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I Was There and You Weren't

The first in a series of firsthand experiences. No reporting of anything that the writer didn't personally witness.

The Californian Republican Convention
by Michael Dare

Oh yeah, it's safe to say I was there and you weren't. If I'd known accepting the job of editor of the Los Angeles Free Press included attending a Republican convention, I'd still be in Seattle, basking in the mist, instead of valiantly stumbling into enemy territory for your amusement.

It was about 9AM, Saturday morning, September 8, when I was dropped off in front of this.

As soon as you enter the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, you walk down a grand staircase to a grand lobby where you discover the California Republican Party is to your left, which is just wrong. Maybe I was supposed to go down the stairs backwards.

Like most conventions, it consists of lots of tables with people hawking their wares, everything from political candidates to software for political candidates, neatly arranged, a super little "Candidates Row" where you could pick up literature on Rudy, Mitt, Ron, Fred, and John. Someone smarter than me has got to explain the thinking behind Fred Thompson giving out jaw breakers and Dum-Dums, a decision both symbolically and calorically bankrupt. I skip the munchies and the chance to bid on a framed collection of autographed photos of every Republican president since Nixon and head straight to the press room where they mysteriously give me credentials to wander where I choose. The room is full of tables for the press to do our work, but it's empty so I presume there's somewhere else I must be. I bypass the bagels and cream cheese (Jewish Republicans?) and head out into enemy territory. I'm GOP shy and truly hope I don't have to talk to anyone.

The Autographs of Every President Since Nixon Except for Carter and Clinton

The schedule says at 9:30 there's a workshop called "Meet the Press" in the Emerald 6, which I go in search of. Turns out it's in another building, necessitating a long walk outside in the desert heat past all the swimming pools and restaurants. Good for me in my khakis and sport shirt, bad for the suited male and layered Barbara Bush wannabe Republicans who sweat up a storm, complaining in a huff that OTHER conventions are all in the same building and THEY don't make you walk outside in the withering heat past all these naked bodies.

"Meet the Press" turns out to be a seminar with some mainstream daily reporters on how news is covered. I never felt so much like a cornerstone when the first words out of anyone's mouth were "the cornerstone of democracy is a free press," a cornerstone I wanted to drop on his head when he referred to CNN as the Clinton News Network. It was a barrage of information: you've got to engage the whole stream of media, talk to everybody, print vs. internet, everything's changing and no one knows how it's going to play out. Media is in competition for our time and everybody screens out everything that contradicts what they already think.

I already think objectivity is impossible and got a good chortle when someone from the San Francisco Chronicle said "We in the mainstream media have no cause and aren't even supposed to cheer our team from the press box when covering sports." They don't print anything that's not "provable to the standards of responsible journalism." The Chronicle just laid off 80 reporters, 25% of its staff, despite the fact that "readers benefit from multiple points of view," so we'll see how that goes.

It's all surprisingly rational as they discuss the difference between "reporting" and "journalism" while delivering the bombshell news that polls are suffering from the dropping number of telephonic landlines. Nobody on cell phones is ever polled, which is definitely skewing the numbers towards technophobes and illiterates. Poll results are entirely dependent upon the technology used. Conduct a poll using nothing but text messaging and Ron Paul is the clear Republican winner, not necessarily because he's the top choice but because McCain supporters haven't figured out how to text message yet.

They discussed the Democratic candidates and seemed resigned to Hillary who is running a "flawless campaign" while Obama doesn't have enough ground troops.

What's the difference between Dems and Repugs? "Democrats like all their choices, but Republicans think the one they like can't win and the ones that can win they don't like," whatever that means.

The first question from the audience is a doozy. "We don't buy your newspapers because we don't trust you." Major applause. "How come reporters don't stand up when we recite the pledge of allegiance?"

"We certainly do pledge our allegiance to the flag," came the indignant reply. Apparently we can disagree as long as we're not disagreeable. I'm nothing if not disagreeable. I walked up to the host afterwards and introduced myself. "I'm glad we had a weapons check at the door," I was told. Interesting. There WAS no weapons check at the door. Republican humor. Har dee har har.

