Bi-Rite owner Sam Mogannam grew up in the ’70s and ’80s watching the blocks surrounding Dolores Park and his family’s 18th Street market act as a gathering ground for rallies, performance groups, and sunny-day revelers. In the late ’90s, his gritty turf started turning to gold as dot-commers, coffee houses, and condos arrived to take advantage of the neighborhood’s low overhead. Charles Phan’s original Slanted Door on Valencia Street was followed by Delfina and Tartine bakery, helping make Mogannam’s short block a foodie destination. “I love that it’s become such a center of engagement in the city. Every weekend’s like a celebration,” says Mogonnam, who also watched the aftermath of the Internet bust and the most recent economic tanking in 2008. “The economy had a huge impact. Many longtime businesses, like an old automotive repair shop, closed, and as a consequence, large spaces are now available to creative and independent-minded entrepreneurs.” (See Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia and McSweeney’s for inspiration.)

Since the New College of California closed in 2008, the stretch of Valencia between 16th and 19th streets has been picked over by the city’s restaurateurs, getting in on the food-as-recreation scene. By the fall, we should see Delfina’s new Roman-inspired Locanda, Farina’s spin-off Antica Pizzeria Napoletana, a wine barrel room from Town Hall, the Marina’s Tacolicious (co-owned by 7x7 senior editor Sara Deseran), Mission Cheese shop, an expanded Bar Tartine, and construction on the old Slanted Door space as Phan plans his return to the Mission. Also in the works is Preservation Hall, a New Orleans jazz venue that should anchor the hub with a nightlife that goes beyond the trendy dining that started it all. 

Beyond Valencia, the scene is slowly making its way deeper into the Mission. Around 24th Street, out-of-towners and (gasp) Marina types come for a short row of boutiques that popped up over the past three years and to taste the inner Mission’s wild offerings (hello, Humphry Slocombe’s foie gras ice cream sandwich) that are changing the flavor of what’s traditionally been a taqueria-saturated corridor. So, too, is this August’s third annual SF Street Food Festival, which turns a usually empty Folsom Street into an al fresco food court with thousands of visitors and more than 50 pop-up kitchens. Further in, and away from the neighborhood’s two BART stops, candlelit dining room Heirloom and nearby pasta mecca Flour+Water have helped skew what’s been a dense residential area into a place with more foot traffic.

This spring on 20th Street, down the road from a parking lot on Folsom that’s just been approved for a community garden, Flour+Water is launching a foodie compound that will house a new Humphry Slocombe Parlour, Salumeria delicatessan, outdoor dining hall Central Kitchen, and Trick Dog Bar from hotshot bartenders Bon Vivants. “It’s a slow, steady change,” says 37-year resident Tree Rubenstein. “We’re in the middle of an economic collapse, but at the same time, we’re still very rich here—in great open spaces and, of course, food.” 

Timeline: The Mish Mashup

November 1995: Chef Charles Phan opens the Slanted Door on a gritty stretch of Valencia Street, bringing in diners from all over the city. Meanwhile, over on 18th Street, a new generation of Mogannams takes over their family store, Bi-Rite, rebranding it as a high-end gourmet grocery.

November 1998: Craig Stoll opens Delfina on 18th near Guerrero, next door to Bi-Rite, launching SF’s version of a “gourmet ghetto.”

October 1999: Century-old Freed, Teller, and Freed, the longest-running coffee and tea seller in the city, closes its doors at the height of the dot-com bubble to be converted into condos.

November 2000: Proposition L, a measure that would have banned new office space in the Mission, is narrowly defeated.

February 2005: La Cocina, an incubator kitchen on Folsom Street, opens to help low-income entrepreneurs develop food service businesses by providing commercial kitchen space, mentorship, and business training.

October 2007: The San Francisco Superior Court extends a preliminary gang injunction (targeting Norteño gang members) to the Mission, which the SF city attorney’s office now credits as a contributing factor in SF’s reduced crime rate.

June 2008: Tartine Bakery husband-and-wife team Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt win the national James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chefs.

March 2010: The first batch of startup companies takes residence at The Summit, a coffee shop/workspace/ startup incubator/investment fund that offers mentoring from business elites.

April 2010: La Mission, a low-budget drama starring Benjamin Bratt as an ex-con Muni driver, opens in Bay Area theaters.

July 2010: The neighborhood’s first farmers market, Mission Community Market, opens on Bartlett and 22nd streets.

August 2010: Steve Jobs is turned away from at-capacity Flour +Water. Hey Steve, make a reservation.

January 2011: A movie crew working on an animated film for Disney moves into a former chocolate factory at 16th and Folsom streets.

January 2012: The renovation of Dolores Park, set to include a world-class playground with an emphasis on natural materials, should be completed if kept on schedule.

 

One of Sacramento’s biggest controversies in 2010 centered on the Second Saturday Art Walk.

Initially intended to be a family-friendly arts showcase, it had, before 2010 started, turned into two events – the art walk, and the after party – according to many Midtown residents.

On the morning of Sept. 12, the issue got the attention of the entire city when 24-year-old Victor Hugo Perez Zavala – who police say was not affiliated with a gang – was killed in a gang-related shooting outside a bar on 18th and J streets.

Several others were injured, but it was Zavala’s death on September’s Second Saturday event that brought increased scrutiny to the event.

One Sacramento Press community contributor wrote that Midtown’s concentration of bars and nightlife coupled with an event that regularly brings more than 10,000 people from out of town combined to make the tragedy inevitable.

To read her article in full, click here.

Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton argued that the shooting was not caused by Second Saturday, and the incident would not bring down the art walk or the event as whole.

To read his editorial, click here.

Community members weighed in on The Sacramento Press, proposing a “Second Saturday Synergy 2.0” in which the event would be more focused on art and possibly entail earlier start times, more police presence and other ideas.

To read their suggestions, click here and here.

More than 100 community members met with police and city officials Sept. 25 to discuss options for what might be done to both preserve the event and make it safer. Among the discussion topics were parking, enforcement of the 10 p.m. curfew for minors and better management of the event.

To read about the meeting, click here.

With the increased attention on the event, some questioned whether Second Saturday would go the way of the Thursday Night Market that used to take place on the K Street Mall.

The Sacramento Press interviewed several people involved in the Thursday Night Market, and they had differing opinions on how applicable the comparison was. One said that Second Saturday, like the Thursday Night Market, was becoming a victim of its own success while another questioned if there was actually anything going wrong with the event at all.

To read the article, click here.

Another set of comparisons was drawn between Sacramento and Chicago, with Chicago’s large, city-sponsored events.

Click here to read the article.

With October’s Second Saturday event approaching, police and city officials made plans to step up their efforts, and private citizens’ groups got involved as well.

The Guardian Angels and the newly formed Lavender Angels were not founded in response to Zavala’s death, but both groups took to the streets Oct. 9 to do their part in making a visible security presence on the streets.

To read about the two groups of “angels,” click here.

When Oct. 9 came, approximately 80 police department staff members – ranging from uniformed officers to volunteers – were out to ensure the event’s safety.

Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong told reporters the following day that the event was a success.

To read about the October Second Saturday event and the thoughts of those who attended it, click here.

With the weather turning colder, November and December Second Saturday events were more subdued, but the issue is likely to come up again as the weather warms and more people come to the central city for the event in 2011.

Kevin Johnson photo by Suzanne Hurt, staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Meeting photo by Jon Mortimer. Other photos by Brandon Darnell, staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Top photo taken Oct. 9 is not the Sept. 12 shooting suspect, who reamains at large.

Ruthless, all-female Forty Elephants gang ran capital's biggest shoplifting racket, according to new book

Girl gangs might sound like a modern British problem, but new research has revealed an all-female crime syndicate had a firm and pitiless grip on London as far back as the 18th century.

Forgotten stashes of photographs, records and letters have revealed that although the capital was carved into different fiefdoms by various male villains, one all-female gang ruled part of the gangland underworld for almost two centuries.

"Many a husband lounged at home while his missus was out at work, and many an old lag was propped up by a tireless shoplifting spouse. Some of these terrors were as tough as the men they worked for and protected," said Brian McDonald, who uncovered details of the criminals when researching for his new book, Gangs of London.

The all-female Forty Elephants – or Forty Thieves – worked alongside the notorious Elephant and Castle gang, a sprawling, powerful army of all-male smash-and-grab artists, burglars, receivers, hard men and crafty villains operating across south London. The Forty Elephants, in contrast, was a tightly run, neatly organised collection of cells, whose operations extended across London and into other cities.

Presided over by a formidable "queen", the Forty Elephants were responsible for the largest shoplifting operation ever seen in Britain between the 1870s and 1950s. The gang was first mentioned in newspapers in 1873, but police records suggest it had existed since the late 1700s.

Dressed in specially tailored coats, cummerbunds, muffs, skirts, bloomers and hats sewn with hidden pockets, they mounted raids on London's West End shops, where they plundered goods worth thousands of pounds.

"The girls benefited from prudish attitudes of the time by taking shelter behind the privacy afforded to women in large stores," said McDonald.

They became so well known in London that panic erupted when they were seen near high-class shops. The gang's response was to branch out, expanding their enterprise to country and seaside towns.

In the 20th century, they used high-powered cars to outrun the police. If they were stopped, they were found to be clean: the goods were spirited away to cars driven by male members of the team. When working other towns, they would use trains, depositing empty suitcases at railway stations which they filled with booty for the return trip.

Some of the gang's crimes, however, were opportunistic: Maggie Hughes, a shoplifter with convictions going back to the age of 14, was jailed for three years in 1923 after running out of a jeweller's shop with a tray of 34 diamond rings – straight into the arms of a policeman.

The women had many sidelines, including using false references to obtain work as housemaids, before ransacking employers' homes. Blackmail was another favourite tactic: many men were forced to pay substantial sums after being seduced.

"On the plus side, they threw the liveliest of parties and spent lavishly at pubs, clubs and restaurants," said McDonald. "Their lifestyles were in pursuit of those of glamorous movie stars, combined with the decadent living of 1920s aristocratic flapper society. They read of the outrageous behaviour of rich, bright young things and wanted to emulate them.

The women's stories were discovered by McDonald scoured official birth and death records, trawled through marriage indexes, local newspaper reports and out-of-print books in the British Library archives to uncover their stories.

"Hidden in Britain's underworld are characters and little known gangsters who have received only fleeting comments on their careers," he said. "Far from being side men and women, some of these villains – especially the women – deserved starring roles."

Born in 1896 in Southwark, Annie Diamond became queen of the gang when she was 20. She ruled with military precision, dividing the gang into cells to ransack a single shop or raid a series of shops across the city simultaneously. To the police, she was "the cleverest of thieves" and called Diamond Annie, because she had a "punch to beware of", said McDonald, thanks to fists studded with diamond rings.

The women guarded their territory jealously, demanding a percentage of takings from others caught stealing from shops they considered to be on their turf. Pitiless to those who tried to resist them, they arranged beatings and even kidnappings until money was paid.

The women were playing a risky game. If caught, they could be sentenced to between three and 12 months' hard labour, or three years in prison. But despite that, the gang members were long-timers: Ada Wellman, convicted of shoplifting from the Army and Navy stores in Victoria in 1921, was still an active member of the gang 18 years later, when she was jailed for four months for another crime.

The women rarely wore what they stole, McDonald said; they preferred to dress in legitimate high fashion. Stolen goods were disposed of through a chain of fences in south and north London. Small-value items went to street market traders, jewellery to pawnbrokers, and clothes to shops that were willing to replace labels and remodel designs.

They were clever: when the police raided the house of Ada McDonald in Stead Street, Walworth in 1910, they were foxed by McDonald, a suspected fence for five notorious gangs, who produced ledgers to prove rooms full of stock had been legitimately purchased.Police were also defeated by Jane Durrell, also suspected of being a receiver of stolen goodsanother fence. After numerous failed police investigations, Durrell and her common-law husband, Jim Bullock, were taken to court in 1911 charged with receiving shoplifted goods from a slew of Wwest London shops.

Although three female members of the gang pleaded guilty to their crime and were given prison sentences, the couple lived to fight another day after a jury decided it couldn'tcould not be proved that Durrell and Bullock knew the goods, valued at hundreds of pounds, had been stolen.

Back in September, D.C. personality/musician/promoter Dre All Day showed up at 14th Street NW’s Policy nightclub and restaurant for a music video release party. Being the well-known man about town that he is, he immediately hit the red carpet. He posed, holding two giant bottles of vodka, while various photographers snapped away. After he left the carpet, Dre shook some hands and gave some pounds while making his way to the club’s entrance. Once he reached the door, however, Dre was denied entry, due to his attire. He was wearing jeans, a nice chain, and pair of shades. He was also wearing a plain white T-shirt, an item of clothing Policy's dress code prohibits on club nights.

“The way I look at it, I am who I am to this city, and if you don’t let me in your club, no problem,” Dre says of the incident. “I can always leave and go to Lotus, where there’s no line and no security, or Stadium, which is more upscale than Policy, and everybody knows who Dre All Day is, so there’s no problem.”

Although Dre was not happy about being caught up in the region’s widespread ban on white T-shirts in nightclubs, he actually has no problem with Policy's policy. As an event promoter himself, Dre says he can understand the logic, even if most of the parties he hosts or is affiliated with don’t have strict dress codes.

"I respect the white tee situation," he says. "When you got a certain type of club or certain type of clientele, they get rid of the white tees because they think it symbolizes a certain crowd," he says. "I have no problem with it. If I was a regular Joe Schmoe, I'd just keep it moving, but I'm an uppity negro, so I feel like, 'You got to let me in!'"

The white tee now joins Timberland boots and the vague “athletic wear” on the list of items patrons can’t wear if they want to party inside of many D.C. area nightclubs.

The white tee nightclub crackdown started as far back as three years ago in some Maryland clubs, and as recently as 6 months ago in some clubs inside of the city, according to doormen and bouncers I spoke with. Only two reasons are ever cited for the ban: 1) No one wants a club full of patrons in $2 Hanes undershirts, because it doesn’t look nice; 2) white tees, because they are cheap and nondescript, have become the uniform of troublemakers, much like Timberland boots were in the ‘90s, and clubs would rather those wearing them just stay away.

“Once there was the whole ‘no tennis shoe' policy, now you can wear them, then it was Timbs—there's always a certain look they want” Dre says of club owners and operators. "Now, quite a few clubs will say, 'no white tees,' but in my opinion, it's all about who you know. [At Policy] I didn’t know none of people at the door. didn’t know the security guards. Even people I thought were in control of situaton couldn’t get me in .

"But if I was Allen Iverson, think they’d turn me down?" Dre wonders.

Actually, at Policy, the answer could be yes. Tiffany Penn, special events manager for the venue, says that Tuesday is the only night with a dress code, as it’s the restaurant’s club night, and that dress code is strictly enforced. “On Tuesdays, the dress code is more trendy and sophisticated,” Penn says. “No white tees. At one point they were acceptable and then, at a certain point, it was like, ‘OK, we have an entire club full of white tees.'"

"We still don’t allow Timbs or Nike boots either” she says.

Although Policy seems to be pretty strict about any and all white tees, at other nightclubs in the region, it seems that whether patrons in white T-shirts are granted access to clubs or turned away is entirely at the discretion of whoever is working the door.

In 2005, Chris Shott, then a staff writer at Washington City Paper, wrote the definitive article on Timbs and D.C. nightclubs' dress codes. He found boot bans aren't uniformly enforced. The same is true of white tees. While Timberland boots are the most specific item banned (couldn't clubs just say no work boots?), white tees are the most ill-defined. Both items cause significant headaches for area bouncers when would-be patrons dressed in their boots and tees attempt to gain admittance to various clubs.

With Timbs, the argument is usually, "These aren't Timbs!" With white tees, the argument is typically, "It's just a T-shirt," or, "It's not all white!" So bouncers must decide, in the case of white tees, exactly what is acceptable. If tight is OK, but loose isn’t, if short is acceptable but long doesn’t fly, exactly how big a logo has to be make a white tee appropriate, so that the wearer can get inside the establishment and then proceed to sweat through or spill drinks on it. 

On a recent Saturday at DC Star, a club on Queens Chapel Road NE, a group of eight security guards stood in front of the building, waiting for crowds to descend for that night’s concert, from go-go band T.O.B. White tees were allowed for that show but are just as often banned at DC Star. On those nights, the bouncers have to decide what flies. Most of it comes down to how well-dressed the patron is. (None of the eight bouncers I talked to wanted to give their names, but they were all happy to unload about the tees.)

“Everybody wants their club to be grown and sexy now," says one security guard. “They think if you come here in jeans, tennis shoes, and a white tee, you're looking for trouble. I mean, white tees are only $2. Brothers and sisters aren't coming out in their Sunday best to start trouble. I mean you're not gonna fight in stilettos, right?"

“Actually, they'll pull those off in a minute.” says another guard.

Yet another security guard says he attempted to get into Love with a white tee on and, despite his belonging to the tight-knit network of are security guards, the doormen there turned him away. "You gotta have on a polo shirt and dress shoes to get in there," he said, shaking his head.

Down the road at The Scene, a nightclub on Adams Place NE, managers Will (who declined to give his last name) and Tubb Robinson talk about their club’s white tee ban, and how it is enforced—something they say the staff has had many discussions about. They ever dissect some of their employees’ white tee-based ensembles to give an idea of what does and does not pass muster.

One man wearing a white tee with a bright, graphic pattern and leather jacket walks by and Will remarks, “See how he has that dressed up?” Another employee, introduced as Jay, has on a plain white tee, and has styled it with a green army-style jacket, hat, and nice boots. “He has it dressed up,” Will says. “We just want people to look nice and presentable, but it depends on the event.”

Dre All Day also says that the white tee can look great but urges that not everyone can jazz it up. “ I walk around like a rapper, got my chain, and I can dress it up, but sometimes, a certain class of women discriminate against the white tee,” he says.

But is it really about looks, or is the white tee ban just another instance of clubs targeting whatever is the popular urban fashion that kids are wearing, so they can turn away people they just don't like the looks of?

“You can dress up a white tee, but it seems like there's always something when they come in with the white tees,” says Robinson. “Like, I can look at you, and your shoes, and tell you're not coming in here to knock. But someone dressed like I'm dressed...it's bad that you gotta do that, but people are coming out to enjoy themselves. If you're dressed up, I'm not saying you're not gonna start something, and if you’re in a white tee and boots, I’m not saying you are gonna start something, but his is our venue, we don't wanna lose it, we have to protect it, one way we can protect it is with that dress code." Robinson and Will both add that they're glad the weather is getting cooler, so they no longer have to turn away people showing up to their establishment in white tees and even wifebeaters.

"We treat this like our house, basically," Robinson continues. "And I wouldn't want some dude coming in my house to pick up my daughter in a white tee, and pants hanging down, smelling like weed smoke"

While the Scene and D.C. Star have had white tee bans for a while, as have many P.G. County clubs, tee bans at some clubs in the area are relatively recent.

Blessing Showunmi, an assistant at the 1st Street NW nightclub Ibiza, says she’s not sure how long the club has banned white tees but says that the development is recent enough that the club's white tee policy isn't on its website yet.

“We want this to be an upscale environment, so we don’t want anyone in basic white tees," Showunmi says."There has to be a collar on the shirt, or something thrown on top of it,” she says. “If you go on our website, you'll see we don't do any athletic wear as well. There are pictures taken in the club, and no one wants to see someone in a Nike jumpsuit.

"Appearance has a lot to do with where you party," she continues. "You don’t want to party somewhere where everyone is in gold chains and Nike boots and you have to look over your shoulder when you’re going back to your car.

On recent Thursday night in Adams Morgan, bouncers are less chatty about the dress code, and less blunt about how white tees are tied to all sorts of generalizations about race and class. The bouncer at 18th Street NW spot Grand Central says the club doesn’t allow white tees, but he doesn’t know how long the ban has been in effect.

Nearby Tom Tom bans not only white tees but chains as well. Doorman Yogi Wolridge estimates that Tom Tom began banning white tees a little less than a year ago. And he says people argue with him about their T-shirts regularly.

"They say, 'It's just a T-shirt, there's nothing to it, what's the big deal?" Wolridge says. He adds that some believe that cheap white tees have some gang affiliation. "Most of your gangs or thugs wear them." And unlike places where graphic tees are OK, Wolridge says he has to be on the lookout for too plain and too busy,  as the club also has a graphic tee ban,too. “If it has a little logo that's fine, but not too much," Wolridge says. “No skulls, stuff like that.”

One group he doesn’t have to screen, though, is the women who patronize Tom Tom. “C’mon, ladies don't have a dress code!” he says. “As long as they have on some sort of clothes, they can come in."

A couple of doors down at Club Heaven and Hell, the doorman is as stoic as the one at Grand Central, but says that, yes, they do have a white tee ban, but no, it’s not a problem for him. Why is he so special to be spared tons of young men arguing to him that their T-shirts should be an exception to the rule? “It’s not a big deal, I tell them go to the store right here and buy a black tee for $5,” he says.

The store is 18th Express, two doors down, and the T-shirts area actually $10. They’re not displayed, but walk in and say "black tee" to the counter guy, and he pulls out a giant stack of them. We have a trouble understanding each other during my visit, but some stuff came out. The store sells a fair number of the items per night, offers them only in size XL, and stocks only black—no white tees in sight.

Sacramento Taiko Dan drum group performs during the Second Saturday event in Sacramento on Saturday, October 9, 2010. The city made a few changes to improve safety after last month's shooting marred the popular event.

The palette of Second Saturday remained multi-colored this weekend, a month after a 24-year-old Sacramento City College student was gunned down at the close of the last art walk.

Art cars – modeled into a fish and shark, and one broadcasting zoo sounds – cruised midtown's streets. Models paraded golden retrievers along the sidewalks as part of the "Waltzing the Dog" exhibit at Gallery 2110.

And war protesters waved signs to the jams of the Crazy Harris Band on 20th and J streets.

The fallout from the death of Victor Perez Zavala, who police say was inadvertently caught in gang crossfire, resided in 80 Police Department representatives – on foot, bikes and horses – who lined corners along J and K streets for most of the night. Last month, 29 police officers, community service officers and volunteers worked the event.

"We don't want to be overbearing," said Sgt. Norm Leong of the Sacramento Police Department. "But this is an important event that represents Sacramento."

Leong estimated the crowds were about 25 percent less than the 20,000 who descended on midtown last month – likely due to the usual attrition in the cooler months, a free street party on R Street that drew revelers away from the main artery of J and 20th streets, and a half-hour-earlier end time that put a separation between the art walk and general bar-goers.

"This is what makes Sacramento great," said Mayor Kevin Johnson who strolled the streets after dinner at the Waterboy with his mother and his fiancée, Michelle Rhee. "The weather is awesome and there's so much diversity with people of all ethnicities and ages."

At Barber's Shop Automotive at 18th and L streets, an old-time band complete with an accordion player and fiddler spun tunes in the repair garage as art walk visitors sipped beer purchased for charity.

"We've been here for 30 years and we feel like we're a part of this neighborhood," said one of the garage's partners, Michael Blanchard. "Anytime you bring art, music and people together, it makes community."

Larry Schiavone, who was selling his savory Sicilian-style puff pastries there, said the unfortunate shooting shouldn't spell the end of a cultural tradition.

"I've lived a lot of places, and stuff like this happens everywhere," he said. "There are a certain number of collateral partiers who come along with an event like this, but the pros outweigh the cons."

The police presence didn't tamp down the vendors selling cake stands made from vintage plates and champagne glasses, the overlapping sounds of live music, giant-sombrero-wearing ice cream sellers and the line snaking from the Gong Studio on 20th Street.

A parade of women weaved through the streets as part of a Take Back the Night rally, and members of the Sacramento Ballet demonstrated lifts and spins at the Kennedy Gallery and Green Sacramento.

"The draw is the randomness," said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. His favorite artist of the night was an operatic singer who belted out arias on the sidewalk near 22nd and K streets. "There's always something different and out of the ordinary," he said.

R Street between 14th and 15th was transformed into an outdoor musical venue with the Sacramento News and Review's Sammies awards. Music-goers crowded into the street, and stilt-walkers waved fans and parasols.

Andrea Lepore, co-owner of Hot Italian, sipped on a glass of white wine at Magpie Cafe and watched the revelry. "Second Saturday gets people out of their houses and off their computers and Facebook, and not just looking at art but into the streets and interacting with each other," she said.

Leong said it's not clear if the same ramped-up numbers of officers will be out in force for future Second Saturdays, which draw officers away from other parts of the city. But the Guardian Angels, a group of 17 red beret-wearing volunteers, plan to regularly patrol the monthly event, said Thomas Anderson.

This weekend, the Angels walked the streets of midtown armed with their flashlights and handcuffs.

"Anytime you have this many people in one place, incidents happen," said Anderson, a former Green Beret. "But it's a lot safer out here now than ever before."

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A police officer watches pedestrians cross on J st. as she keeps traffic control during Art Second Saturday. September 11, 2010.

Second Saturday – beloved by some and loathed by others – is back this weekend, only with ramped-up police presence and an end time set at a half hour earlier.

Because a 24-year-old Sacramento City College student was killed in gang crossfire two hours after the close of last month's Second Saturday, city leaders have enacted a plan to save the art-walk-turned-street-fair while staving off chances of a repeat act of violence.

"What's great is the community has come together and said, 'We need to preserve this,' " said R.E. Graswich, special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson. "This is too valuable to be beaten down by the criminal element."

Second Saturday will begin at 5 p.m. and end at 9:30 p.m., to give police more time to clear the streets as well as offer parents more flexibility in picking up their children before the 10 p.m. curfew for minors, said city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

A four-way stop will be instituted for traffic at the intersection of K and 20th streets, and 20th between J and K streets will remain open to vehicles to prevent congregating crowds, Williams said.

Without revealing specifics, Williams said there would be more police on foot, bikes and horses. Alcohol laws will be strictly enforced, she said.

"Overall, people can expect what happens on every Second Saturday – an exciting event with just a few modifications," she said.

Victor Perez Zavala was killed about 12:13 a.m. Sept. 12. He was one of about 200 people who were milling about near the intersection of 18th and J streets when shots rang out.

Police have been targeting members of the gangs they believe were involved in the shooting – in traffic stops and probation searches – but have no new leads in the investigation, said Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong.

About 100 people attended a Sept. 25 community meeting and voiced concerns about traffic, parking, litter and especially inebriated loiterers.

Matt Piner, chairman of the Midtown Neighborhood Association, said the party atmosphere is a problem every weekend, not just on Second Saturdays. Neighborhood residents have repeatedly asked the city to curb over-serving at bars and clubs but only now, after the shooting, are they getting a response, he said.

"We don't want a total moratorium on nightclubs and bars, but we want balance," he said. "Things have gotten out of balance."

As summer turns to fall, city leaders expect fewer than the estimated 20,000 who attended last month to turn out for this Saturday's festivities, although a block party for the Sacramento News & Review's Sammies awards will shut down R between 14th and 15th streets, and a hip-hop and art festival is planned for the I Street alley near 18th.

Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association, insists the shooting last month was not related to Second Saturday because it occurred hours after the event's official end.

Still, the association is training a half dozen concierges, members of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center's Lavender Angels, who will be walking the streets with walkie-talkies to help people find art galleries, restaurants or parking.

"Gang violence plagues us as a society in all sorts of places, so that's not what we're responding to," he said. "The changes we're working on with Second Saturday really have to do with the quality of the event."

• The latest on the U Street shooting: Councilmember Jim Graham, who returned to the city from a vacation at the beach, told TBD that gang members from Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights were taunting each other during the funeral for Ashley McRae. Meanwhile, U Street between 9th and 14th Streets is still mostly closed off to traffic and some pedestrian traffic -- if your commute home takes you to or across U Street, you'll likely need to find an alternate route and/or display some patience.
• Kudos to Columbia Room -- or as we described it, "a spa for alcoholics" -- which is the 18th best cocktail bar in the country according to GQ.
• D.C. has the highest median household income among major American cities, says CNNMoney.com. But, as Annie Lowery points out, the District also has the highest rate of extreme poverty.
• The D.C. streetcar system now has a management team. Let's see, there's the manager of the Seattle and Portland streetcars projects, an engineering firm that landed federal funds for streetcar development in Tucson and New Orleans, an architecture firm that designed the Portland streetcar system and a consultant firm with experience with securing federal funding for transportation projects. So, you know, the references check out.
• TBD reports that the city has ordered a general clean up of Parcel 42, where protesters and homeless individuals have been living in a tent city for over two months.
• Greater Greater Washington says that the 7th and H mosquito might have been swatted.
• 20007, 20015 and 20016 are the D.C. zip codes which made Forbes' list of most expensive ZIP codes, based on median home prices.
• Won't somebody please think of the boat people?

Sacramento police officers clear the streets along 20th and J after the 10 p.m. close of Second Saturday last weekend. Several hours later, police say, shots were fired into a crowd during a gang tussle, and a bystander was killed. City officials and business leaders are discussing what to do next.

