The Autumn of Our Discontent

Daryl Hannah at the White House

Last Friday marked the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn, and the protest continued.
For a week now hundreds to thousands of demonstrators, mostly young people, have flooded lower Manhattan's financial district, or as close as the police would allow them to get to it, protesting against the economic policies of Wall Street, mainly the corruption and greed which allow bailed out firms and banks to continue rampant speculation that fueled the countries economic collapse of 2008, and the major banks foreclosures of hundreds of thousands of homes throughout the nation, allowing these institutions to gain huge profits for its stockholders and top management, while the rest of the country wallowed in economic destitution. (see "Revolution 5" http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2011/09/revolution-5.html)
As I've mentioned earlier, the mainstream media has taken little notice of this action, as it does with so many progressive causes. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) suggested, "The answer to the problem of non-coverage would seem to be simple: If the people occupying Wall Street want more media attention, they should just call themselves Tea Party activists," as the corporate controlled media seems to fall all over themselves when ever and where ever the Tea Baggers are involved, but tend to ignore legitimate demonstrations from the left such as recent sit-ins in front of the White House protesting the proposed building of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas when about 1,000 people were arrested (see "Tar and Sand" http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2011/09/tar-and-sand.html)
When the hometown paper, the New York Times did cover the story, the reporter seems to belittle and trash the movement due to it's wide range of focus, size, and the character of those involved:
Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim
"By late morning on Wednesday, Occupy Wall Street, a noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people, had a default ambassador in a half-naked woman who called herself Zuni Tikka. A blonde with a marked likeness to Joni Mitchell and a seemingly even stronger wish to burrow through the space-time continuum and hunker down in 1968, Ms. Tikka had taken off all but her cotton underwear and was dancing on the north side of Zuccotti Park, facing Liberty Street, just west of Broadway. Tourists stopped to take pictures; cops smiled, and the insidiously favorable tax treatment of private equity and hedge-fund managers was looking as though it would endure.
Members retained hope for an infusion of energy over the weekend, but as it approached, the issue was not that the Bastille hadn’t been stormed, but that its facade had suffered hardly a chip. It is a curious fact of life in New York that even as the disparities between rich and poor grow deeper, the kind of large-scale civil agitation that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently suggested might happen here hasn’t taken shape."
Some said they were fighting the legal doctrine of corporate personhood; others, not fully understanding what that meant, believed it meant corporations paid no taxes whatsoever. Others came to voice concerns about the death penalty, the drug war, the environment.
The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgeably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like “Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I’d Still Plant a Tree Today”?
One day, a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Sarzen, a decade or so older than many of the protesters, came to Zuccotti Park seemingly just to shake his head. “Look at these kids, sitting here with their Apple computers,” he said. “Apple, one of the biggest monopolies in the world. It trades at $400 a share. Do they even know that?” -Ginia Bellafante
I wonder how Ms Bellafante would have reported on the anti-war and Peace movements of 1968?
Fortunately many of the readers of this took the demonstrations, and demonstrators more seriously, and wished to set the author straight via their comments. Here's what Laura from New Jersey wrote yesterday:
"What we have is a growing group, all over the US, of unemployed young people with expensive degrees with few prospects of anything other than a job at Walmart or McDonalds. They grew up in a world of middle-class expectations. They are facing a third-world future as debt slaves in depressing soul-crushing jobs. They are angry, full of youthful energy, and are seeking a purpose. This country is shooting itself in the foot if we don't get together to make this economy work for them. I feel sorry for these kids and I feel sorry for all of us that we've allowed this situation to develop and continue. And, yes, these kids may not have a coherent message but they're in the right place. Previous generations (including my own just before them) have screwed up so badly that our only hope is that these kids can figure it out and dig us all out. I wish them well and I'm rooting for them."
And Pam from Brooklyn:
"I am extremely disappointed in the way the Times and other media outlets have been first ignoring and then belittling this movement. The ending comment about Apple in particular is dismissive and reductive: the problem is not in corporations per se. Corporations are neutral entities, which can be forces of good if run ethically and transparently by human beings. I'm impressed by the way the people at occupywallst.org have harnessed technology to communicate, organize, and mobilize - and yes, companies like Apple, Twitter, Facebook have created said technology. Companies can and do create marvelous things at times.
The problem, though, is the greed, lack of compassion, and shirking of societal responsibility that's currently being exhibited by many of the wealthiest people behind those companies. They are not paying their share in taxes and are being protected by several unethical members of Congress (who have in turn benefited from corporate money which helped get them elected in the first place.) And that is wrong.
