The Bus Bench

The REAL Reason for Exorbitant Oil Prices

Don Pardo tells us why oil prices are so damned high. In 1976.

-BusTard

BusBench called "Detractor" by Metro

We here at the Bus Bench have been implicitly told that we are bad for observing the lies, damn lies and statistics that tend to be Metro's MO. Whether talking about Metro's promotion of motor vehicles on TransitTV, the corruption and publicly funded lies told by Metro CEO Roger Snoble's about the reason for fare gates (fare evasion being the reason Metro touted and which were soundly trounced as lies by former executive director of Metrolink Richard Stanger) or too many other of Metro's backward policies and upside-down machinations, it appears that if we just close our eyes and pretend it is not happening while we ride the broken down buses and late trains, we might aspire to be placed farther up in the "Transit Advocates."   

Los Angeles Meter Maids Appropriate Newspaper Stands

One has to wonder how it is that a public agency hell-bent on aggravating its denizens, then pushing for punitive measures that imply that its revenue collectors are better than the people from which the agency robs (which even L.A. councilmember Tony Cardenas clearly acknowledged in a tax-payer-funded party: "We certainly do appreciate you as our revenue enhancers in this great city," said Councilman Tony Cardenas, who addressed the group over a lunch of sandwiches and potato salad."), and then is suddenly slow in observing a case that is filmed of one of its own officers attempting to assault a downtown resident (case pending, but soon to explode publicly), deems it necessary to padlock one of its little red bags to a newspaper kiosk.

Were one to decide to employ a metermaid-mobile for some private use, what would be the retribution? I ask because when one is even implied to have made aggravated moves toward a meter maid, one is immediately arrested. But if a metermaid attempts to run down a pedestrian with a car, then exits the car to finish the job, then head metermaid Jimmy Price is slow—to state the least—with having his boys pursue an investigation. To be sure, the hubris associated with the meter maid agency is one that needs to be checked.

What do you have to state about that, Jimmy? No, wait—save it for the judge.

-BusTard

Downtown News Goes Native

In this week's edition of the ever questionable L.A. Downtown News, staff writer Ana Scott milks sensationalism in a fashion that might have been better suited for Ed Anger's column in the late Weekly World News: "In a nearby plaza, mariachi music competed with hip-hop and the noise of hundreds of shoppers." (Where The Wild Things Are, Vol. 37, #26, 30 June 2008)

Since when did a shopping area get described by the proximity of its demographic? Has the shopping monstrosity at 7th and Flower ever been described as "In a nearby plaza, Muzak competed with Eighties music and the noise of hundreds of shoppers" when something such as the LAPD-inspired street skirmishes in 2000 (at the DNC2K) occurred amid the the middle-class white folk who are the majority demographic found there? Why now is there the reference to the music of the implicit dirt-farming wetbacks and dole-scum negroes required to set the scene for the lede—one that mentions an area abandoned by the very people who wish to retake it be redefining the term "urban" and by folk who wish to sterilise the area their beloved Hollywood/West L.A./Valley/what-have-you made into a dumping ground of working-, lower- and non-class?

Sometimes The CIA Gets It Frighteningly Right.

Damn good thing there are over 6.5 billion experiments awaiting the right way to be tortured:

"Torture 'is basically subject to perception,' CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. 'If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong.'"

Washington Post, "CIA Played Larger Role In Advising Pentagon,"

By Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 18, 2008; Page A01