Second Saturday, midtown Sacramento's art walk-cum-street party, is not necessarily the problem.

Rather, it's what happens on Second Sunday – those first few post-event hours after families have retreated to the suburbs and the after-party revelry takes hold – that needs to be reined in or even put to rest.

That was the overwhelming sentiment expressed at a community meeting Saturday in midtown, spurred by a shooting death two weeks ago at J and 18th streets two hours after Second Saturday's 10 p.m. closing.

Suggestions from a crowd of about 100 at the Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center dealt with Second Saturday's growing pains in recent years. Many believe it has morphed from a sedate showcase for artists and local businesses to a rowdy venue for those who have never stepped foot in a gallery and may think MC Escher is a rapper.

"Art walk has grown," said Susan Rabinovitz, founder and executive director of the Sacramento Artists Council, "and the face of it has completely changed. However, I do believe there's a way to have a celebration of Second Saturday as well as make art the focus. Maybe make it 4 to 7 (p.m.) instead of having a huge sea of canopies and street vendors ruining the aesthetic of midtown. Maybe they could move (the vendors) over to Fremont Park and ease the crowding."

Hers was one of many ideas floated to a seven-member panel, called the "Safety Team," consisting of representatives from the Police Department, code enforcement, state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and other community services.

Answers from officials were not immediately forthcoming because, as City Councilman Steve Cohn stressed, the purpose of the two-hour forum was merely to listen to concerns.

Police Capt. Dana Matthes said the department is formulating a plan to ensure safety at next month's Second Saturday (Oct. 9), but she would not elaborate on specifics.

However, Rob Kerth of the Midtown Business Association announced that his organization will partner with the Lavender Angels, a citizens group sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, to provide nighttime guides wearing vests and carrying walkie-talkies to help people reach their cars and homes safely.

Possible solutions to the raucous behavior ranged from suspending Second Saturday altogether to expanding it from a monthly to a weekly event.

Those polar-opposite positions were voiced by two midtown residents sitting next to each other throughout the meeting. Their choice of attire seemed to signal their leanings.

Margaret Piner, of the Midtown Neighborhood Association, wore a blue pantsuit with a coral brooch. She said she's fed up with Second Saturday behavior, which she said has included couples "fornicating in front of my house."

"What concerns me is that it's gotten ingrained in people's minds that when you come to midtown, it's no longer about art or about restaurants, or the beauty of our walkable neighborhoods. It's, 'Let's go down to midtown and party,' " Piner said. "At this point, unfortunately, I feel like art walk and block parties need to be suspended until they can get things into play that are more effective. It's gotten out of control."

To her right sat William Burg, dressed in all black, from his high tops to his sunglasses. His T-shirt sported the slogan, "Keep Midtown Janky." ("Janky," a fusion of "junky" and "skanky," is a tongue-in-cheek play on the popular "Keep Austin Weird" movement in the Texas capital city.)

Burg, a midtown resident for 17 years, believes expanding the art walk to a weekly event will dilute its power to draw hordes of people on that one special night a month.

"People come to Second Saturday to see people and be seen, so why limit it to once a month?" he asked. "If you put some elements of Second Saturday in every weekend night, then people don't have to check their calendar to come downtown.

"So instead of 20,000 people all in a big pulse, you'll have 5,000 to 8,000 spread throughout the month. You won't get as much impacted parking, the bad crowds and such. See, there's a tipping point where a crowd becomes a mob."

Residents and business owners papered the walls of the community center with "suggestion sheets" they scrawled at Cohn's request. By far the most comments were affixed under signs reading "Police Department" and "Code Enforcement."

Among the solutions proposed were more police on foot, horse and bike patrol, stricter enforcement of the 10 p.m. underage curfew and a crackdown on loitering.

Matthes said that officers issued 17 curfew citations at the Sept. 11 event. As for loitering, she said, "Officers can keep them moving to a certain degree, but there's also the balance that people have the right to be in a public place."

Cohn took pains to stress that Second Saturday is "the soul of Sacramento" and said the event will continue.

"Midtown residents are certainly aware that late-night rowdiness is certainly not restricted to Second Saturday," he said. "We do have a problem with late night rowdiness. … It was shocking to some, to others not so shocking, and maybe it's a logical extension of what's been happening over the last few years."

Let's get a couple of things straight: The shooting at 18th and J this weekend wasn't caused by Second Saturday. And it isn't going to take Second Saturday down.

The shooting was an act of violence by someone who ended up in Sacramento's central city with a grudge and a gun. Sure, they may have been drawn here by the street party atmosphere that has grown around what began as an art walk. But they might have been here on a Tuesday night as well.

Did they come to drink? Possibly. Did having a drink or two cause them to shoot at each other? That's a leap. Alcohol does not make someone a murderer.

It may, however, cause one to hurl. And the ongoing irritation of some Midtown residents with drunken young adults has led the opportunistic to link what is essentially a nuisance with…murder. This linkage is specious, and it is callous. The chorus of "I told you so’s” from some neighbors of the area has been particularly disturbing.

As a former resident of Midtown, and a current resident of the more-challenged Alkali Flat neighborhood downtown, I sympathize with those who have had to wash vomit off their sidewalks, had their fence posts or potted plants broken, or even had to shovel excrement out of their flower beds. I've done it myself. No fun.

But the aggressive exploitation of this tragedy by a handful people with an agenda has been disturbing. Let's be real: The nuisance of immature, drunken people is not comparable to an innocent young man dying in a crossfire. Those who are linking the two together for their own rhetorical gain should be ashamed of themselves.

If anything, the argument could be made that the shooting this past weekend was simply the exception that proves the rule. People got shot. The first thing I thought of was: Wow, most of the time, thousands and thousands of people come to Second Saturday and no one gets shot. And most of the 15,000-20,000 people who come don't even get drunk.

Sacramento, like most large American cities, has a gang problem. It has crime. And despite the histrionic claims of some Midtowners – one recently referred to the lovely Marshall Park area as “a war zone” – the central city actually has less crime than many outlying areas.

I've lived in the central city off and on since 1981. I have never been robbed, mugged, burgled, assaulted or otherwise accosted. I did have my car broken into once. But one friend who lives in a very nice neighborhood in South Land Park had his car broken into three times – in one year.

The snobbery of some central city residents is revealed in such circumstances: the dismissal of other Sacramentans as “suburbanites” and “douches” is just a more acceptable form of prejudice, and may masked deeper prejudices.

And it feeds a new kind of NIMBYism: Gangland slayings are too bad, but I can ignore them if they’re in South Natomas or North Sacramento; they’re tragic if they’re in my backyard.

A post-shooting blog post on sacbee.com noted the other day that statistics show that there has been no increase in crime on Second Saturdays during the last two summers. So again: the linkage of nuisances with violent crime is rhetorical rather than actual.

More police will probably help, but there were cops all over that one block of J Street Saturday night, and they couldn't stop the shooting. There was a crowd of witnesses, and they haven’t yet found the shooter.

Even if Second Saturday were shut down entirely, we'd still have occasional shootings, even in gentrified Midtown. People shoot each other. It happens. It's a crime, and it's a tragedy, but it's the way things are in gun-happy America. Putting police on every street corner and closing down every restaurant and bar at 10 p.m. isn't going to change that.

Midtown does not have a bad gang problem. What it has is a mixed-use problem. Again, like many cities, it has shops next to bars next to apartments next to houses next to hotels next to restaurants. But this is why we like such cities. This is why we like Midtown, isn't it?

Some neighbors of bars take the brunt of nuisances that are the result of drunken, rowdy behavior. And they are within their rights requesting cooperation from club owners, agitating for better street lighting from the city and working to improve their neighborhoods. Perfectly reasonable.

But you can only control the world around you so much. Things change, cities change and neighborhoods change. Most agree Midtown is changing for the better. Shops, restaurants, theaters and, yes, even bars make Midtown a more interesting, more fun and more valuable place. What it may not make it is quieter. Or cleaner.

For people who prize peace and quiet, there's always the suburbs. 

Sacramento is changing from a mostly-suburban area to a real city, and we need to learn how to live real city lives, with sometimes awkward, or even challenging, encounters with people who don't share our values. We need to learn to live in a way that is not a dash between our house and our car and the office and the mall.

The young people who come into the central city to party, no matter what night of the week or month, need to learn how to behave themselves. How we can teach that, as a city, is open to debate. People drink. People misbehave. People are "douches." It's just a fact of life.

But the older, settled folks need to get a grip. Midtown Sacramento isn't what it was 10 or 15 years ago. That’s a good thing. When these bars and restaurants that are so reviled by the party-haters close down for lack of business, we'll see how well people like empty (though yes, quiet) storefronts as their neighbors.

A city is what it is. It's not about you. It’s about all of us.

And so, we will work this out together. The loudest voices will get attention, but the cooler heads will prevail. There is too much at stake, and there are many ideas being bandied about, and will continue to be, both on The Sacramento Press and at Midtown Monthly's website. Some of them are very good.

But none of those fixes would have prevented a random, gang-related shooting. Life is unpredictable. Stuff happens. Sometimes, that stuff is people messing with your azaleas; sometimes, that "stuff" is someone getting shot.

And in the heated debates about this that will surely continue into this fall, I would like to encourage my neighbors to recognize the difference between the two.

Saturday's shooting took place in this alley between Broadway and Spring Street. Residents say they see frequent loitering and drug use behind the arcade at 724 S. Broadway. Photo by Eric Richardson.

A shooting that took place in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon in the Historic Core may have been connected to a territory fight between members of rival gangs, LAPD says.

A 14-year-old was struck by a bullet in the incident, which took place around 4:15pm in the alley that runs from 7th to 8th, mid-block between Broadway and Spring. He was transported to the hospital and later released to his mother.

The shooting was particularly scary to residents of the Chapman Flats, which sits at the 8th Street end of the alley. Residents use the alley to access the building's parking garage, which is two doors down from the building itself.

According to police, the altercation appeared to be between rival gang members. A group of hispanics believed to be part of the 18th street gang went over to the Huntington Hotel shortly before the shooting, according to Lt. Paul Vernon, head of detectives for Central Division. They were then followed back to the alley, where the incident may have started as a fistfight.

"We suspect the motives behind all this is narcotics," said Lt. Vernon. "We believe that the root cause of this is related to the narcotics dealing that goes on [at the Huntington]." The first group may have "gone over there trying to intimidate or bully or assert themselves."

Police "talked to a number of very credible witnesses" afterward, and are pursuing leads to find the shooter and others involved.

The alley, particularly behind the arcade at 724 S. Broadway, is a frequent source of problems, according to Chapman Flats resident Rob Johnson. "There's always, almost every single day, a group of guys that will hang out in that alley," he said. "You can just smell them smoking really cheap pot."

Johnson said that the shooting has made him realize the need to be vigilant in reporting illicit behavior. "We see things that we think aren't that big of a deal, but they are," he said. "We let those guys sit there on the corner smoking weed."

Vernon encouraged residents to report gang activity such as tagging. "We don't want gang members to be of the opinion or idea that anyone has given any territory to them," he said.

Residents in the neighborhood can report graffiti to the Historic Downtown Center BID at 213-239-8336, the Fashion District BID at 213-741-2661, or by calling Officer Adrian Lopez by calling 213-972-1246 or emailing him a photo at 34472@lapd.lacity.org.

By Eric Richardson.

Two 18th Street gang members convicted of an infant’s murder almost three years ago near MacArthur Park and the attempted murder of a street vendor who refused to pay street “taxes” to the gang were sentenced Friday to life in...

Happy 8/9/10, everyone. We spun around three times and spat at 12:34 pm and 56.7 seconds but all we got were ethics charges against Maxine Waters. While House staffers spent the day prepping for tomorrow's votes on state aid and border security, bloggers rejoiced at Joe Lieberman's announcement that he'll likely make a reelection bid and we tried to get a quote from Rand Paul about his collegiate misadventures with Eastern religions and bongs... and then we remembered that it's the anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, August 9th, 2010:

BREAKING: DICK CHENEY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL - We can rebuild him -- we have the technology: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been released from a suburban Washington hospital following heart surgery last month. A Cheney spokesman said in a statement that the former vice president was released Monday morning from Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute in Northern Virginia. The statement says Cheney will continue his recovery at his home. The 69-year-old former vice president has been suffering from congestive heart failure and had a small pump installed to help his heart work. He's had five heart attacks since he was 37." http://bit.ly/bKcp3e

HOUSE RECONVENES TOMORROW TO VOTE ON STATE AID BILL - The "Let's Harsh On Our LCs' Buzzes By Interrupting Their Trips Home Even Though Their Mothers Haven't Finished Their Laundry Act" will be the issue of the day. CQ: "House Democratic leaders are confident they will have the votes Tuesday to pass a $26.1 billion bill that would keep more than 140,000 teachers on the job and help states pay for medical care for the poor, leadership aides said Monday...The legislation proposes $10 billion in aid to states to prevent layoffs of teachers and other public employees and $16.1 billion in Medicaid help to the states. To pay for that spending, cuts were proposed for several programs popular with Democrats, including food stamps and a renewable-energy loan initiative." http://bit.ly/9PObVw

HuffPost Hill hears the vote will likely come early in the afternoon, giving representatives enough time to make their Wednesday golf tournament fundraisers. Phew.

The chamber will also deal with a border security measure during tomorrow's session, but a Senate screw-up will prevent it from getting signed into law before September. Revenue bills must originate in the House's Ways and Means Committee; the Senate attached its $600 million measure to a House appropriations bill. Whoops. That means the House will vote on a blue slip resolution, the legislative equivalent of failing an exam but getting a second shot at it because the professor feels sorry for you. Our borders, then, will remain fatally insecure for another month or so, after which the problem will be solved by adding another 1,500 border guards.

EXCLUSIVE: POLL FINDS VOTERS TIE CORPORATE CORRUPTION OF WASHINGTON TO ECONOMIC CONCERNS - A poll of 9,600 voters in battleground states finds that a prime way for candidates to show voters that they plan to address the faltering economy is to take a stand against corporate control of the political process. 57% said that getting the economy going required taking on corporate lobbyists. 79% said it's important that a candidate commit to reducing the influence of corporations over elections, with 56% overall saying it's very important. 60% wanted Citizens United overturned and two-thirds wold be more likely to support a candidate who backs a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. The poll was commissioned by MoveOn.org and done by SurveyUSA. The full story in HuffPost tomorrow morning.

ROMANOFF-BENNET CONTEST ALL ABOUT CORPORATE INFLUENCE - Voter concern over corporate influence on elections and lawmaking is the most potent force in the closely watched Democratic Senate primary campaign that ends in Colorado Tuesday. Andrew Romanoff, outspent by the Obama-backed Sen. Michael Bennet, has surged since making corporate control of the political process his primary issue. He swore off political action committee (PAC) money and hammered Bennet for taking corporate cash; Bennet, in response, charged that Romanoff's "entire campaign" was based on attacking him for taking PAC money, yet he had been taking PAC money during much of his career. The poll commissioned by MoveOn in Colorado bears out that corporate power is a driving concern.

GOOGLE-VERIZON UNVEIL PROPOSAL FOR TIERED INTERNET - After swearing up and down last week that they weren't in negotiations, Google and Verizon held a media call today to introduce a joint proposal for how Internet service should be regulated. The arrangement would preserve basic 'net neutrality' standards for traditional Internet service but (and this is a big but) exempt wireless Internet access - the major area of future growth for the Internet - from the same standards.

CHARGES AGAINST MAXINE WATERS MADE PUBLIC - The totally groundbreaking revelation that lawmakers will try to steer money to individuals and organizations they have connections to will no doubt rock Washington to its core. The panel charges that Waters "requested federal help for a bank where her husband owned stock and had served on its board...The Waters case revolves around whether she helped OneUnited Bank obtain federal bailout funds in late 2008. Her husband, Sidney Williams, served as a member of OneUnited's board of directors from January 2004 until April 2008, and was a stockholder in the bank. The report says Waters asked the Treasury Department to meet representatives from the National Bankers Association, a trade group representing minority-owned and women-owned banks. The discussion at that September 2008 meeting centered on OneUnited Bank." http://huff.to/ctpE7y

Waters' lawyers are taking issue with the charges saying they, yep, exhibit a double standard. Roll Call: "Lawyers for Rep. Maxine Waters have accused the House ethics committee of applying a double standard by charging her with rules violations for actions that they claim are comparable to the actions of Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who was exonerated by the committee last year." http://bit.ly/djeIzF

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO INTRODUCE BILL AXING LAME DUCK SESSION - Sam Stein: "House Republicans are going forward with plans to introduce a resolution on Tuesday to prohibit the House of Representatives from assembling during the two-month period following the November elections. A GOP leadership aide confirmed to the Huffington Post that the resolution, authored by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) for the purposes of preventing Democrats from passing legislative items during the lame-duck session, would be introduced before the House passes additional Medicaid and teacher funding." http://huff.to/aJ3qze

NYT: "[Defence Secretary Robert Gates] said he had ordered a 10 percent reduction in spending on contractors who provide support services to the military, including intelligence-related contracts, and placed a freeze on the number of workers in the office of the secretary of defense, other Pentagon supervisory agencies and the headquarters of the military's combat commands." http://nyti.ms/csMrVE

Pelosi statement: "Secretary Gates...took a hard look at the Defense Department's budget and made tough decisions to cut expenses and freeze spending. He ensured that his fiscal proposals would give our service members everything they need to succeed in combat. In a critical step, the Secretary announced we would reduce our reliance on private contractors - putting critical functions of national security where they belong: in the hands of sworn and highly-trained military and intelligence officials. .I commend Secretary Gates for taking steps toward greater fiscal restraint in the Defense Department. The House looks forward to reviewing all of his proposals and conducting appropriate oversight.."

TOMORROW'S PAPERS TODAY - Roll Call: David M. Drucker writes that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is likely to caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans should he advance to the Senate, if only because failing to pick a side would exclude him from the chamber's choice committees and dramatically reduce his influence. The Hill: Michael O'Brien on how senior Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill are expressing confidence in party Chairman Tim Kaine despite the possibility of huge losses in the midterm elections.

WYCLEF JEAN TALKS HAITIAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN - Speaking to NPR News today, the pop star elaborated on his motives and qualifications. "Number one, that I am not a Haitian politician. The fact that you've had this corruption and this massive economy toppled in the past 200 years. I think what makes me qualified is the fact that I am drafted by the youth, number one. I understand that to move Haiti forward, it's gonna take policies with these four pillars with five points: education, job creation, agriculture, security and healthcare. I clearly understand that. I also understand what makes me qualified is, if you have $5.2 billion sitting, which is promised by donors, somebody have [sic] to go get that money. And so you don't need just a local president. I think you need a president that's global, that's going to be moving through the globe."

On allegations that he improperly used funds allotted for his charity, Yele Haiti: "The idea of Wyclef taking money to put in his pocket, that is a no. The idea of taking personal money to give to my family, that is a no. ...The idea of Wyclef being corrupted is a no,"

Don't be bashful: Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

BLUE DOGS SCRAMBLE FOR NEW MEMBERS - The House Blue Dog Coalition -- which is kind of like the Tea Party Caucus before its DNA was permanently mutated during a botched trial run of its experimental energy source, resulting in a life of marauding terror in which it indiscriminately inflicts pain on hapless innocents with its hybrid photon-arm cannons, a pathetic shadow of its former self -- is in need of some new blood. "The list of outgoing Blue Dogs outpaces the 110th Congress, when the only Blue Dog who retired was Alabama Rep. Bud Cramer. Texas Rep. Nick Lampson, Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney and Louisiana Rep. Don Cazayoux - all freshmen - lost their campaigns for re-election. Causey, a former Berry chief of staff who is running for his onetime boss's Jonesboro-area seat, said the turnover allowed for an infusion of new leadership into the influential coalition, whose focus on fiscal conservatism has put them at odds with their national party on issues including the health care overhaul to the economic stimulus package." Alex Isenstadt in Politico: http://politi.co/arAhys

A new poll from Rasmussen indicates the race for Judd Gregg's New Hampshire Senate seat is the Republicans' to lose. Former state AG Kelly Ayotte holds a commanding lead over Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes 51% to 38%. This is in keeping with surveys this year that regularly show Ayotte with a comfortable lead over Hodes. http://bit.ly/8X0Iav

CHARLIE CRIST/JOHN BOEHNER NEWS UPDATE ® , BROUGHT TO YOU BY SUNQUEST WOLFF ® BRAND TANNING BEDS - The first from Charlie Crist, who can now add Democratic pollster and walking anti-matter Mark Penn as a supporter. Penn and his wife Nancy are throwing a $4,800-a-plate fundraiser for the Florida governor and independent Senate candidate. The St. Petersburg Times has the invite: http://bit.ly/aNWVQ0

We're worried that we might not be able to include John Boehner in the Charlie Crist/John Boehner News Update ® brought you by Sunquest Wolff ® brand tanning beds anymore. Boehner's opponent, Justin Coussoule has a new ad highlighting the minority leader's frequent trips to golf courses. While this is meant to suggest that Boehner is an out-of-touch lawmaker, we're worried because it implies that Boehner's orange tint might, through some freakish melanin-related condition, actually be the result of sun exposure. Sam Stein: "The spot, paid for by Blue America and Americans for America and drawing heavily from the MasterCard commercial theme, is airing in Boehner's home district on behalf of his Democratic challenger: attorney and West Point graduate Justin Coussoule. 'Rounds of golf: 100 plus. Golf expenses: $83,000. Membership at all male club: $75,000. Special interest travel including golf junkets: $159,000. Raising the retirement age to 70 and voting to end unemployment benefits: priceless'" http://huff.to/b0dotB

Also taking note of the minority leader's appearance today was the Morning Joe crew. Speaking of the fake-bookshelf backdrop the minority leader was being interviewed in front of, Scarborough said, "He's a chameleon. He's using his special Vader powers to blend into the fake bookcases there." http://huff.to/c1lVNw

SHARRON ANGLE WON'T TAKE MONEY FROM GAY RIGHTS SUPPORTERS, TAKES MONEY FROM GAY RIGHTS SUPPORTERS - After months of speculation about whether she is fit for public office, Sharron Angle is at long last demonstrating her political bona fides by saying one thing and doing another. Center for Responsive Politics says Angle "recently told a conservative group that she'd refuse contributions from political action committees of corporations supporting 'equal rights for gays' or offer benefits to 'partners' of homosexual employees. Angle, to date, hasn't raised a dime from any corporate PAC, but according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis, she has taken at least $8,900 from leaders of companies known to offer employee benefits to same-sex spouses or that operate in jurisdictions that recognize marriage between same-sex couples."

IN CLEAR AFFRONT TO SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM, STORIES IN GQ'S RAND PAUL PROFILE SOMEHOW SCARIER THAN RAND PAUL'S BELIEFS - Of particular note is the "Aqua Buddha" incident in which Paul, while attending Baylor University, apparently blindfolded a female classmate and forced her to take hits from a bong. "But when Paul showed up in Waco, he didn't conform to type. According to several of his former Baylor classmates, he became a member of a secret society called the NoZe Brotherhood, which was a refuge for atypical Baylor students....In 1978, the Baylor administration became so fed up with the NoZe that it suspended the group from campus for being, in the words of Baylor's president at the time, 'lewd, crude, and grossly sacrilegious.'" GQ also has a picture of the group. Paul is the one standing next to the one grabbing his own crotch: http://bit.ly/90z7AY

Pretty sure we've found the Aqua Buddha. http://bit.ly/c1qKXL

Mike Huckabee has joined Sarah Palin in endorsing Lisa Murkowski's primary opponent, Joe Miller. In a statement released on the Huck PAC website, the former Arkansas governor and potential 2012 candidate said, "Actually knowing how a national law will impact people at the local level is what sets Joe apart. In fact, that unique knowledge provides Joe with insight into which bills will help Alaskans and which bills with hurt Alaskans. With the federal government encroaching quickly into every aspect of our lives - we need Joe in the U.S. Senate to help Congress make the correct decisions to bring Washington back to the limited role envisioned by the Founding Founders. There is no doubt that Joe will work to help restore Constitutional limits on Federal power." http://bit.ly/9whVat

DR-A-A-A-A-M-A @cbellantoni: Dino Rossi announces Tom Coburn is backing his candidacy. Reminder, Sarah Palin supports Clint Didier.

GOP DISSOCIATING ITSELF WITH 14TH AMENDMENT - We've all had that conversation -- the "yeah, if I were alive during the Civil War era I would be a Republican" talk. It's a position taken by progressively-inclined middle schoolers everywhere -- a rite of passage meant to absolve oneself of partisanship and to demonstrate one's racial sensitivity. Of course we'd all be Republicans in the 1860s and 1870s. Sure, they held a lot of disgusting beliefs but it was better than the alternative and we wouldn't want to throw away our vote during that volatile period... we'd be savvy 19th-century political operators. Lincoln was a Republican! They opposed slavery! They modernized the Constitution! They popularized mutton chops! Turns out there is a group of people who appear uneasy with the Reconstruction-era GOP: Republicans. Sam Stein notes that New Hampshire Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte is now the fourth Republican Senate candidate to voice concerns over the amendment which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. http://huff.to/a0F4SQ

Huzzahs are in order for a number of Steny Hoyer staffers. From a release: "Hoyer has promoted Katie Grant to Communications Director, hired Daniel Reilly as Press Secretary, promoted Maureen Beach to Deputy Press Secretary, and hired Mariel Saez as Press Assistant." Requests for lighthearted anecdotes or nifty factoids about the employees in question from Hoyer's office weren't answered.

Can gang violence win the morning? Politico's new D.C. local news site, TBD, looks to answer that question. Check it out!. http://www.tbd.com

@mikemadden: Why did NewsChannel 8 sponsor @mikeallen's Playbook on the day Allbritton renamed the channel TBD TV? http://bit.ly/avoA6e

A rough day at the Portland Press Herald: http://bit.ly/9ElZ8z

Levi Johnston is getting his own reality series, TMZ reports. Word is the show will follow Levi to his speaking engagements across the country, where he will implore adolescent boys to refrain from unprotected sex and encourage them to treat women with respect...totally kidding. The show is being filmed in LA and Alaska. http://bit.ly/cxUH2q

Here's your chance to prove wrong the saying that Washington is Hollywood for ugly people. "Transformers 3 will be shooting in DC later this summer, and the city's Office of Motion Picture and Television Development is looking for extras. If you're interested, send a photo of yourself and some other information to movie@taylorroyall.com. They're also interested in your car, and you get bonus points if you've done 'precision driving.'" Awesome DC: http://bit.ly/aZnbK8

JEREMY THE INTERN'S WEATHER REPORT - Tonight: Slight cooling after 7p.m. or so. It should be delightful if anyone is going to see a concert tonight COUGH Counting Crows at Wolf Trap COUGH . Tomorrow: The heat rises, as you can expect high-90s, approaching 100. It's going to be a brutal day. You know what to do. Thanks, JB!

COMFORT FOOD

- Justin Bieber's head, meet water bottle. Water bottle, meet Justin Bieber's head. http://bit.ly/d8gZgN

- Reader Laura sends along wordle.net, which lets you create your own word clouds. http://bit.ly/WXjW

- Falling from a Wii Fit board will make you a sex addict, says woman who fell from a Wii Fit board and became a sex addict. http://bit.ly/9YJEBj

- Some things are so American they deserve their own constitutional amendment. This is one of those things. http://bit.ly/chZZeg

- At long last, Lando Calrissian gets the blaxploitation film he so richly deserves. http://bit.ly/bK7GTx

- Reader Erica sent us this alarming/cute video of young kids getting a bit too excited about taking down a deer. http://bit.ly/9py6vf

- The worse grammer nazi EVAR!!. http://bit.ly/9vkbjs

- In case you were wondering where catnip comes from and what the people who make it are like, wonder no more . http://bit.ly/aqcZhd

- Step Up 7: That Really Old Breakdancing Lady On The Boardwalk. http://bit.ly/dCZ260

TWITTERAMA

@AdamSerwer: If gays are allowed to eat hamburgers, my hamburger won't be special. Hamburgers are one of the great ideas of Western Civ

@daveweigel: The real question: Does Rand Paul think restaurants can discriminate against people who worship Aqua Buddha?

@pourmecoffee: Rand Paul apparently practitioner of Jamaican Libertarianism.

@KagroX: Aqua Buddha was definitely the lamest of the Buddha Friends. I don't know how Bat Buddha, Super Buddha and Wonder Buddha put up with him.

@peeweeherman: Partied with Lorenzo Lamas last night at Sturgis. No big deal. http://yfrog.com/28xj2j

THE TUBE

TONIGHT: Steve Scalise and Chris Van Hollen talked spending on Hardball. Joe Sestak and the debonair Sam Stein appear on the Ed Show. Our fearless leader Arianna Huffington stops by Countdown. Bill Weir's interviews Linda McMahon on his first show as Nightline co-anchor. TOMORROW: George Miller previews the state aid vote on Daily Rundown.

