You can run, but you can't hide in San Diego

From the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished files:

A 53-year-old woman who escaped from a Michigan prison in 1976 is facing extradition after being arrested at her upscale home in San Diego, officials said today.

Susan Lefevre, sentenced in 1975 to 10 to 20 years in prison on drug charges, was living as Marie Walsh with her husband in the Carmel Valley neighborhood here, the U.S. marshal's office said.

A tipster had alerted Michigan officials to Lefevre's whereabouts. Her identity was confirmed through the thumbprint on her driver's license.

Lefevre was in "disbelief" when she was arrested last week, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Steve Jurman. At first she denied being the fugitive but then relented, he added.

"She kept saying, 'Are you sure? Are you sure you have to take me?' " Jurman said. "She told me, 'It was the 1970s. Everybody was doing heroin. It's not like it is today.' " . . . .

She will probably have to serve between five and nine years in prison before being eligible for parole, Marlan said. Meanwhile, Michigan officials will investigate to see if she has broken any other laws in her three decades as a fugitive, he said. A fugitive warrant lists several aliases she allegedly used.

I know people have to pay their debt, but, don't you kinda feel bad for her? A Michigan prison spokesman asked what sort of message it would send to other prisoners if you could escape, live clean, and have your sentence dropped if you were caught?

Well, that's kind of a scared-straight message, isn't it? IF you can live clean . . . isn't it a rehabilitation-based system for which we strive here?

Hells Angel hath no fury like a Hells Angel scorned

In a hallmark of 1st Amendment activism a Hells Angel got himself an apology from the Superior Court for a 'misunderstanding' in a judge's order regarindg his scary vest.

Awesome.

Give her, and me, a break

If the Vanity Fair cover is the worst this 15 year old has done, maybe we should give her a flippin' break. She had to apologize for a soft-focus, Annie Lebowitz cover photo of her looking like a painted figurine?

As if.

Caution, sad animal story ahead

This is by far the saddest thing I've read in a very long time.

Why do animal stories reach us when more horrific human stories can't?

A little bit of Iraq infamy still building a home in our region

Fabulous!

Blackwater is still working on its new training center:

Blackwater Worldwide is planning to open an indoor training facility in Otay Mesa after abandoning a controversial proposal to build a training center for law enforcement and the military on an East County chicken ranch.

It wasn't local concerns that scrapped the first proposal, but rather Blackwater's concerns that it be associated with anything chicken.

The new location is cool:

Broughton said the building was already permitted for use as a vocational trade school, and Blackwater's training activities would fall within that category.

It's a trade school! Like a beauty school.

'California home foreclosures hit a record '

California home foreclosures hit record levels in the first quarter of the year - but don't worry, we're not in a recession.

Ironic Headlines, Exhibit A

"Clinton says margin won't matter for a Pennsylvania victory" said a headline from earlier today that linked to an article via Rough & Tumble that now tells a different story - one of Clinton's big win in Pennsylvania where I'm betting now the margin WILL matter in the campaign's press releases.

That expectations game is pretty risky, isn't it.

This is Why I Didn't Do a Senior Project

SO first, this girl said she was inducing pregnancy and miscarriages as 'art' for a senior project.

You know, to create a dialogue and generally be appalling.

Now, it turns out the real senior project was fooling all us.

I'd say she should get an A.

Because Homosexuality Is a Joke Right?

Over at Out they're talking about the "man crush".

Why exactly is it straight guys can't seem to understand the difference between like and, you know, like like.

Or they're just using 'man crushes' as a way to clear up any confusion about the possibility that they could be gay.

Because maybe that way the audience will be reassured that they're just kidding. Because homosexuality is a joke, right?

Third Rail! Don't Pee On It!

Finally, in the second hour, there are some questions that might matter in the presidential debates. Not who is friends with who. Blah!

But a question about US reactions to an attack on Israel? Whoa, that's pretty heavy for a couple of moderators who posed a question about whether Obama's lack of a flag pin might hamper his ability to lead the country.

