Vélorution gauchiste

Why grade separations exist...

2008-10-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

...to protect trains from moronic drivers, like this one.

On my bicycle ride home tonight, I arrived to find this situation around 6 p.m. at the rail crossing at County Road 32 (CR32) and County Road 105 in rural Yolo County, between Davis and Sacramento.

According to the Amtrak investigator I talked to briefly, the woman was heading east on CR 32, missed the turn, started down the bike path, realized her error, turned right, went up the embankment and basically flew to this position well down the tracks. Yes, she must have been flying, and may have been DUI. She was taking the breathalyzer as I took these images; that's her with the CHP officer in far background (click on image to enlarge.)

All Capitol Corridor trains were held in both directions, unfortunate for hundreds of passengers. Fortunately, I was on my bike and missed this delay...and missed this driver who is a real hazard!

Images: Paul Dorn
Visit: Bikes crowding onto transit, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Bikes on Board Amtrak's Capitol Corridor, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Amtrak Capitol Corridor celebrates 15 years, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site

XTC: Dear God

2008-06-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

Great song by an underrated 80s pop group XTC. My sentiments, exactly.

More on Downer cows from HSUS

2008-06-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

Meat production consumes more energy and creates more pollution than transportation. This video left me wondering about the mental health of the workers at these auction lots or packing plants. Do they leave the brutality at the workplace when they go home? Or do they share it with their wives and children?

"Sex with your car"

2007-05-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sex with Your Car - commercial - kewego

Sex with Your Car - commercial - kewego
Mercury Mistress, a new model of car which you can actually have sex with.

Keywords: commercial love ad car sex model mercury mistress

Video from ryosann

Big Papi, little puppy

2007-02-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm a dog-loving Red Sox fan. How could I not post an image like this, of Boston slugger David "Big Papi" Ortiz, kissing his dog Mikey during conditioning exercises at the Sox' spring training facility in Ft. Myers, Florida.

San Francisco Chronicle, still a Bush toady

2007-01-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

January 12, 2007

Letters to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

RE: Photo of teary Bush on front page.

Editor:

On Thursday, millions of people across the U.S. participated in protests against President Bush's proposed escalation of the war in Iraq, including several protest events in the Bay Area.

Yet on the Chronicle's front page today, above the fold no less: An image of George W. Bush crying at an event honoring a dead Marine. Your "coverage" of the anti-war protests--an image with brief caption--was buried on page A7.

The U.S. is stuck in the deadly Iraqi quagmire in part because a supine media has failed to challenge Bush administration arguments. Your decision to "humanize" Bush by featuring this image so prominently--while diminishing coverage of the opposition to his pointless war--shows the Chronicle continues to be a biased administration toady.

If Bush really cared about troops dying in Iraq, he would order their immediate withdrawal, not award them posthumous medals. And some wonder why fewer of us are reading newspapers.

Sincerely,

Paul Dorn

Only a few weeks 'til spring training

2007-01-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

I'm cursed by ancestry to be a Boston Red Sox fan. Much to the regret of my non-sports enthusiast wife. She saved this "Pardon My Planet" cartoon for me.

Marketing cartoon with puppies

2007-01-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hey, I work as a marketing professional. So why not. I've had this on my file cabinet for some time, yellowing. Put it on my blog instead! Image is a man selling puppies ("chick magnets").

Vehicle size and genitalia insecurity

2006-12-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

Tip of the cap to Bangers and Mishmash blog.

As my intelligent brother Jeff in Maine says: "The bigger the truck the smaller the penis. Which is of course a metaphor for small self image. You don't see red necks driving around in a VW Bug with a gun rack and a confederate flag do you? Big trucks feed that part of an individual that needs to be bigger than life because reality bites."
Image: Tom The Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling.
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips

Jackie Greene on Conan O'Brien

2006-11-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

This is for my beloved spouse Marianne, who is a big fan of Jackie Greene. We first encountered Greene during our years residing in the great biking town of Davis, California. He was making a name on the Sacramento music scene, and getting lots of attention in the local press. We finally had a chance to see him live in February 2005, performing a solo acoustic set at the Varsity Theatre in Davis. He absolutely lived up to the hype. We saw him again earlier this year at the Fillmore in San Francisco, with a band and considerably louder. He's great.

49ers grab Rec and Park resources

2006-11-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

I never intended to turn this blog into a screed against the 49ers. However, as events progress, the cost the city of San Francisco pays to keep the NFL franchise in town grows more evident. As a letter writer to the San Francisco Examiner indicated this week (responding to an earlier letter), a significant share of the city's Recreation and Parks Department budget is consumed maintaining the 49ers ballpark.

My earlier posts on this topic have talked about what could be done with the space vacated by the Niners. But the city could also realize immediate benefits from not subsidizing a professional sports franchise.

And it was disappointing to read in yesterday's Chronicle that other areas of our beloved city might now be in the Battleship York's gunsights. It's also frustrating that the "missing the story" journalism rife in SF tries to frame the team's departure .) It's even more disappointing that the city's political leadership has so little vision for a better city.

Goodbye 49ers, call if you need help moving out

2006-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

The 49ers are leaving. Good riddance. Sadly, I've been disappointed by the silly response from Mayor Gavin Newsom, California's senior senator Diane Feinstein, and other in San Francisco's political class. I have to hope it's all just rhetorical posturing. I understand that Newsom doesn't want to be tagged as "the mayor who 'lost' the Niners," but he can't really want to keep this money grabbing, subsidy sucking, land wasting operation in San Francisco?

San Francisco can gain a lot by demolishing Monster Park and transforming this expanse of empty pavement and concrete--when it's not filled a mere 8-10 days a year with tailgating yuppies--into housing, offices, shops, and improved parkland (Crissy Field south).

Monster Park is a money losing blight for the city. A vibrant new neighborhood and park space would create lots of fulltime jobs, instead of a few dozen part-time seasonal work selling beer and hot dogs. And affordable housing opportunities instead of pavement. And lots of new tax revenues. There is at least one proposal out there that suggests San Francisco could realize $400 million from demolition of Monster Park and sale to developers.

So why is the Mayor posturing. And is there any politician who is a more shameless headline chaser than DiFi? Aren't there bigger priorities Senator, like, say, getting the heck out of Iraq?!? Do you represent California, which ostensibly includes Santa Clara, or just Bechtel, errr, San Francisco? Gawd I detest DiFi.

Image: Google Earth. Satelitte image of Monster Park and parking lots. Notice tire tracks from skidding racers. This space is largely vacant 350 days a year, and is an attractive destination for miscreants. A waste.

Just who does Pelosi represent, anyway?

2006-11-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

I often wonder just what district Nancy Pelosi represents: anti-war, anti-Bush San Francisco; or some district in her native Maryland. I mean, really, has she ever even lived in California. Now that she's installed, she can get on with her agenda: blocking Bush's impeachment (going against her district) and continuing funding to the Iraq debacle.

Tim Redmond's editorial in this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian, "Pelosi is not one of us," pretty much sums up Pelosi's noxious career. "But if the right-wing talk show hosts are worried about San Francisco liberals like me, they can take it easy: Nancy Pelosi is not one of us."

Image: Web capture. Pelosi and Bush, partners in crime.

Pink Martini Swings San Francisco

2006-11-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

Last night my wife and I enjoyed the Pink Martini concert at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. They included several new songs from their forthcoming third album, and also performed this favorite. An entertaining 12-member band.

Pink Martini 2nd Album: Hang on Little Tomato
Pink Martini 1st Album: Sympathique

49ers to leave SF? Good riddance!

2006-11-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

Imagine all this pavement and concrete transformed into housing, offices, stores, parkland, schools, habitat... That was the theme of this letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. Let the 49ers leave, good riddance:

November 12, 2006

Letters to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco CA 94103

RE: 49ers Move to Santa Clara

Editor:

The 49ers' departure provides a great opportunity to renew the Bayview and Hunter's Point neighborhoods. ("Lure of Burbs: Like families, franchises can't resist spreading out, starting over," San Francisco Chronicle, 11.12.06)

Instead of a football stadium offering a few weeks of low-paid seasonal employment and abundant beer-swilling motorists jamming neighborhood streets--with ugly expanses of empty parking lots for the rest of the year--we can create a vibrant community with much-needed residential, retail, and office space where Monster Park now resides.

In addition, we can extend the Bay Trail and expand and enhance Candlestick Point State Recreation Area into a "Crissy Field South," which will attract wildlife, bird-watchers, and tourist dollars to southeast San Francisco. Improved natural and urban areas will both provide permanent employment and economic opportunities for neighborhood residents and businesses.

San Franciscans shouldn't mourn the departure of a greedy NFL franchise, which seeks only to maximize its profits. The 49ers have manipulated and exploited the Bayview and Hunter's Point communities for decades. Let those few San Franciscans who actually attend 49ers games--a small minority of city residents--make the trip to Santa Clara.

It's time to recognize the great possibilities for a city without the blight of a football stadium.

Sincerely,

Paul Dorn
San Francisco

See: "San Francisco Gains From 49ers Move to Santa Clara", BeyondChron.org, 11.14.06
Image: Telstar Logistics

What would Jesus eat?

2006-11-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

Van seen parked near Green Festival in San Francisco.

For the record, not that anyone is asking, I am 1) a vegetarian; and 2) an atheist. I was once upon a time a leftist ready to concede the existence of Jesus as an actual historic person, not divine but instead a charismatic pacifist revolutionary. Kind of like a new age hippie.

However, I now since been persuaded that Jesus never existed at all. John Rose's article for the International Socialism Journal was effective. Most persuasive was Karl Kautsky's great examination, Foundations of Christianity. Another comprehensive expose is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming's great documentary The God Who Wasn't There.

Many became open to new conceptualizations of "Jesus" in the wake of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The success of the book and film had the Catholic Church on the defensive for a period. But the Catholic Church (and Christianity in general) has survived Luther, Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Einstein, Freud...and I'd guess, sadly, that it will continue to oppress and deceive for decades after Dan Brown.

