/scratch/scupper: January 2005 Archives

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January 30, 2005

Iraqi Election: Who's running for office?

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq

I was wondering who was running for offcie last night, and Googled up their election commission web site. The page below lists all the races and parties in pdf docs. If this is a hoax as so many in the US and world claim, it's sure an elaborate hoax.

Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq
Information about Candidates and Political Entities:

Final List of Constestants and Ballot ID Numbers
Political Entities and Coalitions Certified by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq to Constest the 30 January 2004 Elections

Candidate lists

Posted by cystdog at 06:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

~BBC: Middle East editorials about Iraqi elections

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Mid-East papers scorn Iraq poll

I spotted this on the BBC coverage of Iraqi Elections. It's a compilation of newspaper editorials from around the Middle East. Take a look. The Iranian editorial BBC ran is actually a reasonable editorial. A Saudi newspaper had the most "fire and brimstone" editorial of all:

Quoted from BBC excerpt of Al-Jazirah (not Al Jazeera the TV network):

Iraq is a blazing path of fire, which the Americans entered by force... not knowing the issue was far more complicated than they thought.

Jordan's Al-Dustur warns:

One wonders if Iraqi officials, who are backing these elections, realise the danger of what could happen to their country before the hatchet falls on their heads. Those officials should work towards ending this farce called "elections", unite their stance through dialogue and reconciliation, and safeguard Iraq and its people!

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Mid-East papers scorn Iraq poll
BBC News-UK Edition/BBC Monitoring
Last Updated: Saturday, 29 January, 2005, 12:40 GMT

Reports and editorials in Middle East newspapers show widespread gloom peppered with stark warnings on the eve of Iraq's landmark election.

Some papers depict a "path of fire" or speak of booby-traps and political minefields ready to explode in voters' faces.

But there's a flicker of hope amid the uncertainty, especially in Iraqi Kurdish and Iranian pro-Shia newspapers.

President Bush said the Iraqi elections will be a historic event and praised the brave Iraqis, who will go to the ballot boxes tomorrow. Bush's words do not reflect Iraq's reality, but rather his obstinacy and attempt to conceal the failure of his plan in Iraq. Iraqis want democracy by all means. However, to talk about democracy in the light of bloody chaos is a complete fraud.

Pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi editorial

Iraq is a blazing path of fire, which the Americans entered by force... not knowing the issue was far more complicated than they thought.

Saudi Al-Jazirah editorial

Today Iraq is a big field of land mines and no one knows where, when, or how they will explode. The land mines will not be removed by a magic election touch, as long as Iraq's major problems remain. We wish Iraq could be free, independent and free from foreign troops.

UAE's Al-Bayan editorial

One wonders if Iraqi officials, who are backing these elections, realise the danger of what could happen to their country before the hatchet falls on their heads. Those officials should work towards ending this farce called "elections", unite their stance through dialogue and reconciliation, and safeguard Iraq and its people!

Jordan's Al-Dustur commentary

Tomorrow the whole world will be focusing on Iraq, where general elections on which Iraq's future will be based through the coming years will be held.

Egypt's Al-Ahram editorial

The polling stations, several tens of which have been destroyed by the guerrilla movement in recent days, could turn into tombs for a number of voters... Yielding to pressure from the Bush administration, Baghdad's provisional government is exposing its citizens' lives to a real danger by appealing to them to turn out to vote... Faced with the complicit silence of the international community, and with the help of Iyad Allawi's government, Iraqis are going to serve as cannon fodder. All of the guerrilla movement's factions, among them Zarqawi's group, Ansar al-Sunnah and the Iraqi Islamic Army, are determined to sow death tomorrow. But what is the life of one Iraqi worth in the eyes of the Baghdad government and the international community?

Algeria's Liberte

I am not happy with the Kurdish administration but I will vote for it. I know that it is not what I have been dreaming about for many long years but I will still cast my vote. I have full belief that the independence I dream about is far greater that what these parties can least of all about, but I will cast my vote. I know that the Kurdish authority is riddled with administrative corruption and that job allocations are based on political allegiances and nepotism, but I will cast my vote... I have no doubt that after 30 January there won't be a sudden change of face or mentality of politicians particularly among the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, but I will cast my vote... With many misgivings, I will cast my vote in Iraq for the Kurdistani list.

Asos Hardi, writing in Iraqi Kurdish independent weekly Hawlati

Although most of the Shia in Iraq, who make 65% of the Iraqi population, feel optimism ahead of the election, and many Sunni groups are boycotting the election as they are in minority, many political experts believe this election is unrealistic and neutral, since it is administered by the influential presence of the occupiers.

Iran's Jomhuri-ye Eslami editorial

The terrorists surely would not be able to carry out acts of violence against the Shia unless they were receiving domestic and regional support... If this dissension continues and a significant number of Sunni clerics remain silent about the disrespect shown towards Shia religious sanctities, Iraq will begin to head towards civil war... Thus, holding a free and fair election based on the votes of the majority, but also allowing the minority to attain their rights through casting their ballots, is the only way to end the current crisis in Iraq.

Iran's Tehran Times editorial

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies
 and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.

Posted by cystdog at 05:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 29, 2005

~slashdot: This guys nails it on the head

Microsoft Claims Linux Security a Myth

Who is accountable for Windows? (Score:5, Insightful)
by nharmon (97591)on Saturday January 29, @08:40AM (#11513727)
(http://www.harmontek.com/)

From Windows XP's EULA:

LIMITATION ON REMEDIES; NO CONSEQUENTIAL

OR OTHER DAMAGES. Your exclusive remedy for any breach

of this Limited Warranty is as set forth below. Except

for any refund elected by Microsoft, YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED

TO ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT

LIMITED TO CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, if

the Product does not meet Microsoft's Limited Warranty,

So, are we believe that if Windows crashes my data, that I can hold Microsoft accountable?

At least with Linux I have access to the source code, and can hire programmers to scratch my itches for me. Somehow, I don't think microsoft would give out source code if they went under.

Posted by cystdog at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

~newsforge: Google introduces video search service

NewsForge | Google introduces video search service

Google introduces video search service
Wednesday January 26, 2005 (11:30 PM GMT)

Anonymous Reader writes "Search giant Google announced its Google Video (Beta) search service to users earlier today. Now users can use video.google.com to search for transcripts and screenshots of a particular show and find the information in a simplistic format. Users will have the ability to search using a keyword or a key phrase, which will fetch the relevant search results. Currently, Google’s database includes thousands of popular shows, but it isn’t that massive, since Google started indexing the shows starting December 2004."

Newsforge Story source:Cool Zone Tech

At first glance this service looks kind of useful, but I wonder where it's headed (porno search???). Like we really need that.

Here's the url:

http://video.google.com/
About Google Video

For now, they only index KGO, KRON, PBS, C-SPAN, KQED, KNTV, Fox News, C-SPAN2 video and provide stills from the video.

Here are some screen shots provided by Google Labs about the Video search service:

Posted by cystdog at 08:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 28, 2005

~GISUser: Mapping Birds with the USFWS and USGS

GISuser.com - GIS & mapping news, jobs, software, data, education, and forums

Mapping Birds - NBII Bird Conservation
Friday, 21 January 2005

http://mbirdims.fws.gov/nbii/

Interactive map from the NBII Bird Conservation Node features Bird Surveys, Conservation Units (Regions), Physical and Vegetation data, and political units. This site is made available through partnership between the US Fish and Wildlife Service and USGS's National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).

This application was developed to facilitate informed querying of certain bird monitoring databases accessible through the NBII Bird Conservation Node as well as to display the results of geospatial queries of these databases that are of general public interest. The capabilities of this site are intended to be of use to professional wildlife biologists and conservation planners as well as to the general public.

