Louisiana Hurricanes, Poetic Relief

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Sometimes, even for news reporters, life can be poetic.

Last September, I returned to the hurricane-wrecked Louisiana Gulf Coast of my childhood. As a teenager, I joined my father as he rebuilt homes wrecked by other hurricanes. Now, these hurricanes had new names, Katrina and Rita, but the stories were familiar, mixed with memories of oyster poorboys in New Orleans and the sound of never-ending rain.

The Gulf Coast tribes, Biloxi-Chitimacha and Pointe au Chien, gave me a hero's welcome, wonderful laughter and stories, as if somehow they knew. I was even able to spend the night in a bunkhouse on a fisherman's pier, with the waves causing the bunkhouse to sway all night, like years coming and going.

In Raceland, I saw the filled warehouse and the outpouring of donations from all over the country to the Houma Indians, who the Red Cross had forgotten.

Those articles, written during the trip along the coast, were the last articles I would write for the Indian newspaper where I worked for most of the years since it was created in 1994. Still, my life had gone full circle. My only regret was that I was fired (after complaining of censorship) before I could write about the wonderful Coushatta Indian Museum.

There, too, I was given a wonderful welcome and spent the day learning of the Coushatta, who survived, alongside their Cajun neighbors, in a state where racism is the persistent stalker. But in this rich land of Indian, Cajun and Creole, there is the music, the food and the laughter. There's alligator on the menu and Cajun music, real Cajun music, on the radio.

So, if you're in southwest Louisiana, please visit the Coushatta Indian Museum. There's a rich history of basketry, clanship and survival in the heart of these deep Louisiana woods. (The tribe also has a great campground, lots of hotels and a beautiful golf course at the casino.)

Here's the latest news from my good friends at Montegut on the Gulf Coast:

Local Indian tribal elders get keys to their new homes

By RAYMOND LEGENDRE NYT Regional Newspapers

MONTEGUT – Jim Shelly stood ready to hand the key to a new house to a Pointe-aux-Chenes couple, when he realized he had made a mistake.

“I must have gave the keys to the house to Deme (Naquin) on the island,” said Shelly, a field consultant for the Mennonite Disaster Services, referring to an Isle de Jean Charles man, who a half hour earlier had unknowingly gotten two keys – one to his new house and the other to Andrew and Leonise Dardar.

“Deme owns two houses right now,” Shelly joked.

“Deme might rent one out,” replied Randy Verdun, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Tribes Coalition.

The two houses were built as part of the Mennonite Disaster Services’ Pointe-aux-Chenes Project, which provided the labor for new houses for tribal elders in the lower bayou Indian communities. The Louisiana Coastal Tribes Coalition, along with the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha and the Pointe-aux-Chenes Indian Tribe, also contributed to the project.

Both featured the same wood exterior and three-bedroom interior and were designed, with cables, beams and concrete foundations to withstand 155-mph winds and flooding up to 14 feet.

When Naquin drove his golf cart across the rickety wooden bridge near his home Saturday, he declared his independence – freedom from anxieties caused by hurricane season and the unwanted presence of ants and roaches.

The 80-year-old, who has lived on Island Road in Isle de Jean Charles for 58 years, crossed the bridge, then crossed the street to his new three-bedroom house. There, his seven children celebrated with crawfish, cake and beer.

“This means a lot,” Naquin said. “I can’t thank the people enough. I didn’t expect this much.”

Naquin, who rarely walks and often gets around in either a wheelchair or a golf cart due to a foot condition, said his new place, which features an elevator to accommodate him, would allow him to remain independent. After Hurricane Rita, he stayed with family members for three months, before returning to his home on Island Road.

“I’m in nobody’s way here and I can do what I want,” the retired fisherman said. Naquin and his wife, Wilma, were married 60 years, before she died in 2003.

The man’s daughter-in-law, Sheena Naquin, said she was excited to see his new house, and described him as “easy going” and a person who “would give the shirt off his back.”

Deme’s son, Donnie Naquin, also expressed satisfaction that his dad had gotten a new, more flood resistant house after what he endured in the wake of Rita, which left four feet of standing water in his house.

“With what he’s been through, I couldn’t be more happy for him,” the son said. “He struggled to make ends meet. I just pray to God to give him enough time to enjoy it.”

Nearby in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Andrew and Leonise Dardar celebrated in a more subdued fashion, with only a small group of family members present.

Andrew Dardar, 81, spoke of the day’s meaning in Cajun French, then his 19-year-old grandson, Lanny Dardar, Jr., who lives with the couple, translated.

“It means a lot,” the grandson said, relaying his grandfather’s words. “We didn’t have much. I can’t put it into words how happy we are.”

Randy Verdun, chairman of the year-old Lousiana Coastal Tribes Coalition, attempted to put his elation for the Dardar family into words.

“If it weren’t for the Mennonites, we would be standing on dirt,” Verdun said. “We would be looking up at the sky. We wouldn’t be standing on this foundation.”

END OF "RAINES"

Here's a musical question for you: "Who'll stop the 'Raines'?"

Answer: NBC, that's who.

I thought 'Raines' was an interesting show with a quirky premise matched by excellent casting in its leading man. Jeff Goldblum played an LAPD detective who was left mentally unhinged a bit (and that's an understatement!) after the death of his partner, Charlie. After a prolonged medical leave due to the trauma of seeing Charlie shot through the forehead, Michael Raines was back on the force - but now he imagined seeing the murder victims he was investigating, and would actually talk to them.

Really, all he was doing was bouncing his ideas about each case off an imaginary sounding board, a Sherlock Holmes with many phantom Watsons. But it was enough to probably keep him from his job if anybody found out how bad his mental aberration was.

Unfortunately, I'm just one viewer and not even a blip on the Nielsen radar, and "interesting" and "quirky", and, let's face it, Goldblum aren't enough to ratchet up the ratings.

Not that NBC helped the show any. The original order for thirteen episodes was chopped down to seven, and then it was banished to Friday nights, which has become for the most part the television graveyard for the major networks. (At least Saturday night is used by the networks to recycle shows for those who missed them the first time around.) At least some of the cable outlets are taking advantage of the Friday night wasteland by airing their best shows on that night - 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Doctor Who' on Sci-Fi; 'Monk' and 'Psych' on USA Network.

'Raines' would have made for a great team-mate for those two shows.....

The description used to promote the show's concept didn't help much - Raines was a detective who talked to the dead. I think most people read that and figured - a male version of 'Ghost Whisperer' or 'Medium'. And that's already too many in that category. But Raines' situation was unique - another word that doesn't really bring in the viewers.

Maybe the premise was too odd to carry the show for very long, but I think the writers could have - and would have! - come up with some imaginative variations over time.

At the very least, the truncated run of the series saves us from a major Recastaway. It was reported that Luis Guzman would be stepping in to play Charlie, Raines' dead partner. [There's even a publicity photo with him included which you can see at epguides.com.]

From the pilot onwards, Charlie had been played by Malik Yoba. It's not as if the producers were going to run in the same direction for the character by casting someone similar like Mykelti Williamson. They were going to venture into uncharted territory with the casting of Guzman, who looks nothing like Yoba. Not even the same racial type!

If they were going to acknowledge the casting change within the show, I think the only way to go would be a major mental fart on the part of Raines; that for some reason he was now imagining his former partner as someone totally different.

If not, this would have been one of those series, like 'Alias Smith And Jones', where we followed the cases of Raines in the main Toobworld one season, and then in the next we crossed over to some alternate dimension where he once had a different partner on the force.

The IMDb.com - never the most reliable of sources, - says that Guzman should have been seen in the episode "Inner Child". However, Malik Yoba's name was still in the opening credits, and Charlie never appeared in that episode anyway. It's my thinking that perhaps they knew that the show was a goner weeks before that episode was scheduled to air, so the producers just cut out his scenes altogether. One of those cases where the actor's paid off (hopefully!) but his work will never be seen.....

There are so many series over in the UK where a run of seven episodes would be considered par for the course. The seven episodes of 'Raines' will make an excellent DVD collection hopefully. I know I'd pick it up. And until the other day, epguides.com was listing an eighth episode to be shown at some undetermined future date, but now it's taken off the menu. If it was filmed, and probably had Guzman as Charlie, it might make an interesting addition to that theoretical box set as a companion piece; to show what might have been.

