Hard to Turn



and another view



rojo

Toone for a Day!

Fun for the day!



rojo

Drug Combos! and Wild Life

Here is one aspect of chemical and pharmaceuticals many don't think of.

rojo

For Shits and Giggles



rojo

Restoration, One Small Step at a Time

The first article describes in detail why there are water woes in CA. To summarize, when they started distributing water rights, no one actually did a calculation to see what normal water flows were, did a conservative estimate and did not let more than 90% of those rights be committed. No, in the voice of economic advancement, almost 800% of the available water was committed. Just think of that. Eight times the amount of water available was committed to projects and then as the water was unavailable people (fisherman who no longer have salmon, farmers with dry fields, etc.) became upset. Yet, the price of buying these rights is still cheap. When I left CO, it cost > $1200 per acre foot (326,000 gallons) unit. The unit was determined annually based upon snowfall, so you could get between 20-100% depending upon snow pack. Here in CA, I have heard anywhere from $300-$500 dollars for an acre foot. Why so cheap. And because water is unavailable, the farmers started punching in wells and dried up aquifers with the ground sinking in some cases up to 6 feet. The aquifer just shrunk and even if it were wet, it would never expand to take in all the water that was drained. The State Water Resources Control Board forgot to regulate well permits and water rights. OMG!!!!! Other western states do that continually.

The other article has to do with restoration of creeks, etc. The process is called daylighting, or bringing old drainages and creeks out of culverts under the streets and buildings back to the light of day. At least in small sections. I know they did this to a creek in Arvada when we lived there. I was surprised it happened, instead of putting in a new culvert and building over it. And the results were pretty, raccoons, foxes and small animals showed up quickly. I am guessing, since this is interconnected to bike paths, creek paths and river basins, there will be the occasional deer and coyote showing up, if not a bear or cougar eventually. In the Berkeley example, it will probably be just small animals, but every little bit helps. The appearance of nature in a city just brightens the whole day. I have often wondered what could happen if some of the rivers and drainages in LA could be if they were taken out of cement channels. I know car chases could not then be filmed there (think Grease), but how cool would it be to have to have restored duck habitat. Yes, it would produce mosquitoes, but ....

rojo

Three Things before Rehab

1) Too bad Butler did not win. They were where they wanted to be, down by one possession and 12 seconds left. Dang!
2) If companies now have the rights of people, who gets charged in the deaths of the miners for safety violations. At best, it is manslaughter, at worst, since MSHA citations on safety were not addressed, it is first degree murder. Not trying to make light of a situation. If corporations have free speech, the same as individuals, they also have social obligations. One is bringing the workplace up to a safe level. When you are cited by MSHA or OSHA and do not comply, who gets arrested, the executives or does the company get the death penalty?
3) Given you can get a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback for a 3rd or 4th round draft choice, why not trade more draft choices and sign veterans? George Allen did it for years with various versions of the "over-the-hill" gang. The Raiders also did it in the 70s with their band of misfits.

rojo

Would you like some BPA with your water, Sir?

I can recall when polycarbonate was considered the safest vessel next to stainless for drinking water jugs and was sold as such by health food and organic food stores. Now, the opinion is not so good and you are asked not to feed your children from bottles that have a 7 in the recycle label on the bottom of the bottle. The chemical that leaches out is BPA, which lowers sperm counts and mimics estrogen. Little things like causing cancer and sex change in fish. Imagine scientists surprise as it washes up on beaches now! Who knew that the Pacific Ocean garbage dump would leach plastic as it is attacked by salt water, wind and sunshine? or epoxy paint could or would breakdown? No one could predict that, right? I mean we never see plastics fall apart in sunshine, do we? D'oh!

rojo

Stolen form Other Sources

Per the latest Harris poll, the number of Republicans who think Obama...

- Is a socialist (67%)
- Wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (61%)
- Is a Muslim (57%)
- Wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (51%); and
- Has done many things that are unconstitutional (55%).
- Resents America's heritage (47%)
- Was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (45%)
- Is the "domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of" (45%)
- Is a racist (42%)
- Want to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (41%)
- Is doing many of the things that Hitler did (38%).
- Even more remarkable perhaps, fully 24% of Republicans believe that "he may be the Anti-Christ" and 22% believe "he wants the terrorists to win."