Image: Paul Dorn.

Damp hike in Point Reyes

2006-11-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

This soggy delight is my wife, Marianne Skoczek, during a rainy day hike in early November to Pierce Point Ranch at Point Reyes National Seashore. Approximately 30 miles north of San Francisco, Point Reyes is an incredible natural area, thankfully protected from development. There was some rain during our recent visit, but it didn't prevent us from enjoying the great hiking.

Cops always have the best dope

2006-11-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

Virginia sheriff, 12 employees indicted
"Prosecutors said that for the past eight years, cocaine, steroids, marijuana and other drugs that had been seized by the sheriff's department were resold to the public. A sergeant who agreed to cooperate with investigators was paid off by the ring to use his house for distributing drugs, authorities said."

Isn't it way, way past time to decriminalize drugs? Maybe do what other countries do, treat substance abuse as a medical problem, not a criminal problem. Anyone agree that such a course might make our sad nation slightly better? Using cops to fight drug abuse is like using gravediggers to fight a fatal epidemic.

See: Drug Policy Alliance
See: Drug Reform Coordination Network

The sectarian left holds a scowl-fest

2006-10-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

Pre-election protest calls for end to Iraq war
Market Street march draws colorful crowd
"About 1,000 anti-war activists marched through San Francisco on Saturday in a lively protest that combined chants, cheers and street theater."

October 28th ANSWER Anti-War Protest
"People in cities all over the US heeded ANSWER's Call to Action to organize locally coordinated anti-war activities for Saturday, October 28th. ANSWER said, 'The people will force the issue of the Iraq war onto the U.S. political stage by taking to streets in demonstrations in cities and towns throughout the United States.' ANSWER also protesed Bush's denial of the number of Iraqis who have died in the war, and the threat of a war on North Korea."

OK, here's the problem with the American left. It's just over a week before the November mid-term elections. On a Saturday when many mainstream Democrats, Greens, and progressives are walking precincts, tabling, phonebanking, or otherwise working in support of candidates for various positions, what does the sectarian left do? Call for an antiwar protest!

The mainstream activists who are sympathetic to calls to end the Iraq war are busy, and don't participate. So the march is a small, demoralizing gathering of the hardcore left, who scowl at each other as they sell their newspapers. If elections really don't matter--and I'm one who agrees that Democrats are no alternative--then why have the protest 10 days before the election? Why not after?

If the goal is to break progressives away from any illusion in the Democratic Party, then why not wait when you can have a march that attracts more of them to a protest where they can interact with socialists, anarchists, and other radicals? Yes, the Democrats are a delusion. They are not an alternative. However, to make that argument, you need to engage people. And if mainstream activists don't come, how do radicals engage them?

Image: Indymedia.org

Who says racism is unfashionable?

2006-10-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

My Sunday newspaper contained an insert advertising this curious product, advising that "This first ever Native American influenced Nativity is a very special, limited time offer, and strong demand is expected." (Sic.) And only $49.95! Send no money now! Who wouldn't want this heirloom item in their "collection" of dust-gathering ceramics?

This "collectible" is so offensive on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin. So I'll ask the following: Who does this offend more?

- Indigenous Americans who have suffered generations of genocidal slaughter at the bloody hands of "Christian" oppressors; or
- "Good" Christians who know that "our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" was a blondish, blue-eyed white male (as unlikely as that would be in First Century Judea.)

SacBee.com is awful

2006-10-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today's "vent" of the day. My wife forwarded me the link for an article. And this is my reply to her, with a CC to the Sacramento Bee:
The next time you want to forward an article from SacBee.com, just copy it and paste it into the message. The SacBee.com site basically SUCKS.

All content is password protected, requiring one to register. I understand why from a marketing perspective capturing visitor information is important, among other things for reporting demographics and such to advertisers. However, it's a real pain.

I have been a registered user of SacBee.com for a while, but I rarely visit the site, and rarely remember username or password, tried several times to recall what obvious combo it might have been, and basically gave up. Maybe they have cookies, but I clean those out pretty frequently.

The Bee should find other means of incentivizing registration. In this age of bloggers linking promiscuously to content, they're going to avoid sites like the Bee's that are overly protective of content. They'll go to sites like the San Francisco Chronicle (lessor paper, better site, with archived content) or the LA Times, or whatever. This registration thing also inhibits search engine spiders/robots, further diminishing traffic to SacBee.com.

Online advertisers want "Eyeballs". That means traffic. The Bee's barriers to easy traffic access seem rather stupid, frankly. But whom am I to say. I only do a little online marketing...

Cheers,

Pablo
And yes, this posting is directed "Register@sacbee.com" whoever that
may be, more than you, beloved spouse.

--- Marianne Skoczek wrote:
Going to the blogs: http://www.sacbee.com/136/story/31704.html

If the Brits leave, who'll be our "poodle"?

2006-10-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

YAHOO! News: UK troops worsen problems in Iraq: army chief.
Hmmmm. I wonder if Bush will say that General Sir Richard Dannatt is not "credible".

I stick by my assertion of June: The biggest group of armed killers, rapists, thieves, torturers, and abusers in Iraq is not Al Quaeda, "insurgents", or the various militias. The biggest gang of killers is the U.S. Military.

Why does "Christian" Bush hate children?

2006-10-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today's always excellent TomDispatch.com features this quote from historian Howard Zinn:

"I came to the conclusion that, given the technology of modern warfare, war is inevitably a war against children, against civilians. When you look at the ratio of civilian to military dead, it changes from 50-50 in World War II to 80-20 in Vietnam, maybe as high as 90-10 today… When you face that fact, war is now always a war against civilians, and so against children. No political goal can justify it, and so the great challenge before the human race in our time is to solve the problems of tyranny and aggression, and do it without war."

Exactly. Which is why Alexander Cockburn is correct when he describes the U.S. as the greatest force for evil in the world today.

Natasha St-Pier: Vivre ou survivre

2006-10-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Oh, why not. It's Friday, and lookie what I found. As the leading Francophile on at least my block, I've been a big fan of Natasha St-Pier for a few years. I first encountered her on an interview in the audiomagazine Champs-Elysées; and soon had acquired all her available albums. This song doesn't appear on any of them. If St-Pier performed in English, I'd probably be ashamed. Hey, I don't listen to Britney. But, sigh, in French...

Les chanteuses: une autre raison pour aimer le français. (Ma chanson préférée par St-Pier est «Nos rendez-vous». Formidable. Mes autres chanteuses préférée s'inclu la super Patricia Kaas. Et aussi Sandrine François. Et les autres, bien sûr.)

We wouldn't want to inconvenience motorists...

2006-10-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Few things frustrate me more than this, the all too common blocked pedestrian crossing, or three-legged intersection. Pedestrian delay matters less than motorist convenience, this says. This crossing is located in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, a neighborhood long blighted by the Central Freeway. The neighborhood has started to revitalize, drawing more pedestrians. Let's hope this situation is one of the first to be remedied.

Fleet Week Wastes Taxpayer Dollars--Again

2006-10-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a letter to the editor by my wife. I whole-heartedly agree, of course. People are dying--here and abroad--because of American military excess. Let's stop this nonsense.

Editor, San Francisco Chronicle:

It's Fleet Week again in San Francisco, a disruptive annual celebration of militarism that reminds us why so much of the world's population is so disgusted by the U.S. It's loud, obnoxious, and impossible to ignore. At a time when many in this country and in this city lack adequate education, housing, healthcare, or employment opportunities, is this military orgy the best use of our tax dollars?

Sincerely,

Marianne Skoczek
San Francisco, CA

Homophobia has no place in reggae

2006-09-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I learned about Buju Banton. A friend of mine CC'd me his email to a club in Los Angeles protesting his appearance there. Didn't know much about Buju, so I did some internet searching. Man, this Buju dude sounds like a loser. What happend to "one love"? Wassup with the homophobia thing? The Rasta-Leviticus excuse for homophobia is such BS. Doesn't Buju know about the famous Dr. Laura letter, the best refutation of "Biblical" authority I've ever seen.

I'm happy to say that Buju's Los Angeles and San Francisco shows have been cancelled. Dunno why hate seems to be popular. "It's, like, got a cool groove dude, I cn dance 2 it." Like ain't there about 3,000 other artists out there with a "cool grove" that ain't about hate? Like, say, Michael Franti & Spearhead

From Wikipedia

Banton has incited a considerable amount of international controversy because of his 1992 song "Boom Bye Bye" which calls for violence against homosexuals — including shooting them in the head, pouring acid over them and setting them on fire. As a result, Banton was forced by his label to issue a statement; nevertheless he refused to apologize, citing his Rastafarian religion, citing the Bible (Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13) as the basis for his beliefs. Banton still performs the song, notably at the Smirnoff Festival in Negril, Jamaica 8 August 2004. As a consequence, Banton's concerts are often met with protesting crowds and calls for cancellation. His most recent scheduled performance in Seattle in the diverse neighborhood of Capitol Hill was canceled due to local outrage from the LGBT community.

Footnote: Apart from the homophobia, I enjoy Jamaican music and culture. Among other things I'm happy to be friends with the great artist Keith Morrison. Gratuitous plug for Keith's site, which I created for him.

Animals and war, NGO abstentionism

2006-09-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Just one more example of how war hurts absolutely every living being...
Orphaned Lebanese pets getting new homes

It's really disappointing that every nonprofit organization--enviro, animal, arts, healthcare, housing, bicycling, whatever--has NOT taken a STRONG, VOCAL position of opposition to the American Imperial War Project.

Among other things, billions of dollars that might otherwise be used to, say, spay and neuter animals, or clean up the environment, or build bike paths, or pay art teacher salaries, or whatever--are instead used to kill Iraqis.

These NGOs have to stop waiting for the Democrats to say its OK to oppose this wasteful stupid war.

