Broken Levee Blues

Maybe we are going to need a catastrophe to make us wake up. Maybe, the catastrophe is at hand, but we don't want so face that fact.

Lonnie Johnson faced it with the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. This was the time of press gangs of black sent to man the levees and who died when the levees broke. He wrote and performed Broken Levee Blues.



Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie remembered too, but this version if from Led Zeppelin.

Then came the Great US Flood of 1993.

From May through September of 1993, major and/or record flooding occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Fifty flood deaths occurred, and damages approached $15 billion. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

The magnitude and severity of this flood event was simply over-whelming, and it ranks as one of the greatest natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Approximately 600 river forecast points in the Midwestern United States were above flood stage at the same time. Nearly 150 major rivers and tributaries were affected. It was certainly the largest and most significant flood event ever to occur in the United States

The can Karina and Rita and the levee failures of New Orleans. Much has been written about that and the disaster that could have been avoided if they had not spent levee money building bridges to gambling boats.

So, now we have another flood, washing out much of the corn crop in Iowa and now threatening 30+ levees on the Mississippi River, one of which has failed at Gulfport, IL.

So, what are we doing now? We all have out battles to fight... like sitting in the trees at Berkeley. And, guess what the media covers? You go it. Berkeley. I rather agree with both the content and the volume of Georgianne Nienaber post at OpEd News today.

Even the mainstream Associated Press is starting to tune into what will be the most massive infrastructure failure this country has ever faced. Meanwhile, all of the left wing pundits on these pages are so eternally distracted by politics as usual that they are missing the big picture. You are all fiddling the same tune while the Midwest is drowning.

The Heartland is under siege and as usual the left is ignoring the people who hold this country together.

There are now 33 levees in danger of breaching—up from 27 yesterday. New breaches and bridge and road closings are occurring by the hour and the pundits are worried about wasting time and energy on Bush and Cheney. What is the matter with all of you?

The great experiment of journalism on the internet is one big whopping failure as far as I can tell. Stop regurgitating intellectual crap about politics as usual and get on the stick and dig deep into the WHY of this story.

Did any of you go to journalism school? Who, what, where, when and why?

I’m mad and I’m not gonna take it anymore.

You might say that this is all far away and that Berkeley is at least on the CA Map. You should be asking what our State Laughaslaughter is doing about our own failing levees.

You might want to say that speech is important, and it is. You should be asking why we had a 200 year flood in 1993 and what, at least in Cedar Rapids, IA, has been called a 500 year flood. Those are pretty close together. Have we reached a tipping point?

(quoting Lorna Salzman).

Under discussion is the rate at which these things are initiated and how fast they proceed. If the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheet are lost, ocean level WILL rise at least 25 metres, but over what period we dont know. What we do know is that when the earth's temperature was last about 2.5 degrees C. and CO2 was 400 ppm more or less, the sea was 25 metres higher than it is today.

Since we are now at about 389 ppm CO2 now, and this is increasing by 2 ppm each year, it seems rational to conclude that we have only about five years to avoid the CO2 concentration tipping point.

Like Georgiane, I am getting close to my own tipping point where I don't give a damn about all of the political games being played, triangulations for ever smaller and smaller blocks of votes and fewer and fewer people vote.

In the words of Bill Cosby's Noah routine... "How long can you tread water?"

The hunt for bin Laden.

Brian Williams is in Afghanistan and, on Nightly News this evening, he will report on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. We can, however, already report that while we appear to be no closer to finding out where he is, there are a few places that we can rule out.

It can definitely be shown that he is not in Nancy Pelosi's office nor at Diane Feinstein's Washington Conference Center, site of that meeting between Obama (not Osama) and Hillary Clinton.

He is definitely not in the West Wing, either. We can not, however, rule out the possibility that he might be at the famous undisclosed site in Washington conferring with the Veep.

No one deserved this.

When the good citizens of CA-37 had a chance to elect a sincere and dedicated Daniel Brezenoff last year, many of them fell back on the old ways of identity politics. Daniel did not have a chance, not because he was a member of the Green Party. It was more like that fact that identity politics determined who it was politically correct to vote for.

So, they chose Laura Richardson, knowing little about her. Now, we know more. Consider the following that appeared in the Sacramento Bee today. Headline: Watchdog group labels California congresswoman a deadbeat

A congressional watchdog group blasted Rep. Laura Richardson on Tuesday as a "deadbeat congresswoman" following recent news reports on the Long Beach Democrat's failure to pay creditors.

The charge by Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, followed reports that Richardson failed to pay auto repair loans and defaulted on mortgages, including one for a Sacramento home she owned while briefly serving in the state Legislature.

"Not only has Rep. Richardson defaulted on home loans eight times since 2004, she failed to pay a mechanic, a print shop and an auto body shop," Sloan said. "And those are just the debts we've read about."

Reporter David Whitney of the Bee does not like scum in politics. I guess that guarantees him a lifetime of agina and a string of stories. I followed his stories on the soon to retire John Doolittle (R. CA04). This is more of the same with the difference that Richardson's failings are so petty. It is more like she just does not give a damn.

In cases like this, I am tempted to say that the voters got what they deserved. However, no one deserves this... but they are stuck with her for another 2 years as she won the Democratic primary and NO OTHER PARTY is challenging here in the General Election.

More on California Water.

While the Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters lament our lack of political will to do the wrong things, at least I have tried to make a difference in local attitudes towards water. In a recent OpEd for my very local Morgan Hill Times, I was happy to reference the work of Dr. John Overpeck (University of Arizona, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth.) Dr. Overpeck has studied rainfall patterns and temperature changes over many millenia. In recent work, he concludes that "The outlook for climate-related changes in U.S. water supply is not positive, particularly in the West, Southwest, Texas and into the Southeast." From this, I reached my own conclusions.

We have experienced two years of below normal rainfall. If Overpeck is correct, we need to be acting as if these past two years are, at best, the new normal, or may even represent above normal rainfall. The implications of this may be profound. While I don't profess to be able to outline all of them, a few things are obvious. We need to make water conservation a habit of life, beginning now. That is the reason we are making the changes to our landscaping. There is not going to be a single, big thing that government can do to save us from ourselves. It will be the cumulative effect of millions of little decisions coalesced into habits that will save us from ourselves.

It is this tyranny of small decisions that worries me. It really comes down to things like whether I let the water run while brushing my teeth.

The view of life in extreme that Frank Herbert provided in his ScFi world, Dune, may be our own future condensed to its ultimate act, as the Fremen (Free men?) learn survival in an arid world.

The most notable custom of the Fremen is their water conservation. Living in the desert with no natural sources of water has spurred the Fremen to build their society around the collection, storage, and conservative use of water. The Fremen think about moisture conservation, not simply water conservation. Dune (Arrakis) is a desert planet parched to such a degree that no natural open water exists on the entire planet. Thus water conservation is of utmost importance for survival.

Walter Sac Bee Column offers, unfortunately, only simplistic solutions. New dams and a peripheral canal. It never questions the manner in which we choose to use water, or the growth that fuels the demand.

Unfortunately, Walters has more readers than I do... but not more ideas.

It scares the hell ouf of me.

The "it" is a talk given by the University of Arizona's Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, Director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth concerning Climate Change, Sea Level, and Western Drought: Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference. You can download it (which I recommend) or watch it online from this page. The reason I suggest downloading it is that you may want to watch it more than once, or to rewind and make sure you got his point as you go along. It you live in the West, it is that important.

Here is a list of things the got my attention:

• a visual picture of the effects of the current drought on juniper / pinon pine forests in New Mexico. The pines are all dead.
• A specific chart showing the current drought conditions as projected for 2035-2060 where the normal pattern will be worse than the current drought conditions in the West.
  
• A general statement that the pattern of drought corresponds to the temperature change in the West.
• A reminder that from 1130 to 1300 AD the American Southwest went through a megadrought that was one cause for the abandonment of Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and other sites by the Anasazi.
  
• The projection of population increases:
• Arizona: +5 million by 2030.
  
• California: + 12 million by 2030.
• Colorado: + 2.6 million by 2030.
  

It is clear that these population increases can not be sustained by anything resembling business as usual. In a yet to be published OpEd for the Morgan Hill Times (scheduled for 5/27) I suggested that we need to plan for water resources considering that this year represents the new "normal". Given the facts in Dr. Overpeck's talk, I was probably optimistic.