Yes, we have a whole host of problems to tackle right now, so it's no wonder messages seem mixed. But the bottom line is this: the wealthiest people of our nation need to pay their fair share in taxes. That money, in turn, should go toward investing in our future: in education, healthcare, innovation in industry (thus a revitalization of our economy), and a sustainable ecosystem. To do anything other than that would be fatally short-sighted.
The wealthiest of our nation have benefited greatly from this system. But it's time for them to be held accountable, and to pay their fair share. And many of them, such as Warren Buffett, are happy to do so. They know it's not only the right thing to do - it is also the only way to keep our economy healthy, so that they can continue to be successful. If there is no middle class to buy your goods and services, that is death for business. This is not class warfare. It is just common sense."
Last Saturday, New York's finest, our first responders during 9/11, followed their corporate masters orders and took a much harder stance toward the demonstrators. I don't know why.
A large march was planned for noon on Saturday. Several hundred marchers paraded around the plaza to their favorite chant, “All Day, All Week! Occupy Wall Street!” They then headed off to try and get to Wall Street, where police arrested several of them. From there, the march continued up to Union Square, two and a half miles north. It arrived there, then turned south again toward Liberty Plaza. Around 3 p.m., near Fifth Avenue and 12th Street, the police became aggressive. Unrolling plastic orange barriers, they isolated a crowd of marchers, along with the reporters following them, and began mass arrests for blocking traffic. They were described as being brutal. Caught on cameras were scenes of one protester being dragged by her hair, others being slammed into the pavement, and a group of women, netted, or what is called, kettled, being downed by pepper spray or mace. In total, police say they arrested 80 people. The march thereafter dispersed, and those who weren’t arrested made their way back to Liberty Plaza.
The police claim their action, caught on video and placed online, were appropriate, that the young ladies attacked them somehow. The video shows otherwise, with the officer dressed in white, denoting a senior officer, spraying these helpless girls with pepper spray for apparently no reason whatsoever, then quickly disappearing back into the crowd. Kind of a sucker spray. It has been discovered that the officer in question has displayed this type of behavior prior to these demonstrations.
Come on Mayor Bloomberg! Rain in your hired thugs!
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ05rWx1pig
I watched Keith Olbermann interview one of the protest's leaders, a young man who claimed to be the first to get pepper spayed by police. He admitted that the protests were rather unfocused, with various goals pursued by various people, and that was one of their strengths. That this was a young movement, one with room to grow as long as there remains so much corruption and inequality in our country. He said he held no animosity toward the police, as they too were being hurt by the actions of those on Wall Street as well, and he hoped that they would soon come to realize this.
Who are these people? Us.
Author Linh Dinh explores this:
"But who are us, exactly? Us are the poor and the middle class, unions, retirement funds and governments at all levels, federal, state and city. Us are 99%, according to the mostly young protesters at Liberty Park in NYC. Nearly everyone got ripped off, including the cops guarding these protesters. As a protest sign sweetly and innocently demands: “Say Sorry! To All of Us!”
After eight days of protest, over a hundred people have already been arrested. Several have been roughed up, with cops being caught on still and video cameras pepper spraying or yanking the hair of young women, or slamming people to the ground. Sadly, these cops are fighting against their own interest. Bankrupted by Wall Street, cities all over America are laying off policemen left and right. Why defend the crooks of Wall Street, cops, when they have directly caused many of your colleagues to be thrown onto the streets? When you yourself may end up on a park bench in the near future?"
Perhaps the police would be more sympathetic and the New York Times clear on what it is the protesters are protesting if they just listened to those who actually work on Wall Street. Remember in November of 2009 when Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told London’s Sunday Times that he is just a banker “doing God’s work.” which included 21.9 billion set aside for bonuses after he took $10 billion from Washington’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (Sachs did pay it back, with 23% interest).
God's work.
And trader (and professional speaker) Allesio Rastani explained quite clearly yesterday the ideals of Wall Street to the BBC. Hedge funds and other smart/big money firms "don't care" about the Eurozone and are moving away from that market. "Most traders don't really care that much how they're [governments] going to fix the economy," he said. "Our job is to make money from it... I have a confession. I go to bed every night and dream of another recession." And, the real admission: "The governments don't rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the world."
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/671924/trader_tells_bbc_that_goldman_sachs_rules_the_world_and_the_stock_market_is_%22toast%22/#paragraph2
In any case thanks to the efforts of the NYPD, this little advertised protest, this burgeoning movement, has now gained national, possibly international prominence in the media.
So now is the time, perhaps, that the real work begins.