One thing that has given me tele-tranquility since I began the Toobworld concept: at least I know that in the TV Universe, Michael Raines is still working murder cases, and still conversing with the victims to help solve their murders.

BCnU!
Toby OB

A way of life

Blonde?


Ash-green?


Black?


Light Brown?


Dark Brown?

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Blonde.

I really, really miss my blonde hair...! =( =(

I do! Being blonde is not as simple as being Scandinavian or acting like one. It is a whole lifestyle and attitude!

It screams "Look at me!!" and it says, "I take care of my appearance", and it exclaims, "I am fun and girly and probably materialistic, well, I mean, I know how to enjoy life you know - with or without you".


Wow... This might be my most bimbotic post yet.

I don't even know how I did it, but that paragraph was like extremely superficial yet appeared deep at the same time.

Hahahaha!!!


Bonus photo

Mike being forced to go blonde, at least once, for me:

That was fun times in sunny California!

By the way, in case you wondered, the whole "being blonde is a way of life" thing does NOT apply to men. At all.

~ You know you have reached the peak of vanity when you stay awake at 4am thinking of whether or not to go blonde again. ~

p/s: Many of you are probably going to say that I don't look good/look very weird in blonde hair, but irregardless! As I said, it is a way of life, not just a colour!

p/p/s: I know there is no such word as irregardless, but it's supposed to be spoofing Mean Girls, you idiots. Just relax and stop being a prude.

Mohawk Nation News: Replace 'Butcher Shop' with The Great Law

Photo: Support for Mohawk Warriros, sign posted along the Trans Canada Highway 401 by the "Unconquered" Mohawks of Tyendinagha.


WHEN INDIAN AFFAIRS IS NO MORE – THE DISMANTLING OF AN ILLEGAL ORGANIZATION

Mohawk Nation News
April 29, 2007

Back in 1969 the Liberal government of Canada under Pierre Trudeau decided to do away with Indian Affairs. They weren’t going to do away with the “ Tower of Terror ”. They were going to do away with us by pretending to remove their obligations, budget and protections. They wanted to push us out onto the streets of Canada to die out.

Killing off a criminal organization like Indian Affairs is inevitable. We have to take it apart piece by piece. We have to do it ourselves every step of the way. The Indian Act was the "weapon of mass destruction" [WMD] meant to kill us off. How are we going to kill off Indian Affairs? By enforcing the Great Law of Peace and the Two Row Wampum.

Indian Affairs is currently the subject of an avalanche of criticisms and various lawsuits. The murders of our kids in residential schools, the police brutality, military attacks against us and the constant lies and deceptions by politicians has to stop. Their sudden dismantling Indian Affairs may be a ploy to remove the defendants in actions for liability for all the cruelty and larceny they've committed against us. They say, “remove Indian affairs, the Indian Act and to hell with them!” We can see right through them. They want to change our status as Indigenous people into “Canadians” so they can get out of their liability. It won’t work, Canada ! We are not and never will agree to be Canadians.

So far, our relations with our colonial visitors has been one of “breach” rather than honor. They tell us the Indian Act is the only “vehicle” for delivering Canada ’s obligations to us. Based on what we’ve been getting so far, this is an empty vehicle and it’s time to junk it.

We’ve always been struck by Indian Affairs’ similarity to organized crime organizations like the “Mafia”, except it’s “disorganized”. The head “Don” is the “prime minister”. He has cohorts and henchmen called “provinces”, “ministers”, “corporations”, “judges” and “armed forces” that are given authority over certain territories. The cohorts go out and enforce their rules. The government legitimizes its criminal activities with picturesque language that no one understands.

Originally the Mafia came in and lent money to immigrants to set them up. If somebody couldn’t pay them back, the enforcers would demonstrate their unseen power over life and death. The government’s cohorts set up this Mafia style system over us. They stole everything we have to make it look like we can’t function without them.

Indian Affairs cohorts must also take something akin to “blood oaths” to Queen Elizabeth and have to keep secrets until they die.

This Indian Affairs Mafia will control us unless that control is taken from them. Like the original Mafia, the only way to become a full “patch member” is to be from a certain ethnic background. The band councils strive to become full patch members so they can exercise the rule of terror over us to keep us in line. No matter what, they’ll never be accepted as full members of the white Mafia. The government encourages them to try anyway.

Indian Affairs was originally supposed to carry out nation-to-nation relations with us and to negotiate with us on land use. Greed lead the colonizers to “goose step” their mandate. Indian Affairs was set up to carry out the “final solution of the Indian problem”. Parliament gave itself extraordinary powers beyond its authority under the British North America Act 1867 to carry out the genocide of our people.

It’s time to close down the butcher shop and go back to the beginning. The real relationship is between us as landowners and them as “squatters”. We want our tenants to live up to the leases they made with us, to obey the laws and keep their promises. We want full accountability and a total forensic audit of Indian Affairs and its entire gangsta' apparatus.

Once the Indian Act and Indian Affairs are removed, then Indigenous sovereignty, rights to self-determination and stewardship of all of our territories will be dealt with on a proper landlord-tenant nation-to-nation basis. Canada , stop falsely claiming our land. Start planning how you are going to carry out our instructions and authority over every square inch of our land. You have to stay in your ship and not pull our canoe as the Two Row Wampum agreement provides.

Canada, stop aiding and abetting corporate squatters who are gobbling up our assets, polluting our land and destroying the inheritance of our coming generations.

No more encroachment! Enough of our land and environment have been seriously damaged. It’s on the verge of becoming unlivable, not just for Indigenous people, but also for the colonial visitors who don’t seem to care about their own future generations or anyone else’s.

The abuse of us, our lands and possessions is the biggest scandal in history. Bringing down Indian affairs means freedom and self-determination for us.

Why do we think this is going to happen? Well, so far huge amounts of profit have gone towards the colonial machines that defraud and oppress us because of our complaints everywhere. A lot of lawyers and consultants have been getting big career boosts and piles of money out of inquiries and investigations into the criminal acts committed against us by the colonial government of Canada without resolving them.

Indian Affairs, we hope you’ve shut down your “War Room” in the Tower of Power run by the military! Stop funding racists like Gary McHale and the skinheads, KKK, Brown Shirts and rioters he’s organizing to attack us. Department of Defense, stop financing the demonizing of us in your military manual as “domestic insurgents” so that you can find an excuse to round up our “leaders” and young people. We know you want to put us in “ Guantanamo Bay ” prisons without charging us, for indefinite periods of time because you have labeled us as “terrorists”.

Hey, colonial crooks, let’s not get stuck on details. Let’s go back to square one when you landed here with nothing.

No, we’re not afraid to get rid of Indian affairs. They think they’ll shut us up by threatening to cut off all services and benefits. They can’t. They have an ongoing debt to us supported by all the human rights covenants Canada has signed and supports internationally.

We have to sit down and start talking about the terms under which you “intruders” can remain here. You know we never gave up the land. We never will. We can’t.

Europeans are Europeans, no matter what. The British are British. The French are French. And the immigrants are immigrants. For over a century colonial states have been dumping their rejects and social problems on our land. These displaced people tried to kill us off. We cannot tolerate the presence of this insane grasping culture which continues to commit genocide on us and our land.

These starving and disease ridden ragamuffins killed most of us off, stole our land and possessions and continue to try to stomp us out. Do we have to keep on being kind to them? We think we’ve given enough. We will look at the new situation pragmatically. We have to carry out our original instructions. The land has to be taken care off. The damage committed to us has to be repaired. The heritage of our future generations has to be restored. The visitors have to return Turtle Island back into the beautiful paradise they found when they arrived.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
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http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
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Coming soon online books on Mohawk issues.


INDIGENOUS PEOPLE MAKING SENSE OF 911 CONFUSION

Mohawk Nation News
April 30, 2007

Since the “911” hit on the Twin Towers of New York City, where are the Indigenous people of Turtle Island fitting into the political and economic shift that is taking place worldwide? We have the resources that everybody wants. Could 911 be a deliberate strategy to destroy Turtle Island as a sanctuary or safe haven not only for people but for money?

Just prior to 911 the “Euro” currency was going to be launched within days. It raises suspicion as to who did 911. Issuing the Euro could have devalued the U.S. dollar while raising the value of the Euro currency.

Someone once said that to move your agenda ahead, you have to create a crisis. After 911, the financial capital of the world was shifted from New York City to London . London was already set up to take over banking on the wings of this power shift. Regardless of how 911 happened, that was the result.