This past week (5/20) the California Department of Water Resources had the first meeting of a Climate Change Technical Advisory Group. I was not able to go to Sacramento to attend. I don't have a lot of confidence in the Department of Water Resources to do what truly needs to be done. Still from the presentations given (and available from this page) we know that they are expecting a 25 - 40% reduction in annual snowpack by 2050.

(Thought: if we have that reduction in snowpack, why would we add to the 1400 dams already in California?)

I find it highly suspect that DWR is using charts that project based on "No Change in Rainfall Pattern or Amount" (Chart 32 in Climate Change Science and the Department of Water Resources (pdf)
It would seem that the bureaucracy knows that answer that they want you to arrive at. It is not one that a responsible Green could conceive.

I am encouraged by the presence in the Technical Advisory Group of Kathy Jacobs from the Arizona Water Institute and previously a faculty member with Dr. Overpeck in the ISPE. She has a background of dealing with sustainability.

California law requires an update to the Water Plan every 5 years. The examination of climate change is part of that process. I am convinced that it should be most important factor under consideration.

The next meeting in this process is an "All Regions Forum" to be held in San Jose on June 2-3, 2008. Location:

Doubletree Hotel in San Jose
2050 Gateway Place
San Jose, CA 95110
(408) 453-4000

Announcement: (.pdf, 24 kb)

Handouts: Agenda (.pdf, 47 kb)

You may think that I have been giving too much credibility to one scientist. However, in all of the manufactured doubt surrounding climate change, there is one common thread. When the scientists have missed the mark in their projections, it is because they have underestimated the speed at which change in occurring. The Seattle Times carried a report that the sea water is becoming increasingly acid (due to CO2) about 100 years earlier than the scientists had predicted. (Tip of the hat to Aquafornia.)

It is the rate of change that concerns me the most. It takes time to re-shape public opinion. Then, we need to plan the necessary changes in infrastructure to accommodate what is going to occur. Many organisms, either on land or in the sea, do not have the capability to deal with those changes and so, will die out. Hopefully, we have the capacity to adapt, if we have the will.

Personal update

This is not about GPCA, but about me and how I don't always control the tasks that occupy my day. Take yesterday, for instance. It was sunny, temperatures in the mid-70's and a bit windy. My wife, Rumiko, and I had planned to go to the library and then stop for a little shopping. (Multiple tasks on one trip is very "green".)

I opened the door and was greeted with this. I gave you the view from the other side. No real damage to the house. The branches on the roof are very small. But it did take a while to turn those small branches into mulch (another "green" thing to do), clean up the damage to the nandina and rose underneath that olive branch. Could it be a sign that peace is at hand?

The trip to the library had been anticipated for a long time. Lorna Salzman had recommended reading Susan Jacobs's The Age of American Unreason. I put it on hold and was number 74 on the waiting list. Finally, I had a chance to check it out and then the above event. Oh, well.

The uncovered brick pillar in the lower right is another task delayed by my little emergency. Top had been painted, but not re-installed.

Is California Really Broke?

	How Did This Happen? What Can Be Done?

FREE PUBLIC HEARING

Thursday, May 22, 2008 7 pm – 8:30 PM Holy Faith Episcopal Church
260 N. Locust Street, Inglewood, CA

SPEAKER:	Nancy Berlin, Director, California Partnership CAP is a coalition of over 40 Californian anti-poverty grassroots organizations
GUEST OF HONOR:	Curran Price, CA State Assembly
QUESTION AND ANSWER:	Walter Johnson, Holy Faith Episcopal Justice and Mercy Commission
ACTION STEPS:	Cathy Deppe, 9to5 Los Angeles National Association of Working Women

GET INVOLVED! Should California...

Reduce the number of teachers in our schools? Eliminate health insurance for poor kids? Reduce emergency services and cut housing for poor families?

NO!

Come, Learn More, and Write a Letter to the Governor!

Refreshments -- Kids Welcome -- Handicapped Accessible

Information: Walter Johnson 310-450-5017

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass: Let's Talk Taxes

Sacramento, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 – Karen Bass was sworn in as speaker of the California State Assembly. She is the first African-American woman to hold such a legislative post anywhere in the United States. Speaker Bass says ready to begin tackling the many challenges facing California. Governor Schwarzenegger was scheduled to release his revised budget proposal Wednesday afternoon.

Ms. Bass is a Democrat representing the 47th Assembly District in Los Angeles. The impression of this Green reporter is that Karen is more thoughtful, more honest, and more sincerely progressive than most Big City California Democratic Party pols. The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Ms. Bass proposing an "independent" look at the "Third Rail" of California politics: Taxes. Her op-ed includes a concise description of the paradox of California: a state with wealth, resources, and a productive work force that is somehow "a giant in crisis."

Peter Miguel Camejo, our Green Party candidate for Governor spoke "Truth to Power" about the budget way back in 2002, when Democratic Governor Gray Davis was lying through his teeth. Greens have earned the right to a seat at the table and we must seize this opportunity to engage in a little "triangulation" between the better elements of the California legislature and do-nothing, ethically-challenged "Regular" Democrats and Republicans.

. . .

The point is not that Camejo, Greens, or anybody else, has a "magic wand" to make our budget problems go away. The point is that the Green Party was straight with the people of California when Democrats, Republicans, including the phoney "post-partisan" Arnold Schwarzenegger, were all shucking 'n jiving... We have the duty to help save California and promote our key values to save the planet.

Read More

Johnny Yoo... Who?

The name of current UC Berkeley Law Professor, Johnny Yoo, might not ring a bell for everyone. After all, you would have to be a devotee of PBS programming like Front Line to have ever heard of him or to understand just how much he has influenced events since the Iraq War started. His contribution? The justification of torture if the Imperial Presidency so chooses.

There are times that protest is the best way to call attention to something, particularly those things that have not gotten media attention at the level they should. For example, the tree sitting protests at UC Berkeley periodically make the big time media exposure, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It seems very out of proportion compared to having Johnny Yoo as alaw professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law with his salary paid by our taxes. Some protesters need to get their priorities correct, as do the media. Thankfully, Act Against Torture is going to do something to raise the level of awareness. It is a much more appropriate action then the CodePink protest at the Marine Corps Recruiting Office. (And yes I know that there are many who are members of both groups.)

I would urge everyone in the area to join this protest if even to just to send a note of support... but be there if you can: Saturday May 17, 2008 at 8am (graduation starts at 9:00).

Environment vs. jobs... a false conflict

The last resort of those who would obfuscate any issue is to use the appeal to jobs. I watched it happen time and time again. In the world of politics, the terms "jobs" makes for some very strange associations. So does the funding of non-profits.

The first event that really drove this home to me was watching the leadership of the Teamsters Union line up behind the 2006 Chairman of the House Committee on Resources, Richard Pombo, to support drilling for more oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve. You would have thought that the normally Democratic leaning unions would have been the last person to support an ultra-conservative Republican, but this was about "American jobs" though most would have been in Canada.

Now, the latest person to jump into this fray, all in the interest of the poor, of course, is Roy Innes of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This was reported in Mother Jones.

A civil rights group that dates back to the 1940s, CORE's agenda has taken a distinct rightward tilt under Innis' leadership, aligning itself with conservative activists opposed to the environmental movement. Speaking in March at a conference of global warming skeptics sponsored by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which has received more than $600,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since the late '90s, Innis announced that his organization, itself a recipient of Exxon funding, would sue the Bush administration if the polar bear were listed.

Innis begins to look like a Pomboid, maybe justifying his use of Exxon money because CORE does do good work. As one commenter said after the Mother Jones article...

To say that protecting the polar bear will adversely affect poor Americans skips a step.

There is a built-in assumption there that the industry lobbyists don't want us to notice: namely, that, of course, the oil companies will pass their higher costs on to the consumers, because, obviously, they can't afford to have their profits decreased even by a tiny percentage.

There is a choice here that is being hidden. Perhaps we could choose to make those profiting from oil pay for the true costs, including those to the polar bear, instead of asking the poorest Americans to do it for them.

In the mean time, Bill McKibben, writing in the Los Angeles Times this weekend warns us that this is not about jobs. It is about Civilization's Last Chance.

