The non-profit theater that I been a long time volunteer at, The Cinefamily (in Los Angeles), will be showing this film again on 17th of March. The theater held the L.A. premier this past weekend. Details here for the next show: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-march-2012/#the-fp-317-castcrew-in-person.

I am just an ant.

Because he is the emperor of Japan in Red Alert 3.

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
In reply to this comment by ant:
*asia


Curious: why'd you stick this in Asia? Takei may be of Japanese decent, but he's no more an "Asian" than I'm a "German". The man was born and raised in Los Angeles. Hell, I don't think he even speaks Japanese. My thought is that until we get a *white channel (hopefully never, despite QM's efforts) the Asia channel ought to be reserved for, you know... Asian things.

Your thoughts? Don't just give me your usual "I am just an Ant" speil. :

In reply to this comment by ant:
*asia


Curious: why'd you stick this in Asia? Takei may be of Japanese descent, but he's no more an "Asian" than I'm a "German". The man was born and raised in Los Angeles. Hell, I don't think he even speaks Japanese. My thought is that until we get a *white channel (hopefully never, despite QM's efforts) the Asia channel ought to be reserved for, you know... Asian things.

Your thoughts? Don't just give me your usual "I am just an Ant" speil.

>> ^bobknight33:

Corporations are not Governments. They know how to spend money. Government does not know how to do anything but waste money. Your head is still up you ass.


Did you know Los Angeles used to have one of the best public transit systems in North America?

Do you know why they don't have a good public transit system anymore?

I'll tell you. The city decided to privatize. They sold the transit system to GM, who promptly shut down the subways and screwed up the buses so people would have to DRIVE to work, hopefully in GM cars.

Millions of taxpayer dollars flushed for corporate greed. They're not wasteful? HA!

>> ^longde:

Soul Train's Legacy
I’m seeing a lot of people talk and write about Don Cornelius passing but do not seem to comprehend the legacy Don Cornelius established while he was here with us. Don Cornelius was a pioneer who built a Black empowerment framework that was also an economic engine and knew exactly what he was doing and succeeded. As a fellow Chicago native who knows my people, know and respect those who came before me and appreciate the path they shaped for me and you to move forward, we are going to discuss Don Cornelius legacy and contribution.
Don Cornelius is from Chicago and was definitely someone who grew up with love for his people. You can check his history where he was straight hustling to get his in the Chi before joining WVON radio in the 60s. WVON means Voice of the Negro in case you didn’t know broadcasted to the Black community back then. Martin Luther King Jr. would appear regularly on WVON and most likely Don Cornelius was inspired by his presence as well as the fact he broadcasted for his people. He also carried this on television at WCIU where Soul Train got it start:

However, the late sixties was a beautiful time for brothas and sistas as we became united. More people were moving from the South up North to Chicago and cats were establishing themselves and their identity as Black. Don Cornelius was throwing parties all around Chicago as a party promoter and this is where he wanted to promote a television show and used his media industry connects to host Soul Train in Chicago.
Now Soul Train blew up and Don Cornelius moved the show out to Los Angeles for a bigger audience. Now here is where we have to take a break because this is the moment of truth. When some of us brothas or sistas make it big, what do we do? Most of us start acting like we don’t know our Black people anymore and start trying to go “mainstream” hoping to reach a bigger audience. But Don Cornelius not only kept his show Black-orientated, he pioneered Black media as we know it today and built a Black economic framework upon his success.
Soul Train was not some dance show, it was a framework that Don Cornelius used to promote his people and promote peace, love and soul in the core essence. Let’s look at each element of the Soul Train show:.................


Lest we forget another pioneer's passing this month, Johnny Otis passed, with him a lifetime-legacy of promoting the struggle of black entertainers. Producer, musician, talent scout, DJ, pastor...Son of Greek immigrants, he identified with the black culture during the civil rights era, and got black-listed on many fronts for his outspoken support of the struggle. little Esther, Big Mama Thornton, Jay McNeely, he discovered and promoted some of the best talent during the heyday of rhythm and blues.

