South Quad Complex Opens at Long Beach City College

Well, I'm not seeing a report at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, although I expect they'll have a story there soon. My school's paper, the Viking, had an item in November, "South Quad to Open Over Winter Break." I was on campus yesterday, at the copy shop, to get my course syllabi ready for next week. After that I visited the South Quad building for the first time. I have a new office. My college division has been relocated across the street. This the view of the building from the pedestrian overpass above Carson Street, looking east:

Walking up to the second floor, look at the lovely center lawn area below. The college financed the building with a $176 million bond measure passed by the voters in 2002. The early word was that the facility was going to be ready by late 2006. I was not involved with the planning committees, but the college changed contractors after a year or two (I heard stories of wasteful spending). And over the last couple of years department faculty kept getting news that we we're "moving," only to hear of delays and pushbacks. It's been a long time coming:

Here's my office. Nameplates haven't been mounted yet. And I don't mind posting a picture of my office number. It's public information, and my partisan enemies know where I am, obviously; and I have no persecution complex:

I'm quite pleased as I walk in to see my desk and workspace. I'd been having some problems with my desktop PC last year, and I put in a request with academic computing for an overhaul. This was in November, so the chief technologist suggested he'd simply have a new system ready to go for me when we moved across the street. And there it is. Processor speed is really fast and the Internet connection is a snap. I was having problems with Flash Player error-warnings, which were causing pages to close. Hopefully that's not going to be too bad. I do a lot of blogging at work during office hours:

You can see more of my office below. I received an e-mail today about some bookshelves that've been delayed. There might be some kind of fitted bookstand or hutch to go over that cabinet/bookshelf here. At right is the end of my workstation, which has that overhead shelf as well. I have a lot of books and journals packed away in those boxes, in addition to a lot of old administrative files, official records and grades from previous semesters, and curriculum materials (exams, handouts, etc.). I hope everything fits:

Walking back out into the hall, looking right, here's a little open study area. I can envision students hanging out in here, looking for professors, and taking makeup exams. I'll have nice set of tables outside the office to meet with groups of students for brief study sessions:

Here's the view looking left out my office door:

I took a picture while seated at my desk, but the windows don't open from the inside (for security reasons), and thus I couldn't get a good shot. So, I walked back outside to snap a picture of my view across Carson Street. That's the college's main administration building straight ahead:

I'm getting ready to leave now, but first I want to check out the classrooms. I'm guessing the political science classes are downstairs, since I can't get into the second floor rooms. I'm standing in the back of the classroom here, facing the front whiteboard. Desks are picked up off the floor:

Here's the instructor's work station. I'm not pleased with the window-shades. It's about 4:00pm, and the late-afternoon sun is going to make it a little bright in there for some students. I won't normally be teaching at that time, but it's something to consider in terms of classroom design and teaching efficacy:

Walking back to the east parking lot, I snap a photo looking back up toward my office location. The grass area is like a ponding basin for drainage. It's really nice out here. I'm excited:

These two rabbits were a little skittish. We don't usually seen them on this side of Carson. They've set up a little "cave" under that cement overhang. We had a portable building out on this side of campus, and demolition was just finishing up. Not sure where the rabbits were living, in any case, although we have lots of them around:

I didn't take photos of myself, since this was the day after my BCS freelance blogging, and I was still plumb tuckered out. (I do like this photo of me, however.) I'm hungry, so I stopped for a snack at 7-11:

I'll take some pics of me in my crib later ...

Be a Part of Fistory!

I'm telling you, this just brightens my day -- and I've been having a good one already!

Those guys at the People's Cube are simply the best. One of those sharp cookies over there bought the domain name .com for the most-likely alternate version of Cindy Sheehan's new organizing website, "Peace of the Action," which is found only at the .org domain. As noted at the People's Cube:

A People's Cube member who discovered their omission immediately bought peaceoftheaction.com for us to play with. Why is it important? He who never automatically typed ".com" while looking for a ".org" site, hasn't really experienced all the wonders of the Internet. Typing ".com" is a shared human trait and it has been taken advantage of by many before us.

Long story short, our new peaceoftheaction.com looks much like peaceoftheaction.org, only it calls things by their real names. That includes describing the fist-shaking organizers as "fisters" - which, according to our recent discovery, is what they really are. That, of course, involved some recycling of our old material.

I've made compare-and-contrast screencaps for the full riot-effect:

FIST! - FIGHT IMPERIALISM!! STAND TOGETHER!!

RELATED: "TEABAGGERS vs. FISTERS: The Debate Is Over." Also, at Gateway Pundit, "Fistgate XIV: Jennings Personally Pushed Books That Encouraged Children to Meet Adults at Gay Bars For Sex."

Hat Tip: Nice Deb.

Charles Johnson Moved to a Gate-Guarded Community?

My good friend Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers suggests that we should just lay off blogging about Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Well, if the concern is that conservatives are giving King Charles too much time in the spotlight, that's nothing compared to the accolades coming in from the mainstream leftist media. Exhibit A this afternoon is James Rainey's excursion in sycophancy at the Los Angeles Times, "A Blogger's Parting With the Right."

JammieWearingFool picked up on the story. Particularly of interest there is Rainey's description of C.J. as "husky," which is of course a euphemism for "fat." Kind of like George Costanza:

Or in the words of Weasel Zippers, "This is what he really looks like, a fat, bloated, beady-eyed jerkoff ..."

But I noticed something that goes a little deeper to King Charles' narcissistic personality disorder. It turns out that the Lizard Freak relocated to a gate-guarded community from the implied death threats he mentions at the piece:

Johnson's posting on Nov. 30, “Why I Parted Ways with The Right,” created a maelstrom in some corners of the blogosphere and the Twitterverse. Onetime hyperlinking pals have called him a tyrant and a traitor. Earlier, one had questioned his sanity.

