to his own religion, the attempts to prostheletise ended. I sort of inadvertently touched on the subject of homosexuality, which offered a different interesting topic. We had a nice time singing hymns, which I played on the violin. A smattering of rain followed the next dust storm. People have told me it hasn’t rained since I was here in May, but a reliable source says that it rained a little four times since then. I call my former landlady for the phone number of the commissionaire who brought the renters who replaced me. She calls him Pasteur, it sounds like Pastel. He and I meet the same day and discuss what I want and the possibilities. He calls another commissionaire. The next day we see a house; they get the landlord’s phone number and I meet the landlord. The house is being repaired and painted. I go with my Philippine friends to a party of their compatriots. Parents there want violin lessons for their children and dance lessons and …. Soft sensuous breeze On the first I visit the house, which isn’t ready yet. The guard/gardener offers me my first taste of the seed of the moringa tree. It is bitter, then very sweet. The flavor and strength of it last and last, and I have eaten only half of a pea-sized seed. When I stop by the home of the landlord’s neighbor- friend , my moringa after taste is washed down with lemon soda. I usually don’t drink the stuff, but wanted to behave well in this situation. The yard of my next house also has two mango trees, a guava, a 12 foot ficus benjamina and some smaller ones, various tropical and semi-tropical shrubs, a couple nice but tired looking poinsettia trees, a small frangipani, and several large, ugly planters with OK mature plants in them. Downtown the next day I see a man with four chairs made of hand hewn wood frames wrapped in twisted plant fibers and a matching coffee table. I make a deal with him to carry them to the new house on his head, the chairs tied together side by side, as if they’re a couch. I take the bus and meet him there 2 hours later. They are so beautiful and fresh smelling and comfortable. Much more charming than the neighbor’s three clunky wood chairs with ugly cushions, which I am also glad to have in the house. I walk to the friends’ house taking shortcuts – paths and dirt roads. I see a cow and nursing calf, then below a small open shed with several more cows. A couple men are standing by the road and talking. One asks me if I want milk – well, not really, but I want to look at the cows (and talk to them). I hang there with the men. A herd of school kids passes and makes amusements about and to me. One girl is particularly outspoken and I tease her that she is a cow (a cultural compliment, but she isn’t sure what to think of it). I descend after the young man who carries a plastic jug for milk. The proprietor is a pleasant woman, someone with the confidence and kindness of one who knows her self. We visit, the three of us, though I can’t say how, all this is still in Kinyarwanda. I drink the last drops of water from my bottle and she fills it with fresh milk and does not charge me. By the year 2017, the government wants all poor families to have a cow (or at least a goat). The organization that is working with them to realize this is the same one that my dad volunteered to, accompanying a ship of cows to Europe for post war revitalization in 1957. People try to figure me out. They often think I am a missionary. Is that what I am? I smile. At the end of August there are increasing clouds. Sometimes a shower is visible in the distance. A few large drops of rain fall. The friends of my friends who haven’t had city water for four days come over for showers. And a few days later, water is not arriving at this house. Thoughts of how much water went into building this large house, mixing all that cement. And in addition to the house, the vast stone driveway reaching form one road to another. Run-off and erosion. I visit other expatriate friends where a UN HCR water tank truck fills the house tank and extra barrels. They supply the expats. Hmm. A five-gallon “jerry can” of clean city water costs 50 franks now (10 cents US). Some of the city water my friends bought tasted of mildew. When they boil it it’s not as bad. I buy at least 2 liters a day for drinking, which is less than my normal intake. At 11-something, I sit with a plate from my current favorite lunch buffet where the food is consistently good. I started frequenting it a year ago when another buffet a half block away closed. The guys working all have black pants, white shirts and black bow ties. The mix of music is French romantic and American country! There was a notice on a large chalkboard on the steps up to the restaurant, in Kinyarwanda. I didn’t read it carefully (ha, ha). A young man in “uniform” who I haven’t seen as much as the others sits in front of me. He recognizes me as a good patron and informs me that this is the last day of the restaurant. He said it was due to a combination of business concerns and listed several categories of possibilities, leaving the reason for closure quite open to the imagination. On the secondary roads of town, a few days after the ban of motorcycle taxis, I see a few motorcycle taxis. So they are allowed to transport people on smaller, minor routes. Someone tells me that the city council passed the ban while the president was away, visiting another country. He did not favor the motorcycle-taxi ban. This news is on a par with the newspaper stories. We will be seeing some motorcycle taxis in town again, perhaps not as many. On the bus home we hear vehicle sirens ahead – school has begun and the president is driving his children home. The required security vehicles precede and follow his large dark car. He is placid at the wheel. There’s a pleasant normalness in having the head of the government out and about like a kid’s dad. Here are a few of the precepts of the banyarwanda patriarchy, as I understand them. Children of male relatives, like the children of brothers, are themselves brothers and sisters, not cousins. The first born of a son has greater importance than the first born of a daughter. I don’t know if that is because the daughter belongs to her husband’s family. A man may consider the wife of his brother as his own wife because of this relationship between men. At times the life development of innate personality may be usurped by the _expression of place in the family and the correlating cultural dictates/expectations.

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws."
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

From The SMoking Gun
Sept. 25, 2006
Note to Dems: this is the 9lb. hammer, aka BFH, you've been looking for. You don't have to hit the nail right on the head, just swing the sonofabitch. Repeatedly and hard. Take it from this ol' 'sickle mechanic: this administration is like a rusted-up bike, all stuck together. If you're afraid to beat on it like you got a pair, you'll never get it apart. Use a little heat, too. You'll knock something or someone loose from Rove's grasp sooner than you think. Then their whole deal will fall apart.
HAMMER! HAMMER! HAMMER!
BEFORE November.

Terrorism and Witchcraft/Hunts 101
Rev. Furst Duval
Sept. 20, 2006

Anyone who's studied political science or filmaking for that matter , is aware of terrorism 101. Che, Marx, Unnle Ho, Lenin and even Charlie Manson knows that the end game, i.e. changing the goverment is not to be decided by the insurgents in the strets or jungle. The whole purose of a terror assault is to make the exisitng power so repressive that the people rise u6 in mass and say, "we've going to take this shit anymore." MOa, Ho and the Santanistas had a miltary to nuge to masses along at just the right moment. If one takes a good hard look at the actions of our goverment any straight thinking man would have to wonder who;s side they're on, really!
To give 24/7 coverage to every little news item does nothing to promte the "terrorist" adgenda. It gives them free press, vids of the carnage follwed by their faces ( the face to love to hate, Emmauel Goldstien from 1984). As long as the profits, no-bid contracts and frear keep a rollin there will ne no one in this goverment that wants to stop the cash flow, no matter what the price. All they are ultimatly doing is promting the whole mess and the world sees this too. the rest is an execpet on obeservations about witchcraft from middel ages europe.
"They failed ro realize that witchcraft was not a supersttion the new world view emerged the mid/seventeenth, and that all world views, including scientism, breed Their own supersttions. Witchcraft declinde beacuse a new world view made it a supersttion. Witchcratft declined because it was as intelleectually disreputable to defend witchcraft under the new system as it has been to attack it under the old." - "A History of Witchcraft, Sorcecerers, Heretics and Pagans", Jeffrer B. Russell, P.124, 1982, Thames and Hudson, Ltd.,London


