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Politics Blog

Weigh in on the peakers

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The city’s proposal to build two fossil-fuel burning “peaking” power plants on our precious peninsula (one in Portrero/Bayview, the other at the airport) has become a hot topic.

On one side we have Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Chris Daly, and Ross Mirkarimi, allied with PG&E and a host of environmental groups and activists like the Sierra Club, GreenAction, SPUR, and Van Jones, who think building any fossil fuel plants – even if they burn the cleanest fuel available – is a bad idea.

On the other, we have Mayor Gavin Newsom, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Sophie Maxwell, who believe this is a necessary handshake with the Devil – in order to close down the older, reportedly more polluting Mirant Portrero power plant, the peakers must replace it. (See the $2 million handshake here.) Public power advocates also tend to favor this position as the peakers will be owned by the city and considered a crucial player in energy independence from our local utility monopoly. This is why PG&E, disguised as the CloseIt Coalition, hates the idea.

We can see Mirant’s stack from our Guardian offices, and though we love public power, we hate the idea of replacing one fossil fuel plant with another – particularly if the $250 million for the project could be used to build more city-owned renewable generation for our Community Choice Aggregation power co-op. Last week we ran an editorial suggesting the city explore floating the peakers on a barge, but overall, to build or not to build is the tricky part of this issue. We’ve been watching the back and forth with interest. Follow the jump to read some leading locals weighing in, as well as more data from our research. Feel free to add your own comments, information, and critiques.

Dede Wilsey is an idiot

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And you wonder why Phil Bronstein, whose blog is quite pathetic, even pays attention to her. But Phil is always down with the swells, and now he is promoting Dede’s plan to repeal district elections.

Let me remind you, Phil, since you haven’t been covering City Hall in a long time, that the district-elected supervisors are far, far better, despite their occasional foibles, than any previous board in the 25 years I’ve been watching.

There’s a good reason for this: District candidates can run without big money from the powers that be and the Dede WIlsey’s of the world. So you get candidates with real grassroots constituencies, not just hacks who are pawns of the power structure.

The nightmare pastors

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I’m sorry to see Barack Obama’s campaign in so much trouble over the latest comments of Rev. Wright, but you have to admit: This is a great argument for the separation of church and state.

Religious figures say all kinds of strange things — and frankly, while I (obviously) don’t agree with Wright that AIDS is a government plot, it’s pretty well established that the Reagan administration’s failure to respond to the epidemic in the crucial early years was, if not a government plot to kill anyone, certainly a government plot not to save the lives of gay men.

But here’s the question: Why so much media attention on Obama’s religious albatross — and so little on John McCain’s? McCain, lest we forget, is pals with Paston John Hagee, who believes, among other things, that the Catholic Church is a “great whore,” that “all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews,” that God wants us to bomb Iran — and that God damns the United States because of gays, Catholics and Muslims.

Me, I’d rather have a guy who rails against the U.S. for racism and imperialism than a guy who says God hates gays. But then, I don’t go to church.

Cancel Pelosi’s vacation

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Petraeus: “The big green weenie that we are giving to the troopers after politely asking them to bend over with ‘stop-loss’ and ‘involuntary extension’ is about this big. And it’s called the fifteenth month deployment.”
(From the blog of Sgt. Adam Kokesh)

Here’s a good idea: Cancel all leaves, vacation and family visits by member of Congress until the troops come home from Iraq. If the military can put “stop loss”orders on the troops, Congres ought to be able to abide by the same rules.

The stop-loss Congress group will bring Adam Kokesh, a former Marine Corps sergeant who is now active against the war.

Details on his appearance follow after the jump

Clinton needs to drop out

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Finally, the mainstream media is starting to do the math. As the Examiner reports today, Clinton would have to win something like 80 percent of the delegates after North Carolina and Indiana to go to the convention ahead of Barack Obama. It’s over — and all that Bill and Hillary are doing is damaging the Democratic Party’s prospects in November by trashing the almost certain nominee.