Soul Train's Legacy

I’m seeing a lot of people talk and write about Don Cornelius passing but do not seem to comprehend the legacy Don Cornelius established while he was here with us. Don Cornelius was a pioneer who built a Black empowerment framework that was also an economic engine and knew exactly what he was doing and succeeded. As a fellow Chicago native who knows my people, know and respect those who came before me and appreciate the path they shaped for me and you to move forward, we are going to discuss Don Cornelius legacy and contribution.

Don Cornelius is from Chicago and was definitely someone who grew up with love for his people. You can check his history where he was straight hustling to get his in the Chi before joining WVON radio in the 60s. WVON means Voice of the Negro in case you didn’t know broadcasted to the Black community back then. Martin Luther King Jr. would appear regularly on WVON and most likely Don Cornelius was inspired by his presence as well as the fact he broadcasted for his people. He also carried this on television at WCIU where Soul Train got it start:



However, the late sixties was a beautiful time for brothas and sistas as we became united. More people were moving from the South up North to Chicago and cats were establishing themselves and their identity as Black. Don Cornelius was throwing parties all around Chicago as a party promoter and this is where he wanted to promote a television show and used his media industry connects to host Soul Train in Chicago.

Now Soul Train blew up and Don Cornelius moved the show out to Los Angeles for a bigger audience. Now here is where we have to take a break because this is the moment of truth. When some of us brothas or sistas make it big, what do we do? Most of us start acting like we don’t know our Black people anymore and start trying to go “mainstream” hoping to reach a bigger audience. But Don Cornelius not only kept his show Black-orientated, he pioneered Black media as we know it today and built a Black economic framework upon his success.

Soul Train was not some dance show, it was a framework that Don Cornelius used to promote his people and promote peace, love and soul in the core essence. Let’s look at each element of the Soul Train show:.................

>> ^Xaielao:

City tap water tastes like hell, and most bottled water (which more often than not IS tap water) contains salt to make you thirsty so you'll drink more. Don't believe me? Check that fancily named Dasani bottled water's ingredients. Makes me so glad I have a number of local springs that produce very high quality water that I get delivered monthly.


Uh, no. I actually have a mineral tester (Christmas present) for water. Bottled water is better than tap in terms of dissolved solids, and unless you think that bottled water companies are lying about the trace mineral contents in their water, the amounts are too small to matter. There's far more salt in Coke, or worse, V8 (http://www.livestrong.com/article/273911-sodium-levels-in-soft-drinks/).

The person making the video thinks that in "functioning democracies" the tap water is always safe to drink. Well yes, it is. On average. Unless you happen to live in a house that gets mud in the water supply, like a friend of mine, or my in-laws' house (guess who gave me the tester?) in Los Angeles where the tap water is light yellow, and fizzes. I only drink filtered or bottled water there.

AH-HAAAAA....I KNEW there was a reason we never saw you and @siftbot in the same place at once!!!

>> ^ant:

>> ^critical_d:
Los Angeles
>> ^dag:
You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.
This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.


Yep, in my room.

Los Angeles

>> ^dag:

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.
This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.

The problem for Paul is that he has such a large volume of racist literature (50+ scans at this site: http://www.mrdestructo.com/2011/12/game-over-scans-of-over-50-ron-paul.html) that his excuse of 'being caught up in the moment' strains credulity. The fact of the matter is that Ron Paul wasn't there, he was off in Texas doing Texas-y things far from south central Los Angeles.

I, on the other hand, was there in middle of south central during the riots, and what I saw did in no way resemble Ron Paul's racist fantasy. I've got the pictures to prove it. I remember the streets being empty, with most people of all races choosing to stay safe in doors. There were no Maoists or Trotskyites, although I do remember seeing some white college students participating in the looting of an AM/PM, stealing beer.

It's OK to like Ron Paul, but when you become unwilling to even entertain the possibility that he could ever be wrong, you've entered the realm of the hero worship. If you look below the surface, Ron Paul is a terrible candidate. His economic policy is a more extreme version of the same free market bullshit that has bankrupted this country and sent our jobs off to 3rd world slaves. He has some admirable foreign policy views and he's not afraid to make them (good for him) but that doesn't make up for the rest of his laughably foolish Austrian economic platform.