That's kind of the point of my new blog:
War Budget Gone Bad

Soldiers & Drugs, Veterans & Addicts

2006-09-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is the story you just had to know was coming:

Times Online: "Soldiers in 'guns for coke' scandal" 09.24.06

Anyone wanna bet that American soldiers aren't likewise implicated? The stories that aren't being reported out of the "Iraqi theatre" would fill volumes. Drug use among American military personnel just ain't getting reported to us here in "Support Our Troops" land.

At a recent film screening event ("The War Tapes"), I asked some Iraq Veterans Against the War activists about drug use among Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers. They affirmed that "self medication" is, if not rampant, certainly not uncommon.

You don't have to revisit the Vietnam War experience to understand that frustrated people in frustrating situations often turn to mind-altering substances for psychological relief. Afghanistan has reemerged as the global leader in opium production. Despite all the violence, just looking at a map we know that it has to be easier to get opium to Iraq than it is to get it to Los Angeles.

Given the abundant corruption of this as all other wars, we also shouldn't be surprised if senior military officers aren't themselves involved in drug trading and smuggling.

In addition to blown up limbs and minds, we can expect a new generation of veteran addicts.

Yet more evidence, as if more could possibly be needed, that this Iraq occupation must end. Immediately.

More nonsense from Al Qaeda

2006-09-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

The news agency Reuters reports a recent tape played on Al Jazeera, purportedly by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, alleged leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. It's filled with many gruesome gems, such as:

"The fire has not and will not be put out and our swords, which have been colored with your blood are thirsty for more of your rotting heads," said the speaker, identified in the recording as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Muhajir, who became the group's leader after his predecessor Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed in June, called on Muslims to unite and asked each insurgent to kill one American in the next 15 days, saying victory was near.

"I urge you not to throw down your weapon or give yourself or the enemy a rest until each one of you kills at least one American in a period not exceeding 15 days, with a sniper bullet or ... explosive device or suicide car bomb, whatever the battle requires."

As Robert Dreyfus recently wrote so eloquently, there is no chance that the Al Qaeda nutjobs will take over Iraq. Even this Reuters article concedes that "Al Qaeda makes up about 5 percent of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency." That's a mere 5 percent of the Sunnis only, not including the Shiites or Kurds or others; hardly a majority movement, even in Iraq. Meanwhile Bush and company keep talking about the desire of these theocratic wackos to create a "caliphate from Indonesia to Spain."

One has to wonder, is there really any threat from Al Qaeda, or are they simply the Middle East equivalent of famed American theocractic sociopath Fred Phelps?

After spending billions in a purported fight to defeat Al Qaeda, we also have to raise a larger question: Who is more delusional, George Bush or Abu Hamza al-Muhajir? (Of course, I understand that "Islamofascism" is just a pretext for funneling lucrative contracts to Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, etc. It was once "communists", now it's "Al Qaeda." Whatever. It's all gravy to Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman.)

9/11 Five Years After: Time for a "War on Comets"!

2006-09-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

The Bush Administration likes to boast that "national security" is its top priority, job one, first responsibility, primary task, whatever. Therefore, to (allegedly) protect Americans, the Bush Administration has directed massive funding to the likes of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, TRW, General Dynamics, and many other war profiteers to create the armaments for the so-called "war on terror."

However, despite spending many billions of dollars on this ridiculous "war on terror"--federal funding, by the way, not spent on education, healthcare, transportation, housing, whatever--most Americans don't feel any safer. And if only they realized how threatened they actually are. Not by terrorists, but by celestial objects!

In an excellent and provocative essay on CommonDreams.org last week, former Nixon White House counselor John Dean cites an academic who has studied the real risk terrorists pose to Americans:

For example, John Mueller, a professor of political science at Ohio State University, asserts in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that "the lifetime chance of an American being killed by international terrorism is about one in 80,000 --about the same chance of being killed by a comet or a meteor."

When answering the question "Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?," Professor Mueller concludes that, "Although it remains heretical to say so, the evidence so far suggests that fears of the omnipotent terrorist -- reminiscent of those inspired by images of the 20-foot-tall Japanese after Pearl Harbor or the 20-foot-tall Communists at various points in the Cold War (particularly after Sputnik) -- may have been overblown, the threat presented within the United States by al Qaeda is greatly exaggerated. The massive and expensive homeland security apparatus erected since 9/11 may be persecuting some, spying on many, inconveniencing most, and taxing all to defend the United States against an enemy that scarcely exists."

Wait just a minute! Did Professor Mueller of the Ohio State University say the threat posed by comets and meteors is as great as the threat posed by unshaven men in caves?!? Huh? How can the Bush Administration say their top priority is "national security", yet they appear to be doing nothing to protect us from a massively catastrophic strike by a malicious meteor? Where is the "War on Comets"?!? And that's just rocks out there? What about defense against extraterrestrial forces? I saw War of the Worlds.

Therefore, I propose that the Bush Administration start awarding massive contracts to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Halliburton, and other worthy protectors of American existence for a "War on Comets"! If we have to liquidate Social Security to enable the profits--er, efforts of these great corporate partners in national defense, so be it! Let's go America! Wake up to the threat!

As an afterthought, I offer the following:
• Number of Americans killed on 9/11: 2,973
• Number of Americans killed in traffic collisions, 2001: 42,196

I grieve for the victims of 9/11. I also grieve for the 214,000 people killed on our roadways in the past five years, many of whom were pedestrians or bicyclists. I also grieve for all the victims of this criminally destructive Bush Administration.

Do J-schools teach derriere bussing, or is it learned on the job?

2006-09-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle:

Here's a CC on my letter in response to your article "Pay Dirt." When people are literally dying from Lebanon and Iraq to Bayview and the Tenderloin, and when corruption is rampant from D.C. to City Hall, it must be really frustrating to have your talents squandered on the trivial tribulations of the region's wealthiest people.

Articles such as "Pay Dirt" rarely bring their writers or publications major distinction, such as Pulitzer, AJR, CJR, or SPJ recognition. However, it must be a great relief to other national news organizations when the Chronicle withdraws from serious journalism.

It will be a great day when the San Francisco Chronicle focuses on journalism, and leaves celebration of the overly pampered affluent to publications such as the Nob Hill Gazette or Gentry. I wish you better luck with your next assignment.

Cheers,

Paul Dorn

September 10, 2006

Letters to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

RE: "Pay Dirt: Atherton residents outraged by town's high fees for
hauling excavated earth"

Editor:

I understand that the Chronicle's mission is to celebrate the affluent. That's why, among other things, thousands of trees and gallons of ink are consumed each year to show several pages of women in evening gowns at the Symphony's opening concert.

However, your article about residents in exclusive Atherton distressed at the high costs of excavating for home improvements ("Pay Dirt," 9/9) was really too much. This article's placement--front page above the fold--as the _most_ important news story of the day is an outrage.

At a time when millions in our country lack adequate healthcare, housing, or security, it's truly insulting to have the inconvenience of the affluent rubbed in our faces. Shameful.

Sincerely,

Paul Dorn
San Francisco CA

Shameless Self Promotion

2006-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

The excellent Radio Parallax program, hosted by my friend Douglas Everett, had an interesting segment on program 220 on the Tour de France, bicycling, and impacts of automobiles. (Yes, I was a participant; great editing made me sound almost intelligent.)

The complete program, including the bike segment, is available here: Radio Parallax

Radio Parallax can be heard every Thursday at 5 pm on KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, and of course as a podcast or streaming audio. It's a fun and informative show.

All the news, fluffed up for easy consumption

2006-09-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

So the big news this week is the debut of perky Katie Couric as host of the CBS Evening News. I pretty much stopped watching network televison about two decades ago, so I can't comment on the quality of their latest "infotainment" product. But it appears that they introduced a new segment, "freeSpeech", where they allow some blowhard a few minutes of airtime to blather. The latest was drug addict and liar Rush Limbaugh. The Truthdig.com website offered a link to the segment, which was a typical blast of "talent on loan from God" nonsense. Media Matters had links to send comments to CBS, so why not. I sent the following:

TO: CBS NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC
Rush Limbaugh?!? Rush Limbaugh!?! You give time to that documented dissembler and propagandist? Shameful. Surely there have to be more insightful commentators available to you, people who might offer a perspective that hasn't been offered repeatedly already. I might suggest: Katha Pollit, Michael Parenti, Ali Abunimah, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman, Alexander Cockburn, Dave Lindorff, etc. (Sigh, if only...I might start watching network TV again.) OK, I know those examples are "outside the range" of acceptable opinion offered on network television, but surely any of the hosts of Air America Radio--which outrates Limbaugh in most markets where they match up, Rush the liar conquers the empty backwaters--are tame enough to appear on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

REAL NEWS: DemocracyNow! - the best news coverage in U.S.
CLARIFICATION: CounterSpin - weekly radio program from FAIR
AMUSEMENT: RadioParallax - insightful and well-humored look at the news and issues

Fox guarding the hen house, example #4,786

2006-08-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Veteran Rail and Industrial Executive Alexander Kummant Appointed Amtrak President and CEO

It can't be a good thing to have a former Union Pacific VP running Amtrak. That's like letting Halliburton run the Pentagon or the oil industry run the White House! Oh wait, they already do...

It will be a great day when the US gets serious about bike-friendly passenger rail.

Links:
National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP)
Train Riders Association of California (TRAC)

We understand what really matters

2006-08-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

I had so very, very much hoped that our decade-long NATIONAL NIGHTMARE would finally, finally end--then suddenly all the charges were dropped in the JonBenet Ramsey case. Will our torment never end?!?

The death of any child is certainly tragic. But I've had a hard time understanding why the death of this child was so, so much more important than the deaths of thousands of kids killed by traffic in the US, or by Hurricane Katrina, or by US bombs dropped in Iraq and Lebanon, or whatever. The real tragedy is that our media won't ask questions like: "Why hasn't George Bush been impeached?" But they can tell us EVERYTHING about this child beauty contest winner.