In Johnson's mind, he has not really changed but merely shifted his focus. Where once he was preoccupied with national security, staking out a hawkish, pro-military position, he now spends more time focusing on his liberal social views, and gripes with conservatives who disagree. "I like to think," he told me this week, "I am pretty independent of [the] political winds."

But not totally immune. As I talked to Johnson in his office, an alert flashed on one of his two giant computer monitors. An angry screed targeting him on another website concluded: "I think a visit to Mr. Johnson's home might be warranted. Anybody got his address?"

Such veiled threats are at least one reason why Johnson, 56, relocated not long ago. He remains in the Los Angeles area, but now is in a gated community.

The man who once decried vitriol spread on liberal websites now says: "The kinds of hate mail and the kinds of attacks I am getting from the right wing are way beyond anything I got when I was criticizing the left or even radical Islam."

These are fantasies of persecution, I'd guess. But it's par for the course for someone who's whole schtick is about remaining relevant some way, some how. And right now that means transmogrifying into a useful idiot for the leftist press.

Logs Show Jodie Evans Visited White House Days After Code Pink Hamas Trip

From Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King, "Obama Funder ‘Jodie Evans’ In White House Visitor Log days after Code Pink Hamas Trip":

The name of Obama funder and terrorist sympathizer Jodie Evans turns up twice in recently released White House visitor logs.

The logs show that a ‘Jodie Evans’ met with Buffy Wicks, the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE) on June 19, 2009. The meeting came just days after Evans’ group, Code Pink, visited the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza from May 28th to June 14th and was given a letter by Hamas to deliver to President Barack Obama.

On December 30th, the Obama administration released 25,000 records of visitors to the White House complex from the latter half of September. Mixed in those records were visits from other dates, including two by ‘Jodie Evans’ in June.

One visit is listed as a two-person meeting with Buffy Wicks in Room 146 in the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB). The meeting was scheduled at 19:02, June 16th for 10:30, June 19th by Ashley Baia, Staff Assistant with OPE. The meeting end time is recorded in the default setting of 23:59 for that day.

The record slots are blank for arrival, departure and cancellation notations, as are many of the records for visitors. There is no record of who was the second person in the meeting between ‘Jodie Evans’ and Buffy Wicks.

A week later, on June 24th, ‘Jodie Evans’ is listed as part of a group of 183 people given a “10 AM STAFF TOUR” that the log says met in the “RESIDENCE” in “WH.”

The log shows that visit by ‘Jodie Evans’ was scheduled five minutes after the tour began and was set by “VISITORS OFFICE.”

The June 24th appointment was apparently made by ‘Max Palevsky,’ a name shared by Jodie Evans’ ex-husband and current partner (it’s a California thing), on June 22nd at 17:53.

Like Jodie Evans, Max Palevsky was a bundler and donor for Obama’s presidential campaign. He was a co-host of Obama’s breakthrough Hollywood fundraiser in February 2007 along with Jodie Evans and the Dreamworks Trio.

When names of controversial associates of Obama and his administration have turned up in the visitor logs, the White House has denied that it was the controversial person and just a coincidence that similarly named people were on the list–including ‘Jeremiah Wright’, ‘Bill Ayers’ and ‘Malik Shabazz’.

In last week’s holiday data dump, the name ‘Bertha Lewis’ turned up. The White House went on the record to deny that it was ACORN chief Bertha Lewis who visited the Obama residence in the White House. ACORN’s Bertha Lewis also denied it was her on the list. In Big Journalism’s debut on Jan. 6 (Big Government’s sister publication), Andrew Breitbart reported about his confrontation with ACORN’s Bertha Lewis regarding her name on the White House Visitor Log. She again denied it was her.

The White House will have a harder time denying that it was Obama funder and terrorist sympathizer Jodie Evans who twice visited the White House in June.

More at the link.

And previously at American Power, "Jodie Evans is Barack Obama's Code Pink Liaison to Taliban Insurgents," and "Code Pink's Jodie Evans: No 'Rethink' on Afghanistan - 'U.S. Troop Withdrawal Now' ... ANSWER Coalition Decries 'Criminal Occupation'."

Homosexual Temper Tantrums

I'm doing something different this semester: In lieu of handing out my course syllabi on the first day of classes, I'm going to distribute a "letter" I wrote, which is a set of ruminations I titled, "Some Thoughts on What Happened Last Semester ..." I planned on sharing portions of that with readers later. I'm also going to write another one, since I didn't get all my thoughts out in the two pages I'm going to discuss on Monday and Tuesday.

In any case, I just found some additional thoughts on teaching from last year, at No Apologies! It's "Homosexual Temper Tantrums." There's a link there to this piece at Townhall, "The Crying Game":

Welcome back students! This is the sixth day of a new year and the first day of a new semester. I’m excited to have you all in my class. Well, actually, I’m excited to have all but one of you in my class. Please allow me to explain.

Each semester, I teach two sections of Introduction to Criminal Justice. Each section has 35 students. At the end of the semester, every student is given a chance to evaluate the course. I receive and read those evaluations several months after they are completed.

When the evaluations come in, the results are generally the same. Over thirty students rave about the course – many saying it is the best they’ve ever had. A few students offer mild criticism – some saying they wish I would use Power Point. And, every semester, one student claims to have been offended by something I said in one of our thirty class meetings.

Last spring, an offended student claimed I was disrespectful towards students, explaining further that I had engaged in “homophobic” speech in the classroom. I know precisely why the student made that remark as there was one and only one discussion of homosexuality over the course of the semester in that particular class.

Our brief discussion of homosexuality occurred on our “preserving free speech” day. Every semester, I do a little exercise in understanding and appreciating free speech, which involves having every student answer three questions pertaining to free expression. The answers are read and discussed in front of the class sometime around mid-semester.

The third of those questions asks the student to say something he always wanted to say in a college classroom but feared to say because of concerns over political correctness. One student chose to say that he was adamantly opposed to gay marriage. After I read the remarks, I allowed a supporter of gay marriage to rebut them. In other words, both sides had an opportunity to speak.