The internet constantly shows the destruction of the Twin Towers and other attacks of that day. Investors have become nervous to invest in New York City . Money will move and not take chances. Other players want to cash in on the fall of New York City such as existing megatropolises like Tokyo , Shanghai and London .

The oil sheiks have since quickly converted a desert into a modern mega city. What kind of power structure is being planned in Dubai ? Haliburton, for one, is moving its operations there.

It’s only 5 to 6 years of consolidation. If it is Dubai and companies start going there, U.S. interests will have to follow. Other interests are looking for ways to cash in. Dubai and other metropolises are getting ready to handle this shift.

The U.S. is trying to bring the focus back by using our resources as one of the enticements.

The U.S. has blacklisted Canada as a partner, which they want merely as a resource hinterland under their control. The U.S. is already entrenched in Canadian policing, military, governments, the intelligence community, communications, and whatever it takes to control the country. It’s got Canada lock, stock and barrel!

Toronto and Hamilton as the “Golden Horse Shoe” were once a worldwide economic center. They have been downgraded. Toronto is yesterday’s newspaper. The powers that think they are want to set up a new center that will be more attractive to investors and people with money. That is probably why they toyed with the idea of moving the stock exchange to Calgary . Toronto has to be destroyed so that any financial windfall that comes this way will fall on New York City .

Nonetheless Canada is a natural ally to the U.S. Without Canada ’s resources the U.S. can’t move ahead. We see the usefulness of the U.S. building up the triangle of Montreal-Cornwall-Ottawa which is closer to New York City .

The U.S. does not finance anything. Buying a company is not the same as coming in and building one. They just come in, take over and buy up companies like Bell to gain control over Canada ’s telecommunications. So the U.S. gains control over all communications with access to all private and financial records of the citizens of Canada . Soon it will be worthless to have all our conversations recorded. We might even be released from bondage and regain our freedom. This is what we're hoping for.

It is an ‘Americanism’ to give Indigenous People the right to demonstrate peacefully. Canadians are not seeing this. They want to shut us up. The U.S. actually wants us to win this war against Canada because it is against the Canadian government, which they have infiltrated. Should we get everything we can while we can? We want control of Turtle Island . The U.S. want Turtle Island . If they side with us to defeat Canada , no doubt they may turn on us. The U.S. ambassador recently said at an Indigenous conference in British Columbia that they are “keeping a close eye on all the activities of the Indigenous People of Canada ”. You can be sure they are not doing it for our benefit.

The U.S. has to shift money back to Turtle Island to get our natural resources off us. They don’t want the big money to buy up oil shares, energy and communications in other parts of the world. This will turn Turtle Island into a third world. We, the indigenous people, have the land and resources, which is what the fight is over.

There are also a lot of resources in the China-Soviet Union interior which have not been exploited. A lot of money is going there. All of these activities will decide where the next power base will be. Our land base and resources are being used as trinkets to invest over here. While they’re busy signing away our natural resources, they hope the chips will fall back on New York City . Don’t think for a moment they have any interest in enriching the owners of the land and resources, us.

People shouldn’t forget that US dominance is primarily post World War II. It might be time to shift it somewhere else. Shouldn’t the license to oppress be spread around instead of just focusing on us here? We’ve had enough of their plutocracy [rule of the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy]. If hierarchy has to exist, it’s time for someone else to take their turn at being oppressed.

The Akwesasne Mohawks are a fly in the ointment. The Mohawks here are well set up and in somebody’s way. Make no mistake. No one will give up Akwesasne. The U.S. know they will never win against us. Indigenous from everywhere will show up and help us defend it. So the U.S. would prefer to work with us. This is something we have to be very careful of.

The colonial band council puppet system will go the way of the do-do bird. We are presently getting back all our people. This is what frightens Canada and its minions.

We need to start laying down the laws right now. The U.S. wants a beachhead they can control. We aren’t going to allow that. They know it. The Canadian politicians have already been bought out and are under U.S. control. But we are not.

We have to watch when they start to develop and implement infrastructures to support their interests. They will box us in and horde those infrastructures. As soon as they consolidate their power back in New York City , that infrastructure will be abandoned. We need to be cautious where infrastructures go and who owns them.

The push will be on. They will make it look like the second coming. We know already that the Indigenous People will not be benefiting. The drive will not come from within our communities. Canadians are asleep at the switch. Someone else is driving their train for them. They have been hypnotized into complacently accepting everything that is happening.

Another thought is that if the U.S. ever gets the idea that it was the Europeans who knocked down the Twin Towers , are we looking at retaliation against them? Will the U.S. do the same to some European infrastructures? If the U.S. is cornered financially or in any other way, if they have the ability to attack, will they do so? That doesn’t exclude London , Paris and other big cities. We don’t know what’s coming.

We have come a long way and we have not fired a single shot. We’ve just been firing our bulletins.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Kahentientha2@yahoo.com & http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=katgenies20@yahoo.com
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THE DOCTOR IS IN - AND OUT OF THIS WORLD

April is winding down, so I thought we should take one last look at this month's honoree for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, the Doctor......

This season of 'Doctor Who', David Tennant's second as the Doctor, the Time Lord has only been to "present day" Earth once and that was in the season premiere ("Smith & Jones") to pick up a new companion. (Well, that and track down a Plasmavore.)

So we don't know yet what the current British government looks like in RTD's corner of the TV Universe. It looks as though this mysterious Mr. Saxon, who appears to be this season's keyword, could be in the running for the position of Prime Minister; but as to Harriet Jones still holding that office, it's up in the air for now.

That could probably all change by the next episode.

It would be nice to think that we were finally back to viewing the adventures of 'Doctor Who' which are set on Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, so that we can bring the Doctor back into the fold.

Haven't you read my thoughts on that before? Since Russell T. Davies took over the franchise and reinvigorated it back in 2005, we've been watching the Doctor of an alternate TV dimension. Everything was going swimmingly until the episode "Aliens of London" when the Clan Slitheen killed off Tony Blair and destroyed Big Ben. Then Harriet Jones was installed as the PM, as seen in "The Christmas Invasion", and those first two years of the new 'Who' had to be shunted off to parts unknown.

(There was also mention of President Schwarzenegger, but that was a reference in the Future and that can always be eliminated by some tweaking of the Past. It doesn't even have to happen on 'Doctor Who'; I'm sure Hiro Nakamura can take care of that with some alteration of the timeline in 'Heroes'.)

It's a shame to lose those first two seasons of the new 'Doctor Who', really, because otherwise there was so much Doctory goodness to be savored - the encounters with Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, and especially Madame de Pompadour; the Doctor's mano a um, "womano" with Margaret Blaine aka Blon Slitheen in "Boom Town"; and the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness.

That's not to say that for the most part these adventures weren't occurring in Earth Prime-Time. All of the TV dimensions are mirrors to that main Toobworld, with only slight variations to mark them as different. In this case, it was the introduction of Harriet Jones. But it's my belief that the same adventures were played out in Toobworld, but that Tony Blair remained Prime Minister throughout the crisis of "World War Three".

(Big Ben may have still been destroyed, but the government covered that up by declaring it a hoax and fixing it.)

The Sycorax still hovered over the main TV-London as was seen in "The Christmas Invasion", and so any future reference to that event (as seen in "School Reunion" and "The Shakespeare Code") would be acceptable. The original version of Sarah Jane Smith still encountered the Tenth Incarnation of The Doctor as seen in "School Reunion" - I wouldn't want it any other way.

Speaking of the lovely Sarah Jane - and we will do so quite a bit more in a few days! - her spin-off show on New Year's Day, 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', is considered to be part of Earth Prime-Time. There was nothing about it that would merit the show from being tossed into that alternate dimension.

Of course, once the series starts up later in the year, that may change. RTD does seem to lock off these shows in his own private sandbox as if they're his toys only. (Recreating the history of the Cybermen, trying to forge a new version of the Daleks to get around the Terry Nation estate, ridding the Universe of Gallifrey and other Time Lords, and basically throwing up a border between his dimension and all other TV dimensions.)

With the first season of 'Torchwood', I didn't detect anything that would indicate that Captain Jack and his team had to be shipped out of Toobworld to that alternate dimension. So for now the Torchwood Institute of Cardiff is safe.

