(above:  Dragnet:  LAPD Record Keeping; Comic Relief Now Warranted)

I'm happy to report that the LAPD's plan to fly Muslim Mapping up City Hall's flag pole spontaneously combusted today.      

As the AP reported, though the LAPD didn't "withdraw" the plan, it did "indefintely postpone" it in favor of meeting with Muslim leaders to "strenghten ties with the Muslim community."  

As the AP reported this evening, 

"There was a clear message from the Muslim community that they were not comfortable with it. So we listened," Mary Grady, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Grady said the program had not been dropped, but rather had been indefinitely postponed. She could not immediately say when it might be resumed.

Grady said the police initiative to strengthen ties with Muslim communities would go forward, and police planned to meet with Muslim leaders on Thursday.

To read the entire AP press release in the International Herald Tribune, click here.  To read the ACLU's letter of concern addressed to Commander Michael P. Downing of the LAPD's Counter/Terrorism-Criminal Intelligence Bureau, click here. 

Big sigh of relief from these parts and thanks aplenty to the vigilance of the ACLU.