I had a question. According to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, in 2002 the Republican Party blanketed the county with voter registration tables in front of supermarkets and K-Marts. The registrars were paid $5 for every Republican registered, and every Democratic registration was simply thrown away. Hundreds of Democrats showed up at polling places on election day only to discover they couldn't vote because they weren't registered. Does the Republican Party plan on using this tactic again in the 2008 election? It went unasked because I'm attached to my skin.

Repug Books (Yes, that's Help! Mom! There's a Liberal Under My Bed)

I had an hour to blow before the big luncheon with John McCain so I headed back to the press room. All the bagels were gone. Shit. Trying to find some cheap food at the Renaissance Esmeralda is like trying to find another male with a ponytail. My only hope is to weasel my way into some private function with a buffet, like "the Hospitality Suite of Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, hosted by Fresno County's Gals of the Party," which promises the music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, & Sammy Davis Jr., with a "full bar and more." Will there be cheese dip at the reception for "Republican Women Interested in a Career in Politics?" Dare I miss the 5th Annual Ice Cream Social presented by the Asian American Republican Council of California? Will they serve Steven Colbert's Americone Dream? I opt for The Lincoln Club of Coachella Valley and the Desert Republican Coordinating Council and their special guest Mary Bono who's flyer cordially invites me to "A taste of our Southern California Heritage," but it's not till 5. What to do till then?

I walk back through the beating sun to the other building, taking a good look at the opulence of the resort, noticing for the first time the artificial waterfall behind the bar surrounded by the swimming pool, sending a mist across the pool that would sure feel good if I took off my clothes and swam to it. It was, at the very least, a picture, but there was something missing. There was nothing about it that screamed "Republican." I needed Fred Thompson in a thong lying on one of the empty lounges. I looked around and spotted a Ron Paul sign leaning against a wall. Perfect. I set it up under a palm tree and took my shot.

Walking past the waterfall on the sidewalk of death

"Hey, what are you doing with our sign?" shouted some people sitting in the outdoor patio of the restaurant facing the pools. I explained and they agreed the sign looked better where I put it. I looked at their oversized Bloody Marys. I looked at the convention hall. I looked back towards the lobby. "You guys mind if I join you?" I asked.

And so I spent a lovely hour schmoozing with the Ron Paul brigade. Can words contain the amazement I felt at the stunning discovery we agreed on absolutely every issue we discussed? I don't think so. What would the old readers of the Free Press, the ultimate bastion of the left wing liberal press, think about my actually considering supporting a Republican for president? Here's a good old-fashioned civil libertarian who wants to abolish the IRS and the DEA, cancel the Patriot Act, opposes NAFTA, has never voted to raise Congressional pay or increase the power of the executive branch, never taken a government-paid junket, and is against regulating the internet. His Iraqi withdrawal policy? We leave. Tomorrow. What's not to like except the rest of his party, who treat people with Ron Paul buttons like they've got the plague.

Schmoozing with the Ron Paul Brigade
(Drew Alexander, Tavia Cantarini, Kevin Brondie, & Michael Dare)

We had a jolly time making fun of the sweaty people walking by while discussing the intricacies of Paul's philosophy. Paul sees medical marijuana as a states rights issue, but there's a catch. He's devoted to reducing the size of the federal government and feels there's nothing wrong with California's drug laws so the feds should just butt out, but similarly he believes that if Idaho wants to make abortion illegal, there's nothing wrong with that too and the feds should butt out. It would seem that according to Paul, if you're against drug prohibition, you've also got to be against Roe v. Wade. If you see everything as a state's rights issue, step one is getting the federal government out of the issue altogether, then letting the states do what they want. As a firm believer in women's, or anybody's right to choose the specifics of their health care, I've got to admire anybody with the brainpower to get me to reconsider Roe v. Wade even momentarily. Am I willing to trade patient's rights in California for patient's rights in North Dakota? It would seem so because I can't imagine any other candidate so devoted to personal freedom. Freedom of the person is even more important than freedom of the press.

I did not want to watch John McCain give a speech, especially if he was right in front of me, but if I didn't, the story would have been how I ignored my duties to party with sane people.

I skedaddled to the luncheon, hung in the lobby a bit, then walked to the door.

"Press? Not here. Next door."

I walked to the next door.

"Press? Not here. Next door."