Changing the perspective of the viewer from one dimension to another is nothing new for Toobworld studies. It usually happens within a series' episode, such as the mirror universe episodes of 'Star Trek', 'Deep Space Nine', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', and 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'. 'Sliders' was an entire series built on visiting variations of Toobworld. Sometimes a season of a show has to be shunted off to an alternate TV Earth, as was the case of 'Alias Smith And Jones' once Roger Davis began playing the role of Hannibal Heyes after the death of Pete Duel. (I used to hold up 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent' as an example of this, but Michael Dunn's guest-starring turn as Mr. Sin in one episode was too tempting to pass by as a candidate for a Dr. Loveless alias!)

So at some point after the 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, and perhaps after the Time War, the focus of the series shifted to an alternate version of the Doctor. We first saw him newly regenerated into his Ninth incarnation in "Rose" and stuck with that dimension's Time Lord right through "The Runaway Bride". Whether we're still in that dimension will depend on what's to come this season.

And it stands to reason that there would be doppelgangers for the Doctor in other dimensions. We saw the counterparts for Pete and Jackie Tyler and Mickey/Rickey in the Cybermen two-parter last season; and we know the Tooniverse has its own version of the Doctor, thanks to 'The Simpsons' and 'The Infinite Quest'. So why not more than one live-action Doctor floating about in an infinite number of TARDISes? (TARDII?)

Here's more proof that the last two seasons of 'Doctor Who' were not about the same Doctor we knew from the old series: in "Army Of Ghosts", the Doctor watched a scene from the soap opera 'EastEnders'. Yet a majority of the Doctor's previous incarnations were caught up in an adventure that involved the inhabitants of the borough of Walford as seen in 'Dimensions In Time'.

So the first two seasons of RTD's update of 'Doctor Who' share the same dimension as alternate versions of 'Inspector Morse', 'Hot Metal', 'Gimme Gimme Gimme', and of course, 'Extras' with "Barry from EastEnders" as part of the cast of characters.

Not a bad lot to hang with.......

For now, we'll just have to take a wait-and-view approach.

BCnU!
Toby OB

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Very sad, this year Saddam Hussein died otherwise he can celebrate his birthday with me! I mean not WITH me per se of course, like in his own little hiding hole but at the same time as me.

Anyway, my life is just full of drama.

On the night of 27th, Kelvin, Qingqing, Mike and I went to JB at like 11pm for some, erm, dvds.

Of course, as it turns out when we reached the dvd shop we didn't buy anything because we had a guilt trip and it dawned on us that piracy is just wrong. WRONG, PEOPLE! Don't steal!

Ahem.

So, we went across the road to have some food.

After gorging, we crossed the road to get back to the car, and Mike told me to run coz there was a car coming.

I was in a bad mood (due to Mike being generally grumpy due to his lack of his sleep) and out of the corner of my eye I saw a slow moving car and didn't speed up at all but instead proceeded to cross the rest of the road in what can be described as a slow lumbering fashion.

As expected, my life flashed before me as the LOUD honk of the Malaysian car sounded.

Actually, I don't know how other people who almost died react, but I was quite tired and when I turned and saw the car was real close to me, all I did was think, "Huh? I thought this car was moving slowly??" With a slightly wide-eyed look.

And it was supposed to!

I mean, it's a small road, not the bloody German highway with no speed limit. Autobahn! I'm so smart.

So anyway, the fucker who almost took my life (23 years ago Momo had a hard time squeezing me out) wound down his window, and shouted at me in Mandarin,

"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SEE WHEN YOU CROSS THE ROAD IS IT?"

(Actually he didn't almost kill me, he was like 2 feet away)

I don't know why I like to pick fights, but I just shouted back, "FUCK YOU!"

and showed him my finger.

I guess I exploded coz it's really kinda annoying to have almost died and then yet have some shout at you.

I mean, c'mon, fine, it is maybe my fault to cross in a slow stupid manner, but I've already had the fright of my life, and additionally, almost got deafened by your honk, still not enough meh?

THEN STILL SHOUT AT ME!

Somemore the fucker so fucking ugly, like a piece of ugly fuck can. Stupid low-class middle-aged Chinese guy.

So, after I shouted at him, he told me to point my finger at my mother or something rude like that, so I smiled at him and pointed my finger at him once again.

Instead of being honoured since a gorgeous supermodel like myself will never be caught died talking to him under normal circumstances (social suicides, my dears!!), he got down of his car and thundered out of it, shouting various Hokkien vulgarities at me.

His girlfriend tried to restain him but he got down anyway.

And till this day I fantasize about how he would try to get off his car in the middle of the road, and while opening the door to get down, an oncoming tank would knock him senseless, thus ending his life.

I'd then kick his corpse and throw the la la I ta-baoed on his face while his girlfriend weeps. I'd then kick her for bad taste, and throw the extra 10 ringgit I had left over my shoulder as I leave.

But that didn't happened.

So that guy got down of his car, and I was rejoined by Kelvin, QQ and Mike when drama ensued (various scoldings by me and that guy, with Mike trying to stand in between us).


Within a short while, we were joined by a group of other people, Malaysian Ah Bengs, who were good-naturedly asking the fucker what happened.

The fucker shouted at the Ah bengs, "YOU ALL HER FRIENDS IS IT?" and the Ah Bengs replied, "No, we from the DVD shop... They our customers la, got anything can talk mah..."

While the fucker proceeded to scold the super sweet DVD shop guys. So nice of them, honestly! They didn't have to help us!

It's damn funny. I was too boiling mad to remember what happened, but at one point the fucker started shouting at Mike too, asking him,

"SINGAPOREAN IS IT?"

to which Mike replied "Yes." since it is really too troublesome to explain, "Nah, I'm from Dallas, which is in Texas, USA, but I used to be born in... blah blah and I am here working in Singapore, just passed by JB for some la la."

And so the fucker said,

"Singapolean big fuck izzit?" in the broken English I typed it as.

And Mike couldn't understand what the fuck he said, which would have been hilarious if not for the fact that I was so angry.

Stupid uneducated fucker.

I shouted at him,

"NI YAO ZHEN YANG? XIAN ZAI NI YAO DA NV REN SHI MA?!" (What do you want, you want to hit a girl?)

and he replied,

"WO YAO DA NI YOU ZHEN YANG?!" (So what if I hit you?)

The DVD shop boys restained him, and after this we walked away since it really isn't wise to pick a fight in other people's turf.

How gross, for a man to try to pick a fight with a 42kg (fine, 43.5) girl! *roll eyes* Oh yes! Because the girl has a chance to win!

Hope he dies. No, I'm not just saying it. I do hope he dies.

On the way back the girls hypothesized about how to verbally abuse him more, while the guys talked about how they would have beaten the fucker up. (Mike, "I'm a leftie, and people never expect that...")

Sigh.

Such a dramatic birthday.

Wanbao is trying to report the fellowing story, no doubt completely lifting it off to (zero writers' intregrity) fill up their trashy incompetent pages.

Which is STUPID, since... THE FOLLOWING STORY IS COMPLETELY FICTIONAL. Yes. I made it all up.

Speaking of sickening guys, that day Qingqing has a horrible encounter with a Bangala!

She was at City Plaza alone, taking some money out of the ATM, and this bangala asked her for some change, which she said she had none, and walked rapidly outside.

The bangala followed her and when she was outside, he GRABBED HER!

He held on to the back of her arm from behind her, and he said, "You, go Geylang with me."

NABEY!

ANGRY!

HATEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

How are we girls not supposed to be wary of bangalas you tell me????!!!!!!!!!!



So QQ turned around and slapped the bangala.

EWWWWWWW SO DIRTY!!! I don't wanna touch him!

And poor QQ, she was just in jeans and a tee or something! Not like she dressed like a whore or what you know, it's just that she got the sort of face that looks like you can bully her.

So the bunch of Ah bengs from the cellphone shop came up and started shouting at the bangala, and the bangala, according to QQ, "ran away super fast".

Haha, bangala running away very fast sounds very funny.

(QQ said to help her thank the Ah bengs on my blog coz she was so traumatized she just ran away without saying her thanks)

From the above two stories we can see that Ah Bengs are very nice people.

So anyway, on the 28th, Shuyin and Wanyi came over to my place to surprise me with a birthday cake, homecooked food (green curry, brinjals, tea eggs, french loaf) and complete with a recorder-blown Happy Birthday song!

Happy or not?!!!

My friends are sooooooo super sweet can.