NO ON 86 !!!
California Proposition 86
1197. (SA2005RF0139, Amdt. #1-NS)
Tax on Cigarettes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
Proponent: Paul Knepprath (916) 444-8801
Imposes additional 13 cent tax on each cigarette distributed ($2.60 per pack), and indirectly increases tax on other tobacco products. Provides funding to qualified hospitals for emergency services, nursing education and health insurance to eligible children. Revenue also allocated to specified purposes including tobacco use prevention programs, enforcement of tobacco-related laws, and research, prevention and treatment of various conditions including cancers (breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal), heart disease, stroke, asthma and obesity. Exempts recipient hospitals from antitrust laws in certain circumstances. Revenue excluded from appropriation limits and Proposition 98 calculations. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Increase in new state tobacco tax revenues of about $2.1 billion annually by 2007-08, declining slightly annually thereafter. Those revenues would be used for various health and tobacco-related programs and for children’s health coverage. Unknown net state costs potentially reaching the low hundreds of millions annually after a few years due to provisions for streamlining enrollment in the Medi-Cal and HFP. Unknown but potentially significant savings to counties on a statewide basis beginning in the near term for a shift of children from county health coverage to HFP, with unknown but potentially significant costs to the state in the long term for ongoing support of expanded HFP enrollment. Unknown but potentially significant savings in state and local government public health care costs over time due to expected reduction in consumption of tobacco products and due to other factors. (SA2005RF0139, Amdt. #1-NS.)
JUST SAY NO!!!!!!

Show your support for Peace by supporting Pastor David Moss’ fast and vigil in front of Congressman Herger’s office. We would like to have an on-going support system for Pastor Moss in his protest against war in the Middle East, the build up of armaments and the destruction of our beloved planet. Join other activists in letting Rep. Herger know we, as his constituents request representation for the promotion of protection and safety for all beings. Pastor David is sitting in vigil Monday through Friday from 9am - 5pm Rep. Herger’s office hours.
please call Diana at 342-8804 or Linda 893-1291 to coordinate an on-going vigil.
Rep. Herger’s office is at 55 Independence Circle in the Philadelphia Square at the corner of Esplanade and Eaton Rd., Chico, CA
Diane Suzuki

Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer Abroad
posted July 29, 2006 by Rev. 1st Duval
Well, we went out in the woods on the hill, and Tom told us what it was. It was a crusade.
"What's a crusade?" I says.
He looked scornful, the way he's always done when he was ashamed of a person, and says:
"Huck Finn, do you mean to tell me you don't know what a crusade is?"
"No," says I, "I don't. And I don't care to, nuther. I've lived till now and done without it, and had my health, too. But as soon as you tell me, I'll know, and that's soon enough. I don't see any use in finding out things and clogging up my head with them when I mayn't ever have any occasion to use 'em. There was Lance Williams, he learned how to talk Choctaw here till one come and dug his grave for him. Now, then, what's a crusade? But I can tell you one thing before you begin; if it's a patent-right, there's no money in it. Bill Thompson he --"
"Patent-right!" says he. "I never see such an idiot. Why, a crusade is a kind of war."
I thought he must be losing his mind. But no, he was in real earnest, and went right on, perfectly ca'm.
"A crusade is a war to recover the Holy Land from the paynim."
"Which Holy Land?"
"Why, the Holy Land -- there ain't but one."
"What do we want of it?"
"Why, can't you understand? It's in the hands of the paynim, and it's our duty to take it away from them."
"How did we come to let them git hold of it?"
"We didn't come to let them git hold of it. They always had it."
"Why, Tom, then it must belong to them, don't it?"
"Why of course it does. Who said it didn't?"
I studied over it, but couldn't seem to git at the right of it, no way. I says:
"It's too many for me, Tom Sawyer. If I had a farm and it was mine, and another person wanted it, would it be right for him to --"
"Oh, shucks! you don't know enough to come in when it rains, Huck Finn. It ain't a farm, it's entirely different. You see, it's like this. They own the land, just the mere land, and that's all they DO own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made it holy, and so they haven't any business to be there defiling it. It's a shame, and we ought not to stand it a minute. We ought to march against them and take it away from them."
"Why, it does seem to me it's the most mixed-up thing I ever see! Now, if I had a farm and another person --"
"Don't I tell you it hasn't got anything to do with farming? Farming is business, just common low-down business: that's all it is, it's all you can say for it; but this is higher, this is religious, and totally different."
"Religious to go and take the land away from people that owns it?"
"Certainly; it's always been considered so."


Former NorCal Roller Girl speculated to be on reality show
By HEATHER HACKING - Staff Writer Chico ER
August 9, 2006
Flica Flame might light up television sets around the nation this month, if rumors are true.
The flame dancing, stilt dancing, roller derby queen from Chico has left her friends in a lurch.
The flamboyant "roller girl" is suspected to be among the contestants of the upcoming series of "Survivor," the reality game show that has America fixated on sarong-wearing men and women battling it out with wits and brawn to win a million dollars.
For those who don't know the show, ask a clerk at the grocery store about it, or knock on a neighbor's door and talk to the 9-year-old.
This show is among the top viewed reality shows raging the airwaves.
And how it may have snagged a Chicoan has to do with roller derby.
Chico is home to an up-and-coming roller derby league that has gained popularity at Cal Skate. Four teams of rough-and-tumble women who aren't afraid to get bruised, but won't be broken, compete against each other and bring in large crowds.
Some players have a large number of fans. Like any sport, it's fun to cheer on your favorites and boo your less favorites. Roller derby invites this type of audience participation.
Among those players was, up until recently, Flica Flame, 27. Her real name is Jessica Smith. She was captain of the Voo Doo Dolls, the team that won the recent roller derby championship.
Each team takes on their persona with aplomb. The roller gals paint their faces like something out of "Braveheart" and wear tribal costumes of ripped-up cloth and ratted hair.
It's not the World Wrestling Federation, but it's the same vibe.
Flica Flame is not the favorite among the league members. Some said she plays too rough and too hard.
But she might have drawn the attention of the producers of the show "Survivor" who were specifically looking for a tough chick to make the team on a remote island.
Time will tell when the show debuts at 8 p.m. Sept. 14 on CBS.
Cal Skate owner Mike Seko said the show contacted him wanting a roller derby participant, and he thinks that bodes well for the popularity of the sport. He gave them a few names and heard through his network that a couple of the girls were auditioned, including Flica/Smith. He heard she and the other roller derby players had been interviewed.
Then he noticed that there were many hits on the league's Web site, www.norcalrollergirls.com from a "spoiler" Web site that speculates on who might be on the show "Survivor."
Suddenly Smith's pictures and information about her started popping up more and more when he did an Internet search on "Flica Flame."
And then she disappeared, right about the time the show would have been taping in the Cook Islands off Australia.
Smith's personal Web site at MySpace.com shows she last logged in on June 20, a point that several of the Web sites speculating about her role on "Survivor" have noted. Among the several friends who have posted accolades, some have intimated good luck on her "ventures."
He's not surprised he doesn't know for certain. The show has very strict guidelines for not revealing the outcome of the competition. There's a lot at stake -- publicity, not to mention the million-dollar prize.
But if it's true, the gals from the local roller derby team will have fun watching Smith on "Survivor." Seko said he's looking for a local venue to hold parties to watch the show and cheer on Chico's contestant.
If it's true.