The Press Table
10 laptop computers and one journal

I headed down a hallway, turned a corner, and saw another hallway full of closed doors. I picked one and was led to the press table in back. Was I the only one without a laptop, taking notes in a paperback journal? You could say that if you were devoted to the truth, no matter how ridiculous it made you look.

Holy crap, these are the rightest of the right. I'm in the corner seat, the one with the greatest perspective other than about two feet off the ground. I mean you tell me which shot to use. Probably the one where I was told "Please, sir, don't stand on the furniture." And that's why I still hate Republicans, because of their intolerant attitude towards artistic expression. Other than that they're cool, especially the ones who share their food and drink with the press in back, of whom there are none.

Speaker after speaker, lists of names of contributors, applause, more names, a prayer, an amen, someone simply says the word McCain and gets applause. Everyone in the press types away while I scribble. Another guy walks by with a pad. Someone else who takes notes. I'm astonished. He's just returned from the front where he actually watched John McCain shove food in his mouth. "When the Senator eats the rubber chicken, you know the candidate is in trouble," he tells me.

Chicken? They're eating chicken? If there's something to be said about skipping breakfast and sitting in the back of a room watching hundreds of people eat chicken while worrying about whether you've got enough food stamps to feed your kid till the end of the month, I'm sure I'll think of it.

The lights went down and now was the time, the Pledge of Allegiance, everyone stood, yes, even the entire row of press, but there was this one Oriental guy who did NOT put his hand over his heart nor make a pledge to anything but his Blackberry. With liberty and justice for all, we were treated to a documentary on the life of John McCain, and like him or not, he's got a compelling tale, full of courage, faith in God, bayonetings, prison, explosions on flight decks, devotion to duty, the Hanoi Hilton, the guard who loosened his ropes because he was a fellow Christian, a thoroughly professional piece of political propaganda, a fanfare, the lights come up, the crowd applauds, a man steps to the podium, the crowd almost stands till they realize it's not John McCain but a guy introducing him (which is something the film did just fine, so John, baby, forget the shlub from now on and come out right after the film, okay?).

And somebody walks in front of the press table giving us all copies of the speech we're about to hear. Oh good, I can leave, but I don't.

View from the starving press in back

He stands in front of 10 American flags. He begins with "preliminary" remarks that aren't on the page. An amusing anecdote about his mother, who is 95. It seems she was visiting somewhere just yesterday and they wouldn't rent her a car because she was too old, so she bought one. This hideous slice of conspicuous consumption made me want to retch but it brought the house down. Har dee har har. How clever of her to have thought of just buying a car in that situation. Why I would have done the same thing.

Somewhere in his first paragraph McCain called the man he considers to be the current president "a good and decent man," and he lost me now and forever. They must have rewritten the dictionary since I last looked. I've seen good. I've experienced decent. But not from the White House in the Bush years.

Oh Christ he's only finished the second paragraph and there are three pages of fear pushing, warmongering rhetoric left that they're eating up like, well, chicken. He mentions Reagan, the man who set the loonies free and single-handedly created the entire homeless problem in Los Angeles, and they act like Oprah just gave them a car.

I sat through an entire John McCain speech. Guess which one of us deserves a medal.

I hung out and watched the crowd dissipate till a lady with a clipboard came up to me and said "Sir, would you like to attend the press conference?" I looked around and noticed the rest of the press had split. Silly me. Sure. Press conference. Why not?

I was led down a hall to a door to another hall where McCain stood surrounded by a dozen video cameramen and reporters and photographers who had cameras looking quite different from my tacky Fujifilm QuickSnap. The closer I got to the Senator, the more disapproving glares I got from what I can only assume were Secret Service honchos and suddenly I was sweating, boy did they have their eyes on me. I felt like a gang banger driving through Beverly Hills, paranoia rising, my radar alarms at four, hands, where are your hands, keep 'em showing, no sudden moves, Christ, my right hand is holding what is clearly a cheap drugstore camera but my left, shit, my left is in my pocket, the security cameras must be zooming in on it right now so I slowly, ever so slowly take my hand out of my pocket and put it on my chest, clearly empty, there, you see, just a hand, no reason to get excited, you can let me escape the room whose size is rapidly decreasing, pulse pounding, why did I agree to do this.