Some commentators suggest that Americans are simply shallow, stupid, uncaring; and the media just gives us what we want. Others suggest that the media makes us shallow, stupid, and uncaring with their reporting on trivial issues instead of substantial examinations of politics, society, and culture.

I prefer to think that Americans are indeed smart. We understand that the US isn't a democracy (remember Florida 2000? Supreme Court? Huh?) Our opinion--informed or otherwise--simply doesn't matter to the direction of national policy. Polls consistently show Americans favor an end to the occupation of Iraq, favor more spending on helping poor people, favor more spending for education, oppose increases in defense spending, and so on. And these opinions simply don't matter and aren't represented in our government.

This is one of the central theses of Noam Chomsky's new book, Failed States. The US is a failed state. It's not a democracy. So, really, why should people pay attention to national policy. Better to pay attention to tabloids. What's Mel Gibson up to these days, anyway?

2006-08-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

The inertia ends, the car departs

2006-08-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

My wife and I are losing 3,500 pounds of unnecessary weight! Take that Jenny Craig! We're finally--finally--selling our litely used Honda Civic

We've been considering this a long time. The payments stopped ages ago, not much expense beyond insurance, gas, oil changes, and minimal maintenance. But some major repairs loom on the near horizon (timing belt, clutch, etc.), and we use it so rarely that it isn't worth the investment.

In the city, owning a car is really much more of a nuisance than a convenience. Without the car, we will continue to walk and bike for most trips, use transit for other trips, take Amtrak or Caltrain to most near out-of-town destinations, we can rent cars for other weekend excursions, use cabs to get Muki to vet, and maybe join a car sharing organization--there are not one, but three (!) here in San Francisco: Zipcar, Flexcar, and City Car Share.

Mostly we were inspired by the new book, How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life by Chris Balish. I'm actually quoted in Chapter Five. This was the final straw: How could we really "walk the talk?" So we're going from "car-lite" to "car-free". Balish has been making the talk show rounds and other book promo stuff. Check it out: NPR, KNBC-TV 4 Los Angeles, and KQED-FM "Forum".

Imperialism is barbarism

2006-08-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

This week Common Dreams posted a curious essay by Richard K. Betts, "How Superpowers Become Impotent." (Originally published in the Los Angeles Times.) Betts, director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, essentially suggests how imperialist powers should behave in conflicts: massive power in war, massive aid in occupation. This was a puzzling piece to see on a progressive site like Common Dreams. Most curious was this paragraph:

"Short of barbarism, there are only two ways to reduce guerrilla ranks faster than new recruits refill them. One is to rely on special forces such as Green Berets...The other is to saturate a country with regular troops standing on every street corner."

Only two ways? Helllloooo?!? How about acknowledging that imperialism is barbarism and abandon the pursuit of global hegemony? Iraq is clearly a quagmire. Many supporters of the American imperial project are having second thoughts. These shouldn't be granted legitimacy by anti-imperialists and progressives.

What exactly is the "War on Terror"?

2006-08-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

I really wish progressive commentators would stop using the term "War on Terror." Let's call it what it is, a "War on the Poor."

What exactly is the "War on Terror," or its popular acronym, GWOT? Most sane people outside the Oval Office understand that "terror" is a tactic generally employed by groups too poor to acquire F-16 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, or M1 Abrams battle tanks. As the cliché goes: "War is the terror of the rich, and terror is the war of the poor."

In other words, those who resort to "terror" are people so impecunious and immiserated and hopeless that they take up whatever weapons are available to challenge their perceived oppressors. (Kind of like colonial Americans fighting the British.) They're bitter and angry and ripe for rebellion. Often, sadly, the only leadership available to these wannabe anti-imperialists isn't a secular left-wing opposition, but a kooky reactionary religious opposition. Hizbollah isn't popular because of its fundamentalist ideology, but because it is a credible resistance movement.

Instead of scolding Bush for neglecting or mismanaging the "war on terror," it would be helpful if progressives would call for a "campaign against poverty." A vigorous global anti-poverty effort would do more to assure security and well-being than an endless assault on poor people around the world, especially those misfortunate enough to reside in nations with abundant energy resources and abundant religious extremists.

A serious campaign against poverty is long overdue, domestically (remember New Orleans, anyone?) and internationally. This is the biggest crime of the Bush regime. They have no strategy for fighting poverty, other than massive tax cuts for the most affluent, aggressive globalization, and a relentless military effort to control strategic resources. When pressed (rarely) on the poverty issue, Bush and company suggest their extensive efforts on behalf of the wealthiest will produce "jobs."

The so-called "War on Terror" is merely an intensification of the war on the poor. And, as we see in Iraq and Lebanon, the "War on Terror" is producing even greater poverty, guaranteeing future recruits for terrorist groups.

It's way past time for progressives to expose the War on Terror for what it really is: a war on poor people.

Stop Israeli thuggery...

2006-08-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

In response to a TrueMajority e-activism campaign to support a ceasefire in the Middle East, I wrote to my useless Congressperson Nancy Pelosi. I dunno what good it might do, considering how firmly Zionist the U.S. government is. Disappointed by the weak message TrueMajority provides, here's the letter I wrote, (which barely begins to express my disgust, I'd have needed a ton of profanity):

Representative Boxer:

I'm disgusted by Israel's massive attack against the people of Lebanon, simply because they prefer not to negotiate with Hezbollah on prisoner exchange and other issues. The resort to force, rather than negotiation, sets a dangerous precedent.

I'm further disgusted by the U.S. government's unconditional support for Israeli thuggery. I urge you to demand an immediate ceasefire, and begin an investigation of our continued economic and military support for the State of Israel.

Just what are American taxpayers getting for their significant support to Israel, a bully nation with a long history of assaulting neighboring nations. Just what is our unconditional support yielding, besides the enmity of the entire Muslim world and most of the rest of the planet's peoples.

Please step up and join the efforts to push for a quick end of the killing of children and civilians on all sides. Thank you for your consideration.

TAKE ACTION: http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/middleeastceasefire

Pelosi, get your head out of your...

2006-06-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Despite some very slight upticks, Bush's approval ratings continue to drown in Nixonian depths. The Democrats, if they really wanted to recapture Congress, could do so by turning the 2006 midterm elections into a national referendum on Bush's leadership, especially on his handling of the Iraqi quagmire. Anyone wanna hold their breath until that happens? Look for the Dems to languish in mediocrity. And, of course, the most disappointing Democratic leader has been our own Nancy Pelosi, whose quest for greater personal power overwhelms any other interest. In response to one of those email campaigns by True Majority, I customized a message to my lame Democratic Congressperson.

---------------

Representative Nancy Pelosi:

The most disappointing aspect of your Congressional representation has been your failure to lead on Iraq. We are not going to make real progress on anything--not healthcare, education, housing, transportation, environment, nothing, nada--until we end the killing in Iraq and derail the Imperial War Machine. Period.

The biggest group of armed killers, rapists, thieves, and abusers in Iraq is not Al Quaeda, "insurgents", or the various militias. The biggest gang of killers is the U.S. military. The Haditha incident is just the tip of the iceberg in Iraq. U.S. troops are doing nothing positive in Iraq. We must demand their withdrawal now!

Many U.S. soldiers will return from Iraq with severe physical, mental, and psychological injuries. Their families and communities, and American taxpayers, will continue to bear the burden of these wounds for decades. Soldiers now killing women and children in Iraq will come home to abuse their spouses and kids. Let's "support the troops" by bringing them home. NOW!

Your district is San Francisco. I wish you would start representing your district's sentiments. Stopping the funding for this disaster in Iraq would be a start.

Thank you for your consideration.

Paul Dorn
San Francisco, CA

MoveOn.org Becomes Irrelevant

2006-05-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

I received this today from MoveOn.org, which has essentially become a 527 group for the Democratic Party. Sigh. Such potential, wasted...

The Subject Line: "Which 3 big goals should we fight for? Vote today!" Note the list below. Helllloooo?!? Our country is killing, abusing, torturing, poisoning, and raping people in Iraq!?! Perhaps you've heard? Helllloooo?!?

1) Stop the war 2) Troops home 3) Cut Pentagon budget.

We're not going to make real progress on anything--not healthcare, education, transportation, environment, nada--until we derail the Imperial War Machine. Period.

If the "left" of the Democratic Party won't even demand an anti-war position, then why should the DLC bother? MoveOn.org seems to be saying: "We don't mind the Empire, we just wish it smiled more."

Yuck!

--- "Ben Brandzel, MoveOn.org Political Action" wrote:
Subject: Which 3 big goals should we fight for? Vote today!

Dear MoveOn member,

Last Thursday, nearly 10,000 of us came together in over 600 living and dining rooms to talk about the goals we share for our country. Each party was asked to find the big, positive ideas that we most want to focus on together in 2006. Thousands of inspiring options have poured in, and now it's time for the entire MoveOn membership to pick the final three.

From now until Wednesday night at 11:59 PM, you can help decide MoveOn's new official 3-point positive agenda. We've compiled an online ballot with the 10 most popular ideas from last week's parties. You can read what other members have to say about each issue, add your thoughts, and cast your vote for the final three, at:

http://political.moveon.org/positive/ballot/?id=7811-587677-3fm_Gaf2NIdCHUozdiMI5Q&t=2

We'll announce the official results Thursday morning, starting with a campaign to spread the word about the three positive ideas you select. Then, all year, we'll look for key opportunities to work together to turn these ideas into reality.

Our new positive agenda won't be our only focus, of course. Together, we'll still work to bring the troops home from Iraq and stand firm against radical Republican initiatives. But our 3 big positive goals will help show the nation what we're for, not just what we're against.

Here are the top ten big, positive goals for America that are on the ballot today (in random order). Which three do you most want to offer the country?