This application enables the user to interactively view various elements of select bird population survey designs (e.g., strata boundaries, transects, segments, routes, zones). The user can display these design elements over a backdrop of political boundaries, NABCI Bird Conservation Regions, landcover, hydrology, and/or elevation.

Using these views, the user should be better able to define efficient queries of the bird population databases and retrieve data relevant to their interests. Additionally, certain queries of the population and geospatial databases that are of general interest to the public are also enabled by this application.

Examples of query output that can be generated using this application include: a) maps of estimated population abundance within survey units, b) maps of percent change in estimated population abundance within survey units between user selected years, c) maps of active survey routes, and d) maps of species relative abundance. More information on individual databases may be found by selecting that particular database through the "Retrieve Bird Data" button in the application.

Posted by cystdog at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 27, 2005

Pearls of Wisdom and Air Supply Lines

Folsom - Rancho Cordova - City weighs future of Sunrise - sacbee.com
South part of busy road is a haven for industry.
By Molly Dugan -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, January 20, 2005

(note: It's a "Haven" for industry? "Haven"?)

All you need to read in this article is the excerpt of Pearls of Wisdom from City Council Member Linda Budge:

"For 25 years, we have been aggressively putting industrial (businesses) into that area. ... We can't just tell them they should get up and move," said Councilwoman Linda Budge.

Many cities are not retaining enough of their industrial businesses and, instead, are focusing too much on residential and commercial uses, Budge said.

That approach wouldn't be healthy for Rancho Cordova's economy, Budge said - industrial businesses make up a large chunk of the city's job base.

"We have to have our industrial base. It's an important part of having a well-rounded economy," Budge said. "It's really critical that we continue to emphasize creation of additional jobs for people with manual skills."

And this newsflash that even caught me offguard.....This successful industrial area, part of the backbone of the RC economy that made it fiscally possible to incorporate, ready....has to be "revitalized", according to a city employee quoted on the story.

The last comment worth honorable mention is this quote from Mayor Ken Cooley:

"I don't think we have a clear enough plan at this moment," Cooley said. "It's a front door to the community. We want it to be a welcoming front door. If we're not doing that, we're stepping on the air hose of our future."

Short videos of Mather Lake

I took some 15 second Quicktime movies w/o audio while out at the lake, using my old Olympus. The camera is set up to point and shoot Quicktime .mov files at 320 x 240 and 160 x 120. The later is nearly useless for viewing. The 320x240 .mov files average 4MB in size. Unfortunately, most people don't use Quicktime, so I exported .avi movie files from each .mov file for folks using Windows Media Player.

The .avi files, as exported, average 25 MB in size. I'm getting the hang of this so I hope to cut the .avi file size in half while retaining the image quality.

I'll be using the new Canon to make short clips, with audio, and at 640x480 res once I get a few larger SD cards, probably 1GB, which will be great when spring arrives. The sounds out there in the morning before the shooting range gets under way really help to get the sense remotely of how life is teaming around the lake.

Here's what I came up with using the the 'ole Olympus:

Mather Dam and Morrison Creek flowing west
051.mov 4.3 MB 051.avi 25.7 MB

Trash in water on Lake side of Mather Dam
050.mov 4.4 MB 050.avi 26.3 MB

Looking south across the lake from the northwest shore
054.mov 4.2 MB 054.avi 26.4 MB

Panning west to southwest from the northeast corner of the lake near Douglas Rd.
060.mov 4.2 MB 060.avi 25.7 MB

A view of an inlet looking west from the east shore of the lake
069.mov 4.5 MB 069.avi 26.3 MB

The view looking west from atop the Morrison Creek Flume inlet
073.mov 4.5 MB 073.avi 26.3 MB

Posted by cystdog at 06:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Commuters' Bill of Rights?

Spotted this LA Times article on Planetizen and thought the idea of a "Commuter's bill of rights" was interesting.

Hertzberg, Hahn Trade Jabs on Traffic

In a political skirmish that included radio and e-mail crossfire, the mayoral candidates hold each other to blame for L.A.'s road congestion.
By Jeffrey L. Rabin
LA Times Staff Writer
Jan 13, 2005

Excerpt:

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn sparred Wednesday over who should be blamed for the city's traffic problems, which consistently rank as the worst in the nation.
Hertzberg, who is running for mayor, used a morning drive-time radio talk show to announce a 10-point transportation plan dubbed the "Commuters' Bill of Rights." He also said that Hahn was "asleep at the switch" for missing numerous Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meetings.
Hahn's campaign spokeswoman, Julie Wong, quickly fired back in an e-mail to Hertzberg's campaign headquarters. "We are sending you a Los Angeles Commuters' Bill for $850,000,000 of taxpayer money that has been and is being diverted from our transportation needs to pay for the budget mess you left in Sacramento," it read.
Hertzberg, who represented the San Fernando Valley for six years, left office at the end of 2002 because of term limits.
The Hertzberg campaign sent the bill for $850 million in lost transportation funds back to Hahn. "It's pathetic hypocrisy," Szabo said.
Hahn campaign consultant Kam Kuwata replied: "It's the typical Sacramento flimflam."
On KABC-AM (790), Hertz- berg told listeners he wanted to end road construction during rush hours. "What brain-dead idiot does anything like this?" he asked. He also said he wanted to cut the number of trucks on the road during commute times.

Posted by cystdog at 06:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2005

Yippie Skippie! Thank you Novell: Evolution ported to Windows

nat friedman:Evolution to be ported to Windows

I read about this on slashdot, and I am really anxious to see if they succeed at completing the port. I love Evolution and would gladly dump Outlook to use a stable Evolution port. See Nat Friedman's post below.

17 January 2005 #

Evolution for Windows

I am thrilled to announce that we recently hired Tor Lillqvist into the Novell Desktop group. Tor is famous for his work to port Gimp and the Gtk toolkit to Windows, and these days he helps keep Gimp running on Windows.

For Novell, Tor is working along the same lines, making Gtk and various parts of the Linux desktop stack run better on Windows to improve the experience for cross-platform developers. He is currently working on a dbus port to help complete Fredrik Hedberg's port of Beagle to Windows.

Beagle running on Windows

After that is done, however, his major project will be to port Evolution to Windows. The scope and difficulty of this work is currently unknown, so we don't have a timeline (or even a "development plan" to speak of), but you will be able to follow his work on the various mailing lists and on Tor's blog (once he starts one). The Evolution porting will be discussed along with all Evolution development topics on e-h.

If you're interested in helping, I'm sure Tor would welcome you with open arms. It's a big project.

Posted by cystdog at 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hope? 10 yrs down the road

Folsom - Rancho Cordova - Rancho in partnership - sacbee.com

This will work out best if the County leads the way. I can't believe I'm saying that. 24 months ago, I'd never have thought I would, but the County looks a whole lot better this side of cityhood. If Rancho's council gets "the lead agency" designation, it will be a golf course road for Rio del Oro, and it will literally be 10 + years before improvements begin to take shape, and that's NO JOKE............

Rancho in partnership
By Molly Dugan -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, January 23, 2005

The Rancho Cordova City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to participate in the Folsom South Canal Development Plan.

A group of public and private interests, led by the Bureau of Reclamation, wants to develop a bicycle and pedestrian trail along a 14-mile stretch of Folsom South Canal from Lake Natoma to Sloughhouse Road.

The council also agreed to allocate $30,000 to complete a resource-management plan and ongoing public outreach efforts.

The plan is a two-year process to determine who - a newly created entity or one of the current players - would develop and maintain the trails, how much it would cost and who would pay for it.