If you can read this article and think these are the words of a thoughtful and rational man, then you need to read it again.

No more excuses. No more hype. Ron Paul is not your Lord and savior. He's just another millionaire Republican politician who wants to give himself a tax cut.

Pull yourself together, man.

This is the original swiftboating... ronpauling...

We begin with two simple questions:

Why would he put out publications under his name without the slightest idea what was in them?
And if he didn't write the stuff, why hasn't he identified the author and revealed his name?



Based on comparing the writings and positions of Dr. Paul and several other people involved, it would appear the people responsible would be:

Murray Rothbard,
http://murrayrothbard.com/category/rothbard-rockwell-report/


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My google quest began with this article and the comments in it, i have compiled my results:
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2011/12/22/about-those-racist-ron-paul-newsletters-that-he-didnt-read-and-completely-disavowed

------------------------------------------------ RESEARCH

HERE'S RON PAULS RESPONSE:

"The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts. When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publically taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name."

-------------------------------

OK, fair enough. Now for a 1995 interview, go to 1:54, here is transcription with his interview proving that he knew newsletters existed, not all the content. In fact, he seems more concerned with finance:

“Along with that I also put out a political, uh, type of business investment newsletter, sort of covered all these areas. And it covered, uh, a lot about what was going on in Washington and financial events, especially some of the monetary events since I had been especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking committee, and still very interested in, in that subject.. that, uh, this newsletter dealt with that… has to do with the value of the dollar [snip] and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue to do.”

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW755u5460A

A constant theme in Paul’s rhetoric, dating back to his first years as a congressman in the late 1970s, is that the United States is on the edge of a precipice. The centerpiece of this argument is that the abandonment of the gold standard has put the United States on the path to financial collapse.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/98811/ron-paul-libertarian-bigotry

------------------------------------------------------

So what about that, he did have a newsletter? Did it talk about more than money, and did he author those writings? Well it gets more interesting..

this is from a comment here:
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/12/22/the-ron-paul-newsletter-and-his-jeremiah-wright-moment/#comment-152657

"Wish I had saved the links. This Dondero guy was supposedly part of a group of people that wrote the content of the newsletters (maybe seven different people), and that Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard were the main brains behind the content. Ron Paul wrote some of the content too (probably about sound money, lol). They have also hinted (maybe Rockwell did), that the writer of some of the extreme articles was now dead. It seems that multiple people from that time have died, but the most relevant is Murray Rothbard. He’s like a messiah to this sub-culture, and Rockwell would probably never spill the beans on Rothbard. The tone of the racially offensive parts does seem like it would be written by Rothbard. If you are unlucky enough to attempt to listen through one of his lectures on YouTube, you will notice his attempts at sarcastic humor, if you don’t fall asleep first.

Dondero: “Neither Rockwell or Rothbard are/were “libertarians.” In his later yers Rothbard called himself a “Paleo” aligning with the conservative southern successionists. Rockwell, today calls himself an Anarchist, and has distanced himself greatly from any part of the libertarian movement.”

http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2011/02/1970s80s-libertarian-party-stalwart.html

“The newsletters’ obsession with blacks and gays was of a piece with a conscious political strategy adopted at that same time by Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard. After breaking with the Libertarian Party following the 1988 presidential election, Rockwell and Rothbard formed a schismatic “paleolibertarian” movement, which rejected what they saw as the social libertinism and leftist tendencies of mainstream libertarians. In 1990, they launched the Rothbard-Rockwell Report, where they crafted a plan they hoped would midwife a broad new “paleo” coalition.”

http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter"

---------------------------

Ok now we're getting somewhere.. so what about Dondero, Rockwell, and Rothbard?

Reason: Your former staffer Eric Dondero is challenging you for your House seat in 2008.
Paul: He's a disgruntled former employee who was fired.
http://reason.com/blog/2007/05/22/ron-paul-on-9-11-and-eric-dond

-----------------------------------
What about these mid 1990's interviews like this one from the Dallas Morning News:

In 1996, Paul told The Dallas Morning News that his comment about black men in Washington came while writing about a 1992 study by the National Center on Incarceration and Alternatives, a criminal justice think tank in Virginia. The comment about black males being fleet of foot came from a 1992 newsletter, disavowed by Paul.