ON TAP

TONIGHT

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm: For those of you lucky enough to get out of work on time, the Cary Grant Film Festival Film Series screens "Bringing Up Baby" [National Theater, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW].

8:30 pm - 10:30 pm: The Crystal Screen Star Trek Outdoor Film Festival features "Star Trek Nemesis" [18th and South Bell Streets, Arlington].

TOMORROW

8:30 pm - 10:30 pm: Another outdoor movie option, this time just off of U Street. The U Street Movie Series presents "The Soloist" [Harrison Recreation Center, 1330 V Street NW].

Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Nico Pitney (nico@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e

lex welcomes back to the show Chuck Baldwin, founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 election. Baldwin edited The Freedom Documents, an anthology containing 50 essential documents of American history. Alex and Mr. Baldwin will discuss Chuck's article DC Declares War On States and other important issues. http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1898 http://www.infowars.com/ http://www.prisonplanet.tv/ [[[ DC Declares War On States ]]] Categories: Archived Columns, Columns by Chuck Baldwin Among the limited duties of the US Government enumerated in the federal Constitution is Article. IV. Section. 4. "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion." However, for several decades now, the federal government in Washington, D.C., has shown great ambition and propensity to engage in activities to which it was never authorized, and to ignore those responsibilities with which it is specifically charged. The responsibility of the federal government to protect each State against invasion is a classic example of the latter. Can anyone deny that the states on the US southern border (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) are being invaded by an ongoing onslaught of illegal aliens (many of whom are violent and dangerous criminals)? Somewhere between 12 and 30 million illegals now reside in the US. The entire country is feeling the effects of this invasion, but the Border States are literally under siege. And not only does the federal government do nothing to protect the states against this invasion, it actively wars against states such as Arizona when they attempt to protect themselves. Yes, I am saying it: the Washington, D.C., lawsuit against the State of Arizona's immigration laws should be regarded as an act of war against the State of Arizona in particular, and against the states general in principle. Please consider what Arizona and the other Border States are dealing with. According to published reports: *In Los Angeles, 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide in the first half of 2004 (which totaled 1,200 to 1,500) targeted illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) were for illegal aliens. *Some private reports state that 83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix and 86% of warrants for murder in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are for illegal aliens. These reports cannot be verified, of course, because the feds discourage law enforcement agencies from releasing such statistics. *At any given time, up to 75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Albuquerque are illegal aliens. *23% of all inmates in LA County detention centers are "deportable." *LA police estimate that violent gangs, such as MS-13 and 18th Street Gang, are "overwhelmingly" composed of illegal aliens.

lex welcomes back to the show Chuck Baldwin, founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 election. Baldwin edited The Freedom Documents, an anthology containing 50 essential documents of American history. Alex and Mr. Baldwin will discuss Chuck's article DC Declares War On States and other important issues. http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1898 http://www.infowars.com/ http://www.prisonplanet.tv/ [[[ DC Declares War On States ]]] Categories: Archived Columns, Columns by Chuck Baldwin Among the limited duties of the US Government enumerated in the federal Constitution is Article. IV. Section. 4. "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion." However, for several decades now, the federal government in Washington, D.C., has shown great ambition and propensity to engage in activities to which it was never authorized, and to ignore those responsibilities with which it is specifically charged. The responsibility of the federal government to protect each State against invasion is a classic example of the latter. Can anyone deny that the states on the US southern border (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) are being invaded by an ongoing onslaught of illegal aliens (many of whom are violent and dangerous criminals)? Somewhere between 12 and 30 million illegals now reside in the US. The entire country is feeling the effects of this invasion, but the Border States are literally under siege. And not only does the federal government do nothing to protect the states against this invasion, it actively wars against states such as Arizona when they attempt to protect themselves. Yes, I am saying it: the Washington, D.C., lawsuit against the State of Arizona's immigration laws should be regarded as an act of war against the State of Arizona in particular, and against the states general in principle. Please consider what Arizona and the other Border States are dealing with. According to published reports: *In Los Angeles, 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide in the first half of 2004 (which totaled 1,200 to 1,500) targeted illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) were for illegal aliens. *Some private reports state that 83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix and 86% of warrants for murder in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are for illegal aliens. These reports cannot be verified, of course, because the feds discourage law enforcement agencies from releasing such statistics. *At any given time, up to 75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Albuquerque are illegal aliens. *23% of all inmates in LA County detention centers are "deportable." *LA police estimate that violent gangs, such as MS-13 and 18th Street Gang, are "overwhelmingly" composed of illegal aliens.

One fifth of British adults are now 'inked', according to a survey. Even the prime minister's wife has one. Just why has the artform of sailors, bikers and assorted deviants become mainstream?

The modern twin-coil electromagnetic tattoo needle was patented in 1891 by one Samuel O'Riley (sometimes known as O'Reilly), an Irish-American tattooist working out of a barber's shop on Chatham Square in New York.

It worked – and, for that matter, still works – essentially like a doorbell, with two coils of wire wrapped around an iron core, two points, and a bar across the top that plunges down when power is applied to the coils, breaking the circuit, then springs back up again to recommence the cycle.

Imagine a sewing machine, without the thread.

What this means now for Will Wright, a 30-year-old landscape gardener flat on his back on a reclining chair in a handsome brick building on High Wycombe high street, is that three fine steel needles are puncturing his skin roughly 150 times a second. That's just for the initial scratch outline of the red kite Wright is having across his stomach. Later, it'll be a pack of nine needles, to darken the line; later still, a spade-shaped array of as many as 15 needles, a magnum, shading the bird's wings and underbelly.

Will doesn't feel much like chatting.

"It does hurt," he says. "I do it because it looks cool, full stop. No deep inner meanings or anything. But it does hurt. Some are worse than than others; it's worst where there's not much flesh, close to the bone. But basically, it all hurts. I really wish it didn't, but it does."

It can't hurt that much, though, because Sean "Woody" Wood, Jammes and Jay, three of the four tattooists in Woody's Tattoo Studio, have full diaries today (Woody and Jammes, in fact, are booked up until January). The fourth, Lee, who's taking care of the walk-ins, has already had to turn two people away. In a bright, white, unthreatening interior, all gleaming surfaces, comfy armchairs and select samples of tasteful tattoo art lining the walls, those machines are buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. "So," Woody tells Will, gravely. "You are about to suffer for my art. Are you ready, sir?"

Behind the counter, jovial Alison in reception is busy doling out good advice: "That Cheryl Cole thing on the side of the hand? Trust me, love, everyone's got one. Everyone. Same for Rihanna's star. And don't even mention Jordan's bow."

Tattoos, suddenly, are everywhere. According to one survey this month, a fifth of all British adults have now been inked (as contemporary usage has it). Among 16- to 44-year-olds, both men and women, the figure rises to 29%. Only 9% of over 60s have one, according to a survey of 1,000 adults by the Ask Jeeves website, but 16% of people aged between 30 and 44 have two. The survey, while not entirely scientific, is in line with a 2008 US study showing that 36% of Americans aged 18-25, 40% of those aged 26-40 and 10% of those aged 41-64 have a tattoo. America, Woody reckons, is "probably about a decade ahead in terms of popularity".

The celebs, of course, are there in force: Wayne Rooney has Just Enough Education to Perform (the title of a Stereophonics album), his wife Coleen's name and a Celtic motif on his right arm, a flag of St George and "English and Proud" on his left, and a pair of clasped palms and angel wings across his back. David Beckham has – at last count – that winged angel, his son's name and Victoria (in Hindi, spelled wrongly). Robbie Williams has several, including a lion, his grandad's name and a Maori tribal piece on his shoulder. Amy Winehouse has many more. Angelina Jolie has the coordinates of her children's birthplaces, "Know your rights" in English and Latin, a tiger, a shelf-load of quotations and a black cross, plus the names of her two divorced husbands (now covered over with new tattoos).

Once, this was a class thing: tattoos were for soldiers, sailors, bikers and criminals. Borderline deviant behaviour. Now the prime minister's wife has one (a dolphin, just below the ankle). According to the Tatler, Clifton Wrottesley, the 6th Lord Wrottesley, has the family crest tattooed on his posterior, which is also where the terribly well bred Emma Parker Bowles opted to have her kitten. Martha Swire, the Cathay Pacific heiress, has a shark on her foot. The artist Rachel Feinstein has "a vagina in her armpit, with ants emerging out of it killing a dragonfly on her shoulder". Although she did confide to Vogue that she rather regretted that.

All sorts of unlikely people have them. Some 14% of teachers are now tattooed, which is more than the 9% of servicemen and women who'll own up to one. Bank clerks, university lecturers, nuclear engineers. Tattooing has become a respectable high-street business. A decade ago, there were 300 tattoo parlours in Britain; now the estimate is 1,500-plus. There's even one in Selfridges. "When I was first setting up professionally, 17 or 18 years ago, the bank refused to lend to me," Woody says. "When I was doing this place up – it used to be the Conservative Club, which I like – the bank manager came back with me. He saw we had customers hanging from the rafters, and asked me how much I wanted and when I needed it by."

The whole business has plainly gone mainstream. The celebs, says the eloquent, prize-winning Mr Wood – who has been tattooing for 20 years and specialises in a sub-genre called Comic Book Biomechanical with special emphasis on Victorian-style Steam Punk – have helped, but they're "just as much symptom as cause". (The principle genres, should you be wondering, are Old-style, which is swallows and ships and roses and Gypsy girls; Tribal, which is Celtic, Chinese, Maori, Polynesian and Native American designs; Japanese, which is koi carp, geisha girls, ocean waves and the rest; and Custom, which is whatever the hell you want.)

For this is, Woody reckons, about much more than mere fashion. Tattooing is a genuine popular artform, and people are only now beginning to realise what it can bring to their lives. "A tattoo gives you something to live for," he says. "Why do you get up in the morning? To wear grey, to have your life ruled by train timetables? A tattoo offers you something personal and fun and exciting in a world that can be drab and grey. People's souls are crying out for that. Tattoos are great for finding out more about yourself, for meeting people, for getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror and thinking: look at that! A work of art, in progress."

Because the other thing that's changed about tatts, Woody says, is that these days people no longer talk about "'getting a tattoo' – a meaningless motif in the middle of nowhere, drifting and directionless. They talk about 'tattooing': a themed, long-term, coherent piece of artwork on their bodies. Something with direction. Something that's been thought about." Lee downstairs is a good example, Woody says: "He used to have the lot, British bulldog, union jack, TVR logo, the skulls, the dragon. Now that's all been replaced by a colourful marine scene. Tropical fish, corals. Over two sleeves, one integrated scene. Totally different story."

Likewise Stephen Burge, a gentle 31-year-old British Gas engineer, in to discuss his next piece of work. He has two spectacular sleeves, one a parade of English patriotic figures including a cavalier, a soldier from Wellington's army at Waterloo, and a second world war flying ace with goggles and cup of tea. "It is," he says, "the most addictive thing in the world. But if people ask me what to start with, I always say: something you can add to. Something that's the start of something." Steve reckons he's spent around £5,000 on ink over the last four or five years: "Less than if I'd smoked 20 a day."

Consequently, your entry-level tattooist these days is as likely to be a fine-arts graduate as a reformed teen tearaway like Lee (there aren't many artistic endeavours, Woody notes, that make you good money from the start). Downstairs, working on a pair of ravens for Fraser "Spike" Hall, a chef, Lee confesses: he got his first tattoo when he was 15 (under the little-known Tattooing of Minors Act 1969, the tattooing of a person under 18, even with parental permission, is an offence. Alison spends a lot of time checking and photocopying young customers' ID). "I've had most of the old stuff lasered off," Lee says. "You don't know what you want when you're 15, do you? Nor really when you're 18, for that matter. Personally, I think they should probably raise the age limit."

Tattoos, of course, go back a long way. Ötzi the Iceman, found in the Ötz valley in Austria, had 57 carbon tattoos – mostly simple dots and lines – and he lived 5,300 years ago. Julius Caesar was impressed by the elaborate tattoos of the Picts. More recently, 18th-century explorers such as James Cook brought back tales (and drawings) of the Polynesian islanders' spectacular inks, known as "tatau" and intended to ward off evil spirits. In common with increasing numbers of sailors, the mutineers on the Bounty had some fine work done; Fletcher Christian's buttocks were, apparently, a sight to behold.

Tattooing then underwent a brief wave of popularity among Europe's aristocracy: as a young prince, the future King George V had a large dragon tattooed on his arm on a visit to Japan in 1882, and Winston Churchill's mother, Clementine, had a discreet snake on her wrist. But it was the lower end of the market that really got the craze for ink: by the late 1800s, 90% of the British navy was tattooed. A complex iconography developed: a turtle meant you'd crossed the equator, an anchor the Atlantic, a dragon that you'd served on a China station. Bikers, and criminal gang members, followed suit.

Spike, 29, is wincing. He's having a couple of crows done on his back. "They're the Celtic guardian of love," he explains. "There's also a crane, which is long life and wisdom, and a phoenix, which is self explanatory. I got that one after my divorce, when I started to feel myself again. My tattoos tell the story of my life. I had the little thistle on my 18th, and my friends designed the tribals for my 21st. They're the story of me, really."

Jay's working on Tom and Susannah, 36 and 33, who teach in the Middle East and don't want their names known. They're having "Tom and Susannah" tattoed on their insteps, in Arabic. Carina Mehns, 28, from Germany, is a restaurant manager; she wants to record each of the countries where she's worked in an intricate floral theme going on down the length of her back. She's drawn it herself: a protea for South Africa, a cornflower for her native Germany, a moon orchid for Indonesia and a fern for New Zealand.

They'll willingly do the Rihanna star or the Rooney Celtic cross if they're asked to, but Woody's tattooists tend, in general, to prefer the customers in their late 20s, 30s and 40s: people who've given the matter a bit of thought. "Although," says Jay, "even that's changing: I had a lad come in a few weeks ago who booked a full day for his 18th birthday. He wanted to start work on a full sleeve. You'd never have seen that 10 years ago, or even five."

Thinking about it – about not just what you want, but whether you really want it at all, and why – would certainly prevent the extra pain of laser removal or reduction treatment, which is booming, business-wise, almost as much as tattooing itself.

Woody has a £60,000 Q-switched laser machine in an upstairs room, and both it and its operator, Sharon, are booked pretty much solid too. Lasering, which works best on darker tattoos, breaks down the ink particles under your skin. It's long (up to 15 10-30 minute sessions, at eight- or 10-week intervals), it hurts (those who have had it say it feels, at best, like someone repeatedly pinging your bare flesh fast and hard with a thick rubber band), and it costs money (starting at £30 per session). Even Woody describes the process as "like cooking sausages in a microwave". And then you'll probably only have reduced the tattoo enough to have another, more artistic one applied over the top – not removed it altogether. But lasering, too, is hugely popular: some 23% of British adults say they now regret the their tattoos. Jay is one of those: he once tattooed the name of a former girlfriend on a very personal part of his anatomy, then had to get it lasered off. Ouch.

Another is Cesc Martos Martinez, 38, who works in customer services at RBS. He was 17 when he got "a big tiger" tattoed on his upper forearm, badly. Then he got some tribal stuff done around it, to try to get the whole thing covered up, which went disastrously wrong. So now he's having laser work, which hurts like hell, but also starting work on a full sleeve, taking in lower and upper forearms and most of his underarm. A glutton for punishment? "I'm having a beautiful blue girl, surrounded by flowers," he says. "And in two stages, she's going to turn into a robot." Why, exactly? "It will look really, really nice."

Because Cesc's tattoo experiences have been so unhappy, Woody spends a couple of hours with him, probing, discussing options. He does the same with most customers, he says (in theory, Woody charges £80 an hour but works, mostly, by the day; his full sleeve or major back pieces can take up to six full-day sessions, once a month: perhaps 30 hours of tattooing). "It's a delicate negotiation, a very psychological business," he says. "You have to save the customer from himself, but also save yourself from heartache. The customer has to feel in control, that it's his idea; but you have to feel what you're doing is worthwhile. Tattooing still has a lot of maturing to do, and one of the things holding it back most at the moment is tattooists doing what customers want, without thinking, without creating."

After much redrafting, Woody transfers the finished drawing to a stencil and applies it to Cesc's lower forearm. The working surface is disinfected and sealed with clingfilm, the single-use needles taken out and slotted into the machine, the ink is in miniature plastic cups. Woody flexes his foot on the pedal, and the machine buzzes. "Ready?" he asks. "Let's start." The blood, tiny pin-points of it, seeps from Cesc, who smiles. "It's going to look really nice," he says.

A Montgomery County gang member pleaded guilty to murder Monday as prosecutors moved to wrap up a case they called the most disturbing gang-related killing they have seen in the county.



18th Street gang - Crime - Organized Crime - Street Gangs - Gang

A Montgomery County gang member pleaded guilty to murder Monday as prosecutors moved to wrap up a case they called the most disturbing gang-related killing they have seen in the county.


18th Street gang - Crime - Organized Crime - Street Gangs - Gang

President Obama announced his amnesty plan for legalizing 20 million illegal aliens in this country as well as his guest worker program for workers to willing employers. His plan proves a bit rocky at the moment with 20 million unemployed Americans.

What does that mean for you and me? For starters, he makes legal citizens of the 20 million illegal aliens now dwelling in America. They become US citizens-making them eligible for unemployment, food stamps, welfare, driver's licenses, drug rehab.

It means the 20,000 member "18th Street Gang" with over 60 percent illegal aliens will become US citizens. The 8,000 member MS-13 Gang out of Central American and now operating in 28 cities will become legal to move about the country as they spread drugs and child prostitution rings throughout America. They won't tell officials that they are gang members when they apply!

It means 20 million people who broke our laws, who do not speak English, while averaging a fifth grade education in another language in a Third World country- will be able to access billions in welfare services. No big deal for a nation with a $12 trillion national debt! The Heritage Foundation estimated a $3 to $5 trillion price tag for legalizing that many people.

Rudy Alfaro, aka 'Smurf', a member of the 'Mara 18' gang, remains at a court room in Guatemala City on June 22, 2010. The gang are accused of violating several women in the prison where they are kept for other...



18th Street gang - Prison - Guatemala City - Central America - Crime

You could only admire Ramita Navai's bravery/foolhardiness in getting access to the brutal child gangs of San Salvador, but the big questions weren't even asked

El Salvador: Child Assassins (Channel 4) started as it finished, with a rather overexcitable and understandably panicky presenter, Ramita Navai, blue-lighting her way with the police through downtown San Salvador to murder scenes: the first a teenage boy gunned down while cycling, the second two young women who had been raped, mutilated and strangled. All three victims were members of either the MS13 or 18th Street gangs.

In between, Navai went looking for the child gang members – some as young as 12 – who are responsible for many of the killings. And here the wheels began to fall off a little. San Salvador is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and you could only admire Navai's bravery/foolhardiness in getting even very limited access to the gangs. But access means little without context.

While there was an initial shock value in seeing a 14-year-old boy, filmed from the waist down to remain unidentifiable, playing with a handgun and boasting about how he shot his first victim so many times he was unrecognisable, there was no attempt to understand what – if anything – the killing meant to him.

One former child gunman said he had no choice, that the gang leaders would have killed him if he refused. That may be so, but where was the insight into the emotional payback of wandering up to a stranger, putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger? Can you ever be the same again?

Another big question left unanswered: why San Salvador? Other cities have similar problems – no work, too many drugs, etc – but in few do kids get used as frontline hitmen. The police said the gangs were a menace; the relatives of the victims said the gangs were a menace; yet nobody seemed able to do anything about the few thousand gang members holding the city to ransom.

The answers are almost certainly politically murky and involve corruption at all levels. But without even an attempt to look at this, the film veered dangerously close to tourist gangster porn rather than the serious insight that was intended.

PVC STREET GANG Dallas : Double Wide w/ STEW, ISHI 3510 Commerce St. 75201 on 2010-06-18

Although its official release date is May 18th, some retailers are selling early copies of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption. To the surprise of the few that hijacked an early copy, the PS3 version includes exclusive content, marked by a special sticker pasted on the box. According to the packaging, it includes "PlayStation 3 exclusive content" like "Solomon's Folly Gang Hideout" and the "Walton Gang Outfit." There is no sticker on the Xbox 360 version.

We're surprised neither Rockstar Games nor Sony have yet to announce this potentially platform-deciding detail; thankfully, there's still time to change your pre-order, for those of you that absolutely need to ride around the Wild West wearing a top hat. Assuming, of course, you haven't already purchased the game from your local street date-breaking store.

[Thanks, MLC!]

Continue reading Red Dead Redemption gets exclusive content on PS3

Red Dead Redemption gets exclusive content on PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 14 May 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was announced to HipHopDX just moments ago that DJ Doo Wop, longtime friend and deejay for the late Keith "Guru" Elam, will host a New York benefit next Tuesday (May 18th) in honor of the Gang Starr icon and his son, K.C. Titled "Above The Clouds," named after Gang Starr's Inspectah Deck-assisted 1998 hit, the event at Taj II Lounge (48 W. 21st Street) will see proceeds go directly to Guru's son.

Per Doo Wop's report, artists hitting the stage include onetime Guru/Gang Starr protege, Jeru The Damaja, whose 1994 hit "Come Clean" appeared on Guru's Ill Kid Records compilation, along with 'Ru's acclaimed debut The Sun Rises In The East. Diggin' In The Crates' A.G. will be appearing, who worked with Guru on his solo debut 1999's, The Dirty Version on the single "Weed Scented." Rap peers and friends such as Brand Nubian, Mic Geronimo, Royal Flush and Black Sheep are also set to appear.

With music provided by Doo Wop, Ted Smooth and DJ Sureshot, the evening will also see a video mix retrospective presented by Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box.

Just three months removed from the release of his impressive retail-available mixtape with DJ Green Lantern, The Green Ghost Project, Styles P is already preparing for the release of another all-new material street album, The Ghost Dub-Dime (due May 18th).   

“I think when you make a official album you gotta think worldwide…but I’m not in that mood yet, I feel more like just keeping it street right now,” replied Styles to HipHopDX earlier this week when asked why he decided to take time to record a second unofficial album for 2010 instead of working on the follow-up to his last studio release, 2007’s Super Gangster Extraordinary Gentleman. “Because I think your mind-frame should be in a certain spot when you gonna make an album for the world. And I think the streets is lacking something right now.”

In addition to wanting to take time to thoroughly serve the streets, Styles explained to DX that he is also pushing his plans to record a new solo studio album temporarily to the side to first complete work on New L.O.X. Order, the long-awaited follow-up to he and partners-in-rhyme Jadakiss’ and Sheek Louch’s last L.O.X. group effort, 2000’s We Are The Streets.

“We trying to really handle this business, get all the business formalities [taken care of right now],” said Styles regarding the current status of his group’s reported negotiations to return to Bad Boy Records for the release of their third album. “We recording now… We gathering the music. We got a couple joints [already done], [and] working on more joints [now]…”

While remaining tight-lipped about which producers Styles and company have already worked with for New L.O.X. Order, The Ghost did confirm that the Yonkers trio are planning to put in studio time with previous production suppliers to the group, Pete Rock and DJ Premier.

Whichever beatmakers are recruited for the album, the sound and overall direction of the new L.O.X. project will likely differ dramatically from what Pinero is planning for his next, currently untitled, solo effort.

“It’s gonna be like [Public Enemy] and N.W.A. was in the studio all at once,” declared Styles of the early vision he has for the album he will begin work on after New L.O.X. Order. “I’m trying to do something crazy… It’s gonna be like a…conscious [but still] hard direction… I think it’s only really me that can [walk] the line [between] consciousness and gangsta…”   

For now fans of Styles’ signature brand of street consciousness will have to get their fix from the aforementioned Green Ghost Project and the two lead leaks from The Ghost Dub-Dime: the thunderous 808-bolstered “It’s Over” and “That Street Life,” the introspective first single featuring a vocal appearance from the song’s producer, North Carolina native (and 9th Wonder discovery) Tyler Woods.   



Styles’ supporters can also look forward to hearing more of their favorite hood spokesman soon via the Duck Down debut from Pharoahe Monch, W.A.R. (We Are Renegades).

“Oh my God, that shit is fuckin’ a problem!,” Styles’ exclaimed of his collabo with Pharoahe (with Phonte on the song’s chorus), tentatively-titled “Blackhand Side.” “I’m waiting to hear it. I’m sitting here every day wondering when Pharoahe’s gonna drop that shit. That shit is a problem. He got some good music on that [W.A.R. album]. I was listening to his [new] music [and] he got some shit! Oh man, he got some shit.”

Another possible collaboration that fans of The Ghost may soon be hearing is Styles rockin’ alongside Jay Electronica.

“I like him, he can spit,” replied Styles definitively when asked if a recent exchange of tweets between the two highly-praised rhymesayers was the confirmation of a collaboration. “We ain’t confirm [working together] yet, but that’s good as – once you say something it’s good as gold in the Hip Hop world, most of the time. We emcees [so our discussion] wasn’t on no business shit…”

Clearly not a fan of putting business before art, Styles boldly declared to DX back in January that he was unconcerned about what the commercial response would be to The Green Ghost Project: “This particular project I just did to get it off my chest… I wasn’t worried about who’s gonna cop it, who’s not gonna cop it, so they don’t even have to cop it. They can just go listen to it for all I care. Don’t buy it, just take the time to respect the real Hip Hop laid down…” But how did The Ghost really feel upon learning that his first offering for the streets this year failed to even crack the Billboard 200 albums chart?

“Oh I ain’t even know it didn’t crack the Top 200,” replied an only slightly surprised Styles when asked. “I was dumb happy off of it, off the response I was gettin’ from the hood. I didn’t know it didn’t crack – I mean you know, I’m at a point in my career, I been doing so much for so long…I’m fortunate enough to have fans and people that still love me. And I’m really just here to maintain and hold down the streets… As long as it’s a classic in the hood – When the shit ain’t a classic in the hood, that’s when you can call me and ask if I’m hurt and I’ma tell you, ‘Yeah.’ But as far as like [this] day and age and how shit is going now, I don’t really sweat [sales] ‘cause everything is instant. You could crack, and there’s dudes crackin’…and they did it and whatever, but you won’t even hear from ‘em at all next year, or in two years. So, it depends on what side of the game you play. I always play fair, [and so] I’ll take [being] D-list in the industry. But I’m A-list as far as street music and in the streets.”

The A-list street scribe will have a message for his less honorable peers in the industry on “To All The Sellouts,” a Statik Selektah-produced selection (that is in Styles’ words simply, “Crazy. Holy shit”) from the soundtrack that will accompany The Ghost’s new fiction novel, Invincible.     

Styles revealed to DX back in January what readers can expect from his first literary offering: “The storyline is basically it’s an action-mystery of a dude who has his life endangered…a dude trying to stay positive, his store ends up getting robbed, he shoots the people who robbed him, ends up going to jail, [and] while he’s in jail he gets a mystery letter from someone that wants to kill him, his lady ends up leaving him, he sees old friends – he don’t know whether he can trust ‘em or not…and it’s just an action-packed mystery adventure from The Ghost.”

Both the Invincible book and soundtrack will be available on the same day, with pre-orders for the book available now at Amazon and plans to release the soundtrack exclusively via StylesP.net on the official June 1st book release date.

Even with a busy dub-dime schedule of writing, recording and promoting his various new projects, Pinero took time out of a hectic press day to fondly reflect on his personal memories of the voice of Gang Starr, recalling that, “I just remember every time I seen Guru, from when I met him [on], him giving props. You gotta think, as an emcee coming in the game, to get props and respect from Guru [is] something big. He [was] just always mad cool.”
 
“I grew up on Guru,” he added. “And, you know what? With me, with death, I try to not take it in a negative aspect anymore – as a person who’s dealt with death a few times. I believe you’ll see the person again, and I just try to look at the good moments. He was a hell of an emcee and left a marvelous body of work.”

The Ghost Dub-Dime is due in stores and online May 18th from E1 Entertainment.

Tracklist and production credits for The Ghost Dub-Dime are below.  

1.     Intro
(produced by Tyler Woods)

2.     G-Sense
(produced by Street Radio)

3.     Back On My New S***
FT. Tre Williams
(produced by Street Radio)

4. Where I'm From
(produced by Street Radio)

5. It's Over
(produced by Ceasar Productions)

6. The Beat Don't Stop
FT. Jimi Kendrix
(produced by Street Radio)

7. That Street Life
FT. Tyler Woods
(produced by Tyler Woods)

8. Fast Lane
(produced by Don Joe for Dogzilla Productions)

9. Here I Am
(produced by Street Radio)

10. Juice Bar
(produced by Don Joe for Dogzilla Productions)

11. Road to Success
(produced by Ceasar Productions)

12. Outro
(produced by Street Radio)

Purchase Music by Styles P

Pre-Order Invincible: A Novel by Styles P

Conservative leader is a stress-tested Duracell bunny with the capacity to make any crisis seem reasonable, or so his friends say

David Cameron, says a friend, "is the Duracell bunny." He bounces back. After the second leaders' debate most polls again gave victory to Nick Clegg, but around the Tory leader there is a hope that the worst is over: he has not imploded, his nerve held firm. "When he came back into the green room we all just knew he had done a good job," says one of his team. "With our candidate we are trying to create situations where he can be himself and then all will be ok."