I wish people in the U.S. could read. And after Bush--who had an attack so they could start a war and violated the Constitution left and right. WoW!

rojo

Domestic Terrorism Revisited

Health Care passes! Death threats against Congressmen. The gas line at the brother of one Congressman was cut. This is not just vandalism and threats. This is not just obstructionism where the Republicans are known as the party of "NO!" This is the promulgation of domestic terrorism. This is the use of threats of physical violence to obstruct the ability to govern and needs to be treated accordingly.

This is so wrong I don't know where to begin. The problem is if the law enforcement branch of government actually starts to crack down on this as terrorism, it becomes a rallying cry and a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Obama Administration is taking away their rights.

What rights? The right to beat the shit out of someone. Well, yes, that is a right, but it carries consequences. Just ask the demonstrators at Kent State and Jackson State. At this point John Boner is threatening other Congressmen from his home state. This is much more than poor sportsmanship and being a sore loser. It is more than obstructionism. It is outright terrorism and needs to be treated accordingly. And you cannot say it is just a few on the lunatic fringe of the far right. Too many congressman have shown up at Tea Parties and helped foment this. Showing up is one thing, not telling those in attendance their actions carry results and ramifications is quite another. There is no need to foment more and more anger.

I have met with many tea party folks (my profession is one of the most conservative in the world) and have discussed the basis of their protest, tax structure, with them. They all claimed that their taxes went up. So we went to the tax tables for the previous years and showed them they were wrong. So it became "you know, other taxes." School taxes, property taxes, gas taxes--hidden expenses for welfare queens. When you point out the federal government as a rule does not set local taxes you are told it is part of Nancy Pelosi's gay agenda. Or a socialist plot. Or whatever. There is just anger out there and a sense of displacement that government actually is trying to govern. Making government so small it can go down the drain of a bathtub is not governance. That is anarchy. You have to take care of roads, water systems, sewer systems, education systems, etc.

These people do not understand that they are basically anarchists and do not want anyone telling them what to do. If you told them they are anarchists, they would scream they are patriots. Recently, even in national news, Congressmen are mentioning the "War of Northern Aggression." The Republican Party has become the home to those who wanted slavery, old style White Rulers and the like. And they feel displaced. I feel sorry for them, but the world has changed.

The next ten years are going to be extremly important to the direction of the country. Militias and Tea Partiers will push to go back to Reagan or previous incarnations of fondly remembered white rule. They don't care if they are the dupes of corporations and the middle class and their purchasing power is shrinking because corporations have the same rights as people. As long as whites are in charge and the rulers are simple, they are happy. There only way this can be avoided is to keep pushing forward. I feel DADT will be a dead issue in ten years as the older generation falls by the wayside. The militia/tea party movement will be a hard one to slow down though. Home schooling and a lack of the grasp of civil discourse and how government works reinforces this type of rigid mental patterning. The banking program and education need to be reformed next. Bill Maher is incorrect in his glib dismissal of Texas school books. What is taught matters!!! Focus on the Family is not as important as Thomas Jefferson. When over 60% of the population does not know the three branches of government and carrying guns while drinking coffee at Starbuck's is protest, rational Americans have their work cut out for them. Just think what would have happened had Al Gore actually had time to have votes counted in Florida. There would not have been two wars and an economic meltdown of such extreme proportions. But ask for an up or down vote on health care and you get death threats. That is terrorism and needs to be dealt with!

rojo

Colorado River

I have been sitting around healing and am finally getting back to my normal topic of conversation, water. The following is an overview article about the Colorado River and the trials and tribulations of the Delta and the fact that the river is overcommitted.

More than a little interesting, when you consider LA has overdrawn its water allotment as it grew for years. Now there is enough of a population in Arizona and Nevada to need all their allotment.

I have often wondered about treaties and their sovereignity when they were decidied almost 100 years ago and there was no environmental or ecological consciousness and the population of an area has not yet developed. I mean specifically how many people in Nevada (Las Vegas) were actually needing the water in 1930 as opposed to now and how many snowbirds lived around Phoenix then as opposed to now?

rojo

Robin Williams On Dock Ellis's NO HITTER on LSD.avi

OMG! Not safe for work, but...

rojo

Polka Sunday!


gotta love the cuts OZshadow put together.

and from Belgium, Tex Mex!


