A Change of Scenery...or an Ecological Renovation?

Greetings, dear friends,
Once again I write to you from that state of confusion, that unnerving feeling when one takes stability, a life humming along, and intentionally disrupts it.  I parallel-parked a mid-size U-Haul tonight...that only took me about 5 five back-and-forths and getting out twice to see how far I was from the car behind me.  To my credit, I had one Steinlager and it was on a hill...and the club down on the corner, the one that replaced the hip-hop club, is really bopping...so parking spaces are hard to come by, especially accommodating a U-Haul.

The reality of buying didn't really sink in when I cut that cashier's check for $25K, but when I had to load about 60 (I lost count around 30) heavy boxes of books into a truck, up and down my stairs for each one, well, I feel like I've really accomplished something.  I'm also pretty stiff, but not enough to make me feel old.  Just that if I ever move again, I'm probably going to save up and hire two or three of the day laborers who spend the day hanging out at the U-Haul on Hollywood Boulevard.  Anyway, with Robert Barkaloff's gracious assistance, I unloaded them in a hour.  They're safe under a cover in my new garage, soon to be brought out onto a nice 3-yard long double-sided bookcase...once I buff out an ancient wood floor.  One step at a time.

The first day I hung out at my new abode, I put in a mailbox, had a beer lounging on the new carpet in an empty room (they always start out empty), and then we walked up to my new liquor store, Buddha Liquors on Slauson and Rimpau.  There were two huge Buddha at the door, no shit, and it was more of a little market than just a liquor store, right down to the chrome turnstiles and the old-fashioned round turntables in the cashier's boothes.  I bought my first food to put up in a cabinet, a jar of Nutella.  I cleaned out the construction debris left over from the last owner's cheap renovation, and found a roach (the kind that a stoned laborer might leave in a closet, not a cockroach.)  I thought about smoking it, but it had gone through five months of idleness and then a termite fumigation.

I've found my local BBQ (Woody's, actually semi-famous in the area), a pet store, a "smoke shop" and a decent place for fish.  I'm one light east of one of the best African-American health food restaurant/markets on the West Coast.  And now I'm committed...my bed, my desk, all my papers, my precious books, even my 14 year old TV have all relocated to another address.  My bikes, my hand-me-down Beverly Hills couch, the desk lamp I've had since I was in elementary school...all passing through the jostling of a U-Haul to find a new place to manifest.

My computer, and the person typing this, are still in Los Feliz.  I have to wait out the DSL and, well, there is still plenty to move.  15 years worth of art begged or bought off of friends...but Corinne, you'll be glad to know that your photo of us in Pearl Mackey's penthouse was the first out of the bubble-wrap.  Anyway, until Wednesday I'll be packing, and taking advantage of a working shower, stove, fridge, etc.  It's like camping indoors.  If anyone in LA knows where to get an interesting shower curtain or a bead curtain, I'd like to know.

If you'd just like to wish me well (it is farther from nearly everyone I know in LA...but closer to the airport and the rest of you)...I'm having a party next Saturday, 26 September, in an empty apartment.  There will be one chair, an old turntable and some records...and a fridge.  If this e-mail was addressed to you, or fell into your hands through somebody you enjoy, then you are invited.

3747 Evans Street, Apartment 4
Los Feliz - Los Angeles - 90027
or from space:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.106754,-118.27382&spn=0.00109,0.001725&t=h&z=19

If you are interested in my new house, it was built in 1925, a half-block from the northern border of Inglewood.  At the time, Inglewood was a growing suburb at the foot of the Baldwin Hills, and my house was built on the side facing Downtown Los Angeles, about five miles away across the farms.  One of the first bus lines in LA, the 52, ran down my street, Keniston Avenue, and the longest streetcar line of the Los Angeles Railway, the 5, rolled along Crenshaw Boulevard a few blocks east.  You can see here a map of the city 5 years before the house was built; in the undeveloped area west of West Boulevard and south of 60th Street (the SW corner of the map.)  Eventually the cities grew together, the hills filled up with mansions, and LAX was built on a bean field between Inglewood and the beach.  Now Hyde Park, like a lot of LA, is in transition, and upon a transition; a mile north is a wealthy neighborhood, and east of that hip Leimert Park; south is the vast open suburbs of the South Bay, and south east a mile or so, the slow change from nice ranch homes to small bungalows, and then the rundown apartments and finally projects of the "hood", a few more miles towards the 110.  Here's what it looks like from space:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=33.983114,-118.341513&spn=0.001188,0.001725&t=h&z=19

Look for the house at the center, on the east side of the street, with two cars in the driveway and two small trees in the backyard.

May we all see each other again soon,

Save Film at LACMA

It's amazing that a city like LA, which bemoans the loss of the film industry, does so little to prevent the loss of film screenings.

Michael Jackson Moonwalked for Your Sins

Greetings, friends,
Those of you from Los Angeles will understand that, even though I've been in my apartment for 15 years, I don't know all of my neighbors.  Today I'm referring to the couple just north of my building.  I've watched as they made significant improvements to their house, aged and retired, and their kids (two boys?) grew up and moved away.  But other than putting some misdelivered mail in their box and closing my windows against the oily smoke of their barbecue, I've had no contact with them.  Until tonight...I pulled into my parking space, home from work, and the man was ten feet away at the wall, pulling hard on one of the trees that separate my apartment building from their house.  I must have had quite a look on my face, because he gave me a sheepish smile, and like Mr. Jimmy in that Stones song, he said one word to me, and that was "dead".  I nodded and went upstairs to my apartment.  That was our first, and probably last communication.  It is too late for Los Feliz to get to know me.

I have to make a point of meeting my new neighbors.  We are, after all, just a few blocks from the Newport-Inglewood Fault, where a huge chunk of Long Beach and coastal Orange County is sliding into West Los Angeles, pushing up those Baldwin Hills that you can see on the right as you fly into LAX.  Since I was born the fault's moved about 3 centimeters, though it can move faster when it wants to.  In those kinds of exigencies, it's good to know your neighbors.  But people in Park Mesa, the neighborhood between the Baldwin Hills and Inglewood, are probably friendlier anyway.  We'll see because, as some of you already know, I bought a house there.  Now I can stop making fun of your complaints about how much money you owe on your own houses, right?

Good timing:

Reuters.com - Home values seen losing over $2 trillion during 2008  http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE4B84A420081215  

Money is all imaginary, anyway.  That's a definite; I'm glad I figured it out young.  Money doesn't buy love, or friendship, or anything really, except ways to kill time.  Money didn't do Michael Jackson any good, did it?  Like I've been saying, his money probably killed him in the guise of an overpriced doctor.

