LinkBlog: california

Sara Kruzan was 11 years old, a middle school student from Riverside, Calif., when she met a man -- he called himself GG -- who was almost three times her age. GG took her under his wing; he would buy her gifts, take her and her friends rollerskating. "He was like a father figure," she recalls. Despite suffering severe bouts of depression as a child, until then, Kruzan was a good student, an "overachiever" in her words. But her mother was abusive and addicted to drugs; as for her father, she had only met him a couple of times. So, more and more, GG filled in. "GG was there -- sometimes," she said. "He would talk to me and take me out and give me all these lavish gifts and do all these things for me …" Before long, he started talking to her about sex, giving her his expert advice on what men were really like and telling her that she didn't "need to give it up for free." Unbeknownst to her, GG was grooming Kruzan to be a prostitute. When she was 13, he raped her. "He uses his manhood to hurt," Kruzan recalls, "Like, break you in. I guess." Kruzan worked for GG as a prostitute for three years. The hours were 6 p.m. until 5:30 or 6 in the morning. She and "the other girls" would come back and hand over their earnings to him. "He was, like, married to all of us I guess," she says. " … Everything was his." After years of prostitution and sexual abuse, when she was 16, Kruzan snapped: She killed GG, was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder. Despite attempts by her lawyer to have her sentenced as a juvenile, the judge described her crime as "well thought-out" and sentenced her to life without parole. "My judge told me that I lacked moral scruples," she recalls, a term she did not know the meaning of.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth --- Check out more info at: http://www.ae911truth.org/

In a stunning development, powerful Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman has been busted via wiretap for promising the AIPAC lobbying group that she would get a couple of spies off the hook. As Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein, Glenn Greenwald, Raw Story and others point out, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales blackmailed Harman into support warrantless spying on Americans by threatening to prosecute her for her little AIPAC episode if she didn't play ball.

Like most other conservative authoritarians, Beck apparently cannot understand the principle involved here, or why some people like myself who neither smoke nor drink nor take drugs of any kind would want to end the murderous fraud called the War on Drugs. As the following interview with Rob Campia of the Marijuana Policy Project demonstrates, Beck -- a former alcoholic and drug addict -- is not willing to endorse an end to the stupid, senseless, destructive policy of drug prohibition. As several observes have noted, Beck the prohibitionist comes off as the one who's on some kind of controlled substance, while Campia -- who has to endure Beck's palpable condescension (first question: "Do you smoke marijuana, Rob?") and constantly misfiring attempts at humor -- is composed, rational, and in command of the facts:

A man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas Eve party in a suburban Los Angeles home that subsequently caught fire, leaving three people dead, police said. The man arrived at the party in Covina late Wednesday and immediately opened fire with a handgun, police Lt. Pat Buchanan said.

Johnson was convicted of murder in 1999 and sent to death row. In 2003, his sentence was commuted to 40 years, and on Oct. 30, 2008, Gov. Rod Blagojevich commuted his sentence to time served. This means the state of Illinois has no legal basis for keeping him incarcerated. But now he faces a new challenge: the possibility of extradition to California for different charge. For Gloria, who has been fighting for years to bring her son home for the last months of his life, this would be an unthinkable defeat.

The median sales price for homes in the region fell to $300,000 in October, a level not seen since 2003 and a 41% drop from the peak price set in the spring and summer of 2007, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

Police responded about 8 AM and left a case number and a form to report missing items. They evidenced no concern that political intimidation may have been part of the motivation, or--worse still--that this may be an operation by a resuscitated "Plumbers" group. (And we do not mean "Joe the plumber." For younger readers, search on "plumbers AND break-ins AND Nixon".) Informal "exit polling" of voters emerging from long voting lines (took 45 minutes to cast a ballot) at San Francisco City Hall on afternoon of Oct. 29 suggested an unanticipated but very welcome surge for Sheehan.

SoCal Connected tracked down some surreal sights associated with the crisis - a company that specializes in removing whatever people leave behind in their foreclosed homes. The process is called a “trashout” - a term the company came up with because it perfectly describes what happens. Everything that’s left is dumped in a trailer and taken to the landfill. Then there’s the guy who started a business to spray-paint dead lawns. That’s right. He paints brown lawns green. We also tag along with a couple of code enforcement officers who are spending more and more of their time having to drain slimy, abandoned pools.