There was a brief back-and-forth between the gay marriage supporter and the professor (me). I talked about the 1879 Reynolds decision, which upheld a Utah ban on polygamy. We talked about the issue of whether adoption of gay marriage would lead to polygamy. He said he did not care. I said I did. We had a healthy and respectful exchange – so much so that it continued for a couple of days during my office hours.

But, regrettably, someone who did not have the courage to express his view on free speech day – where, clearly, both sides were allowed to speak in an atmosphere of mutual respect – chose to become offended. And, for the record, I believe that taking offense is a choice. There is no evidence of an un-gay gene that makes people perpetually unhappy.

Don't miss the rest, at the link.

Hat Tip: Kathy Shaidle on Twitter.

ZOO TODAY!

Found this viddy over at Theo's place, ZOO TODAY!:

And I'm behind on posting Theo's bedtime totties, for example, from Wednesday night.

Also blogging:

* Camp of the Saints.

* The Classical Liberal.

* Guns and Bikinis.

* Paco Enterprises ("Ice Boob").

* The Reaganite Republican.

Is Michael Steele Out at RNC?

In an interview yesterday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, telling his critics to STFU, argued that there are some folks "outside the party in Washington" who have "no idea what's going on in America."

The background is at the Los Angeles Times, "RNC Chairman Michael Steele Throws Cold Water on GOP Hopes":

It seemed like a banner week for Republicans. Two veteran Senate Democrats announced their retirements. Hopes grew for major GOP gains in November's congressional elections. And polls showed the president's popularity at a low ebb.

But for Michael Steele, the flamboyant chairman of the Republican National Committee, that was the perfect moment to throw cold water on his party.

Just as Sens. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota declared that they would not stand for reelection, Steele said in a TV interview that he didn't believe Republicans could win enough seats to take control of the House in 2010.

What's more, he said, he wasn't sure his party was ready to be in charge.

When other Republicans howled that Steele was undercutting their efforts, he had a response ready: "Get a life," he said Thursday in a radio interview with ABC News.

"If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up," he said. "Get with the program, or get out of the way."

More at the link. At the Washington Post as well, "Steele Comments Have GOP Aides Pleading, 'Get Him to Stop'." (Via Memeorandum.)

And at Congressional Quarterly:

According to multiple sources, Republican congressional aides bristled at Steele’s decision to use his book tour to question Republicans’ political chances. They pressed RNC staff to keep Steele quiet and cancel any more media appearances.

Although RNC Research Director Jeff Berkowitz originally defended the campaign committee and Steele, aides ultimately acknowledged that they have little control over the former Maryland lieutenant governor and that they are not in charge of lining up his media appearances while he is promoting his book.

“Their response was, ‘We’re not booking the book stuff,’ ” a second GOP Senate aide said. And while RNC staff said they would try to get Steele “back on message,” this Senate aide said the frustration goes well beyond Steele’s latest statement, charging that he is using his position at the RNC to line his own pockets rather than raise much-needed campaign cash.

“Republicans at all levels have been working day and night to build a wave, and every time we turn around the guy standing on the surfboard is busy trying to collect admission to watch him ride,” the aide said, arguing that “he has an agenda of his own that isn’t reflected by the goals of the party as a whole.”

Republicans said there’s a growing concern that Steele is catering to conservative activists and others who may not have the party’s best interests at heart. Steele mounted an unsuccessful bid for Senate in 2006, running as a moderate.

“He’s talking like he’s some kind of tea partier ... when [in 2006] he was THE most moderate candidate we had in the field. That was his whole thing, and he had no problem trashing [former President George W.] Bush and others for being too conservative,” one GOP aide said.

The fresh demands that the RNC find a way to control its chairman comes as top GOP donors have also started turning their backs on Steele’s operation in favor of other campaign committees. Christine Toretti, a Pennsylvania RNC member and longtime GOP donor, told the Washington Times this week, “I don’t plan to give to the Republican National Committee this cycle, and no other major donor I know is planning to either.”

Steele has also come under harsh criticism for accepting paid speaking engagements while he is working as the RNC’s chairman — a job that includes giving numerous speeches to set the national message for the party. “I mean, your job is to give speeches. That’s what you got elected to do,” one Republican said.

Now it turns out that Steele's cancelled an appearance today with ABC News' "Top Line" webcast. AOSHQ has the details, "Steele Cancels TV Appearance As He's Summoned to 'Emergency Meeting' at RNC HQ."

I'll update if there's any big breaking news. Meanwhile, here's en extremely related post, from An American Weasel, "You might be a RINO":

Here we go! It’s the run-up to the 2010 election — time for the foamy political ideologues and squishy middle-of-the-roaders in both parties to go after each other like hungover weasels in a rabbit hutch.

Fuck it. Civility is for afternoon tea with the Queen. Politics is a blood sport. Here goes:

If you’d rather be in power and actively steering the country in the wrong direction than out of power and pointing in the right direction you might be a RINO ....

If you think the Tea Partiers are a muddled, ignorant rabble likely to flare out of control or give the party a bad name you might be a RINO ....

RTWT at the link. Plus, Memeorandum.

Redondo Beach Pregame Bash!

I am plumb tuckered out!

I just woke up, and checking my Twitter, I see Chris Cassone's published the photo from our pregame get together in Redondo Beach on Wednesday night:

From left, me, Brittany Cohan, Robert Stacy McCain, Jenny Erikson, and Juliette Ochieng.

Meanwhile, Robert has filed a report this morning on press coverage of 'Bama's BCS championship, "Media Bias Taints Football Coverage."

Freelance Blogging the BCS Freeway-Flyer's Extravaganza!