Chico police respond to Canseco spat
By GREG WELTER - Staff Writer Chico ER
July 20, 2006
Former major league star Jose Canseco made his Golden Baseball League debut in Chico earlier this month, and on Wednesday got his first introduction to the Chico police.
Here Tuesday for the GBL's inaugural All-Star contest, Canseco won a pre-game home run derby, then boasted he would buy beer for his South All-Star teammates with the $250 cash prize, promising to "take these guys out and get them drunk."
Whether Canseco made good on his gesture isn't known, but it may have tipped his hand that he was in the mood to raise a little hell in Chico.
At about 1:15 a.m., just three hours after the game ended, employees at the Oxford Suites called police to report a domestic disturbance going on in a hotel hallway.
Capt. John Rucker said four officers arrived and discovered Canseco outside his room in a heated verbal argument with a female.
She was identified as Han McDonald, a resident of Burbank. Police investigated and found that damage had been done to the room occupied by McDonald and Canseco.
Rucker said neither person was arrested, but hotel management held McDonald liable for the damage, which Rucker said she paid for before leaving Wednesday morning.
McDonald reportedly drove to Sacramento, where she took a flight back to Burbank.
It isn't known when or how Canseco left Chico.
Bob Linscheid, general manager for the Chico Outlaws, said the other All-Star players were being put up at the Heritage Inn Express on Broadway, but accommodations were made for Canseco and the general managers for five other GBL teams at the Oxford Suites when the first hotel ran out of rooms. Rucker said the argument between Canseco and McDonald apparently never turned physical.
Canseco, a member of the Long Beach Armada, pitched a partial inning in the All-Star game, giving up four runs and allowing the rival North team to tie the score. The North wound up winning the game 7-6. Canseco's early stellar career, including unanimous selection as the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1988, outshone his troubled personal life.
In 1989, the former Oakland Athletic faced domestic violence charges from his first wife, Esther Haddad, and she alleged he had rammed his car into hers.
He was arrested in 1997 for allegedly hitting his second wife, Jessica Sekely.
In 2001, Canseco and his brother reportedly got into a fight with two California tourists at a Miami nightclub. The tourists were injured and Canseco was charged with two counts of aggravated battery.
The slugger played with numerous big-league teams in the '90s, and attempted a comeback by trying out for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
He's also been on the roster of three independent league teams including the GBL's San Diego Surf Dawgs for a single game in July, and the Long Beach Armada, his current team.

Rainbow Fact and Fiction
Rainbow 2006
by Sweejak
June 28, 2006
Just heard from James, my son in law who usually attends and cooks for the masses:
There are rumors that follow the exact pattern of the "incident" EVERY year. Every Single Year, the same exact rumors. Then we get all worried, and are scared when we head to the site. Then we get to the site, and discover that the rumors were *greatly* exaggerated. Or nearly made up from whole cloth. The situation is never as dire and oppressive as we were led to believe.
Please don't worry, especially not based on rumors like these from the site. The chances are high that the people "throwing rocks and sticks" are local rednecks. That's how it turned out in Pennsylvania -- same general story -- the truth turned out to be that a local kid broke the back window of a police blazer. Being cops, they tend to get upset and overreact when things like that happen. And then the story got in the news already embellished.
I know some of the people who do this whole "disinformation" campaign, and for the life of me, I cannot understand why they do it. But they do it. They practically make it their life's work to do "negative PR" against the gatherings.
We try to go as far in the woods as we can walk. The stuff that happens by the road is as much another world to us as the city is to the country. Drunks don't usually like to get far from the road, where their booze and their ice comes from. Hippies don't like to drink, and don't like roads and cars. So it works out pretty well, except that, the only people the press and the tourists see are the drunks and the cops by the road. And that's what they see, it's ALL they see, and they go and report that the rainbow gathering is a bunch of rowdy drunks harrassing cops by the road.
Oh well. It's been this way for as long as I've been involved...

Black Hawk's Surrender Speech, 1832
You have taken me prisoner with all my warriors. I am much grieved, for I expected, if I did not defeat you, to hold out much longer, and give you more trouble before I surrendered. I tried hard to bring you into ambush, but your last general understands Indian fighting. The first one was not so wise. When I saw that I could not beat you by Indian fighting, I determined to rush on you, and fight you face to face. I fought hard. But your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in the winter. My warriors fell around me; it began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night it sunk in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. His heart is dead, and no longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white men; they will do with him as they wish. But he can stand torture, and is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian.
He has done nothing for which an Indian ought to be ashamed. He has fought for his countrymen, the squaws and papooses, against white men, who came, year after year, to cheat them and take away their lands. You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it. The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from their homes. But the Indians are not deceitful. The white men speak bad of the Indian, and took at him spitefully. But the Indian does not tell lies; Indians do not steal.
An Indian who is as bad as the white men, could not live in our nation; he would be put to death, and eat [sic] up by the wolves. The white men are bad school-masters; they carry false looks, and deal in false actions; they smile in the face of the poor Indian to cheat him; they shake them by the hand to gain their confidence, to make them drunk, to deceive them, and ruin our wives. We told them to let us alone; but they followed on and beset our paths, and they coiled themselves among us like the snake. They poisoned us by their touch. We were not safe. We lived in danger. We were becoming like them, hypocrites and liars, adulterers, lazy drones, all talkers, and no workers.
We looked up to the Great Spirit. We went to our great father. We were encouraged. His great council gave us fair words and big promises, but we got no satisfaction. Things were growing worse. There were no deer in the forest. The oppossum and beaver were fled; the springs were drying up, and our squaws and papooses without victuals to keep them from starving; we called a great council and built a large fire. The spirit of our fathers arose and spoke to us to avenge our wrongs or die.... We set up the war-whoop, and dug up the tomahawk; our knives were ready, and the heart of Black Hawk swelled high in his bosom when he led his warriors to battle. He is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented. He has done his duty. His father will meet him there, and commend him.
Black Hawk is a true Indian, and disdains to cry like a woman. He feels for his wife, his children and friends. But he does not care for himself. He cares for his nation and the Indians. They will suffer. He laments their fate. The white men do not scalp the head; but they do worse-they poison the heart, it is not pure with them. His countrymen will not be scalped, but they will, in a few years, become like the white men, so that you can't trust them, and there must be, as in the white settlements, nearly as many officers as men, to take care of them and keep them in order.
Farewell, my nation. Black Hawk tried to save you, and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the whites. He has been taken prisoner, and his plans are stopped. He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting, and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk.