* A living wage for all
* Global leadership through diplomacy
* Verifiable, accurate elections
* High quality education for all
* Balanced federal budget
* Health care for all
* Publicly funded elections
* Preserve our natural resources
* Energy independence: clean, renewable sources
* Restored constitutional rights

Why narrow it down to the top three? It's about clarity. We want every voter to understand by November what progressives will do for our country--and 3 big ideas is about as many as most of us can easily remember at one time. And it's about focus. We can only fight so many battles and together we must pick which ones to put first.

Of course, there is no single voice for the vast progressive movement, but we each have an important role to play. Selecting a postive agenda is a critical decision for MoveOn and the more members who help to make it, the better the choice will be.

Please take a minute to think about the changes you care about the most--and the vision for the future you want to share with America. Then, go online and cast your three votes today, at:

http://political.moveon.org/positive/ballot/?id=7811-587677-3fm_Gaf2NIdCHUozdiMI5Q&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

--Ben, Matt, Eli, Carrie and the whole MoveOn.org Political Action team Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Yeah! The "truth" (sort of) about The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

Message sent today to National Public Radio in response to today's report, Religious Groups Respond to 'Da Vinci' Movie Release:

To NPR:

It will be interesting to see how religious people will use First Century sources in their attempt to refute the purported errors in The Da Vinci Code. Especially interesting as NO source from that era actually confirms the existence of Jesus at all. What we know of this figure is entirely revealed in gospels--canonical, gnostic, and apocryphal--written no earlier than 70 AD.

It would be interesting if NPR would interview a prominent atheist on their view of the phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code, say for instance Sam Harris (author of the best-selling book, The End of Faith) or Brian Flemming (filmmaker, The God Who Wasn't There.)

But I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for NPR to do that, should I?

Paul Dorn
San Francisco

Paris?!? Oh my gawd, maybe I really am an elitist!

2006-05-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Bike advocates, environmentalists, skaters, greens, and other outdoor recreation enthusiasts have recently been pushing again for "Healthy Saturdays" in Golden Gate Park. This measure would expand the present Sunday and holiday closure of the eastern 1.5-mile portion of Golden Gate Park to Saturdays, which has been in effect since 1967.

The current Sunday and holiday closure is the most popular attraction in the park, and is the most successful program offered by San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department, affectionately known by locals as "Wreck the Park". At almost no cost to taxpayers. Simply by putting up barriers to traffic, this usually bleak road is transformed into a magical space filled with a diverse smiling mass of skaters, bikers, joggers, walkers, dogs, kids, grandparents, and others.

One would think that an enlightened city government would leap at any opportunity to expand access to such a great community building amenity. But San Francisco city government has never been known for enlightenment. Toadying to wealthy elites, yes. Enlightenment, no. Anyway, for almost 40 years many have pushed for a Saturday closure, and have always failed, usually because of opposition by the beau monde supporters of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, located in Golden Gate Park.

The most amusing aspect of the current discourse is the attempt by these aristocratic supporters of the de Young, joined by loathsome Examiner derriere busser Ken Garcia, to pose as populists, painting bicyclists and skaters as elitists attempting to selfishly control the park for their own interests. Precisely what the de Young has been doing for more than 100 years!

Long ago I rebutted this nonsense. I was very involved in helping to draft Proposition F, a petition qualified grassroots measure on the November 2000 ballot in San Francisco. Sadly, it failed. Hence, the need for the present effort, which may be more promising. Having already made countless polemic contributions in support of Saturday closure over the years, I won't waste space rehashing the argument.

However, I've been negligent in my blogging recently, and want to share the following letter to the editor, which I ghost wrote for my wife, and which the Chronicle has apparently chosen not to print. She is a far, far superior writer; hence she is far more occupied than I am, and kindly allowed me to draft something to the San Francisco Chronicle under her name. (The paper had published another letter of mine, shelving me for a period on its pages.)

May 9, 2006

Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco CA 94103

RE: Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park

Editor:

Each summer since 2002, San Francisco's sister city of Paris has closed more than 2 miles of the Georges Pompidou expressway along the banks of the Seine to create "Paris Plage."

An artificial beach complete with trucked-in sand, changing rooms, umbrellas, volleyball nets, a swimming area, and food stands, "Paris Plage" attracts more than 2 million visitors each year to a space usually occupied by up to 200,000 vehicles a day. Once considered hugely controversial, "Paris Plage" is now one of Paris' top summer attractions.

If Paris can close a major traffic corridor in the heart of its downtown for a month every year to provide space for outdoor recreation, then San Francisco can easily close a short stretch of park roadway during weekends for the enjoyment of city residents and visitors.

It's shameful that exaggerated anxiety over motorist convenience prevents kids of all ages from enjoying safe, healthy recreation on weekends in Golden Gate Park. ("Healthy Democracy" 5/9/06)

Sincerely,

Marianne Skoczek
San Francisco

Seal Slaughter Shames Canada!

2006-03-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday, I called the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco--415-834-3180--to inquire about why they keep allowing the brutal seal hunt. To my delight, the receptionist was obviously Quebecois, who told me "ne quittez pas" after I asked in French about the "phoques". She transferred me to Max, an assistant to Tristan Landry, the head spokesperson for the consulate. Tristan was "not available." So I grilled Max (gently.) It was dual French-English conversation, which was more fun for me than him, I'm sure.

I asked him about the expense to the Canadian healthcare system for the psychological distress to the communities involved in the brutal hunt. I fired off a bunch of questions, paraphrased here: "I mean, would YOU want to be raised in a family where the father routinely clubs innocent little animals to death? Could YOU do it? I couldn't. It'd be like hitting a puppy. Can
you imagine how desensitized to violence these guys must be? Would you want to be their kid, or their spouse? What's it cost Canada to heal all the people brutalized by these hunters? Do you even keep track of that? And so on."

His job is to be pleasant and screen for the real flack, so he ummmed and ahhhed and kept directing me to this website.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/seal-phoque/index_e.htm

Anyway, it was an interesting exercise in French conversation if nothing else. I encourage all of you to practice your French at your local Canadian consulate!

More on Seal Hunt Savagery:
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Humane Society United States
Harpseals.org

National Press Club: A cabal of propagandists

2006-02-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

"Rumsfeld Speaks, We Dutifully Stenograph"

Original Email Message

To: National Press Club

Shame on you for providing a platform for war criminal Donald Rumsfeld, so that he can continue spewing his lies. (Remember the absent WMD, the last throes of the insurgency, we don't torture, and so on?) The guy's an incorrigible liar (http://billmon.org/archives/001465.html), and yet he gets a platform from your organization. Disgraceful.

I heartily applaud Heather Hurwitz of World Can't Wait for exposing Rumsfeld during his presentation. I'm also shocked (and sadly not surprised) that the only report of her confrontation with this war criminal was on Democracy Now! and Indymedia. (Google news search comes up with nothing; reports on the speech only.)

The American media continues to provide shameful uncritical propaganda for the Bush administration. And some wonder why faith in media is so low and why people aren't reading newspapers?!?

Shame on the National Press Club.

Paul Dorn
San Francisco, CA

Response from president of National Press Club

"JONATHAN SALANT, BLOOMBERG/ WASHINGTON"
salant@bloomberg.net wrote:

I don't know if you had watched the broadcast, but if you had, you would have seen Secretary Rumsfeld being asked to explain his earlier claims about WMD, and whether he will go down in history as the architect of a failed war the way Robert McNamara did. He hardly had an unchallenged platform.

In 2004, when we had George Soros at the club to talk about why he was spending millions of dollars to defeat George W. Bush, the right wing sent us similar letters asking how we could give a platform to someone so he could continue spewing his lies.

When you talk about the American media providing uncritical propaganda, are you including the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, Knight Ridder, which reported how U.S. intelligence agencies had strong doubts about whether there were WMDs in Iraq, and are you including CBS News, which broke the story about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners?

As for the disruption, when someone is invited to your home, you would not expect him or her to stand up and prevent someone else from speaking, even if he or she disagreed with you. She was a guest at the press club. If she would have submitted a question to get the secretary's response to charges that he was a war criminal, I could have asked it and forced him to respond. Instead, she chose to stand up and yell insults. There was no confrontation. She didn't expose anybody. Why is that news? Even my 8-year-old knows that's unacceptable behavior.

--Jonathan D. Salant, president, National Press Club

My response to Jonathan D. Salant

Jonathan:

Thank you for your response. You're president of the National Press Club, so one shouldn't surprised that you defend your organization and the American media.

No, I didn't see the broadcast. The challenging questions didn't make it into the press reports of the speech I've seen, which isn't all that surprising. Some reporters (Helen Thomas, David Corn, Russell Mokhiber, etc.) routinely pose challenging questions to administration officials, which are just as routinely filtered out of most published articles.

From the news articles I've found, however, I see that Rumsfeld:

1) says there are still terrorists out there (that's news?)
2) compares Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Hitler (with no correction to Rumsfeld's assertion that Hitler was "elected"; Hitler was actually first appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenberg. But this is America, after all, and historical amnesia is endemic.)
3) asserts that weapons of mass destruction may still be found in Iraq (he's either lying, dreaming, or is planning to have WMDs planted in Iraq for "discovery" later.)

You give too much credit to Knight-Ridder and CBS, both organizations notable more for suppressing stories and forcing out real journalists (Gary Webb, Dan Rather). The stories you mention were both well known to the foreign and alternative press, well before they were deemed safe to report to Americans. Certainly there are admirable journalists at work in the US; in addition to those mentioned above, I might include Amy Goodman (of course), Greg Palast, Alexander Cockburn, etc. However, the quality of what passes for American journalism is generally appalling.

My knowledge of George Soros' biography is admittedly sketchy. However, I don't believe he has ever been directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Nor has he ever been photographed shaking hands with the "brutal dictator" Saddam Hussein, as Rummy was in 1983. To present Soros and Rumsfeld as equivalent merely reveals how morally vacuous the National Press Club truly is.

