Express yourself

Crayola Digi-Color.

Report: ‘only a matter of time’ before whale kills a trainer

Although SeaWorld Adventure Park has done a good job of preparing its trainers to work with killer whales, it is “only a matter of time” before a whale kills one, state investigators have concluded after examining a November incident in which a trainer was dragged under water and nearly drowned.

“The trainers recognize this risk and train not for ‘if’ an attack will happen but ‘when,’ ” says a report by the state Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Los Angeles Times

Word of this gets around and Sea World will be a hotter ticket than NASCAR.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey Legal Defense Fund

Deborah J. (Jeane) Palfrey’s assets and entire life’s savings were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, on October 4, 2006, without notice. This was done via the civil asset forfeiture process and based upon the government’s allegations that Ms. Palfrey had operated a prostitution business, in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, from 1993 through August of 2006, when she ceased operation and retired.

Ms. Palfrey adamantly disputes the government’s claims of illegal behavior. The business, Pamela Martin and Associates, functioned as a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior and did so without incident during its 13 year tenure.

The unfairness of the civil asset forfeiture procedure as currently applied in the present day makes the intended target, as it has here with Ms. Palfrey, indigent and thus incapable of mounting a proper legal defense, either civilly or criminally. The strategy is to place an individual in a position whereby they are forced to accept whatever “deal” the government offers, as they are minus the necessary resources to fight back; a true David and Goliath scenario.
. . .

Additionally, consideration is being given to selling the entire 46 pounds of detailed and itemized phone records for the 13 year period, to raise the requisite defense funds. [emphasis added]

An example from a randomly selected 6 day period in August of 1996 is available for review now. [pdf file]

Deborah Jeane Palfrey Legal Defense Fund

See any phone numbers you recognize?

Imagine that

So there it is. Former US Attorney David Iglesias has now all but named Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) as the two members of Congress who pressured him to indict a New Mexico Democrat before the November election. He didn’t use their names. But he said they were “two members of the New Mexico delegation.” The other three have each categorically denied it was them. And Domenici and Wilson still refuse to give any answer to the press.

Talking Points Memo

Smile, and pay up

[Albuquerque] started fining people caught by traffic enforcement cameras in May 2005, but it never developed a program to collect money from people who didn’t pay. It doesn’t even know exactly how much money is owed, or how many people owe.

According to police records obtained by the Journal, three other vehicle owners whose cars have repeatedly been caught on camera owe more than $5,000 in fines and late fees.

As many as 30 others owe about $4,000.

City officials estimate hundreds of thousands of dollars are owed by drivers caught on camera.

Under the program, drivers are fined $100 the first time they are caught running a red light, $250 for the second violation, and $500 each for third and subsequent violations. Speeders are fined based on how fast over the speed limit the vehicle is traveling.

Late fees— assessed after 30 days— are twice the original fine.

The Albuquerque Journal

Infractions caught by the camera are civil actions, not traffic violations. They don’t count on your driving record. Until recently there was no appeal. The city’s approach to these cameras has been pretty much the same as a counterfeiter with a nice new printing press. It appears they’ve thought through none of the administrative or legal consequences and most of the process is contracted to out-of-state companies.

Ron Howard

… is 53 today. He’s been on TV and in the movies for 48 years and, of course, won an Oscar for best director for A Beautiful Mind. Howard has been married to Mrs. Howard since 1975.

Ron is the older brother of TV and film character actor Ron Howard’s brother.

March 1st is also the birthday

… of Roger Daltrey. “Who?” you say. “Of The Who,” I say. He’s 63.

… of Catherine Bach. “Who?” you say. “Daisy Duke of TV,” I say. She’s 53.

Well-known Americans of the 20th century born on this date include band-leader Glenn Miller (1904), author Ralph Ellison (1914), poet Robert Lowell (1917), Mad magazine publisher William M. Gaines (1922) and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle (1926).

Harry Belafonte

… is 80 today. Here is what Bob Dylan wrote about Belafonte in Chronicles:

Harry [Belafonte] was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it. He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves—chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. His repertoire was full of old folk songs like “Jerry the Mule,” “Tol’ My Captain,” “Darlin’ Cora,” “John Henry,” “Sinner’s Prayer” and also a lot of Caribbean folk songs all arranged in a way that appealed to a wide audience, much wider than The Kingston Trio. Harry had learned songs directly from Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Belafonte recorded for RCA and one of his records, Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean, had even sold a million copies. He was a movie star, too, but not like Elvis. Harry was an authentic tough guy, not unlike Brando or Rod Steiger. He was dramatic and intense on the screen, had a boyish smile and a hard-core hostility. In the movie Odds Against Tomorrow, you forget he’s an actor, you forget he’s Harry Belafonte. His presence and magnitude was so wide. Harry was like Valentino. As a performer, he broke all attendance records. He could play to a packed house at Carnegie Hall and then the next day he might appear at a garment center union rally. To Harry, it didn’t make any difference. People were people. He had ideals and made you feel you’re a part of the human race. There never was a performer who crossed so many lines as Harry. He appealed to everybody, whether they were steelworkers or symphony patrons or bobby-soxers, even children—everybody. He had that rare ability. Somewhere he had said that he didn’t like to go on television, because he didn’t think his music could be represented well on a small screen, and he was probably right. Everything about him was gigantic. The folk purists had a problem with him, but Harry—who could have kicked the shit out of all of them—couldn’t be bothered, said that all folksingers were interpreters, said it in a public way as if someone had summoned him to set the record straight. He even said he hated pop songs, thought they were junk. I could identify with Harry in all kinds of ways. Sometime in the past, he had been barred from the door of the world famous nightclub the Copacabana because of his color, and then later he’d be headlining the joint. You’ve got to wonder how that would make somebody feel emotionally. Astoundingly and as unbelievable as it might have seemed, I’d be making my professional recording debut with Harry, playing harmonica on one of his albums called Midnight Special. Strangely enough, this was the only one memorable recording date that would stand out in my mind for years to come. Even my own sessions would become lost in abstractions. With Belafonte I felt like I’d become anointed in some kind of way. … Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you. The man commands respect. You know he never took the easy path, though he could have.