This ad will be shown on CNN News and on other cable channels in California's 14th District where Carol Brouillet is the Green Party Candidate for Congress.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially approved an assisted-suicide measure allowing nurses to sedate, dehydrate and starve depressed or confused individuals they consider to be "terminally ill." The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Democrat, passed the California Assembly Aug. 28, and the state Senate Aug. 20. It was signed by the governor yesterday. The legislation, called the "Terminal Patients' Right to Know End of Life Options Act," or AB 2747, passed by a 42 to 34 vote. An Aug. 20 Senate vote of 21 to 17 ushered the measure to the governor's desk for signing. Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, said the legislation is dangerous and should have been vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. "AB 2747 pushes suicide through the back door at the hands of non-physicians taking advantage of depressed patients," he said in a statement. "AB 2747 cheapens the value of human life by endorsing suicide as an option."

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan qualified Friday for a November showdown with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for Congress.

In one of the most significant legal rulings in the tech industry this year, a Superior Court judge in California has ruled that the practice of charging consumers a fee for ending their cell phone contract early is illegal and violates state law. The preliminary, tentative judgment orders Sprint Nextel to pay customers $18.2 million in reimbursements and, more importantly, orders Sprint to stop trying to collect another $54.7 million from California customers (some 2 million customers total) who have canceled their contracts but refused or failed to pay the termination fee.

A couple days ago Obama was in San Diego at the La Raza convention. We stood toward the Obama supporters with our banners for a couple hours and proceeded to give them dvds and flyers. They were pissed and just kept shouting "TALK TO BUSH" & "OBAMA" to us.

Deanna Johnson testified against a murderer to save her son. But in the projects, truth comes at a price.

Inglewood police killed one man and wounded another when they opened fire on a vehicle, saying they believed the occupants had shot at them -- although it turned out that the men were unarmed and their car was never struck with bullets.

She is running against Nancy Pelosi. -BE

"The question is are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and most on near poverty wages?"

We are on the outskirts of Ontario, a functionally pleasant commuter-city in southern California. Last summer, local officials established this camp as a temporary base for the city's homeless population, then around two dozen. But word spread and now some 300 people live here. It has an air of scruffy permanence, and indeed, city officials say there are no current plans to close it down.

The 9-11 Truth Movement is growing in numbers and it's growing in solidarity. Come join the first ever WEST COAST CONVERGENCE in San Francisco. We meet in Panhandle Park then march down Haight Street to Golden Gate Park! This will be a phenomenal experience. Meet folks from all over the West coast, from Vancouver down to San Diego and all the fantastic people in between.

Truther.org is proud to host 9/11 Truthstock 2008 at Montezuma Hall on the San Diego State University campus, April 10th, FREE and ALL DAY from 9am until 10pm! The day's events will include screenings of Terrorstorm, Improbable Collapse, Zeitgeist, two Loose Change Final Cut premieres, and speeches from physicist Dr. Steven Jones, and Richard Gage, AIA (ae911truth.org). After the event there will be a panel with both speakers, Jesus Nieto, SDSU professor, Dylan Avery (creator of the loose change series), and Tony award winner Daniel Sunjata (star of the hit show Rescue Me), who will also be MCing throughout the day. The event is FREE and open to the public so bring family, friends to learn the facts that the 9/11 truth movement has uncovered in the wake of the September 11th attacks. This venue has 800+ seats so please help us spread the word!

"No one in the family is accustomed to having guns ... We are humble people," Buenrostro-Gonzalez's father, Jose Luis Buenrostro, said, disputing the police account of the fatal shooting. Police maintain that the officers were not at fault and that Buenrostro-Gonzalez had threatened them with a firearm. "The officers reacted appropriately and in compliance with our policies when confronting an armed and dangerous suspect," said police Assistant Chief Howard Jordan. "They fired in defense of their lives after (Buenrostro-Gonzalez) pointed a weapon at them." Police said Buenrosto-Gonzalez may have been associated with gangs in East Oakland. His friends and family vehemently denied the possibility.

