Ah, the clever criminal masterminds in my ol’ neighborhood. I bet he used a color overlay in Photoshop:

Pursuit Suspect Tries to Trick Police with Quick-Change – KTLA.

ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans.

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

We’ll see if this becomes a big story or not.  If the media was centrist, it would be big. If the media were liberal, it would even be sensationalized.  We’ll see I guess. The only question I have is if the Constitution clogged the White House pipes when it was flushed, or did Cheney tear it up into smaller pieces first. Can we investigate that?

By all means, vote for McPain. We get the government we deserve.

Update: Of course, Greenwald is all over it.

Play the reggae outro:”Baby Hang Up The Phone” – Lloyd Parks

Listen while you read: “Flashing Lights” – Kanye West

This story of Kanye vs. Paparazzi is burning up the wires! From the AP:

Airport police arrested [Kanye] West and his road manager, Don Crowley, who also serves as a bodyguard, on suspicion of felony vandalism shortly before 8 a.m., LAX spokesman Marshall Lowe said. He said early reports indicated that a camera valued at more than $10,000 was broken.

I was wondering what camera might be worth $10K — even a 1Ds MkIII with a 70-200 2.8 isn’t quite that much.  I checked the video on TMZ though, there was a lot of smashing going on. It looks like a video camera got smashed by the bodyguard and Kanye himself smashes not a camera, but a speedlight! Kanye trashed a  flash!

Nooooooo! Kanye West hates Strobists!

Side note: The very first time I went to Coachella with a press pass, Kanye was the very first artist I tried to photograph “professionally” — but I couldn’t find the entrance to the photo pit! Dumb rookie! I missed it.

Not sure where I live anymore. This is sobering.

Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Our old friends at CSC Security got rough with a fan at the Bowl at a Radiohead show, then noticed they’re being filmed. Key quote: “That shit’s going to be on YouTube. We gotta get that tape.”  That led to a chase of  filmographers off Bowl propery, down Highland and into traffic. Upon catching them, the CSC event staffers assault the videographers — and a bystander for good measure — in pursuit of the tape.

Bonus points: The assault happened in front of police who say “stop crying.”

Err, allegedly.

Founders of F Yeah Fest and Videothing.com Allegedly Beaten by Security Guards After Radiohead Show – Play – LA Weekly.

Listen and read: “Copy Cat” – P-Funk All Stars

Never up on politics as much as I should be, I’ve always thought of  Joe Biden as “that guy who plagiarized his speeches” in the 80s. “What a jerk,” I thought. But, shame on me for letting a single incident color my judgment of the man’s long career.

Much better to let Declan McCullagh’s examination of his voting record in the twenty-odd years since then color my impressions of the man’s long career

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET’s Technology Voters’ Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

Ok, then. What a jerk!

Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record | Politics and Law – CNET News.com.

Music to read by: “Cameras in California” — Kirk Wheeler

“Thanks for nothing,” I say to the editor who writes headlines like “Photog Allegedly Assaulted 3 Aspiring Models“  This salacious story of a man arrested for allegedly luring girls to motel rooms under the premise of photographing them to make them stars — only to then sexually assault them — has been all over the local news and Web the past few days. It’s abominable on many levels.

Foremost, of course, sympathy goes out to victims of such an act. That anyone, especially females, need to fear for their physical safety in any human interaction suggests we’re not as evolved a species, all of us, as we think we are.

I have no idea if the charges are true. But, I do know that true or false, this guy is toast. The nature of this sort of story is a complete presumption of guilt on the part of the media and the consumers of the story. That’s it. There’s no “until.” The vast majority of people who will consume this story will assume the guy’s guilty, and they’ll move on. The smaller group who actually follow the story will likely assume his guilt even if he is not convicted. It’s just too juicy a story to doubt.

Beyond the impacted lives of the victims and the accused is an issue of lesser importance, but perhaps one of broader effect.  It affects me as a hobbyist photographer who can occasionally be seen walking down the street with a camera in my hand. The above events are alleged to have taken place down the street from where I live. I’m pissed. The way the story is presented will plant yet another seed of a subliminal idea that will grow in the minds of everyday people: The idea that photographers are a threat. Increasingly, people with cameras are portrayed as a threat to public transportation, as a threat to national security, and now we’re to automatically assume they’re a threat to young girls. Some attention may eventually be paid to the psychology of the suspected perpetrator of these crimes, what factors were at work in his impulses or urges. The same criminal could have used other tactics: dinner with a non-existent movie exec, a meeting with a fake lawyer. But, almost nobody will ever pay attention to that. The story here is that a “photog” did a terrible thing, and that’s all anyone will remember.

I’m already terrified of asking strangers if I can take their picture out in public on the street. There’s a Flickr group dedicated to taking portraits of strangers that should be fun. I see faces every day I wish I could take a photograph of. Stories like this only make approaching strangers harder. The next person I ask while I’m holding a camera could well scream for the cops. And, then in the eyes of the police, and then the media, I’d be guilty; Guilty of having a camera.

Do you think I’m over-reacting?

The video in this blog post makes me wish I was smart enough to have gone to law school. (I never even made it through college, so that’s a non-starter.) I may have to make an MP3 of this. Intelligent rational people cheer me up, especially when they’re great communicators. Yes, even when the situation they’re describing is a blunt and brutal indictment of how far beyond rationality our criminal justice system — and society by extension — have gone.

Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law explains why even angels devoid of the slightest moral blemish should never speak to police officers, tax collectors or other law-enforcement agents investigating crimes.

Disloyal Opposition: Eight reasons even the innocent shouldn’t talk to the police.

While it may seem that just about anybody can rob a bank, you do have to at least keep your gun out of the hands of the other bank customers. “Can you hold this for a second while I put this cash in my “$$$” sack?” But, really — bank patrons ganged up on this fake moustache-wearin’ perp. Nice work!

ABC7 – Robber Shot With Own Gun at Van Nuys Bank.

“It was a good knockdown fight between the security guard and the suspect,” Capt. Jim Miller of the LAPD told the TV station. “On its face it appears that the suspect may have been beginning to gain the upper hand when the customers joined in to assist.”

This was 4 miles from my apartment, and two blocks from a major police station.

Ian Curtis’ Gravestone Stolen | Pitchfork

Has anyone thought to ask Microsoft marketing? They may be borrowing it for a promotional Zune event.

Would you put it past them? It’s another creepy chapter in the creepiest digital music merchandising ploy ever.