This is nothing new to the blogosphere — Paul Hogarth explained it nicely way back in March.

I’m not among the Hillary bashers who just can’t stand her; I think she’d be a fine president. But she has adopted her husband’s win-at-all-costs, scorched-earth attitude and I’m starting to think that she would rather see John McCain in the White House than Barack Obama. Because that’s where her behavior is leading. She needs to drop out.

Spinning our wheels

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Newsom and me at a past Bike to Work Day.
While other U.S. cities pedal forward with smart policies to encouraging bicycling — the cheapest, easiest and greenest of the transportation options besides walking — San Francisco continues to lag as we move toward annual Bike to Work Day on May 15. Part of that is the court injunction against new bike projects, but even more of it is a simple failure of political will by Mayor Gavin Newsom and other civic leaders.
We saw another example of that cowardice in this morning’s Chron when Newsom and some supervisors promised to fight new parking fine increases even if it meant scaling back needed improvements to Muni. Meanwhile, Newsom years ago announced plans to offer easy bicycle rentals at many bus stops, yet it is Washington DC that actually went ahead and did it, following the lead of Paris and other world-class cities. Newsom has a bunch of high-paid environmental advisers, and his web page announcements are always chock full of green promises, so why does San Francisco have such a hard time with such a basic goal of encouraging more bicycling in this 7×7 city?

Pleading with Pelosi

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San Franciscans don’t easily let go of good or noble ideas, which is why we’ve long supported the impeachment of war criminals George W. Bush and Dick Cheney – and long been frustrated at the stubborn refusal of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to do anything to hold this administration responsible for its treasonous misdeeds.
It’s been more than three years since I and the Guardian laid out our strong “Case for Impeachment,” and more than a year since Brad Newsham and hundreds of his local cohorts launched the simple but effective Beach Impeach project, the fifth installment of which takes place at 10 a.m. this Saturday at Ocean Beach.
But whether we’re penning thoughtful articles, marching in the streets, collectively aligning our bodies to spell the word “IMPEACH!” or starting political campaigns, the message is the same: we are sickened by the possibility that Bush and Cheney will finish their terms and head off into retirement without ever being held accountable for illegally and deceitfully leading us into an immoral and unjustifiable war, among their many abuses of power.
And that frustration has now fallen hard on Pelosi. I don’t realistically share the hopes of the Shirley Golub for Congress campaign that they might defeat Pelosi in the June primary election, but I’m sure she’ll pick up lots of protest votes. Same thing this November when high-profile anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan takes her independent run at Pelosi.
Let’s face it, this Democrat-led Congress has been a big disappointment. And it’s not because, as they’re fundraising pleas would have you believe, that their majority isn’t large enough (although that might help a bit). It’s because Pelosi and company are too afraid or too invested in the system to really challenge the powerful on behalf of the people.
But at least we can send our signal to the world while kicking it on the beach and pray they understand that we’re not all complicit in this dying empire’s crimes.

Lennar drops another million on June election

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They say money talks. So what does Lennar’s latest campaign expenditures tell you?

One day after our latest article about Lennar’s plans to takeover the Bayview came out, the developer’s most recent campaign filings show that between March 18 and April 19, Lennar Homes spent another million dollars to influence the Battle for the Bayview.

To date, this an out-of-state developer has spent a total of $2.23 million to defeat Prop. F (which requires that 50 percent of Lennar’s proposed 10,000 new units of housing be truly affordable to people living in the Bayview)supporting instead an initiative that would allow it to build at least 75 percent of these new units as luxury condos.