Every party leader needs friends who tell journalists this sort of thing and it often isn't true. But Cameron's response to the rewriting of the election script has been characteristic: "He has a capacity to make any crisis seem reasonable," says one colleague. "He has been repeatedly stress-tested and this is just the latest time," says another.

"He is the most un-neurotic person I have ever met in my life," says Andrew Feldman, close since university and now the Conservative party's chief executive. "It is a captivating quality. He is calm under pressure, extremely tough and straightforward."

We are familiar with politicians with unstable characters hidden behind unshakeable beliefs. Gordon Brown is accused of being like that and so was Tony Blair. Cameron emerges from every account as solid. Talking over the last fortnight to two dozen people who know him well, mostly off the record, I found few dissenting voices. Everyone describes his confidence, humour, quick thinking and tolerance. But press them to flesh out the Cameron agenda – why he wants power – and they falter. Talk soon falls back to his instincts.

You could call this the classic definition of a leader; Julius Caesar's manifesto was not the point; but 21st century politics looks for an agenda. It is that apparent void with Cameron which puzzles voters and his own party. He is a rooted pragmatist. His opinions are drawn from a series of rolling judgments about what he thinks right and wrong, rather than an explicable ideological narrative. For an electorate looking for settled substance, that is a problem. For a potential prime minister, it could be regarded as a strength.

There are bursts of irritation from him, but not rage. As a shadow minister puts it: "I just can't work out what his insecurity is."

But being unfazed is not the same as knowing what to do. Ability, confidence – and arrogance – may yet carry Cameron to Downing Street: but beyond? The price of pragmatism can be the absence of conviction. Voters think they sense fakery – more spin than substance, pollsters persistently report. Cameron's circle know that is how he is seen, hate it, but don't know how to respond. The problem is that Cameron has never convincingly explained to an electorate stung by the expenses scandal and economic crisis why he wants to lead the country.

"He is not gripped by a specific sense of mission," says one member of the so-called Notting Hill set. "He is not a visionary, not a man with a plan, but has surrounded himself with men who do have plans. In different circumstances he could be happy with totally different plans". Another friend sums it up: "He does not have a world view but an instinctive disposition."

His attitudes are traditional and heartfelt. His error has been to mould them into an artificial appearance of an over-arching ideology. All that Big Society stuff, which so baffles his party, is on one level an expression of long-standing Conservative values.

Everyone close calls him a One Nation Conservative. One friend says he is "almost Victorian" – not morally, but in that he is powered by a sense of duty and responsibility. To Michael Gove, a Cameron intimate of long standing, he is "Sir Alec Douglas-Home goes to Glastonbury". He is tolerantly pragmatic, rather than liberal – accepting the idea of gay adoption, for instance, while if pushed admitting to feeling that parenting is best done by a man and a woman.

"He is a very simple bloke," says one friend. "Bright, quick, he knows what he thinks, and people searching for some deep dark night of the soul aren't going to find it … He is what he appears to be; he does not have doubts about many things. He is a generous-spirited optimist."

But optimism, viewed in the wrong light, can appear shallow. One Conservative who worked with Cameron at the start of his career says there is something of the Basil Fotherington-Thomas about him, the Molesworth schoolboy sissy who wanders about saying "hullo clouds, hullo sky". Some Tories, wishing for a tougher campaign, are in despair.

"I prefer phlegmatic and proportionate leadership," responds one of his circle. "Sensible and very English."

That spirit of Englishness was caught in vignette in a cricket match in June 2001, not long after Cameron became an MP. A Labour team took on the Conservatives in the Tory leader's Oxfordshire constituency – journalists, party advisers and politicians. Among those playing for Labour were future ministers James Purnell and Andy Burnham – two sides batting for power, politics reduced to an un-ideological game. There are Tories of the more doctrinal sort for whom that scene is a parable for what's wrong.

The match took place at the high noon of new Labour, when Cameron and friends, almost all working in some form of lobbying or journalism, seemed to ape Tony Blair. "They saw how the metropolitan elite had taken over Labour," said one Blair supporter. "They realised if they played things well they could take over the Tories in the same way. "They didn't see the Tory reinvention as an ideological project."

"I never knew whether the script was developed in response to the circumstances in which he found himself, or whether he really had a burning desire to modernise the party," says one Tory who worked with him. "You have to think it was the former. I don't remember him being a moderniser in the 1990s and in the 2005 election he wrote the manifesto." That document reduced the Tory agenda to right-of-centre simplicities. "Cameron was the draftsman but not the architect," says a senior party figure. Odd, though, that not a hint of what became Cameron Conservatism whispered through.

He came into the party just as Margaret Thatcher's star was diving, and reputedly joined the Conservative Research Department after failing to land a job as a banker. At Oxford – Bullingdon Club notwithstanding – he was more than just another posh boy. "He was very funny, with an easy charm which transcended his background. He had an extraordinary combination of self-confidence combined with a common touch," says Feldman.

Already, the Cameron of today was largely in place. "Leadership in a man of 43 looks like astonishing cockiness in a boy of 22," says one of the people he worked with after Oxford. "He was full of himself." And as ever, he did not burden himself with ideological baggage. "I don't remember times when he espoused an unpopular cause or stood out against something that was wrong."

Thatcher's downfall was a shock – "we were very upset to see it happen, felt it was very wrong and devastating," says one colleague. But Cameron's own career progress seemed obvious – "he stood out among us," says a colleague. His circle believe they have thrived because "we are good at it" – Cameron, typically, running for the leadership against David Davis in 2005 in large part because he thought the frontrunner second rate.

Briefing the prime minister for question time in his 20s, he was soon special adviser first to Norman Lamont at the Treasury and then Michael Howard at the home office. Former bosses remember Cameron for his ability more than beliefs, a willing dogsbody "ready to roll up his sleeves". Lamont says he was "excellent, very receptive," adding carefully that he was "not involved in key decisions in supporting sterling or not". He was "not as Eurosceptic as I am but he agreed with a lot I stood for," says the former chancellor. He was caught on camera behind a shaken Lamont on 16 September 1992 as he announced Britain had been forced to leave the ERM. For Cameron, says Lamont, Black Wednesday was "a sobering lesson in how unpredictable and dangerous politics can be. That's valuable when you have zoomed to the top."

In the aftermath Cameron joined Carlton Television, promoting the company's bullish and confrontational boss Michael Green. This chapter – much written about elsewhere – is seen by many as Cameron at his worst: pushy and manipulative.

Meanwhile, the Notting Hill set was flourishing. "He and Sam [they married in 1996] were at the heart of it," says one occasional visitor to the Cameron home. "They had significantly more cash than other people in our generation. It allowed them to rise a few notches higher." How grand the couple are is a matter of opinion. Cameron's friends see him as upper-middle class and his wife as upper class, and neither notably wealthy by the measures of those elites. "He leads the life of a university-educated 40-something, the Nick Hornby-reading professional generation". But an Etonian background and aristocratic connections put him unimaginably high on the social and economic scale.

Cameron believes Britain is broken by repute, not by experience of living in a broken community. Most people are not invited to join White's or to hunt, as he did growing up – and on at least one occasion in his constituency. He is said to be an outstanding shot. Deer stalking, like hunting in Scotland, is another hobby that the exposure of politics has forced him to put on hold.

Cameron, says a friend, "is maniacally gregarious. He and Sam have people permanently to lunch or dinner or to stay the weekend. They have total confidence. We will be exactly as we are, they believe, and you will think we are great. I suspect he doesn't like being alone. He is not given to sitting pondering himself and his lot in life."

The couple's friends are long established: "He commands enormous personal loyalty," says Feldman. There is a gaudy north Oxfordshire set, including the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson – a real Cameron friend – and Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and now News International chief executive, who talked Rupert Murdoch round to Cameron's cause. Some are "friends of convenience – the relationship is a bit perfunctory," says one visitor. But that doesn't stop the Camerons "lushing up people who will be influential. They will have people to lunch only because he wants to be prime minister. It seems completely normal to them."

There are others "who while not uncritical will be completely loyal". "Although he now gets invited to lots more parties, he is just as happy hanging out with his old friends," says Feldman.

This gang is notoriously unpopular with the wider party. "Cameron never looks you in the eye, always looks over your shoulder, he has smart friends, is dreadful with small people and thinks most of the world are small people," says one disgruntled shadow minister.

But the supporting group is unrepentant. "Which leader has not been criticised for being too isolated?" asks one. "The problem is the group is not tight enough," says another. "If we lose, then they can have a go at us. I know what will happen if we lose." There isn't mutiny in Tory ranks yet but if Cameron fails to win his once-expected majority, the disaffected will come for him.

Cameron's allies say his team is heterogeneous: not everyone has been mates since Eton. Steve Hilton is the son of Hungarian migrants; Gove was adopted; Andy Coulson did not go to university. "He doesn't want a team of carbon copies. It is open to people with ideas."

Some Tories will snort with derision on reading that.

"I have known him for 25 years and there is a sense that there is a small part of him you can't reach. I think you need that to be able to succeed under the pressures of public life," says Feldman. "He is slightly detached even with his really good friends," says another person close to him. "People say he's cold," says another – "though he's very emotional he doesn't open up."

That can feed stubbornness and a kind of sang-froid. Cameron waited against all advice until this year before asking Lord Ashcroft to reveal his tax status – a mistake, he now says. Both the error and the admission are telling of the leader's character. So was his blunt reaction to his Ulster Unionist allies' near-derailing of devolution as "a squeaky bum moment".

"He is quite capable of taking a step back into his own space," says a friend. What fills that space? He is "the classic rooted Tory politician who stands for family, community and country," says one friend – "but on to that you have to bolt the life-changing experience he had with Ivan" – the short life of his disabled son having a deep impact. "I am an instinctive libertarian who abhors state prohibitions and tends to be sceptical of most government action," Cameron wrote in a diary for the Guardian. "Raise any issue and I can predict Cameron's thought processes," says a friend. "Will it work? What will it cost? Should government be doing it at all?"

From that flows his Euroscepticism, his most rigid view, and diversion from the One Nation Tory generation. He isn't an obsessive and he doesn't intend a Tory government to be shaped by the issue. This is a deferment of conflict, not a change of world view. His European policy will attempt to build relations with leaders, not institutions, and he has worked hard to win their affections. Withdrawal from the European people's party – and alliance with what Nick Clegg last week called the "nutters" – set that back, though Cameron bristles when his new allies are described as homophobic and antisemitic.

"He is not a neoconservative," says one shadow cabinet member. "He has a classic 18th century suspicion of foreign entanglements." His claim to have backed the Iraq war reluctantly is supported by articles written for the Guardian at the time: "[I] have distinctly dovish tendencies." He wrote he would vote for war "grudgingly, unhappily, unenthusiastically." George Osborne persuaded him to do so.

Cameron, says one of his team, wants to be a domestic prime minister. He "comes alive when he talks about social issues". "He has a passion for self-confident 'get government off my back' public servants – good headteachers, army officers, social entrepreneurs". The model of such self-help is Balsall Heath in Birmingham, which he has visited repeatedly: he sees it as microcosm of Conservative policy to come.

Education is Cameron's chosen testing ground: it was the job he picked when Michael Howard offered him any shadow cabinet post. "He cares about economic policy, and sees it as the key to the social reform he also wants to achieve," says Feldman – nobody suggests it is his primary interest – though one colleague adds "he totally gets numbers, he worked at the Treasury, he can more than hold his own".

"The phrase that totally captures Dave," says one colleague, "is 'quietly effective'." The Cameron camp insist he is contemptuous of the showmanship of opposition. They would say that, of course, and it doesn't look true to outsiders: the bike-riding, husky-chasing PR man has been on show for five years.

Should we see him differently – a man who would rather take a series of sensible middling decisions than launch a crusade? Rhetoric falls awkwardly from his lips. Colleagues describe someone who refers constantly to his constituency for examples of government ineffectiveness, who wants parliamentary reform of a traditional sort – backing the Wright reforms on Commons independence, to the irritation of Tory whips – and who is "at his most impressive chairing policy meetings". His favourite criticism, they even claim, is "that's a bit of a gimmick".

This is an authentic part of Cameron's character, but not all of it and not the one the public knows. His views may be straight down the middle. His leadership has presented him as radical. Perhaps that was unavoidable – the only way to detoxify the Tory brand. But in an anti-politics age it costs his party too.

How might he cope with defeat? "He thinks he is going to win," says a friend. "Maybe if he doesn't the blow will be all the greater. He would feel guilt, that he had let a lot of people down. He would head to the pub in Chipping Norton, drink pints of Old Speckled Hen, feel desperate for a weekend, come back on Monday, say Labour have created this mess and are about to make it worse, let's get back up and fight."

But the Tory party, after losing the unloseable election, might not let him. And one old friend wonders if he might just walk away. "There is an element of the aristocrat to him, risking it all on the throw of a dice."

Let's be clear:  Arizona's new anti-immigrant law is not just racist, and unconstitutional, it's also dangerous to the law-abiding residents of Arizona.  Anything that makes people afraid to come forward and cooperate with the police investigating crimes makes it harder for law enforcement to do its job, and that makes it easier for criminals to do theirs.

At her press conference where she actually signed the law, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said:

This bill, the "Support Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," strengthens the laws of our state.  It protects all of us, every Arizona citizen and everyone here in our state lawfully.  And it does so while ensuring the constitutional rights of all within Arizona remain solid, stable and steadfast.

That's just a pack of lies.  And not just the part about constitutional rights.  All of it is a pack of lies.

Since 1979, the Los Angeles Police Department has operated under Special Order 40, which prohibits police officers from "initiat(ing) police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person."  It was initiated by Chief Daryl Gates, who died just this past week. Gates had been called many things in his life, but "liberal" was not one of them. On April 9, The LA Times explained in an editorial:

The order was adopted in the late 1970s by then-Chief Daryl F. Gates, hardly a soft-on-crime liberal, who knew that the LAPD would be more effective if undocumented witnesses and victims felt free to speak with officers without fearing deportation. The order prevents officers from questioning people solely to determine their immigration status or arresting them solely for violations of immigration law. It does nothing to stop officers from arresting a violent suspect or calling in federal agents to investigate a person they believe illegally reentered the U.S. after deportation. It was good policy then and remains so today.

Special Order 40 is sound, sensible, effective and efficient police policy.  It was initiated by a hard-ass conservative police chief.  And it has worked for over 30 years--despite wingnut attacks based on lies and distortions (more on this below the fold).

On top of everything else, the Arizona law is clearly criminally stupid. Exactly what you'd expect from racist wingnuts.  It is guaranteed to make law enforcement less efficient and less effective in Arizona.  It is a pro-crime law. Period.

But what are we to do about it?  Wait for the terminally risk-averse Obama Administration to accidentally find its backbone?

I don't think so.  I think we need a massive wave of civil disobedience to overwhelm the Arizona criminal justice system, and make it overwhelmingly obvious that this law is morally unacceptable and unenforceable in America today.  The only thing that gives me pause is the principle that I should not call for others to do what I am not willing to do myself.  Which puts me in sort of bind.  I have been arrested on principle before.  I made the sacrifice then, because it was one I could consciously and fullly take on.  If it meant two years--or possibly more--in prison to protest the Vietnam War at that time, I was willing to do it.  But that doesn't count for anything now.  I can't in good conscience be the one to lead this call.  But I can say it is morally necessary, and I will fully support anyone who is willing to commit themselves and call on others to do the same.  Waiting on the government and politicians to do the right thing is not sufficient, not when liberty, justice and equality are so viciously attacked.
As I said above, LA's Special Order 40 has worked for over 30 years--despite wingnut attacks based on lies and distortions.  Here's what the same LA Times editorial had to say on the subject in its most recent incarnation:

The emotional heat of the immigration debate finally grew so intense that it opened up several alternate dimensions, where fact evaporates and folklore guides what passes for policy discussion. In one parallel Los Angeles, police officers see violent gang members whom they know to be illegal immigrants but can do nothing to stop them because of a politically correct edict known as Special Order 40. It has become common knowledge in this world that the order doomed young Jamiel Shaw II, the high school student gunned down by an illegal immigrant gang member who roamed the streets with impunity after being released from jail because local law protected him from deportation.

Back in the real world, where fact still holds sway, Special Order 40 had no role in Shaw's killing. Illegal immigrant and 18th Street Gang member Pedro Espinoza was arrested in November by Culver City police -- not the LAPD -- and jailed on a weapons charge. Espinoza should have been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending deportation. Instead, he was released, and an innocent and promising high school student was shot to death. The tragedy exposes deplorable failures in the jailhouse processing of illegal immigrant criminals, but it has nothing to do with the LAPD, much less with Special Order 40.

This is completely typical of the fact-free manner in which racists have always argued all down through history.  Nothing has changed--except that now racism requires including the ritual denial of racism as an essential part of its sacred lies.

---

Anyone doubting the absurdity of the Arizona law should see Rachel Maddow's segment on the signing of the law last night [embedded below].  Picking up with a video of the governor making the statement I quoted above, here's part of what Maddow had to say in response:

[Video:]

Brewer: This bill, the "Support Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," strengthens the laws of our state. It protects all of us, every Arizona citizen and everyone here in our state lawfully. And it does so while ensuring the constitutional rights of all within Arizona remain solid, stable and steadfast.

Maddow:  Just to be clear, the steadfast upholding of constitutional rights here means when this bill is enacted [90 days from signing] you are presumed to be illegal in the state of Arizona.

Anyone, anywhere in Arizona is eligible for arrest if a police officer thinks you might be an illegal immigrant and you can't on the spot prove otherwise.

US citizens can be arrested and held in jail if you don't have the right form of identification to show a police officer who doesn't think you look right.

If it turns out you were a legal immigrant to this country, but you weren't carrying all of your immigration paperwork at the time, that's 6 months in jail for you and a $500 fine.

Maddow went on to the "this isn't racial profiling" claim, aptly comparing it to Bush's "we don't torture" claim:

If this sounds like racial profiling to you, Governor Brewer wants to assure you it most assuredly is not.

[Video:]

Brewer: Racial profiling is illegal, it will not be tolerated in America and it certainly will not be tolerated in Arizona.

Maddow:  Racial profiling illegal.  It will remain illegal, except for the part where police officers now have to stop you if they think you look illegal.

Other than that, there won't be any racial profiling in Arizona, because that of course would be against the law.

It's like when George Bush said we don't torture, because that would be illegal, instead we just waterboard people, and yeah we used to put people in prison for waterboarding people 'cause it was torture. We do that now, but we don't torture, because that would be illegal.

Remember that argument?  Same argument here.

Maddow then went on to focus on the fundamental question of how the law is supposed to be enforced in real life--the very first question asked at the press conference:

Maddow: The first question for Governor Brewer at the press conference today was about what basis a police officer could use to decide if someone looks illegal.

[Video:]

Reporter: It seems to me that while the bill says race and ethnicity may not be used as the sole factors, it does allow them to be used as a factor. How can that not lead to some form of racial profiling?

Brewer: No different than any other reasonable suspicion, Howie. I mean, we have to trust our law enforcement. You know, simple reality. Police officers are going to be respectful. They understand what their jobs are. They've taken [an] oath. And racial profiling is illegal.

 

Maddow:  It is illegal!

What I found particularly noteworthy and bizarre is the way that Brewer sort of slipped into "Mommy explains about the nice policeman" mode.  "We have to trust our law enforcement."  Because we live in a police state, where we don't ask questions like you just asked, dumbfuck!

A part of your brain has to be missing for you to mistake that for an actual answer to the question that was asked.

Painfully aware of just how absurd Brewer's theater had become, Maddow proceeds to invoke Lewis Carrol in presenting us with the ultimate absurdity, the complete void at the center of the law:

Maddow: If you want to identify the exact moment when any suspicion you might have had that you had gone down the rabbit hole at this press conference was completely verified by what you were seeing, it was probably this unbelievable moment:

[Video:]

Reporter: What does an illegal immigrant look like?

Brewer: [Strange, half-laughing, almost gagging sound]

Reporter: Does it look like me?

Brewer: I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like.

I can tell you that I think there are people in Arizona that assume THEY know what an illegal immigrant looks like. I don't know if they know that for a fact or not.

But I know that if AZ Post [Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board] gets theirself together, works on this law, puts down the description, that the law will be enforced civilly, fairly, and without discriminatory points to it.

Maddow:  The law will be enforced without discriminatory points to it.  As long as someone, somewhere in the state of Arizona can figure out what an illegal immigrant looks like.

The whole point of our Bill of Rights is to outlaw arbitrary and capricious state power, and protect the people against any such exercise of state power.  This law is nothing but arbitrary and capricious state power.  It's not that the law is "unconstitutionally vague" as courts most commonly find when such issues are raised.  It's not vague around the edges.  Its very core, its foundations are essentially and fundamentally vague to the point of being undefined and undefineable.

This is pure prejudice enshrined in law.  It is racism run amuck.  And it must be stopped by the same means that slavery was stopped, that Jim Crow was stopped: by a rising up of people of conscience, by those oppressed and those who stand with them, because they can do no other.

---

Watch the whole segment, which brings on New Mexico governor Bill Richardson shortly after the passages quoted above:

Sarkozy and Bruni's visit for half-smoke hotdogs was the latest highlight for a famous Washington DC fast food joint

The Sarkozy-Bruni family made a splash in Washington DC this week with a trip to Ben's Chili Bowl, adding another chapter to the shabby hotdog joint's storied history. As Les Echoes noted, the restaurant "fréquenté en son temps par Martin Luther King".

Sadly, the only problem with Ben's Chili Bowl is that while the atmosphere is great, the food is mediocre, even by fast food standards. The signature "chili" is oily and very salty, and is itself mild but served at a ferociously hot temperature. Le Monde's Washington correspondent summed it up pretty well: "une institution devenue assez touristique où l'on mange des hot-dogs".

Still, the other option for Sarkozy was lunch at the White House with noted raconteur Tim Geithner and his gang of econo-wonks. Even Ben's nuclear chili sounds good in comparison.

Ben's, though, has a hell of a backstory, as part of the neglected African-American heritage of Washington DC. It was opened in 1958 by an immigrant from Trinidad, Ben Ali, a dental student at nearby Howard University, and his wife Virginia. But the reason it's a landmark (apart from sheer longevity) is its role in DC's U Street corridor, once known as the "black Broadway". The restaurant's website recounts:

Top performers could be found playing sets in clubs along the corridor, as well as eating and just "hanging out" at Ben's. It was not uncommon to see such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King Jr or Bill Cosby at "The Bowl."

Bill Cosby was a regular visitor, and for years a notice hung behind the counter reading: "List of who eats free at Ben's: Bill Cosby. No one else". In 2008 the sign was amended to add the Obama family to the list – although when Obama himself did visit, before his presidential inauguration in 2009, he paid in full.

Washington was convulsed by race riots in 1968, along with many other parts of the US, in the wake of King's assassination. Ben's was one of the few businesses to stay open during the riots that devastated sections of the capital. The restaurant's website says: "Stokely Carmichael of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, which was located across the street, obtained special police permission to allow Ben's to stay open after curfew to provide food and shelter for activists, firefighters and public servants desperately trying to restore order."

Since then the restaurant has appeared as local colour in movies – the most recent being State of Play – and has turned into a stop on the Washington tourism trail as well as being a late-night fast food joint. In 2008 the Ali family opened another restuarant and bar, called Next Door, which is rather more up-market, in keeping with the gentrification of the U Street corridor.

The other notable event of the Sarkozy déjeuner was Carla Bruni's delight at the half-smoke sausage in her hotdog – the half-smoke being Washington DC's sole indigenous contribution to world cuisine.

What's a half-smoke? The funny thing is no one can agree on anything other than the fact that it's a Washingtonian delicacy. The Washington City Paper wrote an exhaustive article on the subject:

Depending on whom you ask, the half-smoke is simply a smoked sausage. Or it's a sausage that's been smoked only halfway — whatever that could possibly mean. Or maybe it's a half-smoke because some cooks prefer to split it in half when it goes on the grill. Or its "half" comes from the fact that it's often made from equal portions of beef and pork. But then how do you explain all those half-smokes downtown that are advertised as all-beef?

So, no-one knows – but whatever they are, you can buy half-smokes at every hotdog stand in the District. They taste slightly spicier than normal franks.

So if you want to avoid the crowds, and eat some decent fast food, where to go in DC? For locals the chain of choice is often the Five Guys burger bar, with multiple outlets around Washington, where a custom-made burger, fries and Coke can be had for $10. The Obamas go for Five Guys burgers on a regular basis – both Barack and Michelle. The fries are excellent. And the hotdogs are pretty good too. Or there's the huge Lauriol Plaza, a longstanding Mexican restaurant on 18th Street in Adams Morgan – a favourite of Bill Clinton's.

Three of the most exciting words in the English language: one-night stand. It can be disastrous, it can be hilarious … it can even lead to love.

They Shoot Unicorns, Don't They?
by Evan James

Andre was part of a glitter-smeared dance troupe that performed gleeful, sexually confusing choreographed numbers in an SFMOMA variety show inspired by the art of Weimar Germany. The kind of boy you might bring home to mother, as long as your mother didn't want to talk about books.

I approached this blithe hooligan one evening after a performance. My better judgement had drowned in a tumbler of vodka about an hour earlier, so I sauntered up to his sweaty, sparkly person and suggested we pair off. After a bit of unseemly public canoodling, I took him home to my place in Duboce Triangle.

Andre and I groped at each other wildly. The removal of one garment led to another, and soon we stood naked. That's when I saw it: Across his chest, in a menacing gothic script normally reserved for gang tattoos, was the bold statement, "MY FRIENDS = MY UNICORNS."

"My friends equal my unicorns?" I said, stunned.

"Uh-huh," said Andre dreamily, kissing me.

Was it a gang tattoo? Was there a gang called the Unicorns, like the Sharks in West Side Story? Confused, I pulled him into my bed and turned him onto his stomach, thinking I wouldn't have to contemplate unicorns that way.

Wrong! On his back, an enormous, full-color tattoo depicted the mythological creature in all of its mood-killing splendor. The fey steed was surrounded by the usual trappings—rainbows, a rushing waterfall, twinkly stars.

No longer aroused, I sat up in bed.

"What's wrong?" asked Andre. He turned toward me, and I was faced with the "MY FRIENDS = MY UNICORNS" tattoo again.

"You're covered in unicorns," I said, shielding my eyes.

No one-night stand should involve an ideological debate about unicorns, but there you have it. After I condemned his world view, Andre and his unicorns left in a huff. Sex with a nonbeliever was, apparently, out of the question. The next day I received a text message asking if we could be "just friends." Not wanting to equal a unicorn, I respectfully declined.

Bed and Breakfast
by James DeKoven

You ever get a hotel room just for the hell of it?" At first I didn't realize that her question was actually a suggestion. My cognitive abilities had been frozen by her flowing strawberry-blonde hair, and Alexis might as well have asked me about the subprime loan crisis. We were sitting at a cafe on Columbus Avenue. She was at the table next to me, deep into a tattered copy of The Brothers Karamazov, an easy conversation starter. We covered the plight of the outsider, consumerism and conformity, the individual versus society. The longer we talked, the more the desire grew. Then she posed the question.

I tried keeping my cool as we trolled North Beach searching for a hotel. In my head I felt like Woody Allen, looking at the camera, mouthing to the audience, "Can you believe this is happening?" But my disbelief evaporated within moments of entering the room: Clothes here, bodies there, two strangers misbehaving the way two strangers do when they get a hotel room just for the hell of it. If there's anything better than hotel sex, it's anonymous hotel sex.

Morning came. Alexis was late for work. An exchange of numbers, a kiss good-bye and she was gone. I noticed she forgot her tobacco and figured if I had until 11 a.m. to check out, I should savor it. So I got back into bed, rolled myself a cigarette and turned on the TV, settling on a History Channel documentary about 1920s Paris: jazz musicians, writers, artists, all seeking to break from convention and live on their own terms. I smoked that cigarette thinking, they probably had nights like this.

Fast Company
by Shannon S.

Ithought I hit the booty jackpot when a new 25-year-old acquaintance with the body of a god started texting my world-weary 39-year-old self. ITunes gift? Check. Sushi? Sure. Can I come up and see your place? You bet. He didn't have to ask me to service him for 20 minutes; I wanted to. When he laid me on my back I relished the thought of my reward.