Well, this is my first "freelance" post, which is occasioned by spending an entire day with one of the right's most successful freelance bloggers: Robert Stacy McCain. Actually, I'm not really a freelancer myself. But when you're hanging 24-hours with "The Hustler," you definitely pick up some clues on how to get it done! And man, if my blogging needed some spicing up (as I've suggested a bit), you're getting some double-barreled jalapeño with "The Other McCain"!

Okay, we're picking it up just as we hit the road. Our first order of business was to head over to the Crimson Tide's lodging at the Westin South Coast Plaza. Pulling up to level five of the parking structure, Robert continues to organize the day's itinerary. We meet up with conservative hottie Brittany Cohan, in the second shot below:

We took a cruise around the hotel lobby, scoping things out. Security was tighter than a cork, but we happened upon the Crimson Tide's training crew, and Robert peppered them with his down home charm. Lots of laughs, and pictures too. See, "The Right-Wing Blogosphere’s Official BCS Pre-Game Show." After picking up some refreshment's at the hotel's Starbucks, we circled back out front just as the team buses were rolling out to Pasadena:

A substantial California Highway Patrol contingent was preparing to escort the 'Bama Boys' to the Rose Bowl (both teams practiced on-site yesterday):

Arriving at the Rose Bowl, Stacy immediatel starts making the interview rounds:

I took some pictures of the location:

While hanging out, the Texas Longhorns' bus pulled up. After the fans clear out, I headed over to the souvenir stand:

Meanwhile, looking around for Robert, I see he's corralled a couple of 'Bama fans for a quick interview:

Robert's taking the video above. The result is below, where we see Alabama fan Stacey Mickles' predicting a 34-17 Crimson Tide victory in the NCG:

Next we learn that we'll have to travel back to the Newport Beach Marriott to secure Robert's press pass for the game. As we start heading back out to the car we see the video trucks lined up along the entry road:

Strangely, we bump into some U.S. Customs and Border Protection units. They don't want their picture taken, but we took 'em anyway, and Robert posted an entry over at the American Spectator, "Football: A Matter of National Security?"

I'm a local freeway-flyer, and in no time we're back in Newport Beach. The hotel is all decked out for the massive media presence in the Southland. The widescreen was just showing Texas Coach Mack Brown's press conference on the eve of the game:

Now Robert has a plan: Scoring a press pass is looking dicey, so he sets up shop in the corporate media workroom to file some blog reports:

That shot's a bit rushed, because I'm hungry! I head across the steet to the food court at the Newport Center Mall. (I was there a couple of weeks ago to take pictures of the nation's tallest Christmas tree.) I have a light lunch of chicken tacos, with a little avocado stuffed in there, which is unusual -- but tasty:

Heading back to the hotel to check things out, Robert takes my photograph:

Robert wants to keep working, so I cruised back over to Newport Center for some Starbucks. I return to the hotel at about 6:00pm to find out that he's been stiffed on the press pass. So, being an enterprising guy, he assembles the day's interviews into a story filed on deadline for the American Spectator. The piece ran this morning at 3:07 PST: "Roses in Crimson and Orange."

It's been a long day. By now Robert's probably into his third or fourth Corona. But I'm having coffee, as we're about to get back on the highway once more. We head to Redondo Beach to meet the awesome Juliette Akinyi Ochieng of Baldilocks. Also on hand is the lovely Jenny Erikson from Smart Girl Politics, at left:

We also met up with musician Chris Cassone and pal Brittany from earlier in the day. Also on hand is Big Government's Mike Flynn. (Pictures are here and here, a little blurry as Chris is probably pretty buzzed by now - Mike Flynn is seated at rear on the right bench).

Okay, as this post goes live Alabama has just beaten Texas 37-21 for the national championship! Check out Robert Stacy McCain's live-blogging from the Gordon Biersch brewhouse in Burbank.

ROLL TIDE!!

The Coming Prop 8 Show Trial

Some folks might remember Diana West's phenomenal post on gay marriage totalitarianism from November 2008, "The Stage Is Being Set." As Diana writes there, on the campaign of intimidation and harassment against El Coyote's co-owner Marjorie Christoffersen:

The mainstream media have so far failed to get across the intensity of the ordeal that supporters of Prop 8 may now be subject to--something I realized on coming across this extraordinary blog account of a meeting at the legendary restaurant El Coyote in Hollywood, not far from where I grew up in Laurel Canyon. The meeting was between the elderly Mormon owner, who donated $100 to support Prop 8, and Prop 8 opponents, who are threatening a boycott, and it is as soul- grinding as something out of Soviet show trial history.

It's worth reading the whole thing.

I remind readers of this to highlight how the radical left's campaign of intimidation has now moved all the way to the U.S. federal court system. Michelle Malkin has the details, "The Anti-Prop. 8 Mob Strikes Again":

Yesterday, liberal California Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued an unprecedented ruling that will put the trial involving a challenge to the Prop. 8 same-sex marriage ban on YouTube ....

I generally support more sunshine in all government proceedings. But the judge’s unusual method of securing video coverage is extremely troubling. This isn’t a sincere educational effort to provide transparency to the public. It’s a flagrant attempt at making Prop. 8 a show trial — and intimidating Prop. 8 backers who will be called to testify.

Ed Whelan at Bench Memos lays out Walker’s agenda thoroughly. Start here, then go here, and here. Writes Whelan: “Walker is rushing to override longstanding prohibitions on televised coverage of federal trials so that he can authorize televised coverage of the Proposition 8 trial. Televised coverage would generate much greater publicity for ringmaster Walker’s circus. And, whether Walker desires the effect or is somehow blind to it, televised coverage would surely also heighten the prospect that witnesses and attorneys supporting Proposition 8 would face harassment, intimidation, and abuse. In his eagerness to stack the deck against Proposition 8 and its defenders, Walker has resorted to procedural shenanigans and outright illegality.”