We gossiped and talked auntie-talk till 5pm, when the girls left and Mike brought me to St Pierre's for a super yummy dinner costing him $155.

I am super lucky I didn't get killed afterall.

Imagine Shuyin and Wanyi come, then actually I died already. Damn stupid.

Ok, pictures soon ok! Very busy.

Love!!!


p/s: No offence to Malaysians since you can be quite sensitive. I'm just talking about that particular guy.

REASON TO CONCEIVE

According to Dr. Juliet Burke on 'Lost', women who become pregnant on the Island never make it out of their second trimester. Because of the unique healing abilities imbued into people living on the Island, a woman's immune system would recognize the pregnancy as an alien invader and attack it.

Claire Littleton was over eight months pregnant when her flight, Oceanic 815, crashed. The Island really didn't have time to affect her physically before she gave birth.

This danger would seem to spell doom for Sun Kwon and her fetus, as she became pregnant some thirty plus days after arriving on the Island. (Her husband, Jin Kwon, was infertile before coming to the Island, but that same healing power increases the sperm count five times over!)

But there is a major difference between Sun and those other women, one which the show's creators may resort to in order to insure the character survives on the series (and they don't lose the services of the wonderful, beautiful actress Yunjim Kim!)

The nine women who died since Juliet came to the Island three years earlier spent the entire time of their pregnancy under the constant exposure of the electro-magnetic energies that emanated from the Hatch. Sun's exposure was limited to only the first sixty-eight days after the crash, after which the Hatch imploded due to the actions of Locke and Desmond.

In connection with Sun's situation, her pregnancy may have even benefitted from the implosion, bathing her in a different kind of radiation during the "Purple Sky" event, one that might actually protect the fetus.

Both splainins could be used also to cause Sun to suffer a miscarriage, and that would save Yunjim Kin from having to wear a fat suit maternity outfit on the beach!

Near the end of the episode, Juliet mentioned that she would soon have a sample from Kate Austin as well. Since Kate and Sawyer made the beast with two backs in the bear cages, it's probable that she's preggers as well! (We know Sawyer's not shooting with blanks - he's got a daughter named Clementine by Cassidy.)

Kate would be the first woman to get pregnant on the Island since the hatch explosion. Without that constant thrumming of that electro-magnetic wellspring, could it be Kate might actually have a normal pregnancy and survive to give birth. Or is the Island's healing properties really the culprit still?

If Nikki and Paolo were going at it like bunnies before they drifted apart (and remember, Claire caught them at it in Jack's tent in an untelevised scene), Ms. Fernandez was probably pregnant as well when she died. The same probably holds true for the late Shannon Rutherford and Ana Lucia Cortez. Both of them getting gut-shot probably saved the Island the hassle of killing them itself.

As always with 'Lost', these are just speculations. Like others have said before me, whatever comes I'm in it for the ride.

BCnU!
Toby OB

The News Scam: Silencing Genocide

U.S. migrant detention center on Tohono O'odham tribal land. Photo Ofelia Rivas. Below: Navajo and Apache children imprisoned at Bosque Redondo.
Photo New Mexico State Monuments.
The News Scam: Silencing Genocide

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A decade ago, journalists in Indian country wrote about the failure of the mainstream media to cover Indian issues fairly. In those days, reporters for Indian publications were seldom censored. However, today, there is censorship and a new agenda by corporate media, even in Indian country.

The new agenda in Indian news involves censoring the voices of grassroots people and promoting the agenda of the newspaper owners. This includes using the newspaper as a lobbying tool and protecting politicians who might "grease the wheels" of legislation in Washington.

Don't take my word for it. Look through the current online editions of Indian newspapers and see who is covering the FBI probe of Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi, who cochairs the Congressional Native American Caucus. Then, look and see who has covered Renzi's copper mine deal, opposed by Yavapais and Apaches. Next, check out the earlier censored article of the Apache protest of Renzi in 2004 (see Censored blog link) which involved Renzi's attempts to dilute environmental laws.

You can also read how Renzi pushed for the Raytheon Missile factory on the Navajo farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries near Farmington, N.M., where Navajos grow commercial crops of potatoes and corn, alongside the production of missile parts. The Raytheon/Navajo farm article was censored in 2006. Further, read on the web about Renzi and his father's backgrounds in U.S. intelligence and protests of Fort Huachuca, where two priests were arrested in 2006 for their peaceful protest of U.S. torture. (Search for news articles under http://www.google.com/)

Few Indian publications carried news coverage of Chiquita Brands International when it recently admitted that it paid paramilitaries who murdered human rights activists, union workers and farmers in Colombia.

As of today, few Indian newspapers have covered the Pueblos protest of the installation of the statue of Onate in El Paso. The Conquistador, known as "The Butcher" to Pueblos, cut off the feet of their ancestors, while carrying out genocidial terror. Now, in the state of New Mexico, Onate is being honored with a statue. (Although the El Paso Times covered the protest, the article was not available online in the days after the protest.)

One of the most profound revelations in the news recently was the exposure of Canada's draft counterinsurgency military manual. The manual named Mohawks with international terrorists and recommended ambushses and assassinations. Few Indian publications covered the story in the U.S.

So far, only one online Indian publication (Pechanga Net) has carried the news of the Zapatistas return to the U.S.-Mexico border and the announcement of the Intercontinental Indigenous Conference. There were no news reporters from American Indian publications present at the news conference on April 22, in Sonora south of the Arizona border, to interview Subcomandante Marcos and the Comandantes from Chiapas.

One of the most censored topics in the news media in America is any issue involving Leonard Peltier. This became obvious with the lack of national news coverage of the recent theater production "My Life is My Sundance."

Here is another example of censorship. Louise Benally, Navajo, is resisting forced relocation on Navajo lands at Big Mountain, Ariz., where Peabody Coal attorneys orchestrated the so-called Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute. Louise compared the Long Walk and imprisonment at Bosque Redondo, N.M., in the 1860s to the war in Iraq and the U.S. treatment of women and children in Iraq. The article was censored. Louise's ancestors were among those who witnessed the rapes, murders and starvation of Navajos on the Long Walk and during imprisonment at Fort Sumner.

Silencing the word, "Genocide," is now U.S. policy, according to Ambassador John Evans who used the word "Genocide," in reference to Armenians and his career collapsed. Unfortunately, the word "Genocide" has also been censored in American Indian media.

For the U.S., it is easier to pretend to be the world's champion of human rights than to acknowledge the facts: The colonized United States was created by immigrants who kidnapped and tortured blacks from Africa and forced them into slavery, while carrying out systematic genocide of Indigenous Peoples. In some cases, entire tribes were murdered.

There is also manipulation of the facts. Few news reporters have exposed the real agenda behind the current border-immigration hysteria. As with Iraq, the agenda involves funds for friends of the Bush administration: Halliburton's contract for migrant prisons; war contractors multi-million dollar contracts for security and surveillance systems and Homeland Security's control of sovereign Indian tribal lands along the border.

There were even funds for migrant detention centers on Tohono O'odham tribal land, with one detention center already operating and another planned. In this area, migrants, including many Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, die in need of a drink of water. In this area, it is a crime according to U.S. and Tohono O'odham tribal law, to give a dieing migrant, with their blood flowing from their body, a ride to the hospital. It is a crime, even if the dieing person is a fellow Indigenous person.

With the Internet, and blogs like this one, publishing news has become very easy. But the truth is increasingly hard to come by. Unless reporters show up in person and interview regular people, other than politicians, corporations and advertising sponsors, the news becomes a sham and a game.

No one knows all of the truth, journalists must depend on the people to tell us the truth.

Here's one of the big secrets in America: Corporations lie. They pay press officers large sums of money to make sure they get away with those lies most of the time.

To counter this, American Indian activists are now going directly to the stockholders to expose the human rights abuses. They have targeted some of the worst offenders globally: Peabody Coal and Newmont and Barrick gold mining corporations.

Further, newspaper editors operate on the assumption that readers are not on to their scams. They distract readers by printing the news that is "safe to print," covering issues that sound good, but lack revelations about real threats to survival, which leave in their aftermath real consequences and controversy.

Further, editors assume if the largest media outlets censor the truth, they can control knowledge and ultimately control the future.

So, many of us write our blogs and send out the news to listserves, hoping that maybe a little of the truth will still sneak out.