It's not just the economy: We've gone through swoons before. It's that gas at $4 a gallon means we're running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It's that when we try to turn corn into gas, it helps send the price of a loaf of bread shooting upward and helps ignite food riots on three continents. It's that everything is so tied together. It's that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem ... how best to put it, right.

All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth.

We now have to face a mind-warping media blitz of political pandering to the very large bloc of coal mining voters in West Virginia and Kentucky the next two weeks. Yes, it is jobs that equal votes that equal getting elected, the future be damned.

I think that I will go read something cheerful, like Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Flood Warning

Question: What is the United State's more flood threatened city not named New Orleans?

Answer: According to the LA Times, it is California's Capitol, Sacramento.

A recent state report predicts that the right combination of unlucky weather conditions could put some parts of the city under more than 20 feet of water, causing a $25-billion disaster that would cripple state government and ripple through the California economy.

It could be that the global warming associated predictions of increased drought in the West may be a saving grace, just not one that we should welcome with open arms. Read the promo or just view it (about 50 minutes).

As a matter of fact, one of the ironies of the situation is that the warming could result in a more rapid melt of winter snowpack in the Sierra's and, is spite of the drought, actually increase the chances for flooding.

For those with the time, and the bandwidth, there is a very good video available from the Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean at the Univ. of Washington: Climate Change, Sea Level, and Western Drought: Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference? Read the promo or watch the whole thing. This is a lecture by Dr. Johnathan Overpeck, Director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona and a principle author of the UN IPPC Report.

If we are serious about planning for our future, we need to understand what is going to happen.

Identity Politics

Donna Brazile did a great put down of identity politics on NPR's Talk of the Nation Wednesday morning, while analyzing the North Carolina and Indiana Democratic Primaries. I don't remember the exact words, but the essence was...

I might like Hillary because I am a woman. I may like Barack because I am black. Then again, I may like McCain because I am getting old and grumpy.

News and OpEds:

The following two items ran in the Eureka (CA) Times-Standard today. Not your normal fare, but a quick comment on the intro statements makes it clear that both offer opinions... though in one case it is disguised as "news".

Newsworthy event: Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney is planning to visit Humboldt County.

The OpEd take on this comes from 2004 Green Presidential Candidate David Cobb, who has a regular column in the Times-Standard.

Peace candidate McKinney visits Humboldt
David Cobb
Article Launched: 05/08/2008 01:24:22 AM PDT

In a game of shameful political football, the U.S. House of Representatives (lead by Democrats) is scheduled to vote today to authorize more money to fund the illegal, immoral and unconstitutional occupation of Iraq.

This proposal will authorize an additional $178 billion of taxpayer money to this travesty.

At a time when money is urgently needed in our own communities, this new Democratic Party bill will bring the total cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to over $874 billion. These numbers boggle the mind.

For that amount of money we could have universal health care for all, begin to seriously address global warming, invest in schools and infrastructure, and have plenty left over for a tax cut for working Americans. (more...)

And then there is the news version.

Controversial Green candidate visits Humboldt
The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 05/08/2008 01:15:43 AM PDT

If you think the mainstream presidential race has been rife with controversy, wait until you get a load of Cynthia McKinney.

McKinney, who will pass through town today and Friday, campaigning as the presumptive Green Party presidential nominee, is no stranger to standing in the crossfire.

Statements implying the Bush administration was involved with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center reportedly cost McKinney her campaign for a seventh term representing Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives. (more...)

And no matter what you think of McKinney, you will surely agree on the fact that there is some truth in the following in the news story....

Campaigning on a platform of ending the war and promoting social justice, McKinney, a long-time Democrat, said she is now a proud member of the Green Party. The Democratic Party, she said in her announcement speech, has become corrupt and now feeds out of the same corporate trough as their Republican counterparts.

Unheard No More

For many, many years, decades even, Wendy Doromal has worked on behalf of those who have been, are still are being exploited in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI). The CNMI is a US Protectorate and you would think under US laws to some extent. However, the reality has been very different.

Finally, just today, Wendy has been able to announce a victory of sorts as President Bush signed into law S. 2739, putting the immigration policies that fed the sweatshops in Saipan under US Law. The entire story is a bit complicated. Maybe a good way to get a feel for the effort that went into this would be to read her announcement of the signing of this legislation from her own blog, Unheard No More. Wendy give a lot of credit to many other people and claims little for herself though she was the inspiration that kept everyone going.

I have friends who were, no, still are in frequent contact with Wendy. I know the great respect that Dennis Greenia (referenced in her post) has for Wendy.

I mention this because there is a lot of work remaining to be done. While Wendy names those in Congress who worked for the rights of these indentured workers, she did not mention those who are still in Congress and who should be retired. That list begins spans the country: Bob Schaffer (R-CO) now running for the Senate in that state; Dan Young (R-AK) and under fire for a lot of corruption; John Doolittle (R-CA-04) still in Congress but not running for re-election, Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-46) - one of those who held up the CNMI as a crucible of capitalism to be emulated and a supporter of the CNMI's lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Doromal is not stopping work.

Now that the bill is signed, I will be carrying the petition from the guest workers to Washington, D.C. that requests green card status for the legal CNMI long-term guest workers. The guest workers have gotten over 5,000 signatures and are still working to get more.

We should not either. Everything that we can do to send Dana Rohrabacher back to the beach, to contemplate surfing, reefs and reefers, the better we will all be.

No More Race Talk!

MY COMMENTARY POSTED ON LOS ANGELES TIMES WEB SITE

Wednesday, May 07, 2008
NO MORE RACE TALK
Enough about Obama and Wright. This election is about Bush.
by Alex Walker

This election is not about race.

I repeat, this election is not about race.

This election is about the worst president in U.S. history: George W. Bush.

A week ago, the New York Times published an editorial titled "Mr. Obama and Rev. Wright," asserting "this country needs a healthy and open discussion of race." The Los Angeles Times followed suit with "The Wright Choice," declaring race "is something the candidates should be discussing."

No. Candidates should be discussing the war, healthcare, schools and the catastrophic failure of President Bush's so-called conservatism. (Read More...)

Ralph and Matt

I will give Nader and Gonzales credit for making their position clear regarding the Green Party Presidential nomination.

Message from Ralph Nader to the Greens and the Draft Nader Committee

March 8, 2008

Matt Gonzalez and I wish to restate that we are not seeking the Green Party nomination in 2008 at the Chicago convention.

At our news conference last week, I wished the Greens and their four Presidential candidates good luck, and indicated that progressive campaigns with good agendas and issues can run parallel and forward to help strengthen democracy and subordinate corporate power to the sovereignty of the people.

These issues include single payer health insurance, a negotiated, expeditious withdrawal from Iraq and Iraq's oil fields, an aggressive crackdown on corporate crime, fraud and abuse, vigorous diplomacy toward a two-state Palestine-Israel settlement, electoral and labor reforms, and opening up the Presidential debates.

The savings from reducing the bloated, wasteful, military budge and achieving international arms control, will help rebuild public works and services in our country.

For other initiatives illustrating how the Nader/Gonzalez campaign is on the opposite side of the political fence from the two dominant parties, see votenader.org.

I want to thank the Draft Nader Committee for their encouragement and expect that they and others disposed toward our candidacy, will pursue options either inside their Green Party or with our independent campaign.

On re-reading this, I think back to my original position regarding Nader, offered before the debate in San Francisco. Nader is a one dimensional candidate, railing against corporate greed as he has always done. At the time I posted my endorsement of Kent Mesplay, I noted this about Nader. He did not refer to any environmental issue. If you read the note above, he still does not mention the environment at all. It is as if the Unreasonable Man had never seen An Inconvenient Truth.

There may not be any greater moral issue today than dealing truthfully and justly with the implications of Global Warming. It seems as if Ralph and Matt are living on a different planet that I am.

The World According to Cheney

PBS has re-run the Frontline report entitled Cheney's Law. That "law" from our Vice President is that anything a President wants to do is OK and overrides everything else including the Constitution. Unless you are following certain issues very carefully, you might be missing the extent to which Cheney's beliefs have shaped the current administration. And a lot of progressives need to pay attention to the fact that the one agency that has managed to act as the protector of the Constitution and laws on the books has been the FBI. Yes, the FBI that progressives have grown accustomed to protesting.