It also will look at what else can be developed along the Folsom South Canal and what other trails it should connect.

Posted by cystdog at 05:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

~sacbee: Arden Arcade man cooks up cityhood plan

News - Arden Arcade man cooks up cityhood plan - sacbee.com

Bill Davis says the county has neglected his community, and incorporation may be the answer.
By Cameron Jahn -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 8, 2005

Reading the newspaper at his favorite waffle shop last year, Bill Davis decided he had waited long enough for change to come to Arden Arcade.
While the county descended into a second year of budget cuts and
supervisors discussed cutting 84 positions from the Sheriff's
Department, the newest cities in the region - Citrus Heights, Elk Grove
and Rancho Cordova - were adding police officers and socking money away
in reserves.

All around Arden Arcade, Davis sees signs of dwindling county funds: sparse sheriff's patrols, potholed streets, acres of graying commercial centers and a community with no identity.

Davis wants what the new cities tout, and while finishing his coffee that morning in November 2003, he began laying plans to transform his unincorporated neighborhood into a city. He folded his paper, walked out of the restaurant and began punching numbers into his cell phone.

"We have to do something - are you in?" he asked a few of his closest friends in the community.

Davis rounded up interest from a handful of fellow activists to form the Arden Arcade Cityhood Study Team. A few weeks later, the movement to create Sacramento County's eighth city was born.

"As a community we're teetering, we're getting older, and we can ignore it, or we can take control and do something about it," Davis said recently.

The cityhood group - including a reverend, a stay-at-home mom, a police dispatcher and a few retirees - has little experience in municipal politics, but they have hired a consultant to examine whether the tax-rich community of 86,000 could stand on its own at the city of Sacramento's eastern edge.

Cityhood for Arden Arcade is a long way off - and has been made harder by a new state law that gives emerging cities fewer tax dollars - but county officials have begun to worry. The new city would take control of the county's most important sales tax engines: the Fulton Avenue auto dealers, two shopping malls, upscale boutiques on Fair Oaks Boulevard and strip centers dotting Howe Avenue, Auburn Boulevard, Watt Avenue and Arden Way.

Sales tax receipts in the area topped $11 million in 2000. Citrus Heights brought in $12 million last year from sales taxes.

"What the financial and service impacts will be, we're still trying to figure that out," said Paul Hahn, the county's economic development director. The county will have to assess what services it could provide to the unincorporated area if Arden Arcade cityhood siphons tax dollars, he said, adding that the county may have to recruit new retailers to generate sales taxes.

County officials are unlikely to sit by as another cityhood effort further erodes their political clout. Muriel Johnson, who represented Arden Arcade for 12 years on the Board of Supervisors before retiring earlier this month, said the county plans to fix Arden Arcade's small problems - what she calls the "low-hanging fruit" - such as planting trees to spruce up streets and supporting new neighborhood associations.

"This board is not going to carve up the empire," Johnson said, predicting that Arden Arcade residents would see no reason to incorporate when the county's efforts bear fruit in three to five years. "Can we do things better? Sure, but I wish they'd give us a chance to try."

Minor fixes to Arden Arcade, however, will not appease Davis, a soft-spoken former bureaucrat who fielded his share of angry calls from residents like himself while he worked as a waste water-treatment official in Long Beach.

Now, he's a silver-haired retiree convinced the county is not set up to serve suburbs such as Arden Arcade.

Atop Davis' list of grievances is representation. Each of the five supervisors serves 250,000 people, but Davis wants to create a five-member city council in Arden Arcade, with each member representing 17,000 residents.

"Maybe we can do it better," he said. "The City of Arden Arcade has a nice ring to it."

It would be at least 2006 before voters see an incorporation question before them at the ballot box, where cityhood drives ultimately sink or swim. Davis hopes to ramp up a publicity campaign next year, and he has been making the rounds to neighborhood associations and park boards with his favorite story about the waffle shop and reading the newspaper.

County officials have spent the past four years refining a plan to be more responsive to the suburbs, giving communities more control over land use and limited decision-making power.

The plan includes promises to be more responsive and to beef up code enforcement. Creating a city in Arden Arcade was never discussed as an option.

"This is not intended to win over anybody on the incorporation question," said Paul Lake, interim neighborhood services director.

"It's intended to provide the best service for people; that's what this is all about."

Sacramento County has 550,000 residents living in urbanized areas outside of city boundaries. That leaves the county to pay for expensive services such as planning, animal control and law enforcement - services often provided by cities that amounted to $21 million from county finances last year.

If incorporation takes off, Arden Arcade would rely heavily on sales tax dollars to pay for services. Millions that the new city would have received from vehicle license fees was cut by two-thirds by a new state law that keeps most of the money with the state.

County officials have not calculated how much they spend to serve Arden Arcade, but part of the area's tax base supports poorer areas such as Rio Linda and Foothill Farms, both aging bedroom communities with few commercial areas.

Foothill Farms activist Lisbeth Gray said cityhood in Arden Arcade would rob her neighborhood of a shot at revitalization.

"Essentially, what they will do is strangle the county's ability to do much of anything for us, so we will never become self-sustaining," she said. "So what's happening is this corner of the county will dwindle into a severely blighted, sadder and sadder community."

Davis shrugs off those concerns as the county's problem.

"I can understand what the county's problem is, but it reinforces my view that the elected (officials) haven't done anything to change the way they do business in last few years," Davis said.

"I would think this would be an opportunity for the elected officials to get rid of some big headaches like us and say, 'If you want it, let them have it.' "

County supervisors have dismissed Davis' effort to create a new city as an small effort by a fringe group with no backing.

The Arden Arcade Cityhood Study Team, however, has an advantage over suburban residents frustrated with the county - advice and financial support from officials in Citrus Heights, Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova.

Political events also may be on Davis' side. Supervisors Johnson and Roger Niello, two of the most outspoken critics of cityhood, are no longer on the board. Incoming Supervisor Susan Peters has taken no position on cityhood for Arden Arcade, which falls in her district. Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan helped shepherd Citrus Heights to cityhood and got her start in politics on the first City Council there.

"I'd rather look at how we can make it happen, rather than standing in their way," she said during the campaign.

As a city, Arden Arcade would model itself after Citrus Heights, which is also largely built out with an older population and a large retail base.

Since becoming a city, Citrus Heights has stashed $30 million in reserves, doubled the number of police officers on the street, revitalized the city center, and will repave every street in the city in a few years, City Manager Henry Tingle said.

"The will of the people always wins out," he said. "If Arden Arcade is dead set to move ahead to incorporation, there's nothing the county can do to stop it."

About the writer:

* The Bee's Cameron Jahn can be reached at (916) 321-1038 or cjahn@sacbee.com.

Posted by cystdog at 05:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

~grist-mag: Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment

Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment | By Glenn Scherer | Grist Magazine | Main Dish | 27 Oct 2004

A kind of secular apocalyptic sensibility pervades much contemporary writing about our current world. Many books about environmental dangers, whether it be the ozone layer, or global warming or pollution of the air or water, or population explosion, are cast in an apocalyptic mold.
- Historian Paul Boyer

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place ...
- Revelation 6:12-14

Abortion. Same-sex marriage. Stem-cell research.

U.S. legislators backed by the Christian right vote against these issues with near-perfect consistency. That probably doesn't surprise you, but this might: Those same legislators are equally united and unswerving in their opposition to environmental protection.