Governor delays moth spraying

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Photo by Peter Grigsby, Office of Governor Schwarzenegger.
After meeting with Sen. Carole Migden and other elected officials and activists concerned about the health implications of plans for aerial spraying designed to eradicate the crop-threatening light brown apple moth, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today delayed the spraying pending additional testing.
“I am very gratified that the Governor listened to my concerns about the safety and efficacy of aerial spraying and agreed to postpone the spray until additional tests are completed,” Migden said in a prepared statement.
After a series of toxicology tests on the spray, which includes a moth pheromone designed to disrupt mating patterns, the spraying has been delayed until at least Aug. 17. Despite the delay, the governor still seems to indicate that the spraying is inevitable, saying in a prepared statement, “I am confident that the additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the safest, most progressive approach to ridding our state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and economy.”
Others in the Migden delegate included Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento — and the likely next Senate president), Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, the Sierra Club’s Bill Magavern and Paul Schramski, State Director of Pesticide Watch.
But it is Migden that could enjoy the biggest political bump from the delay of the controversial spraying until after her June primary challenge from Mark Leno, hoping that her campaign finance and other problems might be overshadowed by the reminder that she still has the juice to get into the Governor’s Office and deliver the goods.

Annemarie Conroy lands on her feet … again

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You might remember local political cog Annemarie Conroy from such films as The Career Hack and How to Get Inexplicably Bigger Job Titles in San Francisco Without Real Credentials. After disappearing for a while, she’s back. Joe Russoniello, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, just announced that Conroy is his new “law enforcement coordinator.”

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Her primary responsibilities will be to “maximize the use of federal resources to meet crime abatement objectives,” be a “chief liaison to local law enforcement officials” and direct the district’s “Project Safe Neighborhood and Weed and Seed programs.” Despite the confusing title, that last program there involves taking on drug activity and gangs with the feds, which she’s no doubt suited to do.

Some of you might recall the trajectory of Conroy’s career. Dan Noyes at ABC 7 pointed out in 2005 that when Newsom appointed her to head San Francisco’s Office of Emergency Services, she had no experience in disaster management, but she did have political connections, just like Michael Brown, head of FEMA when Katrina struck. A retired Navy admiral who held the job before Conroy went public and declared that Newsom should remove her for being ill-prepared, and behind the scenes, the fire department wasn’t happy about her post either. She finally resigned in January of 2007.

Where Rainbow Grocery $ really goes

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Happy Earth Day everyone! Here’s a little present for you to print out and hang on your fridge.

GOOD Magazine put together a very handy guide to the big bad corporations that have co-opted the natural food companies you know and love. It’s sad, folks. Some, like the Odwalla-Coca Cola connection aren’t breaking news, but man, I didn’t know Dagoba was in bed with Hershey.

My Earth Day resolution: buy local, local, local.

Green dreams

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As we celebrate Earth Day in this era of all things green, it’s worth contemplating whether our enviro-guilt has gotten the better of our skepticism and critical thinking. Is “Green=Good” our sole metric these days, making us susceptible to self-serving spin from our politicians and corporations? After all, our Governator seems to have gone from bad to good simply by donning verdant armor and signing a landmark global warming measure that he long fought and watered down.
Closer to home, PG&E’s has been trying to greenwash away our knowledge of their penchant for polluting technologies and political corruption, a quest that our lazy but ambitious and ever image conscious Mayor Gavin Newsom has sporadically tried to piggyback on (ie tidal power, sponsored conferences, and solar everything). When Newsom tried to beef up the city solar commitment by robbing a seismic upgrade fund for renters and then the city’s own bank for building municipal solar panels, it was understandable that the Board of Supervisors balked.
But in today’s Chron, SPUR policy wonk Egon Terplan and righteous activist Van Jones whack the move and decry city plans for more fossil fuel generation. It’s not a bad point, although it is an oversimplistic one, like too many of our either-or green political debates these days. Indeed, we seem to lose the ability to see shades of gray when we talk green, and we too often forget that money is the other form of green in the equation.
As we’ve reported, San Francisco’s solar problems are complicated, just like our power generation problems (see our story in tomorrow’s paper for a more nuanced look at the peaker plant issue). To solve the problems, we need honest leaders speaking candidly to us and each other, rather than all the spin, self-interest, and political gamesmanship that has sullied San Francisco’s political dialogue in recent years.
Green can be good, or it can be the equivalent of snake oil or the IPO for a overhyped tech company that will never make any money. As an excellent recent cover story in Harper’s Magazine noted, the green economy could be the next great bubble after the housing and dot-com crashes, something that desperate capitalists and their political partners are eagerly trying to make so.
Maybe that will be a good thing, but let’s learn our lessons from the last couple bubbles and don’t simply assume that the green label is some kind of stamp of public interest approval.