NPR is reporting on yet another case of the FBI raiding a governmental office because of the fact that the role of that office had been corrupted. The office? The Office of the Special Council that is tasked with protecting Federal whistle-blowers.

FBI agents on Tuesday raided the offices of Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch, who oversees protection for federal whistle-blowers. The agents seized computers and shut down e-mail service as part of an obstruction of justice probe, as first reported by NPR News.

A grand jury in Washington issued subpoenas for several OSC employees, including Bloch, according to NPR sources who spoke on condition their names not be used. Bloch's home was also searched.

Those developments came about on a Tuesday morning that had seemed no different from any other weekday in the Washington headquarters of the Office of Special Counsel. But at 10 a.m., the OSC's national e-mail system went down, and the FBI arrived.

There are some who would refer to the office has being that of Scott J. Bloch-head.

This is only one more example, coming as it does on the heels of Lurita Doan's wonderful testimony to Alzheimer's like forgetfulness in a Congressional Committee hearing on the politicization of the General Services Administration. It makes you wonder if the whistle-blowers who complained had worked for Doan.

I also note the specific sequence of events here... the email system went down and then the FBI arrived. Coincidence?

The second example I would want to cite is one that is more closely related to California and even to my home town, Morgan Hill. Once the site of a small manufacturing facility that made emergency flares for road side use, the ground water of Morgan Hill and surrounding areas is now contaminated with perchlorate, often referred to as "rocket fuel". According to the AP's Erica Werner (a very good reporter) the EPA is once again refusing to make a ruling regarding allowable levels of perchlorate in ground water. This is very much like their refusing to make a ruling regarding automobile emissions. It seems that every time something comes up that would actually help people, the EPA refuses to do anything.

I would not go so far as to say that these examples are directed from the Veep's office. I do say that they reflect a pervasive attitude, a cynicism about the role of government and the sense of some sort of Imperial Presidency entitlement that has been the hallmark of Cheney for a long time. In my case, cleaning up perchlorate creates a surcharge on my water bill every month.

What the hell, it's only money.

LA Housing Plan ignores Water

I picked up a bit of information at Aquafornia today. The City of Los Angeles, following nearly a century of swallowing Mulhollands' Water now feels so comfortable in it's position that it can produce a Draft Housing Element for the General Plan that totally ignores the reality of water and the effect that a changing climate will have on it's supply. I'll quote the entire segment from today.

Los Angeles’ draft Housing Element ignores water issues, says the Westchester Parents blog: As water supplies are being sharply cut back and restrictions are being imposed on residents, the 225 page draft barely devotes a single page to the water supply system for housing. It begins by stating unconvincingly that the “water supply for new projects is generally adequate.” The entire section of the draft devoted to Los Angeles’s water supply is just four paragraphs and two bullet-points long while elsewhere, the document devotes a dozen pages to other forms of non-potable water such as grey water, storm water and waste water. The plan doesn’t safeguard the supply for current residents, says the blogger. Click here for more from the Westchester Parents blog.

Los Angeles Greens have shown more leadership and direction on Water issues than any other locals in the GPCA. They have officially endorsed the Sustainability Principles of the California Water Impact Network. I hope that they can organize some official push back on the LA Planning process so that the availability and distribution of water is more than an assumption, it is something that is calculated, planned for and that the distribution is both environmentally and socially just, considerations that have long been sacrificed on the altar of growth.

Getting it right....er, correct?

I have more than once urged readers to contact their congress critters and request some action regarding a piece of legislation, normally one that was inspired by 19th Century Republicans or Dubya himself. This time, however, I want to turn that around. It is time to contact our President and ask him to veto a bill that passed Congress, one which is making true conservatives and true progressives nauseous just to think about it. I am talking of the current Farm Bill, a pork laden attack on our pocket books and common sense.

Before you do, you should read Carolyn Lockhead's story in Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle.

It is the rarest of moments: President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are on a collision course over a giant farm bill, but it is Bush who is broadly aligned with liberal Bay Area activists pushing for reform, while the San Francisco Democrat is protecting billions of dollars in subsidies to the richest farmers.

The rest of Lockhead's story is a text book example of how nothing gets done in Washington for the needs of the people and everything happens in the way that it happens purely for the political advantage of one party or the other. Things are packaged together is such a way as to obscure what is really happening.

Pelosi touted a ban on payments to farm couples earning more than $2 million, 10 times higher than Bush's $200,000 income limit.

At the same time, she backed a 50 percent increase in the actual amount of money each farmer could get. The Senate added a new $3.8 billion "permanent disaster" program to bail out farmers of drought-prone land, intensifying the push to plow fragile prairie.

Probably nothing is as sneaky as putting an increase in food stamp programs in this package of pork and then threatening to blast the President over his treatment of the poor if he dared to veto it. Pure Pelosi playbook.

Pelosi threatened to blast Bush for killing the food-stamp increase if he vetoes the bill, issuing a statement urging Bush to sign the legislation to "ensure that 38 million Americans - especially children - have improved access to basic nutrition."

I have never seen a better reason to vote for Cindy Sheehan, since she is running.

If you want to make your voices heard, there is some possibility through the Conference Committee that is resolving difference between House and Senate Versions. There is a full list here. California members are Dennis Cardoza, Joe Baca and George Miller. All Democrats and all from areas with a vested interest in getting their own pork. It may help to comment on Lockhead's story at the Chronicle.

If you want to send a message to Bush, then I would ask you to call and leave comments. Here are the numbers:

• Comments: 202-456-1111
• Switchboard: 202-456-1414
• FAX: 202-456-2461

Why the Delta

Back in September, the aquamaven at aquafornia.com wrote a piece called Why the Delta Matters to Every Californian. For those who wonder why I keep returning to that subject, you need to read his summary.

Since then, little has changed. The politicians are still dancing their dance and we have had yet another winter with below normal rainfall. In fact, March and April were the driest on record.

Today, the Stockton Record has an editorial entitled Every Precious Drop. The conclude...

The fact is, conservation, recycling and quite possibly rationing are the only real tools we have, certainly the only tools we have today. We must treat water like the incredibly valuable life substance it is. That is especially true in California, with its huge population, huge farming industry and utter dependence on erratic weather cycles.

I could say That's All Folks except for one thing. Climate change is going to make this year seem like the rainy season. That means the balance between Agriculture and Urban Development is going to have to change. The products we raise will have to adjust to new climate realities. The longer we delay getting our minds around those facts and starting to work on solutions, the more expensive those solutions will be.

I would like to figure out if the GPCA is going to join the dance, start advocating for solutions or just let it happen to us.

Food Crisis Worsens

It seems a bit strange, but the San Francisco Chronicle is becoming the one major newspaper in this state that seems to understand what is happening to the world wide food supply and what needs to be done to fix it... starting with an overhaul of the current Farm Bill that only perpetuates the policies that got us into this mess to start with. It is their lead editorial today, headlined "A food crisis sweeps the globe."

Wheat fields get little rain in Australia. Rice in a Manila market stall jumps 20 percent due to shipping costs. Europe and the U.S. steer more acreage into biofuel-producing corn. Taken together these trends have produced the highest food prices in 30 years.

This "silent tsunami," as United Nations food expert Josette Sheeran calls it, has forced an estimated 100 million people worldwide deeper into poverty. Another 1 billion, many of them in Africa, are already skipping meals. In Haiti, people eat "mud cakes" made of dirt, sugar and food scraps.

It's a disaster that's brought misery, political strife, and few simple answers.

I don't have all of the answers myself. Some things are obvious: the end of subsidies for commodity crops, the end of corn based ethanol production, de-linking the president's proposed $700 Million request for world wide food aid from the Iraq War funding. (That is about as coldly calculated a proposal as I have see come out of Washington.).

More than anything, we need to see the Green Party admit that this is bad and getting worse. If there were ever two issues that cry for the Green Party to be talking about solutions, it is this food crisis and global climate change. Yet, for the most part the food issue is not even on a discussion agenda for anything other than "go buy at the local farmer's market".

California is one of the major agricultural producers in the nation. It is as key to our economy as as Silicon Valley. But, an urban focused Green Party is not paying attention and so, by default, the corporations win.