For crap sake - they are called moderators - can't they be more, uh, moderate and keep all the questions straight and focused. Most of the questions are unanswerable for being either too fluffy or far to important for Americans to really listen to.

They answered fine, as far as they could.

The gun divide in PA

This is a great article on the PA gun paradox. Hunters in the geographically larger red part of the state love their guns. But people are dying in gun violence at an alarming rate in the smaller, bluer parts of the state.

It's like that in other states too, of course. I think our hunter demographic is smaller, or less vocal, here in Cali, but we certainly are familiar with gun violence.

I'm not sure how we still love and celebrate something that causes such destruction. Our courts are set up to favor letting 10 guilty people go rather than imprison one innocent man, so why can't we favor fewer dead in the cities over the ability to shoot crap in the country?

I suppose we don't exactly get those innocent people out though. Maybe we're wrong in lots of areas.

Does no one have to GIVE anymore?

Seriously, what is up with Republicans and tax cuts? I know they hate taxes, but I thought they liked personal responsibility and people doing their part? If we Dems are tax-and-spend, are they tax-cut-and-spend? McCain wants us to have a summer vacation from gas taxes? 'Cause that would help federal infrastructure like LOADS, right?

Hey, we're miserable!

Study: Middle-class Americans increasingly downbeat about their short-term economic progress

Yeesh. When it rains it pours. Poors?

A Prestigious And Large Group

Twenty-seven SD schools were chosen as California Distinguised Schools. Only 343 out of the 839 schools that applied were selected. A mere 40%. Selective. Our schools are saved. Work done. Let's make Jack O'Connell governor.

Oy, I'm in a mood.

Head Out to FilmOut!

This weekend is the start of the 10th annual FilmOut. One week will cover 72 films, comedy, drama, etc.

“It seems that with any kind of artistic social movement, the original effort was to portray, especially in gay films, our lives positively in the beginning to gain legitimacy and reflect positively back on our community,” he said. “I think now people are most interested in seeing a whole panoply of images about gay life. So we want to see the dark, scary thriller. I want to see a full range of gay characters and gay stories, and sometimes life is a romantic comedy, and sometimes life is a horror story – so why can’t we do all of those?”

So there you go, now we're legitimate enough to have dark movies too. Go us!

What Do You Have on Your iPod?

The Governator gave the French ambassador a very personal gift for his visit today. An iPod with the Arnold's favorite music.

And the ambassador said, American music? ew. No, actually he said beach boyrs, guns n' roses, grateful dead? Did someone give Arnold a list of 'classic american music'?

How typical

How can the party of individual responsibility always be in favor of removing any personal responsibility from solving our biggest policy problems?

Assembly Republicans are working on a plan to give schools more money next year without a tax increase, countering a drive by Democrats to protect schools with a tax increase.

From the party that brought you a war withouth victory gardens comes an education funding crisis that requires no worry on your part whatsoever. Rockin'!

Sign of the times

You love the sign, now meet the man.

There is a father, leading the way with a clear sense of urgency, bent at the waist. A mother, running behind him, despite the prim dress that hugs her knees. A little girl, holding her mother's hand, unable to keep pace, her feet barely touching the ground, her pigtails -- everyone knows the pigtails -- flowing behind.

In 1990, the image would be projected onto black vinyl, traced with a knife blade, glued onto yellow signs, topped with one word -- CAUTION -- and placed on the shoulders of freeways, mostly along Interstate 5 north of the Mexican border.

The sign served as a warning that drivers could encounter people racing across the interstate -- most of them trying to get from Mexico into the United States. It would become one of the most iconic and enduring images associated with the nation's war over illegal immigration. And it would leave John Hood, now 59 years old and preparing to retire, conflicted and ambivalent about his strange legacy.

Interesting article, but largely just a gloss on the man who made the sign and the many groups who have adopted the sign to different ends. You can imagine who uses the sign for what.

I recall not understanding the sign, and subsequently laughing at it, when I was younger and saw it for the first time during a family trip to Sea World.

Ponder though, that anyone would risk running across the interstate to find freedom. It may be illegal. It's pretty stupid. But it's moving as well.