Mercury Interactive CFO indicted

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In January of 2007, we brought you the story of a Silicone Valley company called Mercury Interactive, which was trying to bar media access to a detailed civil court complaint filed by shareholders against the company.

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Mercury Interactive for months has been waste deep in the stock options backdating scandal, defined in the simplest terms possible as a version of card counting in which corporate executives can maximize their personal compensation by finding a date on the calender at which their stock was valued the lowest. That way, they can both buy the stock from the company at a fire sale price and then sell it when the company’s performing well, which results in a huge windfall profit. Another comparison might be knowing winning lottery numbers in advance.

Details of the scheme allegedly perpetrated by Mercury Interactive execs appeared in the civil complaint and it named names, so defense attorneys tried to keep them sealed off from the press. But local and national news outlets — including the Chronicle, a San Francisco legal newspaper and other business news services — sued to open them up. The Wall Street Journal ended up getting a hold of the documents before the drama could really play out in court.

A year-and-a-half later, Mercury Interactive CFO Sharlene Abrams has been indicted by federal prosecutors for tax evasion and aiding in the preparation of false tax returns. She’s looking at 11 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if proved guilty. It’s the first case in Northern California where someone’s been charged with criminal tax violations from the backdating scandal. Hewlett-Packard bought Mercury in July 2006. More details after the jump.

VERY FUNNY oil spill video

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Okay, as afar as I can tell this is NOT a real interview, but an Australian TV skit. Still, it’s a really, really funny commentary on an oil spill.

I’m back

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After an epic five-week trip to Bolivia and Peru, I’m back manning the news desk here at the Guardian and trying to catch up on what’s happening. And it seems the biggest things that have changed in my absence are my perspective and energy levels.
The Republicans in Sacramento and Mayor Gavin Newsom here in San Francisco are continuing to push draconian cuts to government services rather than having the courage to challenge the mindless “no new taxes” mantra and have the wealthy pay their fair share. And neither the Democrats in Sacramento or Washington D.C., nor the Board of Supervisors here, seem to be doing much to challenge this race to the bottom. It’s not that they don’t understand. In the last two days, we’ve had Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Assembly member Loni Hancock in for endorsement interviews, and they powerfully sound the message that something needs to change and they’re willing to work for it. But with the labor unions distracted by infighting, Democratic politicians battling one another (such as Carole Migden and Mark Leno, who we have the unfortunate task of deciding between for our endorsements that come out April 30), the mainstream media both smaller and more trivial, and many other factors stacked against our species finally getting wise to the problems we face, it looks like an uphill battle.
Does all this make me want to flee back to South America? No, it makes me want to renew the fight for truth and justice. How about you?

Newsom’s wind shifts Obamaward?

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This morning I attended the grand opening ceremony of the pretty incredible-looking Hotel Essex, an 84-unit rehab completed by Community Housing Partnership and Mercy Housing that now houses 84 formerly homeless people in their own apartments (complete with kitchenettes!), with on-site counselling, recovery, and job-training services available. (Full disclosure: My bf works for CHP and helped put this all together.)

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The Essex was rehabbed with $22+ million dollars of city, state, and federal grants and loans — $1.1 million of which was federal, and very grudgingly contributed by an eviscerated HUD at the behest of Nancy Pelosi, who apparently can actually get some things done. Good for her!