The House Committee on Agriculture has three members from California: Dennis Cardoza (18th CD), Jim Costa (20th CD ), and Joe Baca (43rd CD). All three are Democrats and all three, but especially Cardoza, have squandered the opportunity to make substantive improvements. Cardoza, admitting that he could not end commodity subsidies, fought long and hard to get even more subsidies for California Producers of "specialty crops".

The Chronicle knows where action is required.

Solutions come with very high price tags, both financial and political. The UN and World Bank believe aid programs costing billions are needed to jump start small-scale farming in poor countries. Biofuel projects may need to be scaled back to allow other crops to replace a major spurt in corn plantings. Then there is the politically loaded topic of home-country protections against cheaper imports, a reality that has held back African agriculture from both U.S. and European markets. Also, the present farm bill in Washington, loaded with grower subsidies, looks especially foolish in an era of high prices.

But, Cardoza is in a safe Democratic District, Costa did not have any opposition in 2006. We must all work for change and means letting our individual congress critters know that all is not right down on the farm.

We also need to be developing the expertise and knowledge to recommend Green solutions for a World Food Crisis.

Parsing the 110 Congress Part II.

The second part of what could be a series. In the first post, we had a glimpse of how our Congress exposes incompetence in other branches of government rather like a George Foreman slowly grilling whole hog and enjoying every minute of it. But it is rare that they would turn such a spotlight on themselves, as that would threaten retribution in the form of not getting their own appropriations appropriated.

Maybe we should turn a little attention on Rep. Dennis Cardoza, CA-18. Cardoza was the Chief of Staff to Gary Condit when Condit was still in the California State Assembly. If you go to Cardoza's bio on his congressional web site, you find a long and varied political career detailed for you to see, but nary a mention of Condit. It seems that forgetfulness is a Washington convenience.

What you do see is a very opportunistic politician, using Condit's support, getting appointed to a position and then winning re-election with the name recognition of an incumbent. He is always one to stay close to the center, being a blue dog Democrat, and always delivering some benefit for the special interests in his constituency.

This year, he has delivered a pork filled farm bill, one in which he understood that it was not politic to fight the special subsidies in the bill so he worked to get more, but this time for the farmers in his district, those who provided not for commodities, but rather for "specialty crops".

As Carolyn Lockhead reports in the San Francisco Chronicle...

Prominent Los Altos developer John Vidovich and various family members in the Sandridge Partnership of Sunnyvale were the nation's biggest recipients of automatic government payments to farmers last year, receiving more than $1 million, according to a new analysis of federal data by Environmental Working Group.

Known as direct payments, the subsidies go mainly to big farms growing a handful of crops. In the Sandridge case, that is mostly cotton, wheat and peanuts grown on farms controlled by the partnership in the Central Valley.

To put this in perspective, we have a member of the Congressional Portuguese Caucus (all of whose members, Cardoza, Nunes, Costa, used to be Pombo, are Central Valley agribusiness / developers) who wants to buy his continues support by larding up a Farm Bill that continues to give commodity subsides to while the prices we pay for food skyrocket.

This makes political sense when trying to buy votes but makes absolutely no economic sense.

Unfortunately, about the only journalist telling the real story these days is Lockhead and she does not work for a Central Valley newspaper.

If there is one area of this state where we all need a great Green Party presence, it is in the Central Valley. The issues of Community Based Economics, of sustainable agriculture, of urbanization and growth are all issues where the Green Party has the right answers and yet, we are not there, not making noise, not getting attention.

If Cardoza is the best that a Democratic Congress is going to deliver, we are all going to be in greater trouble after we elect an even larger Democratic majority in the fall. I hope that Green voices do not stay silent on this issue.

Parsing the 110th Congress.

The President of the United States, the less than honorable George W. Bush, has some interesting traits, among them a certain blindness regarding proven ability when making political appointments and a fierce loyalty to these "Bushies" when they prove themselves to be less than up to the job. Then, you know someone must have been very bad for Bush to actually fire one of them, as he has done with Lurita Doan, head of the General Services Administration (GSA) which executes so many, many purchasing contracts. I don't have the reportorial style so I invite you to watch TPM's Paul Kiel recite the facts, as best as Doan can dis-remember them.

Just think how much these pandering political prostitutes must despise us if they think that our votes can be bought by delivering a few greasy pork rinds to our districts and saying "look what I have done for you." Unfortunately, they may be right.

Be the change...

Ghandi told us to 'Be the change you want to see in the world. " It was that admonition that came to mind as I have been watching Obama twist and squirm over the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's recent return to the political spotlight. San Francisco blogger Stephen Smoliar defines Obama's problem better than most television talking masks.

Some interesting conundrums continue to boil up in the stew the media have cooked over the charge of elitism leveled against Barack Obama. Given that one of his messages has been that of uniting groups with many different interests and values under a single "umbrella," under which they can discuss their differences as well as their agreements, an accusation of elitism is tantamount to an accusation of hypocrisy. Thus, as I had previously speculated, this attack may have been concerned more with finding and piercing Obama's most critical point of vulnerability than with weighing the many issues relevant to deliberating over who would make the best successor to the Oval Office. My reasoning is simple enough: The American electorate may not fully grasp all the intricacies associated with the rights and duties of the Executive branch of their government, but they know hypocrisy when it bites them. If they are convinced that, for all of his "audacity of hope," he is as hypocritical as any other politician, then there is a strong chance that they will turn away from him.

It is this question of hypocrisy about which we need to be mindful. Even Republican pollster, spin meister Frank Luntz reminds us that Americans want a sense that their candidates are "genuine." This This is particularly necessary when one tries to stake out a position on some high moral ground. To the be found wanting is fatal to any aspiration to political power. Greens should pay special attention as we have not political power, only the moral high ground.

If Obama eventually loses and Clinton wins the nomination, it will not be solely because of his association with Rev. Wright, but rather because in the final analysis Americans have judged him just another politician.

Savoring the Irony

I can not help but quote this entire letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle today. Penned by DORIS MENDEL of Albany, it is as good of a suggestion as any over what to do with your rebate check, assuming you get one.

Savoring the irony

Editor - On learning that the American Civil Liberties Union was the primary instrument in exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal, I'm donating my windfall check (due this week) from the Bush administration to the ACLU. If nothing else, I will enjoy the irony of my choice.

DORIS MENDELL Albany

When Green is in.

Even neo-con NY Times Columnist Tom Friedman is beginning to sound more like a Green than like John McCain. Take this from his interview reported at Grist today.

... [B]ig energy companies? They're not on Facebook. They're not in your chat room. They're in the cloakroom, and they're in your face. So unless you get off of Facebook, unless you get out of the chat room into the cloakroom where the rules get made, you're not going to have an impact. So I'm all for the blogosphere; I love it. I love the fact that my column gets spread all over the world thanks to the internet, and that I can have this dialogue with so many people. And I love the blogosphere for all the wild, crazy ways it enriches the conversation.

But do not confuse that conversation with having an impact. At some point, the conversation has to stop and the lobbying and the arm-twisting has to start.

It makes me wonder why I keep writing this blog. I guess it is in the hope that some readers just might take the next step and start opening the door to the cloakroom, since the time for that has surely passed me by.

So, if your are reading this... stop... shut off the computer and go do something Green. Here are a few suggestions:

• Attend the next meeting of you local planning commission. That is where developers have their way with your future.
• Send a letter to your congress critter telling them that we don't want Federal Subsidies of Big Agriculture or of Bil Oil. The current farm bill and energy bill are embarrassments designed for short range, future be damned, political advantage.
  
• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting a Green Party Presidential Candidate: Johnson, McKinney, Mesplay or Swift.
  
• Plant a garden.
  
• Send a letter to the Chairman of Home Depot asking them to remove Monsanto's Roundup from their shelves. Here are some reasons why and here are some more.
  

Is Pop Culture Going Green?

If Vanity Fair magazine is representative of pop culture, then it is going Green in a very strange way.

Some my have noted that I will, on occasion, reference a post by David Roberts at Gristmill. He has a guest blogger role at Vanity Fair (Green Beat) going on and today's makes an interesting point about Global Warming and the Media. The short piece is here:

But is is worth posting in it's entirety.