Finally, you condemn Heather Hurwitz for, essentially, being "impolite." One wishes more journalists would be so impolite in the face of Bush administration criminality. Deference is a poor tactic for healthy journalism.

Best regards,

Paul Dorn
San Francisco

"Going Postal" and the American Empire

2006-02-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

An unscientific and speculative bit of theorizing, by an admitted non-criminologist.*

There was another post office massacre by a former USPS employee. Police say the suspect, Jennifer Sanmarco, 44, killed six postal employees before committing suicide with a handgun. A possible seventh victim was found dead in a condominium complex in Santa Barbara where Sanmarco once lived. This incident is believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out in the United States by a woman.

Sadly, killings by postal employees are not that uncommon. Wikipedia has an entry on Going Postal, which details some of the most infamous recent examples. The details on this latest incident are still unknown. But I would hazard a guess that Jennifer Sanmarcos is a military veteran.

The U.S. is the largest imperial power in the world. The U.S. has the highest rate of violent crime of any industrialized nation. I would suggest that this is not a coincidence. The war abroad becomes the war at home. Imperialism requires lots and lots of trained killers. Trained killers returning to civilian life are a risk to their communities. Remember Timothy McVeigh?

The easy availability of guns in the U.S. is well known. However, where does the average American learn how to use weapons? Sure, some people learn from their parents or grandparents. But according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, only 13 million Americans--less than 5 percent--are active hunters. Gun clubs, shooting ranges, local militias, and the NRA are other possible sources of weapons training. But I would guess the number of such clubs or training programs are relatively few.

No, clearly the largest provider of lethal weapons training to the American people is the U.S. Military. Apart from police operatives, soldiers are the only gun users who are legally allowed (and even encouraged) to use weapons for lethal purposes. Often soldiers suffer severe psychological stress after engaging in killing or combat activity. Resources to treat such stress are notoriously inadequate.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that veterans are incarcerated at less than half the rate of non-veterans. However, digging deeper, we find that veterans have a higher rate of violent crime than non-veterans. From the BJS report:

--Veterans were more likely to be in a state prison for a violent offense (55 percent) than the non-veteran inmate population (46 percent).
--About 35 percent of the veterans in state prisons had been convicted of homicide or sexual assault, compared to 20 percent of the non-veterans.
--Among violent state prisoners, the average sentence of veterans was 50 months longer than the average of non-veterans.

Upon leaving the military, many veterans find a career in postal service attractive, as it allows them to transfer seniority and pension credit earned from the armed services. Only 12.4 percent of the entire U.S. population are veterans. However, the USPS employs more than 212,000 veterans, or approximately 30 percent of their workforce. Might this higher percentage of veterans help explain the higher incidence of workplace violence by postal employees?

This is purely speculative theorizing. However, I'd be interested in any studies on the link between military service and violent crime. The American Empire kills abroad, and it kills at home. It's long past time to end the empire.

* Disclaimer: I greatly respect the USPS and postal workers. I liked the postal service even before they sponsored Lance Armstrong. And I don't even know if postal workers are more prone to homicidal violence than, say, truck drivers or auto mechanics. Purely speculative.

Addicted to oil? Well, duh...

2006-01-31T15:35:00.000-08:00

What 12-step program did coke-head Bush attend?
Bush to Say 'America Is Addicted to Oil' in Talk (AP)

In his state of the union speech tonight Bush will suggest that "America is addicted to oil...The best way to break this addiction is through technology."

I'm sure Bush's proposed technology fix for American oil dependency is really intended as a means of directing millions of "research" dollars to his buddies at Halliburton, ExxonMobil, etc. Such "research" spending will likely have similar results as all the "reconstruction" spending in Iraq: enrichment of Bush cronies, a few photo-op projects, and increased hardship for the purported beneficiaries.

A more cost-effective and immediate way to break our oil addiction is through conservation and greater efficiency. Among other things, this would mean improving mass transit, biking, and walking--giving people an alternative to driving. Cleaner air and improved public health would be additional benefits of such an approach.

But such conservation might hurt the bottom line of the oil companies. And Bush ain't gonna go there.

Finding humor in Alito's confirmation

2006-01-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

My brother wrote me today, in the wake of Alito's confirmation:

> OK Dude,
> I am in the dumps. Alito is about to be approved. I knew this
> was going to happen but in the back of my mind I was hoping, Just
> hoping, that the democrats would take this issue as their torch and
> actually do something positive for the people. I know O'Connor was no
> leftist and that she mostly sided with the corporate elite but she
> was better than what we are about to go through.
> You always bring me back to reality.
> Jeff
>
> http://costofwar.com
> "Resistence is a mussel that must be exercised or it will
> atrophy" -Eliza gilkyson

Hey Jeff,

Yeah, it's crappy. The essential fact is that Democrats are not an opposition party; they are partners in maintaining the American empire. This is one bad defeat. We pick up, dust off, and continue the struggle.

As a marxist, I console myself (or try to) by looking historically and internationally. (Historical materialism, class struggle, and internationalism are the foundations of Marxism.)

As bad as Alito is, he's not going to make decisions that return people like Dred Scott to slavery. While religio-fundamentalist whackos like Bush, Pat Robertson, and such might like to go back to the dark ages of superstition and ignorance; the atheists who run the capitalist system are making too much money with the gains of the scientific revolution to allow it to be reversed. So too much history has passed, and while some gains are at risk, capitalism is a dynamic system that constantly undermines itself and creates its own gravedigger.

And I take hope by looking internationally. Things are happening in Latin America, Asia, the World Social Forum, and elsewhere that are challenging the ability of the American empire to maintain its hegemony. See yesterday's article on Counterpunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/dam01302006.html

Things are indeed dark. And likely to get darker still. We live in a rapidly declining empire, and the rulers ain't happy about it. But history is on our side. Or at least I hope so. It always has been. I wouldn't be literate, have a college education, be married to a college graduate, have openly gay friends, and live a relatively comfortable privileged life if it wasn't. We'd still be peasants in the shit, like the commune in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

LARGE MAN: Who's that then?
CART DRIVER (Grudgingly): I dunno, must be a king.
LARGE MAN: Why?
CART DRIVER: He hasn't got shit all over him.

Some Monty Python just screams for more, don't it? Here's another favorite scene, an early example of the medieval class struggle:

ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. What knight lives in that castle?

OLD WOMAN: No one live there.

ARTHUR: Well, who is your lord?

OLD WOMAN: We don't have a lord.

ARTHUR: What?

DENNIS: I told you, We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune, we take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

ARTHUR: Yes.

DENNIS: ... But all the decisions of that officer ...

ARTHUR: Yes, I see.

DENNIS: ... must be approved at a bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs.

ARTHUR: Be quiet!

DENNIS: ... but a two-thirds majority ...

ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to shut up.

OLD WOMAN: Order, eh -- who does he think he is?

ARTHUR: I am your king!

OLD WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.

ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.

OLD WOMAN: Well, how did you become king, then?

ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by Divine Providence ... that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur ...That is why I am your king!

DENNIS: Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

ARTHUR: Be quiet!

DENNIS: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR: Shut up!

DENNIS: I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would put me away!

ARTHUR: (Grabbing him by the collar) Shut up, will you. Shut up!

DENNIS: Ah! NOW ... we see the violence inherent in the system.

ARTHUR: Shut up!

PEOPLE (i.e. other PEASANTS) are appearing and watching.

DENNIS: (calling) Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help, help, I'm being repressed!

ARTHUR: (aware that people are now coming out and watching) Bloody peasant!
(pushes DENNIS over into mud and prepares to ride off)

DENNIS: Oh, Did you hear that! What a give-away.

ARTHUR: Come on, patsy.

They ride off.

Greyhound's Demise? Blame motorist subsidies, not Amtrak

2006-01-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Letters to the Editor
Sacramento Bee
2100 Q Street
Sacramento, CA 95816

Editor:

I was saddened to hear the news that Greyhound is ending its Quicklink commuter service between Sacramento and San Francisco. ("Left out in the cold", 1/22/06) However, I was very disappointed that your writer used this termination as an opportunity to slam the popular Amtrak Capitol Corridor service.

All transportation modes are subsidized. Has Greyhound paid all the costs for construction and operations of Interstate 80, the park-n-ride lots where it collects passengers, or the Transbay Terminal where it drops commuters? No. Do motorists pay the full costs of roads, parking, police, fire, emergency service, courts, trauma centers, and environmental mitigation? Hardly.

However, your writer chose to hang the pejorative "state-subsidized" solely onto the Capitol Corridor, as if this were the cause of Greyhound's failed service. I was especially disappointed that your writer used as his principal source Wendell Cox, a widely-debunked and notorious lobbyist for the auto industry. (See: http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_00014.htm)

Again, all transportation modes are subsidized; automobile travel is obviously the most heavily subsidized mode. In an era of increasing congestion, rising energy costs, and growing environmental challenges, we need to provide more options to driving. Clearly this includes efficient passenger rail, such as the Capitol Corridor.

Sincerely,

Paul Dorn

White phosporous and Pentagon lies

2005-11-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

To National Public Radio

Isn't it time to tell the truth about the American occupation of Iraq? Sadly, Friday’s "All Things Considered" presented a dissembler of the first rank, who played the euphemism game to defend the Bush administration’s failed policies.

During your discussion on the controversial use of white phosporous and Napalm by US troops during the assault of Fallujah, John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org defended the Pentagon. At worst, according to Pike, the US government was guilty of “imprecision,” making “counter-factual statements,” or of an “economy with the truth.”

In other words, the US government lied. And continues to lie. And this dishonesty is what has caused most of the world to be suspicious of US motives and actions. This distrust won’t diminish with the appearance of obscurantists like John Pike on NPR broadcasts.

Your listeners deserve an honest discussion. The world is waiting for American honesty.

Paul Dorn
San Francisco, California

Go right-wing "peaceniks"!