"Dieser bloeder Bush” (this stupid Bush) echoed around the city
Bush-bashing in Vienna
Mehru Jaffer
June 24, 2006
Vienna boiled the day American President George W. Bush visited the city for a European Union-US meet.
During his short stay of 24 hours, politicians in power pampered Bush and his wife Laura, but most people in the city were not pleased with the inconvenience caused to them on the street.
Temperatures on that day reached 35 degrees Celsius and tempers soared higher. Tourists were prevented from exploring the Imperial City, taxi drivers were discontent, shop keepers cursed as 300 businesses remained shut and thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators including Cindy Sheehan, the American Peace Mom, chanted that Bush go home.
An already nervous police force coped with several bomb threats that turned out to be false. Both military soldiers and 3,000 police officers participated in security arrangements never organised in Austria on this scale before. Another 1,000 security personnel arrived from the USA to protect Bush, reminding many of a time when fascists here had turned the cosmopolitan capital of the Habsburg rulers into a police state before World War II.
The entire area close to the palatial Hofburg Conference Center was blocked and security check of pedestrians increased. Porsches were prevented from moving and all BMWs made to wait as the only traffic seen on the main streets of the city was an ending convoy of blue and white vehicles used by the Austrian police department.
Annoyed at not being allowed to tell Bush what it thought of him, one family used the red tiled rooftop of their home to spray, “BUSH GO HOME” in white paint.
“Dieser bloeder Bush” (this stupid Bush) echoed around the city as ordinary people sweated to complete daily chores.
“I have not seen a democratically elected leader who is so afraid to face the people,” clucked a Viennese who is accustomed to watching mayors bicycle around town here and it is not at all rare to find a cabinet minister sitting on the opposite seat in a public bus.
“If Bush can turn our life inside out in one day I can imagine how it must be for the poor people of Iraq,” said another.
Bush dared to spend one night at the Inter Continental despite the fact that the hotel is located opposite the Embassy of Iraq only because the present government in Iraq is seen as a friend of the Bush administration.
Inside the hotel, plainclothes policemen waited in scattered places of the premises with large dogs resting at their feet. The same hotel that is also the venue of the flamboyant Vienna Film Festival and home to numerous visiting artists and musicians wore the insecure look of a military outpost as countless men in dark suits and intimidating stares whispered into invisible microphones.
Students, including many women sporting headscarves, joined anti-Bush demonstrations. A young woman shouted, “Your bodyguards may protect you but you are not safe on the streets anymore.”
Many carried banners that read, “Stop Bush, Stop War”. The city was plastered with colourful posters of Bush that called the American President, “The World’s Most Wanted Terrorist”, and gigantic scaffoldings were pinned with larger-than-life banners repeating that Bush should stay home.
Teachers from the American International School told Hardnews that they are proud to be Americans but ashamed of Bush. Most people talked to did not want to see their names in print out of fear that they might be singled out as unpatriotic and anti-American.
However, Sheehan repeated that Bush is a boil on the ass of democracy that needs to be lanced! She wants Bush impeached or voted out of office.
She said that 70 per cent of American people are against Bush and that does not make them anti-American. Bush, she said was not elected by the people but appointed president by the Supreme Court. Ever since Casey Austin, her son, was killed in Iraq in April, 2004, Sheehan has joined the ranks of the likes of Michael Moore in anti- war and anti-Bush campaigns.
Sheehan told a packed hall inside the Palais Ferstel, an early 20th century palace, that America is no democracy as corporations run the country.
“These corporations make obscene profits for themselves from activities like war,” she said and appealed to Americans abroad and within the country to vote without fear and with their conscience in the next election.
“If the American people want they can vote for Bush again, for all I care. But we must prevent this man from making life miserable for the rest of the world, too,” is the verdict of a Viennese who confessed that it was a relief that Bush had finally waved her hometown goodbye.
Mehru Jaffer

"Kick out the Jams!"
Tony the Q
June 22, 2006
Dilute our sovereignty? Wow that sounds like WhitePower !! Think before you forward! Our nation achieved its greatness through its diversity! Do not forward a message you do not understand! I do not subscribe to the notion of a white christian(Which is hillarious if you remeber that Jesus wasn't white power!) country. Aside from being boring,lol....it seems like that would be a giant step towards the National socialist party ideals...except that they eventually phased out that whole religion/ compassion for your fellow man- thing. Isn't that really the christian message!?
I believe war is a "failure of Diplomacy" We should not say neutralizing targets, we should give it the respect it deserves....KILLING PEOPLE is the proper terminology... I agree it has some times been neccessary to go to war, but let us not be so hasty. We all know that their is much collateral damage, oh excuse me...their are many innocent people who are killed in war! Let us make sure the end justifies the means!
My national pride came from the fact that at one time , we had the moral high ground, and excepted difficulties as challenges, not things to be blamed on the non-white christian immigrants. (I guess those SPICS like me were allready here so I am OK)
A little Mcarthy-istic don't ya think? ....and as far as patriotism goes....it does not mean following the government! It means wanting the best for our country!
As far as I am concerned...Fear of immigrants is the first step towards an arrogant nation that glorifies the military...and denounces those against war as UNPATRIOTIC, or in the old days "Communist"
I do not believe the Dixie chicks are wrong for speaking their mind...(Even if they often do so without thinking) at least they are thinking! I have no problem with smarter security....but I do not like this preaching of FEAR.
Get a grip people! We have always had terrorism... Even homegrown! The skinheads have helped train hundreds of proven terrorists
...Remember Robert Mathews who robbed armored cars to support his terrorist/white power cell? Timothy McVeigh? They preached this same message of fear!
I served my country...and I don't believe it is anything BUT Patriotic to voice your opinion, and exercise the little freedom you have left. Its a wonderful country with wonderfully diverse people. Their will always be bad apples in the barrel, it is just human nature to have those who think violence is the only tool for change!
But I do not want people to believe that closing our borders against the EVIL Canadians or Mexicans is anything but a distraction and a political device to turn attention away from the fact that the MISSION was not ACCOMPLISHED. Osama B has not been captured...and although I am glad Saddam is out of power, it has been PROVEN that IRAQ was not responsible for 911.
Other than the enemies we are making by our need for OIL, I believe the biggest threat is the inaction of people who believe this entirely common propaganda! Do you believe that the biggest problems of the US are immigrants? isn't that just a blame game? My sister is a teacher...underpaid, and harrassed until she got tenure! Our biggest problem is lack of education...which clogs the jails...and will soon put us further behind in the sciences than we USA chanting Americans want to believe. Instead of complaining about others...lets have some GOD-Blessed pride in achieving things on our own without the persecution of others!
And another thing...I am not a complete liberal, I get the point about how lax we are about enforcing citizenship, especially in Calif. , but just because we learn to hate immigrants doesn't mean that our minimum wage will increase, or that the middle class will be taxed less....the problem is the tax- breaks for the mega- rich. Let us blame those who have, not the poor have nots!
Tony Q
Good Morning, and God Bless you all!

comment: The racist card diverts from the real issues and the fact that there are at least two legitimate sides to the issue, but it's complex so most people won't bother to seek it out. june 22, 2006, Sweejak
Is the Nation State Obsolete?