What I Learned from the Mainstream Media About Global Warming

1. Efforts to address climate change will be enormously expensive, and will raise costs for ordinary families.

2. Politicians are B.S.’ing about it; none of them will tell the honest truth about the enormous costs.

3. Everything we’re currently doing to address the problem is utterly futile.

4. Most solutions, like driving a Prius, are mere affectations of do-gooding elites.

5. The public doesn’t care about global warming; they find it dispiriting and disempowering.

What nobody in the mainstream media ever seems to do is pause and wonder whether their relentless repetition of points 1–4 has anything to do with point 5.

(For the record—and more on this later—No. 1 is false. Nos. 2 and 3 are half-true. No. 4 is false. No. 5 is about 75 percent true.)

Well so much for Roberts' opinion. Now, where you you put Vanity Fair in the list of Green publications? Well, they did put out a Green Issue with a photo of Madonna on the cover. Huh?

On the other hand, Vanity Fair does do some good investigative reporting and this week's story entitled "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear" should be required reading.

Still, going back to David Roberts and the Green Beat, it seems that Vanity Fair is convinced you have to use celebrity to sell everything. e.g. the following:

• Cindy Crawford: The Power of Eco-Moms
• Q&A: Ed Norton Turns Green (Actually, He Always Has Been)
• Cindy Crawford: How You Can Make a Difference on Earth Day
• Green Beat: Will the Rothbury Festival Outdo Live Earth? By Adam Spangler

You get the picture by now. I wonder just how much this use of celebrity to carry the Green Message helps the cause and how much it trivializes is. I guess that we will not know because no one will do the research and report on it.

(Posted earlier today to EcoAction Committee Email List.)

What does it take to become an environmental hero?

According to this article in the Sacramento Bee, it takes a lifetime.

You have to give 75-year-old Felix Smith of Carmichael credit for tenacity.

A quarter-century ago, Smith became the conscience of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when he blew the whistle on the selenium poisoning of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in western Merced County.

I am not sure how many of you understand exactly what is going on. This was a major story and it has, for the most part, slipped into the background and that is where the leadership of the Westlands Water District would like to see it stay. Smith is still active and still involved in this major effort.

In a Jan. 10 letter to water board Chairwoman Tam Doduc, Smith wrote, "Many of the impacts documented in my past letters/complaints continue today. In addition, there are other more ominous concerns and environmental impacts coming to the forefront."

What we really have is the grand lady of compromise, Sen. Feinstein, meeting behind closed doors with the Westlands Water District and trying to shape another compromise like her failed Cal-Fed Plan for exploiting California's Water Resources.

It amazes me that Feinstein can retain her popularity while demonstrating such a lock of integrity or concern for the people of California, that she can gain the attention of the press any time she wants and real hero's like Felix Smith can spend a lifetime fighting for us all and getting little ink.

Global Warming: Why it all matters

Let me call attention to a couple of different stories today.

The first came to me when I looked at Dave Roberts' Gristmill blog this AM. Dave makes it a Friday Night practice of blogging a particular piece of music that caught his attention. This week, it touches on global warming, Mountain Top Removal in West Virginia and the connection is Coal. In fact, that is the name of the album from which this selection is taken. Coal, by country singer Kathy Mattea.

One might be tempted to take all of this as an intellectual exercise. After all, how many of us have really had much to do with coal mining. I know that my late sister-in-law, Mary Barnes Rolley, had her MS in Coal Geology from the Univ. of Illinois. That is about as close as I got and I am drawing Social Security.

It is often frustrating when we deal with issues like climate change that are so easily abstracted. I remember with some nostalgia my college days when Dylan was just a rumor of some young guy singing great stuff around the coffee houses and The Times They Are A-Changin' had not yet been recorded. There is no coffee house circuit anymore and potential young Dylans want to jump right to the top as an American Idol. But let me call your attention to the way that Mattea's Bend, OR concert was hyped by the local paper, the Bend Bulletin. The story begins this way...

Here’s a depressing little exercise for you to try: Hop on the Internet, visit Google Maps, and search for “Danville, W.Va.” Once you’re in Danville, click over to “Satellite” view and zoom out a little bit.

See that giant, grayish area west of town? That’s where a coal-extraction company has blown off the top of a mountain to make its job easier.

Now, zoom out more, and follow the trail of grayish spots that pockmark the rolling, green hills of the Appalachian Mountains to the southwest of Danville, extending across West Virginia and into eastern Kentucky.

Every one of those spots represents what used to be a mountain. The mountains are now flat, thanks to the extraction method known as mountaintop removal.

I challenge you do do that exercise.

Here is another challenge. Make a contribution to the West Virginia Mountain Party. They are the Green Party affiliate and they have been fighting this battle since the beginning. Anthing helps, even $10.

The wolutions for world hunger? Not GMO.

We all look for affirmation of our own notions of how the world works. I was rather pleased to find such an affirmation this week, though I didn't get it from the US Press, obsessed as it is with Hillary, Barack and Rob Lowe's nanny.

In a comment to an earlier post, Richard indicated that the solutions for world hunger were to be found in the technology of Genetic Engineering.

Genetically modified foods promise improved agricultural production and food value.

We know that this is what they promise, but it is not what they deliver. Case in point is the article that appeared in a UK newspaper, The Independent, about studies of Roundup Ready Soybeans from Monsanto.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Now the Independent got the story if not the details. Professor Barney Gordon is an agronomist at Kansas State University, not the University of Kansas. However, do not let that cast doubt on the message, because a similar finding came from a more carefully controlled study at the University of Nebraska.

Most soy grown in the United States has genetic modifications. Brazil is a major producer and there it is nearly 100%.

Tofu anyone?

Farming the front yard.

My Earth Day Messages post generated a bit of discussion, most of it good. Steve mentioned the manner in which some are taking the step of re-introducing self sufficiency in food production. I would like to note two great examples of this sort of thinking. They are from those famous neo-Luddite publications, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

As I referenced before, Michael Pollan's New York Times article suggests that planting a garden, rather than installing CFL's, is the perfect response for someone who is concerned about global warming. With a CFL, you buy it, you replace the old bulb and they you walk away, forget about it but you feel like you have done something. If you plant a garden like Pollan suggests, it has a more lasting affect. You may even begin to notice the cycles of the weather, to think about where the water will come from in a dry month, year, decade. It will substantially change you, even to allow yourself to shed the "cheap-energy mind".

The Wall Street Journal gives you an example of a man who did just that, and in his own front yard yet...they call it Green Acres II. Like the original, you can watch it.

Individuals acting for the collective good.

Why bother?

Faced with the overwhelming scope of the problems that face us because the world is getting warmer and the seeming futility of small actions, some would ask "Why bother?" In a recent Green Issue of the New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan tries to answer that question. He starts from a bleak point of view.

I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs.

Pollan ends up asking you to do something just as simple, but philosophically more profound... go plant a garden.

You may not believe the "go plant a garden" bit, but read it. Pollan is very convincing.

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.

Perpetual Campaigns

One of the realities of contemporary political life is that the campaign for the next election cycle begins even before the last one completed. We are in a time of perpetual campaigns and, along with that, of perpetual fund raising. Case in point: When Jerry McNerney defeated Richard Pombo in 2006, his series of "thank you" meetings in communities across the 11th CD was really a series of fund raisers for 2008.

I don't think that most Greens are really comfortable in this mode. Long range planning rarely gets beyond next month, let alone the next year. There is something about the culture of the Green Party where perpetual fund raising must be unseemly. Maybe we would rather keep picking at the wounds of the 2004 election cycle than to plan for the next one, an exercise that I would rather see carried out as a personal mental process.

Given that, I was excited on seeing the suggestions for a 2010 election that Mike Feinstein posted to an internal Green Party email list (California Green Forum). Mike is saying that we need to start paying attention to the election of 2010 now, not in 2010. That we need to begin to study the causes of our problems now, not like a college student trying to cram for a mid-term and stuffing it all in at the last moment.

I believe that in addition to running and winning more municipal races, we need to focus upon becoming more relevant in partisan races in 2010, which I believe is more likely if we are committed to running primarily for state legislature (Assembly and Senate) instead of Congress, combined with a coordinated message with our statewide constitutional office candidates

Towards this end, I believe we need to demonstrate that we understand how land use and tax policy coincide in this state.

I fully agree with this.