Former federal district judge Paul Cassell weighs in: “Without getting into the merits of Proposition 8 or the legal challenges to it, I agree with Whelan that it seems highly unusual for a judge to authorize televised proceedings for this particular case as part of some new “pilot” project to see how televised proceedings work. Surely if there were going to be a test run of a new idea, it should be in a more run-of-the-mill case rather than this particular highly controversial one. Moreover, it does appear that public comment process has been completely short-circuited.”

More at the link.

Kissing Terrorists?

Reuters has the story, "Goodbye Kiss Provoked Newark Airport Scare" (via Memeorandum):

The security scare that shut Newark airport for hours and delayed thousands of passengers was caused by a man who slipped into a secure area to give a woman one last goodbye kiss, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

But security expert Ann Althouse delves into the darker side of the heart, "Innocent Kiss? Or Kiss of Death?":

The fact that these two individuals kissed and walked hand-in-hand does not and should not wash away suspicion. If it did, terrorists would know how to stage a security breach ...

More at the link.

Maybe we should reassign some of those U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents working the BCS championship game. I mean what's more likely, french-kissing undie bombers or Latin American drug cartels infiltrating the Rose Bowl? Man, this gets crazier everyday!

Tiger Woods Gay Sex Scandal?

Here we go again ...

Loredana Jolie was one of the hotter numbers to come forward in the Tiger Woods scandal. Now it turns out now that the blonde beauty's publishing a steaming book alleging Woods' same-sex double duty. See, "Alleged Mistress Claims Tiger Woods Swings Both Ways":

The Tiger Woods scandal keeps getting messier. A new report details claims from one of Tiger’s alleged mistresses, who is in the process of writing a tell-all book revealing very personal information about the pro golfer. Loredana Jolie Ferriolo claimed she saw Tiger having sexual relationships with other men, Radar Online reports.

To date, no other Tiger mistress has claimed the golfer swings both ways.

Loredana’s first attempt to sell her story for a whopping $1 million failed, leaving her no other choice than to write down her triumphs and tribulations in a book (which probably won’t make any bestseller’s list).

According to Radar Online, Loredana graphically described group sex that included incidents of Tiger with other men.

The Sicilian stunner said she is planning to divulge all on how her relationship with Tiger “came about, his healthy appetite for arranged sex, threesomes, girls next door, girl-girl, and an answer to all the rumors surrounding Woods’ sexuality.”

Loredana is banking that her new insight into Tiger’s scandalous past will land her a seven-figure deal.

Also, at Fox News, "Woods Mistress Loredana Jolie Taking Up Golf, Writing Woods Tell-All."

And at TMZ, "Cops Release Audio from Tiger Woods Crash."

Plus, regular reader Rusty Walker sent me some information on Woods' forthcoming Vanity Fair cover story, "Shirtless Tiger Woods Photos May fuel Steroid Speculations."

More here: "Annie Leibovitz Comments on Tiger Woods Cover Photo."

Fire Peter Orszag!

During campaign 2008, Barack Obama made a major Father's Day speech, arguing that "too many fathers are MIA":

And as president, Obama released a major Father's Day statement this year, "Barack Obama's Official Fathers Day Proclamation":

As kids grow and mature, they look to their dad for a special kind of love and support. Providing these necessities can bring great happiness.

Fatherhood also brings great responsibilities. Fathers have an obligation to help rear the children they bring into the world. Children deserve this care, and families need each father's active participation.

Fathers must help teach right from wrong and instill in their kids the values that sustain them for a lifetime.

Given the president's strong commitment to healthy families and his statements on the importance of the fathers in child development, it's certainly incongruous -- and actually downright scandalous -- that Peter Orszag, the administration's Director of OMB, is in the news for abandoning the mother of his third child, to wed the hot ABC News correspondent Bianna Golodryga.

The New York Times has a report, with Orzag's statement on the matter:

We were in a committed relationship until the spring of 2009. In November, Claire gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Although we are no longer together, we are both thrilled that she is happy and healthy, and we would hope that everyone will respect her privacy.

That's awfully skimpy. Who's supporting that baby? Is his ex-lover, New York-based venture capitalist Claire Milonas, planning to marry, or raise the child alone? And most of all, it's reported that Orszag bailed on Milonas precisely as she became aware she was three-months pregnant. What kind of man is this, who bails out on a baby on the way? That's simply not a good record of "family values" at the top levels of the West Wing offices.

Of course, this kind of administration hypocrisy is par for the course. But if a Republican budget director had a "love child," the attack masters of the media-industrial complex would be mercilessly calling for heads to roll ...

ADDED: At the Other McCain, "Orzag’s Bastard."

The Lessons of Flight 253

While taking a freeway-flyer's (chauffeur) break yesterday (while with R.S. McCain), I read this week's cover story at Time Magazine, "What We Can Learn from Flight 253." Like anyone should be, I'm extremely wary of the MSM newsweeklies, but I was surprised by the evenhanded reporting by Michael Duffy and Mark Thompson at the piece. The article's worth a read, certainly. I'll just leave two quotes that particularly caught my interest.

This one's from the introduction, focusing on the reaction among passengers to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's terror attempt:

Passengers later said there was something curious about the spare young man who had tried to bring down their plane: he was silent throughout the attack. He didn't panic. He didn't yell any last-second religious slogans. He was calm and methodical as he set himself on fire. It was as though he had been trained.

Of course, he had been trained, and fortunately not even better than he was. The remainder of the piece lays out the "four lessons" of the bombing attempt -- all of which have been rehashed over and over since the day after Christmas. But I give credit to Duffy and Thompson for their review and analysis, and "lesson #3" is something I discussed here over a week ago:

3. Al-Qaeda is bigger than Osama bin Laden:

As Obama sends 30,000 more troops to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists, it is obvious that al-Qaeda has set up franchises to wage offensive war against the U.S. in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Yemen, which has vast tracts of lawless countryside, has been harboring — and nurturing — terrorists for years. It is the site of the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors, as well as the stomping ground of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric and cyber–pen pal of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood, Texas, shooter who killed 13 people in November. Abdulmutallab visited Yemen at least twice, most recently from August to December 2009, studying Arabic — and, apparently, bombmaking.