Three minutes later, I lay there thinking: I am definitely not cut out to be a cougar. Give me a grown man any day.

Once in a Lifetime
By Samantha Perry

Ihad a one-night stand with a devilishly handsome, and romantically attached, acquaintance. We made out in the bathroom of a bar on Castro Street until we were asked to leave. ("Only one at a time please, ladies!") After a totally wild all-nighter at my place, we vowed that was the end of that.

Five years later, we are happily married.

Raw Nerve
by Amy B.

My ad on Nerve said I was looking for "sexual experience with mutual respect and human connection." I got 25 responses the first day—Peninsula tech geek, Oakland motohead, Mission gym rat. I chose a writer living in the Presidio, who impressed me with his language ("Your photos display a palpable sexuality"), his take-chargeness (choosing the time, place and location of the date) and his confidence ("I'll be the tallest man in the room").

After a glass of wine at Yield, we headed to Slow Club for a burger. He was an easy conversationalist, handsome, obviously intelligent, but I felt little chemistry until he reached across the table and brushed my fingers as I put my glass down. Outside, as he opened the passenger door, he turned to face me, gently tugged on the waist of my coat with one hand and said, "Can I have a kiss?"

"Maybe," I said.

"Why ‘maybe?'"

"It's more interesting than ‘yes.'"

He pulled me within an inch of him, his eyes intent on my lips, his mouth curving into a smile. He hovered there unmoving until I reached forward and kissed him. Fire. Several minutes later he pulled away, holding me by the shoulders. "You're such a good kisser," he said.

"I'm just following you," I said.

He drove me home, pulling up next to my building on 18th. We spent an hour in the car, and during that hour I did things I'd never done before—not with any boyfriend, not with my ex-husband, not in my imagination. The world outside the foggy windows fell away, and my entire universe condensed to the size of an Audi. I heard no sounds, saw no passersby, had no idea where I was. Every concern that existed beyond the boundary of my skin fell away.

When it was over, I slid my coat back on and looked at him. "Thank you," I said, and as soon as I uttered it, we both laughed. His breath was uneven. A flash of sadness passed over his face.

I knew that if I asked him upstairs, he would change my life, so I kissed his cheek, got out of the car and stumbled to my front door, relieved.

Questions about love, sex and relationships in San Francisco? Send them to our Two Sense editors at Twosense@7x7.com, and they might just answer them on their weekly column.

Got feedback? Send our editors a letter or add a comment below.

I don't get it, really. Obama as the Joker from The Dark Knight I mean, that nasty fellow sure looks evil, and making Obama look evil seems to be what the Republicans want to do these days, but could your comparison be more off? (a note before we go further: Plot spoilers for the movie in question will be part of the entry here, so you are warned!)

Somebody at the GOP fundraiser thought it would be a good idea to put this cruel cariacture of a man who is describe by most as calm, empathetic, earnest and likeable, an image whose last appearance had been on the posters of fringe Tea Partisans looking for shock value. Pelosi become Cruella DeVille, and Harry Reid ScoobyDoo. Democrats become the new "evil empire." I'm surprised they didn't call them the axis of evil.

And of course there are those other problematic slides.

The presentation explains the Republican fundraising in simple terms.

"What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate...?" it asks.

The answer: "Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”

Not what can you do, what can you sell. But isn't that a holy mission here?

Not necessarily:

The most unusual section of the presentation is a set of six slides headed “RNC Marketing 101.” The presentation divides fundraising into two traditional categories, direct marketing and major donors, and lays out the details of how to approach each group.

The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”

Major donors, by contrast, are treated in a column headed “Calculated Giving.”

Their motivations include: “Peer to Peer Pressure”; “access”; and “Ego-Driven.”

The slide also allows that donors may have more honorable motives, including “Patriotic Duty.”

But I think the part that should be most disquieting to those Republicans who thought the days of their party's corruption were over, that they'd turn over a new leaf should be this.

On page 70, we see, under the heading of Citizens United v. FEC the following formulation, in regards to campaign finance:

Significant holding: Access and Gratitude [does not equal] Corruption.

"Access and Gratitude does not equal Corruption."

Whether you are a Democrat who wants your Congress working for the people, or a Republican who doesn't want Congress inflating budgets with little Tchotchkes for their friends in the business world, that formulation should give you pause. If Access and gratitude for money given is not corruption, what is?

Americans are supposed to all have equal access to their representatives, senators, and Presidents, in terms of access. That's one reason for the first Amendment right to petition. You didn't have to be a courtier, a lord or a lady to ask something of your government.

I know Republicans might step in to defend this on the grounds that the decision meant even corporations had free access.

Problem is, that's not how it works in the real world. In the real world, the one thing the rich and the poor, and all in between have equally is their vote. That vote is what should buy access, their equal share in the franchise of this country. With campaign finance, though, naturally the rich and the corporations have more than their equal share of access.

And what of gratitude? In the world of Medieval Europe, you could buy a title, buy your way into government. That said, we are not Medieval Europe, and the gratitude towards those financing the campaign should not have as strong an effect on those politicians as their gratitude towards those who elected them.

The essence of corruption is that a system, a person does not operate as they should. Instead of remaining accountable to those who vote, they choose to be accountable to those who finance. Instead of granting access to all equally, they show preference for those who pay their campaign bills.

I am not claiming Democrats are pure of this, but what we have here is the Republicans essentially celebrating and rationalizing their own future prostitution. Access and Gratitude do equal corruption, when they are not directed mainly towards voters, to whom the constitution holds them accountable.

This is obvious. It should go without saying. Trouble is, we've gotten used to a certain level of corruption, so what is obvious and should go without saying becomes secondary to what's normal. We could say that's corruption in the scheme of things, where normal procedure deviates, even in the face of the worst kind of policy disaster, from that which is sought, to that which is simply the accepted, degenerated state of affairs.

As a Democrat, I have to deal with Representatives and Senators who have forgotten that liberals vote, too. I have to deal with elected officials who forget who electedthem to office. If you're a Democrat, chances are, your people wanted the Public Option. But it didn't get through. Why? Because many Senators and Representative thought the good old insurance companies shouldn't have to compete against the government.

Never mind whether these insurance companies really have to compete against anybody else. Never mind that Medicare has them beat on administrative overhead, despite the fact that it's government healthcare.

More than a year after one of the worst economic collapses in US history, our Congress has still yet to address the matter of the corruption of the markets, which took our financial sector from being a useful promoter of American prosperity to being a casino-like purveyor of games of chance for those with the money to gamble on relentless, recursive, and byzantine games of speculation.

So, many Democrats have deep concerns as to whether their people are listening. But that doesn't stop them from shouting the louder, or lead them to reject their ambitions to see a more responsive, responsible government working on the people's behalf.

Why would Republicans be the alternative? At best, they are enabling the corrupt on the other side, giving them the cover through an unyielding filibustering effort to disregard their voter's wishes. And at worst, they are keeping Democrats who actually do respond to their people's wishes from carrying those wishes out.

What the Republicans are doing gets excused as the typical Washington way of doing things. But don't both sides agree that the typical Washington way of doing things is dysfunctional?

So, coming back to that poster of Obama, we should recall what the character that sign is based on said:

I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan." But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

All part of the plan. Despicable as the man is, he's right in a way, and for Republicans making the vicious comparison of our nice, calm President to this whacko, the comparison between them and the guy with the clown makeup is more problematic. They seem to be playing both sides of this, being the follks for whom American's pain and suffering is just all part of the plan, and the agents of chaos, fair, unbiased chaos.

For the last two election cycles, they've been doing their obstruction, paralyzing Congress's ability, in many cases, to respond to their nation's needs. For somebody like me, it's utterly horrifying to see this behavior, because I, like many Democrats, care what comes of policy, comes of events, more than we care about creating some political utopia where everybody does things our way.

The Joker's diatribe on the hypocrisy of society contains a grain of truth. We've taken to accepting some pretty horrible outcomes in the years the Republicans have been determining policy, because in essence, it's all part of the plan.

Hell, like the Joker said, when a truckload of soldiers got it in Iraq, the response of many Republicans during the Bush Administration was that we should stay the course, in effect making the soldier's deaths part of the plan. That much of this was done in the name of keeping Iraq a politically popular war should not escape attention; we can accept a war plan that costs lives if that plan seems to be working, making things better, but most Americans lack the stomach to sacrifice soldiers for the sake of politics, and rightly so.

Now we face economic hard times, and to be blunt, the Republican's plan is to cut back services. If this causes problems, the Republicans choose to tell us that reducing the deficit will help America economically, and that this would be part of it. If you listen to most economists, though, you'll find though that what the Republicans propose isn't that well received, at least not while we still are crawling back out of the hole of the collapse.

The problem dogging us is not inflation, it's the fact that balance sheet problems at the banks are making the banks stingy, either out of necessity or greed, in terms of lending money to consumers and businesses, and that this stinginess came with such suddenness, such catastrophic speed, that employers and others seeking finance had no opportunity to adjust in the marketplace. When Obama got into office, he was dealing with two trillion dollars worth of economic demand that had just walked away, walked away and took jobs, profits, and business opportunities with them.

With the Fed prime interest rate at zero, there was no opening up the coffers to flood the market with existing money supply. Part of the fed's response was to actually print new money to flood the market, and prevent further tightening. But that wasn't enough.

With Banks either unwilling or unable to lend, who was left to fund recovery? Americans were tightening their belts as it was. The Fed couldn't help more than it was.

That left Government. But of course, admitting this, much less voting for this would mean Republicans admitting that government could do people good through additional spending. So, even if it meant that there was going to be pain and suffering if this didn't go through, the Republicans opposed it, vilified it, wrongly enough, as unnecessary. It wasn't. It worked.

The Republicans continue to oppose that, and other methods, vilifying it at the top of their lungs. They do it not because it does not work, but because it does, and gets in the way of their claiming that their kind of agenda is the only way Americans can prosper. They warn people that deficits will come and get us if we continue with policies like this, but the fact remains that despite moves that in ordinary times would have kicked inflation sky-high, inflation remains stable, if not trending towards the negative. We're still in the hole, in other words, as far as demand goes.

But it must be opposed, regardless of what it does to people, regardless of the fact that the real long term drivers of deficits are economic hardship and healthcare, the two issues Republicans are most unwilling to deal with by government intervention.

Privatize Social Security, Privatize Medicare, push all the costs and responsibilities for the economy back onto the people. Let the market decide everything.

The same market that has allowed costs to spiral out of control with healthcare, despite more than a decade and a half of GOP promises.

The same market that collapsed, taking half of all American's retirement savings with them.

Literally, it's all part of the plan.

Republicans might claim that their alternative vision reduces the budget, but their budget essentially takes Seniors, and caps their medicare reimbursement, not indexing it for inflation, for the next few decades. Their plan does little to curb the rapid increases that insurance companies would impose, so your average american will pay the difference, and be paying it to the same insurance companies whose excesses the Republicans refuse to let America confront.

I was surprised that the Republicans would offer this kind of radical proposal, but not shocked. Republicans have long taken an approach that callous disregard for the consequences of their policy is a good thing, separates them from the bleeding-heart liberals who actually care what the decisions government makes do to people.

Correct me if I'm wrong, though, but isn't it a bad thing to have elected officials who are callous about the effects of their policies on people? The folks from Jim Bunning's home state seem to think so. Democrats weren't capitalizing on Bunning's comments for nothing. If there is one think I think most Americans are agreed on, it's that they don't want a government that doesn't watch what it's doing when it handles policy.

Whether the Republicans want to face it or not, there is a real movement out there in America to have government intervene on American's behalf, to help them through these tough times, an anger with a government that seems to consume our tax dollars without doing real good for the people.

The Republicans are trying to twist that dissatifaction around to increase the hatred of big government, but really, did that profit us any, as Wall Street was robbing people blind? Did it help us as Republicans in Congress dismantled decades worth of safeguards and obligations for big business? The Republicans claim big government is the problem, yet what people see out there is not a problem of too much governing, of innovation stifled and regulations keeping businesses from moving ahead, but not enough governing.

The derivatives that got us into this mess have been the subject of more than a decades worth of a hands-off approach to governing Wall Street. Folks in Washington, whether Republican or Democrat, pushed a law through Congress, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush, which actually made it illegal to regulate derivatives markets. The last decade has been an experiment in small government, in less governing in that respect. It was all part of the plan, a plan people only now have rejected because of the spectacular failure it produced.

Right now, Republicans claim that Wall Street needs more of the same plan in action.

That's not the only business that Republicans refuse to govern more, to moderate. Healthcare companies, insurance companies have run costs out of control, with little interference from them. If the Republicans wanted to prove that private healthcare would reform itself, they failed utterly.
It's not for nothing that the Republicans are not much better trusted on the subject than the insurance companies they come to the defense of. Whatever mistrust or antipathy Republicans have created against the current healthcare bill, and those pushing it through Congress, they have not earned the trust of the American people on the subject.

In fact, despite everything, Obama still polls 49% on trust concerning the subject. That's down, but you would expect to see Republicans numbers rise to compliment that, instead of remaining seventeen points behind. The Republicans are losing the political battle against reform, and ironically, the best they can do is make it a loss for everybody else, if they can manage it.

They can't even manage to keep their different stories straight. To wit, from the transcript of one commercial:

As a mom I know one-size-fits-all clothes don't fit, aren't comfortable and are seldom a bargain. So why does Harry Reid want to force one-size-fits-all government health care on us? Harry Reid thinks Washington knows best, but I think we the people know best. Harry Reid's big government health care plan will raise taxes, put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor, weaken Medicare, kill jobs, push us further into debt. I'm Sue Lowden and I approve this message because government run health care is wrong."

There are two rather disturbing conclusions you can come to from the wording here. The first disturbing conclusion is that Sue Lowden is unclear on the concept of Medicare, or unclear on the concept of Government-run Healthcare. The second is that Sue Lowden not only knows the difference, but also thinks that many of her potential voters don't, and is prepared to exploit that ignorance and misunderstanding for her own gain.

It gets even better. You know that Republican Budget that was supposed to cut taxes, raise revenues, and somehow solve the deficit? Not exactly working as sold. a quote from the linked article says it all:

"It’s difficult to design a tax plan that will lose $2 trillion over a decade even while requiring 90 percent of taxpayers to pay more," says CTJ acerbically. "But Congressman Ryan has met that daunting challenge."

What we're faced here with is politics for people who don't check the facts, who don't think things through. Politics from a party that thinks you're stupid and is waiting for you to prove them right.

Logic is for argument that intend to work through people's rational minds, that intend to let people make rational decisions. The Republicans simply want every person to be grabbing for their wallet, even as they help support all the folks who are picking it while the marks out there aren't looking.

Old folks regularly have to deal with end-of-life medical care. There was a provision in healthcare reform to take care of it, to help seniors and others on Medicare express their rights on making those tough decisions. Unfortunately, the Republicans needed a convenient issue to demagogue, so that became the Death Panels, a fictional tribunal before which Old people and Sarah Palin's little Down Syndrome baby went to be disposed of. A Responsible, reasonable piece of legislation was essentially destroyed because some folks needed something else to make people scared of healthcare reform with.

Obama as the Joker isn't about apt portrayals. It's about equating him with a villain, an absolutely destructive psychopath that people thought was real scary. But who really is more like him, at the end of the day? Those who are willing to let terrible things happen to make a point? Who prey on folk's fears and anxieties, or those who reason with people, who call for America to deal with the policy problems it's put off facing far too long?

Or a President noted for his calm, thoughtfulness, and trustworthiness?

We should be quite clear on who the real Jokers on are in Washington. Who they've been for decades. What they've been promising, if only we let them tear down Washington further, as it once was. No more deliberative Democracy, just a Congress that rubberstamps a Republican President, or obstructs a Democratic one. No answering the clear regulatory problems, just more catering to the special interests.

Because, after all, they do not think that granting access and showing gratitude towards contributors is corruption. Why bother doing what the people want? They're just there to be stampeded in a convenient direction, aren't they?

Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!

That's been, more or less, the clarion call of the right: Let the market decide everything!

Now, don't get me wrong, market economies are better than command economies at dealing with complexities. However, they're not fire and forget solutions to the problems of society. Somtimes they help, sometimes, they don't. Chaos cannot be our definition of fairness.

The fact is, the market can decide some pretty perverse things, if you don't configure the rules and regulations right. The market is about gains vs. losses, and the rules and regulations of that market are about how you can gain and how you can lose. While it's not a good idea to micromanage an economy from up on high, given how complex the market is, it's also not a good idea to let the damn thing run wild.

At the height of the crisis in the fall of 2008, stock prices, particularly of financial companies, were in a free fall. Some observers believe that CDS figured into that decline. They contend that, as buyers of credit default swaps had an incentive to see a company fail, they may have engaged in market activity to help undermine an underlying company’s prospects. This analysis has led some observers to suggest that credit default swap trading should be restricted or even prohibited when the protection buyer does not have an underlying interest.

Though credit default swaps have existed for only a relatively short period of time, the debate they evoke has parallels to debates as far back as 18th Century England over insurance and the role of speculators. English insurance underwriters in the 1700s often sold insurance on ships to individuals who did not own the vessels or their cargo. The practice was said to create an incentive to buy protection and then seek to destroy the insured property. It should come as no surprise that seaworthy ships began sinking. In 1746, the English Parliament enacted the Statute of George II, which recognized that “a mischievous kind of gaming or wagering” had caused “great numbers of ships, with their cargoes, [to] have . . . been fraudulently lost and destroyed.” The statute established that protection for shipping risks not supported by an interest in the underlying vessel would be “null and void to all intents and purposes.”

For a time, however, it remained legal to buy insurance on another person’s life in England. It took another 28 years and a new king, King George III, before Parliament banned insuring a life without an insurable interest.

America should be well on its way to dealing with this, but this is not a conversation ideologically driven Republican leaders want to have. It might put them in the uncomfortable position of having to cross their own contributors, rather than give them gratitude, shut them outside the office, rather than offer them the access to write the laws.
The Republicans say, never mind the catastrophic results, let's do things our way! Introduce a little chaos, chaos is fair!

Oh, but it's become obvious that some Republicans are just corrupt, even to the Republicans that long supported their parties. Might the Republicans lose votes to the Democrats, or at least lose enthusiasm?

Not if the Tea Parties can help it. They're there to ensure that the Republican's misgivings are properly channeled. Like Zion in the Matrix, they just represent another layer of control, for those who ache to take the red pill and see the real world.

But these are the Tea Party Folks! Patriots! Everymen!

Stockbrokers? Wall Street Bond Traders? CNBC Reporters (that is the folks who fawned over the folks that got us in this mess?)

I'm sure some of the Tea Partisans are nice, decent folks, but as Bill Maher pointed out, they're caught up in a movement where 90% of the members don't realize that taxes went down for 95% of Americans. And it's a movement about taxes. Now, I'm not so inclined to use Bill Maher's harsh words (he didn't have a show called Politically Incorrect for nothing.) but the feeling I get is the same: these people are not clued in, and the main reason is that they are surrounded by a media whose primary job is to make sure they remain blissfully unaware of how duped they've become.

The point of the Tea Party Movement is to just entrench the same old sneaky, power-grubbing bastards back in power, this time by essentially BSing everybody and their dog about what's really happening in American policy and why.

When we talk about how terrible Washington is, we have to realize that it's more than just a matter of where the numbers in Congress are, it's a matter of how things are proceeding through the Senate. And things are not proceeding through the Senate because the Republicans are intent on filibustering or otherwise blocking most legislation. Simple as that. It's no excuse. It's fact, and if we don't consider facts, if we only let emotion dictate our notion of what the solution might be, we might just run ourselves into the problem further.

The fact of the matter is, any reduction of Senate Democrat numbers will just feed the problem further. It's likely to happen, no doubt, but what I think people will find out is that Democrats are not the prime movers of gridlock. Their friends on the right are. And it's not some response to Democratic Policy run amok.

The Republicans started filibustering at their record rate in 2007- when the Democrats were just getting in. No big policy dispute, besides perhaps everything. The Republicans simply did not want the Democrats in Congress. So, they did their best to try and filibuster the Democrats into being seen as the Do-Nothing Party.

Now you might say the Republicans had the people on their side, but there's one problem: Americans elected more Democrats in the 2008 elections.

Did the Republicans see the light? No, they saw red. Last year, they filibustered 67 times. To put that in perspective, if the record hadn't been broken in the previous two year Congress that ended in 2009, it would have been broken last year, in just half of a Congress. The other half doesn't look that promising, since the Republicans have already invoked cloture votes 20 times in the first two months. The Republicans never bothered to wait for the Democrats to push objectionable policy, to shut them out. There was never a breaking point, nor did it all begin with a popular movement against Democratic policies.

Instead, all this BS started with a popular movement towards Democratic Party Policies, and hasn't stopped since.

The Republican's plan is essentially to strangle folk's hopes that the Democrats will do better, get them blamed for the government's failure to get things done, and then return to power, having changed little of the policies, or the political myopia that got them into trouble in the first place.

In otherwords, the Republicans are looking to manipulate people into voting to keep things in Washington the way they've been for the last generation, to prolong and promote the same policies that people are raging against, as those policies degrade and debase the country. They're not looking to solve problems or deal with objective realities. They're looking to chaotically twist people's honest, heartfelt emotions towards policy outcomes they wouldn't favor if they understood the full implications of their actions.

So we have to ask, finally, When the Republican Finance Committees were painting the Joker's "war-paint" on Obama's face, were they looking at their own in the mirror to make sure they got it right?

The Republicans have demonstrated their willingness to do anything to win, and that is read in some parts as a sign that they are stronger than the Democrats, and therefore better candidates to lead. But that is only an illusion. The Reality is that Republicans aren't interested in leadership. No, the politicians are interested in power, and just four bare years has done little, in fact nothing to curb either the interest, or the ends-justify-the-means attitude towards getting it.

And unfortunately, that attitude infects all the people that look to them for the leadership that should be there, and folks who are honestly working for the interests of their country get roped into continuing the status quo that even they are beginning to sense is toxic to them. The Tea Party Movement, at it's grassroots, is about that. But the unfortunate fact is that it's become another smokescreen, another trap of ideological confusion, set there to perpetuate the power of the elites that prey on their constituents, their customers, and their clients.

The Republicans out there, if they know what's good for them, need to wake up. All their party is doing is alienating them from the mainstream, forcing greater division in a nation being anchored to a failed past through those divisions. I don't care if Republicans become Liberals, moderates or stay conservatives. That's their decision, and I can't take that away from them, even if I wanted to.

The question is where the Republican party goes from here, transforming further into an engine of callous political self-justification, or whether Republicans finally get the perspective on what their leaders are doing to them and their country to finally throw the real Jokers of American politics out.

She doesn't want to be Charles Dickens, so she's modelling herself on Barbara Cartland

Sharon Osbourne will be two hours late for her interview. A photo shoot is overrunning says her marvellously named assistant, Silvana Arena. As we enter the Osbourne mansion in Hidden Hills, a gated estate off Interstate 101 above Los Angeles, there is a fight going on unchecked in the hall. Two leettle dourgues from Osbourne's vast collection of over-groomed life forms are doing snarly battle, possibly for mastery of the pile of poo that lies mid-floor.

In the living room the world's largest television is pumping out the All-American Shouting Channel. Ozzy Osbourne is in residence, sprawled on a vast sofa like a negligent emperor with that benign-but-bewildered look that impressionist Jon Culshaw nailed so well.

Silvana parks me on a sofa in her office and swivels back to work at her desk. Which local sushi takeout joint, she asks down the phone, is the one that Sharon hates and which is the one she loves? Tough gig.

While I wait, the Osbournes' staff are at my disposal. A nice Geordie assistant brings his compatriot a proper pot of tea and a plate of biscuits. Silvana sweetly supplies bowls of low-fat cheese puffs called Pirate Booty. I start to nod off.

Yapping wakes me up. Sharon Osbourne has sidled on to the neighbouring sofa and the leettle dourgues are paying obeisance. Maybe she's been talking for a while, because we seem to be mid-conversation. "The grinning twat – he needs to be tarred and feathered that motherfucker. And she's a fucking motherfucker too," she says. Osbourne proves so implacably foul-mouthed and so gamely broad-ranging in her hatreds during the interview that she could be talking about anybody – Brangelina, Bennifer, SuBo or Simon Cowell. But no, she's talking about Tony Blair and, quite probably, Cherie Booth.

She's been watching Blair give evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry. "There are no consequences for fuckers like them," she says. "It's like 'I made a mistake. Erm, I'm off now.' They wouldn't be so quick to make decisions if they had to live with the consequences. If they had no arms or legs."

Who cares, you might well be thinking, what Osbourne, 57-year-old toxic telly turn-on, one-time rock band manager, a woman who divides her time between Hidden Hills and Jordans in Buckinghamshire, ferocious mother who sends Tiffany boxes of her own poo to journalists who criticise her children, one half of an improbably enduring marriage, and now (if you'll excuse the loose usage) novelist, thinks about Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq? One reason is that Osbourne claims to have been contacted by all the major British political parties to endorse their election campaigns. Is there a greater symptom of democracy's decline? It's a rhetorical question.

"They've all asked me to do stuff for them but I'm like, 'No – you wouldn't want me to be in your party.'" But why would they want your endorsement? "Because I've got what they haven't – balls." This is an enduring theme in Osbourne's self-image. Her website argues: "Sharon's become the most visible representation of balls in the business."

Enough politics. Let's talk literature. We're meeting because Osbourne has written a novel. "I was invited by the publishers to write a novel because my two volumes of autobiography [2005's Extreme and 2007's Survivor] were so successful and they wanted more from me." Osbourne's publicists claim that Extreme remains the best-selling autobiography written by a woman, having sold 2m copies. Soon Revenge will be vying with her husband's ghosted autobiography, which, when we meet, is number two in the New York Times bestseller charts. This is one of the world's most successful literary households. Is there a greater symptom of cultural decline? It's a rhetorical question.

Revenge is about two feuding English sisters called Chelsea and Amber. In the prologue, we get a sense of what these two women – Both so talented! So driven! By the same dream! Of global stardom! – are like. We also get a sneak peek of Osbourne's literary style: throughout, cliche wrangles with solecism and just about triumphs. At one point she writes: ". . . Amber, commonly known as America's Sweetheart, even though she was from Weybridge, Surrey. A pretty heart-shaped face, green eyes like her mother's and amber-coloured hair."

Amber and Chelsea, during the prologue, do dynastic battle in the "vast marbled hall of the Beverly Hills mansion". "Fuck you, you jealous bitch. You're trying to destroy my life," says Amber, formerly the world's biggest pop star and now "one of the most popular movie stars on the planet", who has just slapped Chelsea, a child TV star who battled drug and drink addictions before establishing a successful Soho clip joint and then (somehow!) becoming one of Britain's greatest actresses. "I'm not trying to destroy you," replies Chelsea softly. "We're sisters. You know I'd never do that. I love you, Amber."

But Chelsea is disingenuous. She spends much of the ensuing 300 pages trying to destroy Amber, whether it be by taking her sister's place on a Grange Hill-style kids' soap or by seducing Amber's Hollywood sugar daddy in one of the book's many contenders for this year's 18th Literary Review Bad Sex Award.

Do you have literary pretensions? "I'm never going to go down in history like Charles fucking Dickens. That's not what this book is about. It's a good summer read you don't have to think about too much. Is that going to be a problem for you?" replies Osbourne.

You know what? It is a problem for me. The worst thing that can be said about the book is that it doesn't have the courage of its own cynicism. The book blurb says that both Amber and Chelsea have looks, talents and star quality "but only one has the ruthless ambition to make it to the top . . . Two sisters. One dream. Winner takes it all." But by the end of the book, both sisters have fulfilled their dreams – neither has ultimately taken revenge on their sister as promised.

Revenge, I suggest to Osbourne, is not as she describes it in the book. Revenge is what she did in 2002 when she sent that Tiffany box to an American journalist. The box contained Osbourne's own shit, along with a note reading: "I heard you've got an eating disorder. Eat this."

What was that about? "They said my kids were fat. So fuck them." Quite so. Sharon says she always seeks revenge on those journalists who slur her or her family. "I sued four newspapers last year. Why? I got pissed off. There's a lot of juicy shit that's real without having to make it up. If there's bad stuff to be said about me, I'll say it first. I'm truthful that way."

"When it's my kids, it's a different story. It was so hurtful what they said about Kelly and Jack, about the way they look. We're Sharon and Ozzy: I'm half a Jew, he's a little bloke from Birmingham. We're not going to produce 6ft tall, blonde stunners."

Was it her poo? "Yeah, why?" Because that makes revenge so self- defeatingly laborious. Did she squat over the Tiffany box or did her servants rootle in the toilet bowl? "Can't remember. I don't do that stuff any more. But," she says with a sinister, De Niro-ish grin, "I could start again."