What a sick, sick week that was.  We finally assassinated another childhood icon, then gushed over it for the uncomprehending youth of the 21st Century.  Sick.  At least, I thought as I listened to the memorial at work, they didn't go batshit and tear up the Staples Center.  It was like every other memorial I've been to; 30 minutes too long and just thick enough to veneer the horror of being mortal.

Anyway, you should know me for such a geek that, once I found a house, one of the first things I'd do would be to peruse the geologic maps of the area.  (Warning - that link will take you to a large .pdf file, but it is beautiful.  Park Mesa is the area at the very top edge of the map, just southeast of the jumble of the Baldwin Hills, which are east of the harbor at Marina del Rey; you can follow the high ground of the mesa all the way south to Palos Verdes.)  I've really longed for a place of my own to whitewash and hang the art, to plant the cactus and grow the corn, to wallpaper with my punk rock flyers from the '80s, to put up solar panels and telescopes and weather stations and whatever the hell I want in.  I'll build a rocket, damn you, and shoot it at North Korea.

Not that I'm too worried about them...
North Korea: A Global Crisis Canary
Gas prices are above $4 a gallon; global food prices surged 39% last year; and an environmental disaster looms as carbon emissions continue to spiral upward. The global economy appears on the verge of a TKO, a triple whammy from energy, agriculture, and climate-change trends. Right now you may be grumbling about the extra bucks you're shelling out at the pump and the grocery store; but, unless policymakers begin to address all three of these trends as one major crisis, it could get a whole lot worse.
Click here to read more on our site

Speaking of buildings, I watched a documentary a few days ago about one of my favorites, the magnificent Parthenon in Athens.  This building comes from a time when we were more in harmony with the world; instead of trying to remake the world, it celebrates our humanity.  The Parthenon is even more amazing than I thought.  There is hardly a straight edge or right angle in the entire structure...the restoration team needed a computer to help them calculate the angles of surfaces, and only very recently have they figured out how the ancient Greeks accomplished these measurements with only a compass, scale models and their ingenuity.  The reason for all these curves was to make the building actually look perfect; if they had built the columns and walls straight, optical illusions would make it look warped (as many modern buildings do.)  The subtle curves and perfect 4:9 proportions make it one of the most visually pleasing structures ever built.  There are also no random measures or proportions in the building, which one Greek architect described as an architectural symphony.

The craftsmanship of the Parthenon also blew my mind...the marble columns were assembled in slices, with a wood pin at the center to line them up.  The joints were so finely measured and sanded (to 1/20th of a millimeter, or less than a hair's breadth) that when the old columns were pulled apart by the restoration team, the workers could still smell the cedar wood of this central pin...and that's a 2500 year-old piece of cedar, friends.  The restoration team had to come up with new tools to make these fine adjustments, and realized by looking at the old marble that the Greeks had developed stronger and more precise tools than can even be made today...that knowledge of stone masonry and metallurgy is lost, even with computers.  Incredible.

Three years ago another favorite building of mine celebrated a mere century on Earth, my old co-op Barrington Hall.  It used to look a lot different.  Anyway, I'm driving up to Berkeley next weekend to see 100 or so of my old friends from there.  That should be interesting.

Maybe I would add something about the recent 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, but it only reminds me how my generation never got to go to the Moon, or Mars, or under the oceans like we were encouraged in the 1970s.  Well, we can go virtually, right?

Google Moon

This site provides "a mosaic of landing site images and a tour of the Apollo landings" on the moon. Click to zoom in on the landing sites for the "six missions of the Apollo Program, which lasted from 1963 to 1972." Also includes a FAQ and a relief map showing moon elevations. From Google, in partnership with scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center.

Hopefully we will go back someday.  We may have to go somewhere just to prevent a disaster that would wipe out the whole planet, not slowly, but in a hurry.  That seems a little dramatic, but we CAN prevent an asteroid impact now...not an earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood or any other natural disaster, but an asteroid without much difficulty.  You don't even need a bevy of nuclear missiles to do the job; found in advance, a celestial body can be knocked slightly off course just by flying around it.  We don't even have to land.  We'll have a good asteroid to test in a few decades, when Apophis flies by...with a 1 in 450 chance of pummeling the Earth the next time around.

That's higher than the odds of a song playing twice in a row on my iPod --  1 in 750.  No, really.  I looked it up on Google and eventually found an article about it.  No kidding.  In the meantime...maybe we should clean up Garbage Island?

I must admit, when I even think about "Garbage Island", I can't keep this Seventies song out of my head.  "I'll remember the nights in the cool sand, makin' love out on Garbage Island..."

Maybe then we can clean up the City of Garbage in Manila?

Crazy, eh?  Well, nature (and justice) move slowly yet inexorably.  Tucked away in the headlines, I was pleased to see that Royal Dutch Shell is finally going to face the music for abetting the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and several others in Nigeria.  Saro-Wiwa was an activist and successful TV producer (the early 80s show "Basi & Co.", about some bumbling schemers trying to profit off the oil boom in Lagos, was supposedly the most popular TV show ever made in Africa.)  As a native Ogoni, he rallied for his people's rights in the Niger delta, where unfortunately most of the country's oil comes from, and a number of activists were quickly tried and executed with the encouragement of Shell.  A few may remember that this atrocity sparked my very first SCREED, way back fourteen years ago when e-mail was still fresh.
Shell on trial
By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent
Royal Dutch Shell will revisit one of the darkest periods of its history tomorrow as a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in New York. The oil giant stands accused of complicity in the 1995 execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian environmental activist. The world's boardrooms are watching the case, which...
Click here to view this content.
Late Nigerian Activist's Son to See Shell in Court
Oil firm faces trial amid accusations of complicity in human rights abuses.
New York - Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. has been fighting for more than 13 years to make his late father's prediction come true.  It will happen this month when relatives of victims of the Nigerian government's violent crackdown on residents of the oil-rich region, where Royal Dutch Shell had drilling operations, will get to challenge the deaths and injuries in a U.S. court.  The trial that starts May 26 in U.S. District Court in New York stems from two lawsuits accusing Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and the former managing director of its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Transport and Trading PLC, of being complicit in decisions by Nigeria's then-military government to hang oil industry opponents, including playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.  "In a sense we already have a victory, because one of the things my father said was that Shell would one day have its day in court," Saro-Wiwa said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. "We felt they had ducked their responsibility for what happened in Nigeria, so we wanted to fulfill that prediction."
Click here to read more on our site

The war between nations and the indigenous people living atop their resources is global:
Court: Brazil on the Brink of Civil War
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Deep in the northernmost reaches of the Amazon jungle, a land conflict between rice farmers and a handful of Indian tribes has turned so violent that the country's Supreme Court warns it could escalate into civil war.  The court is expected to decide in August if the government can keep evicting rice farmers from a 4.2 million acre Indian reservation decreed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005.
Click here to read more on our site