And so goes this week's addition of the weekly tribute to Polka Varieties of my youth.

rojo

Friday




and

and


rojo

Last Week's Drive

I had a very long week booking about 2,000 miles driving around CA. However, I made sure I spent some of my time checking out little landmarks. I drove by Buena Vista lake. It is listed as dry lake on the map. It is really a reservoir now filled by CA Aqueduct water and canals. It used to be fed by the Kern River. The Kern River is all dammed up and is used for irrigation and no longer flows freely. The City of Bakersfield has a beautiful river walk and bike path, but no river. The City is no trying to find water rights to ensure river flow. In downtown Bakersfield, you can watch the river flow down canals that parallel the river bed and the river is dry. The lake itself would be dry if it were not flow down the Aqueduct from the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

And Diane Feinstein, senator from CA, is trying to garner votes, while at the same time placing her Democratic counterpart, Barbara Boxer in a bad light. She is promising West-something or-other Water District water by rolling back the Endangered Species Act so the farmers get flow. This is really important as the salmon season is again closed because there was the worst spawning season ever. The salmon count in the Sacramento River was down from the 2002 high of 300,000 to 39,000 this past year. Ow. The giant pumps in the Delta pushing water to the LA and Central Valley area kill the fish (they get sucked in) or do not allow there to be the flow necessary for young salmon to live. This is not he only stresser in the salmonoid life cycle. Ocean conditions and lax discharge requirements in CA wastewater plants are others.

I also took time to drive through the Tulare Lake region. I was amazed as i read the history of this area in the book The King of California. What lake? What once was 60 mile wide lake is no more and is the home of fruit trees, grape vines (for raisins) and cotton plantations. The King River (one of the southernmost salmon spawning runs in the state) can't anymore, as there is no more lake and the river is dammed and goes through irrigation canals in a slow meandering path alongside Route 41 and across fields. The water is too warm for salmonoids anymore, even if they could spawn.

I asked the land if it was happy. Some fields said yes as they were loved and cared for, others wanted to be lake bottom and others just felt used. Am I accurate in hearing the replies. Not always, but this was the impressions I perceived.

Sometimes I wonder about what progress really is. Okay, there are less mosquitoes, but draining the largest lake west of the Mississippi is just stupid. A unique ecosystem drained to grow cotton that could be grown elsewhere. Ugh!

rojo

Wastewater Ideas

Most people don't think of this as they kill bugs around their house. But the chemicals go somewhere, and how many people think if a little will kill 'em, a lot will kill them better! Waste plants are not made to remove pesticides. They scoot righht on through and into the water killing larvae, bugs, zooplankton. All of which are necessary in the food chain. It is even worse in places like CA where the big bad pilots douse agricultural products from the air. Of course they never overspray and hit waterways. Particularly the rice farms on the river's edge. Yes, northern CA is basically one big rice field until it turns into fruit orchards, nut orchards and olive orchards.

and here is a novel approach to sewage treatment. I wish it were used more.

I actually was trained in making what John Todd called Living Machines and they were very cool. Banana trees growing in Rhode Island in sewage in winter and fruiting. Trouble is they can't be designed as an engineer designs, but require an artists touch. making things live. not designed to live. It is a subtle difference. There is synergy in an ecosystem that just isn't designed in. For example, aquaitc mint (mentha aquiatica) grows well, and kills pathogens through root excretions, other plants take up copper, Nebraska rush kills pathogens, as do willows. And there is little money to be made at it.

More is the pity.

I don't know why hydroponic greenhouses don't utilize wastewater effluent to grow things like tomatoes, that would stay way above ground and never touch the sewage. Hell, find me a sludge pile that doesn't still have tomato seeds in it that will grow. or even using aquaculture.

rojo

Where Can I Go to Get a Good Drink?

I know I have not posted in a while. I have compressed my office into the closet of my wife's office. Aside from that, the political climate of my country scares and amazes me. Basically, someone against health care wins Teddy Kennedy's senate seat. OMG!!!! We want a sexy guy who drives a pickup over health care. Good going America!!!! Way to think. Who needs universal health care when we can drive big trucks and strut our big swinging male appendages.

Great. Invite the world.

Then the Supreme Court-ya know, the guys who uphold the laws of the land make a decision that makes Dred Scott look good.- make a decsion that allows companies to buy votes indirectly without risk or accountability. Tort reform works so well. So now companies can buy elections by buying advertising. OMG???!!!! What is wrong with this country.

I harken back to Chimp Boy's contested election in FLA. Brother of the elected official, whose election offical happened to work for the candidate. Get George in and viola, presto chango, and it is a conservative Supreme Court. While many voted for Nader, the conservatives did not take their eyes off the prize. You make the laws, fuck the rest!