Naked man caught with lotion in couple's bedroom
By GREG WELTER - Chico ER
Posted June 6, 2006
ORLAND, CA -- A couple returning to their home on County Road 20 about 8 p.m. Sunday arrived to find their front door open and a strange vehicle on the property. Resident Greg Higginbotham told Glenn County sheriff's deputies he asked his wife to remain in their vehicle as he went to investigate.
He entered the couple's upstairs bedroom and found a naked man standing on the other side of the bed. The intruder, later identified as Brian Garret Lane, 29, of Orland, allegedly had baby lotion in one of his hands and there was a bottle of lotion on the bed.
The resident said the naked man tried to put his pants on as he ran from the home. The suspect reportedly got something out of a black Toyota pickup truck in the driveway, then ran back inside the residence.
Deputies were called and arrived to find Lane getting dressed just inside an entrance to the home. He was placed in handcuffs while deputies and the couple searched the home.
No one else was located, but the residents said the house had been gone through and some damage had occurred outside to a riding mower. They also said tools from a shed had been removed and were lined up against the side of a trailer.
During an investigation it was learned that Lane is the former husband of a relative of the female victim, but the couple said they didn't know the man.
Lane said he went to the home to work on his truck and discovered a key in a hiding place outside.
Lane was booked into the Glenn County Jail on charges of burglary, vandalism, unlawful entry and indecent exposure. During his booking, women's underwear was found stuffed in his pants pocket, deputies said.
His bail was set at $36,000.

ASSHOLISM by Stich
June 4, 2006
Thanks Steve, that founding fathers talk is just fine. I've heard that rap since civics studies in grade school. The founding fathers are our 18th century enlightenment philosopher fathers who were often fuck wits who fell far short of their famed principles of "we the people." I don't feel like I am a part of any "we." I, like many feel more like a "flea the people." And I'm not gonna jump hoops in anybody's fuckin' flea circus either..uh uh. The problem in America resides in its citizeny's sleepiness. Yes, its sleepiness. Americans are the most anetizised morons on this spherical ball in regular rotation, around a star we call the sun, on a particle of a planet we all refer to as earth, that there is anywhere in the universe. If an American had an awakening to anything, it would ache his or her ass so hard, he or she would have to turn on the boob tube to find out which prescription of Preperation H would ease his or her aching ass. Americans are ASSHOLES. I'M an AMERICAN, and for the time being I accept the glaring, goddamn fact, that I inhabit an island of the globe that has slavishly sold itself over to ugly American ASSHOLISM, and that it is PROUD of its prancing but unenhancing ASSHOLISM. F*CK the founding fathers. Everyday when I read the news I'm reading about the FLOUNDERING fathers. I agree that ideals of freedom and liberty must be upheld by the citizenry of this country, but most of the cunts can't be fuck all bothered to care about protecting the priciples of liberty and freedom that make this country such a magnet to so many who have none of the aforementioned "rights." Don't take me on a retro-trip into Thomas Jefferson Land, make a difference, not another goddamn Disney theme park.

Quotes of the week and random observations
by Gen Bouvier
Monday, May 29, 2006
-After the memorial day BBQ, noticing at least five people in brightly colored clothing napping facedown on the grass with arms and legs in various positions: "Damn, it looks like Jonestown over here!"
-Jack, on phone to funeral home customer: "Before the cremation, you can still have a full-service!" (Calling all redbook clients!)
-You know how when you make purchases at Safeway, related coupons are printed out with your receipt (such as diet items, beauty products, etc)? When you buy a pregnancy test kit, you receive a coupon for baby food. Jumping the gun a bit there, eh?
-Bipolar I's get all the publicity and representation. Bipolar II's are, I suppose, boring by comparison to those going for ratings. It's the lack of psychosis. Unless a Bipolar II does a large amount of methamphetamine, after which they become Bipolar I by default. Of course, nobody can plot revenge like a Bipolar II, because a Bipolar I will insert all sorts of unrealistic components. A Bipolar II and someone with severe PMS could have a pretty good brawl, but the Bipolar II would be the one who ends up slashing someone's jugular. The end.
-The Kaiser pillsplitter has got to be one of the most potent self-mutilation tools I have ever seen, beaing the pink daisyglide razor by a landslide (I've been out of the loop for the past 15 years, so there's probably something better to compare it to at this point, like those 4-blade monstrosities so an agonized teen can create four lines of slashes on their upper thigh at once). But anyway, I find it ironic that many anti-depressants and mood stabilizers, sometimes prescribed to those with self-mutilation issues, are accompanied by something that, if taken apart, could probably wreck some havoc quite quickly. Probably easier to crack that plastic in half than bite the covering off of the daisyglide blade. But that is neither here nor there.
-I dig you!!! Yes, you! I like you a lot. You make me smile. I make you smile. Let's laugh again together soon.

Marijuana not so good?
by Tony the Q.
Reposted from "Tell it to the ER"
May 11, 2006
I am shocked to read the complaint about marijuana being a detriment to your career. In my experience, anything done without moderation can be a detriment. I have a hard time justifying the animosity towards marijuana specifically though, as prescription drugs and alcohol seem to be the biggest problem nationally. Ironically enough, it is that "crowd" that seems to ridicule marijuana the most.
I might be biased,(my girlfriend is a cancer survivor)but I believe alcohol, and the recent over prescription of "Vicoden" and "Percoset" are responsible for a lot more "ills",(social and personal) than marijuana ever could be. I believe it is an issue of personal responsibility.
Prohibition has been proven to be flawed. Maybe if marijuana was legalized we could set age limits and eliminate the need for users to "fraternize" with "dealers". This might also serve to alleviate the overpopulation of our jail system. Isn't it time to deal with the issue ? After all, it is here to stay!

The Texafication of California
from the CN&R
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Home
reposted by first duval
march 25, 2006
Last month, two California anesthesiologists stumbled upon an astonishing discovery at San Quentin prison: Condemned killer Michael Morales is actually a living, breathing human being. Confronted with this fact, the two physicians--summoned to provide humanitarian cover for the profoundly cruel and unusual practice of strapping a man to a table, shoving a hypodermic needle in his arm and injecting a lethal chemical cocktail into his bloodstream--declined to participate in what has become our culture's most macabre ritual.
Their refusal brought to a halt a rapid string of successive executions some critics are calling the Texafication of California, a tip of the 10-gallon hat to our president's home state, where state-sanctioned extermination occurs with the regularity of the lunar cycle. Rest assured; the stay will be only temporary. Physicians take an oath to first do no harm to their fellow humans, but society at large adheres to no such principle. Rather, it's the opposite. Forty years ago, where matters of crime and punishment were concerned, the operative word was rehabilitation. Today, it is revenge.
Witness an execution, and you'll see only a handful of people expressing any sort of genuine satisfaction with the process: the family and friends of the victim. No doubt, the family and friends of Terri Winchell, the Lodi teenager Morales brutally raped and murdered in 1981, are disappointed that the execution has been temporarily delayed. All of us can identify with their need for redemption. In their shoes, we'd expect the same entitlement. Yet, study our Constitution closely, and you'll discover that no such right to revenge exists.
That's why the tough-on-crime crowd prefers to try its cases in the kangaroo court of public opinion. The latest example is Jessica's Law, the Republican-supported Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act, an initiative that recently qualified for the November ballot with 713,787 signatures, nearly double the required amount. Considering the language of the initiative, it's easy to see why so many citizens signed on. It hits all of today's panic buttons, from the rampant spread of Internet pornography to the oft-repeated but bogus claim that sex offenders have higher recidivism rates than other criminals. It plays on our deepest fears and one of our darkest needs: the need for revenge.
Jessica's Law takes its name from Jessica Lunsford, the Florida 9-year-old who was raped and murdered last year by a convicted sexual offender. Obviously, no one wants to endure what her parents were put through, and most of us would seek vengeance. Jessica's Law plays on that desire, seeking to circumvent the legal system that protects the accused from the mob's wrath. This is anathema to a so-called civilized society, but no doubt Jessica's Law will pass by a landslide, just as the state soon will resume the practice of premeditated murder.