Linda Caoli helps lots of families on the verge of losing their homes, including a single mom working two jobs to pay her mortgage. "She says Linda the house across the street, same model, with more upgrades sold in foreclosure for $315,000!" explains Linda. Her client isn't the only one thinking about ditching her house to buy the better deal across the street. A number of realtors CBS13 talked to say it's already happening. "Can you imagine if you had a same or similar home and your mortgage was half the price?" asks Linda. This is how it works. Bob paid $420,000 for his home. Then he notices the house across the street, with more upgrades, and is selling for $315,000. So Bob, who has pretty good credit, decides to buy the cheaper house. He can't afford both, so then he walks away from his original home, letting it fall into foreclosure. That will hurt his credit, but he's willing to take the hit for a more affordable home. "Is it wrong to steal when you're hungry? That's an issue that a lot of people are trying to figure out right now," says Linda.

The earlier part of our Eleventh Day of Action last month was spent demonstrating outside of Congresswoman Jane Harman's office in El Segundo, CA. We took the opportunity to go inside and speak with her aid about our concerns surrounding HR 1955, Mark Weitzman's powerpoint presentation identifying www.ae911truth.org as "Disinformation" and appealing to terrorists, and Congress's continuing silent complicity in the 9-11 cover-up. Her aid would not allow us to film the conversation so we attempted to describe the conversation as best we could. We left behind some information about 9-11, including an ae911truth.org card about the destruction of the Twin Towers and a DVD with "9-11 Mysteries" and Richard Gage AIA's "Blueprint for Destruction," among others. Here's the video:

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists. The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area. The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal. A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails.

Last weekend we were grateful enough to have Richard Gage, AIA here in San Diego to host two unbelievable events. His second presentation was Sunday night, and the room was full 10 minutes before the event even started. By the end of the night there were about 175 people eagerly packed in the 150 capacity room, all blown away by his irrefutable analysis. His presentation incontrovertibly proved the case for controlled demolition, and opened a lot of minds. Join Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth in demanding a new investigation! www.ae911truth.org

Richard Gage, AIA, of AE911Truth.org, will be presenting his slide show presentation, 9/11: Re-examining the 3 WTC High-rise "Collapses" in San Diego, CA on Sunday, October 14, 2007.

Sheriff's deputies have been competing in organized contests to see who could make the most arrests, who could impound the most cars and who could question the most gang members. The contests were meant to boost morale and motivate deputies, but some observers are crying foul, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, he was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors. His testimony, which was omitted from the 9/11 Commission, absolutely destroys the government’s official story because it means that explosives must have been placed in the buildings. Several eyewitnesses who were on the scene also claim they heard multiple explosions before the buildings collapsed.

My contact reported to me today by email that Chertoff spoke about more "gut feelings" that he (Chertoff) has about a simultaneous Los Angeles / San Francisco dirty bomb attack that "our enemy is surely planning".

At one point she asks how many people in the room believe that the government is lying about what happened on 9/11 and more than half of the people in the room raised their hand. We leave with our answer: NO she would not support impeachment and NO she would not support a new 9/11 investigation.

The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment. John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort. "Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said.

“We are proud to have the support of Marx Ayres, a nationally recognized expert in building energy systems and earthquake damage to building nonstructural systems, in our search for the truth about the events of 9/11.”, said Mr. Gage. “He has signed our petition requesting a reinvestigation of those tragic events and he has now gone even further by providing his personal statement of support for a new investigation of 9/11.”

3 Days after Corporal Wave called for the court martial of the 'Commander in Chief' and Michele Phillips, Ed Asner and David Ray Griffin called for people to "get off their butts" in support of 9-11 Truth and Justice activism, a strong and geographically-diverse group of activists stormed the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Thousands of flyers and hundreds of DVD's later, many people had been brought information, inspiration and future pathways for action. Groups came from all over the Greater LA metropolitan area, including Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga.

Peter Thottam is a 9/11 Truth activist in Los Angeles, a former US State Assembly Candidate for the 53rd District, Green Party member and Attorney residing in Venice, California. He is the moving force behind the new Los Angeles Impeachment Center which opened July 4th 2007, and drew much media coverage, including a lead article on impeachment in the Los Angeles Times.

