No. Those puffs of white smoke you see aren't coming from
the Vatican"�at least not the one in Rome. Instead, they're emanating from the
mouth of journalism's new self-appointed Pope, L.A. Times media columnist Tim
Rutten.

In a piece published over the weekend,  Rutten dons that pointy little hat and issues a papal ruling on who is and
is [...]

My Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture
Who the Academy Will Choose:  The Aviator
My preference:   Million
Dollar Baby

Best Director
The Academy:   Clint Eastwood for MDB
My preference:   Ditto

Best Actor
The Academy:   Jamie Foxx
My Preference:   Johnny
Depp in Neverland

Best Actress
The Academy:   Hilary Swank for MDB
My preference:   Annette
Bening for Being Julia

Best Supporting Actor
The Academy:   Thomas Haden Church for Sideways
My Preference:               Morgan
Freeman for MDB

Best Supporting [...]

In the interest of full disclosure:
As I mentioned in the post below, I celebrated this Oscar weekend by throwing my own private beach party this morning-- doing my best to personally meet up with as many Barred Surf Perch as possible. My nephew Neil and I fished the incoming tide about a mile north of [...]

The Oscar pre-parties are in full bloom this weekend in Los
Angeles and I can report that the only date I have on my calendar are with some
Santa Monica surf perch Saturday morning. Sorry, you won't catch me at Morton's
if you were planning on showing up.

No reason not to speculate about who's going to win [...]

The case of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
continues to be an international bright spot for human rights. This just in
from the Washington Post:

Riggs Bank and the Allbritton family agreed to pay $9 million to the victims
of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for the bank's role in concealing
and spiriting Pinochet's money out of Britain in 1998.
In [...]

Man, am I ever pissed off at my poltical adversary and
sometimes friend David Horowtiz.  Here he's gone and posted a poltitical
database of the American Left called Discover
The Network (seems like the words The Base were already taken).
And the individual dossier
on me
has used the worst possible portrait that could be found! A Smear! An Outrage! [...]

From Gonzo to Bonzo. From Hunter S. Thompson to James D.
Guckert aka Jeff Gannon is certainly a greased slide down the journalism
evolutionary ladder.
And"� so what? I've received several emails urging me to
comment on "Gannongate."� Here's my one word response: YAWN.

Please tell me what the scandal is here. Someone in the
White House machinery let a [...]

One quick and final go-around on the suicide of Hunter
Thompson.
Running a Technorati search on him Tuesday night turned up a staggering
11,050 postings. An impressive homage
to a writer who obviously had an impact much greater than some would assume.

Here's my elaborated obit for HST  now posted at L.A. Weekly. 

Nikki Finke
and Steve [...]

So long, Swifties!

I'm actually quite pleased that the Republican hatchet squad
has now hired some of the PR hacks that were behind
the Swift Boat Veterans to attack those geezer commies over at the AARP.

I'll tell you why I'm so pleased in a moment. First an
excerpt from the way the New York Times [...]

From the final paragraph of  Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas:
"We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can
go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can [...]

l
Tony Allen has got one  helluva story to tell.

Once a fierce adherent of  the political cult known as MOVE, Allen dedicated his life to defending death row prisoner and fellow cult member Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Allen spent his time ruthlessly attacking and smearing anyone who criticized his dread-locked hero.  One of those onslaughts led to a [...]

Like my colleague, David Corn, it's too weary a task for me to write, once again the What's-Wrong-With-Negroponte story. So I will let David reprise it one more time.
I will only say this: it's not just that Negroponte was a key player in the unconstitutional scheme known as Iran-Contra. Worse, he's one more hack ideologue [...]

Former California governor and presidential candidate Jerry Brown has just started a blog.
I find this to be great news because contrary to the "Moonbeam" media stereotype, Jerry is one of the most unpredictable politicians around.  He certainly ran to the left in the 1992 presidential campaign, but Brown is definitely bi-directional.
As Mayor of Oakland [...]

Changing subjects for a moment. Check out my report back from attending a local Surf Fishing Seminar. Once you click on the link, my story is the third one down: "Professor of Fishing."

Pardon me, but I find this story as reported originally in
the L.A. Times to be simply staggering.

Former American POW's from the 1991 Gulf War who were
tortured by the regime of Saddam Hussein (some of them in Abu Ghraib) are being
denied compensation by"�drum roll"�those super-patriots over at the Bush
administration.

Anyone who argued that the Allawi [...]

I have refrained until now from commenting on the Eason
Jordan resignation of a few days ago. He's the CNN chief news executive who was quoted saying in a
closed-door session in Davos last month that U.S. forces in Iraq had killed 12 journalists.

Because those remarks were not recorded and no real
transcript exists, there was some [...]

On my way to the local tackle store Saturday morning, (surf
fishing season is upon us!), I accidentally tuned my satellite radio to a
public radio channel and caught the tail end of a live broadcast covering the
election of Howard Dean as the new chair of the Democratic National
Committee.
The era of the "Howard Dean Democrats,"�
as the Right [...]

So Doctor Dean has cinched his campaign to become Chairman of the Democratic
National Committee.

My first reaction is to warn his followers: Be Careful for What You Wish. 
The entrenched machinery of the Democratic Party —nationally,
state by state- and county-by-county-- is an entity much larger and much more
powerful than that of Howard Dean and his followers. The question in [...]

My Nation magazine colleague Jonathan Schell is an elegant
writer, a serious thinker and more than anything a decent and compassionate
man. Schell opposed the invasion of Iraq from the outset and has consistently
favored a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Now, in a new essay just posted, Jonathan opens his heart on
the subject of the Iraqi elections. [...]

My political profile of L.A. mayoral candidate Bob Hertberg is now posted at L.A. Weekly.