Osbourne says she inherited this vengeful streak from her dad, Don Arden, music impresario and self-styled gangster, who reacted to bad news by threatening to kill whomever he considered responsible. Born Harry Levy in 1926, Arden managed the Small Faces, the Electric Light Orchestra and Black Sabbath, as well as granddaughter Kelly. He died three years ago. What does Sharon remember of the man known as the "Al Capone of pop"? "I started working for my dad when I was 15 and he always played hardball. Being around him made me into a strong woman, someone you fuck with at your peril.

"Thanks to him and thanks to my efforts, all my ambitions I have more than achieved. Anything I wanted to do I have done. He made me into a doer – someone with a strong work ethic, not a whiner. He made me what I am."

Sharon's daughter Kelly comes into the room, barefoot and wearing a blonde wig, asking which of three coats she should wear for her looming trip to New York. One drags on the floor and would work only with huge heels that would be madness on New York's icy avenues. All three of us agree that Sharon's Valentino coat is the one to take. Just for the record, Kelly is a lovely young woman who looks great in her mum's coat.

What does Kelly think of her mother's foray into fiction? Kelly tells me she hasn't read it yet. Nor, I learn, has her dad, her brother or even Silvana. Apart from Sharon, I am the only person in this mansion to have read her novel. And it's quite possible even Sharon hasn't: when I press her on whether Marco the gay Scottish makeup artist really did betray Amber to the redtops, she is sketchy.

Her coat chosen, Kelly cuddles up with mum on the sofa. Mum and daughter are clearly fond of each other and able to perform that fondness for strangers. The Osbournes won an Emmy in 2002 for Outstanding Reality Programme. There's an incredible surge of TV noise from the living room. The man whose career was revived thanks to the music biz savvy of Sharon, after being sacked as Black Sabbath's singer in 1979, is still in residence. Osbourne rolls her eyes. "Running him is the hardest job of all," she says. "A woman should be paid for that, but of course we're not. And so we have to work. And I have to work in order to be independent. I would hate to be in a position where I have to say to Ozzy, 'I need to get my hair done, can you give me some money?'" This is an unlikely scenario: according to last year's Sunday Times Rich List, Sharon is the 25th richest British woman.

"When we got married, mates would take bets about how long it would last. I can't blame them." But it has lasted: the couple married in 1982 and seem to be slipping gently into an unscheduled conjugal dotage. "It just works. We fight with each other. It's not been easy but it's never meant to be easy."

Husband and wife are, she recognises, very similar. "Ozzy worked in shit jobs from when he was 15. I was the same age when I started work. He never forgets where he came from. I had money around me when I was young, but I never forget that half the world is living in slavery. We're blessed because we're doing what we want."

The couple have an estimated joint wealth of £110m. Sixty-year-old Ozzy, she says, is still working hard. "He's nearly finished his new album and he did a lot of work on his autobiography. He's worked hard all his life. It's a work ethic we've instilled in our kids. Take Jack [Sharon's 24-year old son]. He's a reserve cop for Air Sea Rescue in Malibu. It would have been so easy for him to say, 'I want to be a DJ.' Every idiot today wants to be a DJ. When I was young, being a DJ meant something. All they have to do now is stand there and have no personality." I'm no expert on today's music scene, but surely there's more to it than that. "There isn't! They're queueing up now to get on – what's that show called – We've Got No Fucking Talent At All. It's like a revolving door for twats."

But isn't she responsible in part for that? She has,after all, spent much of her recent career as a TV judge on The X Factor, America's Got Talent, and now The Celebrity Apprentice. "It's not my fault there's no talent out there, is it?" No, but she is supporting a system that promotes the talentless. "Listen, I actually walked from X Factor because I couldn't stand the bullshit any more. I was getting well paid – very well paid – so it was hard to leave, but I did because they didn't like me speaking the truth. They'd rather have some doll like Dannii Minogue as judge, endorsing this bullshit. Dannii – I couldn't stand her. She wasn't so much a dim bulb as a bulb in a power cut. Fucking useless.

Did she mind the opprobrium she got when the Osbournes, in which the family's domestic life became global TV fodder, was broadcast (it was shown in Britain on Channel 4 between 2002 and 2005)? "I can deal with getting slagged off. I'm tough as old boots."

The Osbournes no longer live in the Beverly Hills mansion that featured in the TV show. "We had to move," says Kelly. "The house was on the tourbus routes and we were getting papped every second of the day." It must be nice to have relative privacy. "It certainly is," says Kelly.

But the Osbournes are now plotting a return to our screens. Ozzy's auto- biography is to be adapted into a film. It will tell the story of one man's journey from the backstreets of Birmingham to that sofa in the other room. The story will include drug-taking, ear-splitting heavy metal, fisticuffs, quadbike upsets and – if it's authentic – more swearing than a Billingsgate costermonger could manage. Who'll play Ozzy? "Denzel Washington," says Osbourne. Be serious. "Johnny Depp." Come on. "I quite fancy Robert Downey Junior – he'd be great at the accent." And who could play Sharon Osbourne? "Diana Ross." What is it with this African-American thing? "Actually, I'd really like to be played by Rachel Weisz. She's beautiful."

Osbourne now holds dual American and British citizenship. "Eventually, Ozzy and I will come home, which is difficult because Jack and Aimée [the Osbournes' relatively publicity-shy younger daughter] don't want to live in England." Why return? "This is no place to grow old. In England they encourage you to live individually. Here everyone wants to live the same. In LA it's a crime to be fat. If you're a drug addict people feel sorry for you, but if you're fat you're a criminal."

Is that why she had a gastric band operation nine years ago? "That and all the other surgery, darling. Living out here you get very self-conscious about body image and ageing. I've battled my weight all my life. I got bigger to take up space and stand up to my dad. In the end I had to do something about my eating problem."

Does she plan to grow old gracefully? "I'd love to spend the rest of my life writing novels, eating Pirate Booty and living with my dogs. I'm modelling myself on Barbara Cartland– I bet she's writing from the grave." So she plans to carry on with the fiction? "I've already written another novel. It's called Superstar – with an exclamation mark."

It's time to go. Hello! magazine is coming early tomorrow to shoot Osbourne in four different domestic locations and she needs a break from the media whirl. We walk through the living room, where Ozzy is prone in front of the TV. I'm honoured that he mutes the telly in order to say hello.

Sharon Osbourne escorts me round the poo in the hall. I hope I've done nothing to warrant receiving that as a gift from you, I say. "Let's see," she says, kissing me on one cheek, and then the other. "Let's see."

• Revenge is published by Sphere on 4 March, price £12.99.

Some university students and members of "Dokdo Academy" gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Sunday to protest Japan's continued use of "Takeshima" for the name of territory disputed by the two countries in the Sea of Japan. The demonstration came a day before "Takeshima Day," proclaimed in Japan's Shimane Prefecture in 2005. They threw down and tore up materials with the Japanese name:




Brought out foreign languages and bad English:




And demonstrated through performance (1, 2, 3, 4) Japan's renaming of what is considered in South Korea as Korean territory.






You'll have to wait a while before the real festivities start: South Korea's "Dokdo Day" isn't until October 25th.

Dokdo, the Korean name for the Liancourt Rocks, is serious business in South Korea, and it's rarely far from the headlines. Thus it's only slightly accurate to say there's been "renewed" interest in Dokdo lately because new maps have been discovered that, the Korean side says, weaken Japan's claim to the rocks. And whenever Dokdo comes up, the Sea of Japan is never far behind. Koreans believe the name ought to be changed, and a survey from 2008 showed that 95% of Koreans think it ought to be the "East Sea." As I've written dozens of times on this site, the English name of the body of water is the Sea of Japan, and Koreans ought to respect the language, the culture, and the precedent. It's extremely arrogant for Koreans to dictate how other people use their language, especially when the alternatives suggested are so clearly Korea-centric. I'll plagiarize myself a bit, from November 2008:

The name is 동해, or East Sea, in Korean and that's perfectly acceptable. Nobody is suggesting it be called 일본해. However, the accepted English name is Sea of Japan, and it's arrogant and inappropriate to dictate the rules of another language. Moreover, and what realy induces eye rolls and forehead slaps is that people are advocating replacing the Sea of Japan because it supposedly reflects Japanese imperialism and is a product of, so they say, aggressive lobbying by Japanese politicians. The alternate name suggested, though, is even more disgustingly ethnocentric and nationalistic because the sea is, after all, to the immediate east of Korea and only Korea. Here I would write "just call it the East Asian Sea and let's move on," but you see how I view Korea's whining in isolation, and am no longer willing to see the merits of any of its historical claims.

Trying to "correct" English speakers by changing the name, as some have sought to do

The ad expressed regret that the article had "a small but significant error," saying, "This body of water has been referred to as the East Sea by many nations over the past 2,000 years."

is especially unsettling since one of the celebrities leading the charge clearly has no English-language proficiency and is, like most Koreans, not qualified for any position of authority in English. Kim Jang-hoon, a singer who frequently takes out ads in U.S. newspapers about the Liancourt Rocks or the Sea of Japan, wrote on his Cyworld page after an advertisement about Seoul in the Wall Street Journal featured a map with both Sea of Japan and East Sea on it:

Thank you for WSJ

. . .

East Sea/Sea of japan

. . .

정말 눈물이 날만큼 기쁩니다.

. . .

'Truth wins,in thw end'

For the sake of balance, I'll add what Gomushin Girl wrote last year after I asked readers to offer legimate reasons why an alternative name might be acceptable, since Korean objections are often no more sophisticated than "Japan was bad":

While I'm loathe to jump in here, you DID ask for legitimate reasons:
First, the sea is in fact to the east of something; mainly, the majority of Asia, similar to how the North Sea in Europe still manages to be east of some countries and west of others. We don't call it the British Sea even though the British Isles take up a chunk of what borders the sea.
Second, although there is some controversy over exactly when the English name "East Sea" first appeared, certainly it's first appearance in the IHO maps were in fact directly resulting from the colonial state of many of the nations involved.
Of course, maps not being completely standardized, you can make the argument that the Korean case for "East Sea" is weak because there's a plurality of maps of various accuracy with myriad other names. Just because other regional groups share a similar name (it is similarly "East Sea" in Chinese, for example) doesn't make for a perfect case. Of course, this also means that ALL arguments based on maps for naming conventions are suspect, and that Sea of Japan is equally incorrect.
I understand that for many foreigners, hearing and reading these arguments gets tiresome and old, but lets not say that there is no force whatsoever to them.

The Sea of Japan issue is relatively timely, since a KBS article from the 18th showed that only 6% of maps in a large collection identified the body of water as "East Sea" or "Sea of Korea," compared to the 55% that labeled it "Sea of Japan." The naming issue was last timely on my site in the fall, when some high school students reacted to a piece I had in the Joongang Ilbo which in turn was based on a series of posts on my site.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Gangs using Facebook, Twitter more often

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES—When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.

They sent a warning on Twitter that went like this: We have a snitch in our midst.

Unbeknownst to them, that tweet and the traffic it generated were being closely followed by investigators, who had been tracking the San Francisco Bay Area gang for months. Officials sat back and watched as others joined the conversation and left behind incriminating information.

Law enforcement officials say gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organizations.

“You find out about people you never would have known about before,” said Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs. “You build this little tree of people.”

In the case involving the suspected informant, tweets alerted investigators to three other gang members who were ultimately arrested on drug charges.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms and on Web sites like MySpace, but they appear to be gravitating toward Twitter and Facebook, where they can make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

“We are seeing a lot more of it,” Johnston said. “They will even go out and brag about doing shootings.”

In another California case involving a different gang, much of the information gathered by investigators came from members’ Facebook accounts. Authorities expect to make arrests in the coming months.

“Once you get into a Facebook group, it’s relatively easy,” Johnston said. “You have a rolling commentary.”

And gang members sometimes turn the tables, asking contacts across their extended networks for help identifying undercover police officers.

It’s hard to know exactly how many gang members are turning to Twitter and Facebook. Many police agencies are reluctant to discuss the phenomenon for fear of revealing their investigative techniques.

Capt. Walt Myer, director of the Riverside County regional gang task force, said gang activity often “mirrors general society. When any kind of new technology comes along, they are going to use it.”

Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant. Neither company would discuss specifics.

Gang use of Twitter and Facebook still lags behind use of the much-older MySpace, which remains gang members’ online venue of choice.

The Crips, Bloods, Florencia 13, MS-13 and other gangs have long used MySpace to display potentially incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hand gestures. They also post messages about rivals.

Last week, officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, announced the arrest of 50 people in a crackdown of a Latino gang they say was engaged in drug sales and hate crimes against black residents. Prosecutors say some of the evidence was pulled from MySpace and YouTube, including rap videos taunting police with violent messages.

While some members are wising up to the police attention such postings can bring, gang information remains publicly viewable online.

Dozens of Facebook accounts are dedicated to the deadly MS-13 gang, with followers from around the globe. At one site, a video displays pictures of dead members of the rival 18th Street gang, and some users have left disrespectful comments.

The toughest part about tracking someone on Twitter is finding the alias or screen name they are posting under. And many tweets are nonsensical or pointless, so cutting through the clutter can be difficult.

“It’s tricky,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David Anguiano. “If you find out what they go by, you are good to go.”

Anguiano tracks the online activity of graffiti vandals—the so-called tagging crews that sometimes morph into gangs. They post tweets saying they are heading out to spray paint and sometimes post links to photographs of their work.

Often, they cannot resist bragging about their handiwork, and the electronic trail they leave is frequently used as evidence.

“They talk about it too much,” Anguiano said. “You want the fame so you’ve got to go out there and talk about it. That’s when your mouth gets you in trouble.”

Dalhousie Square-once the seat of administration of the British Government this whole area with laldighi (a pond with historic importance)in its midst,is still Bengal’s power centre.Renamed as BBD Bag(named after the freedom fighters who fought against the British-Binay,Badol and Dinesh who killed a high profile police officer inside the Writers Building),it is surrounded by some significant land mark historic buildings.
General post Office(GPO)- is one of the best known city landmarks.Built on the site of the old Fort William,it is fronted by rows of columns.It houses the headquarter of postal department of Bengal.
Writers Buildings built in 1776,it is still the power centre of Bengal government.
Governors House:Constructed by the Governor General Lord Wellesley,it is surrounded by gardens and vast grounds.
Victoria memorial;In the intersection of Red Road and Quinsway,this gigantic structure was built on the memory of Queen Victoria by then Governor General Lord Curzon.Planned in 1901,it was opened to the public in 1921.Surrounded by gardens,the Victoria Memorial draws people from India and aboard.
New Market:In 1863,British Civilian officials appealed to Calcutta Corporation to set up a market for them.In 1871,a special committee was formed by the corporation to look after the matter.The committee recommended to set up a market.For this purpose,25 Bigha land in Chowranghee’s Lindsay street and Burtram Street worth Rs.2 lakh and 18 thousand was purchased.Burn and Standard Company started construction.In the year 1873,the market was completed.The amount spend to construct the building was Rs.6 lakh 65 thousand and 950.The market complex was officially inaugurated in 1st January,1874.The market was named after Sir Stuart Hog,the chairman of Calcutta Corporation.Dakshineswar kali Temple:Built by Rani Rashmoni,the landlady of the area near Bali Bridge at the banks of river Ganges in 1847.Here,Sri Ramkrishna,the spiritual Guru of Swami Vivakanda worshipped Mother Kali.Devotees from all over the world assemble here.
Calcutta population:
As of 2001,Calcutta city had a population of 4,580,544. Over here the urban agglomeration had a population of 13,216,546. Sex ratio is 828 females per 1000 males. This is, however, lower than the national average. In this City of Joy, a lot of working males come from rural areas for better job.
Calcutta’s literacy rate : 80.86% exceeding the all-India average of 64.8%.Calcutta Municipal Corporation has registered a growth rate of 4.1%.Bengalis consist of the majority of Calcutta’s population, with Marwaris from Rajasthan and Bihari communities from Bihar forming a large portion of the minorities. Besides, there are some of Calcutta’s notable communities including Chinese, Tamils, Marwaris, Anglo-Indians, Armenians, Tibetans, Maharashtrians and Parsis. Major languages spoken in Calcutta are Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, English, Maithili, and Bhojpuri.
As 2001 census measured 77.68% of the population in Calcutta is Hindu, 20.27% Muslim and 0.88% Christian. Other minorities such as Sikhs, Buddhist, Jews and Zoroastrian constitute the rest of the city’s population. it is undeniable that a Muslim tidal wave is sweeping through the border districts of West Bengal and Assam, also inundating a few districts of east Bihar. The Muslim rate of growth here is more than twice the national one, and more than four times that in some cases.
Three years ago on Independence Day, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had vowed to make the city’s hand-pulled rickshaws a part of history, terming humans pulling fellow humans as “inhuman”. After three years and an amendment to the Hackney-Carriage Bill in 2006, it now seems that nothing has changed, as the hand-pulled rickshaws continue to ply Kolkata’s streets and lanes. The state Government also proposed to pay Rs 100,000 per rickshaw.
There are two types of taxis in Kolkata: yellow taxis have permits to travel all over Kolkata and West Bengal, while black-and-yellow taxis are restricted to Kolkata. Metered fares are very reasonable, but you have to strenuously insist that the driver uses the meter.
The Taxi driver’s name Virendra 37 years old.There are about 60,000 taxis in Calcutta.In 1896 motor car started plying in calcutta.
Artisans of Kumartuli (statue makers)in North Calcutta:
Spread over an area of nearly 400 m, Kumartuli is flanked by workshops which double up as studios, a few homes, shops selling clothes and embellishments for decorating the images.works are going on to convert dark, dingy and dilapidated Kumartuli to a modern artists hub. It was around the mid-18th century that traditional idol-makers from Nadia settled in the village of Govindapur near the Hooghly river. Later they congregated at the village of Sutanati, also near the river. Since the clay and straw were brought down by boats along the Bhagirathi-Hooghly, it was necessary for them to settle down on the banks of the river.The mode of transporting the raw material has remained unchanged even today. The name Kumartuli derived from the fact that kumor or potters live here . After the post-Independence partition of Bengal, many artisans from East Bengal settled down in Kumartuli. While those from West Bengal are identified by their family name Pal, the group from East Bengal is known as Rudrapal. Then there are the Malakars who make ornaments as well as images from shola or pith.
Thanthania Kali Temple was established in the year 1709.In the year 1946 during the Hindu- Muslim riot before the partition of Bengal, the Temple was protected.The Kali idol in this Temple is made of clay.There is a shiva temple inside the temple.
Kalighat is located in the city of Calcutta on the banks of the river Hooghly (Bhagirathi). The name Calcutta is said to have been derived from the word Kalighat.Kaali is regarded as one of the principal deities of Bengal. Goddess Kaali is regarded as the destroyer or liberator and is depicted in a fearful form.The Kalighat temple attracts numerous devotees throughout the year.

LOS ANGELES — When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.

They sent a warning on Twitter that went like this: We have a snitch in our midst.

Unbeknownst to them, that tweet and the traffic it generated were being closely followed by investigators, who had been tracking the San Francisco Bay Area gang for months. Officials sat back and watched as others joined the conversation and left behind incriminating information.

Law enforcement officials say gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organizations.

"You find out about people you never would have known about before," said Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs. "You build this little tree of people."

In the case involving the suspected informant, tweets alerted investigators to three other gang members who were ultimately arrested on drug charges.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms and on Web sites like MySpace, but they appear to be gravitating toward Twitter and Facebook, where they can make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

"We are seeing a lot more of it," Johnston said. "They will even go out and brag about doing shootings."

In another California case involving a different gang, much of the information gathered by investigators came from members' Facebook accounts. Authorities expect to make arrests in the coming months.

"Once you get into a Facebook group, it's relatively easy," Johnston said. "You have a rolling commentary."

And gang members sometimes turn the tables, asking contacts across their extended networks for help identifying undercover police officers.

It's hard to know exactly how many gang members are turning to Twitter and Facebook. Many police agencies are reluctant to discuss the phenomenon for fear of revealing their investigative techniques.

Capt. Walt Myer, director of the Riverside County regional gang task force, said gang activity often "mirrors general society. When any kind of new technology comes along, they are going to use it."

Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant. Neither company would discuss specifics.

Gang use of Twitter and Facebook still lags behind use of the much-older MySpace, which remains gang members' online venue of choice.

The Crips, Bloods, Florencia 13, MS-13 and other gangs have long used MySpace to display potentially incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hand gestures. They also post messages about rivals.

Last week, officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, announced the arrest of 50 people in a crackdown of a Latino gang they say was engaged in drug sales and hate crimes against black residents. Prosecutors say some of the evidence was pulled from MySpace and YouTube, including rap videos taunting police with violent messages.

While some members are wising up to the police attention such postings can bring, gang information remains publicly viewable online.

Dozens of Facebook accounts are dedicated to the deadly MS-13 gang, with followers from around the globe. At one site, a video displays pictures of dead members of the rival 18th Street gang, and some users have left disrespectful comments.

The toughest part about tracking someone on Twitter is finding the alias or screen name they are posting under. And many tweets are nonsensical or pointless, so cutting through the clutter can be difficult.

"It's tricky," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Anguiano. "If you find out what they go by, you are good to go."

Anguiano tracks the online activity of graffiti vandals – the so-called tagging crews that sometimes morph into gangs. They post tweets saying they are heading out to spray paint and sometimes post links to photographs of their work.

Often, they cannot resist bragging about their handiwork, and the electronic trail they leave is frequently used as evidence.

"They talk about it too much," Anguiano said. "You want the fame so you've got to go out there and talk about it. That's when your mouth gets you in trouble."

More on Facebook

When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.

They sent a warning on Twitter that went like this: We have a snitch in our midst.

Unbeknownst to them, that tweet and the traffic it generated were being closely followed by investigators, who had been tracking the San Francisco Bay Area gang for months. Officials sat back and watched as others joined the conversation and left behind incriminating information.

Law enforcement officials say gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organizations.

"You find out about people you never would have known about before," said Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs. "You build this little tree of people."

In the case involving the suspected informant, tweets alerted investigators to three other gang members who were ultimately arrested on drug charges.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms and on Web sites like MySpace, but they appear to be gravitating toward Twitter and Facebook, where they can make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

"We are seeing a lot more of it," Johnston said. "They will even go out and brag about doing shootings."

In another California case involving a different gang, much of the information gathered by investigators came from members' Facebook accounts. Authorities expect to make arrests in the coming months.

"Once you get into a Facebook group, it's relatively easy," Johnston said. "You have a rolling commentary."

And gang members sometimes turn the tables, asking contacts across their extended networks for help identifying undercover police officers.

It's hard to know exactly how many gang members are turning to Twitter and Facebook. Many police agencies are reluctant to discuss the phenomenon for fear of revealing their investigative techniques.

Capt. Walt Myer, director of the Riverside County regional gang task force, said gang activity often "mirrors general society. When any kind of new technology comes along, they are going to use it."

Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant. Neither company would discuss specifics.

Gang use of Twitter and Facebook still lags behind use of the much-older MySpace, which remains gang members' online venue of choice.

The Crips, Bloods, Florencia 13, MS-13 and other gangs have long used MySpace to display potentially incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hand gestures. They also post messages about rivals.

Last week, officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, announced the arrest of 50 people in a crackdown of a Latino gang they say was engaged in drug sales and hate crimes against black residents. Prosecutors say some of the evidence was pulled from MySpace and YouTube, including rap videos taunting police with violent messages.

While some members are wising up to the police attention such postings can bring, gang information remains publicly viewable online.

Dozens of Facebook accounts are dedicated to the deadly MS-13 gang, with followers from around the globe. At one site, a video displays pictures of dead members of the rival 18th Street gang, and some users have left disrespectful comments.

The toughest part about tracking someone on Twitter is finding the alias or screen name they are posting under. And many tweets are nonsensical or pointless, so cutting through the clutter can be difficult.

"It's tricky," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Anguiano. "If you find out what they go by, you are good to go."

Anguiano tracks the online activity of graffiti vandals - the so-called tagging crews that sometimes morph into gangs. They post tweets saying they are heading out to spray paint and sometimes post links to photographs of their work.

Often, they cannot resist bragging about their handiwork, and the electronic trail they leave is frequently used as evidence.

"They talk about it too much," Anguiano said. "You want the fame so you've got to go out there and talk about it. That's when your mouth gets you in trouble."

LOS ANGELES — When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.

They sent a warning on Twitter that went like this: We have a snitch in our midst.

Unbeknownst to them, that tweet and the traffic it generated were being closely followed by investigators, who had been tracking the San Francisco Bay Area gang for months. Officials sat back and watched as others joined the conversation and left behind incriminating information.

Law enforcement officials say gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organizations.

"You find out about people you never would have known about before," said Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs. "You build this little tree of people."

In the case involving the suspected informant, tweets alerted investigators to three other gang members who were ultimately arrested on drug charges.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms and on Web sites like MySpace, but they appear to be gravitating toward Twitter and Facebook, where they can make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

"We are seeing a lot more of it," Johnston said. "They will even go out and brag about doing shootings."

In another California case involving a different gang, much of the information gathered by investigators came from members' Facebook accounts. Authorities expect to make arrests in the coming months.

"Once you get into a Facebook group, it's relatively easy," Johnston said. "You have a rolling commentary."

And gang members sometimes turn the tables, asking contacts across their extended networks for help identifying undercover police officers.

It's hard to know exactly how many gang members are turning to Twitter and Facebook. Many police agencies are reluctant to discuss the phenomenon for fear of revealing their investigative techniques.

Capt. Walt Myer, director of the Riverside County regional gang task force, said gang activity often "mirrors general society. When any kind of new technology comes along, they are going to use it."

Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant. Neither company would discuss specifics.

Gang use of Twitter and Facebook still lags behind use of the much-older MySpace, which remains gang members' online venue of choice.

The Crips, Bloods, Florencia 13, MS-13 and other gangs have long used MySpace to display potentially incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hand gestures. They also post messages about rivals.

Last week, officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, announced the arrest of 50 people in a crackdown of a Latino gang they say was engaged in drug sales and hate crimes against black residents. Prosecutors say some of the evidence was pulled from MySpace and YouTube, including rap videos taunting police with violent messages.

While some members are wising up to the police attention such postings can bring, gang information remains publicly viewable online.

Dozens of Facebook accounts are dedicated to the deadly MS-13 gang, with followers from around the globe. At one site, a video displays pictures of dead members of the rival 18th Street gang, and some users have left disrespectful comments.

The toughest part about tracking someone on Twitter is finding the alias or screen name they are posting under. And many tweets are nonsensical or pointless, so cutting through the clutter can be difficult.

"It's tricky," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Anguiano. "If you find out what they go by, you are good to go."

Anguiano tracks the online activity of graffiti vandals – the so-called tagging crews that sometimes morph into gangs. They post tweets saying they are heading out to spray paint and sometimes post links to photographs of their work.

Often, they cannot resist bragging about their handiwork, and the electronic trail they leave is frequently used as evidence.

"They talk about it too much," Anguiano said. "You want the fame so you've got to go out there and talk about it. That's when your mouth gets you in trouble."

More on Crime

I have an article in Smithsonian Magazine, February issue (out now, or out soon), featuring a former Guatemalan gang member who is now a successful artist and teacher in Vienna. The magazine section takes a well-known photographer's iconic portrait and runs a "where are they now" story. This article features Carlos Perez, a former 18th Street Gang member in Guatemala who not only turned his

Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe - but a world away from the glitz and glamour - a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.

Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.

If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of LA Gang Tours: trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict.

"There's a fascination with gangs," said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. "We can either address the issue head-on, create awareness and discuss the positive things that go on in these communities, or we can try to sweep it under the carpet."

Several observers have questioned the premise behind the tours, and some city politicians have been more blunt.

"It's a terrible idea," City Councilman Dennis Zine said. "Is it worth that thrill for 65 bucks? You can go to a (gang) movie for a lot less and not put yourself at risk."

More than 40 people brushed aside safety concerns for Saturday's maiden tour to hear how notorious gangs got started and bear witness to the struggling neighborhoods where tens of thousands of residents have been lured into gang life.

On an abbreviated advance tour Lomas provided for the news media, his unmarked chartered coach wound its way through downtown. The first sight was a stretch of concrete riverbed featured in such movies as "Terminator" and "Grease," where countless splotches of gray paint conceal graffiti that is often the mark of street gangs and tagging crews.

After that, it was on to the Central Jail, home to many a thug, past Skid Row's squalor and homeless masses and into South Los Angeles, breeding ground for some of the city's deadliest gangs.

Motoring through an industrial area, the bus enters the Florence-Firestone neighborhood, close to the birthplace of the Crips and current home to Florencia 13, a Latino gang that was accused by federal prosecutors of racist attacks against black residents.

Gray warehouses soon merge with single-story stucco homes as the bus heads south. Few gangsters risk hanging out on street corners, as local rules mean they could get arrested even for congregating, but graffiti on walls, road signs and convenience storefronts betray the presence of Florencia 13 and other gangs.