2005-11-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hawkish Democrat Calls for Iraq Pullout

I'm disgusted that this call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq comes NOT from my "representative," the "liberal" Nancy Pelosi, whose San Francisco district just voted overwhelmingly against military recruiters in city schools.(1) No, it seems the right-wingers like Hagel, McCain and this Murtha dude will be leading the charge against the war. (2)

Abundant torture by US troops and their Iraqi flacks; depleted uranium shells and other toxics; dogs and lions (?) used to threaten prisoners; secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe; flesh-burning white phosphorous dropped on women and kids; indiscriminately lethal 500-lb bombs; billions of dollars allegedly for Iraqi "reconstruction" missing (likely gone to the likes of Halliburton)--can there be any question that the US has the most evil, vile, and reprehensible government on the planet?

Given how lame the Democrats are and will continue to be as an "opposition" party, the best hope Iraqis have for peace seems to be dissension in the GOP. Or mutiny among the US military.

(1) The College Not Combat Proposition I vote in SF was merely symbolic. It won't actually require the removal of a single military recruiter, despite Bill O'Reilly's flustering nonsense. Generated a lot of media attention, we'll see what political momentum it really adds.

(2) Of course, I don't have any illusions. Right-wing hacks like John Murtha are, like, totally for American imperial domination of the planet; they're merely anxious that such hegemony is being undermined by the present Iraq quagmire. When they say "out" they mean "redeploy" to some other imperial objective.

Halloween With a Bang!

2005-11-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

The scariest thing I encountered on October 31, 2005

Short story: Pablo (moi) was stupid.

Long story: It was Halloween. I was bicycling downhill on Fulton at the intersection of Webster in San Francisco. The green light was counting down, but I had plenty of time to get through the intersection, and didn't want to lose my momentum. I wasn't going an excessive speed, maybe 20 mph or so. It was just after 5 pm, kind of dusky light, and I had my headlight on. I was on my way to French class at the Alliance Française.

An oncoming SUV making a left turn basically didn't stop, and I didn't have enough time to decide whether to swerve left behind her (and risk colliding if she didn't continue her turn) or make a too fast hard right and perhaps spill or slide out. So basically she continued with her turn, I veered slightly right and collided with my upper left side (forearm and shoulder) against her right front fender.

I was a bit dazed, but very lucky. No clothes torn, just a scrape on my left forearm and some soreness. The handlebars twisted around, and I may need a new wheel; it's wobbly but rideable, and I'll see if I can true it up this weekend.

I remember saying to myself "it's gonna happen!" There was just no avoiding it. And then tumbling and spilling. I got up and a bunch of neighborhood residents on a nearby porch were shouting "I saw it! I saw it! I saw everything!" I think they were drinking, and perhaps enjoyed the spectacle. It was Halloween, remember. The SUV driver stopped, said she hadn't seen me and that the kids in her vehicle were distracting her. A couple other drivers stopped, offering to call if I needed it. I was kind of hazy, quietly angry, waved them off. "I have a cell phone," I remember saying, thinking that they were the type of motorists that assume anyone on a bike is too poor to drive.

I got up, started gathering my stuff that had scattered around. I had a messenger bag on, and an open shopping basket-type pannier with some stuff in it. I mostly ignored the driver. In my haze, I remember saying "I had the right-of-way, I had the right-of-way." Said it at least twice, firmly, but didn't use any profanity or really angry language, surprisingly. Later I wished I'd gone off, but...

I picked up everything and went to the sidewalk and out of traffic. Again, I didn't pay too much attention to the driver. I have just a few images: brief glimpse at driver, brief glimpse of the male and female drivers who stopped, and a big--hopefully expensive--dent in her fender. I repacked my stuff, twisted my handlebars back, spun my wheel, took a breath, tried to compose myself. When I looked up finally, all the motorists were gone! The one who hit me, the ones (at least two) who stopped. Just the party people on the second floor porch shouting stuff like "Man, she was wrong..."

Anyway, I was late to my French class--which turns out to have been canceled anyway!--so I just rode off. Slowly, to be sure. I was lucky. The past few nights, before getting to sleep, I've kind of replayed it in my mind. That horrible instant when you realize that you can't avoid a collision. "It's gonna happen!" It could have been much worse. I could have bought it, and I ain't ready to buy it.

I hope a body shop somewhere has tagged this motorist with a huge estimate for the fender. A ticket would have been another nice penalty. My wife scolded me for not getting her info; and clearly the driver was very wrong to drive off. But my initial thoughts were, "Was I wrong? Am I liable for that fender repair?" (My previous collision with a vehicle, when I was clearly at fault, cost me $1,000. The lesson I took from that: don't exchange info, ride away as quickly as you can.) I also don't like cops, who usually have a bias favoring motorists. And I was late for French class!

So, I'm fine. A little sore, a lot wiser. I assumed she saw me. Bad thing to do. "When you assume, you..."

Again, what's the problem with "OUT NOW"

2005-10-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Posting to MoveOn.org discussion list:

I am strongly disappointed that nowhere on the MoveOn site is there a declaration of opposition to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. I suspect this is because MoveOn tails the leadership of the Democratic Party, instead of pushing it leftward.

We will make no, repeat NO progress on domestic reforms we care about--healthcare, education, transportation, environment, retirement security, or election reform--until the huge financial and personal costs of the Iraq occupation are ended.

Think about how many teachers the billions spent there could hire. Think about how many levees could be built by the troops now risking their lives protecting Halliburton assets.

The question is simple: Are we for Democracy? Or Empire? Because we can't be both. If we want a healthy democracy, we can't be wasting lives and money pursuing global hegemony.

Democrats have a very real possibility of reclaiming one or both houses of Congress next year. To do so, they need to turn the 2006 election into a referendum on George Bush. This is the strategy that nearly worked for Paul Hackett in Ohio. And a critique of Bush begins and ends with a call for "Troops OUT NOW!"

Cyclists After Katrina

2005-09-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Dave:

Just back after a couple weeks in New England; family situation. Thanks for forwarding this to the SFBike list. This whole Katrina-Rita thing has been disgusting. The storm was a "natural" disaster (made worse by Bush-neglected global warming, for sure.) The flood and failed response were clearly policial disasters.

Tragic disasters also provide the opportunity to rebuild a community better--think of the Embarcadero and Central Freeways demolished after the 1989 earthquake. Good riddance. I hope activists in New Orleans will press for improved walkability, greater densities, improved parks, bike facilities, etc.

Despite the resistance of some to rebuilding it below sea-level, New Orleans will get rebuilt, for sure. Among other things, the Midwest Ag industry needs a deep-water port in about that location to transfer from river barges to ocean-going ships. Ports need port workers, who in turn need schools, stores, diversions, etc. If Holland can do it, why not New Orleans? (Well, they have better, more bike supportive politics for one thing....)

I'm concerned that New Orleans will get rebuilt as a casino-tourist-yuppie playground cleansed of the low-income people of color. Livable cities advocates can perhaps bridge to multicultural activists by pressing for affordable and transit-friendly housing for everyone.

See you at Critical Mass,

Pablo

--- Dave Snyder wrote to SFBIKE Topica listserve:

This is a post from Audrey Warren of the (New Orleans) Metro Bicycle Coalition I thought you should read:

Sep 03, 2005

Listserv post from Audrey Warren of New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition regarding Hurricane Katrina:

Hello All,

Just checking in. We are pretty sure that everyone on the New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition board got out safely, myself included, but not without a deep sadness in our hearts. If anyone has any questions about specific people and their whereabouts, they can contact me directly at audreykwarren@yahoo.com

There are a thousand different ways to look at what has happened, but since this is an organization of bike/ped advocates, I wanted to give a perspective that is relevant to this group. It's a long posting, but I hope you will indulge me. I've got a lot on my mind.

There's a tricky question on the US census longform that asks if your household has access to a car. I live by myself and haven't owned a car for years, but I can't honestly say that I don't have access to a car. I have a friends and family who I can (and do) call on anytime to borrow their car. I have money to take a taxi or rent a car whenever I need it. I have chosen to live without a car, but have access to all of the privileges that would go with ownership, just none of the hassle. It was never a question as to whether I would get out of the city. We had reservations at a hotel in Dallas by Friday night.

Perhaps the largest issue that we have struggled with in the formation of the New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition is connecting with the population of folks that depend on their bicycle as their only mode of transportation, people who are honestly just barely scraping by. We all know that it is notoriously difficult to get numbers on cyclists, much less get an accurate sense of the demographics, but I would say that easily more than half the bicyclists on the road in New Orleans are riding not because of some ideology or health goal, but because they are broke and even bus fare is beyond their means.

The vast majority of the people who were left behind had no way out. When you are watching these images on the television, I challenge you to see them as the unseen, marginalized faces of bicycling - the folks that ride everyday, but never find their way to our membership lists, or speak at the Bike Summit, or subscribe to The Ride. Part of the horror of this event is that we as a nation have turned our back on the poor, and that in most urban areas, poverty and race are inextricably linked.

For me, advocating for bicycle and pedestrian rights is about social justice, and the 900 lb gorilla in the corner is that the complexion of our movement is largely white, middle class. I would like to hear a conversation in the bike/aped advocacy movement that really addresses these issues so that we as a collective can work to put our own house in order.

If you would like to help out with the tragedy, please consider working in your own organizations to strengthen your ties with communities of color, and connect with people who are struggling with poverty every day. With all of the madness that is being broadcast on the television, it is difficult to know what to do, and I offer this as a meaningful way to channel your desire to help. Reaching out beyond our historic base is not trivial - or easy - but we can't claim that we're just an upstart grassroots movement anymore without enough resources to do it right. If we in New Orleans had made it a priority to address the needs of those who can't afford a car, we would never have seen the devastating images of those that were left behind.

-audrey

------------------
Audrey Warren
New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition

US in Iraq? OUT NOW!

2005-09-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

As the anti-war movement gears up for a major weekend (9/24-26) of demonstrations later this month in Washington and elsewhere, there is some confusion about what our demand should be.