Some observations on political behavior. The American voter responds well to those who provide a vision of a new future and not so well to those who dwell on the past. This country was settled by people who were looking for a new beginning. The is still part of the mythology of America and we ignore that at our peril.

The current election cycle started out to be about Iraq. It is now about paying the mortgage and keeping your job. To quote James Carville's scrawled message from 1992, "It's the economy, stupid." So why do we make a big deal about the ultimate truth of 9/11? That is never about the future. It will never win voters.

In California, we have an education system that does not meet our expectations, yet takes 50% of the state budget. We have an escalating cost of living and a declining tax base. We want to attract and keep good teachers and are cutting school budget by 10%. It does not make sense.

We are not going to become a player at any level until we start dealing with what is relevant to voters now. I think that we would all do well to follow Feinstein's advice and prepare ourselves for the battles ahead. It starts understanding just how Proposition 13 has worked (for some) but has basically failed as the guiding principle for tax policy in California.

Feinstein suggested reading the following series of articles from the LA CityBeat web site. I second the suggestion and post the same links here. Each could be the subject of a thread from which to weave a tapestry of victories in 2010.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/the_crushing_blow_of_howard_jarvis/6623/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/the_anti_tax_psychosis/6624/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/jiveass_jarvis/6620/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/tragedy_of_the_commons/6619/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/the_biggest_loser_schools/6618/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/wal_mart_vs_the_poor/6621/
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/michael_gorder/6625/

Earth Day Messages

With all of the coverage of Earth Day, in a time when even local governments may quote from Tom Friedman and proclaim that "Green in the new Red White and Blue", I find it useful to contrast two Earth Day OpEds, one that ran in my local paper (Morgan Hill Times) and one that did not.

The one that ran is by Michael Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute. You can, if you have a strong BS filter, read it from the ARI web site.

Berliner pulls not punches in his attack on environmentalism, deeming deeming the goal of environmentalism as a 'subhuman world where "nature" is worshiped like the totem of some primitive religion.'

While I don't think that many pay a lot of attention to the Ayn Rand Institute any more, there are aspects of this that are picked up, distorted and used, maybe subconsciously, in order to justify the continued robber baron attitude about world resources that was the foundation of American prosperity in the 20th Century and could well be the down fall of it all in the 21st.

At the other extreme, is the challenge today from Wallace J. Nichols* to become an EcoDareDevil.

Today, we face more serious crises—loss of biodiversity, a warming planet, collapsing fisheries, looming food and water shortages, and pollution in every corner of the globe. Scientists forecast a “2050 Scenario” in which Earth is hotter, dirtier, and overcrowded with nine billion people who are left to wage wars for what little remains.

Using the metaphor of Evil Knievel, Nichols is challenging young people, really all of us who still remember what it was to be young and full of energy, to "jump the chasm" and to act.

Needless to say, this one did not appear in my local newspaper.

For myself, I admire the spirit of Pete McCloskey, who was along with Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a CoChair of the first Earth Day. He has not quit. He never will. In fact, McCloskey is helping with the legal challenges to the remaining shell game that Charles Hurwitz is trying to play with Pacific Lumber Company, the remaining old growth redwoods in California and the livelihood of the citizens of Mendocino and Humboldt Counties.

We have a lot of work to do. We need to make sure that those like Berliner who would put some idealize man, supreme over nature and free to loose his avariciousness on the world unchecked. Nichols has given us the picture of the world where Berliner and his rank and file of takers prevail. We must not allow that to happen.

* Dr. Wallace J. Nichols is a Senior Scientist at Ocean Conservancy and a Research Associate at California Academy of Sciences.

Arizona Republic on Green Party Ballot Access

The Arizona Republic had an article Sunday on the fact that the Green Party has won ballot status in that state. Thank you to everyone who made the trip over to Arizona to help in this effort or who contributed financially to the effort.

The Republic's story included an interview with Arizona Green Party CoChair Angel Torres, one that began with a simple questions...

Question: Why be a Green Party member?

Answer: Look at our platform - go to our Web site, www.gp.org, our national party Web site. No matter what the issue - on the environment, the economy - our platform is far and away better than Republican or Democrat.

We're campaigning for a progressive tax policy, for good government, to eliminate corruption, for renewable energy. Arizona should be leading the world on renewables (resources for energy production). That will provide good jobs for Arizonans and Americans. We should be retooling our factories to build solar panels and solar electricity. We need to put the American people back to work.

There is a real contrast between this and what I see from GPCA. In a time when the major concern of the electorate, when energy costs are rising, when people talk of no longer being able to afford commuting to work, when home prices are plummeting and the equity that people counted on for retirement is disappearing, Torres is talking about "putting the American people back to work."

Where is the economic program from the GPCA?

The Debate that we need to have, but won't.

A wide group of science advocates attempted to stage a presidential debate this week in Philadelphia. The subject would have been science and the manner by which science would be used to inform public policy in the administrations of a President Clinton, a President McCain or a President Obama. Since these three candidates for office would have had to deal with substantive matters, of course the all declined to participate.

One reaction ended up in the Wall Street Journal today, where I really did not expect it. The OpEd, penned by Nobel Laureates and Cal Tech faculty members David Baltimore and Ahmed Zewail. Baltimore is President Emeritus of Cal Tech.

Apparently the top contenders for our nation's highest elective office have better things to do than explain to the public their views on securing America's future.

Instead we have had we had Democrat Obama complaining about the lack of substance in the debate that did take place.

Last night we set a new record. It took us 45 minutes . . . before we heard about health care. Forty-five minutes before we heard about Iraq. Forty-five minutes before we heard about jobs. That's how Washington is.

I don't feel any sympathy for Obama. He had a choice. He could have accepted a debate that would have been focused on substance and he chose not to participate. That's how Washington is.

We are still waiting for the change that will happen.

New boss, same as the old boss.

The great hope of The Who was that we "Won't Get Fooled Again." Well, I guess that we did.

I rarely find an editorial in any paper with which I am in complete agreement. However, today's editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Bumper crop of big spending", is one where I have absolutely no disagreement.

This follows a series of well-researched, well-written articles by Carolyn Lochhead in the same paper.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff sees the bill as the best possible bargain that could be won. They argue that Pelosi pushed for spending reforms, but southern Democrats prevailed. Now critics should be happy with the increases in food stamps and fruit and nut subsidies Pelosi supported - as the best deal that can be won in a political world. The Environmental Working Group and other reform-minded organizations have argued that it actually would be good politics for Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut off Big Farm's spigot. But Pelosi and Reid are smart politicians. If spending less were good politics, the farm bill would not be a pork sandwich.

The $286 billion farm bill is good politics only because the millions of taxpayers who are paying the bill are not pushing as hard as the relatively few people who benefit. (emphasis mine)

It is interesting that the target here seems to be Pelosi's two-faced lack of courage. How many things will she bargain away in order to get "the best possible bargain"?

I wonder just how many people in San Francisco will break with Pelosi in the coming election? If people actually read the Chronicle that number might be growing.

What should Greens be doing? At the very minimum we should be speaking out, in our forums, through our candidates, directly to our legislators, that enough is enough and we need to stop subsidizing big agriculture just like we need to stop subsidizing big oil. It is all the same game of power.

Recurrent themes

There are a number of themes that will recur, over and over again on this blog until I get tired of beating the same drum, the drum turns into a dead horse, or something finally changes.

One of these is the way that certain corporations, specifically and foremost, Monsanto, work to gain control of the dna of everything. Ever since someone made the one headed decision that a corporation could patent DNA sequences, Monsanto has been working to gain control of the seed supply of every plant that might be useful to humans, especially those that we eat.

Finally, the tide is beginning to turn and, thanks to the hard work of Erica Martenson, the Green Party of California has taken an official stand that makes sense. At the latest plenary a new platform position was approved. You can read the text that was passed by consensus here. It took some time and a learning curve, but this was the last productive thing to make it from the Green Issues Working Group to the Platform Committee and then to be enacted. Thank you Erica.

Another recurring theme involves the fact that I have next to no patience for those who spend so much energy working against something and no energy on building the alternative. The latest case of this involves the war against WalMart and other big-box stores.