--Brenda Norrell

Related articles:
Greg Palast: "The U.S. Media have lost the Will to Dig Deep"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042807G.shtml

Congratulations to Kathy Helms, news reporter on the Navajo Nation, for her AP award:
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/april/043007is_indpndtprzs.html
Return to homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Black Delegation Finds Human Rights Abuses at Border

Black delegation finds human rights abuses on U.S.-Mexican border

Tucson, Ariz. -- A 14-member delegation of African Americans investigated human rights abuses of immigrants, Mexican Americans and indigenous communities on the U.S.-Mexican border in fact-finding tour April 26-29 in the Tucson border region. Delegates from six states and 10 cities took part in The Braving Borders Building Bridges: A Journey for Human Rights tour of sponsored by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) in partnership with Coalicion de Derechos Humanos and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The tour began with members observing trials of migrants charged with illegal entry into the United States at federal court building in Tucson. From there delegates heard reports from Pima County Medical Examiners Office on increased migrants deaths during passage through the desert. The group then traveled to the border towns of Douglass, Ariz, and Agua Prieta and Altar in Sonora, Mexico, to hear testimonies of local people impacted by the increased border crossing and militarization of the border. The tour ended with visits with Pascua Yaqui leaders and a Tohono O'odham activist, representing Native American communities also impacted by the militarization of the border. "The increasing numbers of those who have died is a direct result of U.S. policy funneling migrants to cross through the desert," said the Rev. Phillip Lawson, interim pastor of Jones United Methodist Church in San Francisco, Calif., and member of the delegation. Migrants typically crossed into the United States through urban areas till 1994 when the U.S. adopted the "Prevention Through Deterrence" policy sealing off of urban-area borders and forcing migrants to risk life by crossing through desert and mountain areas. "The image that does not leave my head is of 12 men in orange suits and women in pink, handcuffed and with shackles on their legs," Mr. Lawson said. "They were prosecuted by a D.A., guarded by six deputies and judged by a magistrate, each saying simply, 'Presente.' Their only crime was risking their lives in search of a better life."The delegation heard first-hand accounts of racial profiling and abuses including: Harassment of Mexican-Americans drivers by border patrol agents Douglass; Mexican-American homes broken into by border patrol agents searching without warrants for undocumented persons; Physical abuse of migrants caught crossing in the desert; and Harassment of Native Americans traveling to and from religious ceremonies in Mexico."We came to investigate human rights abuses, and we found significant evidence that there are widespread violations caused by the U.S. militarization of the border and immigration control," said Gerald Lenoir, coordinator of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. "These policies are racist attacks on the most vulnerable members of society: immigrants of color."Leaders of Coalicion de Derechos Humanos concurred."The increase in the militarization of the border and cities like Chicago and Oakland as well as the expansion of private prison construction called for by the STRIVE bill will fuel even more human rights violations," said Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos. STRIVE is a border enforcement bill currently pending in Congress opposed by the three tour sponsors. "The criminalization of Latinos and immigrants matches what has been done to African Americans historically. Already 60 percent of the people in federal prisons are Black and Latino." The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights launched a national community dialog ueto expose the militarization of border and immigration control, explained network spokesperson Arnoldo Garcia. "The BAJI border tour is a major contribution to the dialogue breaking the silence on the thousands of migrants who have died as a result of these policies," Mr. Garcia said. "By coming to the border the BAJI tour represents an unprecedented coalition to stop the deaths and joins our demands for justice." BAJI will share its findings in reports in several cities and to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Migrants.
--30--

BETTY JONES: IN THE VENEER OF THE CAT

By the way.....

The "Betty" mentioned in that previous summary is Betty Jones, the daughter-in-law of the show's title character. At the time of the series, she was a widow, as her husband Hal died before the show aired. Betty and Barnaby's son met "on the job", so to speak - he arrested her as a fugitive in L.A. after her escape from Gotham Prison back in the late 1960s.

She had been serving time for her crimes as the second Catwoman.

Betty had appropriated the identity of the feline felon for herself after the death of the original, Selina Kyle, in the caves beneath Gotham City. She wasn't the last to do so, either. A cat burgler by the name of Tia Mara also took on the identity after she was jilted out of what she felt she was rightfully due from her association with a covert government agency known as the IMF. And then there was the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet, whose spirit reanimated the body of Ms. Kyle so that she once again purr-sued her former life as the Catwoman in Gotham City. (And she still does to this day!)

While escorting his prisoner back to Gotham City after her extradition hearing, Hal Jones and Betty fell in love. They were married after she served her full sentence, but the union didn't last long - the son of Barnaby Jones was killed in the line of duty. To take her mind off her troubles, Betty went to work for her father-in-law as a secretary and general gal Friday. And that's why Peter Kirkland decided to involve her in his plans.

(I never saw the episode - at least I don't remember doing so, - but come on! That plotline screams out as a case of misdirection!)

SHOWS & MOVIES CITED:
'Barnaby Jones'
'Batman'
'Mission: Impossible'
"Batman" (the 1966 movie)
"Whiskers"

BCnU!
Toby OB

THE KIRKLAND WOMEN

Everybody in Toobworld has a twin; that's a given. Most are related by blood, such as actual identical twins, or maybe half-siblings. Sometimes the relationship is a little farther out, like identical cousins who walk alike and talk alike. Or maybe there's a generational difference - sometimes parents look exactly like their children (Felix Unger and his dad, Morgan O'Rourke and his father). Identical twins can also be caused by plastic surgery, by magic, or be due to android duplication and alien shapeshifters.

Most rare are the identical twins related to each other not by blood, but by marriage. And in my :ahem!: sciolistic research yesterday into the identity of the first Mrs. Sam Malone, I discovered that Carlie Kirkland of 'Banacek' (1972-74) may well have been the exact double to Virginia Kirkland, seen in the "Fatal Overture" episode of 'Barnaby Jones' in 1979. But in my theory, they obviously can't be sisters or cousins, but instead perhaps they were sisters-in-law.

Here's a description of that episode:

"Betty witnesses the quarrel of a neighbor with two women. On the next day one of them is dead and the man, Peter Kirkland, asks Betty to investigate the apparent suicide. He fears his jealous, unbalanced wife Virginia might have committed a crime."
[from TV.com]

It's my supposition that Peter Kirkland and Carlie Kirkland were brother and sister, but that Carlie lived in Boston while Peter lived in the City of Angels. It's no wonder Peter's wife Virginia was mentally unbalanced.... Ladies, how would you feel if you found out that your husband married you because you were the spitting image of his sister?

Let's crank up that Eww Dial to 11, shall we?

BCnU!
Toby OB

EPA fines Gila River Hazardous Waste Facility

Gila River tribal members protested Romic hazardous waste facility in March. Romic has now been fined by the US EPA for hazardous chemical releases.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0426romic0426.html

Gila River Tired of Being Dumped On

Statement of Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE) during the March Protest: "A toxic waste treatment facility called Romic Southwest sits in the Gila River Indian Community next to Chandler. The U.S. EPA refuses to fine this company despite serious and repeat violations and the people who live and work in the community have little means to do anything about it. That is why dozens of people came out to demand the toxic waste facility be shut down. People lined both sides of the street near the facility holding signs and banners. Speeches were made as the crowd rallied in an open lot, listening to the stories of ill-health, similar struggles that others are facing around the country, and encouragement. A walk to the location where the police had blocked off the road to the Romic facility was made twice during that day. ROMIC - Who are they? Romic Southwest hazardous waste facility at the Gila River Indian Community: Bringing Hazardous Wastes from Around the World to Gila River! Let's Stop This Toxic Threat To Our Health, Environment & Culture! Did You Know? · “Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation” operates a commercial hazardous waste “treatment” facility at Lone Butte Industrial Park on the Gila River Indian Community, and they are authorized to store and “treat” hundreds of highly dangerous toxic chemicals and toxic metals. · Romic accepts hazardous waste shipped from around the world! · Romic wants to expand the amount of hazardous waste they store on site by about 50%! Romic wants to add 15 new tanks to store additional hazardous waste. · This plant has existed since 1975 and has a terrible history of violations including: o hazardous waste leaks o hazardous waste barrels stored in flooded areas o missing inspection and monitoring reports o missing hazardous waste labels o incomplete inspection logs o open containers of hazardous waste · According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspection reports, the dangerous practices have continued at the facility for decades. · · U.S. EPA refuses to fine this company despite serious and repeat violations. · · U.S. EPA never told the community the truth about this hazardous waste company, its problems or risks, or the proposed big expansion. EPA has allowed this company to operate for decades without full permits or any environmental impact report. · · In December 2002 Romic applied to U.S. EPA for a permit to expand and continue operating, but the EPA has failed to hold a public hearing where tribal members could voice concerns." -- Lori (Thomas-Luna) Riddle Co-Founder of GRACE, (Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment.) contaminatedinaz@... check out this site: http://www.geocities.com/contaminatedinaz/