This is the first homeless housing project completed under Mayor Gavin Newsom’s administration (stuff takes time, folks) and naturally Newsie was there himself to make some remarks. I must say, despite his odious record on homelessness, Gavin was actually quite gracious to all involved and even acknowledged that he had been on the wrong side of many of the disagreements he’d with the progenitors of the project. But, of course, he’s charming like that.

And then came a very weird moment. With cautious enunciation and in the wake the whole Obama-elitism-San Francisco-oh my! panic, Newsom, a supposedly staunch Hillary supporter, said:

“We’re turning this problem around — or, as Barack Obama says: We’re turning the page, bringing real change — on homelessness.”

Hmm. Quoting Obama, really? Right now? Either this was a very misguided attempt to pull a Hillary and tar Obama with any reference to scandal possible — keeping the smear ball in play, as it were — or perhaps Mr. Newsom knows something we don’t about the way the superdelegate winds are blowing, and is waving around a little penance. Either way, many confused looks were shot across the room.

Back to the actual issue at hand: Darryl, one of the Essex’s residents, who unfortunately spoke last, well after Newsom had slipped out the back, was the most eloquent speaker, talking about how the Essex was giving him and others a chance at real community and about the power of a little faith and empowerment to help change lives.

C.W. Nevius was not present.

Leno on Newsom’s budget cuts

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Assemblymember Mark Leno, who is challenging state Sen. Carole Migden in the June primary, responded this afternoon to our editorial on Newsom’s budget cuts.

Migden responded earlier today.

Here’s Leno’s statement:

Dear Bay Guardian Editors,

You are absolutely right to assert that the Federal Government has turned its back on urban America and the Governor’s repeal of the Vehicle License Fee (VLF) has left our City in extremely challenged fiscal health. I agree with you, Tim, that new revenue is needed for the City. Current state law gives local government few options.

For that reason I have and am presently authoring legislation to bring more local control to our revenue streams, so that we can guarantee that San Francisco’s budget is not balanced on the backs of those who can least afford it.

In 2005, I authored AB 799, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, SF Labor Council, Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, which would have allowed San Francisco voters to restore their own VLF which would have brought approximately 70 million new dollars to San Francisco. Unfortunately the Governor vetoed the bill.

I brought the bill back in 2007 as AB 1590. Unfortunately, it got held up in the Senate. I am working with all four co-sponsors to shake it loose this year.

Back in 2003, when cities and counties were faced with huge cuts, I authored AB 1690 to bring more revenue to the local level. The measure would have allowed voters to decide to levy a local income tax, which could have eased our way and pre-empted painful cuts to our local budget. That measure, though passed through the Assembly, was also held up in the Senate.

The Mayor and Board of Supervisors have a great challenge on their hands. The fiscal crisis we face is nothing short of tragic. I will continue to use my voice to argue that the cuts considered must be equitable, and those with the least should suffer the least.

I continue to argue that we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem. To forestall mean spirited cuts, we need to be as creative as possible to create new revenue streams. Otherwise, we will be continually faced with Sophie’s Choices.

Sincerely,
Mark Leno

And thanks to Mark for sending that, and for pushing for state legislation that would give cities more ways to raise revenue. I have always been impressed by his willingness to do that and his creative approaches.

I will note, for the record, that Leno declined to say anything critical of Gavin Newsom and his budget decisions.

Take that, PG&E!

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And congratulations go out to San Joaquin Valley Power Authority, which has reached a settlement agreement with PG&E over how the utility company has been behaving itself with regards to Community Choice Aggregation (CCA.) Best part: PG&E has to pay.