Parked in the emergency room lobby in a wheelchair after police left, she fell to the floor. She lay on the linoleum, writhing in pain, for 45 minutes, as staffers worked at their desks and numerous patients looked on. Aside from one patient who briefly checked on her condition, no one helped her. A janitor cleaned the floor around her as if she were a piece of furniture. A closed-circuit camera captured everyone's apparent indifference. Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked at sending rescuers to a hospital. Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before she could be put into a squad car.

Mark Dice and friends visit San Diego State University's job fair and find out that some students have forgot what year 9/11 happened.

Contrary to the popularly held belief that anyone who charges that the government had any direct responsibility for the 9/11 attacks should immediately be dismissed as a "conspiracy-theory kook," more and more well-educated, "normal" people--teachers, engineers, computer scientists--are becoming part of the movement. Samuel Ready is one of those normal people. Ready speaks with unagitated zeal of his need to reach out and enlighten others about "9/11 Truth," as it is referred to within the movement. The subtle grandfatherly twinkle in his eye helps put one quickly at ease, while he speaks with the sense of purpose that one often finds in those working to convert others to their religious faith. Ready recalls, beginning in the spring of 2004, trying to talk to fellow members of the Spiritual Enrichment Center (the church he attended at the time) and other people about the 9/11 attacks from a viewpoint questioning the official story. "No one knew what I was talking about," Ready reflected. "I decided that I had to reach out."

While Speaker Pelosi had declared impeachment “off the table,” the Democratic Party rank-and-file has demonstrated its commitment to putting the issue “on” the table. And it’s no longer just the rank-and-file: Even among the members of the convention’s Resolutions Committee (appointed by the California Party chair), the impeachment resolution was the top vote-getter (tied with one other resolution).

The San Diego Police Officers Association polled its members about gun control on 05 May 1997 and published the results in their official newsletter, "The Informant".

For the most part, the military has tolerated the antiwar activities of its active-duty soldiers and reservists. “While not on duty or in uniform, our service members maintain similar rights as other Americans,” said Lt. Col. Jon Siepmann, director of public affairs for the California National Guard. “There are, however, limitations that exist to ensure the good order and discipline of the service and to maintain an effective chain of command.” The only significant court case related to antiwar activity, the court-martial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada at Ft. Lewis, Wash., ended in a mistrial in February. Watada was charged with “conduct unbecoming an officer” for antiwar statements he made before Veterans for Peace and other organizations and for refusing to deploy with his unit to Iraq. A new court-martial is set for July.

“Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic,” the first film to look at the events of September 11, 2001 from a strictly scientific perspective, will be screening at the Silver Lake Film Festival, The Los Feliz 3 Theatre, Theater #2, 1822 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027 on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 2:15PM. The screening will be introduced by actor Dean Haglund of the X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, followed by Q & A with film director and 911truth.org media coordinator, Michael Berger.

Media research group Project Censored hosts a "no-holds-barred" second look at the world's three largest structural failures in history as San Francisco architect Richard Gage presents the results of his extensive research into the collapse of World Trade Center buildings 1, 2 and 7 on September 11, 2001. A one-hour multimedia presentation is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, April 20 in Darwin 103. General admission is $10, students, $5.

produced by: Orange County 9/11 Truth & Justice

In these graffiti-filled, job-emptied neighborhoods, and in the media, receptivity to simplistic race war rhetoric appears to grow in direct proportion to the speed and intensity with which globalization, migration and economic dislocation remake the City of Angels. The rise of Latino power in LA, most recently displayed in the electoral victory of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2005 and last year's 2 million-strong immigrant rights march downtown, has taken place just as the once-powerful African-American community has watched its numbers and influence rapidly dwindle. (LA's 428,000 African-Americans now account for less than 11 percent of the city's population.) In the minds of some African-Americans, Latinos, especially poor immigrants, have replaced white racism as the primary cause of the disappearance of LA's robust black middle class in once-great black suburbs like Compton, built on a foundation of industrial and government jobs and reflected in the election of black officials like Mayor Tom Bradley. Since the end of the Bradley era, after the '92 riots announced that everything and nothing had changed in black LA, many explanations for black displacement have arisen -- some of which cast the ascendant Latino majority in a role formerly reserved for whites who fought the rise of black power.