Hmmm...and I feel another screed coming on.  Why are Brasilians and Nigerians throwing themselves at their exploiters, when here in the United States we don't even care if the beautiful mountains of Appalachia are despoiled by coal tips and mountain top removal?
http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/06/power-politics-epa-refuses-to-reveal-dangerous-coal-ash-waste-sites.html

Well, I have the satisfaction of knowing that, no matter what, we are going to run out of this goo, and the planet will heal.
Tomgram: Michael Klare, Goodbye to Cheap Oil
Source: tomdispatch.com

The human race might not be around to see it, though...we might have snuffed ourselves out in a James Bond scenario...
OpEdNews » Scramble for World Resources: Battle for Antarctica
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Scramble-for-World-Resourc-by-Rick-Rozoff-090518-42.html

Person by person, the last species to go extinct in the latest "great extinction" will, natch, be us.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/29/1
Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says  Kofi Annan thinktank
Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe
John Vidal, environment editor
Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.  It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Reuters.com - Climate change worsens disaster risks for poor-UN  http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSLB776371  

Some animals will probably disappear before us... Obama Keeps Bush-Era Polar Bear Rule
Protection was granted, but limits were set on what to do.
Washington - The Obama administration will retain a Bush-era rule for polar bears, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday, in a move that angered activists who noted the rule limits what can be done to protect the species from global warming.  The administration had faced a weekend deadline to decide whether it should allow government agencies to cite the federal Endangered Species Act, which protects the bear, to impose limits on greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and automobiles even if the emissions occur thousands of miles from where the polar bear lives.  "We must do all we can to help the polar bear recover, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change," Salazar said in a statement.
Click here to read more on our site

...while others will probably miss us with few tears.
Hint of conservation push brightens whaling stalemate
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17386

It's a pathology; a global mental illness.  Our civilization has believed, for thousands of years, that we are not of this world, but apart, and must remake it:
All Trees Near Levees Face Army Corps' Ax
Policy aimed at protecting levees draws fire from locals.
Columbia, Louisiana - The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee - including oaks and sycamores in Louisiana, willows in Oklahoma and cottonwoods in California.  The corps is concerned that the trees' roots could undermine barriers meant to protect low-lying communities from catastrophic floods like the ones caused by Hurricane Katrina.  An Associated Press survey of levee projects nationwide shows that the agency wants to eliminate all trees along more than 100,000 miles of levees. But environmentalists and some civil engineers insist the trees pose little or no risk and actually help stabilize levee soil.
Click here to read more on our site

A pointless pathology, which in the long run has no positive outcomes:
Even the Mighty Mississippi's Sediment Won't Be Enough to Save Our Vanishing Coast
Even under best-case scenarios of building massive engineering projects to restore Louisiana's dying coastline, the Mississippi River cannot possibly feed enough sediment into the marshes to prevent ongoing catastrophic land loss, two Louisiana State University geologists conclude in a scientific paper being published today.  The result: The state will lose another 4,054 to 5,212 square miles of coastline by 2100, an area roughly the size of Connecticut.
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We believe that, rather than our technology getting us INTO this problem, it can still save us, like magic:
Toward Climate Geoengineering?
Preamble:  That global climate change has reached an impasse whereby the "powers-to-be" are entertaining climate geoengineering mitigation, instead of the urgent deep reduction of carbon emissions required by science, represents the ultimate moral bankruptcy of institutions and a failure of democracy.
With global atmospheric CO2 levels rising at about 2 ppm/year toward 388 ppm, or near-440 ppm CO2-e (including methane effects), John Holdren, in his first interview since being appointed as President Obama's new science adviser, revealed
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The blow is not going to fall on us individually, or nationally, but planetwide, as a species:
Climate chaos predicted by CO2 study
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
The world will overshoot its long-term target on greenhouse gas emissions within two decades. A study has found that the average global temperature will rise above the threshold that could cause dangerous climate change during that time. Scientists have calculated that the world has already produced about a third of...
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Report on Warming Offers New Details

By David A. Fahrenthold
Man-made climate change could bring parching droughts to the Southwest and pounding rainstorms to Washington, put Vermont maple sugar farms out of business and Key West underwater over the next century, according to a federal report released yesterday.
'We have taken every measure we can think of to stop the desert moving closer and submerging our crops and villages'
Farmers end up as eco-refugees in a government relocation plan aimed at giving them a better life
Jonathan Watts in Minqin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/china-ecorefugees-farming
When the desert winds tear up the sands outside his front door, Huang Cuikun, pictured  below in a dried- up riverbed near his home, says he is choked by dust, visibility falls to a few metres and the crops are ruined.  Dust storms hit his village in Gansu province more often than in the past. The water table is falling. Temperatures rise year by year. Yet Huang says this is an improvement. Three years ago the government relocated him from an area where the river ran dry and the well became so salinated that people who drank from it fell sick.
Global warming's toll: Glacier in Bolivia is gone
http://www.grist.org/article/another-one-bites-the-dust-literally-bolivias-18000-year-old-chacaltaya-gla/
Ban exhorts nations to ramp up investment in disaster risk reduction – (17 May 2009)
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appealed to all nations to bolster efforts to curb disaster risk, stressing that decisive action taken now can be "one of the best investments countries can make."  Speaking at the launch ceremony in Bahrain of the first-ever "Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction," Mr. Ban said stepped up spending in slashing risk is "critical to saving lives and livelihoods."  Further, it is essential in reaching the aims set forth in both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, and the Hyogo Framework for Action, the 10-year programme adopted in 2005 which calls for investing heavily in disaster preparedness and strengthening the capacity of disaster-prone countries to address the risks.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30820&Cr=isdr&Cr1=

Although I think the UN is starting out very small...
McClatchy Washington Bureau
U.N. environment chief urges global ban on plastic bags
By Grace Chung
WASHINGTON ­ Single-use plastic bags, a staple of American life, have got to go, the United Nations' top environmental official said Monday.
Although recycling bags is on the rise in the United States, an estimated 90 billion thin bags a year, most used to handle produce and groceries, go unrecycled. They were the second most common form of litter after cigarette butts at the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup Day sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, a marine environmental group.  "Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme. His office advises U.N. member states on environmental policies.
Read More...

The good news is, regardless of what we do, when left alone the world heals very quickly...not a bleeder but a small cut.

Yale Study Finds Evidence that Damaged Ecosystems Can Recover Rapidly

www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39985

Sigh...if only we had learned our lesson back in the Seventies.  Remember when small cars became hip, and we almost switched to the metric system?
Op-Ed Columnist:  Flush With Energy
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
America needs to learn from Denmark, which responded to the 1973 Arab oil embargo in such a way that today it is energy independent.