I wrote a column for the Morgan Hill Times that focused on the fact that one of the root causes for global warming is the American Consumer. Yet, we are being told by our government that the way to get out of every negative economic situation is for Americans to use more, buy more, exhaust our savings and our planet at an even faster rate that we are doing. This, of course, will only accelerate the expenditures of energy that are causing global warming in the first place. The solution to one problem, accoring to our government, is to make another worse. That does not make sense.

In the middle of this, I made the following statement that has drawn a lot of flack from my green friends.

The largest corporation in the U.S. is no longer a manufacturer but retail giant Wal-Mart stores. There are only three ways that this company can grow in the U.S.: open new stores in areas not yet served, have the population grow, or for us to just consume more.

There are many who fight Wal-Mart on the first issue. I am not one of those hawks. There are times and places where Wal-Mart makes sense.

There are other times and places where it does not. It should be up to each local area to decide.

For these friends of mine, the essence of being Green is to fight everything WalMart and an evil second only to Dick Chaney. At least the editor of the MH Times was able to see that the column was not "pro WalMart" but very much anti-consumerism. She headlined it "Consumerism will permanently damage our planet".

Now, I have no problem with anyone finding good reasons to stop WalMart from coming into their town. What bothers me is that so many progressives seem to be regressive, working to stop something rather than working to creating an alternative.

What is the alternative to WalMart? If we just let things go as the flow along, it might be failing mom and pop stores where you have to drive from store to store, burning gas each time, rather than going to a shopping center where they are all in one place, even if the do all look the same.

Since I have been associated with the GPCA, I have only had discussions with a couple of people on the question of Community Based Sustainable Economics.

The keystone of the Green Party's economic program is community-based economics. As an alternative to an economy owned by either government or gigantic corporations, Greens favor a Jeffersonian model with ownership and control spread as widely as possible among Californians.

That is right from the Platform. But, we get all excited about fighting WalMart and I have yet to see a session held about doing anything positive in regard to furthering our goals.

There is a sense in which the current economic problems in America will shape the presidential choice we make next November. So, what is the Green Solution? How do we move from where we are now to the point where we have something to fight for rather than fighting against?

You might make a case (a weak one, I admit) that the fight against WalMart displays a lack of Green Values in that it does nothing to support our own platform position. But then, proposing things that actually have to get done is so much harder than just going out and fighting the Evil Empire.

Abramoff is out, but the corruption remins

I want to give everyone a warning and ask a favor. One of the issues that we used to unseat Richard Pombo was his connection to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI). It often elicited a shrug, as if to say who cares about what happens half-way around the world. Maybe, if you read all of this, you might understand that we should care and that the corruption has not gone away just because Jack Abramoff has had his career cut short.

This was triggered today by a story in the Denver Post concerning a Colorado Congressman named Bob Schaffer. Shaffer has long been a suporter of all of the corruption in the CNMI.

One of the key elements of the CNMI scheme was that, as a Commonwealth, they were allowed to have their own immigration policy. This allowed the Governor Benigno R. Fitial of the CNMI to set up a program whereby private contractors and companies could sign up foreign workers and import them into the CNMI to work in industry. Most of these were women from China and the Philippines. Many were allowe to work long hours in sweatshops making clothing for the US Market (goods manufactured in the CNMI were allowed to say Made in the USA) and the rest were forced into prostitution. This established a loophole whereby anyone who had been admitted to the CNMI could not travel freely to the US mainland.

NOTE: Governor Fitial was previously an executive with one of the major offending companies.

What the good Mr. Schaffer wants is to use the CNMI as a model for our own "guest worker" program. You know, like the bracero programs of the past. The abuses of that program were bad enough in the US. They are horrible in the CNMI.

Now, I am not asking anyone here to work against Mr. Schaffer. I do, however, want to get all of you to contact their Senators and make sure that the support getting Senate Bill 2739 on to the calendar and passed. It may happen today. If not, then we know that behind the scenes schemes are preventing this bill from comint to a vote. The Marianas Islands issues in this bill are only a small part, but it is a very important part.

Catching up so I can be sustainable.

What a contradiction! I have to catch up so that I can be sustainable? There is just too much happening and too many issues that need to be dealt with. It makes me appreciate more when someone takes just a single GEneric issue and follows it to it's logical conclusion, as Erica Martenson has done with GE crops in California.

Many Californian's love their wine. Some drink California Wine just because it is local, even if it is Two Buck Chuck. This story in the San Diego Reader, is about Erica, and the wine business and why Erica founded Preserving the Integrity of Napa's Agriculture (PINA). , may make you change your mind unless we find out that all the hops available is also GE. So far, I hear it is only the rice used in some beers and we don't drink those, do we?

Then, I find a fairly recent column about Community Supported Agriculture by David Cobb (yes, that David Cobb) in the Eureka Standard. For those who want to help sustain local agriculture, who like to eat fresh, Cobb gives a good introduction and helps you understand that you can help sustainable agriculture without blowing your budget.

Finally, let me add two things that I have written. One, was a column for the Morgan Hill Times last January in which I talked about becoming a locavore. The other is in the most recent copy of Green Focus (p.9) and discusses both my (along with my wife) approach to sustainable eating as well as the experiences of Brian and Sanda Everette in establishing San Mateo Ecovillage.

Unfortunately, it took me so long to write this that I fell behind again.

We havn't got the time.

With the plenary coming up next weekend, I have given some thought to the whole idea of using that time to "fix" the problem with the Coordinating Committee (CC) of the GPCA. I have to put that idea on the level of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Folks, it does not make any difference. There is nothing that will be solved by changing the number of members of the CC. There is nothing that will be solved by changing the manner in which they are selected. There is nothing that will be solved as long as the same leadership, by virtue of their virtue, their focused intent, or even just their longevity, as in a position to influence what we do.

But, power is every addictive, especially when one can rationalize using that power on behalf of some noble cause.

I was not present at the beginning of the GPCA. In fact, at that time I was a registered Republican becoming disillusioned with Reaganomics. However, from reading the comments of that who were, I have the impression that they were drawn together by the sense that something was wrong in the world and that there was a better way to find a solution. Thus, the Green way.

What I see now, is that we have lost the sense that this party can have any affect at all on the problems of the world, so we turn inward to solve the problems of our organization. As a result, we forget about the problems of the world. We spend time at plenary after plenary (Northridge, San Francisco, Riverside and not Alameda) debating who should really represent LA, or the structure of the CC, or how many angels can dance on the had of a pin.

Similarly, we chase after a very few issues, some of which mean a lot and others that do not. While we are doing this, the world is changing around us and we are not reacting.

In the news this week, we are told that in many cities, the number of high school drop outs exceeds 50%. In Detroit, the number of students who graduate was put at 24.9%. On the Early Show (CBS) this morning, they trotted out Harvard Professor Alvin Poussaint and Bill Cosby to repeat their call to action from "Come On People." Thank goodness we have Greens like Mark Sanchez (School Board). John Rizzo and Hilary Bradbury-Huang (Community College Trustees) getting into position to do something about education.

On a local PBS station (KQED-San Francisco) last night, they repeated the September, 2007 program call Dimming the Sun and made the point that we have not more than 10 years to actually do something about Global Warming.

The spectre of gang violence in the street, not unconnected from the problems in education, is no long just an issue for large urban centers. Salinas just had 2 gang related murders in 11 hours this week. The neighboring community of Gilroy had a gang related drive-by shooting last night and the television coverage showed that those who had been injured by shotgun pellets were showing off their injury to television as a badge of honor rather than being treated.

My point here is that if try to fix the problems we seen in the GPCA before we tackle the bigger issues in society, we will run out of time because there will always be problems in the party. And, frankly, most of society does not give a rat's ass about about how many people are on the CC. This internalization of focus is, to my mind, the single biggest reason that we are losing membership.

It is easy to blame it on the Democrats for framing us as spoilers. Does that affect the results? Yes, at the presidential level. But, lets start doing something about what is going on in our communities first. It is my sense that if we do that, the internal conflicts we might have will look trivial.

So, I am calling for a Green Day of action by everyone who does not attend the plenary. Pick one major issue in your community this week and figure out what you think needs to be done. Then, do something. Anything positive. Set up a Neighborhood Watch if the issue is Crime. Find a youth center and volunteer to tutor if the issue is education. Write a letter to the editor of your local, community newspaper. Just do something.

Then, when they finally decide how many angels we need for the head of the pin, keep on doing what you have begun.