On March 11 2007, we observed 66 months of 9/11 treason and the second national day of action on the Eleventh with a demonstration at the entrance to Golden Gate park at the top of Haight Street in San Francisco.

We are very confident in Geri's word and in her eyewitness testimony that in NO way did Shane threaten the two Santee deputies. The Medical Examiner's report speaks for itself. Shane could not have been a threat after being shot twice in the front of his body and then shot in his back, the shot that ultimately killed Shane. Our family is destroyed by the loss of Shane and is at a loss of what to do now. This should not be over and needs attention so other families won't need to go through this. Could it be that the Sheriff's Department is scared silent and waiting until the six months statute of limitations is over for a complaint to be filed? Shane needed help. Please help Shane now & help us. On behalf of my family and Shane's numerous friends, thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

On March 6, 1907, Gov. James Gillett signed amendments to the Pharmacy and Poison Act making it a crime to sell opiates or cocaine in the state without a prescription. The act made California a national leader in the war on drugs seven years before Congress enacted national drug prohibition with the Harrison Act. Many Americans don't know there was a time when people could freely buy any drug they wanted, including opium, cocaine, cannabis and other so-called narcotics. For most of the nation's history, there was no such thing as an illegal drug. That began to change after the turn of the 20th century, when an alliance of Progressive Era bureaucrats and moral crusaders began to push for prohibition of narcotics and alcohol.

Although the National Labor Relations Board ruled in 2004 that drivers working for the Friendly Cab Company should be recognized as direct employees, the company is appealing the decision and continues to treat them as "independent contractors." The fight over cab-driver classification in Oakland reflects challenges faced by cab drivers throughout the United States. The cab drivers dispute the classification because their employer controls several aspects of their work but refuses to provide the typical benefits that an employee would get. The cabbies also say Friendly Cab’s appeal of the Board ruling is preventing them from pushing for safer cars and better pay through their union. Because the company is still refusing to recognize them as employees, cab drivers are unable to collectively bargain over their working conditions.

A state superior court has ruled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's forcible transfer of up to 5,000 California inmates to Corrections Corporation of America's private out-of-state prisons is illegal, thwarting the governor's only short-term plan to address prison overcrowding. California prisons currently hold approximately 173,000 inmates, with about 17,000 bunking in spaces such as gymnasiums and day rooms.

"I can't think of anything colder than that," said LAPD Det. Russ Long, who called the case the most egregious of its kind that he has seen in his career. "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of skid row."

A press officer whose name I didn't catch (because she hung up on me when I stood up for TNS) called to complain about our "coverage" of an incident in which LAPD personnel allegedly beat a handcuffed man to death in front of multiple witnesses. Gabriel Voilles put together a bulletin on the matter for our In Other News... section this morning. This officer was very upset by it, immediately accusing TNS of printing lies. I informed her that we were, quite transparently, merely relaying what her hometown newspaper the LA Times had reported, and that we -- as a matter of journalistic policy -- made no claims as to the true narrative of the incident, since no reporter was on the scene. She then claimed that the Times story on which our bulletin was based did not say or suggest the cops had beaten a man to death while he was cuffed, as our bulletin says, and repeated her insistence that we had published "lies."

On August 1, Wolf, 24, was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury seeking unpublished footage he shot during a 2005 protest that turned violent. Wolf was released on bail a month later while his appeal was being considered. But a three-judge panel rejected the appeal and revoked bail.

Photos of protest marches in Washington, DC and California.

Last Night we received an even mixture of support and utter condemnation for simply reporting this issue, and writing a commentary denouncing it. Now CNN is reporting it. Once again we take the brunt of bringing you the facts first. See our article Racist Mexican Gangs "Ethnic Cleansing" Blacks In L.A.

The author notes that since 1990 the African-American population of Los Angeles has halved, partly as a result of rampant illegal immigration and that there are noticeably fewer blacks walking the streets because many have been forced to relocate in fear of the racist gangs.