We're getting another chance to turn lemons into solid gold...
IPCC chief: Benefits of tackling climate change will balance cost of action
The cost of tackling climate change will be paid for by benefits that would come from better energy security, employment and health, Rajendra Pachauri says ahead of major announcement on 2013 reports
Damian Carrington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/20/ipcc-pachauri-climate-change-cost
Measures needed to tackle global warming could save economies more money than they cost, the world's top climate change expert said today.  Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Guardian: "The cost could undoubtedly be negative overall."  This is because of the additional benefits that reducing greenhouse gas emissions could bring, beyond limiting temperature rises.
Unemployed Seek Training for Green-Collar Jobs
"I think the opportunities in this field are going to be huge."
San Jose, California - As the economy sheds jobs, community colleges across the country are reporting a surge of unemployed workers enrolling in courses that offer training for "green-collar" jobs.  Students are learning how to install solar panels, repair wind turbines, produce biofuels and do other work related to renewable energy.  "I think the opportunities in this field are going to be huge," said Rudy Gastelo, a part-time handyman who left the construction industry two years ago. "I'm not getting that 9-to-5 paycheck, so I'm looking forward to maybe getting a job within a solar company."  To meet growing demand, two-year colleges are launching or expanding green job training with money from the federal stimulus package.
Click here to read more on our site

Newsweek

America's Green Warriors

Report: ‘Green’ jobs outpacing traditional ones | csmonitor.com
Source: features.csmonitor.com

Especially in my state, which needs all the help it can get right now:
Auto emissions deal a win for California
--------------------
The state is the model for a compromise with U.S. carmakers and the federal government to curb greenhouse gases.
By Jim Tankersley and Richard Simon
Reporting from Washington -- The agreement that the Obama administration will announce today forcing dramatic reductions in vehicle greenhouse gas emissions and improvements in auto mileage marks a potentially pivotal shift in the battle over global warming -- and a vindication of California's long battle to toughen standards.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-emissions19-2009may19,0,5567325.story
EPA gives California emissions waiver
--------------------
The state can develop its own standards on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, though it agrees not to toughen the standards before 2017. Automakers agree to drop lawsuits.
By Jim Tankersley
Reporting from Washington -- The Environmental Protection Agency granted California's request to impose tough restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks -- reversing the Bush administration's position and opening the way for the state to take the lead on global-warming policy. Thirteen other states -- including Maryland -- are slated to adopt Calfornia's standards.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bal-car-waiver-0630,0,3946031.story

Sadly, California is getting ready to throw away this opportunity as well:
Schwarzenegger considers oil drilling off coast
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/06/07/MN251808DH.DTL
Desperate to plug California's gaping budget hole, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to an idea he has long opposed - offshore oil
drilling.  Schwarzenegger has thrown his support behind a Texas company's proposal to tap an oil field just off the coast of Santa Barbara County. Drills lowered from an existing oil platform near Vandenberg Air Force Base would bore as many as 30 wells into the seabed over the life of the project. The state could reap $1.8 billion in royalties over 14 years.  Viewed on an annual basis, that isn't much - just over $100 million a year. But with California's government facing a $24.3 billion deficit and literally running out of money, the Tranquillon Ridge drilling project would give the governor a rare new source of revenue.  To critics, that smacks of selling out California's treasured coast.

Some others just don't get it.

Democrats may make trouble for climate bill

Check out this page:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22836.html
Green technology should be shared
Big business is gearing up to fight the use of green technology by developing countries seeking to reduce carbon emissions
Mark Weisbrot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/19/wto-climate-change-intellectual-property
The battle over intellectual property rights is likely to be one of the most important of this century. It has enormous economic, social and political implications in a wide range of areas, from medicine to the arts and culture - anything where the public interest in the widespread dissemination of knowledge runs up against those whose income derives from monopolising it.

Others, well...

Lindsay Lohan fears becoming an out-of-work actor

"Washington, Mar 1 : Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan has admitted that she fears becoming an

But don't give up hope until the end...some countries DO get it...
The Carbon Tax Has Proven Its Effectiveness in Sweden
Sweden, which has just taken over the European Union (EU) presidency for six months, is attempting to convince its European partners to follow its example by instituting a carbon tax. "A carbon tax affects many more waste products than does the system of a market trading carbon emissions quotas," asserts Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren. "But, take care," specifies Ministry spokesperson Mattias Johansson, "we're not talking about a European tax. Every country would assess its own carbon tax.
Click here to read more on our site

Including, amazingly, THIS ONE:
New standards could cut tax breaks for corn-based ethanol
--------------------
Rules proposed by Obama administration set the stage for a battle between Midwest grain producers and environmentalists who say the gasoline additive actually worsens global warming.
By Jim Tankersley
Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed renewable-fuel standards that could reduce the $3 billion a year in federal tax breaks given to producers of corn-based ethanol. The move sets the stage for a major battle between Midwest grain producers and environmentalists who say the gasoline additive actually worsens global warming.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-corn-ethanol6-2009may06,0,2321568.story
AP NewsBreak: US wants to move on climate change
By JOHN HEILPRIN
The Obama administration, in a major environmental policy shift, is leaning toward asking 195 nations that ratified the U.N. ozone treaty to enact mandatory reductions in hydrofluorocarbons, according to U.S. officials and documents obtained by The Associated Press.  "We're considering this as an option," Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Adora Andy said Wednesday, emphasizing that while a final decision has not been made it was accurate to describe this as the administration's "preferred option."  The change - the first U.S.-proposed mandatory global cut in greenhouse gases - would transform the ozone treaty into a strong tool for fighting global warming.
Read More...
Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast Scale
Washington - President-elect Barack Obama promised Saturday to create the largest public works construction program since the inception of the interstate highway system a half century ago as he seeks to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy.
Click here to read more on our site

Vive le screed!

The Sun Stands Still and Waits

Greetings, friends,
After a mild spring, summer is slowly warming up my City of the Angels.  The furnace has been off for weeks, and the fan is out.  I can sleep on top of the sheets, and sometimes leave the door open all night.  I love it.

I have another favor to ask of this motley collected group...anyone know of a large studio or house where I can show four movies over several nights or weekends?  This year is the 20th anniversary of the four movies I edited for Ray Pettibon.  I'd like to have a party or a free screening where we can enjoy them...and I have contacts with enough of the actors to ensure a fun reunion.  I even have four other films on the same subjects to make for some ripping programming.  I also have access to a video projector that can be hooked up to a laptop or a DVD player.  Let me know.