Forty-five senators and 186 representatives in 2003 earned 80- to 100-percent approval ratings from the nation's three most influential Christian right advocacy groups -- the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council. Many of those same lawmakers also got flunking grades -- less than 10 percent, on average -- from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

These statistics are puzzling at first. Opposing abortion and stem-cell research is consistent with the religious right's belief that life begins at the moment of conception. Opposing gay marriage is consistent with its claim that homosexual activity is proscribed by the Bible. Both beliefs are a familiar staple of today's political discourse. But a scripture-based justification for anti-environmentalism -- when was the last time you heard a conservative politician talk about that?

Odds are it was in 1981, when President Reagan's first secretary of the interior, James Watt, told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. "God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back," Watt said in public testimony that helped get him fired.

Today's Christian fundamentalist politicians are more politically savvy than Reagan's interior secretary was; you're unlikely to catch them overtly attributing public-policy decisions to private religious views. But their words and actions suggest that many share Watt's beliefs. Like him, many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse.

We are not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. The 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from the leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress. (The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian Coalition was Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, who earlier this year quoted from the Book of Amos on the Senate floor: "The days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread or of thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord!") These politicians include some of the most powerful figures in the U.S. government, as well as key environmental decision makers: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Republican Conference Chair Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), Senate Republican Policy Chair Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and quite possibly President Bush. (Earlier this month, a cover story by Ron Suskind in The New York Times Magazine described how Bush's faith-based governance has led to, among other things, a disastrous "crusade" in the Middle East and has laid the groundwork for "a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.")

And those politicians are just the powerful tip of the iceberg. A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks.

Like it or not, faith in the Apocalypse is a powerful driving force in modern American politics. In the 2000 election, the Christian right cast at least 15 million votes, or about 30 percent of those that propelled Bush into the presidency. And there's no doubt that arch-conservative Christians will be just as crucial in the coming election: GOP political strategist Karl Rove hopes to mobilize 20 million fundamentalist voters to help sweep Bush back into office on Nov. 2 and to maintain a Republican majority in Congress, says Joan Bokaer, director of Theocracy Watch, a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University.

Because of its power as a voting bloc, the Christian right has the ear, if not the souls, of much of the nation's leadership. Some of those leaders are End-Time believers themselves. Others are not. Either way, their votes are heavily swayed by an electoral base that accepts the Bible as literal truth and eagerly awaits the looming Apocalypse. And that, in turn, is sobering news for those who hope for the protection of the earth, not its destruction.

Once Upon End Time

Ever since the dawn of Christianity, groups of believers have searched the scriptures for signs of the End Time and the Second Coming. Today, most of the roughly 50 million right-wing fundamentalist Christians in the United States believe in some form of End-Time theology.

Those 50 million believers make up only a subset of the estimated 100 million born-again evangelicals in the United States, who are by no means uniformly right-wing anti-environmentalists. In fact, the political stances of evangelicals on the environment and other issues range widely; the Evangelical Environmental Network, for example, has melded its biblical interpretation with good environmental science to justify and promote stewardship of the earth. But the political and cultural impact of the extreme Christian right is difficult to overestimate.

It is also difficult to understand without grasping the complex belief systems underlying and driving it. While there are many divergent End-Time theologies and sects, the most politically influential are the dispensationalists and reconstructionists.

Tune in to any of America's 2,000 Christian radio stations or 250 Christian TV stations and you're likely to get a heady dose of dispensationalism, an End-Time doctrine invented in the 19th century by the Irish-Anglo theologian John Nelson Darby. Dispensationalists espouse a "literal" interpretation of the Bible that offers a detailed chronology of the impending end of the world. (Many mainstream theologians dispute that literality, arguing that Darby misinterprets and distorts biblical passages.) Believers link that chronology to current events -- four hurricanes hitting Florida, gay marriages in San Francisco, the 9/11 attacks -- as proof that the world is spinning out of control and that we are what dispensationalist writer Hal Lindsey calls "the terminal generation." The social and environmental crises of our times, dispensationalists say, are portents of the Rapture, when born-again Christians, living and dead, will be taken up into heaven.

"All over the earth, graves will explode as the occupants soar into the heavens," preaches dispensationalist pastor John Hagee, of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. On the heels of that Rapture, nonbelievers left behind on earth will endure seven years of unspeakable suffering called the Great Tribulation, which will culminate in the rise of the Antichrist and the final battle of Armageddon between God and Satan. Upon winning that battle, Christ will send all unbelievers into the pits of hellfire, re-green the planet, and reign on earth in peace with His followers for a millennium.

Dispensationalists haven't cornered the market on End-Time interpretation. The reconstructionists (also known as dominionists), a smaller but politically influential sect, put the onus for the Lord's return not in the hands of biblical prophesy but in political activism. They believe that Christ will only make his Second Coming when the world has prepared a place for Him, and that the first step in readying His arrival is to Christianize America.

"Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ," writes reconstructionist George Grant. Christian dominion will be achieved by ending the separation of church and state, replacing U.S. democracy with a theocracy ruled by Old Testament law, and cutting all government social programs, instead turning that work over to Christian churches. Reconstructionists also would abolish government regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. EPA, because they are a distraction from their goal of Christianizing America, and subsequently, the rest of the world. "World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish," says Grant. "We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less." Only when that conquest is complete can the Lord return.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

People under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the Apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a Word?

Many End-Timers believe that until Jesus' return, the Lord will provide. In America's Providential History, a popular reconstructionist high-school history textbook, authors Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell tell us that: "The secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie ... that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece." However, "the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's Earth. The resources are waiting to be tapped." In another passage, the writers explain: "While many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."

Natural-resource depletion and overpopulation, then, are not concerns for End-Timers -- and nor are other ecological catastrophes, which are viewed by dispensationalists as presaging the Great Tribulation. Support for this view comes from an 11-word passage in Matthew 24:7: "[T]here shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Other End-Timers see suggestions of ecological meltdown in Revelation's four horsemen of the Apocalypse -- War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death -- and they cite a verse mentioning costly wheat, barley, and oil as foretelling food and fossil-fuel shortages. During the End Time, the four horsemen shall be "given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." Some End-Timers note that Revelation 8:8-11 predicts a fiery mountain falling into the sea and causing great destruction, followed by a blazing star plummeting from the sky. This star is called "Wormwood," which dispensationalists say translates loosely in Ukrainian as "Chernobyl."

A plethora of End-Time preachers, tracts, films, and websites hawk environmental cataclysm as Good News -- a harbinger of the imminent Second Coming. Hal Lindsey's 1970 End-Time "non-fiction" work, The Late Great Planet Earth, is the classic of the genre; the movie version pummels viewers with stock footage of nuclear blasts, polluting smokestacks, raging floods, and killer bees. Likewise, dispensationalist author Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" novels -- at one point selling 1.5 million copies per month -- weave ecological disaster into an action-adventure account of prophesy.

At RaptureReady.com, the "Rapture Index" tracks all the latest news in relation to biblical prophecy. Among its leading environmental indicators of Apocalypse are oil supply and price, famine, drought, plagues, wild weather, floods, and climate. RaptureReady webmaster Todd Strandberg writes to explain why climate change made the list: "I used to think there was no real need for Christians to monitor the changes related to greenhouse gases. If it was going to take a couple hundred years for things to get serious, I assumed the nearness of the End Times would overshadow this problem. With the speed of climate change now seen as moving much faster, global warming could very well be a major factor in the plagues of the tribulation."

Another prophecy index points to acts of nature (drought in Ethiopia, famine in South Africa, floods in Russia, fires in Arizona, heat waves in India, and the breakup of the Antarctic ice shelf) as proof of the approaching doomsday, noting that "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28).