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/56035_comment.php#56047

http://phoenixinsurgent.blogspot.com/2007/03/photos-and-some-analysis-of-anti-romic.html

http://toolatetotakeitback.blogspot.com/2007/03/if-heat-doesnt-kill-you.html

Hopi File Class Action Suit Over Black Mesa Mining

Photo: Sacred Lands Film Project
http://www.sacredland.org/endangered_sites_pages/black_mesa.html

Contact: Vernon Masayesva 928/734-9255

Black Mesa Trust Supports Traditional Hopis Suing Office of Surface Mining
Class action lawsuit alleges violations of religious freedom

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz., April 27, 2007 – Black Mesa Trust is offering its support to Hopi tribal members on whose behalf a lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining.The class action lawsuit alleges that OSM violated traditional Hopis' religious freedom when the office scheduled the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for the Black Mesa Project during January and February, a period during which Hopi religion requires that people attend primarily to their religious obligations to the exclusion of public matters. "I had to find someone to take over my responsibilities so I could go to the hearing," said Jerry Honawa, a Hopi religious practitioner and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. "And then it was not even a hearing," he continued. Honawa referred to the hearings on the draft environmental impact statement held by OSM on Hopi and Navajo and in surrounding towns during the comment period. Honawa is particularly disturbed by OSM's selection of Alternative A, which allows unlimited use of N-aquifer water for the Black Mesa mining operation if a proposed project to bring water from the C-aquifer south of Interstate 40 to the mine falls through. And he is upset not only by OSM's refusal to respond to his concerns at the hearings, but to the size and complexity of the document on which he was trying to comment. "It is 758 pages," he said. "I don't think anyone on the Hopi Tribal Council has read the entire document. They are just going along with whatever OSM says." The lawsuit alleges that OSM violated both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the provisions of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act by knowingly and deliberately scheduling the comment period in the middle of the Hopi religious calendar. "There is no exceptionally compelling state interest in requiring traditional Hopis…to choose between honoring their religious beliefs and practice and grappling with reading, analyzing, understanding, and being forced to comment on a massive, complex, 758-page draft environmental impact statement on the Black Mesa Project during the religious portion of the Hopi calendar," reads the papers filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona on April 16.The length and complexity of the document are also issues for Black Mesa Trust Executive Director Vernon Masayesva. "The draft EIS is not written in language that lay people can understand," he said, "and that is in direct violation of the principles of the National Environmental Protection Act. Not only was the comment period scheduled at an inappropriate time, but OSM insisted that our comments be 'concise' and refer to specific sections of the EIS. But their document does not meet the 'concise; standard, and by not writing it in comprehensible language, OSM made it impossible for us to comply with their requirements." The lawsuit also alleges that OSM's actions violated the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Under Article IX of that treaty, by which Mexico ceded to the United States the traditional lands of the Hopi people, "the United States of America agreed that the people residing in the territory acquired under that Treaty would be accorded the rights of citizens of the United States, including the right to be 'secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction,'" reads the lawsuit. Black Mesa Trust is a non-profit grassroots organization founded to protect the N-aquifer on Black Mesa for future generations of Hopis and Navajos. For more than three decades, Peabody Western Coal, the world's largest coal mining company, used water from the aquifer, the sole source of drinking water on Hopi, to slurry coal from the Black Mesa Mine to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. Mohave shut down at the end of 2005 because its owners failed to comply with a consent decree ordering them to install pollution control equipment. The plant remains closed and majority owner Southern California Edison has said that it has given up its attempts to reopen the facility. Nevertheless, OSM has continued with the EIS process, possibly to make the power plant more attractive to potential buyers. Without the pollution control equipment, the 1580 MW coal-fired power plant is the dirtiest in the West. -- Tanya Lee(603) 377-0267 (cell)(617) 491-6106 (tel)7270 Slayton Ranch RoadFlagstaff, AZ 860042 Chester StreetCambridge, MA 02140

MRS. SAM, ALONE

In his blog this week, Ken Levine spoke about the little trivial bits of business that were done on 'Cheers' that the audience ignored when it came to believability or impact on the series. Of all items on the list - from the placement of the phone to customers actually paying for drinks - there was one in particular which caught my non-network logo eye: He mentions that "In the second episode [of Cheers] it was established that Sam was divorced, then never mentioned again."

No need for me to verify that trivia tidbit; Mr. Levine must know what he's talking about, since he was a writer and co-producer for the series.

'Cheers' has been off the air for well over a decade; even its sequel, 'Frasier' is gone now. So the possibility that any speculation on the identity of the former Mrs. Malone might contradict the established "history" of the character isn't very likely. And I don't think that, should it ever come back in a reunion special, Sam's first wife will be the major plot point for the show.

Before he retired to open the bar "Cheers", Sam Malone had been a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. This doesn't necessarily mean that he always played for that team, nor should we infer that he remained in the area because he already had established roots there from growing up in Beantown. (If his family was from the Boston area, we should have seen more of his brother Derek, and perhaps meet his parents - if they were still alive.)

I think he chose to open his bar in Boston because that was the site of his greatest fame and that would be something he could rely upon to help keep the customers coming in - the chance to see a "local legend" from their beloved Sox. So I'm thinking that Sam was originally from elsewhere, but most likely the East Coast, before he joined the team.

I'm also going to assume that, like Carl Yastrzemski before him, Sam Malone spent his entire baseball career with only one major league team. (And woohoo for me - I spelled Carl's last name right on the first try!)

It's my own assumption that if most major league ballplayers came to "the Show" already married, their wives were high school sweethearts or at least somebody they knew from their lives before joining the team. If that was the case for Sam, then we've got the entire Tele-Folks Directory at our disposal to find candidates for Mrs. Malone!

I'm going to go with the idea that Sam didn't fall in love and get married until he got to Boston. That would narrow down the list to characters from TV shows that were set in the Beantown locale.

One of my favorite research sites for televisiology is TV Acres (as always, the link is to the left) where Mr. Holst has an incredible collection of trivia tidbits for all sorts of categories - from "aardvarks" to "Yugoslavians". Under "geographical locations", I culled this list of shows that take place in Boston, Massachusetts:

The Adams Chronicles/PBS/1976
Against the Law/FOX/1990-91
All Souls/UPN/2001 All Soul's Hospital
Ally McBeal/FOX/1997-2002
Banacek/NBC/1972-74
Beacon Hill/CBS/1975
Boston Common/NBC/1996-97 Randolph Harrington College
Boston Public/FOX/2000-04 Winslow High School
Cheers/NBC/1982-93
Costello/FOX/1998
Crossing Jordon/NBC/2001+ Boston's Coroner's Office
Goodnight, Beantown/CBS/1983-84
The Great Defender/FOX/1995
Hothouse/ABC/1988 Near Boston
It Had To Be You/CBS/1993
James at 15/NBC/1977-78
The Law and Harry McGraw/CBS/1987-88
Lenny/CBS/1990-91
The Paper Chase/CBS/1978-79 The Paper Chase: The Second Year/SHO/1983-84
The Paper Chase: The Third Year/SHO/1985
The Paper Chase: The Graduation Year/SHO/1986
Paul Sand In Friends And Lovers/CBS/1974-75
The Practice/ABC/1997-2004
The Righteous Apples/PBS/1980.
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch/ABC/WB/1996-2003 Adams College
St. Elsewhere/NBC/1982-88
Spenser: For Hire/ABC/1985-88
To Have & To Hold/CBS/1998
21 Beacon Street/NBC/ABC/1959-60
Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place (Two Guys & A Girl)/ABC/1998-2001
The Young Lawyers/ABC/1970-71

Out of all those options, there were two in which I found pozz'ble candidates for the first Mrs. Sam Malone; one was a specific case and from the other, it's more of a generality.