I’m giving a nod to the Associated Press here, which described SJVPA as a “public electricity cooperative,” because that’s essentially what a CCA is – a group of cities and counties getting together to buy or build their own power, and then run it through the grid that’s already established. Many CCAs say they can bring us cheaper, greener power. According to Tim Rosenfeld, who’s working on Marin’s CCA, “Public power can simply do things cheaper than investor-owned utilities.” For example, he says, the cost of financing a new power plant is about 5.5 percent for a municipality issuing a bond, and it’s more like 12 percent for a private company. “Apples to apples, building the same power plant we have a huge cost advantage,” said Rosenfeld.

As one might imagine, PG&E has some issues with CCAs because it means losing customers, and they’ve been lobbying hard against them throughout their service territory. They were so effective in San Joaquin that Fresno and Tulare backed out of the deal, meaning the SJVPA had less customers.

As we reported last year, SJVPA filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission, which had already decided that it was a conflict of interest for utilities to expound on the pros and cons of CCAs, and if they were going to bitch about it they better do it with their shareholders’ piggy banks. SJVPA had evidence to the contrary and now they’ve settled with PG&E. The terms: PG&E agrees to make sure their investors pay for the marketing and lobbying and that said lobbying will be “truthful and non-misleading” – which makes my job more boring. Best part: they’re also paying up to $450K of SJVPA’s litigation fees.

The other interesting aspect of this is PG&E admits they changed horses midstream.

Moth Bills, Moth Balls

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The Assembly Agriculture Committee passed two pieces of legislation today authored by Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and related to the Light Brown Apple Moth controversy.

“We need to back up and walk through each outstanding issue in a science-based, clear way using neutral third party experts,” said Laird, who has been dealing with the LBAM furor since last summer, and has one of the best website’s in terms of tracking the progression of arguments and lawsuits related to the moth.

So, just what will Laird’s legislation do?

ACR 117, an Assembly Concurrent Resolution, calls on the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and other relevant state departments to address unresolved health, scientific and efficacy issues surrounding the CDFA’s Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM )eradication plans.

The resolution passed 5-3, and next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“It is the responsibility of our government to demonstrate its LBAM actions are necessary and do not compromise human or environmental health,” said Mr. Laird. “It isn’t the responsibility of the people to demonstrate the reverse.”

AB 2763, the Invasive Pest Planning Act of 2008 – would require the CDFA to create a list of invasive animals, plants, and insects that have a reasonable likelihood of entering California for which an eradication program might be appropriate.

For each invasive on the list, the department would prepare a written assessment on the most appropriate method of eradication. If pesticides were to be used, the assessment would have to discuss application methods, the chemistry of the pesticide and its inert ingredients, impacts on public health and the environment. If a pest was found, the department would have to notify various local agencies, hold public hearings, and comply with other requirements. The bill passed by a vote of 8-0 and next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“The California Food & Agriculture’s Light Brown Apple Moth program has led to more contacts with my office than any single issue during my time in Sacramento,” said Laird. “Clearly, the state was not adequately prepared for LBAM. This bill aims to put in place a pest planning process that prevents the kind of public fear and confusion we’ve experienced with LBAM.”

Whether any of these efforts will succeed in derailing the feds’ trade agreement-driven plan to spray for the moth this summer in Santa Cruz, Monterey and the BAy Area counties remains to be seen.

Bill Maxfield

Director of Communications

Assemblymember John Laird

831-596-0910 Mobile

831-425-1503 Santa Cruz

916-319-2027 Sacramento

“Public confidence is at issue,” said Assemblymember Laird, who has been living through the ongoing LBAM spraying nightmare since last summer, when the feds announced they were spraying Laiird’s hometown, “We need to back up and walk through each outstanding issue in a science-based, clear way using neutral third party experts.”

ACR 117, an Assembly Concurrent Resolution that calls on the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and other relevant state departments to address unresolved health, scientific and efficacy issues surrounding the CDFA’s Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM )eradication plans. The resolution passed by a vote of 5-3 and next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“As stated in the resolution, it is the responsibility of our government to demonstrate its LBAM actions are necessary and do not compromise human or environmental health,” said Mr. Laird. “It isn’t the responsibility of the people to demonstrate the reverse.”

