Little Evil vs. The California Kid

MMA Junkie previews what will be one helluva fight: Jens "Little Evil" Pulver versus Urijah "The California Kid" Faber -- a June 1 bout that will be the most significant fight ever under the WEC banner.

Pulver, 33, the first guy to hold a lightweight belt in the UFC, dropped down to 145 lbs, and joined the WEC after losing round two of his grudge match with B.J. Penn in the finale of season 5 of the Ultimate Fighter. He will face Faber, 29, at the Arco Arena in Sacramento in fight to be aired free on Versus cable.

These are two tremendous warriors. Faber, not as well known since he fights in a lower-profile organization, may be one of the most talented mixed martial artists in the world. He is currently the WEV's featherweight champion. He has excellent takedown and submission skills, is freakishly fast, and is a joy to watch (as is, generally, the whole featherweight division.)

Pulver has a great and heavy left hand, is a skilled grappler, and is an intelligent, dogged, csrappy well-conditioned fighter. But while he is an MMA legend, he never seems to get as much respect as his opponents, whether it is Faber or Penn. He is the underdog in this fight.

But I'm rooting for Pulver. The guy has more heart than almost any other fighter I have seen. He has overcome a harrowing biography that included unspeakable abuse at the hands of his father. (His life story is detailed in Little Evil: One Ultimate Fighter's Rise to the Top).

He is a good soul, and when you root for Pulver, you root for the underdog, for humanity, for the guy who gets knocked down in life, but always insists on getting back up. Jens Pulver is why I love mixed martial arts. He is the the best of the sport.

You can catch some video clips of interviews with both fighters here.

President Gore

Over at the Huffington Post, Norman MacAfee dreams about what America and the world would be like if the U.S. Supreme Court had not voted in George W. Bush as president.

The Coming Civil War

Blogger Chris Crain (aka Citizen Crain) posts about the coming battle over gay marriage here in California -- a battle the ACLU calls "the single most important battle we have ever seen in the LGBT rights movement."

Chris is right. Within weeks, the state Supreme Court could legalize gay marriage -- and voters may face a referendum changing the state constitution to officially and categorically ban it.

Given California's size, this will be a political earthquake, a battle that will draw the attention of the nation, especially since it will coincide with the presidential election.

America's Shame

The Washington Post runs a story this morning that provokes justifiable anger and shame at the U.S. government's failure to overhaul immigration laws, chronic inability to manage its bureaucracies, and continued neglect of civil liberties.

The Post conducted an investigation that showed people are literally dying of neglect in the nation's immigration facilities.

Here are some relevant excerpts:

"Some 83 detainees have died in, or soon after, custody during the past five years. The deaths are the loudest alarms about a system teetering on collapse. Actions taken -- or not taken -- by medical staff members may have contributed to 30 of those deaths, according to confidential internal reviews and the opinions of medical experts who reviewed some death files for The Post.

"According to an analysis by The Post, most of the people who died were young. Thirty-two of the detainees were younger than 40, and only six were 70 or older. The deaths took place at dozens of sites across the country. The most at one location was six at the San Pedro compound near Los Angeles."

And we're not talking about accused terrorists:

"The detainees have less access to lawyers than convicted murderers in maximum-security prisons and some have fewer comforts than al-Qaeda terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"But they are not terrorists. Most are working-class men and women or indigent laborers who made mistakes that seem to pose no threat to national security: a Salvadoran who bought drugs in his 20th year of poverty in Los Angeles; a U.S. legal U.S. resident from Mexico who took $50 for driving two undocumented day laborers into a border city. Or they are waiting for political asylum from danger in their own countries: a Somali without a valid visa trying to prove she would be killed had she remained in her village; a journalist who fled Congo out of fear for his life, worked as a limousine driver and fathered six American children, but never was able to get the asylum he sought."

These victims are kept in the shadows, barely receiving even bureaucratic lip service toward the concept of due process:

"These way stations between life in and outside the United States are mostly out of sight: in deserts and industrial warehouse districts, in sequestered valleys next to other prisons, or near noisy airports. Some compounds never allow detainees outdoor recreation; others let them out onto tiny dirt patches once or twice a week.

Detainees are not guaranteed free legal representation, and only about one in 10 has an attorney. When lawyers get involved, they often have difficulty prying medical information out of the bureaucracy -- or even finding clients, who are routinely moved without notice."

The tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe are dying from willful neglect on our watch.

The article I link to is part of a series running in the Post this week.

Sore Loser

SNL gets it exactly right:

Mighty Cool

Thanks to LA metblogs for linking to the coolest pic I have seen in a while. This shot is taken by local photographer Dave Malkoff, who took this pic on a 300-foot construction crane at the corner of Hollywood & Vine.

Malkoff's flickr photo stream is here.

A Happy Birthday

LA's Homeless Blog this week linked to a story in the San Jose Mercury News about a unique guy who decided to celebrate his 29th birthday by throwing a party -- for others.

According to the paper, Taj Chahal "decided to do something a bit different: He hosted a surprise party for 300 total strangers - complete with birthday cake and party favors for everyone - at Martha's Kitchen, a San Jose charity that serves meals to the homeless and working poor."

The article is here.

The Hottest Man Kiss on Network TV

This past week, ABC's Grey's Anatomy - whose executives did such a ham-handed job dealing with one cast members homophobic slurs against another last season - presented a sad and powerful story of a patient dealing with a brain tumor and the cruelty of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The entire episode can be watched online, or you can check out a youtube clip of what is - to my mind - indisputably the hottest man-on-man kiss ever shown on network television.

