Did anyone notice that George W. Bush made his big pitch on
social security privatization on a
day that the Dow-Jones average plummeted 128 points? After a solid month or two
of similar plunges?

Little wonder Dubya put the emphasis of his prime time
appearance on some mumbo-jumbo about tilting a reformed system toward
low-income workers. Didn't seem like the [...]

Every historical era in America has a city that bests
symbolizes its spirit. Boston was the veritable capital in the ferment of the
Revolutionary War. Chicago embodied Industrial America of 19th
century. New York stood as monument to the waves of immigrants that poured
through Ellis Island in the early 20th Century. For an historical
moment before and after World [...]

Barely three weeks to go in the L.A. Mayoral run off between incumbent Jimmy Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa and it is -- excuse the cliche-- a real yawner. Both guys are promising the moon when -- in fact-- thepost of  Mayor of Los Angeles is a weak one. The real clout is in the City [...]

Tim Porter, my friend and colleague at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and
Journalism, has fired off a roaring post
on the current decaying state of American journalism
He's let the flea-bitten cat come ripping right out of the
bag: the demoralization among American journalists is now just about universal.
Tim puts a fabulous twist on that conclusion, but [...]

While I'm gearing up to start posting again, thought I'd link to a few of the other things I've been dabbling with these past few days.
Like this. And this.

Been tied up all weekend with the L.A. Times Book Festival. And am teaching final class of semester Monday at USC. Back to regulur blogging  Tuesday.

I have been a good boy, for the most part, and have used
this blog to attack only public figures (in spite of my more base instincts).

So for one day only, I'm going to broaden the definition of
public to include a fellow blogger —Joseph Mailander at Martini Republic.

Attack is maybe the wrong word. [...]

Talk about leaking oil. UN Ambassador nominee John Bolton's
vital juices are spritzing all over the White House leading President Bush to some
pretty desperate moves.

Speaking to one of his key constituencies today — insurance industry executives"�Bush implicitly blamed   the Democrats for Bolton's confirmation
stall-out:

"John's distinguished career and service to our nation
demonstrates that he is the right [...]

Just Out: my latest L.A. Weekly column, on the Stalinist Pope.

Just yesterday Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed wondered out loud: "What is it with media
types and fish?"� 
He noted that yours truly "always sounds happiest"� when I'm blogging
about fishing. And then Roderick pointed to a special edition of Tuesday's
Outdoors section of the L.A. Times that focused on fishing and featured a first
person trout-stalking piece by [...]

Perhaps the worst thing about
Tuesday's selection of Cardinal Rottweiler — as he's affectionately called"�as
the New Pope isn't that he was once a member of the Hitlerjungen (he
was). Much more serious is that the
non-stop media gangbang on the Vatican hocus-pocus show blotted out yesterday's
real top new story: The surprise demise of Bush's nominee for UN Ambassador [...]

This just in from the Vatican Politburo which had been
meeting for two days behind closed doors. The red velvet curtains of the secret
lodge have opened onto St. Peter's plaza and the following communique has been
read to the assembled masses:

"Comrades! The forces of degenerate humanism, of decadent
individualism, of lascivious homosexuality, of opportunist feminism and of debased [...]

I now formally recant my recent denunciation of the uber-coverage of the Popes — the
Dead One and the Next One.

The entire, sordid spectacle is turning out to be almost as
amusing as The Sopranos (which I'm told won't be re-appearing next until 2006).
So move over Tony and Paulie and make room for those crazy guys [...]

For those interested in local (Los Angeles) politics, there's an important new entry into the blogosphere.  Matt Szabo has entered the fray. Matt's a veteran City Hall operative and most recently served as Communications Director for for mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg. Bookmark Matt's site, especially of you're interested in just how nasty the mayoral run-off [...]

Cool. Former Governor and past presidential candidate Jerry Brown is blogging live from this weekend's California Democratic Party Convention in L.A. ( Brown's also actively running for State Attroney General).
You can read his first dispatch here.  And his second note here.  Brown is his own force of nature and always makes great copy. He's [...]

It's payback time for Tom DeLay. As I had so sagely forecast
a few weeks ago during the Terry Schiavo feeding frenzy: DeLay's naked
exploitation of that issue was bound to backfire.

DeLay made himself a household name and drew a whole lot of
attention to himself at precisely the moment he should be hiding under a [...]

Last week I wrote  of
the death of a great American, former U.S. Ambassador to Chile, John O'Leary.   John was a wonderful man who used his
position to clarify long-standing cases of human rights abuse, even if the implicated former U.S. officials.
Now, In my just-posted L.A. Weekly column ,
I contrast O'Leary's career with that of John Negroponte, [...]

One of "our"� international terrorists has come back home.
Luis Posada Carriles has announced he has covertly entered the United States
and is now officially seeking political asylum from the Bush administration.

For those of you who do not closely follow Latin American
politics Posada Carriles is a long-time anti-Castro militant who has been
involved several acts of terror [...]

I had the misfortune Monday of spending a lot of time in the car listening to the Senate
confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the Bush administration's new
ambassador to the U.N.
Talk about distasteful experiences. Even the most cursory
glance at Bolton's record tells you he's about the worst nominee possible.
Indeed, his nomination is more in the category [...]

Sunday is for fishing that great expanse between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Back on Monday. Maybe.