‘The Onion’ Debuts in Los Angeles

Did a double take last night while walking down Vermont and caught an Onion display box in the corner of my p.o.v. Oddly, was in convo with a Chicago friend and was hardly phased by the sight of the tab of ridic hilarity until I was reminded by Metroblogging.LA this morning, that YES, The Onion has finally arrived in Los Angeles.

t. herman zweibel, onion publisher emeritusThought I was hallucinating for a second as I had just walked by a bizarre gathering of folks outside of Skylight Books where Les Claypool — superstar of satirical music himself — was demonstrating that rock stars can read aloud. Then I remembered reading a column about the Onion debut in the LA Times last week.

Now if only Skylight can get the likes of T. Herman Zweibel to read…

Would we Tolerate Rockets Fired from Culver City?

venice beach, hezbollah protestersIts true — Lebanon was growing into a jewel of the Mediterranean — apparently hundreds of tourists were airlifted out today by Italian airlines.

But Haifa and Tiberias in Israel hadn’t seen attacks of this sort in over 30 years, probably not since the Yom Kippur war of 1973 when Israel was a wee 25 years young.

This sign was spotted amid several others protesting Hezbollah and questioning global response to this conflict. A group of men who said they were Black Hebrews bandied about Venice Beach boardwalk for about an hour this afternoon, signs raised high.

Miss the news of the past 5 days? BBC News has this comprehensive timeline of the recent conflict.

Ha’aretz has a solid breaking news ticker (Israel time is PDT +10).

L.A. Filmmaker Sues Rumsfeld Over Detention in Iraq

cyrus karIn the first civil case challenging U.S. detention policies in Iraq, an Iranian-American filmmaker who was imprisoned in Abu Ghraib and other facilities for 55 days without charge sued Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military officials.

Cyrus Kar, 45, of Los Feliz, alleges that his detention violated his civil rights, the law of nations and the Geneva Convention.

source: L.A. Times.

Now how about some justice? Amnesty has this report on detention under the American occupation in Iraq, in which at least four Americans in addition to Kar have been also held without charge.

We Are America’s May 1 Rally

Here’s a video recap of the May 1 rally and march down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, focusing on the We Are America Coalition’s role in organizing, patrolling, and participating. The event drew an estimated 400,000 people and was capped off by a rally at La Brea and Wilshire which included an optimistic address from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa….