PPIC Report on the delta appear biased.

I had planned to write a post today about the real need to protect biodiversity. However events changed my plans. You are already seeing the spin machine going to work to sell the peripheral canal concept. The most recent action is the release of a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California, a supposedly non-partisan (but not necessarily non-biased) think tank that does what someone will pay them to do.


This PPIC report, especially with the current drought in question, is getting a lot of play on the television news. Most of it comes without any commentary from those with opposing view, of which there are many.

Restore the Delta had published their own position just prior to the PPIC report's publication. It was an update commenting on the work that had been going on in Sacrament. However, things changed rapidly. Almost as soon as the PPIC report was available, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla issued a rejoinder that has yet to receive proper media attention.
I cite this press release in it's entirety as it is not yet up on their web site.

Press Release from Restore the Delta

Stockton, California
July 17th, 2008

Restore the Delta
PO Box 691088
Stockton, CA 95269
RestoretheDelta.org

Contact: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Phone: 209-479-2053

BAD ASSUMPTIONS LEAD TO FAULTY ANSWERS FOR THE DELTA: RESTORE THE DELTA QUESTIONS PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE REPORT CALLING FOR A PERIPHERAL CANAL


Stockton, California -- Restore the Delta, a Delta-based coalition including Delta farmers, environmentalists, everyday citizens, fishermen, business leaders, the faith community, and recreation enthusiasts, is calling into questions many of the findings in the Public Policy Institute's Navigating the Delta, a report calling for a peripheral canal.

First, longtime Delta advocate, Tom Zukerman, notes that the report's conclusion that Delta islands with highways were worth saving, while others are not worth maintaining, is an unrealistic conclusion. "How can one maintain any semblance of land form, so as to protect highway structures, with an ocean essentially in the middle of a few islands? For that matter, without the semblance of land forms in the Delta, how would water and gas lines, the railroad, and shipping channels remain protected?"

Central Delta Water Agency's Dante Nomellini further explains that the inter-relationship between Delta islands extends to seepage, wind-wave generation, and fishery and wildlife habitat. "One cannot simply flood islands without adversely affecting the ecosystem and infrastructure on the surrounding islands," says Nomellini.

Second, Restore the Delta Board Press President Bill Loyko questions how constructing a peripheral canal could possibly solve water needs throughout the state. "A peripheral canal, first and foremost will not make more water. The present problem with California's water system is that it is short 5 million acre-feet of water annually to meet current state needs. Rerouting water will not solve that problem." Loyko also asserts that the report's call for building a peripheral without limits in size is merely the means by which to take away the Delta's last major fresh water source, and thereby would worsen Delta water quality.

Third, Restore the Delta's Campaign Director, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, adds that the report's analysis of water quality is also faulty. "Their analysis assumes that water flowing into and out of the Delta remains unchanged when the point of diversion is changed. But everyone who lives, works, and recreates in the Delta knows that with less fresh water flowing through the Delta, more salt water will intrude into local waterways."

In fact, the report makes a highly inaccurate assumption that water quality would improve for farmers near the San Joaquin River. Barrigan-Parrilla says that the report's authors have not engaged in any conversations with local Delta experts, South Delta farmers - some of whom have lived on the land for ninety years.

Barrigan-Parrilla also adds that such changes in water quality to the Delta will result in economic chaos for the region. "Neither the PPIC Report authors nor officials with the State have done a full-scale economic analysis of how a change in water quality with the operation of a peripheral canal would impact farming, recreation, or fisheries. It is estimated that Delta farming alone contributes $2 billion per year to our local economy, and recreation like boating and fishing another $750 million. If the Delta is made into a salty inland sea the economic impacts will be devastating to those living in the surrounding five counties of the Delta."

Last, Restore the Delta Board Member, Betsy Reifsnider, notes problems with the report's conclusions regarding governance for the Delta and how these conclusions mirror problems with the Delta Vision Strategic Draft Plan. Reifsnider explains, "The PPIC Report concludes that consensus regarding Delta management cannot be reached. While that statement may be true on the surface, it unfortunately is a polite way of saying that local Delta experts should be left out of governance decisions." Reifsnider also adds that the Delta Vision process is calling for a governance council for the Delta comprised solely of governor appointees. "Where do Delta locals have the opportunity to assist with governing the Delta?" asks Reifsnider. "After all, who knows the Delta best?"

All contributors are available for interviews.

About Restore the Delta

Restore the Delta is a grassroots campaign committed to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable to benefit all of California. Restore the Delta - a coalition of Delta residents, business leaders, civic organizations, community groups, faith-based communities, union locals, farmers, fishermen, and environmentalists - seeks to strengthen the health of the estuary and the well-being of Delta communities. Restore the Delta works to improve water quality so that fisheries and farming can thrive together again in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Website: http://www.restorethedelta.org

Restore the Delta
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
email: barbara@restorethedelta.org
phone: 209-479-2053

Barbara raises the substantive issues. We also have to look at the possible bias of the team that put this together. One of the "funders" of the study was Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Bechtel, along with his son Riley, is Co-Owner of Bechtel Corporation. The history of Bechtel Corporation in dealing with water is one of aggressive privatization, back room deals to support no-bid contracts (just like in Iraq). They even had the audacity to start charging farmers in Ecuador and Bolivia for the water that fell on the farm because that was water that Bechtel claimed was their's by contract and which was to be resold to cities. Bechtel sued the government of Bolivia when they voided the contract.

Bechtel lost the suit. But this illustrates that manner in which they would be expected to deal with the Delta. The PPIC report un-surprisingly came to the conclusion that a peripheral canal was required and who would be in a better position to build, own and operate such a facility?

Something smells like dead fish.

This is a time when I hope that Greens all over this state will lose no time in contacting their local media and demanding that they note the potential bias in the PPIC report and that they allow Restore the Delta to offer the counter arguments.

Come to think of it, I did write a post about biodiversity. If Bechtel and the PPIC "experts" carry the day, the delta will become a very different place and we will have all lost.

Cynthia McKinney is Nominated

Saturday, July 12th

Cynthia McKinney Accepts Green Party Nomination

Cynthia McKinney won the Green Party nomination for President of the United States at the Nominating Convention in Chicago in the 1st round of voting Saturday evening.

NEWS ADVISORY: THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA

CHICAGO – The progressive left chose its new candidate for President Saturday when former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney – now a resident of California – was tabbed as Green Party's candidate for President at the Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention here. She won on the first ballot, garnering 313 of 532 votes cast.

"This was an amazing phenomenon. The nomination of Cynthia and her vice president running mate Rosa Clemente demonstrate the growing strength of the Green Party. Let there be no doubt now who speaks for the progressive left in this country," said David Cobb, the 2004 Green Party nominee for President, who resides in Eureka, CA.

"We are getting stronger with every election and with candidates of the caliber of Cynthia and Rosa, we have leadership from constituencies we have not had in the past," Cobb added. Clemente, a hip hop activist and journalist, accepted the vice-president nomination

There was, indeed, amazing energy and excitement in the nominating convention in Chicago Symphony Hall. We were witnessing history being made and everybody in the room knew it. 2008 has been an extraordinary election in these United States. Yes, it has been, though not necessarily as the story is told by the mainstream media (MSM). Both mainstream political parties have emphatically rejected the Bush-Clinton-Bush status quo. However, evidence is piling up in an avalanche that both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are unwilling and/or unable to turn their respective political camps from driving this nation (and the world) over a cliff. As the brilliant Green Party activist, Malik Rahim, noted in his keynote address, irregardless of how the votes fall in November, and no matter what they say about us in the clueless MSM, we have "already won" by helping to jump start the international Green Movement in the united States.

Excerpt from McKinney Acceptance Speech:

And when I got to Washington, I saw that public policy is really made in a room at a table. There were real seats at the table. Well, imagine what has happened to public policymaking now. There is a real room with a window and a door, and there’s two seats at the table. The window is for us to look through, while our representatives make policy for us, so we can see what they’re doing. At the table, one seat is for the Democrats, one seat is for the Republicans. Now, we don’t know who did it, but one of them put a lock on the door and slipped a key to the corporate lobbyists who can come and go at will and whisper what they want to Democrats and Republicans, and the result is that we the people, who pay for those seats and determine who sits in them, want one thing, but because the corporate lobbyists can come and go at will, our values get overridden and our representatives give us something else. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re against the war and occupation, but war and occupation still gets funding. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re against illegal spying on innocent people, yet end up with a telecom immunity bill being signed into law. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re in favor of universal access to healthcare and no one supporting what the physicians, nurses and healthcare really want, and that’s a single-payer healthcare system in this country.

The Movement is key because no president, least of all a president from the one-corporate-race-obsessed-war-party-with-two names can turn things around from the top down.

Go Green!

Great Candidates -- Mesplay, Johnson, and Swift

Friday, July 11th

Candidates Forum

There was a delicious irony to the garish, ostentatious "Red Lacquer" ballroom of Chicago's old Palmer House Hotel being the setting for the final Green Party presidential candidate forum. This hotel is a monument to the First Gilded Age of corrupt capitalist wheeling 'n dealing. Today, my Green Party is the leading edge progressive voice speaking in the Second Gilded Age.

(Left to right) Kent Mesplay of California, Jesse Johnson of West Virginia, Kat Swift of Texas

By Friday evening, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was already the presumptive nominee. Accordingly, as I watched the three "minor candidates" ably fielded tough questions, I could not help but feel a certain pride in the depth and talent within the Green Party.



Dr. Ken Mesplay, California's favorite son, was the strongest on the environmental issues which are, after, the bright green center of our philosophy. I spoke with delegates from all around the country and it seems everyone, everywhere was impressed by Kent's knowledge and commitment.

Jesse Johnson, a bona-fide mountain man from West Virginia, has a towering presence. He spoke about the devastating effects of mountaintop removal by the rapacious coal industry. One thing I learned was that the Appalachian Mountains are the watershed for the rivers that supply drinking water to many states in the Southeast. The clogging and destruction of these waterways is a factor in the drought currently plaguing the Southeast. Johnson says what we need is not "the audacity of hope," but rather, the "audacity of truth." Johnson puts the lie to the pernicious Democrat-Republican mythology that all "working class white people" are racist reactionaries who can only be moved by an appeal to their fears (by the way, this mythology may yet cost the clueless Democrats another presidential election).

Kat Swift, our braided, blonde sister from Texas, is a young, tough activist with a lot of charm. She is smart. But she is open-minded and not too proud to admit she doesn't know it all. At one point, during a response to a question about energy, she joked that her "expert" on energy policy was Dr. Kent Mesplay. One question from the floor was about the touchy question of Israeli-Palestinian relations. Kat gave one of the wisest answers. She said that conversations with people on both sides of that bloody divide has convinced her that, in order to make peace, we have to go around the "leaders" with vested interests in maintaining the conflict and that the United States, of course, cannot be a so-called broker for peace while arming one side. Since this also happens to be my personal opinion, I thought her answer was very wise.

Mayor Daley Welcomes You to Chicago

Mayor Richard M. Daley Welcomes You to Chicago
--Sign in Chicago Midway Airport

Thursday, July 10th

Between the plane and the Orange Line subway train into the city, on my way to the Green Party National Convention, I had to read "Mayor Richard M. Daley" a dozen times. Daley is Chicago. Chicago is "Duh Mayah" -- perfect symbol for the primitive "Old Politics" we are here to organize against.

Thursday night there was a reception for international Greens. A brother from Brazil explained to us the difficulty of fighting for Greens issues there, reminding us that having a strong Green Party in the U.S. is absolutely essential since the U.S. is the 800-pound gorilla in the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere.


International Greens

One of the things I like about the Green Party is that, unlike the one warmaking imperial party with two names, the Greens are international. At the reception there was a tribute to Ingrid Betancourt, the Columbian Green activist.

The Brazilians say they like President Lula's social program, but environmentally. At a discussion afterwards, a few of our folks said they could not understand this. I replied that "This is why we need Greens. We need political leadership around the world that thinks Green." Even the best of the "Old Politics" leaders are going to be interested in "development" in their countries in the conventional way. Brazil is a big, poor country with a lot of "undeveloped" resources. Lula, like evey conventional politician, Left, Right, or Center, is wants to raise the standard of living in his country by the industrial exploitation of the nation's natural resources. That's just the way these guys think -- even the best of them.

There is going to be a workshop on NAFTA and the so-called North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) facillitated by Janet Eaton of the Green Party of Canada. Ms. Eaton is a foremost expert on water issues.

California Caucus

There was a California State Caucus Thursday night. We had heard rumors of credentials challenges. The good news is, for once, internal procedural issues have nothing to do with California. Thanks to our "Super Tuesday" primary, California has ben meticulous about certifying the elected delegates. We are going to cast 60% of our votes for Ralph Nader on the first ballot because that was the way the Californians voted in the primary. I have no problem with that at all. There is this thing called "democracy" that ought to be respected. Some states, apparently, only came up with lists of delegates this week. One cheer for the Golden State.

This morning I plan to attend a meeting of the Black Caucus. I already met some interesting folks. At the reception an African-American journalist from Chicago and I had a good time swapping stories about crooked politicians in Chicago and L.A. He told me he has a higher of our Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger than the Democratic pols in Illinois. "At least Arnold will listen and sometimes change his mind. The politicians here will listen, thank you for your input... and then say 'F**k You!' That's Chicago poltiics."

Oh yeah... the "City that works."

In a fairly recent post, I mentioned the work done by climate paleontologist Dr. Jonathan Overpeck from the Univ. of Arizona Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. Overpeck was a member of the IPCC and did research on the role of climate change in causing drought in southwestern North America. It makes me think of our own future.


I wonder if our future is not being foretold by this story from the Melbourne, AU HeraldSun.

The once mighty Murray-Darling is now little more than a creek.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission yesterday revealed that June inflows to the parched river system were the lowest on record.

Just 95 gigalitres flowed into the system last month, down from the previous low of 106 gigalitres in June 2006.

The average is 680 gigalitres.

The report backs up predictions that the Murray-Darling will be dry by the end of the century.
* In depth: The Big Dry

We have to be concerned, though I don't think that we are doing enough. Step 1. has to be based on energy use reductions. If that is not done, there is no step 2.

This 'Green Brotha' Going to Chicago

The Los Angeles Times published a timely editorial this week on the disgraceful handling of the mess at Martin Luther King/Harbor Hospital in Watts.

From the Los Angeles Times, Monday, July 7, 2008.
Editorial: Learning From a Death in Brooklyn

On June 19, surveillance cameras in a Brooklyn, N.Y., mental ward captured shocking images of a woman collapsing on the floor and lying there, untended by hospital workers, for an hour. She soon died.

The tape, released last week, touched a nerve in Los Angeles because the incident was reminiscent of the death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in May 2007. Rodriguez lay on the emergency-room floor as a janitor mopped around her. The description of her suffering, and of the indifference of hospital workers, silenced all but the most recalcitrant defenders of the mismanaged medical center...

I've made copies of the article (along with some others) to distribute when this "Green Brotha" goes to Chicago this weekend.

On Super Tuesday, when Mayor Villaraigosa, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Laura Richardson, and my Congresswoman Diane Watson were all busy campaigning for Hillary, I was elected a Cynthia McKinney delegate to the 2008 Green Party National Convention. When I get there, if anybody shoves an Obama poster in my face babbling about "change" I'll shove this in his face speaking truth about the status-quo in One-Party Democratic Los Angeles.




The Democratic Convention will have rousing speeches by hypocrites bloviating on health care. Michael Moore will be the toast of Denver for his "Sicko" documentary. But L.A. bosses (and their "Amen corner" among liberal intellectuals) won't talk about Edith Rodriguez at King-Harbor in Watts, Linda Brown at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, or "Transplants-for-Crooks" at UCLA. They won't talk about patients dumped on skid row, or Dawnelle Keys' daughter dying while bean counters at King and Kaiser Permanente haggled over money, though those stories were featured in Moore's film.

Times investigators have discrovered that even since the sad closing of King/Harbor last summer, almost nothing has been done to discipline the perpetrators of this tragedy.

. . . It is also striking that action against employees in New York was swift. The director of psychiatry, the director of security and the doctor on duty were all fired within 24 hours of Green's death. No one was fired over the Rodriguez incident, and, in fact, a Times review of personnel data shows that hundreds of problem employees who were supposed to be swept out of the county health system remain on the job. Times staff writers Garrett Therolf and Jack Leonard reported that at least 22 workers with significant discipline histories at King still work at the clinics that remain open on the site of the hospital or at other county health facilities. County supervisors claim they had no idea. . .

Cynthia McKinney, all the other Green candidates, and Ralph Nader are speaking truth about the Democrats in Washington - and in Sacramento -- and right here in my town and yours.

Alex Walker
Los Angeles Greens
July 8, 2008

On Life in South Central Los Angeles

Think Green issues are for "elite" suburbanites? Think again. See below a brilliant statement about the quality of life in South Central Los Angeles by L.A. Green activist , Linda Piera-Avila. Ms. Piera testified before city planners in opposition to a proposed warehouse on the site of the South Central Urban Farm.

According to "No Place to Play," a report by The Trust for Public Land, two-thirds of children 18 and under in Los Angeles do not live within walking distance of a public park.

The study compared the number and percentage of children living within one-quarter mile of a park -- what's considered to be walking distance-in seven major metropolitan areas. With only one-third of children living near open space and 1.8 million children countywide lacking easy park access, Los Angeles fared worst among the areas evaluated.

According to Los Angeles City's website, www.lacity.org, there are 250 parks in the city of Los Angeles. Not one is sited in the 90058 zip code, the same zip code as the proposed warehouse project




A recent study by the California Air Resources Board found that in the South Coast air basin alone, particulate matter causes:

• 5400 premature deaths annually


• 2400 hospital admissions


• 980,000 Lost Work Days


• 140,000 cases of Asthma & Lower Respiratory

Symptoms

The estimated economic value of the health impacts of particulate and ozone pollution from these issues is $19 Billion annually statewide. The concentration of these health and economic impacts in certain communities versus others exacerbates the seriousness of this issue and also raises environmental justice concerns.

Clearly, approving a warehouse in an area already lacking in parks and open space exacerbates an already dire situation. Siting a token 2.5 acre soccer field immediately adjacent to a mega warehouse spewing copious amounts of diesel exhaust is counterproductive to children's health. A full environmental impact report (EIR) is warranted to assess the compounded impact of both the lack of parkland as well as the
potential for increased health, safety and economic risks that this project would pose on the neighboring residents. Additionally, environmental justice issues need to be acknowledged and evaluated in an EIR to ascertain whether or not residents of 90058 would shoulder an unfair burden of chemical, air and noise pollution, social effects of deprivation of open space, increased traffic congestion, and heightened
health and safety risks based on their economic status and ethnic background.

Thank you.

Linda Piera-Avila
Council Member Elect
Green Party of Los Angeles County

Fair pay for fair work.

The idea that information is free seems to be a mantra for the Internet. Some ask if that is not just a capitalist scheme to short change those who supply content... for free.

Consider Huffington Post. Paying their writers is "not our financial model" says the founder, Ken Lerer. Yet, time and again the progressives who loudly support Danny Glover and Unite Here, who march with the California Nurses Association when they strike over wages and benefits, have no qualms about using venues that do not pay the writer, or the reporter.

This argument was brought forward by Stephen Smoliar at The Rehearsal Studio. Smoliar is a scientist and writer by trade. The Rehearsal Studio is where he tries on / works out ideas that may or may not find their way into other content. His view is the progressivism has lost touch with the world of work.

Whether or not you agree with that, you have to pay attention to those who he cited in this post, especially Timothy Egan, whose NY Times blog entry, Save the Press, is quoted liberally. Egan is fighting for his job. He wants to be paid for doing what he does, as we all do. However, what he does is to write, and content is a commodity to be acquired and the lowest price and resold for what ever anyone can make out of it.

If any of those guys on the docks heard that I was now part of a profession that asked people to labor for nothing, they’d laugh in their lunch buckets — then probably shut The Huffington Post down. Doesn’t the “progressive” agenda, much touted on their pages, include a living wage?

So what is it about Huffington Post, or OpEdNews that makes them the model to be emulated? Well, it seems to be in the best tradition of the worst of Capitalism, to make money off the labor of someone else.

Is there a Green Solution? What we currently have are venues for private publishing (Green Party Watch or Green Commons if it gets revived???) and an attempt to build a social networking site for Greens. (Green Change.) Yet, I have no answer for my wife when she asks me how much I am making for all the time I spend here and would not my time be better spent completing the very long list of homeowner tasks that we have agreed must be done.

Environmental Justice

Why does it seem that every movement seems to have an ethnic / racial aspect to it? There are many who consider the environmental movement just a white person's gripe. When it comes to climate change, I don't see that as the reality. After all, the same climate will affect us all. In fact, it will affect mostly those who can not afford a shining palace on the hill.

That is the theme of a new video published by The New Republic. Go there to view it. There are some interesting non-conversations. I was surprised by several things. First, while the video and the story it tells is excellent, TNR provides the following as the front page link TNR TV: Finding Environmental Activists In the Most Unlikely Place

If the problem is going to affect the South Bronx more than it will Berkeley, then why consider that this is an "unlikely place" for environmental activists? Should not those with the problem be the ones who initiate change, who command attention, who define the solutions?

There is a role for the rest of us, to help, to join, to witness, but not to presume to know best what is good for "them." Such arrogance is what got us into most of the troubles we have. That is the arrogance of the George W. Bush who would rebuild New Orleans but not spend another dime to prevent that environmental catastrophe that will inevitably flood it again... along with a lot of the rest of the country.

Reliance on Washington and the big programs it always defines.. and then porks up... allows arrogance to continue unabated. More than anything, we need more local activism aimed at greening our own cities, our own block.

Here is a good example:

GoSolarMarin:

Early Fall of 2007 neighbors joined together to create GoSolarMarin, a program where communities and homeowners could benefit from a group purchase program to go solar.

Let's find a few more and add them to the list.

G8 must get down to our business

I need to tie a few apparently disconnected things together and hope that they make sense to someone besides myself. Please bear with me.

After my recent post on Tipping Points, Lisa commented:

"As a GP activist I try to focus on local issues where I can see some success: Ballona Wetlands, South Central Farm, getting IRV on the LA ballot, etc. too many issues, too little time!

What would you have city GP activists do about gas prices for rural folks, and everyone?"

That is a good question. I have to agree with Lisa that there are different actions for different situations and that one sized solutions will in this case fail us all.

We still have to pay a lot of attention to the fact that we just may be at a tipping point and that we here in California are going to be in need of triage before it is over. The warning could not be more clear than in this recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Human activities are already changing the climate of the American West. This report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), drawn from 50 scientific studies, 125 other government and scientific sources, and our own new analyses, documents that the West is being affected more by a changed climate than any other part of the United States outside of Alaska. When compared to the 20th century average, the West has experienced an increase in average temperature during the last five years that is 70 percent greater than the world as a whole. Responding quickly at all levels of government by embracing the solutions that are available is critical to minimizing further disruption of this region's climate and economy. (emphasis mine).

The problem we have is that the general public can only solve one problem at a time and so they have decided that they one they want to solve is that of high gasoline prices. According to a Pew Research Study, even young people, women and so called liberals view the energy shortages that are driving up gasoline prices are more important than environmental considerations.

The public's changing energy priorities are most evident in the growing percentage that views increased energy exploration - including mining and drilling, as well as the construction of new power plants - as a more important priority for energy policy than increased conservation and regulation. Nearly half (47%) now rates energy exploration as the more important priority, up from 35% in February. The proportion saying it is more important to increase energy conservation and regulation has declined by 10 points (from 55% to 45%).

So, Lisa, I am not sure what you might do other than to keep spreading the word. But, if we don't fix this problem and do it quickly, there will be no more Ballona Wetlands. After all the hard work by many dedicated people, to lose it all must not be allowed.

I would ask that every political leader take the little exercise suggested by Dr. Jim Hansen (N.A.S.A.) to Prime Minister Fukuda as yet another G8 opens in Tokyo.