According to a chart on the End-Time website ApocalypseSoon.org, we are at "the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:3-8) marking the Great Tribulation. The site links to a BBC News article on infectious diseases and a chronicle of extreme weather events on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan's climate-change website as evidence of those unfolding sorrows. However, it adds a stern disclaimer regarding these external links: "We do not, by any means, approve or recommend some of the sites that this page links to. They were chosen simply because they document literally what the Word of God prophesies for the End Days."

If I Had a Hammer

To understand how the Christian right worldview is shaping and even fueling congressional anti-environmentalism, consider two influential born-again lawmakers: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

DeLay, who has considerable control over the agenda in the House, has called for "march[ing] forward with a Biblical worldview" in U.S. politics, reports Peter Perl in The Washington Post Magazine. DeLay wants to convert America into a "God centered" nation whose government promotes prayer, worship, and the teaching of Christian values.

Inhofe, the Senate's most outspoken environmental critic, is also unwavering in his wish to remake America as a Christian state. Speaking at the Christian Coalition's Road to Victory rally just before the GOP sweep of the 2002 midterm elections, he promised the faithful, "When we win this revolution in November, you'll be doing the Lord's work, and He will richly bless you for it!"

Neither DeLay nor Inhofe include environmental protection in "the Lord's work." Both have ranted against the EPA, calling it "the Gestapo." DeLay has fought to gut the Clean Air and Endangered Species acts. Last year, Inhofe invited a stacked-deck of fossil fuel-funded climate-change skeptics to testify at a Senate hearing that climaxed with him calling global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

DeLay has said bluntly that he intends to smite the "socialist" worldview of "secular humanists," whom, he argues, control the U.S. political system, media, public schools, and universities. He called the 2000 presidential election an apocalyptic "battle for souls," a fight to the death against the forces of liberalism, feminism, and environmentalism that are corrupting America. The utopian dreams of such movements are doomed, argues the majority leader, because they do not stem from God.

"DeLay is motivated more than anything by power," says Jan Reid, coauthor with Lou Dubose of The Hammer, a just-published biography of DeLay. "But he also believes in the power of the coming Millennium [of Jesus Christ], and it helps shape his vision on government and the world." This may explain why DeLay's Capitol office furnishings include a marble replica of the Ten Commandments and a wall poster that reads: "This Could Be The Day" -- meaning Judgment Day.

DeLay is also a self-declared member of the Christian Zionists, an End-Time faction numbering 20 million Americans. Christian Zionists believe that the 1948 creation of the state of Israel marked the first event in what author Hal Lindsey calls the "countdown to Armageddon" and they are committed to making that doomsday clock tick faster, speeding Christ's return.

In 2002, DeLay visited pastor John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. Hagee preached a fiery message as simple as it was horrifying: "The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse!" he said, urging his followers to support the war, perhaps in order to bring about the Second Coming. After Hagee finished, DeLay rose to second the motion. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "what has been spoken here tonight is the truth from God."

With those words -- broadcast to 225 Christian TV and radio stations -- DeLay placed himself squarely inside the End-Time camp, a faction willing to force the Apocalypse upon the rest of the world. In part, DeLay may embrace Hagee and others like him in a calculated attempt to win fundamentalist votes -- but he was also raised a Southern Baptist, steeped in a literal interpretation of the Bible and End-Time dogma. Biographer Dubose says that the majority leader probably doesn't grasp the complexities of dispensationalist and reconstructionist theology, but "I am convinced that he believes [in] it." For DeLay, Dubose told me, "If John Hagee says it, then it is true."

Onward Christian Senators

James Inhofe might be an environmentalist's worst nightmare. The Oklahoma senator makes major policy decisions based on heavy corporate and theological influences, flawed science, and probably an apocalyptic worldview -- and he chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

That committee's links to corporate funders are both easier to trace and more infamous than its ties to religious fundamentalism, and it's true that the influence of money can scarcely be overstated. From 1999 to 2004, Inhofe received more than $588,000 from the fossil-fuel industry, electric utilities, mining, and other natural-resource interests, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Eight of the nine other Republican members of Inhofe's committee received an average of $408,000 per senator from the energy and natural resource sector over the same period. By contrast, the eight committee Democrats and one Independent came away with an average of just $132,000 per senator from that same sector since 1999.

But the influence of theology, although less discussed, is no less significant. Inhofe, like DeLay, is a Christian Zionist. While the senator has not overtly expressed his religious views in his environmental committee, he has when speaking on other issues. In a Senate foreign-policy speech, Inhofe argued that the U.S. should ally itself unconditionally with Israel "because God said so." Quoting the Bible as the divine Word of God, Inhofe cited Genesis 13:14-17 -- "for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever" -- as justification for permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and for escalating aggression against the Palestinians.

Inhofe also openly supports dispensationalist Pat Robertson, who touts every tornado, hurricane, plague, and suicide bombing as a sure sign of God's return; who accused both Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr. of being followers of Lucifer; and who makes no secret of the efforts of his Christian Coalition to control the Republican Party, according to Theocracy Watch.

A good fundamentalist, Inhofe scored a perfect 100 percent rating in 2003 from all three major Christian-right advocacy groups, while earning a 5 percent from the League of Conservation Voters (and a string of zeroes from 1997 to 2002). Likewise, eight of the nine other Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee earned an average 94 percent approval rating in 2003 from the Christian right, while scoring a dismal 4 percent average environmental approval rating. The one exception proves the rule: Moderate Lincoln Chafee (R.-R.I.) last year earned a 79 percent LCV rating and just 41 percent from the religious right.

As committee chair, Inhofe has subtly chosen scripture over science. The origins of his 2003 Senate speech attacking the science behind global climate change, for example, reveal his two masters: the speech is traceable to fossil fuel industry think tanks and petrochemical dollars -- but also to the pseudo-science of Christian right websites. In that two-hour diatribe, Inhofe dismissed global warming by comparing it to a 1970s scientific scare that suggested the planet was cooling -- a hypothesis, he fails to note, held by only a minority of climatologists at the time. Inhofe's apparent source on global cooling was the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a Christian-right and free-market economics think tank. In an editorial on that site called "Global Warming or Globaloney? The Forgotten Case for Global Cooling," we hear echoes of Inhofe's position. The article calls climate change "a shrewdly planned campaign to inflict a lot of socialistic restriction on our cherished freedoms. Environmentalism, in short, is the last refuge of socialism." Inhofe's views can be heard in the words of dispensationalist Jerry Falwell as well, who said on CNN, "It was global cooling 30 years ago ... and it's global warming now. ... The fact is there is no global warming."

Inhofe's views are also closely tied to the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship, a radical-right Christian organization founded by radio evangelist James Dobson, dispensationalist Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Jerry Falwell, and Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest who has been editing Vatican texts to align the Catholic Church's historical teachings with his free-market philosophy, according to E Magazine.

The ICES environmental view is shaped by the Book of Genesis: "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the seas, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on this earth." The group says this passage proves that "man" is superior to nature and gives the go-ahead to unchecked population growth and unrestrained resource use. Such beliefs fly in the face of ecology, which shows humankind to be an equal and interdependent participant in the natural web.

Inhofe's staff defends his backward scientific positions, no matter how at odds they are with mainstream scientists. "How do you define 'mainstream'?" asked a miffed staffer. "Scientists who accept the so-called consensus about global warming? Galileo was not mainstream." But Inhofe is no Galileo. In fact, his use of lawsuits to try to suppress the peer-reviewed science of the National Assessment on Climate Change -- which predicts major extinctions and threats to coastal regions -- arguably puts him on the side of Galileo's oppressors, the perpetrators of the Christian Inquisition, writes Chris Mooney in The American Prospect.