AB 2763, the Invasive Pest Planning Act of 2008 – would require the CDFA to create a list of invasive animals, plants, and insects that have a reasonable likelihood of entering California for which an eradication program might be appropriate. For each invasive on the list, the department would prepare a written assessment on the most appropriate method of eradication. If pesticides were to be used, the assessment would have to discuss application methods, the chemistry of the pesticide and its inert ingredients, impacts on public health and the environment. If a pest was found, the department would have to notify various local agencies, hold public hearings, and comply with other requirements. The bill passed by a vote of 8-0 and next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“The California Food & Agriculture’s Light Brown Apple Moth program has led to more contacts with my office than any single issue during my time in Sacramento,” said Mr. Laird. “Clearly, the state was not adequately prepared for LBAM. This bill aims to put in place a pest planning process that prevents the kind of public fear and confusion we’ve experienced with LBAM.”

For more information on the Light Brown Apple Moth issue—including key documents, correspondence, news and other information, visit Assemblymember Laird’s LBAM resource page: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a27/moth.htm

###

Bill Maxfield

Director of Communications

Assemblymember John Laird

831-596-0910 Mobile

831-425-1503 Santa Cruz

916-319-2027 Sacramento

McCain called his wife a what?

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Got an interesting letter from writer Paul Loeb today. It’s an open missive to Hillary Clinton outlining why she should remember that John McCain is the real enemy, not Barack Obama. It includes a little snipped I had somehow missed: A new book on McCain reports that he once lashed out at his wife during a campaign event and called her a “cunt.”

What a swell guy. CHeck it out:

Migden on Newsom’s cuts

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Our editorial this week calls on the two candidates for state Senate, Carole Migden and Mark Leno, to speak out against the Newsom budget cuts. I haven’t heard from Leno, but I got the following message from Migden this morning:

“I completely agree with your take that Mayor Newsom’s budget cuts are cruel and will take from those who have little or nothing to give. I have stood and spoken out with SEIU 1021 at two protests this year against these cuts to vital social services. Moreover I have stood with the California Nurses Association as we try to save St. Lukes and enforce staff to patient ratios. What is most vexing about the Mayor’s move to cut $18 million in healthcare for the City’s poorest residents, is that there seems to be no willingness to reach out and ask more from those who live in this CIty and can afford to pitch in extra. There is no question that the City and the State is in dire economic straits. Yet San Francisco also has a population of incredibly wealthy individuals (including our Mayor) and we must explore all options and pull in extra resources to make the City whole. Cutting is the quick and frankly the easier option; hard work and leadership is what is required to save vital services.

-State Senator Carole Migden”

So, go Carole. Mark?

TIny Moths, Giant Misinformation campaigns

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Just when you think there couldn’t be more to be said on the moths, a new flurry of arguments crops up.

Two competing pieces out today, both using science to support the pro and cons of aerial spraying for the Light Brown Apple Moth.

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In a piece called “Moths and Misinformation”, A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, addresses misinformation about the CDFA’s aerial spraying program for the Light Brown Apple Moth.

These include claims that the pheromone products are untested, that we are all going to be guinea pigs, that the treatments caused a red tide, poisoned the water, and even killed waterfowl.

And then there are what Kawamura characterizes as, “misleading and inaccurate references to describe a pheromone, including hormone, carcinogen, mutagen, endocrine disruptor and other scary-sounding descriptions.”

“I urge the public to seek out scientific studies and historical data,” Kawamura states.

Meanwhile, Dr. Dennis Knepp and Dr. Jeff Haferman, two Monterey area scientists, claim to have unearthed serious errors in an analysis of the particle size of the Suterra pesticide spray being used to combat LBAM.

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We can see how small the moths are, but just how big are the particles in the aerial pheromone spray?