Finally, Prime Minister Fukuda, I would like to thank you for helping make clear to the other leaders of the eight nations the great urgency of the actions needed to address climate change. Might I make one suggestion for an approach you could use in drawing their attention? If the leaders find that the concept of phasing out all emissions from coal, and taking measures to ensure that unconventional fossil fuels are left in the ground or used only with zero-carbon emissions, is too inconvenient, then, in that case, they could instead spend a small amount of time composing a letter to be left for future generations.

This letter should explain that the leaders realized their failure to take these actions would cause our descendants to inherit a planet with a warming ocean, disintegrating ice sheets, rising sea level, increasing climate extremes, and vanishing species, but it would have been too much trouble to make changes to our energy systems and to oppose the business interests who insisted on burning every last bit of fossil fuels. By composing this letter the leaders will at least achieve an accurate view of their place in history.

There is a lot more in Dr. Hansen's letter. It summarizes just how important this is to us all. Lisa, if I have not convinced you that there is not other single issue more important than this, I have been a total failure.

Junk adrift

Thanks to the RSS feed from Aquafornia leading me to the LA Times, I finally wound my way to visit Junkcraft. While the site is mildly interesting, mostly from the sense of impending disaster that might confront the operators of Junk as they sail from Long Beach to Hawaii, or wherever the trade winds might blow them.

Take a quick look at the site and then think about this. We all know that there is a big area of the Pacific Ocean that is gathering a floating continent of plastic garbage. You know, all of those plastic duckies that some think it cute to send down our rivers as part of a good cause fund raiser, the plastic buckets left on the beach as families hurry back home, discarded water bottles that find ways down streams until they reach the ocean. At least, we should all know about it because it has been on television news.

It raises this question. Why do we need continued gimics like the voyage of the Junk to make us think, again and again, about what we are doing to this planet? Walt Kelly's Pogo said it best. "We have met the enemy, and they is us."

Remember, in the game of life, Mother Nature bats last.

When big government refuses to act.

There are several things going on regarding energy and climate change. One real question is that of what to do when big government fails to act. Architecture 2030 has the answer: local building codes.

If we have to do it ourselves, there are a number of guidelines that will get us part way there and hope to minimize the pain. However, the idea that there has to be any pain is a fabrication of those who have a vested interest in stopping change. A local architect in my home town, one who has won awards for their conversion of an old granary into a new office / commercial complex and meeting LEEDS certification in the process, told me that California Title 24 is the toughest requirement to meet. However, Architecture 2030 holds that Title 24 is still 10% below what we need to achieve for commercial buildings and 15-20% below what we need for residential.

Dr. Jim Hansen (NASA) tells us all that we don't have much time to act, 20 years after his first warning to Congress.

Tipping Points

Tipping point is an easy concept to mis-understand. The term itself is used so frequently that its real meaning is lost without some life experience to drive home the idea. Maybe this will do it.

I had a large rock in my yard. I discovered it's existence in an effort to plant a flowering, fruiting shrub called a pineapple guava or, more rightfully, feijoa. This rock weighed much more than I could lift, so I used the old Archimedian lever and finally got it up on end. Once I did, it decided to go to the other side, somewhat down a slope and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Thankfully, I was standing on the up hill side.

Now, apply this to our climate. We are approaching such a tipping point where the earth systems will go where they will go and, like the rock rolling down slope, there will be absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

On ABC's World News last night, Charlie Gibson allowed NASA Scientist James Hansen to have the last word.

"The next President and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation."

Even more unusual was the fact that they did not see the necessity to give any time to one of the usual list of naysayers on global warming. Yet, there is a large segment of the general public that is totally convinced that the actions of man are so puny that it can have no bearing on climate. For instance, the following posted by Jim_Dutton following this story.