The Yemeni government, under pressure from neighboring Saudi Arabia and the U.S. — and facing internal threats — has recently stepped up operations against al-Qaeda within its borders. With American help, it carried out air strikes Dec. 17 and 24, killing more than 60 militants. But al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is a distinctly creative branch. In August a supposedly repentant member of AQAP drew close to Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister before detonating a bomb secreted in his anal cavity, according to Stratfor, a well-regarded private intelligence outfit based in Texas. Although the attacker died, his target was only slightly wounded. A Stratfor report issued five days later concluded, "The operation could have succeeded had it been better executed" — a judgment that sounds a great deal like the early verdict on Flight 253.

And it turns out that there's yet another day of breaking (and damaging) news on the Flight 253 attempt. From the Los Angeles Times, "U.S. Learned Intelligence on Airline Attack Suspect While He Was En Route" (via Memeorandum):

U.S. border security officials learned of the alleged extremist links of the suspect in the Christmas Day jetliner bombing attempt as he was airborne from Amsterdam to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed, officials disclosed Wednesday.

The new information shows that border enforcement officials discovered the suspected extremist ties involving the Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a database despite intelligence failures that have been criticized by President Obama.

"The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection," a senior law enforcement official said. "The decision had been made. The [database] had picked up the State Department concern about this guy -- that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen."

If the intelligence had been detected sooner, it could have resulted in the interrogation and search of Abdulmutallab at the airport in Amsterdam, according to senior law enforcement officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

"They could have made the decision on whether to stop him from getting on the plane," the senior law enforcement official said.

But an administration official said late Wednesday that the information would not have resulted in further scrutiny before the suspect departed. Abdulmutallab was in a database containing half a million names of people with suspected extremist links but who are not considered threats. Therefore, border security officials would have sought only to question him upon arrival in the U.S., the administration official said.

Nonetheless, the disclosure shows the complexity of the intelligence and passenger screening systems that are the subject of comprehensive reviews that the administration will release today.

Is it just me, or as more news comes out the "complexity" angle is increasingly offered up to take the heat off the administration?

At least at the Duffy and Thompson piece they hammer DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. But she hasn't been fired, so the "lessons" for the administration aren't quite sinking in enough yet, I guess?

More later ...

Shannon Bream on Fox News

I'm working on my course syllabi and watching Fox News. It's always a pleasure to see Shannon Bream's reporting, and she's been getting more time at the anchor desk on the weekends as well. Did readers know that she's a former Miss Virginia and Miss Florida, and a Miss USA beauty contestant? Here's the clip of Bream's participation in a 1995 swimsuit competition (at 3:45 minutes). Bream was at that time Miss Shannon DePuy. Her Twitter page is here.

Governor Schwarzenegger: State of the State Address, 2010

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his "State of the State" address last night in Sacramento:

The text is here. I didn't pay attention to California politics yesterday (as noted here). Although Theo Spark's cartoon probably says it all, in any case:

RELATED: From the Los Angeles Times, "Governor's Call for Giving Colleges Priority Over Prisons Faces Hard Political Tests."

At the center of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech Wednesday was a proposal that outside of Sacramento might seem like common sense: Mandate that the state invest more dollars each year in its public universities than in locking people up in prison.

But to many inside the Capitol, that idea appears all but unattainable.

The plan -- and the reaction to it -- highlights the disconnect between the priorities of voters and the reality of the state's shattered finances and a policymaking process that often seems byzantine ....

BCS Blogging

I'm a little worn out from hanging out all day yesterday with Robert Stacy McCain. I'll have a full report of the activities later -- which'll include some on the ground coverage from Pasadena -- but in the meantime check out The Other McCain, and also the Los Angeles Times, "BCS: Fate dictates Texas will win but the facts favor Alabama":

Signs and portents make the Longhorns the feel-good favorite at the Rose Bowl on Thursday. Or not. Take off that tinfoil hat with the horns, the mean and hungry Tide will carry the day.

Texas will win the national championship because, in La-La land, people like scripts that come full circle, having their fortunes told and Jupiter aligned with Mars.

There are too many coincidences to think it can go any other way -- at least that's what the palm reader said.

Four years ago, at the Rose Bowl, Texas defeated USC to win the national title.

Before trotting onto the field to lead Texas on the game-winning drive, quarterback Vince Young turned to a skinny redshirt freshman holding a clipboard and told him to pay attention because he was going to be in this position someday.

"Watch what I do," Young told Colt McCoy.

And then Young went out and won the game.

Having paid close attention, McCoy has led Texas back to the national title game at the Rose Bowl.

"I tried to soak that all in," McCoy said this week.

One thing McCoy learned: "Your team has to trust you. The team has to want the ball in your hands."

*****

Alabama (13-0) will win the national championship because it's the better team and anyone who thinks fate is involved probably believes in flying saucers and sorcery.

Football games aren't won with inspiring pregame speeches or because "wouldn't it be neat if Colt McCoy won four years after Vince Young?"

Football games are won when gigantic men and serious coaches implement meticulous plans.

Alabama Coach Nick Saban is king of "you've got to go through your checklist" ....

*****

Texas or Alabama, so which is it going to be?

The odds favor Alabama and a kicker being named MVP. The big fear is the two offenses won't combine for 100 . . . yards.

What's it going to sound like when Alabama's Heisman winner, Mark Ingram, hits a Texas chain saw defense that allows a nation-low 62 rushing yards per game?

When you crunch all the jersey numbers, what gives?

Well, Trojans fans just about died back in 2006 when Vince Young scored that touchdown. I can personally say that that was perhaps the most exciting football game I've ever watched. No doubt the excitement today will be equally compelling for Crimson Tide and Longhorns fans, although I fear the heartbreak on the losing side will be devastating for some.