"I trust God with my legislative goals and the issues that are important to my constituents," Inhofe has told Pentecostal Evangel magazine. "I don't believe there is a single issue we deal with in government that hasn't been dealt with in the Scriptures." But Inhofe stayed silent in that interview as to which passages he applies to the environment, and he remained so when I asked him if End-Time beliefs influence his leadership of the most powerful environmental committee in the country.

And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon

So weird have the attempts to hasten the End Time become that a group of ultra-Christian Texas ranchers recently helped fundamentalist Israeli Jews breed a pure red heifer, a genetically rare beast that must be sacrificed to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy found in the biblical Book of Numbers. (The beast will be ready for sacrifice by 2005, according to The National Review.)

It can be difficult for environmentalists, many of whom cut their teeth on peer-reviewed science, to fathom how anyone could believe that a rust-colored calf could bring about the end of the world, or how anyone could make a coherent End-Time story (let alone national policy) out of the poetic symbolism of the Book of Revelation. But there are millions of such people in America today -- including 231 U.S. legislators who either believe dispensationalist or reconstructionist doctrine or, for political expediency, are happy to align themselves with those who do.

That's troubling, because the beliefs in question are antithetical to environmentalism. For starters, any environmental science that contradicts the End-Timer's interpretation of Holy Writ is automatically suspect. This explains the disregard for environmental science so prevalent among Christian fundamentalist lawmakers: the denial of global warming, of the damaged ozone layer, and of the poisoning caused by industrial arsenic and mercury.

More important, End-Time beliefs make such problems inconsequential. Faith in Christ's impending return causes End-Timers to be interested only in short-term political-theological outcomes, not long-term solutions. Unfortunately, nearly every environmental issue, from the conservation of endangered species to the curbing of climate change, requires belief in and commitment to an enduring earth. And yet, no amount of scientific evidence will likely shake fundamentalists of their End-Time faith or bring them over to the cause of saving the environment.

"It's like half this country wants to guide our ship of state by compass -- a compass, something that works by science and rationality, and empirical wisdom," quipped comedian Bill Maher on Larry King Live. "And half this country wants to kill a chicken and read the entrails like they used to do in the old Roman Empire."

Those who doubt the dangers of such faith-based guidance need only recall the 9/11 hijackers, who devoutly believed that 72 black-eyed virgins awaited them as their reward in paradise.

In the past, it was not deemed politically correct to ask probing questions about a lawmaker's intimate religious beliefs. But when those beliefs play a crucial role in shaping public policy, it becomes necessary for the people to know and understand them. It sounds startling, but the great unasked questions that need to be posed to the 231 U.S. legislators backed by the Christian right, and to President Bush himself, are not the kind of softballs about faith lobbed at the candidates during the recent presidential debates. They are, instead, tough, specific inquiries about the details of that faith: Do you believe we are in the End Time? Are the governmental policies you support based on your faith in the imminent Second Coming of Christ? It's not an exaggeration to say that the fate of our planet depends on our asking these questions, and on our ability to reshape environmental strategy in light of the answers.

Many years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to his "religious grandparents," who, whenever they were asked about the future, proclaimed, "Armageddon's comin'!" And they believed it. Christ was due back any day, so they never bothered to paint or shingle their house. What was the point? Over the years, I drove by their place and watched the protective layers of paint peel, the bare clapboards weather, the sills and roof rot. Eventually, the house fell into ruin and had to be torn down, leaving my friend's grandparents destitute.

In a way, their prediction had proven right. But this humble apocalypse, a house divided against itself, was no work of God, but of man. This is a parable for the 231 Christian right-backed legislators of the 108th Congress. Their constituency's cherished beliefs may lead to the most dangerous and destructive self-fulfilling prophecy of all time.

- - - - - - - - - -

Glenn Scherer is an author and freelance journalist whose stories have recently appeared in Salon.com, TomPaine.com, and other publications. He is former editor of Blue Ridge Press, a syndicated environmental commentary service in the Southeast.

Posted by cystdog at 05:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

~latimes:high school student chronicles the effects of gentrification

Los Angeles Times: Turning a Lens Homeward
A high school student chronicles the effects of gentrification on her neighborhood.
By Daniel Hernandez
Times Staff Writer
January 24, 2005

A year ago, high school junior Stephanie Cisneros had never heard the word "gentrification," but in many ways, she already knew what it meant. She was watching it happen all around her in the Echo Park neighborhood she's called home since she was 5 years old.

Stephanie saw working-class neighbors losing their rental units, only to see the apartments revamped and priced far higher than before.

She saw old storefront businesses close and disappear. Familiar faces, gone.

"I said, 'What's going on here?' " Stephanie recalled.

Curious and troubled, she began carrying a borrowed digital camera around the neighborhood to document the changes.

On Saturday night, Stephanie's 17th birthday, the public got an early peek of her work during a screening of a short cut of the film she's making on the neighborhood's gentrification. It prompted a discussion on recent changes in the neighborhood.

"It reflected the sentiments of the community," said Humberto Flores, 34, a film student who attended the screening at the volunteer-run Echo Park Film Center on Alvarado Street, itself fighting a proposed tripling of its rent. "The neighborhood is coming up … but some are getting pushed out."

Flores added: "If I were to leave my apartment … it would go up $400."

It's a view that many others have been expressing in Echo Park, where the overwhelming forces of Southern California's tight housing market have been causing gradual shifts in the neighborhood's demographics and income levels.

Residential and commercial prices have been rising rapidly, forcing out low-income working families and young bohemians.

Stephanie, who lives with her two younger sisters and parents, immigrants from Mexico City, said a former landlord often reminded the family that their apartment could command two or three times their roughly $500 monthly rent.

That spurred Stephanie, a student at Downtown Magnets High School, to action.

Since June, she has spent hours interviewing business owners and residents on weekends and after school. She has researched the area's history, the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council and housing cooperatives.

With help from multimedia coordinator Jerold Kress at the Bresee Foundation's community center near Koreatown, Stephanie hopes to finish the film by next summer and may enter it in competitions.

"My whole bent is youth should tell their own stories," said Kress, of Echo Park. "It's not CNN coming in and doing a story on Echo Park. She has the experience. It's her family and friends that are affected by what's happening."

"I really didn't think I was going to start this project…. A lot of people my age don't know what gentrification is," said Stephanie, a first-time filmmaker who borrowed digital cameras and editing equipment from the Bresee Foundation, a nonprofit community outreach organization. "But when they finally closed Pioneer Market, I said, 'OK, I am doing this.' "

Stephanie was referring to the decades-old supermarket at Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue that closed in August. Though workers' compensation costs — not rent prices — forced the owner to close the store, many residents saw its departure as a symbol of the changes in Echo Park.

Several people in Stephanie's film described the loss of Pioneer Market, with its hometown feel and stock of Latino and Asian products, as a blow to Echo Park's character. Stephanie shot footage inside the store in its final days, the sparse shelves providing a striking contrast to earlier images of a bustling business.

A Walgreens drugstore is replacing the market. For weeks, a banner announcing the store's arrival has hung on a fence near the store, a thick black line scratched through the store's name and the word "No" scribbled over it.

In recent months, Echo Park's transformation has drawn protests.

On the morning of the neighborhood council elections in December, protesters marched down Sunset Boulevard, decrying the area's "reurbanization." And the issues have been discussed at length in passionate and often heated exchanges on a popular online message board for Echo Park residents and activists.

Councilman Eric Garcetti, who represents the area, has held forums and tenants' rights seminars, and is pushing for stricter rent stabilization laws and low-cost housing. But changes to the area are hard to resist, said Josh Kamensky, his spokesman.

"There's a sort of unstoppable cycle, of people working hard to make their neighborhood a nice place to live, and that attracts developers," Kamensky said.