The Next War
from the CN&R
reposted by rev. first duval
March 17, 2006
They are at it again
As CN&R marks the third anniversary of the wrongful war in Iraq, the Bush administration and its allies already have America's next target within their sights. Who knows? By the time you read this, U.S. bombs may already be raining fire on Iran. Perhaps you're even among the 70 percent of the American population who, according to one recent poll, agree that it's time to stop pussyfooting around and let the inferno begin.
There are more than a few who firmly believe the large majority favoring military action against Iran are, in a word, stupid. We aren't willing to concede that, at least not yet. Rather, we grudgingly give credit to a grasp of propaganda techniques Joseph Goebbels would have envied. The so-called new conservatives who hold sway in Washington D.C. have told so many big lies so often that it's difficult for the average citizen to keep up, let alone separate fact from fiction.
The case against Iran is more of the same. As with Iraq, the ominous specter of the mushroom cloud has been raised--despite a national intelligence estimate that Iran is a decade away from having the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons. As with Iraq, there's a suitable villain in Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who, like our own president, fervently believes God is on his side. As with Iraq, a supposedly backwards Middle Eastern dictatorship will be magically transformed into an American-style democracy via carpet-bombing.
Taken one at a time, such lies are easy to dispel. But Bush and his cronies have been at this since at least January 2002, when the president identified Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address. These people had long pined for such a global conquest and even outlined it in detail in a 1997 position paper generated by their very own think tank, the Project for the New American Century. World domination was but a distant dream back then. Wrote the cabal: "[T]he process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor."
On September 11, 2001, they got their Pearl Harbor, and it's been downhill for truth and democracy ever since. Even as the Taliban re-establishes itself in Afghanistan, and the Iraq debacle devolves into civil war, another ill-advised pre-emptive conflict looms. Who can stop it? The Republicans are for it. The Democrats are for it. Senator Hillary Clinton's for it. So is Representative Nancy Pelosi. So is most of America, come to think of it. Such is the power of propaganda. It's either that, or there are a lot of stupid people out there. We're still hoping to see that latter score proved wrong, but the hour is definitely getting late.

New Orleans
George Piazza
reposted Feb. 24, 2006

A friend of mine seems to think that I believe New Orleans to be 'gone.'

I have written some things here that might give that impression, and I understand how anyone who wishes the city to get back on it's feet (and as a 40 year native, I very much wish this) might think that I have written the city off. The truth is a bit more complicated.
Though I have little doubt that the city will 'get back on it's feet,' I know that it will never be the same. The current political climate will most likely overlook the laid-back eccentricity that made the city what it was; from the familial bonds in the poorer neighborhoods such as the now famous Ninth Ward to the casual but earnest tolerance of all things bohemian, elements that gave the place a certain elusive charm - how can these things be regenerated with the monopolized corporate attitudes of the oil industry and glitzy but shallow gambling - tourism conglomerates? Not to mention the port infrastructure and it's close ties to the military - industrial complex. The fragile and dynamic creation of a 'spirit' that was centuries in the making is something the politicos and mergered business interests hardly understand or care about. Add to that the fact that the federal government has shown minimal interest to put in place better flood protection to face the increasing hurricane activity that almost all meterologists are predicting, along with the decimation of the wetlands that gave the city a much needed buffer against storm surges and high winds, and you have a recipe for repeat disaster.
Even if by some miracle of generosity and insight (yeah, right!), the current administration subsidises and 'fast-tracks' adequate protection, we are still faced with the corporate takeover of the 'strategic infrastructure asset' that the port city provides; we still have the more colorful, poorer (and thus, unfortunately, powerless in this culture) residents resettling in other parts of the continent, with little motivation or means to go back; we still have the voices of creativity being drowned out by the well-heeled regarding cultural reconstruction. By some estimates, over 50% of the population has been 'displaced'; only to be Re-placed by an odd mix of 'low wage migrant workers,' mid level infrastructure rebuilders (read: Brown & Root / Halliburton) and high powered 'movers and shakers' looking to stratify the area for their own already swollen coffers. This might eventually lead to a 'rebuilt' New Orleans, but it will never be the New Orleans I came to know so well. There was no place quite like it; and it is the opinion of many more informed people than myself that it will never be that way again.
In the words of more than one commentator, we will probably end up with a town full of 'landed gentry.' No more tarot readers in the square, street musicians with only a few bucks in their pockets but always a smile on their faces or tightly knit centers of struggling but proud urban porch-dwellers and their street barbeques.
How I wish to be proven wrong about this. But knowing it before the disaster, seeing it after and watching the political events and media frenzy run their course, it seems to me that only a miracle of 'Red Sea' proportions would ever bring back the New Orleans I loved so much.
So, yes, at least for now, and barring a miracle, the New Orleans I knew is No More.