More later ...

On the Road With Robert Stacy McCain!

Okay, I'm hitting the road with Robert Stacy McCain (seen here in my kitchen this morning blogging like a mofo!). We're first heading over to the Westin South Coast Plaza to meet Brittany Cohan. After that we'll head over to the Crimson Tide practice session at Orange Coast College. Then at some point we're expected to hook up with Juliette of baldilocks and Joy of Little Miss Attila.

Check the Other McCain throughout the day for updates. I'll be back online tonight sometime.

See also, Reaganite Republican, "R.S. McCain Invades La-La Land."

Photoshop Credit: No Sheeples Here!, "Stacy McCain’s Rose Bowl Decadence and Debauchery."

I'm a 'Pro-Fascist Tea-Bagger'!

You can't make this stuff up ...

Ryan Mauro, who recently criticized CPAC in no uncertain terms for its John Birch Society sponsorship, is not taking kindly to Charles Johnson's "racist" smear allegations, from the Bloggingheads episode below. See Mauro's piece, "Darnit! Charles Johnson Catches Me Being a Racist! Whatever Shall I Do?"

And that reminds me: I'm hanging out all day with Robert Stacy McCain, who Charles Johnson also attacks as "racist" at the video. In his response to Andrew Sullivan last night (where the Daily Dish smear-merchant cites Johnson on Bloggingheads), Robert noted that he was blogging at the home of the "notorious pro-fascist teabagger Donald Douglas." Geez, I'm hearing echoes of Larisa Alexandrovna!

Don't know how much blogging I'll have up today, but at some point I'll report on Robert Stacy McCain's "Fear and Loathing' in Southern California!

What Next for Women? Let Markets Do the Work

This Economist piece will give the radical feminists fits of apoplexy, "We did it! The rich world’s quiet revolution: women are gradually taking over the workplace":

AT A time when the world is short of causes for celebration, here is a candidate: within the next few months women will cross the 50% threshold and become the majority of the American workforce. Women already make up the majority of university graduates in the OECD countries and the majority of professional workers in several rich countries, including the United States. Women run many of the world’s great companies, from PepsiCo in America to Areva in France.

Women’s economic empowerment is arguably the biggest social change of our times. Just a generation ago, women were largely confined to repetitive, menial jobs. They were routinely subjected to casual sexism and were expected to abandon their careers when they married and had children. Today they are running some of the organisations that once treated them as second-class citizens. Millions of women have been given more control over their own lives. And millions of brains have been put to more productive use. Societies that try to resist this trend—most notably the Arab countries, but also Japan and some southern European countries—will pay a heavy price in the form of wasted talent and frustrated citizens.

This revolution has been achieved with only a modicum of friction (see article). Men have, by and large, welcomed women’s invasion of the workplace. Yet even the most positive changes can be incomplete or unsatisfactory. This particular advance comes with two stings. The first is that women are still under-represented at the top of companies. Only 2% of the bosses of America’s largest companies and 5% of their peers in Britain are women. They are also paid significantly less than men on average. The second is that juggling work and child-rearing is difficult. Middle-class couples routinely complain that they have too little time for their children. But the biggest losers are poor children—particularly in places like America and Britain that have combined high levels of female participation in the labour force with a reluctance to spend public money on child care.

And what's next for women in dealing with these issues? It ain't affirmative action or the socialist child care state.

There's more at the link, plus see the Economist's special report, "Womenomics: Feminist management theorists are flirting with some dangerous arguments."

I'd like to see Darleen Click have a go at this. She's usually all over the radical feminists at Protein Wisdom.

'Tik Tok' on the Clock ... But the Party Don't Stop...

From Ann Powers' review of Ke$ha's new album, at the Los Angeles Times, "Ke$ha is a Wisecracking 'Animal'":

Ke$ha comes on like a well-worn worst nightmare, her manicure chewed and her morals thoroughly compromised. The 22-year-old music industry brat -- her mom's a songwriter who raised her family in studios and dives from Los Angeles to Nashville -- has irritated some critics by reinvigorating the Girls Gone Wild sexual recklessness of a few years back, but really her act reaches much further.

She's a classic screwball blond, brassy like Jean Harlow and saucy like Mae West. Hating Ke$ha for kicking pretty boys to the curb and vomiting in the closet of some rich kid whose party she crashed (allegedly, Paris Hilton) is like saying West was too forward when she told Cary Grant to come up and see her sometime.

What makes Ke$ha interesting, though, isn't the substance of her act. It's the way she and her producers -- primarily her mentor, hitmaker Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald -- refashion the screwball heroine role to suit a new era of aggressive superficiality and libertine self-empowerment.

The main lyrical idea behind "Animal" -- that a woman behaving like a sexist, inconsiderate male oaf turns the tables in a way that shocks but ultimately leads to freedom -- is neither new nor particularly useful. But unlike many of the pop ingénues who've tried on this attitude, Ke$ha offers a thoroughly fleshed-out character to embrace or despise.

Her total commitment to the deliberately stupid script "Animal" provides (one that she and her mother, who co-wrote several songs, helped devise) makes it work.

Part juvenile delinquent, part wisecracking dame, Ke$ha pulls the rug out from under the overly proper. She finds power in the modernizing toys of her time, enticing boys with drunken text messages and juicing her libido with the hottest dance-floor beats. If some of her vices, like Jack Daniel's and guys who look like Mick Jagger, both of which she mentions in her hit single "TiK ToK," are cutely antiquated, she herself is as thoroughly of this moment as is her doppelgänger, Taylor Swift.

Not being hip, I checked with my 14 year-old, and his eyes lit up instantly when asked about Ke$ha. "She's on my iPod," he said.

Well, she's 22, so perhaps she'll be good for some babe-blogging down the road as well. Here's the commercial video of "Tik Tok":

Michael Yon: 'No Country Has Ever Treated Me So Badly'

Michael Yon was handcuffed at Seattle-Tacoma airport today for refusing to report in his annual income to border control officers. From Yon's Twitter:

When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.