Some residents see the changes as significant, but not yet cause for alarm. Andrew Garsten, a longtime Echo Park activist and a member of the neighborhood council, said some "unscrupulous landlords" had taken advantage of non-English-speaking immigrants, pushing them out of their apartments. But for the most part, Echo Park has retained its identity as a welcoming place, he said.

"No matter how high and crazy things have gotten here, it's still affordable compared to other places," Garsten said. "It's just higher than it's ever been before. I don't think the neighborhood has been changing that fast."

Stephanie said she was trying to capture the views of the working-class, mostly immigrant residents of Echo Park, who she said hadn't been given enough information on what the changes mean.

"There's always two sides to a story. I also want to show how [the changes] will improve the area," Stephanie said. "I want to show this to the people on the other side of gentrification and have them pay attention to the tenants, to the residents of Echo Park, and not make them feel unwelcome."

After Saturday's screening, Stephanie stood a little nervously before the audience. She listened to audience members offer their views on gentrification from their experiences in Venice and Santa Monica.

"Hopefully, you'll be able to spread the word," she said. "Learn from this. I want this to be a tool for other people."

Posted by cystdog at 05:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2005

Historical Amnesia? I think this stop is in Rancho as well

Historical Amnesia
Originally uploaded by eecue.

I spotted this on flickr and cracked up. This bus bench must exist in Rancho somewhere. I've got to find it. Reading the last two years news articles in the Bee, Biz Journal and Grapevine, you'd think the period of time in Rancho history from 1977-2002 never existed. What's worse, is the absence of action, or even public comment to the Bee, to the County, over that time by some of Rancho's most celebrated leadership luminaries on issues like crime, child abuse and death, gangs, income property neglect, the housing of homeless children in cheap motels along with mentally ill "assisted living" patients, felons and probationers; the list goes on, even extending into the post-incorporation "era". Example: Olsen Drive Pedestrian Crossings?(A street srrounded by the busiest and most profitable retail center in the City of Rancho Cordova???) Not one, NOT one utterance in official city documents of any kind with the words "Croetto Way", "Woodberry Way", "Redburn Lane", "DeSoto Way", "Crawford Way", "Glenmoor Drive"... there are more, the list is staggering.

The slogan "Silence=Death" has a analogue in Rancho leadership circles....

"Silence=Rock with Plaque".

Posted by cystdog at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 24, 2005

Photos others have taken of Mather Lake

I came across two photo archives of Mather Lake that were really encouraging to find.

The first gallery, hosted on Yahoo by "mayrobinson26", is from a local resident who appears to regulary walk the trail north of the golf course and on into the lake trail area on the east shore, and to nearby vernal pools and prairie.

Their collections titled "prairie", "park", "Birds in Mather Park", and "Mather Regional Park" are a real treat. They even stumbled upon what appears to be a gopher snake while west of the golf course and Eagles Nest Road in the prairie area.

The second gallery, hosted on PBase by "Dave H", consists of photos taken from a canoe. Very Cool! They managed to capture several shots of a Great Blue Heron in taking off and in flight, as well as a Great Egret "in repose" as they float by.

The hightlight for me of their photo-journey was the crossing of the Morrison Creek Flume. When I spotted this, I was blown away, and am now determined to rent a canoe and do it myself.

They took a great photo looking back west across the flume to Mather Lake, showing a plush, green "explosion" on the other side of the cold concrete flume.

The flume crosses the Folsom South Canal and is about 15 feet above the water in the canal. After riding my bike below the flume, along the canal bike trail, and hiking past the flume from the lake side, seeing it from the Douglas side (now the Safeway shopiing center side) was pretty cool.

I hope to find more photos of the lake and nearby park and Morrison Creek, or photos of the seasonal vernal pools. If you have photos, and are either unable to have them hosted, or don't know how to post them online, email me and I'll gladly host them, or help you to set up your own gallery online.

Posted by cystdog at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It's official: Mints' Spring Rolls Rock

mints_springrolls_012305_c 002
Originally uploaded by scupper.

I just had to officially declare that Mint's Euro Asian Restaurant Vietnamese Spring Rolls with lean pork, poached shrimp, lettuce, rice vermicelli, mint and peanut sauce ROCK as 2 day old leftovers.

I love that place. Only downer is that they aren't handling their growing business too well. The wait time to be seated is getting longer, and even take out is longer than it should be. I hope they don't run off business because they're understaffed.

When I was there Saturday, a frog couple was ahead of me after I returned to pic up my take out. They thought I'd just rolled in, but it was an hour after I'd called in the order, and it was my second attempt at getting the goods.

The frogs were visibly angry, cursing in French under their breath. The other customers wouldn't have understood, but I'm sure the staff understood. The male frog went outside, in a typical dramatically sweeping frog way, and the woman stayed inside for me to bs with. She was like a thirty-somthing version of Catherine Deneuve.

I ALMOST bought them a drink at the bar, just to smooth out their dining experience there and leave a good memory of Rancho Cordova Americans, but then it struck me, they'd probably think they were in Carmichael or Gold River when asked about their treatment there later, so I passed on the thought.

Posted by cystdog at 06:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2005

Rancho Renaissance Unplugged

Rancho Renaissance Unplugged
Originally uploaded by scupper.

When I first saw this psychic center put it's light up in May-June '04, I nearly had a seizure laughing my arse off. The irony of the Mayor and the medium having the same first name called into my mind so many quotes I'd read.

Strangly, the sign was taken down the next night, and it made me suspicious of possible cirumstances of the disappearance. About 2 months after it's removal, it reappeared.

It would not surprise me if the clarion call went out to the Old Guard of the "neon "blasphemy"'s existence and the need for removal, or permitting.

Such sense of urgency over a neon light, yet ambivilance towards the neighborhood behind this business sickens me. The environment thousands of children have grown up in for over 20 years in the surrounding apartment complexes just defies explanation.

I'll be visiting Linda the psychic and asking her about the Croetto Ghetto's future. I figure Linda the Card Reader should come up with more answers about Croetto than the Linda the City Council member and community leader has over the last 20 years concerning the Croetto Ghetto.

I wonder what nurturing and sustinance of a neighborhood like Croetto as a community leader does to one's Kharma? Maybe the psychic can tell me. Somehow, I suspect a Rock with Plaque will be "in the cards".

Posted by cystdog at 11:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Alien in our midst - U.B.L.Os sighted at Mather Lake

Alien in our midst
Originally uploaded by scupper.

I spotted 2 Unidentified Bird-Like Objects @ Mather Lake which appeared in the last 120 days. Took pics of them on the 16th. I do not know their purpose, or who placed them there, but I intend on finding out. It's probably part of some study, I hope.

Complete photoset:
Unidentified Bird-Like Objects @ Mather Lake

Posted by cystdog at 04:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

~EWG Press release:Second Thoughts on Perchlorate Study?

National Academy Scientists Say Many Reporters Missed the Real Story

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 18 – Last week, a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel released a long-awaited report on health effects of the toxic rocket fuel chemical perchlorate. Much of the U.S. news media reported the NAS found the chemical is dramatically safer than previously thought, so Americans shouldn’t be too worried about its widespread occurrence in drinking water supplies.

But that’s not what the report said. Since its release, NAS panel members have made it clear their findings do not set safe drinking water levels of perchlorate, which can disrupt production of thyroid hormones needed for growth and development. They say other safety factors – the heightened risk to infants and the added presence of perchlorate in milk and food – must be considered that would result in a drinking water standard nearly as low as any proposed or adopted by federal or state regulators.