If you think I'm going to say anything about all the celebrities dropping dead here in LA, wrong.  More dead celebrities are ahead.  I was a little surprised that the high body count included on of the biggest stars in Belgium, Yasmine, who hung herself.  I should also mention that Sky Saxon of the Seeds died last Thursday in Texas, a man and a band that had tremendous influence in Los Angeles and on me; even he, however, pales in comparison to Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, one of the greatest musicians of the last century, who died on 18 June.  Other than his brother-in-law, the Ustad Ravi Shankar, I can't think of a person who had a more personal impact on me than Khan and the sublime virtuosity of Indian music.  If the following YouTube window doesn't open, you can find it here.




I'm a bit nonplussed that all this Farrah/Michael Jackson nonsense has distracted from the recent "election" in Iran.  We can shrug our shoulders and watch what appears to be another hand reach for sky and fall short; just as we are seeing it in Honduras.  But it is no laughing matter to see a great, ancient nation such as Persia struggle for a rightful place, not merely as another country, but one of the leaders of this world, a country that with a true democracy would shame the Turks, Arabs and Afghans who border it.  It is truly terrible to see the obvious aspirations of a people so identical to our own, and see them held back.  Many people might see it as an example that highlights our freedom here in the United States and in Europe; I prefer to think that it shows how far we, too, have to go.  But the tools of our victory are at our command, if you can see it.  I don't want to sound like the booster for Wired, but we are just becoming aware, as a species, how much the instant communications of the Internet has changed our society globally.
Internet Thwarts Iran's Attempt to Clamp Down
Though Tehran has largely shut down communication outlets, protesters are getting out snippets of text and stealthily uploaded photos in a guerrilla-style Internet revolt.
Cairo - Footage of burning cars, masked boys and bloodied protesters in Iran is playing across the Middle East, captivating Arab countries where repressive regimes have for years been arresting political bloggers and cyberspace dissidents.
Click here to read more on our site

I feel a screed coming on...but hold on.

I found it not slightly ironic that I came across these articles to share with you over a month ago, long before the events in Iran proved them quite correct:
10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media

Make the most of them if you can, and create a little revolution in your own life, just as I'm trying to do here in this dark room in LA, fan on, door open...
Embracing the Twitter Classroom

Two weeks ago we shut off analogue television broadcasts here in the US...not a big deal, maybe, but I turned off my digital transceiver and waited see my TV go fuzzy that night...and such pure static, the purest static that anybody has seen in sixty years...  But within that static I saw something else...I saw the one real hope of globalization that makes we believe, like other geeks, that the Earth may survive after all.  We like to think in America that we thought everything up, that we invented science and technology and democracy, but really we are just one of the first to throw ourselves into the possibilities of CAPITALISM.  By definition a country with new "capital" has an edge on one, like us, with a Constitution over two centuries old and a crumbling infrastructure.  We all learned in school that Europe and the Far East boomed after World War II, partly because of the need to rebuild their huge economies (and feed the need over here in the US), but also they had access to the latest technology.  Indeed, China's greatest advantage over the rest of the world is that so much is still rural...they can learn from the mistakes of the West and enjoy the most recent advances in technology and energy efficiency.  This is even more true for the rest of Asia and Africa.  In this country we junked millions of TVs to convert to digital; but in Africa, there are so many cell phones now it is actually a status symbol to have a phone with a cord attached to a pole.  Think about it.

Progress is always just a way to accommodate more people in the same space, of course.  Tell that to the people who plunged into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a new Airbus A330, probably because a piece of ice covered the end of a tube the size of a baseball bat.  I bring this up because this terrible air crash was the best proof I've had in a while that there is NO GOD.  Why, you ask?  I noticed that, among all the other quite innocent people who died in this crash, there were 10 salespeople and their spouses, twenty middle class French, who had won this trip to Brasil as a company prize.  That was too much irony for me.  Either your god is so nonresponsive as to let that cosmic joke proceed, and thus a useless god, or else your god is completely, sadistically SICK.  I prefer to believe neither, just that there is no god, and only a fallible European airline manufacturer is to blame.

It was also people, boring hipster artists at that, who destroyed my favorite bookstore in Chinatown, and it was people, not some malevolent spirit, who finally burned down Barker Ranch, the place where Charles Manson and his "family" were caught near Death Valley.  That freaks didn't destroy this California landmark decades ago is something of a demonic miracle; still, it is sad, as it was a nice old ranch and the only decent building to camp at for many miles in every direction.

Anyway, it is no joke that this state is going to hell in a handbasket.  It is so bad that Okies, who migrated here in the 1930s, are finally going home.
McClatchy Washington Bureau
California's hard times driving people back to the 'Dust Bowl'
By Phillip Reese
OKLAHOMA CITY ­ Fleeing the Great Depression and a drought unprecedented in American history, a vast wave of Oklahomans and Texans dubbed "Okies" loaded everything they could onto crowded vehicles during the 1930s and headed west for California. Today, in huge numbers, their grandchildren are moving back.

But the rest of the country is snapping out of it, right?  Thanks to Obama, at least the rest of the world doesn't think of us as greedy trash, right?

Americans, Feeling the Love

By Mary Jordan
LONDON, Jan. 15 As Micha Wyatt plans an inaugural bash at the Chicago Rib Shack in London, she is basking in the new warmth toward Americans overseas.

Slowly, ever so slowly, we're rejoining the forward progress of the world...right?
Historic Signing of Cluster Munitions Treaty
Armaments: In Oslo this morning, a hundred countries - including Switzerland - affixed their signature to a Convention that prohibits cluster munitions. A major landmark for humanitarian law.
This was the result of an extraordinary mobilization of state and non-state actors. In Oslo's City Hall this morning, at 10 o'clock on the dot, over 100 countries signed the Cluster Munitions Convention. Notably absent were producers, such as the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan and even Israel.
Click here to read more on our site
Banning Cluster Bombs: Speedy Ratification of the Treaty
You can access it at the following URL:
http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/8721/1/

Yeah, don't bet on it:
Global weapons spending hits record levels
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/record-world-weapons-spending
Worldwide spending on weapons has reached record levels amounting to well over $1tn last year, a leading research organisation reported today.  Global military expenditure has risen by 45% over the past decade to $1.46tn, according to the latest annual Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).  Though the US accounts for more than half the total increase, China and Russia nearly tripled their military expenditure over the decade, with China now second only to the US in the military expenditure league table.  "China had both the largest absolute and the largest relative increase," says the Sipri report. The increase "has roughly paralleled its economic growth and is also linked to its major power aspirations," it adds.  Other regional powers, including India, Brazil and Algeria, also substantially increased their spending on arms, the report says.