I snapped this shot and split back to the press room but all the bagels were gone, which is another reason I hate Republicans, they're closet Jews who hide all the cream cheese that is the birthright of my race. The press room was sort of creepy - the place where the politicos chum it up with their minions in the press, planting stories, everyone's pals, they know the same people. I was totally distressed till they brought in food. I stuffed myself till I could hear my mother's voice saying "You're filling up on chips and dip?"

So I mingled some more, finding not only the Minutemen and Californians for a Fair Gambling Policy but the mysterious presence of the Armenian National Committee and the California League of Off-Road Voters, who should definitely join forces as Serbs on Quads. One vender who worked both sides of the fence told me "the Republican conventions are all plaques and jewelry while the Democratic conventions were all T-shirts and bumperstickers."

I no longer had to keep reminding myself this was hell. It was five and time to eat with Mary Bono, a premiere putz I've proudly voted against at every opportunity. The Crystal Room, a Mexican duo, harp and guitar, not enough chairs, an open bar with a long line, quesadilla, mozzarella balls, dozens of pickalittletalkalittle ladies just thrilled as Mary entered the room and smiled at me, skinnier than I thought, almost frail, all in white, sandals, no ass, good looking, highlights in her hair, surrounded by admirers, shiny foreheads, too much jewelry, red polo shirts, blue coats, then she stepped to the mike and unloaded a steaming heap of garbage that made Ann Coulter look like Hillary Clinton. I wrapped some quesadilla in a napkin for my son, stuck it in my complimentary California Republican Party bag and I was out of there.

Not knowing how long I'd be waiting for a bus, I headed to the bathroom first. In keeping with Republican tradition, I offered to blow a black guy at the urinal next to mine. He turned out to be Secret Service so all I got was a good frisking that made me glad I left my portobong at home. It felt good to have a man's hands on my body. Hey, you get your thrills where you can.

Senator Larry Craig, not only for the opening statement at his press conference - Thank you all very much for coming out today - but also for his silly rationalization that when he tap-danced on the shoe of an undercover cop in the adjoining stall, it was only because of his own wide stance, thereby breaking Rose Mary Woods excuse record. She testified that, while transcribing Richard Nixon's tape, she answered a phone call, but when reaching for the stop button on the recorder, she mistakenly hit the record button next to it, [unnecessarily] keeping her foot on the pedal, resulting in the infamous 18-1/2-minute gap. When asked to replicate that position, her extremely awkward posture caused political pundits to question the validity of her explanation.
Senator John Kerry, for not ridiculing George Bush's 180-degree turnaround concerning the comparison between the Vietnam and Iraq wars by labeling the president a flip-flopper.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, for championship pandering. Although he now wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade, when he was running for the Senate in 1994, he came out in favor of choice for women. He admitted to Mormon feminist Judith Dushku that the Brethren in Salt Lake City told him that he could take that position, and that in fact he probably had to, in order to win in a liberal state like Massachusetts.
Great Assholes of the Past: The Sunday School teacher who advised one of his students to write on his penis, What would Jesus do? Presumably, Jerk off was not considered to be the correct answer.

Britney, Lindsay and Paris

to the tune of Abraham, Martin and John

Has anybody here seen my old friend Britney?
Can you tell me where she's gone?
She flashed a lot of people,
But it seems the young shave good.
You know, I just looked around and she's gone.

Anybody here seen my old friend Lindsay?
Can you tell me where she's gone?
She flashed a lot of people,
But it seems the young drive drunk.
I just looked 'round and she's gone.

Anybody here seen my old friend Paris?
Can you tell me where she's gone?
She flashed a lot of people,
But it seems the rich live hard.
I just looked around and she's gone.

Didn't you love the things that they showed you?
Didn't they expose themselves for you and me?
And we'll be free too
Some day soon,

and it's a-gonna be one day...

Anybody here seen my old friend Nicole?
Can you tell me where she's gone?
I thought I saw her checking into rehab,
With Britney, Lindsay and Paris.

The Good News

"In a landmark decision more than 30 years in the making, a federal judge Wednesday ruled the state can't build or maintain road culverts that hurt fish passage or diminish fish populations because that violates tribal treaty rights to fish.

"The case has broad implications to spur the pace and increase the cost of state culvert repairs already under way around Western Washington. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, expected to be appealed, could also lead tribes to seek other habitat protections."

- Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times: Culvert Ruling Backs Tribes -

New Texas Laws Take Effect Sept. 1

MARIJUANA: Police will have discretion to issue citations instead of arresting those in possession of four ounces or less of marijuana. The offender must live in the county where they are stopped and must not be considered a threat to public safety.

- Texas Department of Public Safety: New Laws

Senators Develop Balls

"A second day of testimony by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker yielded some of the most biting GOP objections since the president announced his troop buildup in January. Several Republicans joined Democrats in saying that Petraeus's proposal to draw down troops through the middle of next summer would result only in force levels equivalent to where they stood before the increase began, about 130,000 troops.

"Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker that due to deeply seated sectarian divisions, the U.S. is facing 'extraordinarily narrow margins for achieving our goals. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said that despite modest gains from the surge, 'this continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake.'

"After meeting with Bush yesterday at the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) expressed similar dismay with the Petraeus plan...

"Even Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), a mainstream conservative who has never publicly strayed from the administration's position on Iraq, made it clear that she would now support 'what some have called action-forcing measures.'

"'The difficulty of the current American and Iraqi situation is rooted in large part in the Bush administration's substantial failure to understand the full implications of our military invasion and the litany of mistakes made at the outset of the war,' Dole said."

- Michael Abramowitz and Jonathan Weisman: Bush to Endorse Petraeus Plan - Democrats, Some Republicans Seek a Faster Withdrawal -

The Bad News

The Wonderful World of Escalation

"Russia tested the world's most powerful air-delivered vacuum bomb that generates a shockwave similar to a nuclear blast, the armed forces said, as the country moves to reassert its global military power.

"The bomb is 'comparable to a nuclear weapon in its power and efficiency,' Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said on state television yesterday. Unlike a nuclear bomb, it doesn't leave radioactive contamination, he added.

"The weapon is four-times more powerful than the Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb tested by the U.S. military and known as the 'Mother of All Bombs,' according to the report by broadcaster Perviy Kanal. This prompted the Russian designers to call their device 'the Father of All Bombs,'' it said.

"Russia is reasserting its military power with a new intercontinental ballistic missile, upgrades to its air force and the expansion of its navy. It wants to counter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's expansion in eastern Europe and U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile defense in the region.

"The new weapon disperses a cloud of explosive material that is set off by a charge and produces 'an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature,' Perviy Kanal said on its Web site. After the blast, 'the soil looks like a lunar landscape,' according to the report."

- Michael Heath: Russia Says It Tested World's Most Powerful Air-Delivered Bomb -

"A US official has confirmed that Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike 'deep inside' Syria, escalating tensions between the two countries.

"The target of the strike last Thursday remained unclear but Israeli media reported that a shipment of Iranian arms crossing Syria for use by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon was attacked.

"Syria first reported the incident on the day, saying its air defences had engaged five Israeli planes, but did not say what their target was. Israel remained uncharacteristically silent, pointedly refusing to deny that its warplanes were involved in an operation. The closest it came to acknowledging the affair happened was when it made an undertaking to Turkey to investigate how an Israeli long-range fuel tank was dropped on Turkish territory near the Syrian border.

"Another theory gaining ground yesterday was that Israel was deliberately attacking the Russian-made Pantsyr air defence system recently bought by Damascus. The sale includes provision for the Pantsyr system to be shipped on to Iran and it is possible the Israeli attack was co-ordinated with America to probe the effectiveness of the system. It is believed that Iran would use the Pantsyr system to defend its nuclear facilities.

"Syria has sought to keep the incident in the public arena, saying yesterday that it had complained formally to the United Nations, accusing Israel of unjustified aggression."

- Tim Butcher: US confirms Israeli air strike on Syria -

Unsworn Testimony

"Swear Him In! That's all I said in the unusual silence on Monday afternoon as first aid was being administered to Gen. David Petraeus microphone before he spoke before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

"It had dawned on me that when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Missouri) invited Gen. Petraeus to make his presentation, Skelton forgot to ask him to take the customary oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I had no idea that my suggestion would be enough to get me thrown out of the hearing."

- Ray McGovern: Swear Him In! -

Calling All Terrorists

"On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air Combat Command bases. The entire command about 100,000 active-duty airmen is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day."