Paul cited the study and wrote (NOT SAID): “Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”

“These aren’t my figures,” Paul told the Morning News. “That is the assumption you can gather from the report.”

Dr. Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns. He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid misrepresentation. [...]

"If someone challenges your character and takes the interpretation of the NAACP as proof of a man's character, what kind of a world do you live in?" Dr. Paul asked.

In the interview, he did not deny he made the statement about the swiftness of black men.

"If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them," Dr. Paul said.

He also said the comment about black men in the nation's capital was made while writing about a 1992 study produced by the National Center on Incarceration and Alternatives, a criminal justice think tank based in Virginia

Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said the congressman was practicing medicine at the time the newsletters were published and “did not write or approve the incendiary passages and does not agree with them.”

“He has, however, taken moral responsibility because they appeared under his name and slipped through under his watch,” Benton said. “They do not reflect what he believes in: liberty and dignity for all mankind. … Dr. Paul, renowned as a straight shooter who speaks his mind, has given literally thousands of speeches over the past 35 years, and he has never spoken such things.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul, an obstetrician from Surfside, Tex., denied he is a racist and charged Austin lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, his Democratic opponent, with taking his 1992 writings out of context
http://reason.com/blog/2008/01/11/old-news-rehashed-for-over-a-d

"Instead of talking about the issues, our opponent has chosen to lie and try to deceive the people of the 14th District," said Paul spokesman Michael Sullivan, who added that the excerpts were written during the Los Angeles riots when "Jesse Jackson was making the same comments."

-----------------

And all the confusion because he wanted to take responsibility. .. and the real issue? Not with what he may have said, or how consistent he has been denying this lie, but merely:

"Would he even check in to see if his ideas are being implemented? Who would he appoint to Cabinet positions?"

it comes down to an EITHER/OR false choice:

Either Paul is so oblivious to what was being done in his name that this obliviousness alone disqualifies him for a job like the presidency
— or -
he knew very well that horrific arguments were being published his name and he lent his name to a cynical racist strategy anyway.

Is there not any other choice?

There is your answer. The GOP is trying to sow any and all doubt at any and all cost. The content of the newsletters is just convenient; they would have done this anyway.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/12/the-story-behind-ron-pauls-racist-newsletters/250338/
-------------------------------------

So Why Smear Ron Paul? Here is why... and the answer may NOT surprise you:

http://www.infowars.com/cnn-poll-ron-paul-most-popular-republican-amongst-non-whites/

yet we're supposed to believe this man, a physician and politician, has actually uttered words like, ""Am I the only one sick of hearing about the 'rights' of AIDS carriers?"

Please. It is VERY unlikely.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/165290/why-do-gop-bosses-fear-ron-paul

Thank you for your time.

I attended the debate between Hedges and Harris at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles with great anticipation, as it is I am a big fan of both men. After it concluded I walked away thinking what a shame it was these two don't get along. They are both well left of center and agree on quite a lot.

Also, some of his numbers are way off. According to the US Census (see #29), 79% of the population was urban in 2000, not ~20% as he claims.

For a breakdown of metro areas by population, look at #21 at the US Census link, "Metropolitan Statistical Areas--Population by Age". There were 131 million votes cast for president in 2008. If you want to arbitrarily define urban as 1 million people or more, there are 126.4 million voting-age people living in metropolitan areas.

Sliced a different way, according to the US Census, a presidential candidate can get to 50% of that if they take the voting age populations of just the top 12 metropolitan areas:

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI

I don't know where he gets his numbers--maybe by using strict city limits?--but they're not even close to reality. According to the facts, in a pure popularity vote, a presidential candidate can safely ignore the rural areas and still win an election.

The electoral college is imperfect, but whatever you want to replace it with should do a better job of representing a diversity of interests--geographic, demographic, and politic--than a direct popular vote.