[quote]For Whom The Bell Tolls
By Israel Shamir
from sweejak
Feb. 22, 2006

“Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee,” said the English poet, John Donne. A shameful Austrian verdict bodes ill not only for the English historian David Irving (sentenced to three years of gaol) but for our freedom as well. Never has our feeling of justice been insulted like this! When an occasional dissident was jailed in Brezhnev’s Russia or Ne Win’s Burma, there was always an uproar of protest. Now the only response to the Irving verdict is stunned silence. When they sent innocent Muslims to the living hell of Guantanamo, we could think: they are people of the Third World -- different rules apply. A Batista policeman in Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana had said: some people can be tortured, and some can not. When Ernst Zundel was kidnapped in the US and brought to trial in Germany, we could think: it is a German internal affair. Now an eminent man of letters, an author of widely read and acclaimed books, a recognized European figure was snatched from a civilised country and jailed for irreverence to the Jews.[1]
Technically, David Irving was sentenced for so-called “holocaust denial”. But the concept of Jewish holocaust being the only enforced dogma of supposedly secular Europe has little to do with the Second World War and its atrocities. It has everything to do with the Jewish claim of superiority and exclusivity. There is a Jewish prayer saying: “Bless you, Lord, that you created me a Jew, that you separated between Jews and the earth folks, like you separated between the Holy and Profane, that our fate is not like their fate”. The Holocaust concept is just another form of this prayer. They say that even their death is not like the death of anybody else. We must deny the concept of Holocaust without doubt and hesitation, even if every story of Holocaust down to the most fantastic invention of Wiesel were absolutely true. Therefore the technical discussions of Jewish mortality are perfectly legitimate but superfluous, like the argument whether a whale could swallow Jonah is superfluous for an atheist.
The legal enforcers of the Holocaust want us to bow down to the idol of Jewish superiority, or else! They won’t jail Deborah Lipstadt for denial of the Holocaust of Dresden, or Guenter Lewy who penned a lengthy piece entitled Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide? denying the genocide of native Americans. The Jews produced and published these denials for the same reason they published the Satanic Pictures - in order to emphasise the difference between a goy and a Jew. They want you to remember: you may profane Islam and Christianity, but not Judaism. You may discount the suffering of anybody but the Jews.
Thus we should say: David Irving was sentenced for denial of Jewish superiority. His doom seals the reign of (albeit limited) freedom that began with the fall of Bastille. European history went full circle: from rejecting the rule of Church and embracing free thought, to the new Jewish mind-control on a world scale. Not only is Western Christian civilisation dead, but even its successor, secular European civilisation, has met its demise only a few days after its proud and last celebration by the Danish scribes. It was short-lived: about two hundred years from beginning to the end, the Europeans may once have had the illusion that they can live without an ideological supremacy. Now this illusion is over; and the Jews came in the stead of the old and tired See of St Peter to rule over the minds and souls of Europeans.
In 1962, Look magazine invited founder of the Jewish state David Ben- Gurion to picture the world 25 years into the future. He predicted that World Government would already be in place by 1987, with the Supreme Court for Mankind (the higher ecclesiastic body) would be established in Jerusalem, along with a shrine there commemorating the Jewish role in the bringing-together of mankind. He was mistaken by only a few years. The world is not fully subdued yet, but it already knows its new master.
In the 19th century, Europeans could not fully colonise China. But there was an obvious mark of their supremacy: the Settlement System. It divided the residents of China into two categories: the supreme human beings (the Europeans) and the lowly natives. A native who raised his hand against a superior European was tried by European colonial law, a European whose misdeed caused harm to a native was out of bounds of native justice. This system of “settlements” was dismantled by Chairman Mao after the Communist victory of 1949. Similar systems of colonial justice went down with the colonial empires that employed them, and for a short while afterwards, every country was sovereign over its land.
Some time ago, the Knesset of the Jewish State revived the Settlement System for the non-yet-fully-colonised world: an offender against the Jews, wherever he lives, wherever he commits his offence, can be brought to the Jewish court. The offended Jew may have no connection whatsoever to the Jewish State, the offence may be not considered an offence by the local native law, but he still can be brought to Jewish justice in Jerusalem. This law claimed supreme sovereignty of the Jews over the rest of mankind. This law denied the sovereignty of all nations save one. Such a claim had to be treated as any hostile attempt of the nation’s sovereignty: as an act of war. But it passed in silence due to a marvellous Jewish invention: gradualness.
This method was explained by Amira Hass, the Haaretz correspondent in colonised Palestine. She wrote: “If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will jump out and save its life. But a frog swimming in room temperature water that is gradually heated will grow used to the heat; by the time the water boils, it's too late and the frog dies. In the development of the Israeli system of control over the Palestinian people and their land, the Israeli occupation has raised to the level of genius the use of gradualness as a means of making people grow used to something.” This gradualness was used by the Jews – not only in regard to the Palestinians.
The Settlement System started small: the Long Arm of the Jews snatched Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Jewish justice in Jerusalem. Adolf Eichmann was a bad guy who did a lot of harm to Jews in a big way, so many countries chose to disregard this grievous infringement of Argentine sovereignty. And it was just the beginning:
A few years later, the Polish court demanded the extradition of a Jewish mass murderer, Solomon Morel. This Morel tortured and killed with his own hands hundreds of ethnic Germans in a concentration camp in postwar Poland. His crimes were exposed by the late American journalist John Sack. Morel escaped to Tel Aviv, and the Jewish state replied to the Polish demand with imperial haughtiness: “What Chutzpah! These natives do not know their place!” Probably, Queen Victoria would reply like that if a native African chief were to demand the surrender of one of her officials to his justice.
Since then, every country, big and small, has accepted the notion of the Jews being above the law. The wealthy Russian Jewish crook Nevzlin escaped Russia and lives peacefully in Tel Aviv, next to Flatto-Sharon, a French-Jewish crook, not far from a murderer of a Canadian child, within a reach from many other killers and crooks. A powerful Jewish organisation called Khabad wrote in its charter: there should be no Jews in goys’ jails. By bribes and persuasion they release Jewish criminals from jails and ship them to the Jewish state. The Khabad founder, Lubawitsch Rebbe’s birthday is celebrated as a holiday, “Education Day,” in the USA.
In property cases Jews are also above the law. Jewish property is sacrosanct. They have demanded and received back all property that once belonged to Jews in Germany, Austria, France, Baltic states. If a Jew had no heirs, his property went to World Jewry. But 90% of goys’ property was confiscated by the Jewish state in 1948, and since then 50% of the lands conquered in 1967. Even last year thousands of dunams of goys’ lands were taken over in Jerusalem area, for a goy has no real title to property, according to Jewish law.
A taste of Jewish justice is provided in the case of an Israeli captain who murdered a schoolgirl, 13, in full sight of his soldiers. He emptied his gun unto her body and was found not guilty by the Jewish court. Actually, none of the non-Jewish children’ murderers (two hundred in the last three years) was ever punished by a Jewish court. Not many of them were even brought to justice, but whoever was got off lightly. The settler Nachum Korman murdered a 10-year-old boy, Hilmi Shusha, in the village of Hussan. He was apprehended, taken to the court and forensic evidence against him was brought by the highest Israeli forensic institution, but the judge dismissed the evidence and sentenced the murderer to six months of social work. On mere suspicion of having committed such a crime against a Jewish child, a goy gets a life sentence.
Jewish justice makes us look back at the Inquisition trials with some nostalgia. When Galileo repented, he was allowed to continue his studies unhindered. The repentance of Irving did not help him a bit. The judge said: “The regret he showed was considered to be mere lip service to the law.” And “independent expert” Dina Porat, head of Tel Aviv University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti- Semitism and Racism, said that “Irving's purported repentance is motivated by his fear of a verdict that could amount to 10 years' imprisonment.”
Now, Jewish justice is being enforced on a global scale. The European Jewish Congress is set to file a complaint in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for “incitement to genocide”, but all attempts to bring Ariel Sharon to justice predictably failed. The greater Jewish state, the US, also adopted its smaller sister’s idea of unlimited supreme sovereignty. An offence against an American citizen can be brought to an American court wherever it occurred. Surprisingly, this Imperial claim, akin to the Settlement system of old, was also utilised mainly in the Jewish interests. Whenever Jewish settlers -- American citizens -- were killed in the course of the Middle Eastern conflict, American judges ruled against the Palestinian National Authority, Iran, Hamas and the whole world, and granted the victims’ survivors multimillion dollar damages. But nobody can sue the Jews: whether they kill Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist, with a bulldozer in Gaza, or they strafe American sailors on board USS Liberty or kill and maim American Palestinians.
With the Austrian verdict, Jewish supremacy ceased to be a paranoid’s nightmare, and became a fact bound in law, like the Viking supremacy in Danelaw, in East Anglia of old, with this one difference: the Jewish supremacy has religious overtones while the Vikings relied upon their swords and their dogs.
This is openly discussed in the Jewish world. “We live in the full blossom of Messiah Days, free from our political adversaries and soon to be freed from the satanic goys”, Uriel Tal wrote.[2] While Christians believe that the Second Coming of Christ will usher a completely new world of miracles, the Jewish view expressed by Maimonides is that the world in the Days of Messiah will not differ much from the world we knew, except for triumph of Jewish supremacy, Gedulath Israel (Hilchoth Teshuva 9:2). Based on this understanding, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme religious court, was established a year ago to judge the world. It is led by Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz, and the goyim who observe the Noahide commandments made their obeisance to him.
Some months ago I was brought to the police station in my Jaffa and asked to answer the complaint of the French Jewish organisation, LICRA.
“Did you write about Jewish supremacy and world dominion?” a policeman asked.
“So what if I did?” I replied. “Every second Rabbi has expressed this view.”
“Yes, but they see it in a positive light!” said the policeman.
Thus there is no argument about the fact of Jewish supremacy, only about its assessment. If you think it is good, you may even be a US president -- if you think it is bad, your place is in jail! Meanwhile, Jewish supremacy is hard on those who challenge it as Irving did. Gradually -- oh ever so gradually, so as not to frighten the frog from heating water -- the screw will tighten.
Eventually it may become unpleasant: Jewish justice can give a handsome handicap to its nearest competitor in ruthlessness, Genghis Khan. It is partial, and proud of it. By Jewish law, a Jew vs. a Goy is always right, even if he is wrong. The Europeans will feel the tender mercy of the Jews, until now the exclusive privilege of Palestinians. There may well be poetic justice in this turn of events.
Ordinary Jews aren’t going to enjoy the new-old order of things. If there is something Jewish justice likes even less than a goy, it’s a stray Jew. Apostates, that is Jews who turned to Christ, should be killed, according to Maimonides. The extremely clement Rabbi Asher tore off the noses of Jewish women who had intercourse with a goy, while Jewish men were normally flogged for this transgression. Well, some obligations coming with superior status.
Christianity will probably dwindle; only its Jew-worshipping sects, similar to the US Christian Zionists, will survive. Others will be prosecuted for their antisemitism and will be disbanded. The churches will be destroyed, in accordance with the Jewish commandment. They should not be allowed to compete with the Temple in Jerusalem which will be rebuilt on the ruins of the al Aqsa Mosque. The rebuilding will be quite painless: after the forthcoming attack on Iran, Muslims will have other things to worry about -- for instance, their physical survival! This can’t be guaranteed, as they were proclaimed “Amalek”, and their mass annihilation is a religious duty of the Jews. The road to this future is opened by the fateful ruling of the Austrians.
Always looking for the bright side of things: now the Europeans do not have to worry about the dark prophecy of the Protocols. The rule of the Elders of Zion is already upon us, and egad! -- it is not half as bad as we feared. At least, not yet. [/quote]