Senator Rogers becomes the next in a long line of reputable and respectable people both in and out of government who are publicly challenging the official story of what happened on September 11th, 2001.

Senator Dianne Feinstein is claiming that the White House has taken advantage of the Patriot Act to oust the top prosecutor in coastal Northern California and other federal prosecutors. The California Democrat complained on the Senate floor that the Bush administration has used a provision of the Patriot Act to remove U-S Attorney Kevin Ryan and other prosecutors and replace them with White House allies.

The UCLA student who received a righteous tasering at the hands of the university's campus police officers has decided to sue for "unspecified monetary damages", Associated Press reports.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed to extend health coverage to nearly all of California's 6.5 million uninsured people, promising to spread the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, doctors, insurers and government.

The biggest payout to a corrections officer for the fiscal year that ended in June was $252,570, which went to a lieutenant. That's more than the salaries of the corrections chief, who makes $225,000, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declined what would be a $206,500 paycheck this year. Schwarzenegger has vowed to reform the nation's largest prison system, which incarcerates almost 174,000 people in 33 prisons that were designed to hold 100,000. He has announced a plan to ease crowding by building prisons, rehabilitating prisoners to cut down on repeat offenders and reviewing sentencing laws that lock up many nonviolent criminals.

On Saturday, December 16, 2006, on a bitter cold day in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf district, about forty hardy patriots came out with the intent to expose the lies and omissions of the 9/11 Commission Report by passing out information to tourists and locals, by reciting most of the omissions and deceptions in the official document, and then dumping the offensive whitewash in the San Francisco Bay.

Wal–Mart is a lightning rod that attracts petty tyrants who attempt to limit the choices of their neighbors. The latest lighting strike occurred in San Diego when the city council voted to essentially ban Wal–Mart Supercenter stores. If implemented, such a ban would be bad for San Diego’s economy and its consumers.

For those who cannot cross the continent to be with our brothers and sisters in Boston, we will gather in San Francisco to hear about the “Connected Dots” that should be “Heard Round the World,” and to voice our own proclamation demanding an immediate, genuinely independent investigation. We applaud the efforts to re-establish Citizen Grand Juries by which the pre-Revolutionary War colonists legally threw off the yoke of tyranny. We will proudly parade an enlarged replica of the deeply flawed 9/11 Commission Report to the waters of San Francisco Bay. There we will declare its false-conclusions ‘null and void.’

Ronald Hamburger, a structural engineer and Senior Principal at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger consulting engineers in San Francisco, will discuss why those buildings collapsed and illustrate his talk with graphics. He was a principal author of FEMA's initial report on the collapse of the twin towers and later a key participant in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study.

The bureauracracy that regulates health care in the US is shameful. There is no arguing for the system. It has turned against America, and is operating not to regulate the industry, but to protect it from competition and change.

The Rude Pundit's said it before and he'll say it again: we live in Gitmo America. Sure, there's hope that in the future the cages will be rattled. But for now violence is out of the shadows and in our faces, and those who wish to create violence do so alarmingly without fear of reprisal.

In some cases, researchers found unnecessarily long detentions. In one instance, a 17-year-old with "hyperactivity disorder" and "mild mental retardation," who was charged with loitering, was kept in a juvenile hall for a year.

The footage, shot by a local resident and posted on YouTube.com three weeks ago, shows two officers holding down 24-year-old Williams Cardenas as they arrested him in August on a warrant for receiving stolen property. As the struggling suspect yells, "I can't breathe", one of the officers punches him sharply several times in the face before they are able to handcuff him.

A fire official said the blaze was the work of an arsonist and could lead to murder charges against whoever is responsible. "This is a deliberately set arson fire," said John Hawkins of the Riverside County Fire Department. "An arson fire that leads to the death of anyone constitutes murder."

"The cost to the state of California having a movie-star governor is extravagant," said Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "We are picking up hotel bills, we are picking up security bills, there's all sorts of travel bills. Wherever this governor goes he goes with a huge entourage. And if taxpayers don't wind up paying for the entourage -- in most cases they don't -- the special interest groups that are paying for the entourage are getting some chits with the governor, and they're getting a rate of return somewhere."