It's TSA folks who requested the income verification. But it was the Canadian Border Patrol who handcuffed him. Of course, just yesterday Yon hammered the Obama administration's DHS, "Border Bullies," so there's no doubt about Yon's "no country" comment. (And TSA's stopping Yon for income verification but giving the pass to British-radicalized Nigerian terrorists - now that's a problem.)

There's an interview at Big Government, "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport." (Via Memeorandum.)

But see Andrew Breitbart's interview with Hannity earlier tonight, "From Gateway Pundit." Especially good is Breitbart's discussion of Michael Yon:

Yemen Hurtling Toward Disaster

From Richard Fontaine and Andrew Exum:

The Nigerian Islamist who allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has brought Yemen once again into the spotlight as a breeding ground for terrorists. Abdulmutallab is thought to have trained with Yemen's Al Qaeda affiliate, and the group has claimed credit for the failed attack.

Yemen has long been a place of concern. Last month, before the attempted airliner bombing, the United States facilitated a missile attack against two suspected Al Qaeda strongholds in Yemen. And over the weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital city of Sana was closed because of security concerns.

But terrorism is just one of the threats the deteriorating situation in Yemen poses to U.S. interests.

Over the last few years, Yemen has been hurtling toward a disaster that could dramatically harm the interests of both the United States and its regional partners. An active insurgency in the north, a separatist movement in the south and a resurgent Al Qaeda franchise inside its borders present the Yemeni government with difficult short-term challenges. And managing the country's longer-term problems is likely to prove even tougher.

Yemen's economy depends heavily on oil production, and its government receives the vast majority of its revenue from oil taxes. Yet analysts predict that the country's petroleum output, which has declined over the last seven years, will fall to zero by 2017. The government has done little to plan for its post-oil future. Yemen's population, already the poorest on the Arabian peninsula and with an unemployment rate of 35%, is expected to double by 2035. An incredible 45% of Yemen's population is under the age of 15. These trends will exacerbate large and growing environmental problems, including the exhaustion of Yemen's groundwater resources. Given that a full 90% of the country's water is used for agriculture, this trend portends disaster.

This confluence of political, ideological, economic and environmental forces will render Yemen a fertile ground for the training and recruitment of Islamist militant groups for the foreseeable future. More than 100 Yemenis have been incarcerated in Guantanamo since 2002. And today, Internet message boards linked to Al Qaeda encourage fighters from across the Islamic world to flock to Yemen. The country is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has carried out attacks in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

RELATED: From Jules Crittenden, "Terror’s War On Us."

Northrop Grumman Relocating to Washington, D.C.

From the Los Angeles Times, "Northrop Grumman Moving Headquarters From L.A. to Washington, D.C., Area":

In a blow to Southern California, Northrop Grumman Corp. said it would relocate its headquarters from Los Angeles -- leaving the region that gave birth to the aerospace industry without a single major military contractor based here.

The company said it would move its corporate staff to the Washington, D.C., area by summer 2011 to be closer to its key customer, the U.S. government.

Northrop's announcement was seen as a bitter pill for the much-battered regional economy, which has suffered a series of high-profile corporate defections in recent years.

"This is very bad news, a crummy way to get 2010 started," said economist Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "It's a prestige type of thing. Whenever a metro area loses a corporate headquarters, it smarts. We can't forget."

Northrop joins a parade of other companies that have left in recent years, including Hilton Hotels Corp. of Beverly Hills, Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Orange County's Fluor Corp. and Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego.

The move came on the first working day for West Virginia native Wesley G. Bush, who succeeded longtime Chief Executive Ronald D. Sugar, who grew up in South Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA.

"This is an important move for the company, and it's one that we believe will improve the effectiveness in serving the nation and our customers," Bush said in his first public statement as the company's chief executive. "The proximity to Washington enables us to be a more integrated part of the federal process."

By relocating, Northrop brings its top executives closer to the nation's decision makers on Capitol Hill, as well as U.S. military and intelligence customers, Bush said. The Pentagon is its largest customer. The company develops and makes a variety of products, including unmanned aircraft, satellites and nuclear submarines.

All told, Northrop is moving about 300 people from its corporate office in Century City.

Although the company is shifting some of its administrative staff, California will remain a significant location for Northrop operations, especially in research, development and manufacturing, Bush said. He noted that a quarter of Northrop's worldwide workforce -- about 30,000 employees -- is in California, the vast majority in the Southland.

"We have been here, and will continue to be here, for a long time," Bush said, noting that the company assembles a major component for the F/A-18 fighter jet in El Segundo, makes satellites in Redondo Beach, and develops robotic planes in Rancho Bernardo and Palmdale.

Still, Northrop will now lose its distinction as the last major aerospace firm based in Southern California -- once home to many of the nation's largest military contractors, including Lockheed Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Rockwell International.

"We were the capital of the aerospace industry prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union," Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi said. "We had major firms in Southern California, with operations across different counties. But slowly, we are no longer an important player in that segment."

Stories like this area always of great interest to me. When my parents moved back to California in the 1960s (from Europe, where my dad was a civilian service officer in the U.S. Army), we relocated to Torrance, in the South Bay area of L.A. County. Oil refineries, aerospace, and manufacturing were the big industries, along with Hollywood and the television industry. I remember in the early 1990s the defense downsizing, along with the housing bust of those years, sent the local economy into a massive tailspin. And nowadays, as a professor at Long Beach City College, my school's literally sitting adjacent to the Boeing manufacturing plant where the Boeing 717 commerical jetliner was built until 2006. (Also, "Boeing Moves to Close Plant.") On the military procurement side, Congress just authorized ten new Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport planes, which are built on the other side of the Long Beach Airport. There's a story here, "Boeing C-17, Long Beach Jobs Get Final OK."