Lomas, 45, a respected activist who has worked with the faith-based Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute hundreds of tons of food to low-income families across the inner city, left gang life about five years ago.

He stresses the aim of his nonprofit company is to bring jobs to communities along the route and to reinvest money through micro-loans and scholarships, though he's not sure how the tour will accomplish that. He also eventually wants to start a gallery and gang museum.

He said the tour will create 10 part-time jobs, mainly for ex-gang members working as guides and talking about their own struggles and efforts to reduce violence. The tour is initially scheduled to run once a month.

No tour quite like this runs elsewhere in the country. Chicago has a prohibition-era gangster tour, and another Los Angeles group buses people to infamous crime scenes, including the Black Dahlia murder.

Lomas faces a quandary as he tries to show the troubled history of the area once known as South Central, before politicians renamed it South Los Angeles in 2003 in an attempt to change its deep association with urban strife.

The tour is billed as "the first in the history of Los Angeles to experience areas that were forbidden." But tour leaders don't want it to be voyeuristic and sensational.

"We ain't going on no tour saying, 'Look at them Crips, look at them Bloods, look at them crack heads,'" said Frederick "Scorpio" Smith, an ex-Crip helping narrate, who helped broker the cease-fire among the Grape Street Crips, 18th Street, F13 and the East Coast Crips.

Out of sensitivity to residents, passengers are banned from shooting photographs or video from the bus. The only place that is allowed is near the end of the trip, when they can step off the bus and film an outdoor area where graffiti is allowed.

Stretches of the tour have almost nothing to do with gangs, but instead exploit famous chapters of violence in the city's history, such as a deadly 1974 shootout between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army and the site of the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating.

If done right, the tour could highlight the decades-long struggle to solve the gang problem, said civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice.

Gang crime has fallen in recent years, but groups continue to grow and gain influence. Over the past quarter century, officials in Los Angeles County have spent $25 billion fighting gangs only to see the number of gangsters double to as many as 90,000 and a six-fold increase in the number of gangs.

"If it is carried out well and carefully and carried out with the consent of the community, it could teach people about the very entrenched culture that gangs now have in Los Angeles," Rice said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would rather tourists see the development potential in the neighborhoods that make up part of her district. About two years ago, she organized her own tour in the area for about 200 real estate agents and business representatives, resulting in the development of buildings with homes and businesses.

"I'd prefer we focus on showing the community in a positive light," she said.

LOS ANGELES — Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe – but a world away from the glitz and glamour – a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.

Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.

If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of LA Gang Tours: trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict.

"There's a fascination with gangs," said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. "We can either address the issue head-on, create awareness and discuss the positive things that go on in these communities, or we can try to sweep it under the carpet."

Several observers have questioned the premise behind the tours, and some city politicians have been more blunt.

"It's a terrible idea," City Councilman Dennis Zine said. "Is it worth that thrill for 65 bucks? You can go to a (gang) movie for a lot less and not put yourself at risk."

More than 40 people brushed aside safety concerns for Saturday's maiden tour to hear how notorious gangs got started and bear witness to the struggling neighborhoods where tens of thousands of residents have been lured into gang life.

On an abbreviated advance tour Lomas provided for the news media, his unmarked chartered coach wound its way through downtown. The first sight was a stretch of concrete riverbed featured in such movies as "Terminator" and "Grease," where countless splotches of gray paint conceal graffiti that is often the mark of street gangs and tagging crews.

After that, it was on to the Central Jail, home to many a thug, past Skid Row's squalor and homeless masses and into South Los Angeles, breeding ground for some of the city's deadliest gangs.

Motoring through an industrial area, the bus enters the Florence-Firestone neighborhood, close to the birthplace of the Crips and current home to Florencia 13, a Latino gang that was accused by federal prosecutors of racist attacks against black residents.

Gray warehouses soon merge with single-story stucco homes as the bus heads south. Few gangsters risk hanging out on street corners, as local rules mean they could get arrested even for congregating, but graffiti on walls, road signs and convenience storefronts betray the presence of Florencia 13 and other gangs.

Lomas, 45, a respected activist who has worked with the faith-based Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute hundreds of tons of food to low-income families across the inner city, left gang life about five years ago.

He stresses the aim of his nonprofit company is to bring jobs to communities along the route and to reinvest money through micro-loans and scholarships, though he's not sure how the tour will accomplish that. He also eventually wants to start a gallery and gang museum.

He said the tour will create 10 part-time jobs, mainly for ex-gang members working as guides and talking about their own struggles and efforts to reduce violence. The tour is initially scheduled to run once a month.

No tour quite like this runs elsewhere in the country. Chicago has a prohibition-era gangster tour, and another Los Angeles group buses people to infamous crime scenes, including the Black Dahlia murder.

Lomas faces a quandary as he tries to show the troubled history of the area once known as South Central, before politicians renamed it South Los Angeles in 2003 in an attempt to change its deep association with urban strife.

The tour is billed as "the first in the history of Los Angeles to experience areas that were forbidden." But tour leaders don't want it to be voyeuristic and sensational.

"We ain't going on no tour saying, 'Look at them Crips, look at them Bloods, look at them crack heads,'" said Frederick "Scorpio" Smith, an ex-Crip helping narrate, who helped broker the cease-fire among the Grape Street Crips, 18th Street, F13 and the East Coast Crips.

Out of sensitivity to residents, passengers are banned from shooting photographs or video from the bus. The only place that is allowed is near the end of the trip, when they can step off the bus and film an outdoor area where graffiti is allowed.

Stretches of the tour have almost nothing to do with gangs, but instead exploit famous chapters of violence in the city's history, such as a deadly 1974 shootout between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army and the site of the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating.

If done right, the tour could highlight the decades-long struggle to solve the gang problem, said civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice.

Gang crime has fallen in recent years, but groups continue to grow and gain influence. Over the past quarter century, officials in Los Angeles County have spent $25 billion fighting gangs only to see the number of gangsters double to as many as 90,000 and a six-fold increase in the number of gangs.

"If it is carried out well and carefully and carried out with the consent of the community, it could teach people about the very entrenched culture that gangs now have in Los Angeles," Rice said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would rather tourists see the development potential in the neighborhoods that make up part of her district. About two years ago, she organized her own tour in the area for about 200 real estate agents and business representatives, resulting in the development of buildings with homes and businesses.

"I'd prefer we focus on showing the community in a positive light," she said.

___

On the Net:

LA Gang Tours http://www.lagangtours.com

Here is a report from my CNAS colleague Jennifer Bernal-Garcia, who is working with Bob Killebrew on the merger of drug gangs and terrorism, about a meeting they held recently with law enforcement experts on gang violence:

By Jennifer Bernal

Best Defense Drugs & Crime Correspondent

Cops are the first line of defense against gangs, and they have a pretty good understanding of the issue. Talking with them yields a pretty grim assessment: There is a huge gang problem in the United States. Our cops in attendance estimated that the U.S. might have up to 1 million gang members, although the problem is often underreported both because it is difficult to detect and because of local politicians' incentives to downplay crime figures in their areas. The gang problem is inherently tied in to broader regional criminal trends. The extensiveness of drug trafficking south of the border and the degree to which cartels violently contest state authority is well acknowledged. There is nonetheless a common misperception that drug networks disintegrate when you cross the border into the U.S. They don't. Gangs -- mostly youth gangs -- step in to domestically distribute the drugs that cartels traffic in.

[[BREAK]]

Gangs are evolving groups that engage in opportunistic relationships, and no single typology defines them. Currently, the most dangerous gangs at the national level are the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street, but there are also others. Like the Mexican Mafia, present in various states but particularly all-powerful in the prisons of Southern California. Gangs share operating channels with foreign groups like La Familia, the target of Operation Coronado earlier this year, or the infamous Zetas, whose special-operations background allows them to employ hyper-sophisticated technology.

These groups all draw strength from exploitation of financial channels, immigrant populations that stigma and a broken immigration system disincentivize from cooperating with the police, and a dysfunctional prison system that provides "power houses" of criminal activity instead of acting as a deterrent. That, and the fact that kids think it's so cool to become a gangster -- until they're trapped in a vicious cycle of violence.

While many initiatives are doubtless needed to prevent individuals from joining gangs (both at the local and federal levels), our conversation presented some highlights on how to dismantle existing networks. It is a difficult task given the complexity of the groups described above and the fact that law enforcement is evidence-based, while countering futures threats needs to be more intelligence-led. So how do you turn reactive agencies into proactive ones?

Organizations can address this issue internally. It turns out the FBI, for one, is undergoing a significant reorientation, recruiting and empowering teams of analysts to look at trends and future projections. (This stands in stark opposition to the Bureau's previous practice of promoting its file clerks to such positions.) The hurdle can also be overcome through inter-agency collaboration. Three main areas of opportunity are currently underexploited.

The first possibility is developing a national interoperable database for law enforcement. Agencies currently operate on different systems for security reasons, making information sharing difficult and often hindering field agents' operations. A common database would increase efficiency and help institutionalize data sharing in a system currently too reliant on interpersonal relationships.

The second one is fusion centers, instituted after 9/11 to overcome information-sharing barriers, and particularly crucial in the absence of common database systems. Because DHS provided funding for whoever wanted to build a one, fusion centers grew somewhat organically. As a result, some states have multiple fusion centers, while others have none. Some fusion centers are much more oriented toward particular types of criminal activity than others. And often, various centers within a same jurisdiction will not even talk to one another. In sum, many fusion centers are now redundant and over bureaucratized - precisely what they were created to avoid. Standardizing them would greatly help get important information to agents on the ground, while enabling them to conduct in-depth analysis would generate useful forecasts.

The third measure is interagency task forces, which have a track record of successfully dismantling particular criminal organizations. The Arellano Felix Organization Task Force, based out of San Diego, is an example of multi-agency effort that crippled one of Mexico's main drug cartels over several years, and it provides a useful model to follow.

In addition to shifting the perspective of law enforcement, other necessary measures voiced were targeting money flows, facilitating cooperation with law enforcement agencies of foreign countries (while being careful of vetting for corruption), and prison reform. Each of these measures, of course, warrants its own separate and lengthy discussion.

What else is necessary? How can the U.S. government act strategically against organized crime instead of just "throwing darts at the wall"?

Tom's related prediction: The Mexican drug wars will get the attention of Americans in a big way in 2010, perhaps as the violence spills over into the United States. 

Chicago aldermen and the city's new health commissioner said at a hearing today that they were considering steps to strengthen oversight of troubled nursing homes that admit high numbers of felons and psychiatric patients.

"The city is providing huge (police) services to these for-profit institutions," said Ald. Mary Ann Smith, 48th. "Hopefully, the city of Chicago will revisit some of its policies and revisit its strategies for enforcement."

Smith initiated the hearing of the City Council's Committee on Health in response to community complaints about poor care and safety breaches at some facilities and a recent Tribune series that exposed cases of rape and murder in homes that mix geriatric residents with criminals and mentally ill patients. Some problematic facilities reap multimillion-dollar profits from taxpayer-funded programs, records show.

At the hearing, Foster District  police Cmdr. Lucy Moy-Bartosik said that during the  19 months from January 2008 through July 2009, there were nearly 5,000 calls for police service to the area around the Somerset Place nursing home in Uptown. While some of those 911 calls were frivolous, others were for serious crimes, and the sheer volume represented a significant burden on police, she said.

Moy-Bartosik also said nearby shop owners were adversely affected by unsupervised nursing home residents who wander the streets and cause disturbances.

"Residents who are overmedicated or don't have the right medications are panhandling very aggressively and prostituting themselves," she said.

In a written statement issued after the hearing, a Somerset representative  responded: "All of our patients face significant mental and behavioral health challenges. We have made a commitment, under new leadership, and have begun to turn the corner on these issues. It will take working in partnership with our neighbors and the community we serve."

Chicago once inspected and licensed nursing homes but turned over those responsibilities to the state decades ago amid budget cuts. Committee Chairman  Ed Smith, 28th, said after the meeting that the city should consider resuming  licensing and inspecting  facilities to ensure the safety and proper treatment of vulnerable residents.

"That's one issue that we'll definitely be looking at," he said.

Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd,  echoed that sentiment after the meeting. "If there's not good management and they're just taking the money," he said, "we ought to be looking at revoking licenses."

During the hearing, Fioretti described the painful history of All Faith Pavilion, a South Side nursing home where one elderly resident was beaten to death by his psychotic roommate in 2008.

"The nursing homes are just becoming in a sense out of control," Fioretti said. "The city is giving resources, the state is giving resources for these for-profit entities, and the city is faced with an enormous amount of (police) calls" for service.

Ald. JoAnn Thompson, 16th, at the hearing expressed shock at the growing population of mentally ill residents and felons at many facilities, and the lawlessness described by advocates, residents and officials. "My idea of a nursing home was care for seniors," Thompson said. "This sounds like a drug rehab program or a house of ill-repute."

Tuesday's hearing marked the city's first foray into the issue of how troubled nursing homes  affect communities and vulnerable residents. The topic is also being addressed by Gov. Pat Quinn's Nursing Home Safety Task Force, which is scheduled on Thursday to make preliminary recommendations aimed at overhauling Illinois' long-term care system. At Tuesday's City Council committee hearing,  Public Health Commissioner Bechara Choucair,  appointed in November, said the city needs to throw its political weight behind the task force's reform proposals.

Some of the strongest testimony came from community representatives such as Michelle Fire, owner of the Uptown tavern Big Chicks  and the restaurant Tweet. She said her customers have  seen their breakfasts interrupted by Somerset residents exposing themselves and urinating on the street. "Sometimes it's like a scene out of 18th century Bedlam with people screaming and waving their arms," Fire said.

While some unsupervised Somerset residents engage in aggressive panhandling and battery, many are victims of their own addictions, and "the gangs come in to sell them drugs,"  said community-policing beat facilitator Edward Kuske said. "They end up being a market."

Summur Roberts, assistant director of community relations for Loyola University Chicago, said female students are harassed and subject to catcalls when they pass the nearby Wincrest Nursing Center, a 70-bed facility that houses adults with psychiatric and substance abuse problems, including at least 30 felons. Roberts cited drug use and aggressive panhandling by residents, who she suspected were not "getting the care they are supposed to be getting."

 In an interview after the hearing, Wincrest administrator Narad Persadsingh  said the allegations that facility residents were harassing students and using narcotics were "completely false." He said Loyola officials were leveling the charges because "they want to buy Wincrest." Still, Persadsingh said he expects tighter regulation of the industry in coming months: "Changes have to come. Everybody has to adapt to survive."

--Gary Marx and David Jackson

NEW BEDFORD — An alleged MS-13 gang member is charged with stabbing a rival 18th Street gang member during an early-morning fight Sunday in the South End.

AZ wants the world to know that the back-to-back releases this past June of Legendary and G.O.D. (Gold Oil And Diamonds) were not intended to be viewed as part of the formal Visualiza discography.

“Them wasn’t albums; them was mixtapes,” AZ clarified to HipHopDX last Friday (December 18th). “I do wanna state that too, ‘cause everybody thought that [Legendary] was a album. I wouldn’t do no album without promoting – radio or something. No, no way.”

Both efforts emerged seemingly out-of-nowhere via two California-based labels, Real Talk and Siccness, the products of one-off deals that AZ himself admits lacked his full and complete commitment to their construction.

“If you listen to it, it’s freestyles,” said Sosa of the rhymes heard on the at best adequate releases. “They’re not even songs; they’re not complete songs… I just picked a few beats and [did] a 16 to [‘em].”

Unfortunately, efforts like these tend to clutter an artist’s catalog and confuse fans as to which releases are intended to be viewed as proper albums and which are not.

“People always complain [that] you gotta keep your name out there and your presence up [though],” AZ retorted in response to the above statement. “And I think that’s basically what I was trying to do to connect what I did last to what I’m getting ready to do, and just keep the notoriety ‘cause it’s so [many] fuckin’ artists out there, so much shit going on and everybody – It’s just like a free-for-all right now.”

Thankfully for fans of clever multisyllabic rhyming over classic ‘90s Hip Hop tracks, AZ is about to elbow his way to the top of that currently overcrowded field of artists in the way longtime supporters of The Visualiza have been dreaming of for 14 years by releasing Doe Or Die 2.

Hot on the heels of Raekwon’s critically-acclaimed Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II, AZ is attempting to do in 2010 what Rae successfully pulled off in 2009 and release a sequel as stellar as its original. But in his discussion with DX, AZ made it clear that he isn’t biting Rae’s blueprint to career resurrection, as while he praised Rae’s part dos and its ability to connect two different generations of Hip Hop listeners, AZ also noted that he is as well-deserving an artist of following-up his own standout 1995 debut.   

“It influenced me to an extent,” he respectfully conceded of the affect OB4CL2 had on the creation of DOD2, “but the part two’s and three’s been going on since [The] Blueprint to [now with] Tha Carter. There’s been so many [part] two’s, three’s and sequels, even from Illmatic to Stillmatic… I’m a sword-thrower myself, so I played a part in me [being] able to do a part two. So that’s why I’m doing it, because I’m just trying to connect the past with the future, and etch my name in stone in this Hip Hop game too.”

In the same summer of 1995 that spawned Rae’s classic purple tape, after having arguably stolen the show a year prior on friend Nas’ “Life’s A Bitch,” and riding high on the success of his own single “Sugar Hill,” The Visualiza was on equal footing as The Chef as one of the top five rotten apple rhymers, in the same company as The Notorious B.I.G. and Nas. Even a year later, in the months following the release of Reasonable Doubt, the name AZ was more known to the masses than Jay-Z. But it seems that fate would allow for only one of the two smooth-rhyming Brooklynites on the mic in the mid-‘90s to rise to the level of superstar spitter from Brooklyn in the wake of Biggie’s passing, as in the dozen or so years since, AZ has slid to the ranks of notable ‘90s emcees with legacies dwarfed by the large-looming shadow of Hov.

“It been a lot of slack on my side, just from a lot of shit, from political to business,” AZ admitted of the missteps in response to misfortunes that have led to his current career standing. “It’s just been a lot of slack and I’ve been pushed to the back in a sense just ‘cause my business ethics wasn’t in tune. Me being an artist I always was on point, but it’s different when you come into this game just having the talent. It’s a business, that’s why it say music business. So, I feel like I’m there now. And I feel like I can connect the past to the future and then take off from there.”         

The future will hopefully be more generous to AZ than the past proved to be. Back in ’95, just two months after Raekwon’s purple tape unequivocally changed the game, The Visualiza’s defining debut comparatively flew under the radar save for its gold-certified single “Sugar Hill,” going unacknowledged by many at the time as being a classic full-length in its own right.



“I can’t be mad,” said Sosa of his then underappreciated debut. “I still went gold, but it was under the radar for the notoriety that – I was a co-defendant to one of the so-called kings of New York. As far as saying Nas was the King of New York lyricism-wise, I’m his co-defendant so I should be known for what I brought to the table. ‘Cause not anybody could be his co-defendant at the end of the day, so I feel like I put my work in. And [so] it kinda went under the radar, but I built my own fanbase and I’m still able to be here and learn some business through the whole process, so it was cool.”

“But here’s the funny shit,” he continued. “I was taking Rap serious but I wasn’t taking it that serious as so many of New York’s so-called artists [as they] came in the game. This was their life, their whole vision. It wasn’t my whole life, my whole vision. I was doing it, but other things was going on in my life. When this came into my life it was a blessing at the same time, so I was like on-the-job training. You gotta understand, this is my first album…everything is from scratch. I had no intentions of being on Illmatic, that wasn’t my goal, it just happened. I had no intentions of doing Doe Or Die, these things fell in my lap. So I just played the cards that I was dealt.”

Longtime followers are surely wondering if fourteen years later AZ will be dealing from the same stylistic deck used for his debut. So how much of DOD2 will be a continuation of the themes and direction of DOD1?

“Well I’ma throw the same energy [behind it],” he replied when asked. “Nothing's gonna be like a mirror reflection of it, but it’s gonna show me in the present day time…and how I feel, ‘cause I feel like it’s doe or die right now. The game is so different and you have to be strong to survive even this long. So I take my hats off to the Rae’s, to the whole Wu, to…ya know just Mobb Deep, just a Jay-Z. Hov came from that era. [They’re] still doing it [while] a lot of people fell to the waste side. You need to have the hunger to wanna do this, to still be able to compete.”

AZ will be competing with his contemporaries by going back to the future and lessening his laidback playa delivery of recent years to revisit his onetime signature multisyllabic-style that spawned a slew of emulators in the mid-‘90s, maybe most notably of which being Eminem on his pre-Slim Shady 1996 independent debut, Infinite.

“No doubt, guaranteed,” replied AZ when asked if he’ll be taking it back to his multi origins on DOD2. “That’s guranteed. [But you know] some people say [that rhyme style is] outdated to an extent, because a lot of people want you to dumb-down your music. But, if you doing it for a set audience, and you got your hardcore audience…I gotta give ‘em what they want.”  

AZ promised to DX that the wicked wordplay he displayed on the superb lyrical exercise B-side to “Sugar Hill” will definitely make its way to his new album.

“Oh guaranteed, me and Pete in the studio now,” AZ replied when asked if a “Rather Unique Pt. 2” might be in the works for DOD2. “Guaranteed, [me and] Pete Rock, we in the studio now. I’ma do more than one joint [with Pete].”



Having crafted the light jazz-tinged “Rather Unique” and the smooth, piano-tickled “Gimme Yours” (which sported some memorable off-kilter singing from Nas on the song’s hook), news of Pete Rock’s participation in the creation of DOD2 will be welcome news to any AZ fan. Additionally welcomed was AZ’s confirmation to DX that the remaining trackmasters behind the original Doe Or Die are currently being recruited for the sequel.

“Buckwild’s on board,” he revealed. “I spoke to L.E.S., I spoke to D/R [Period], I spoke to them, they all there. At the same time, I wanna bring newcomers to the table.”

Maybe surprising to some, one of the new sonic architects on board for the East New York native’s re-up will be Atlanta’s own DJ Toomp.
 
“I’m gonna get some joints from him,” AZ revealed of his plans to work with T.I.’s sonic supplier. “I spoke to him. I’m trying to reach out to Dr. Dre. I’m trying to make this epic too, like just bring everything to a full circle. So I’m gonna [reach back] into the past, but I’m also gonna bring it to the future.”

“I even need a joint from Kanye,” he further revealed, “I gotta knock on his door. I’m gonna knock on his door real soon.”

The collaborator Hip Hop heads are most interested to know if AZ will be knocking on the door of anytime soon is the sole big-name guest emcee from the original Doe Or Die, for a possible sequel to the crime-rhyme classic “Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide.”

“I got a record so gangsta for homie,” said Sosa of his plans to reunite on wax with Nas. “I know he’s going through it [dealing with personal issues right now], but this is my message to the homie, c’mon and let’s keep it going, what don’t kill us makes us stronger. We don’t speak as much [as we used to], but I’m a stand-up dude and we from that stand-up era, so he know what it is. Tell him c’mon out of the cage and get with his boy. That’s my word to him. [Unfortunately] I gotta speak via interview to reach him.”  

Classic collaborations on cuts from one another’s albums, from the aforementioned “Life’s A Bitch” to “How Ya Livin’” to “The Flyest” to “The Esscence” previously displayed a seamlessly smooth chemistry between the two. Unfortunately for their fans, the duo have not officially worked together in the over five years since “Serious,” which was inexplicably cut from Nas’ ’04 double-disc Street’s Disciple.   

Whether or not Nas is receptive to AZ’s message and gets back with his boy, AZ is already proving that he is more than capable of holding down 100% of the mic duties on Doe Or Die 2. No further proof of his still-sharp lyrical sword is needed beyond “I’m Ill" The recently leaked joint is surprisingly – given its rugged ‘90s-esque energy and impressive display of shit-talking lyricism – just a warm-up cut that likely won’t make it to the final tracklisting for DOD2.

“That’s not the official jump off [for Doe Or Die 2],” AZ revealed to DX. “I just put that out ‘cause I just wanted to [get] the awareness up that it’s coming. It’s just something that I leaked out. It’s something that I got off my chest. It wasn’t nothing… It’s just something I’m just teasing ‘em with right now.”

AZ is aiming for a May/June 2010 release of DOD2, but the official street date will depend on the distribution situation for the highly-anticipated album. The former EMI, Virgin, Motown and Koch Records artist, who has also negotiated several side deals with various independent distributors in recent years for unreleased and rare collections via his own Quiet Money Recordings, is determined to find the right home for the sequel to his classic debut.

“I got a few things on the table right now,” he revealed. “But my options are still open, just because I feel like it should be. I been in so many situations from majors to independents. I’m a free agent right now, it feels good. And I kinda always been a free agent kinda sorta ‘cause I always do my one-off [deals] anyway. I always was smart in the business. I own all my publishing. I own all my masters.”

The savvy entrepreneur is expanding his marketing approach to finally include a bigger Internet presence via the New Year’s Day launching of HeyAZ.com, which will be The Visualiza’s version of ThisIs50.com and that will allow for fans to interact with the legendary lyricist.  

The site is named for AZ’s summer ’97 single featuring then sensations SWV that proved to be ill-timed as Mariah Carey’s single that summer, “Honey,” boasted the same “Hey DJ” sample used for “Hey AZ” and subsequently suppressed what would have likely been AZ’s second hit following “Sugar Hill” if not for the inadvertent competition between the two similar-sounding songs.  

That kind of unpredictable misfortune has befallen AZ at different times throughout his 15 years in the Rap game. But the Visualiza is still “destined to live the dream” as he famously noted on his career-launching verse from “Life’s A Bitch,” and is undeterred in his mission to succeed as he explained, “For those that think it’s a sprint [in this business], it’s really a marathon. We’ll see who really wins at the end.” 

Bon viveurs reveal their favourite yuletide boozers in the North, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

Read parts one and two

The North

Ye Olde White Harte, Hull

Cathi Unsworth, author
The old town of Hull is a magical cluster of cobbled streets that immediately evinces a past of maritime intrigue. On the evocatively named street The Land of Green Ginger, the George Hotel has a secret window carved into the bricks that served as a spy hole for press-gangs. Wander past, detouring up the narrow alleyway of Silver Street, and you'll find a pub that dates back to 1550, in which, enraged by Charles I's plans to levy a "ship tax", a bunch of plotters hatched a scheme that would ignite into civil war. Today, Ye Olde White Harte boasts a beautiful courtyard garden that has won the Hull in Bloom competition for the last two years, and an oak-panelled interior where cask ales and the largest selection of malt whisky in the city can be sampled. Which is what I like to do at Christmas time, with my husband and father-in-law, when the mad dash of shopping is over. We tip our hats to the Plotting Parlour, then take the weight off our feet in the Small Saloon Bar next to one of the inglenook fireplaces and gaze upon the mysterious skull, found beneath the staircase after a 19th-century fire.

• 25 Silver Street (01482 326363, yeoldewhiteharte.co.uk). Closed Christmas Day.

Cathi Unsworth's latest novel is Bad Penny Blues (Serpent's Tail, £7.99).

Whitelocks, Leeds

Simon O'Hare, comedy and nightlife editor, The Leeds Guide
Come Christmas time, there's nothing better than cosying up in front of a roaring fire with a pint of real ale – and it's that, plus an unfussy but warm Yorkshire welcome, which you'll get at Whitelocks, the first pub in Leeds to be licensed, in 1715, but which existed before that. It has stained-glass windows, red seats, a pure copper bar with a tiled facade, plus copper tables – very Victorian-looking. House beers are Theakstons and Deuchars, while served in good old-fashioned handled pint glasses.

• Turks Head Yard, Briggate (0113-245 3950, whitelocks.co.uk). Christmas opening: 24 and 31 Dec closes at 6; closed 25-26 Dec and 1 Jan.

leedsguide.co.uk.

The Sportsman's Arms, Wath-in-Nidderdale

Martin Wainwright, the Guardian's northern editor
The Sportsman's Arms at Wath first sheltered me at the age of six, when my sister got off the seesaw when she was down and I was up. They knew what to do with a greenstick fracture of the arm. These days, it's the halfway halt on a favourite winter walk – the four-mile circle from Pateley Bridge. Long-standing hosts Jane and Ray Carter offer open fires, Timothy Taylor's Landlord on hand pump, more than 100 wines and extremely good, mostly locally-sourced, food: game terrine with homemade chutney, pheasant with bacon and wild mushrooms, scrumptious lamb, and Whitby-landed fish and shellfish. There are 12 comfy bedrooms if you fancy a longer stay, and the seesaw's modern successor, on the picturesque hamlet's green opposite the pub, has a modern safety surface for soft landings.

• Wath in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire (01423 711306, sportsmans-arms.co.uk). Christmas opening: 25 Dec closed; 26 Dec 12-2; 31 Dec bookings only; 1 Jan 12-2.