This is an extreme example of totally irresponsible reporting...."Climate Change" is a natural phenomenon....has been for the entire history of the Earth. There is absolutely no credible evidence that MAN is the cause....as a matter of fact....the evidence is mounting day by day that shows this is part of a pattern that repeats itself every 30 years or so. It's called Pacific Decadal Oscillation.....the Northern Pacific Ocean has turned cold....called "La Nina"....and this winter and Spring is classic La Nina weather in the Midwest. It's also strongly affected by Solar intensity, which is decreasing. This is why for the past 10 years....the average temperature of the Earth has been DECREASING...but you won't hear that on the news, because it will make a lot of VIPs look stupid.People need to research this issue for themselves, and not believe the brainless reporting that the mainstream media regurgitates because they are too lazy to report both sides, or intentionally distort because a crisis is good for sales.If you're not a mindless drone to the media....go to www.icecap.us and read the hard evidence from the world's leading scientists who aren't corrupted by the viscous cycle of political funding.

Of course, this Jim_Dutton does not identify himself as a climatologist, or a meteorologist, or provide any other credentials. He just repeats the mantra of every petro industry sponsored pseduo-research the look for plausible theories to make themselves feel comfortable with non-action.

So, what does this have to do with the Green Party and GPCA?

For starters, we are about to go into a presidential nominating convention where the front runner, Cynthia McKinney, says little or nothing about this issue. With all of the focus on arousing righteous anger over the actions of Bush and Chaney, demanding his impeachment, a major opportunity for the Green Party to demonstrate leadership on a sinking ship will have gone by the wayside.

Here is a clue, Cynthia. The only people who will cast a vote for you on the basis of the impeachment issue are going to vote for you anyway. If you really want to grow this movement, you have to address those issues that are going to affect people and their daily lives. Impeachment does not make the list.

• The price of gasoline does.
• The disappearance of the middle class with falling home values, rising costs for necessities and stagnant wages makes the list.
• The failures our national infrastructure that puts lives at risk every day makes the list.
  
• LBJ fought two wars. A military conflict in Vietnam and the economic War on Poverty here at home. We ended up losing both.
  

In the June 13 edition of his Journal, Bill Moyers said "Truth is, there's been a class war waged in America for thirty years now from the top down, and the rich have won." One of his guests, author Holly Sklar put it in perspective.

Our wages now adjusting for inflation, average wages are lower than they were in the 1970s. Our minimum wage, adjusting for inflation, is lower than it was in the 1950s, and why is it? One of the things going on is that income and wealth inequality have gone back to the 1920s. We are back at levels that we saw right before the Great Depression.

Now, if global warming is not enough to scare you, Sklar's comments should.

Problems with the Green Party, and especially with the GPCA, stem from the battles we seek to fight. They are battles that consume many people, much as did the trench warfare of WW I. Many died, on both sides, but the battle lines did not move very much.

Where are the leaders who are willing to tell us the truth that energy prices will never return to their past levels.? Where are the leaders who have the guts to tell us what we don't want to hear and the to convince us that we can get ourselves out of this predicament... after all we got ourselves into it, didn't we?

I read long and interesting comment from Chuck Geise today at the DissidentVoice blog. It was all about Nader and McKinney and putting the blame on Greens for the manipulation of presidential politics.

The Green Party faces a problem — democracy. More specifically, how do you treat each person’s vote equally in a country where the two parties do their best to undermine participation of new parties?

If that were the major problem that we have as Greens, then we would be so very, very lucky. It is especially true when what you are arguing for would provide no protection from Mill's tyranny of the majority. Just maybe those small states who you would relegate to a rounding error in your political calculus understand that large, urban populations (where most of our Greens live) do not understand what it is like to live in rural America.

I took a trip through SE Oregon not too many years ago. We drove from Burns, OR to Winnemucca, NV.
View Larger Map
Don't tell the people here that bicycles are the answer to transportation, where the round trip from home to high school is often 150 miles. It is the rural poor who suffer most from the rising cost of gasoline, not the city dwellers. Maybe that is why the Green Party, for all it's urban activists, are silent on this issue.

The real problem with Greens is that too many activists, like Geise, are spending too much time and energy on the wrong things, re-arranging the deck chairs while the ship is sinking.

This is not a time for anger over the past, such also is a wast of energy. This country, and therefore this party, need candidates marching forward with new ideas and a vision of the world we could build, if only we would.

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.