Katrina Refugee Makes Waves
Jan. 13, 2006
Greg Welter, Chico ER
originally posted 12-08-2005

Downward spiral for New Orleans evacuee ends in arrest
A 20-year-old New Orleans man who survived Hurricane Katrina, then got an outpouring of community support when he came to Chico to start a new life, has been arrested on a charge of auto theft. Brian Michael Bordelon and his roommate, Duval Hilbert Russell, 21, were taken into custody at their Rio Lindo Avenue apartment early Wednesday morning and booked into the Butte County Jail in Oroville.
Both are charged with vehicle theft, conspiracy and receiving stolen property.
Russell is also charged with stealing the vehicle while armed.
Police said the men may have taken the car with the intention of stripping it and selling the parts.
Bordelon's bail is $25,000, but he remained behind bars Wednesday night, and it's unlikely any of the hundreds of people who helped him get settled in Chico will muster a second wave of compassion and come forward with the bond money.
The young man's good intentions for a new start began to unravel soon after his arrival here.
Chico City Councilman Larry Wahl was among Bordelon's earliest and most ardent supporters. With his help, and help from the Salvation Army advisory board Wahl chairs, Bordelon was set up in the Rio Lindo Avenue apartment, with the rent partially covered, and enrolled in classes at Butte College, which waived its fees. The Chico Wal-Mart provided him with household items at no charge, then gave him a job.
He even got free use of a cell phone from Verizon.
Wahl said the man was fired from Wal-Mart recently because he was driving on a suspended license and failed to take care of a speeding ticket he got in Arizona. The retailer reportedly told Bordelon he had to get a California driver's license to continue employment, but that process ended when his speeding ticket turned to a warrant for his arrest.
Bordelon stopped attending classes at Butte, and Wahl said he was on shaky ground with his apartment managers for disturbing other tenants.
"This just breaks my heart," Wahl said. "This young kid had an opportunity to restart his life in Chico, and he blew it. I hope this (arrest) causes him to re-evaluate where he's going."
Wahl said Bordelon had a less than perfect life in New Orleans, but seemed to be off to a pretty good one in Chico.
"I think he appreciated what people did for him here, and still appreciates it," Wahl said.
The councilman last talked with Bordelon about a week ago, and said he knew then that the young man was making some bad decisions.
Bordelon, his mother, and his sister made it through the flood by spending a night in the attic of their east New Orleans home, then took refuge for three grueling days in the Louisiana Superdome.
When that was abandoned, Bordelon's sister and mother went to Texas, and were placed in an apartment with the help of the Red Cross. Bordelon said his mother hopes to return to New Orleans.
Bordelon had a childhood friend, Duval Russell, whose family had moved to Chico from New Orleans, so he boarded a bus to California.
Arriving here Sept. 8, the Russells immediately put the young man in touch with the Salvation Army. When his harrowing story got out, Bordelon became an instant celebrity in Chico, with groups and individuals more than anxious to help him get on his feet.
In a letter to the editor in October, Russell's father thanked several local businesses, the Sunrise Rotary Club, Trinity United Methodist Church, the Enterprise-Record, Wahl, and even Chico Police Chief Bruce Hagerty for their assistance.
Wahl reportedly spent hours helping Bordelon establish a new life in Chico.
"You do what you can, and sometimes it doesn't work out," Wahl said.
He noted that a hurricane relief committee at his church, Trinity United Methodist, is continuing to assist victims in the Gulf region.
Staff writer Greg Welter can be reached at 896-7768 or gwelter@chicoer.com



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