- Bruce Rolfsen: ACC orders commandwide standdown Friday -

I'm Sure They'll Spend it Wisely

"American forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order to war-torn provinces around Baghdad in the run-up to a report by General David Petraeus, the US commander, to Congress tomorrow...

"The Sunday Times has witnessed at first hand the enormous sums of cash changing hands. One sheikh in a town south of Baghdad was given $38,000 (19,000) and promised a further $189,000 over three months to drive Al-Qaeda fighters from a nearby camp."

- Marie Colvin and Sarah Baxter: US bribes insurgents to fight Al-Qaeda -

Financial News: Go Into Air Conditioning

"The Old Farmer's Almanac is relying on time-honored, complex calculations to predict that 2008 will be the warmest year in a century, but it also is banking on a factor anyone can understand: years that end in '8' have weird weather.

"People still talk about the frigid winters of 1748 and 1888, tornadoes of 1908, Northwest floods and the Northeast hurricane of 1938. If the forecast and tradition hold true, they'll look back on the heat of 2008.

"'At the very least, we expect it to be the warmest year in the last century overall, so people will talk about it for that reason alone,' said publisher John Pierce."

- David Tirrell-Wysocki: Old Farmer's Almanac: 2008 will be the warmest year in a century -

"In spite of all the recent talk about climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and tight energy resources in Europe, the oil industry continues to burn huge volumes of natural gas that rises from oil deposits on land or under the sea. Over 20 countries have increased the practice of 'flaring' in the last 12 years, and some burn far more gas on drilling platforms and in oil fields than they've admitted, officially, so far.

"America's weather-data department, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), came to this conclusion in a new report based on American satellite data. The study was financed by the World Bank, which five years ago started a global initiative to change the long-established practice of flaring gas and to capture it for energy use instead.

"According to the NOAA, oil producers torch from 150 to 170 billion cubic meters (5,200 to 6,000 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year. This amounts to more than five percent of global natural-gas production. 'If the gas were sold in the United States,' write the authors, 'it would have a market value of around $40 billion.' Bent Svensson, head of the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative at the World Bank, emphasizes the sheer volume of waste: 'If we just took the 40 billion cubic meters of gas that are burned off in Africa every year, and burned them instead in modern energy plants, we could double the energy supply in sub-Saharan Africa.'"

"Gas flaring also harms the climate. The report says that flaring produces around 400 million tons of carbon dioxide per year - about half of Germany's CO2 output. 'It amounts to 13 percent of all greenhouse gases that industrial countries need to cut by 2012, according to the Kyoto Protocol,' says Svensson.

"There are also oil fields where gas is simply discharged straight into the atmosphere, which is even worse for the climate, because methane - the main component in the hydrocarbon mixture known as 'natural gas' - has 20 times the greenhouse-gas or 'warming' potential of CO2."

- Volker Mrasek: Oil Firms Waste $40B per Year in Gas - Up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas is burned off by the world's oil producers every year with enormous economic and environmental costs -

9/11 History Lesson from Hell

"Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.

"The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

"Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.

"His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.

"Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.

"He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.

"He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Daytona Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring."

- BBC News: Hijack 'suspects' alive and well -

TV Show We'd Most Like to See
CSI: 911

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Tell me this doesn't look great, a Christmas movie about a barber who kills his customers so his landlady Mrs. Lovett can turn them into meat pies. There hasn't been a film based upon a Steven Sondheim musical since West Side Story that has this much classic potential, Johnny Depp at the height of his talent and popularity, Tim Burton, a visual genius with several classic musicals under his belt, and one of the best Broadway musicals ever written, soaring melodies, intense emotional sincerity, heavy on the irony, brilliant and often hilarious lyrics with the most complex rhyme schemes in songwriting history that get better each listening. The only potential glitch is the part of Sweeney demands almost operatic vocal power we've never heard from Depp, giving this adaptation some unfortunate Man of La Mancha potential (a great Broadway musical whose film version was ruined by Peter O'Toole's lack of vocal skill among other things). I'm assuming the best and humbly suggesting Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Soundtrack for a film I haven't seen yet.

"What happens next, well that's the play
And we wouldn't want to give it away."
- Sweeney Todd -

Before entering Dareland you must answer three questions.

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