They certainly know A-list writing talent when they see it at True/Slant. First they sign up the likes of Matt Taibbi, Miles O’Brien, David Rees and Michael Shermer, now Fishbowl LA editor Tina Dupuy will be posting at the site, presumably about subject matter that doesn’t fit neatly into her day job blogging about media types in Los Angeles. Tina posted a great essay over the holiday weekend that I’d like to share with you here, about a topic that I’ve wanted to write about myself (but now don’t have to!) regarding…well, how the Canadians have it much better than we do:

Imagine a handsome young family complete with kids living in a stylish two-story home in a quiet neighborhood. The parents work normal middle-class jobs. The dad is a city bus driver, mom is a secretary. Their house is brimming with consumer goods: a couple of mammoth-sized televisions, a drum set for the kids and high-end furniture. The mother?

Anuradha Mittal at The Nation covers the legacy of the Battle of Seattle ten years on. As Obama readies to country to return to war in Afghanistan for completely inscrutable reasons of empire, it’s a good time to remember the other side?

Torturing, lying, murdering cockroaches slink away into the darkness, their crimes unpunished, as we bicker over whether or not we deserve to be healthy. What in the hell went wrong?

Most Americans are blissfully in the dark about it, but across the Atlantic in the UK, a commission reluctantly established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown under pressure from anti-war activists in Britain is beginning hearings into the actions and statements of British leaders that led to the country?

 
As readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Matt Taibbi. No one, save for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, comes close to his ability to hone in on the very essence of a political issue and then lacerate the guilty parties with the flick knife of his prose. What an amazing writer. It’s all A game with Taibbi, but he’s especially on point when he writes about Sarah Palin. Sample some of the goods from his most recent column at True/Slant:

Sarah Palin is the Empress-Queen of the screaming-for-screaming?

 
Chase Whitestead and Erick Stroll of New Left Media spoke to Sarah Palin fans at her book signing in Clumbus, Ohio. The object of their line of questioning is simple “Why do you like Sarah Palin?” and “Why do you think she would make a good president?” These are hardly trick questions, but not one of the people assembled there had an answer to either (or at least an answer that makes any sense). This is funny and sad at the same time. These people are so uninformed and gullible, it fucking hurts.

 
As city officials grapple with the issue (notice I didn’t write “problem”) of what to do about the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, it seems likely that City Council members will ignore the calls from City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley for a citywide shut down of the cannabis clubs in favor of a more nuanced approach. But that won’t be easy either, as L.A .Times reporter John Hoeffel writes this morning.

Additionally, proposals to limit the number of dispensaries are likely to face several legal hurdles and courtroom challenges before they can be implemented and proposals to restrict the amount of cannabis each dispensary can have on hand per month have, so far, suggested totals that most Los Angeles-based collectives would currently sell every few days. The City Council will be challenged to balance concerns of patients, business owners and law enforcement with the potential for substantial revenues created from taxing cannabis sales—taxes that could result in more teachers and better road repairs for the city, advocates say.

Ironically, as L.A. prepares to crack down on medical marijuana, opinion seems to be trending nationally in favor of full decriminalization of marijuana and a tax on its sale. In 2009, there has been a noticeable sea change in how the issue is reported on in the mainstream media. While there are critics who believe, like Trutanich and Cooley, that marijuana dispensaries increase crime and provide outlets for Mexican drug cartels, the view from outside of Los Angeles doesn’t appear to be one of fear, but of curiosity, or dare I say it, even envy.

Like this article, “Support for legalizing marijuana grows rapidly around U.S.” which appeared in today’s Washington Post:

The boom town atmosphere brought complaints from some neighbors, but little of the crime associated with underground drug-dealing. Advocates cite the latter as evidence that, as with alcohol, violence associated with the marijuana trade flows from its prohibition.

“Seriously,” said Bruce Merkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, “there is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests.”

Meanwhile award-winning L.A. Times business columnist David Lazarus channels his inner Cheech and Chong with this droll video commentary on the matter: 

Cross posting this from Brand X

BWAHAHAHA. Fox News accidentally shows a copy of the Palin parody “Going Rouge” while discussing said Right Wing Idiot. Baby Jesus is laughing too!

(Fishbowl LA: Fox News Accidentally Promos ‘Going Rouge’)

(Going Rouge, the Book)

Now that weird-alien-bobble-head-guy Herman van Rompuy has been elected King of Infinite Space cough cough I mean president of the European Council, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that… well, at least it wasn’t Tony Blair. However, check out this utterly bizarre story on the election process below?

After 20 years, the CIA has finally released Iran-Contra documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Better late than never, I suppose. See docs and analysis here.

It?

 

 

 

 
From Good:

The ongoing battle between medical marijuana advocates and law enforcement has begotten some tricky legality, which has lead to all sorts of uncertainty regarding growth and distribution, and, ultimately, prosecution (or non-prosecution) of distributors. Meanwhile, in places like Northern California?