FYI - the two very cute soldiers soldiers played by Benny Ciaramello (Friday Night Lights' Santiago) and MTV Road Rules grad David Giuntoli.

The Pastor Double Standard

Finally, someone from the mainstream media is calling McCain out for his ties to a preacher far more offensive than Rev. Wright.

Thanks to Keith Olbermann for speaking out.

Finally

LA Citybeat, the real alternative newsweekly here in Los Angeles, this week profiles U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson (D- Long Beach), who may be the only member of the Southern California congressional delegation who really gives a shit about fighting traffic and building mass transit.

Richardson was elected to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Juanita Millender-McDonald. I supported her primary opponent, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, but it seems we have a real winner in Richardson, who has a genuine concern for transportation issues and a perch on a key congressional committee.

The Q&A is here. She talks about connecting mass transit to LAX (finally!), and building the Subway to the Sea.

Most of the Los Angeles congressional delegation does nothing about our traffic problem and our chronic lack of mass transit. Sure, some will give a lip service here and there. But no one in at least a decade has done any heavy lifting. The Westside's great liberal icon, Henry Waxman, has even made a point of standing in the way of the Wilshire subway. Of course, Waxman, like most of the local delegation, is in LA so rarely he probably needs google maps to find his Los Angeles office.

Mojo

I have been away for a few weeks -- first with some family stuff, and then not feeling the bloggin' urge. But this clip re-sparked the mojo:

Tear Down That Wall

Mr. Bush, tear down that wall!

A video and song by Mexican MC Boca Floja about one element of the tragedy of our failed and cruel immigration policy.



Thanks to the Unapologetic Mexican, who is (by his own description) "prettier than Lou Dobbs and smarter than ten Aryans."

Venice's Criminal Element

Every now and then, Venice Beach is cursed with an overzealous cop who thinks it is his duty to root out the special spirit of the eclectic and tolerant beach community. Someone who equates individuality with deviancy, someone who equates freedom with anarchy, someone who feels it is duty to save us from ourselves and remove the dirtbags from out midst.

One such character is Mark Arnesen, who served as the sergeant overseeing the LAPD's Venice beach detail in the late 1990s. Known derisively as "the Cowboy," Arnesen tried to impose his will on disorderly Venice, treating denizens with disdain, and famously overreacting one day to a crowd at a concert, ordering in helicopters and a riot squad.

So what ever happened to Sgt. Law and Order? He is currently a criminal defendant in the celebrated Pellicano case, accused of racketeeringand running hundreds of unauthorized background checks for Pellicano.

Arnesen had a particularly tough day on the stand this week.

I don't take any delight in Arnesen's downfall, but having seen him at work here in Venice, it is hard not to believe in Karma.

Common Sense

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has finally spoken about the controversy swirling hysterically in local political circles over Special Order 40, a decades-old LAPD policy that prevents officers from scaring undocumented immigrants shitless and preventing them from reporting crimes or serving as witnesses.

Bratton, as the LA Times reported this morning, said that pretty much everyone in Los Angeles misunderstands the policy, which does not prohibit officers from helping deport criminals who are in this country illegally.

The issue, a long-simmering issue for right-wing talk show hosts, racists, and anti-immigration crazies, came to a boil a few weeks ago, after fringe mayoral candidate Walter Moore sucked the family of Jamiel Shaw into his crusade. Shaw, a promising youth athlete, was tragically killed last month. His accused killer is an undocumented immigrant with a long criminal record.

Moore and his supporters tried to link the killing to Special Order 40 -- although, as has been reported, there is no connection.

In today's paper, Bratton promised to clarify the LAPD policy, which he said even some cops don't understand or enforce properly:


Bratton said the recent criticism is based on a faulty understanding of the rule.

"There is a misrepresentation, misinterpretation, misunderstanding on the part of all the concerned parties here -- whether it is immigrant advocates, immigrant haters, the talk shows, drive-time radio talk-show hosts," Bratton said. "When it comes to our situation in L.A ., . . . the vast majority of them don't know what . . . they are talking about."

Bratton acknowledged some of his own officers were also confused about the policy. For example, he said, he has heard accounts of officers who believe they are prohibited from calling federal immigration officials to report known gang members who have committed crimes and reentered the country illegally."

Bratton continued:

"If you are an illegal immigrant out there and basically you are obeying the law and you are not preying on others, you don't have anything to fear from the Los Angeles police in terms of us approaching you solely on the belief you are here illegally," Bratton said.

Bratton acknowledged that his position was likely to infuriate both sides of the immigration debate, but he said he was confident he was acting in the best interest of the community.

"It is a tempest in a teapot," he said of the controversy over the policy. "It is so hopelessly, totally misunderstood by just about everyone."

The Quality of Mercy

A coalition of gay groups is urging that teenager killer of Lawrence King, who was shot at his Ventury County high school for being gay, not be tried as an adult.

This an admirable position, one is search of justice rather than vengeance, mercy rather than rage.

The alleged killer, 14 year-old Brandon McInerney, deserves to be punished. But he is clearly a messed up child -- and a civilized society meets out justice toward children in a different way than it does adults.

The coalition of groups includes Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Equality California, Gay Straight Alliance Network, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The full report comes from the exceptional and always informative Towleroad blog.