First up: Carlie Kirkland, from 'Banacek' (played by Christine Belford)

If Carlie was ever married to Sam, it had to have been before 'Banacek' aired (1972-74), when they were both in their early twenties. But Sam's inevitable philandering would have driven Carlie to seek a divorce, and could account for why she had such a bitter attitude towards Banacek - perhaps she saw a lot of her former husband in the insurance investigator?

(And we know Sam had to be fooling around during his marriage - in the 'Cheers' episode "Sam Time Next Year" from 1991, we learned that Sam had been carrying on a one night a year affair for at least twenty years with one Lauren Hudson - the name by which he knew Mandy Stephenson aka "Agent 99"......)

The other example would be 'Beacon Hill', the American copy of 'Upstairs, Downstairs', which was set during the 1920s. There is no specific character, obviously, from that show but one of the descendants of the Lassiter family could have met Sam and eventually married him. It would certainly have made all the papers in Boston at the time - young heiress from a Kennedyesque family falls in love with handsome young sports star.

But the pressures of that celebrity, with Sam on the road most of the year, and the notoriety - again, from Sam's dalliances - would have taken their toll on their marriage.

What's great about this option is that the candidate is nebulous enough that we don't even have to narrow it down to a specific actress... or even what her first name was. And she could be a direct descendant of the Lassiter family, yet with a different last name. This would be due to her being the daughter of any child borne by Fawn Lassiter (assuming she gave birth after marriage, which would have changed her surname).

I could have looked among the female characters from the cast of 'St. Elsewhere', but as that show is already linked to 'Cheers' I didn't have much interest in fortifying the connection.

Besides, I'm in the camp that believes that the events of 'St. Elsewhere' actually took place. I didn't want to get into that whole argument that it all took place in the mind of the autistic Tommy Westphall. (And which is apparently what I've just done anyway.....)

SHOWS CITED:
'Cheers'
'Frasier'
'Banacek'
'Beacon Hill'
'St. Elsewhere'
'Get Smart'
'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'

BCnU!
Toby OB

Shoshone Receive 10,000 Signatures to Stop Barrick Gold

Great news from the Western Shoshone:

In the first 24 hours, the petition to stop Barrick Gold's destruction on sacred Shoshone land has received 10,000 signatures. Western Shoshone say: Keep the signatures coming. They will deliver the petition to the Barrick shareholders in Toronto. Sign the petition: http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/barrick?rk=2p%5fVX971s5BuE
Top photo: GOLD MINING CORES OUT MOUNTAINS: Newmont gold mining on Western Shoshone land/Project Underground

(R) Western Shoshone Larson Bill video documents gold mining operations on Mount Tenabo near Elko, Nevada. Photo Brenda Norrell.
(L)Western Shoshone and friends on Mount Tenabo. Photo Brenda Norrell.

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News from Ghana: "Newmont Under Pressure"

http://allafrica.com/stories/200704260831.html

Around the world, gold mining targets Indigenous lands and cores out mountains for small amounts of gold:Strike at mine in Peru and talk of Barrick's purchase of Newmont:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Newmont+Barrick

Tohono O'odham Funny Lady Teresa Choyguha

Comedy night with Tohono O'Odham funny woman, Teresa Choyguha on Friday, May 11, 2007 at the Lehi Community Building, Stapley and Oak on the Salt River Indian Community, Phoenix.

VISITING HOURS

To mark the return of Regis Philbin to his talk show with Kelly Ripa this morning, David Letterman appeared on the program to welcome him back (just as Regis had done on his show when Dave had bypass surgery a few years ago).

Said the "gap-toothed TV Boy" (as he once called himself):
“You know, my first bypass was ‘The Tonight Show.’”

Then he added this advice:
“The only thing I can advise both of you is to stay away from ‘The View,’ because they’re dropping like flies over there.”

BCnU!
Toby OB

RENEWED "PASSIONS"?

The witchcraft-filled soap opera 'Passions' was supposed to end this fall on NBC, but now it looks like it will get a second life. However, in a deal that the Peacock is working on, life in the town of Harmony will only be seen on DirecTV

It won't be "same as it ever was", though. It's expected that the budget will be greatly decreased to accommodate the new format. As such, it will probably only air four times a week and there will probably be a reduction in the cast.

But think of the blipvert they could make to promote the fact that 'Passions' is now on DirecTV, following in the footsteps of the ads using 'Entourage', the 'Star Trek' films, 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'Back To The Future' (which both have a Toobworld existence).

Just so long as they kept Tabitha Lennox in Harmony. Not that I watch the soap, but it really isn't even worth the effort if that witch isn't on board the project!

Just sayin', is all....

BCnU!
Toby OB

Most Censored 2007

Most Censored and Under-Reported News of Indigenous Peoples 2007

--Leonard Peltier Theater, "My Life is My Sundance"
--Canada's Counterinsurgency Draft Manual Names Mohawks as Terrorists, Calls for Ambushes and Assassinations
--Marcos and Zapatistas Return to Border, Plan Intercontinental Summit
--El Paso Celebrates Onate, The Butcher of Pueblos, With Statue
--Arizona Congressman Renzi, FBI Probe and Links to Military Intelligence and Navajo, Apache and Yavapai Lands and Business Deals
--Houston Councilman Still on Air After Insulting American Indians
--Navajos' Sanostee Chapter Opposes Desert Rock Power Plant by Resolution
--Tohono O'odham Tribal Officials Knew of Mexico's Plans for Hazardous Dump in Ceremonial Communtiy of Quitovac Near Border, but Never Told O'odham in Sonora
.............Scroll down for articles and more censored news...........................
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THANKS FOR THE UNCENSORED NEWS:
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Special thanks to Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net for links to the stories on the Censored blog covering the Zapatistas in Sonora and to staff at Indianz.com for sharing the story on Racist Radio Talk in Houston.
http://www.pechanga.net (Native News category)
http://www.indianz.com
Special thanks to Chris Spotted Eagle at KFAI in Minneapolis for sharing Censored News on the web and on air at "Indian Uprising," a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs Indigenous People broadcast each Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.
www.kfai.org Listen: "Programs & Schedule" or by program “Archives.”
Many thanks to Mohawk Nation News for sharing news:
Kahentinetha Horn - MNN Mohawk Nation News
E-mail: kahentientha2@yahoo.com Website: http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
A special thanks to the publishers of Narco News and the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague for continuing to publish uncensored news:
http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.unobserver.com/
Many thanks to IRC Americas and Counterpunch for publishing uncensored articles on the Indigenous Border Summit and Indigenous World Uranium Summit:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://www.counterpunch.org/

"HOLBY BLUE" NOTE

Shades of 'Good Times'! The BBC is developing a spin-off from a spin-off to perhaps give them a boost on Wednesday nights. For now it's being referred to as 'Holby Blue' and will focus on the police station that's nearby to the hospital, which is featured in 'Holby City' and its parent series, 'Casualty'.

According to the story I read about this, ITV did something similar with 'The Royal' in 2003, which was spun off from 'Heartbeat'. 'The Royal' was about a small hospital in the village of Aidensfeld in the North York Moors (but only to be found in Toobworld), while 'Heartbeat' was about the police in that area.

The producers of 'Holby Blue' haven't decided yet how much crossover there will be between the various series, but if the past is any indication, then it may be limited to special events like the Christmas specials. (I would imagine there would also have to be at least a few characters from the other two shows to help launch 'Holby City', which is supposedly scheduled to debut on April 30.)

As it stands now, there's not much interaction between 'Holby City' and 'Casualty' as it is, and they take place in the same hospital. (Again, those crossovers mostly occur just during the holidays.)

With the re-invigoration of BBC-America, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Holby Blue' was launched on that network over here, while it was still in its infancy, allowing the American audience to jump in without so much backstory to absorb.

BCnU!
Telly Toby

THE TIMES IN "JEOPARDY" FOR 100, ALEX

It's "hump day" for this theme week on 'Jeopardy!', when all the categories are coming from the various sections of the New York Times. (This will happen again during the week of July 9th.)

Each day this week there has been one category from the Times using information and news stories to be found in either the Book Review, Business Day, House & Home, Science Times, and The Arts sections.

The connection between the game show and the newspaper works both ways. The "Clue of the Day" has been a feature in the paper and online at NYTimes.com. And the Times is also a sponsor of the program's "Brain Bus," a Winnebago that travels across the country, from which the producers conduct auditions for new contestants.

BCnU!
Who Is Toby OB?