We'll just find something better to kill with.
Will robot killers be allowed to fire on their own?
http://www.prisonplanet.com/pentagon-exploring-robot-killers-that-can-fire-on-their-own.html

And we, natch, are the driving force...thanks, 2nd Amendment!
United States Re-emerges as Leading Arms Supplier to the Developing World
On Oct. 23, 2008, the Congressional Research Service released the most recent version of its annual arms transfer report, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2000-2007." According to the report, U.S. arms agreements to both developed and developing countries increased from 2006 levels, re-establishing the U.S.
Click here to read more on our site

Not that nobody noticed...

U.S. Policies Criticized by U.N. Rights Watchdog

By Colum Lynch
UNITED NATIONS, June 24 -- The United Nations' top human rights advocate, Navanethem Pillay, on Wednesday appealed to the Obama administration to release Guantanamo Bay inmates or try them in a court of law, and said officials who authorized the use of "torture" must be held accountable.

Hypocrites.
Secret UN-NATO Cooperation Declaration
You can access it at the following URL:
http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/8722/1/

The next President (or maybe this one) could bring the house of cards DOWN.
Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-45th-President-by-David-Swanson-090524-572.html
OpEdNews » The 45th President
Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Land-of-the-Weak-and-Home-by-Dave-Lindorff-090524-695.html
OpEdNews » Land of the Weak and Home of the Wussy

Sure, there are signs of progress...and they're real, let's not forget that.

U.S. to Return Ambassador to Syria After 4-Year Absence

By Scott Wilson
President Obama has decided to return a U.S. ambassador to Syria after an absence of more than four years, marking a significant step toward engaging an influential Arab nation long at odds with the United States.

But there are still plenty of disasters waiting to ambush us.

Sudan Ousts Aid Groups After Court Pursues President

By Stephanie McCrummen and Colum Lynch
NAIROBI, March 4 -- Reacting swiftly to the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the government of Sudan on Wednesday expelled at least 10 foreign aid groups that provide food, water, medical care and other assistance to ...
"Expulsion of aid workers drives Darfur to brink of catastrophe"
Nearly two months after Sudan kicked out 13 foreign relief agencies, remaining workers are trying to stave off a humanitarian disaster
< http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090424.wdarfuraid25/EmailBNStory/International/home >
The Hypocrisy in the Arab and Muslim World Regarding the Darfur Conflict
You can access it at the following URL:
http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/8681/1/
Indian warship destroys suspected pirate ship off Somalia
--------------------
India says the military vessel opened fire after coming under attack and that some of the pirates escaped on high-speed rafts as their boat sank.
By Borzou Daragahi
Reporting from Beirut - An Indian warship patrolling the treacherous waters off the Horn of Africa destroyed a suspected pirate ship late Tuesday, at least the second time in a week that India's armed forces have unleashed military force to combat piracy amid a surge in maritime lawlessness.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-piracy20-2008nov20,0,4294151.story

But 70 years of continuous war are starting to erode the basic nature of our economy, to say nothing of our ideals.
America's Wars of Self-Destruction
War is a poison. It is a poison that nations and groups must at times ingest to ensure their survival. But, like any poison, it can kill you just as surely as the disease it is meant to eradicate. The poison of war courses unchecked through the body politic of the United States. We believe that because we have the capacity to wage war we have the right to wage war.
Click here to read more on our site

Now that the war against Iraq is coming to an end (six...seven...eight years later?) and we enter a relative lull while only some tens of thousands (instead of hundreds of thousands) of Americans are fighting against Afghanistan...the harvest is ready for the reaper.  Those of you, like me, who remember the damaged men of the 1970s and the early 1980s, stuck on the streets, have an inkling of what's coming.
Two Wars, 400,000 VA Patients

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) bring the horrors of the battlefield home. Twenty-six percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who seek care at the VA have PTSD. (Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
Click here to read more on our site
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Marine Corps veteran Aaron Hudson waits to receive help with his disability claim. A severe VA backlog in processing such claims persists. (Photo: Rex Larsen / The Grand Rapids Press)
Click here to read more on our site
Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Facing PTSD Join the Homeless
Ethan Kreutzer joined the Army at the age of 17 and fought with the 19th Airborne in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. When he retuned home, he had no money, no education and no civilian job experience. He soon became homeless. He slept in an alley off Haight Street, behind two trash cans.  June Moss drove from Kuwait to Iraq as an Army engineer in a truck convoy. When she returned to the United States, she lost her home, and drove her two young children from hotel to hotel across Northern California.
Click here to read more on our site

If you think they have support from the VA, consider this:
Panel: Gulf War Illness Confirmed
A federal health panel released conclusions Monday that evidence strongly and consistently indicates hundreds of thousands of US troops in the first Gulf War contracted long-term illnesses from use of pills, given by their own military to protect them from effects of chemical weaponized nerve agents, and from their military's pesticide use during deployment.
Click here to read more on our site

Gee, that only took 18 years.

Well, maybe there's hope in the leadership...
McClatchy Washington Bureau
VA nominee Shinseki vows to clean up agency
By Chris Adams
WASHINGTON ­ The retired general selected to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs pledged Wednesday to modernize and overhaul the veterans' disability and health-care system, which is straining to serve soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those who served in previous wars.  Before a friendly audience at the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, retired Gen. Eric Shinseki told lawmakers that he'd transform the department by making it more efficient and better able to serve veterans.  His confirmation is expected to proceed without problems. Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii, hopes to have the nomination to the full Senate floor for a vote after President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in Tuesday.
Read More...

But unfortunately, these Feds speak with the same forked tongue as the last bunch.
Obama will end 'don't ask' policy, aide says
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/01/14/MNTG159HHG.DTL
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer -- President Obama will end the 15-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has prevented homosexual and bisexual men and women from serving openly within the U.S. military, a spokesman for the
president-elect said.  Obama said during the campaign that he opposed the policy, but since his
election in November he has made statements that have been interpreted as
backpedaling.
Obama Partially Rescinds Promise to "End the War"
Washington - On the campaign trail, Senator Barack Obama offered a pledge that electrified and motivated his liberal base, vowing to "end the war" in Iraq.  But as he moves closer to the White House, President-elect Obama is making it clearer than ever that tens of thousands of American troops will be left behind in Iraq, even if he can make good on his campaign promise to pull all combat forces out within 16 months.
Click here to read more on our site

And as it has been for thousands of years, there is no shortage of people with nothing better to do than kill.
US Soldiers Re-enlisting Because of Poor Economy
Fort Riley, Kansas - Sgt. Ryan Nyhus spent 14 months patrolling the deadly streets of Baghdad, where five members of his platoon were shot and one died. As bad as that was, he would rather go back there than take his chances in this brutal job market.  Nyhus re-enlisted last Wednesday, and in so doing joined the growing ranks of those choosing to stay in the U.S. military because of the bleak economy.
Click here to read more on our site