The Tan Hill Inn, North Yorkshire Dales

Martin Noble of the band British Sea Power
The Tan Hill Inn is the highest pub in the UK. We played a little festival there a year or two ago. It's completely isolated and in the winter it's completely covered in snow. They have Theakston's Old Peculiar and Black Sheep Ale on tap, and lots of guest ales, and they do food, but it's not a gastro pub. There are two or three rooms all connecting, with a piano and couches and wood fires. Tracy the landlord is exceptional, and one of the bar staff has been in the Guinness Book of Records for having the loudest voice in Britain. There's a photograph of Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks on the wall, and they even have pet sheep, chickens and ducks that wander into the pub while you're drinking.

• Tan Hill, Reeth (01833 628246, tanhillinn.com). Christmas opening: 24 Dec til 6pm. 25 Dec 12-2.30, no food.

britishseapower.co.uk.

The Spinner & Bergamot, Cheshire

Mark Radcliffe, DJ, BBC Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music
My regular is the Spinner & Bergamot in the village of Comberbach in Cheshire, near where I live. Its unusual name comes from two racehorses who belonged to the lord of the manor on the nearby Marbury estate, although the big house is long gone. It's a proper pub with carpets and velveteen chairs and a range of nick-nacks like the fierce-looking porcelain owls that glare from the back of the snug. There's a signed photo of Noddy Holder, also glaring fiercely, which I put on the face of the grandfather clock after he and I went in to enjoy a light lunch of steak and ale pie and homemade chips. Great chips. They have a very nice restaurant dubbed, by some idiot DJ, "the shed with chandeliers" – but it is a lovely room and the food is spot on. The Spinner is a place I can run to and hide from the world, as I did after the wife and I had a very frank exchange over the need, or not, for more Christmas-tree lights. See you in the snug. Your round, I think.

• Warrington Road, Comberbach (01606 891307, spinnerandbergamot.co.uk). Christmas opening: 25 Dec 12 til around 4 or 5 (fully booked for lunch). 26 Dec 12 til 5 or 6, serving lunch.

The Lion Inn, North Yorkshire

Felicity Cloake, food writer
After a brisk tramp across the moors, the sight of the Lion Inn in Kirkbymoorside – perched incongruously on the lonely ridge like some squat Yorkshire mirage – is guaranteed to put a spring in the step of this hungry rambler. The wind in this part of the world is the best antidote I know for festive overindulgence; and there are few finer places to sate an appetite than the Lion. It boasts a blessedly unreconstructed menu of which the star is undoubtedly the homemade pie of the day. Chunky slabs of game or steak and ale come with a heap of russety chips, a few token peas and, of course, a slick of thick, Marmite-coloured gravy. Order, find a spot by the fire and settle down with a fortifying pint of local bitter: Black Sheep, perhaps, or a Copper Dragon from the Dales.
• Blakey Ridge, Kirkbymoorside (01751 417320, lionblakey.co.uk). Closed Christmas Day.

The Inn at Whitewell, Lancashire

Melissa Cole, beer blogger
With a history dating back to the 1300s, the Inn at Whitewell is so chock-full of character, one hardly knows where to begin. During a getaway during the festive period a few years ago (when we could tear ourselves away from the enormous four-poster bed and Victorian roll-top bath), we took long picturesque strolls through the frosty, leaf-strewn Forest of Bowland, before stretching out languorously beside enormous fireplaces. Even my return from a long, cold and ultimately fruitless day's fishing became a lot less painful as I defrosted with a top-notch pint of real ale beside one of the aforementioned fires, while envying my other half's good sense to stay indoors. The cellar is immaculately maintained and serves some of the most luscious Timothy Taylor's Landlord I've ever had, alongside local offerings like Moorhouse's, and I'd heartily recommend pairing your pint with the wonderful fish pie, or the meltingly tender confit of local Goosnargh duck.However, if you do fancy something more substantial, then the Orangery restaurant overlooking the River Hodder has to be your choice.

• Dunsop Road, Clitheroe (01200 448222, innatwhitewell.com). Christmas opening: 25 Dec reserved dining only.

girlsguidetobeer.blogspot.com.

The Marble Arch, Manchester

Kevin Gopal, editor, The Big Issue in the North
Food that over-delivers, its own brewery and a friendly crowd now broadened out from its long-time staple of real-ale fans and nearby Post Office workers – the Marble Arch is the perfect Christmas boozer. A pub since the 1880s, it's a 10-minute walk up Rochdale Road from the Arndale, if you're laden with shopping. There's a lovely, tiled Victorian interior and a sloping floor escorting you discreetly but inexorably towards the bar. Which is where the Marble's own organic beers – from unusual ginger and chocolate ales to festive warmers to fiercely hoppy and dry bitters – take centre stage. Yet the food is better than many – most? – Manchester restaurants. Late on a packed-out Friday night recently, in the back dining room, a pork chop was perfectly cooked and tender – a rare feat. If I've got a say, we're going there for our Christmas do – postponed to January.

• 73 Rochdale Road (0161-832 5914, marblebeers.co.uk). Christmas opening: 24 Dec closes at 6; 25, 26 Dec and 1 Jan closed.

bigissueinthenorth.com.

Sinclair's Oyster Bar, Manchester

Shaun Keaveny, DJ, BBC Radio 6 Music
I'm a northern exile living in London, but here's one from the motherland. After a hard afternoon's traipsing around the newly-risen retail mecca that is Manchester city centre, it's always great to repair to Sinclair's Oyster Bar with a few mates to sup away the sore feet. Originally sited some 300 metres away in Shambles Square, the pub was moved to its present location brick-by-brick after the IRA bomb in 1996. This 17th-century, mock-Tudor monument to boozing is all that a pub should be. Ancient, cosy, labyrinthine – and, above all, cheap, it offers a range of Sam Smith ales that delight both the palate and the wallet with prices that often leave the Londoner in me certain they've undercharged.

• 2 Cathedral Gates, Deansgate (0161-834 0430). Closed Christmas Day.

Blacksmith Arms, Cumbria

Hairy Biker David Myers
This is a great pub in the Lake District that's lovely to visit after a Christmas walk in the Lickle Valley. The Blacksmiths Arms in Broughton Mills, near Broughton in Furness, is run by a couple called Sophie and Michael Lane. They do great local real ales and the food is fantastic – real pub grub, at proper pub prices. The meat and Christmas fare is just perfect, and they make wonderful fresh stocks and terrines, and a fantastic stuffed rabbit with wild mushrooms and pancetta. There are phenomenal views over the mountains of the south Lakes, and the bar is original and very communal, with fabulous service. The front dining room smells of furniture polish, and always has a coal fire burning. As I live 18 miles away, my only complaint is that they don't do B&B.;

• Broughton-in-Furness (01229 716824, theblacksmithsarms.com. Christmas opening: closed; 26 Dec 12-6 (no food).

The Hairy Bikers' new series, Mums Know Best, starts on BBC 2 on 5 January.

Wales

The Harbourmaster, Dyfed

Malcolm Gluck, wine critic
It takes dedication to get here. I recently returned from a weekend stay – it is also a hotel – which involved an hour in a taxi from the pub just to get to Carmarthen station – but it's well worth the journey. Its secret? Owners Glyn and Menna Heulyn see it as an extension of their family. Indeed the place – and its chattering, pretention-loathing locals – are family. The beers (numerous) are local, the food is local, the staff are local, and the weather is local. Of course, I drank wine when I was there, but then they have a decent, if short, list. Over my weekend, I enjoyed a Gavi di Gavi, an Alsace gewürztraminer, an Argentine malbec, an albarino, and a bottle of Château Batailley Grand Cru Pauillac 2004 (for a bargain £45). In some London hotspots you can spend that on a round of so-called lagers. The only thing I don't like about Harbourmaster is the muzak – but Welsh voices drown it out beautifully.

• Aberaeron (01545 570755, harbour-master.com). Christmas opening: 24 Dec closing at 5; 25 Dec closed; 26 Dec opening 1at 3; 31 Dec private function.

Malcolm Gluck is the author of 36 books about wine.

The Tynllidiart Arms, Dyfed

Niall Griffiths, writer
More than three centuries old, the Tynllidiart Arms, near Aberystwyth, rewards a face-reddening walk through the snowy hinterlands of mid-Wales. Snuggle up in front of the log fire while the home-brewed winter ale (from the world's smallest commercial brewery) warms your inners; and if the roasted chestnuts don't assuage your appetite, then the local Welsh Black steaks assuredly will. Traffic on the A44 thunders past the front of the pub, but the views from the back windows are Christmas-card idyllic: robins on frosted logs, bare trees on white hills. You may feel a small chill as the resident ghost passes by, or as the groups of ghosthunters on his tail bring in the winter from outside, but have another pint of Nadolig Cwrw and you'll be grand. It's pleasing that such a pocket of warmth and welcome should exist in the birthplace of cold Cymric Calvinism.

• Capel Bangor, Aberystwyth (01970 880248, tynllidiartarms.co.uk). Christmas opening: 25 Dec 11-3 (no food); 26 Dec no food.

Niall Griffiths' latest books are Real Liverpool and Real Aberystwyth (seren-books.com, £9.99).

The Corn Mill, Denbighshire

Philip Hughes, organic meat farmer
The Corn Mill is just that: an 18th-century, three-storey, converted mill. The big water wheel still turns, and inside there's a plate-glass section of floor so kids can look down and see the river Dee running under their feet. The steam railway comes over the river, and at this time of year they run a Santa Special so you see all the kids getting on and off with parents and grandparents, and afterwards everyone piles into the pub. I don't tend to make it to the pub until Christmas Eve because I'm flat out with the turkeys till then, but they do a great range of local cask ales – Plassey would be my recommendation – and also a choice menu sourcing local food. Their slow braised shoulder of lamb has been on the menu forever: it's so wonderful they can't take it off as everyone would leave!

• Dee Lane, Llangollen (01978 869930, brunningandprice.co.uk/cornmill). Christmas opening: 24 Dec 12-10.30; 25 Dec closed; 26 Dec 12-6; 31 Dec 12-5 (evening ticket only); 1 Jan 12-6.

Rhug Estate organic farm .

The Plough & Harrow, Glamorgan

Robin Turner, co-author, The Rough Pub Guide
While many aspects of Christmas fill me with dread, the annual Boxing Day walk to the Plough & Harrow is one glimmer that helps ease the tension headache. For coastal walkers, the Plough comes at the end of a vigorous three-mile trek along a "two-tongued sea" before a last-minute dash up the valley at Nash Point. The Plough is that pub you daydream about as a city dweller: all cosy with low beams and log fires, napping dogs and mildly sozzled Welshies. There's no music, just a haze of local accents. Food is hearty and honest – Glamorgan sausages or fagots and chips if you're bedding in, potatoes in packs if you're not. On the bar, golden ales from breweries such as Swansea's Tomos Watkins and Pontypridd's Otley drag me back, year after year. The Plough has been part of our Christmas tradition for as long as I can remember, hardwired in like Slade, turkey and mistletoe – only much more fun.

• Monknash, near Cowbridge (01656 890209, theploughmonknash.com). Christmas opening: 25 Dec closed; telephone to check food times.

The Rough Pub Guide (orionbooks.co.uk, £9.99).

King Arthur, Gower

Joe Dunthorne, writer
In my family, the Boxing Day Walk is an act of atonement. If the beach is bleached out by hail, if the wind launches grains of sand at us in the manner of the Hadron Collider, if someone forgets to check the tide times and we have to rock-climb our way to safety, these are ideal conditions. We pay penance for our gluttony, and buy some more gluttony credit – which usually brings us to the King Arthur in Reynoldston. It's a perfect place to sit in front of a big open fire, drying off, bickering and drinking some of the great "Ales of Wales", like those by Swansea's Tomos Watkin brewery. It's got a fantastic, friendly atmosphere, and it's slap-bang in the middle of Gower, which makes it an ideal beginning, middle or end to many walks in the area. When you are that hungry and tired, almost anything tastes great – which is a good job, because the food's a bit average. So maybe it's worth the walk to the posher, yummier Welcome to Town in Llanrhidian. But only if you deserve it.

• Higher Green, Reynoldston, Gower (01792 390775, kingarthurhotel.co.uk). Christmas opening: 25 Dec closed; 26 Dec 11-4. The Welcome to Town (01792 390015, ).

Joe Dunthorne is the author of Submarine, published by Penguin (penguin.co.uk), £7.99.

Scotland

The Anderson, near Inverness

Joanna Blythman, investigative food journalist
The wonderfully civilised Anderson wouldn't be a bad place to be snowed in for a Highland Christmas, what with its wood-burning stoves, connoisseur's collection of some 200 single-malt whiskies, eye-popping selection of British real ales and Belgian trappist beers, and the Fairtrade coffee which is roasted on the premises. Then there's the food. Chef-owner Anne Anderson really delivers on the promise of "exciting, yet accessible, borderless cuisine" based on the region's enviable indigenous ingredients. So there are warming delights such as peat-smoked haddock fritters with Hollandaise, roe venison filet medallions sautéed in cassis beer, with roasted parsnips and Stornoway black pudding, or cassoulet made from local goose, all approachably priced. A few paces will take you to the cathedral of this ancient coastal town on the beautiful Black Isle, or you can walk to the end of Chanonry Point to catch a glimpse of the famous Moray Firth dolphins. The nearby pretty towns of Rosemarkie and Cromarty provide further enticing diversions.
• Union Street, Fortose (01381 620236, theanderson.co.uk). Christmas opening: closed 25 Dec and 3-4 Jan.

Northern Ireland

The Crown, Belfast

Glenn Patterson, author
The Crown was the first bar I ever drank in – not least because it was the first bar I met with on stepping off the bus from my house to Belfast city centre. That it was also the finest example of High Victorian pub architecture in these islands was, back then, neither here nor there. When I worked in a bookshop in the early 80s I would organise a Big Drink on a Friday night – not big in terms of the alcohol consumed (although that wasn't small), but in terms of the numbers crammed into one of the Crown's famous snugs. Later, after I moved to England, the Crown was my first port of call on Christmas trips home: a real winter pub, all dark wood and stained-glass and National-Trust restored gas lamps. More recently I've had a family connection to the bar: my sister-in-law is the head waitress, her stepfather the manager. My brothers and I will meet there the Tuesday before Christmas, as we always try to whenever we are all in town. And I will catch the last bus home or at least try to, as I always do.

• 46 Great Victoria Street (028-9024 3187, crownbar.com). Christmas opening: 24 Dec closes at 8; closed 25, 26, 31 Dec.

Glenn Patterson's latest book is Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times (bloomsbury.com, £7.49).

The Corner Inn, County Down

Danny Millar, chef
Born and bred a city boy from Belfast, I moved out to live in the County Down countryside last year to be closer to work. If you speak to locals, St Patrick was pretty busy in this part of the world. The first pub I stumbled upon was the Corner Inn in Crossgar, and if you're looking for a warm Irish welcome, the little front bar here has it in buckets. The open fire and a fine pint of stout is what Christmas is all about for me. There is live music on the busy nights over Christmas, but it is the quiet, homely nights and eclectic mix of customers that makes a festive pint here very special. Having a local which everyone gravitates to at this time of year keeps the community spirit alive. I am sure St Patrick himself would have popped in if he had managed a day off.

• 29 Killyleagh Street, Crossgar (028-4483 0261). Christmas opening: 25 Dec 12.30-2 and 7-10.

Danny Millar is chef/director of Balloo House, Killinchy and the Parson's Nose, Hillsborough.

Compiled by Becky Barnicoat, Laura Barton, Gemma Bowes, Isabel Choat and Stephanie Cross

I had to write an article about a short story called "on the sidewalk bleeding". it's about a boy that was murdered, i dont know if this sounds like an actual article how could i improve it? Unnoticed Murder in the Midst of Chaos The murder of sixteen-year old, Andy Smith took place in Brampton on March 18th 2004. At 12:03 am, Andy’s girlfriend, Laura Cralowe, discovered the still warm body, in an alleyway just off Queen Street. Smith, who was also a member of the Royals, a street gang, lost most of his blood from a deep slash wound below his ribcage. Smith left the Matrix Nightclub, in the hopes of buying a pack of cigarettes. The police suspect the delinquent to be a member of the Guardians, an emulating gang. The police did not find any weapons at the crime scene. All they found is a purple silk jacket with “THE ROYALS” printed on the back, it laid a few inches away from Smith. Smith’s mom believes he took it off himself, she explains: “A couple months after joining the Royals, people started recognizing him as just as “one of Royals”, not as Andy. He wanted to be known as Andy, not just a Royal.” Just Yards away from the incident, numerous careless people walked by on the busy city sidewalks, yet Smith lay bleeding helplessly in the pouring rain. Cara Sims and her boyfriend Jake Hopkins noticed Smith, Cara said: “We walked right passed him, we wanted to help, but we were sacred, Jake is a member of the Guardians, if they found out we helped a Royal, God knows what they would have done to him.” The popular well-like Andy Smith will never be forgotten, he was an exceptional teen and a great role model for all. Smith had an extraordinary talent for guitar; his parents say that playing guitar brought him such joy and peace, that words can’t even describe it. Let him be remembered as Andy Smith; a boy of talent and compassion, not just a Royal.

'I like biography so much – because it's somehow easier being somebody else'

There's something winning about Jenny Uglow's insistence that she's always been "terribly lucky". The author of a string of hugely admired historical biographies, she still refuses to think of herself as "a writer with a capital 'W'". A distinguished figure in publishing who's known as "the best editor in London", she still expresses surprise that Chatto & Windus, where she is editorial director, tolerates her preference to work part-time. She "slipped by accident" into becoming the adviser on every worthwhile period drama on TV. And it becomes clear she considers the whole idea of being interviewed for a newspaper profile "a little weird".

Sitting in the kitchen of her house in Canterbury, almost her first remark is that she just lives an "ordinary family life". Later, in the course of remembering her student acting days, she wonders whether "that's why I like biography so much – because it's somehow easier being somebody else". But her capacity for self-effacement is matched by her friendliness and the enthusiasm she radiates when talking about her work. She isn't reflective about the writing process, she says; she's "much happier talking about the stuff".

At Chatto, she has edited such stellar titles as AS Byatt's novels since Possession, Edmund White's Genet, David Kynaston's four-volume history of the City, and Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton by her close friend since college, Hermione Lee. Uglow describes herself as happily "plunged by editing into different worlds all the time", and it doesn't take much encouragement for her to turn the focus of conversation away from herself towards a "thrilling" volume on stained-glass windows, or a "fabulous" new study of Montaigne.

Uglow's own books similarly originate in an eagerness to share her sense of enthrallment: "I always get terribly excited and want to say to other people 'Hey, look'." As a result her writing is, according to Peter Conrad, "aglow with affection", and she admits to feeling very partial towards the biographical subjects she chooses ("you're on their team. And you get really cross with people who are against them").

Her biographies span art, literature and science, and together they map a route of rigorous but evidently gleeful intellectual discovery. There are many connections, more or less obvious, between the works. Elizabeth Gaskell, for instance, a life of whom Uglow published in 1993, had family ties to Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, who are at the centre of The Lunar Men, her account of the 18th-century Lunar Society, so-called because it met around the time of the full moon, when there was enough light to walk home.

Wedgwood had "witty, minutely observed landscape vignettes" by the Northumbrian engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick on some sets of his Queensware. Bewick, who democratised book illustration, is another of Uglow's subjects, and is described by her as "an adherent to the Hogarthian, English school that placed the particular above the general or idealised, the observed above the academic" (which might be said to be her own method too). Her much-heralded biography of Hogarth was published in 1997. Before that was a "little book on Henry Fielding", who was Hogarth's good friend.

Incorrigibly curious herself, she reflects that "looking at different times, I always find curiosity an engaging quality". It's easy to see why she found the Lunar Society irresistible. Its members – who included James Watt and Joseph Priestley as well as Darwin and Wedgwood – were astonishingly inventive and adventurous, building clocks and telescopes, flying in hot-air balloons, inventing machines that could speak, and coming up with recipes for disappearing ink. Darwin even designed a mechanical bird whose wings were to be flapped by the detonation of small charges of gunpowder. "There was a sense of possibility that you could make anything," Uglow marvels. "Take an imaginative leap then fit the technology to it."

Having immersed herself in 18th-century science, an obvious pathway was further back to the beginnings of the Royal Society, set up in 1660, the year Charles II returned to England to assume the throne. But curiosity got the better of Uglow once again, and she became, she says, intrigued by the Restoration and by Charles II himself – his appetite for pleasure, his own interest in the "new science" and his often risky strategies for survival.

"I have written about artists and writers, inventors and scientists," she says in the prologue to her new book about Charles, A Gambling Man, but "what if a person's art is also his life, his role simply 'being the king'?"

In a related sense, too, A Gambling Man represents a departure for Uglow. "My books look as if they're on disparate subjects,'" she says, "but I realise after having written them that they're all about stroppy bourgeois radicals who were fighting the centre." And it's with these people that her sympathies lie. But "I began to wonder what things look like from the heart of power. And it's outrageous, of course, but it's also an amazing viewpoint".

She was "gripped" by the ecstatic moment of the Restoration: "people really thought their lives would change. It's very moving." The events called to mind more recent political upheavals, in particular 1989 – "those astonishing scenes on television, everybody out in the street in eastern Europe. Then when I was finishing the book, there was Washington on the TV, with people crying with happiness at the election of Obama."

When Charles landed in Dover in May 1660, "Onlookers wept. Bonfires flared . . . fires sprang from beacon to beacon, lighting him home." As his coach headed towards a tumultuous reception in London, "country girls with laced bodices and wide-sleeved smocks . . . ran to throw flowers." I'm really a republican, Uglow admits, "but I grew up with fairy tales" – she is susceptible to the allure of a prince charming returning home.

There were, she remembers, "a lot of Greek myths and stories about Hannibal", as well as fairy tales, on the bookshelves of her childhood home in Cumbria. Her father was a classics teacher at St Bee's school on the coast; her mother, who came from the Lleyn Peninsula at the tip of North Wales, was a Froebel teacher to young children. As befits an enthusiast of Bewick, she talks a little wistfully of the rural landscape she grew up with – "mountains sloping down to the sea".

From the age of seven to 13, she went to "an eccentric school called Calder Girls (long since closed) in Seascale. It was very free and easy, run by two ladies, Miss Bellamy and Miss Gardner, one tall and thin, the other short and fat. We had swimming lessons in the sea, and the grass on the tennis courts was knee-deep. Wonderful."

That all changed when the family moved south and Uglow was sent to Cheltenham Ladies College, where she recalls "battling against the system. There were all these rules. What side of the stairs to go up . . . I didn't understand the logic." She describes herself as being "saved by good English teachers", in particular the poet UA Fanthorpe, who died last year: "She was a brilliant analyst of literary and poetic forms – making me understand how great writers respect form yet push against it. She was also the person I turned to when I got into trouble."

After five years as an undergraduate and graduate at St Anne's College, Uglow felt the need to "get out of Oxford", largely because she took against the tone of "urbane, ironic detachment" that prevailed in the common rooms there. "We were an outspoken, passionate lot." Uglow met her husband, Steve, at Oxford; they married in 1971. When he was at Berkeley, they travelled in a camper van through Mexico: "very much of the period".

The couple moved to London, where they lived in a big, shared house in Cornwall Gardens, Kensington. "A group of us got together and bought it . . . everything had to be done by committee; it was a nightmare, of course." She and Steve were involved in grassroots radical politics – "it was the era of cyclostyle magazines and going off to meetings". Uglow got a job at Macmillan, where she worked for a few years.

They then moved to Canterbury, and have stayed there ever since (Steve Uglow is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent). Between 1975 and 1983 Uglow had four children (three sons and a daughter). She also helped set up one of the first women's refuges and taught adult education courses for the WEA: "It led me to a different kind of reading – very direct." Encountering the work of Raymond Williams and EP Thompson "was like opening a window after the stuffy rooms of formal literary criticism. Different writers sprang into focus, and alerted me to a rich 'people's culture' – not so much 'popular culture'."

This had an obvious influence: her own books are celebrated for their vivid reimaginings of everyday lives in the past. ("She has a novelist's imagination as well as a historian's, and has a brilliant eye for detail" says Byatt. "Her writing captures what it's like to cook a certain stew or take a particular Northumbrian walk in wet weather.") Another hero was Angela Carter, whose journalism and other writings Uglow edited into a collection entitled Shaking a Leg. "I adored her," Uglow says. "Her stories and novels were wild, bloody-minded and brilliant, funny and dark (and empowering, to use a word from those early feminist days)."

One product of her freelancing was the Macmillan Biographical Dictonary of Women, first published in 1982, and now in its fourth edition. Its origins lay in Uglow's work for the reference division of the publishing house, and her frustration that all the books of facts were "full of bloody men". It "was a mad undertaking" she has written since, "born of a time when feminists wanted heroines and didn't have Google".

She was also one of the gang who helped Carmen Callil with Virago, and wrote a number of introductions to the Modern Classics (Mrs Oliphant, Mary Braddon, Mrs Humphry Ward), before embarking, suitably daunted, on George Eliot, for the Virago Pioneers series – "I didn't think I could do it; it was touching the hem."

Uglow was pulled back into publishing by Callil who, when she became publisher of Chatto in 1982, hired her to relaunch the Hogarth Press and run it as a radical paperback list. Her editing skills soon became renowned. In Byatt's words, "Jenny has this capacity of knowing exactly what you're talking about at an earlier stage than anybody else. Her mode of editing is precise. She makes very few suggestions but most I immediately accept. I've never had another editor like that."

Kynaston, who is also struck by how very quickly she grasps things, remembers that the only time he ever saw Uglow discomposed was the time he "brought into Chatto a copy of her Gaskell biography to have her sign it. It was lying on her desk when Carmen Callil approached. The formidable Callil was a little cross it hadn't been published by Chatto and Jenny said . . . 'Put it away, quick, put it away!'"

All but one of Uglow's major books have been published by Faber, beginning with her life of Gaskell, whom she continues to admire as "a daring, pioneering writer, determined to speak out against injustice", and whose cause she was able to champion two years ago, during the screening of the much-loved BBC adaptation of Cranford, in which she was involved as adviser.

Her first job of this kind – going through scripts, checking for anachronisms and making suggestions – was on Tom Jones in 1997, "just after I'd written on Fielding. I just kept doing it for fun. A lot of my work has been on Andrew Davies adaptations. It can be maddening but I'm still fascinated by the difference between novel and film, the way dialogue works and the need to 'see' scenes in every tiny detail." Her credits include the film of Pride and Prejudice as well as Bleak House, The Way We Live Now and Wives and Daughters.

Davies describes her as "pure gold, so clued up and curious. The other day, thinking about the fact that the Hottentot Venus and Mr Darcy were contemporaries, I emailed her to ask if there were any situations where they could plausibly have encountered each other. She came up with a couple straight away." Working on the script of Vanity Fair, Davies tried out another adviser, but the interloper was phased out when it became clear that only Uglow properly knew the disreputable things that went on in 19th-century pleasure gardens.

It is Uglow's success in different spheres that is highlighted in friends' descriptions of her. "Everybody is aghast at what she's achieved," says Callil. "Jenny always struck me as amazingly busy, caring for her family, researching her books and holding down a packed job as an editor," Edmund White remembers. "She seems a bit scatter-brained or at least breathless, but in fact her mind is beautifully organised – how else could she do so much? Hermione Lee once told me that when she would visit a new place with Jenny, within a matter of hours Jenny had sussed out the entire region, taken notes, absorbed everything: she is Henry James's ideal, the person on whom nothing is wasted."

Lee herself talks of Uglow having "more than one life. And she lives them all with extraordinary fullness and a sense of fun."

It's certainly hard to think of a publisher at the top of the profession in Britain, now or in recent memory, who is as prolific and feted a writer. Lee, Callil and Davies all refer to her as a "kind of genius" – "and now she's a grandmother, too", Callil adds. "She doesn't suffer fools, though," Byatt says. "She may not make a lot of noise about it, but she doesn't." Kynaston describes her as "driven, a smoker, not too interested in food" (Callil emails especially to say "another good thing about Jenny is she's a smoker – or used to be").

One of Uglow's secrets, perhaps, is that she long ago realised she didn't want to spend more than two days a week in an office. She describes herself as "not a natural nine-to-fiver. It's a very privileged thing to say, I know, but something about my programming doesn't fit that life."

It is at home in Canterbury, now cluttered again with young children's toys, that she works on her books – as sharply detailed, humane and entertaining as Bewick's woodcuts. And if her mind slows, she goes outside and spends half an hour gardening, her passion for which, like her modesty, can be seen as one sort of thoroughgoing Englishness. "It is a misty November morning," she writes at the beginning of A Little History of British Gardening. "Each blade of grass gleams and leans, heavy with moisture, and the air is so still that leaves from the oak tree at the end of my garden fall straight down, twirling and landing like a whisper." It sounds better than the office to me.