I dunno where the way out is, short of a global anti-capitalist revolution. (In my former career as a Trotskyist activist, we used to say that the only successful anti-war movement in history was the Bolsheviks.) Some on both the right and left like to think the "movement" stopped Vietnam. To me that quagmire was stopped by 1) fierce and determined Vietnamese resistance; 2) collapse of the US military as a fighting machine due to drugs, fragging, mutiny, etc.; and 3) loss of political support in US. All these factors appear to be gaining during the present conflict in Iraq.

Again, I dunno how to the US evacuation of Iraq will happen. And it will happen. Sooner or later the US will leave Iraq; the only question is how many more Iraqis will they kill before they leave. All I really know is this:

1) BushCo isn't planning to leave Iraq. Ever. Hence the 14 "enduring" military bases, rebuilt detention centers, etc. For Bush and cronies, Iraq is a strategic fulcrum to leverage Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Middle East. BushCo will need to be forced out, and domestic revolt is critical.

2) BushCo doesn't care about Iraqi democracy or civil society. If they did Iraqis would have electricity by now. Chaos and death suits its purposes; i.e. weak government they can easily control. Of course, they'd prefer to have the killings out of the press (like those in Afghanistan, Haiti, and elsewhere) so the US public doesn't get riled up. But they aren't going to let Iraqi blood prevent them from controlling the oil.

3) The biggest gang of killers, rapists, torturers, kidnappers, and thieves in Iraq is the US military. Followed closely by the mercenaries--the hired killers of varying psychopathologies now being the third largest force in the US "coalition" after the US and the British. The US press gives a lot of attention to, say, a police station bombing by Iraqi resistance fighters that kills a couple dozen people. They're amateurs compared to the US gang, who do better than that with one equally indiscriminate cruise missile.

4) "Iraq" is a fiction, created by British imperialists. The Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites understand this, and are more than happy to shatter the national fiction and part ways. American media consumers may be fed the fiction a while longer. But eventually some other configuration will emerge.

5) Civil wars are usually proxy wars between great powers. The duration and intensity of a civil war depends on the supply of weaponry and support from the great powers. Removing the biggest power and keeping it out will clearly reduce the killing. Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Syria moved in, order mostly restored, leaving Lebanese nationalists with just one clear occupying foe to resist.

6) Great powers occupying a country inevitably back one side or another in a civil war. They never provide "neutral" peacekeeping; invariably they get drawn in to support one of the protaganists, enhancing the killing force of the chosen side.

7) American troops in Iraq, like their earlier counterparts from Vietnam, are likely to return transformed, challenged by demoralization, debilitating injuries, toxic exposure, difficult interpersonal relationships, mental illness, sexually transmitted disease, emotional distress, drug addiction (transporting opium from Afghanistan to Iraq is easier than from Afghanistan to the US), and other maladies. Veteran's services are already inadequate. The longer the US stays, the worse the burden to our society for the care of these broken veterans.

Anyway, these are the factors I kind of consider when I think about the slogan "OUT NOW!" Cindy Sheehan and her supporters have gotten lots of traction with that slogan, and I'm glad that seems to be the organizing call for the 9/24 antiwar rallies. Let the Democrats go to hell with their "OUT SOMETIME" slogan, a poor ploy to distract the anti-war movement while the Dems continue to serve as the second political prop for US imperialism.

Ivan Vasilyevich, velorutionary

2005-09-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

A few items discovered in a search for "bicycle" in the Trotsky archive at Marxists.org.

Was young Lev Davidovich Bronstein's first lesson in independence learned on two wheels?

In the country I played croquet and ninepins, led in forfeits, and was insolent to the girls. It was there that I learned to ride a bicycle made entirely by Ivan Vasilyevich. Because of that, I dared later to exercise on the Odessa track.
-- Leon Trotsky, My Life

The leaders of the October Revolution recognized the utility of the bicycle.

Lenin’ s office and mine in Smolny were in opposite ends of the building. The corridor that connected us, or rather separated us, was so long that Vladimir Ilyich laughingly suggested establishing a bicycle connection. We were connected by telephone and sailors were constantly running in bringing important notices from Lenin.
-- Leon Trotsky, Lenin

Who knows? What might have happened to the course of the October Revolution if Trotsky hadn't persuaded that critical bicycle battalion in Petersburg to join the revolution?

From Leon Trotsky’s
The History of the Russian Revolution Volume Three: The Triumph of the Soviets
Chapter 44 THE CONQUEST OF THE CAPITAL

The uncertainty lies in a bicycle battalion. Recruited, like the cavalry, from well-to-do and rich peasants, the bicycle men, coming from the intermediate city layers, constituted a most conservative part of the army.

Brought in from the front to put down the July movement, the bicycle battalion had zealously stormed the Palace of Kshesinskaia, and afterward been installed in Peter and Paul as one of the most reliable detachments. It was learned that at yesterday’s meeting which settled the fate of the fortress, the bicycle men had not been present. The old discipline still held in the battalion to such an extent that the officers had succeeded in keeping the soldiers from going into the fortress court. Counting on these bicycle men, the commandant of the fortress held his chin high, frequently got into telephone connection with Kerensky’s headquarters, and even professed to be about to arrest the Bolshevik commissar. The situation must not be left indefinite for an extra minute. Upon an order from Smolny, Blagonravov confronts the enemy: the colonel is subjected to house arrest, the telephones are removed from all officers’ apartments. The government staff calls up excitedly to know why the commandant is silent, and in general what is going on in the fortress. Blagonravov respectfully reports over the telephone that the fortress henceforward fulfils only the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee, with which it behoves the government in the future to get in connection.

All the troops of the fortress garrison accepted the arrest of the commandant with complete satisfaction, but the bicycle men bore themselves evasively. What lay concealed behind their sulky silence a hidden hostility or the last waverings? "We decided to hold a special meeting for the bicycle men," writes Blagonravov, "and invite our best agitational forces, and above all Trotsky, who had enormous authority and influence over the soldier masses.” At four o’clock in the afternoon the whole battalion met in the neighbouring building of the Cirque Moderne. As governmental opponent, Quartermaster-General Poradelov, considered to be a Social-Revolutionary, took the floor. His objections were so cautious as to seem equivocal; and so much the more destructive was the attack of the Committee’s representatives. This supplementary oratorical battle for the Peter and Paul fortress ended as might have been foreseen: by all voices except thirty the battalion supported the resolution of Trotsky. One more of the potential bloody conflicts was settled before the fighting and without bloodshed. That was the October insurrection. Such was its style.

It was now possible to rely upon the fortress with tranquil confidence. Weapons were given out from the arsenal without hindrance. At Smolny, in the Factory and Shop Committee room, delegates from the plants stood in line to get orders for rifles. The capital had seen many queues during the war years—now it saw rifle-queues for the first time. Trucks from all the districts of the city were driving up to the arsenal. “You would hardly have recognised the Peter and Paul fortress," writes the worker Skorinko. "It’s renowned silence was broken by the chugging automobiles, shouts, and the creak of wagons. There was a special bustle in the storehouses. . . . Here too they led by us the first prisoners, officers and junkers.”

The meeting in the Cirque Moderne had another result. The bicycle men who had been guarding the Winter Palace since July withdrew, announcing that they would no longer consent to protect the government. That was a heavy blow. The bicycle men had to be replaced by junkers. The military support of the government was more and more reducing itself to the officers’ schools—a thing which not only narrowed it extremely, but also conclusively revealed its social constitution.

And does this mean that there are no troops in Petrograd prepared to defend the Provisional Government? asked the astonished Maliantovich, who had up to that moment dwelt in the kingdom of the eternal truths of law. I know nothing, Konovalov answered, shrugging his shoulders. It’s pretty bad, he added. And what are these troops that are on their way? insisted Maliantovich. A bicycle battalion, it seems. The minister sighed. There were 200,000 soldiers in Petrograd and in the environs. Things were going badly with the régime, if the head of the government had to fly off with an American flag at his back to meet a bicycle battalion.

The ministers would have sighed deeper if they had known that this third bicycle battalion sent from the front had stopped at Peredolskaia and telegraphed the Petrograd Soviet to know for just what purpose it was being sent. The Military Revolutionary Committee telegraphed the battalion a brotherly greeting and asked them to send their representatives immediately. The authorities sought and did not find the bicycle men, whose delegates arrived that same day in Smolny.

[…]

In spite of the complete blockade now at last established, the besieged (at the Winter Palace) still kept in touch with the outside world by telephone. To be sure, as early as five o’clock a company of the Keksgolmsky regiment had already occupied the War Ministry, through which the Winter Palace had kept in touch with headquarters. But even after that an officer still remained apparently for some hours at the apparatus of the South-western front, located in an attic chamber of the ministry where the captors never thought of looking. However, as before, this contact was of no help. The answers from the Northern front had become more and more evasive. The reinforcements had not turned up. The mysterious bicycle battalion never arrived. Kerensky himself seemed to have disappeared like a diver. The city friends confined themselves to briefer and briefer expressions of sympathy. The ministers were sick at heart.

[…]

The junkers wanted to know what was going to happen next, and demanded from the government explanations which it was not in a position to give. During this new conference between the junkers and the ministers, Kishkin arrived from staff headquarters, bringing an ultimatum signed by Antonov and delivered from the Peter and Paul fortress to the Quartermaster-General, Poradelov, by a bicycle man: Surrender and disarm the garrison of the Winter Palace; otherwise fire will be opened from the guns of the fortress and the ships of war; twenty minutes for reflection. This period had seemed small. Poradelov had managed to extract another ten minutes. The military members of the government, Manikovsky and Verderevsky, approached the matter simply: Since it is impossible to fight, they said, we must think of surrendering—that is, accept the ultimatum. But the civilian ministers remained obstinate. In the end they decided to make no answer to the ultimatism, and to appeal to the city duma as the only legal body existing in the capital. This appeal to the duma was the last attempt to wake up the drowsy conscience of the democracy.