Because if you refuse, the people at the top will make you wish you'd gone...and died:
War Resisters Held in Legal Limbo
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, AWOL soldiers find themselves detained for months under difficult conditions in an extended legal limbo they cannot escape.  Dustin Stevens is one of about 50 soldiers being held at Fort Bragg awaiting likely AWOL and desertion charges that seem like they will never arrive, he says.
Click here to read more on our site

Like it or not, the war is almost over.  There is no going back.  The last of our allies are leaving...
British Forces End Combat Operations in Iraq
British Forces have formally ended combat operations in Iraq today in a move that means they are finally returning home after more than six years. The drawdown of the bulk of the 3,700 UK troops remaining in Iraq will now speed up in the coming days.  Britain formally passed authority for operations in southern Iraq to US forces.
Click here to read more on our site
Twelve Coalition Force Contingents Leaving Iraq
Baghdad - The Tongan marines left with a song, their vowel-rich war choruses echoing in the marble halls of a palace built for Saddam Hussein but now occupied by the U.S. military.  Fifty-five of them had spent the past four months guarding Camp Victory, a base that sits on a plush estate near the Baghdad airport. It was the fourth rotation in Iraq for the marines from the tiny Pacific island nation.
Click here to read more on our site

Our elite troops have business elsewhere...
Marines will come out of Iraq by spring 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_marines_at_war

And our neighbors, the citizen-soldiers, are well-past broken:
States Push to Take Back National Guard
Going on its seventh year, the Iraq war has taken its toll on not only the US military, but also on the states's National Guard units, which were called up when Congress passed the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. Now a growing state-level movement is working to keep the Guard at home.
Click here to read more on our site

Maybe we will use our troops against the financial wizards who nearly bankrupted the country...
Lehman Brothers sitting on a stockpile of uranium 'yellowcake'
Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/15/lehmanbrothers-nuclear-weapons
The rump of the bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers is sitting on a stockpile of 450,000 lb of uranium "yellowcake" which could be used to power a nuclear reactor or, theoretically, to make a bomb.  Lehman's potentially explosive asset is a hangover from a commodities trading contract undertaken before the Wall Street bank went bust in September. The substance, yellowcake, is a solid form of mined uranium which is yet to be enriched.  Liquidators have been trying to offload the stuff for months. But the price of uranium has been dropping steadily, leaving Lehman's yellowcake languishing in a variety of secure storage facilities, some of which are in Canada.  Bryan Marshal, Lehman's chief executive, who was appointed to salvage value for creditors, told Bloomberg News that the stockpile, which is worth about $18m, would be sold responsibly.  "We plan on gradually selling this material over the next two years," he said. "We are not dumping this on the market and have no fire-sale mentality."  The price of uranium has slumped from $65 per pound to $40.50 over the last six months as pressure on recession-hit commodity investors to liquidate their assets has eased.  Yellowcake can be purified and enriched to fuel nuclear reactors or, notionally, weapons. A lively financial market in uranium trading has developed in recent years.

Or more likely, we'll turn our guns on each other:
Neocon Group Calls for Military Strikes on Media
Posted By Jeremy Scahill On May 21, 2009 (9:00 pm) In Uncategorized
Article taken from Antiwar.com Original - http://original.antiwar.com
URL to article: http://original.antiwar.com/scahill/2009/05/21/neocon-group/

Not surprisingly, the Iraqis are overjoyed to see the likes of us go:

Reuters.com - Iraqis take control of Baghdad's Green Zone   http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE55F3NE20090616 Reuters.com - U.S.-installed Iraqi ex-PM says Bush "utter failure"   http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE50212820090103 

Iraq Declares Holiday to Mark US Pullback From Cities
Baghdad - The Iraqi government on Tuesday declared a public holiday to mark next week's withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Baghdad and other cities.  American forces already have begun pulling back from outposts inside the cities ahead of a June 30 deadline, the first phase of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.
Click here to read more on our site

It's a mystery what will happen to the agreements they made with Bush...
In Final Days, Bush Pushes for Iraq's Oil
As the Bush administration rumbles to an end, it is pushing with increasing urgency for a commitment to a long-term US presence in Iraq. Though the military aspect of this "commitment" has garnered substantial publicity, the administration is equally invested in the economic aspect: securing US control over Iraqi oil before Bush leaves office, according to experts in the field.  A leaked version of the US-Iraq status-of-forces agreement (SOFA), supplied and translated for Truthout by American Friends Service Committee Iraq consultant Raed Jarrar, states that the US will indefinitely "continue to protect Iraq's natural resources of gas and oil and protect Iraq's foreign financial and economic assets."
Click here to read more on our site
Iraqi Cabinet Approves Accord Setting US Troop Withdrawal
Baghdad - Iraq's cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact that sets a timetable for the nearly complete withdrawal of American forces within three years, but the agreement faces an uncertain outlook in Iraq's parliament.  The largest Sunni party in Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party, wants the agreement to go to a nationwide referendum. Its affiliated parties complain that their efforts to amend the plan to require the release of detainees
Click here to read more on our site
Experts: SOFA Faces Legal Uncertainty
The Bush administration's push to nail down a bilateral agreement governing the future US presence in Iraq faces serious stumbling blocks. Despite the agreement's near-unanimous passage in the Iraqi cabinet, fueled by deepening pressure from the Bush administration, it faces firm opposition from legal scholars and US Congress members, who say it undermines President-elect Barack Obama's powers and illegally bypasses Congress, and from Iraqi parliamentarians, who are not satisfied with its withdrawal provisions.
Click here to read more on our site

I predict one thing:  we will not do any better in Afghanistan.
'Witness for Jesus' in Afghanistan
( http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/200953201315854832.html )
Who Are the Taliban?