If the next election goes south, I will be an expatriate somewhere. Better learn Greek, becasue irish food cannot be a good thing.or, why I don't post much anymore.

rojo

How To Lose and Electorate

The Dems are so damned out of touch that they lost Ted Kennedy's seat??!!!!
Okay, who was the campaign manager? Fired forever! Who from the Democratic
national committee was watching the race? Fired!!!! OMG! Jon Stewart's line
rings true. "It is not as if the republicans were playing chess and the
democrats were playing checkers. It is more like that Republicans were
playing chess and the democrats were visiting the school nurse after gluing
their balls to their thighs. Again." Okay, the candidate had a double digit
lead and blew it. Curt Schilling was a Yankees fan? Do you live in the
baseball crazy state of Massachusetts where the beloved Beantown Bombers
actually won a World Series (beating the Yankees to get to it) while you
lived there? and who was their star pitcher? That gives the general public
lots of confidence in your common sense.

Let's face it. If not for the economic meltdown and the netroots movement,
McCain would be our President and Phil Gramm as the economic advisor.
America is tired of seeing rising health care costs, no jobs and shrinking
middle class. Health care is real important, but only in terms of jobs,
affordability and having stuff. Like it or not, Americans want stuff. They
want food, housing, a big screen TV and security in their lives. Right now,
many do have any of these. They have no trust, confidence, whatever. They do
not understand the last wars were fought off the books until Obama came on
board. They do not get what deregulation of the financial markets has done
to the economy. Hard to keep up on these things if you are working two or
three jobs and have a family.

Americans are angry! They do not know what happened to the middle class.
They don't get how Wall Street deserves bonuses. And the Dems are not going
after Wall Street with regulation. They can't get the Fed to say who they
lent money to. But the Republicans and tea Parties are giving a place for
that anger to live. A channel for its expression.

Americans need health care. They don't need to buy insurance, making rich
companies richer. They need this so they can be competitive on the world
market. Normal guys are PISSED that bankers, who foreclose on mortgages, set
up bogus investments and so on get bonuses as they see their buying power go
away. They forget that 9/11 happened on the Bush watch. It was not a Clinton
Thing! Nor was the recession, which is now being placed on Obama (amazing
how big the deficit gets when the wars are on the books) or Clinton. The
media lets fools say these things without question. Oh, dare I mention that
the media is corporations and news is a now a profit center instead of a
community service. It is not the Fourth Estate any longer.

I work in a very conservative industry. Many places I visit play Rush and
Glenn Beck all day. This is all many hear. This is what they know. Instead
of going after things aggressively, Obama appears to be going after
consensus. After living in a commune and working within a consensus
governance program, I can tell you consensus among fools and ill-informed is
still bad decision making, even if all agree. What this country needs is
leadership!!!!! and we need a regrounding in more populist agendas. Unions
are not bad. Business and greed are not good! And what should be the
Democratic strong suit, making the world better for Joe Blue Collar is being
taken from them. Their lunch is getting eaten by the likes of Rush and Faux
News and they do not know it.And we know that Rush does this as a not for
profit. Sure.

Obama would have lost if not for netroots. I watched Faux News last night
while I was at the gym and they could only speak of how this election in
Massachusetts was a referendum on the far left direction of the Democratic
party. As far as I can see, the Dems are right-center. Not left at all. When
the bail out was needed, was there money given to mortgage holders. No, it
went to banks as they foreclosed on people. The banks investment was bad.
Well, hell, if you pay it off and lighten the loss, the investment is no
longer bad. And the dominos of bad securities of bundled mortgages aren't
dominos anymore. And really, giving money to banks without placing controls
on it, reregulating the industry and capping pay. What???? And letting
single payer devolve into buying insurance from unscrupulous companies that
backed the bundled securities who also bought insurance from themselves if
these failed.

What started as promise, getting away from the kindergarteners running the
White House using Iran-Contra veterans to decide policy is not here. People
are disillusioned as the fat cats keep theirs and you get a cut in pay to
work harder with less benefits.

There has been no Change We Can Believe In. Just more of the same old shit
and people are being ground down. Without serious changes, Obama is a one
term jockey and the party who does not believe government can work so why
bother is put back in charge.

rojo

Slow Saturday Morning





rojo

Oldies for Friday







and a repeat, but it is funky!


rojo

Sunday, Let's Polka





or if Ploka is just too much, how about klezmar?


Take these same riffs and eastern european/Middle Eastern influences and let young kids and DJs have at it?


rojo