Well, Knepp and Haferman recently reviewed particle-size data from Suterra and provided by CDFA. They claim to have found that the CDFA made serious errors in their review of the Suterra data.

“The CDFA states in their analysis that only 1.2% of the particles in the Checkmate spray were smaller than 10 microns, which is a critical size for inhalation to deep within the lungs.

“They based their computations on particle volume, not number of particles, which is simply incorrect,” Haferman stated. Knepp explained that when the analysis is corrected “we find the average particle size to be about 17 microns with significant numbers of much smaller particles.”

“Our analysis shows that the small particle sizes from the Checkmate spray can cause significant health issues, and the CDFA needs to seriously reexamine their findings” said Knepp.
Knepp has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of Geophysics and Electrical Engineering. Haferman has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, and has published over a dozen papers in the fields of Meteorology and Engineering, and also sits on the Monterey City Council.

Man hating: the new U.S. birth control

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By Paula Connelly

A highly effective birth control shot, made specifically for men, has been developed in Australia! It has been proven to be as effective as a vasectomy but without long-term effects. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies are not funding efforts to make this revolutionary mode of contraception available to the public. They don’t think men will buy it, even though it has demonstrated a fraction of the side effects associated with the female birth control pill. Unsurprising considering that politics, pricing and culture have been limiting access to contraceptives in the U.S. for years, resulting in inflated teenage and unwanted pregnancy rates, according to the Male Contraception Information Project. It is insulting to all the women who have suffered the insane mood swings, nausea, weight gain, diminished sex drive, increased risk of heart attack and breast cancer to hear men being quoted in the media saying, ‘”I would rather rely on a solution that doesn’t involving medicating myself and the problems women have had with hormone therapy doesn’t make me anxious to want to sign on to taking a hormone-type therapy,” says Hardin, 40, who is single and a college administrator.’

But this is just what’s being reported.

The reality is that plenty of men will use this option, and this trend would only increase over time as male birth control methods broke through the negative, emasculating stigma. I personally know many men who would love to try a non-barrier male birth control option and I know even more women poised to convince their partners to try it. Hell, I’ll even support the ‘girl’s secretly trying to get pregnant’ argument if that gets more guys thinking outside the (ahem) box.

Q: Will the Spray Cause Erectile Dysfunction?

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A. Not if you keep looking at porn.

Yesterday’s, er, news that men (sex, sex, sex, money, money, sports) take greater risks after viewing porn, got me wondering what will happen to the stock market when the feds start spraying female moth pheromones.

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Will the market go soft? Will everyone, drag queens included, start dressing as giant female moths?
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Will my cat start puking? And is Fodor really warning folks to stay the f*** away ?
(These latter two questions are raised in a somewhat erratic piece at the Huffington Post)

But don’t worry, Mommy, Arnie says the spray is safe.
Seriously folks, to reassure us all, the California Department of Food and Agriculture sent this transcript of the Governor speaking from Salinas.

“Hello-Today, Governor Schwarzenegger was in Salinas to continue statewide discussions on budget reform.
After his event, the local ABC station asked him about LBAM spraying. The transcript is below. Thought you may find it interesting.

ABC: Will you comment on LBAM spraying?

Governor: It’s important we do everything we can because it can destroy our agriculture products and harm our environment. Other countries can cut off our agriculture trade. Public safety is my number one priority and there is nothing that shows this program is unsafe.

ABC: Senator Migden is proposing legislation to prevent spraying before an EIR is done. Do u have a position?

Governor: We have done all the studies in the world and nothing says it is unsafe. We wouldn’t spray if it were unsafe.

ABC: You would look these people in the eye and tell them it is safe?

Governor: This is safe. The spraying is safe and there is nothing that says otherwise.

Meanwhile, folks who remain unconvinced that the spraying is safe are being urged…to catch a bus to Sacramento tomorrow, April 16.
Read on for details:

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