Just three years ago, the central government still controlled the provinces near Kabul. But years of mismanagement, rampant criminality, and mounting civilian casualties have led to a resurgence of the Taliban and other related groups. (Photo: uruknet)
Click here to read more on our site
Taliban shoot dead Afghan politician who championed women's rights
Jon Boone in Kabul
The Guardian
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/13/taliban-afghanistan-kandahar-achakzai-womens-rights
A leading female Afghan politician was shot dead yesterday after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, which her colleagues had begged her not to attend.  Sitara Achakzai was attacked by two gunmen as she arrived at her home in a rickshaw - a vehicle colleagues said she deliberately chose to use to avoid attracting attention.  The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder. The two gunmen were apparently waiting for Achakzai, a 52-year-old women's rights activist who had lived for many years in Germany when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan.  Officials said she returned in 2004 to her home in Kandahar, which is also the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban.  One of Achakzai's friends, speaking anonymously, said colleagues had begged her not to attend the meeting, which takes place twice a week.  "She knew the danger she was in. Just a couple of days ago she was joking about the fact that she had a 300,000 rupee price on her head," she said. "Like other women she would always travel in a rickshaw rather than a big armoured Humvee because it's less conspicuous, but it also made her easier prey."  Achakzai's life was in danger because she was not only a women's rights activist but also as a local politician. Taliban militants target anyone associated with the government of Afghanistan and last month launched an audacious assault with four suicide bombers on the provincial council building in Kandahar city, killing 17 people.  There have been many other attacks on women in the province, including the assassination in 2006 of Safia Amajan, the head of the province's women's affairs department.  Malalai Kakar, a top policewoman in the city, was killed last September, and schoolgirls have had acid thrown in their faces as punishment for attending school.

Just a few months ago everything was looking up...Iraq evacuated, a new understanding in Afghanistan, a sudden push by Pakistan to reclaim their secular nation, and then a new opening with Iran...
Iran, NATO in First Talks in 30 Years
Brussels - Iran and NATO have held their first talks since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago, officials at the military alliance said Thursday, in a new sign of a thaw in Tehran's ties with the West.  At allied headquarters in Brussels last week, an Iranian diplomat and a senior NATO official had an "informal contact" focused on Iran's neighbour Afghanistan, where the alliance is battling a stiff Taliban-led insurgency.
Click here to read more on our site
Obama promises to move swiftly in adopting new approach to Tehran
Ed Pilkington in New York and Julian Borger
The Guardian
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/12/obama-iran-diplomacy-nuclear-weapons
The US president-elect, Barack Obama, said yesterday that he would act swiftly once in power to confront Iran, vowing to take a new approach focused on dialogue but warning Tehran that there were limits beyond which it should not go.
Mohammad Khatami to run in Iran's presidential election
--------------------
After weeks of rumors, the former president, considered a moderate, made the formal announcement that he will run against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim
Reporting from Tehran - Iran's former president, Mohammad Khatami, a moderate, announced Sunday that he would run against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a critical election in June that is shaping up as a referendum on the performance of the current conservative government.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-khatami9-2009feb09,0,6230697.story

How quickly the worm turns....
Challenging Ahmadinejad's "Win"
After Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election widely believed to be rigged, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei deemed the results a "divine assessment." However, after 48 hours of intensive protests throughout Iran, Khamenei backtracked, calling for an investigation into election complaints. The probe is to be conducted by the Guardian Council, a 12-member body of clerics and Islamic law experts.
Click here to read more on our site
Hundreds of thousands in Iran protest vote result
--------------------
The supreme leader orders the hard-line Guardian Council to examine challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi's claims of fraud in the vote reelecting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Seven protesters are killed.
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim
Reporting from Tehran - Hundreds of thousands of Iranian protesters defied authorities Monday and marched to Tehran's Freedom Square, as the Islamic Republic's supreme leader ordered an investigation into allegations of vote fraud, a move the opposition described as little more than an attempt to dampen anger over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran16-2009jun16,0,5600560.story
Iran's Women Protest: Shoulder to Shoulder With Men
Note: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.  Shoulder to shoulder with men, wearing headscarves, armed with rocks.
Click here to read more on our site

The powers that be in Iran seemed to make one mistake after another, disrupting one of the nascent democracies of Asia, and then made a martyr of a young woman:
Neda Soltan's family 'forced out of home' by Iranian authorities
Parents of young woman shot dead near protests are banned from mourning and funeral is cancelled, neighbours say
A correspondent in Tehran
guardian.co.uk
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/24/neda-soltan-iran-family-forced-out
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.  Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.  "We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Iranians mourn slain woman as power struggle continues
By a McClatchy special correspondent and Jonathan S. Landay
TEHRAN, Iran ­ Defying an official ban, hundreds of people held a graveside tribute Thursday for the woman who's become a symbol of the Iranian opposition after she was killed while protesting the country's disputed election.  Witnesses said the crowd gathered around 5 p.m. Thursday at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, an hour's drive south of Tehran, for a memorial service for Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old woman who allegedly was shot dead by a member of the pro-government Basij militia during a massive protest in the capital on June 20.  "Her grave was covered with white and red roses," said a young man who was present, but who requested anonymity to avoid government retribution.
Read More...

Regardless of the rather hopeless conclusion we see now, a great deal has changed under the surface:
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Iran's senior ayatollah slams election, confirming split
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
TEHRAN, Iran ­ Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main rival in the disputed presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, massed in competing rallies Tuesday as the country's most senior Islamic cleric threw his weight behind opposition charges that Ahmadinejad's re-election was rigged.  "No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi's charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers "in the worst way possible."  "A government not respecting people's vote has no religious or political legitimacy," he declared in comments on his official Web site. "I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to 'sell their religion,' and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God."
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Split deepens among top clerics in Iran
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The Guardian Council questions 3 million votes but says they won't change the outcome. Relatives of opposition figure Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani are briefly detained. Western officials say the death toll could be as high as 100.
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Ramin Mostaghim
Reporting from Cairo and Tehran - As the power struggle inside Iran's political class appeared to intensify, with reformist and conservative leaders exchanging sharp statements that blamed one another for last week's deadly street violence, authorities announced irregularities that could affect 3 million votes in 50 cities.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-arrests22-2009jun22,0,2269803.story
IRAN: RAFSANJANI POISED TO OUTFLANK SUPREME LEADER KHAMENEI
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav062209.shtml

In the despair let's find solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Iran, and Iraq, and anywhere that reasonable people try to live.
Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, The Weeks of Living Dangerously
Source: tomdispatch.com

And when you hear the forked tongue...or in this instance, the ultimate case of the pot calling the kettle black...
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Ex-shah's son urges louder protest of Iran rights abuses
By Grace Chung
WASHINGTON ­ The former crown prince of Iran on Monday urged foreign leaders to condemn more forcefully the Iranian regime's crackdown on more than a week of mass protests in his homeland over the alleged rigging of the June 12 presidential election.  While it's "admirable" that they aren't interfering in Iran's internal affairs, world powers can't ignore human rights violations, said Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late former shah.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights "knows no national boundaries," he said in an emotional speech at the National Press Club. "No one will benefit from closing his or her eyes to knives and cables cutting into faces and mouths of our young and old . . . no one but tyrants and their thugs."
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Then laugh out loud at evil, and wait for another celebrity to die.  The sun, meanwhile, dips below the horizon and moves south to the Autumnal Equinoxe...

Vive le screed!