Evidence that many reporters got the perchlorate story wrong comes from several sources, all available at www.ewg.org:

-- An e-mail, obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), from the NAS panel chairman to California health scientists, saying “[O]ur recommendation dealt with a dose from all sources . . . and this should be corrected for the weight of the individual.” He said he tried to set the record straight “when we saw how often the press got it wrong,” but by then most stories had been published or broadcast.

-- A memo from the American Water Works Association advising its 4,700 member utilities that a drinking water standard based on the NAS findings could be as low as 1.7 parts per billon (ppb) – almost identical to the standard proposed by Massachusetts, the most stringent perchlorate standard proposed anywhere.

-- A public radio interview in which a scientist from the NAS panel, asked if the findings must be adjusted to reflect infants’ lower body weight and additional perchlorate exposures besides drinking water, replied: “[A]bsolutely correct.”

EWG has also analyzed dozens of news reports about the study to determine where mistakes were made and why. Our analysis suggests that at least some of the blame falls to the Academy’s press release, which said NAS recommended a reference dose (RfD) that was 23 times weaker than the reference dose in EPA’s 2002 perchlorate risk assessment.

Based on that recommendation, many reporters calculated on their own that a drinking water standard would also be 20 or more times higher than the EPA had recommended. But there were problems with that approach:

-- EPA never recommended a drinking water standard. The 1 ppb widely reported as the EPA “standard” was actually a hypothetical extrapolation from the Agency’s RfD – without the consideration of added factors.

-- Many reporters didn’t seem to understand, and the NAS release did not explain, the differences between a drinking water standard and a reference dose. An RfD is the safe level per unit of body weight, and the level considered safe to consume from all sources. By law, drinking water standards must consider the lower body weight of infants, and when exposure comes from additional sources, a drinking water standard is set lower to keep overall levels down.

EWG has written to the NAS, requesting that they issue a statement clarifying their findings for federal and state regulators who will set drinking water standards.

“Perchlorate polluters have already begun a PR and lobbying campaign to persuade the public, elected officials and regulators that the Academy decided that higher levels of perchlorate in drinking water are safe for even infants and nursing mothers,” EWG President Ken Cook wrote. “If the record isn’t set straight, we could end up with standards that leave millions of people at risk.”

[note new phone extension]

Bill Walker, Vice President/West Coast
Environmental Working Group & EWG Action Fund
1904 Franklin St. #703 Oakland CA 94612
t: (510) 444-0973, ext. 301 | f: (510) 444-0982
bwalker@ewg.org | www.ewg.org

Posted by cystdog at 03:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 18, 2005

Breaking the Holy Law: Browsing the Web as administrator?

Security Developer Center: Columns: Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator Part 1 Part 2

I got the heads up to this pair of MSDN articles by Microsoft Security Engineering Michael Howard off the activedir list and thought it was pretty interesting. The pair of articles discuss techniques of using SAFER to run IE and other applications using restricted tokens, stripped of various privileges and SIDs, and through local or enterprise "Software Restriction Policies" in the GPO.

The first article (Part 1) discusses using SAFER (Software Restriction Policies) through API functions like SaferCreateLevel and SaferComputeTokenFromLevel through an app offered called "DropMyRights".

The second article lays out how use the group policy editor to modify Software Restriction Policies, focusing on setting app permissions for the "Basic User".

The first article references Aaron Margosis'WebLog, "The Non-Admin blog - running with least privilege on the desktop". It's a gold mind of tip and techniques.

Posted by cystdog at 09:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 17, 2005

~slashdot:"you'll start formatting your hard drive the minute you visit my Web page"

Slashdot | Brian Hook on the ActiveX Experience
Posted by Hemos on Monday January 17, @09:32AM
from the poorly-made-and-maintained dept.

Obiwan Kenobi writes "Brian Hook of id software fame got around to developing on ActiveX and found some minor grievances, particularly in the security department. To quote: "I've been doing some ActiveX coding on the side for a couple days, stuff I'm not familiar with, and I'm just flat out _appalled_ at how bad that entire API and design is. I can make an OCX that basically formats your hard drive, stick it on a Web page with a tag, and if your security settings are set low enough, you'll start formatting your hard drive the minute you visit my Web page.""

Posted by cystdog at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Said the Fisherman: "Where are those lake maps you told me about?"

While I was taking photos yesterday at Mather Lake, I overheard a few fishermen talking about the "the best spot" for fishing in the lake. I'd had my own best spots, some of which I won't reveal, but it occurred to me that I should share the water depth map I have from the Resource Management Study. It's not widely available, in fact, one could say it's "obscure".

At the very least, it's not easily found or available. Aside from County Parks and Rec having copies, I imagine the only other copies might exist at the County Central Library. An even greater long shot would be at the Rancho Cordova Branch Library.

As one of the fisherman walked past me down the levee headed south, I decided to approach him about the map. He seemed interested in getting a copy. Another fisherman came over after hearing the conversation and was also interested, as well, he shared some info I was interested in, the Bass spots, which for me had long ago dried up from years before the dieoff in 1994. The best I've been able to do back in my old spots at the south end of the lake was Blue Gill, and once a small trout, which blew me away when I pulled it in. I'd thought the water would be too warm and shallow at that end of the lake.

Both fishermen I spoke with with back at the dam were, of course, interested in the lake depth maps, as I was and have been since a kid, and wanted to know where to get a copy. That's when the awkward fun began explaining my domain and blog URL. So, to make it easier, I set up (rather painlessly) another MT blog called "Mather Lake".

If it appears the site starts to get traffic, and more interest is expressed by folks out at the lake, I'll get a domain for it, to make it easier for people to find it. I still need to wqork on adding to the site, expanding it, but it will get there. I also set up an email that will be easy for folks to remember: matherlake at gmail dot com.

This week, I'm going to contact the Parks Dept. about placing copies of the habitat, aquatic habitat and water depth maps in one of the kiosks at the entrance to the lake. I'd also like to ask them if I can post photos of the trash people are leaving around the lakeside, in the kiosk, and maybe some photos of what trash looks like inside fish after they've digested it.

It just makes no sense:

leave trash at the lake side

it blows into the lake and begins to degrade

fish eat part of the debris once it's become broken up into small pieces

fish gets sick from trash

people catch and eat fish

people eat the trash they leave via the fish

Isn't it obvious that if you plan to eat fish out of that lake, you shouldn't pollute it? Hopefully the parks dept. will agree to my request.

Posted by cystdog at 09:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Al Pacino at Mather Lake?

011605_rotary_benches (1)
Originally uploaded by scupper.

I photographed the Rotary improvements at Mather Lake Rotary Park Sunday morning, and each bench includes a dedication to the person who sponsored the bench. I came across this bench sponsored by "Al Pacino". I'd like to think that it's the actor Al Pacino, as it would make it more interesting, but I'm grateful to any Al Pacinos' out there that would support the lake. My first thought after reading this plaque was:

Ricky Roma:
You never open your mouth until you know what the shot is.

Posted by cystdog at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2005

Future member of the Scupper crew?

Trixie, Urgent...Needs a home

This might be a future member of the Scupper crew. She's slated to "walk the plank" so it adds a special meaning to adopt her. Stay tuned!

The image “http://www.petfinder.org/fotos/CA348/CA348.3807284-1-x.jpg”

Posted by cystdog at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 11, 2005

Tower in fog

Tower in fog
Originally uploaded by giori.

This is a great shot of Sacramento nightlife in December. When I lived in Land Park on 7th Ave and on Jones Way, I used to ride down here and hang out. It's really come around since then. A hopping place at night.

Posted by cystdog at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MLK walk info and Celebration site launched

MLK Celebration - Sacramento

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee

From the NAACP Sacramento Chapter Mailing List:

/scratch/scupper