Donate to OWS here: http://www.nycga.net/how-to-help/

Salvation Diary 53

"Salvation" artist Amanda Milke
http://amandamilke.wordpress.com/


September 10 Tuesday Day 364

Russell "Hoops" Burke is back! My spiritual guru. The first thing he said to me was, "Hi! Hello. How ya doing?"
Russell had been in New York visiting his Father "Hoops Sr.", and stepmother. His father is very ill.
"My dad has about a week to live," Russell told me. "I left before the funeral. Naw, I didn't want to stay for that. My step mom, she wanted me to stay, but I didn't wanta. She understood though."
Russell has his old job back in the residence... mainly due to Ernie Sens not wanting him in the warehouse.
"He'll wander off and fall into the compactor," Ernie says.
After having greeted Russell I spent most of the morning taking care of normal business; writing, and studying from the "American Red Cross Standard First Aid" book.
After Robert left for the weekly gratuity board meeting, I changed clothes and worked out in the basement, then showered, dressed in some nice street clothes and was back at the desk by the time he got back at 2:30.
I hung around the desk talking to Robert until it was time for me to go to school.
This would be the first time I have attended a college class in over fifteen years.
It all went rather well actually.
There were mostly young people in the class, of course, but I did not feel particularly out of place. Emotionally we were all about the same age.
The teacher, a man maybe a little older than I am, took roll, then asked how many present were not registered for the class. About half the room raised their hands. He asked if those individuals who had just finished raising their hands would go out into the hall with him so they could discuss their future. He was merciless. Only two out of the twenty or so that had left with him returned to audit and participate in the class.
Our assignment for the day was to compose a five paragraph essay; consisting of an introductory paragraph, three sustaining paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. We were to fill in this sentence, "I believe _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, is the biggest problem facing America today." Then continue the essay.
It was hard. When you haven't been to school in fifteen years you kind of get rusty thinking up whole paragraphs and all.
I endured and wrote about the American drug policies.
After I turned in my paper I began the real hard part of my school day... battling the mob at the book store. I was lucky to get out of there in one piece.
For two paperback books, "The Bedford Handbook for Writers," by Diana hacker, and "The Dolphin Reader," an anthology compiled by Douglas Hunt, which probably could be found in any retail book store for $9 apiece, cost me over $45, so I was both roughed up by the crowd and skinned by the cashier.
I got back to the residence earlier than I had expected due to the short duration of my first class. Jill was still there and waiting for me. Well, not actually waiting for me, but she was still there, as beautiful as ever. I told her that I was now a student. She said, "Congratulations," and then began talking to someone else. I feel that if I were to tell Jill that I had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, she'd say, "Very good, Richard... Jack would you see if Miguel Wisenthorpe is ready for counseling."
I went to the canteen and had a piece of leftover pizza.
Always a glutton for punishment, I would talk to Jill again later. I would say this to her, "Thank you Jill. Friday night I will receive my cake for staying sober for an entire year, and I hold you, and your timely group counseling sessions directly responsible."
This got me a great big gorgeous smile, and a "Thank you, Richard. Maybe you could advertise for me."
At 8:00, about ten of us piled into Red Shield 4 and drove into South Pasadena to the St. James Church. This was the old A.A. speaker meeting I used to attend on occasions, six or seven months ago. I went there tonight because I had been told last Friday that I must arrange my birthday cake for next Friday at this meeting. When I found the cake person for this Tuesday night meeting, he told me that what I had been told was a bunch of hoowie, and that all I had to do was tell the Friday night cake person before the meeting started that I would be taking a cake that night.
Smells like a classic runaround to me.
I'm not going to worry about it. Whatever happens happens.
I stayed for the meeting even though I was awfully tired. And like most times when I don't feel like staying at a meeting I find that I'm really glad that I did.
A lady who had eight years sobriety was the five minute speaker. She began to cry as soon as she reached the podium. She kept saying over and over what a rough time she was having and how this was the only place she had to go to.
My heart went out to her of course. This was just another example of how life's problems still exist even after we stop drinking and using drugs.
She will pull through.
I will pull through any problems I come to face... and life will go on.


September 11 Wednesday Day 365


Cathy gave me a call near 8:00 this morning, which was a pleasant surprise. However, the reason she called was not so pleasant.
She told me she would not be able to come in tonight. Her sick car had finally died on her. Her ex-brother-in-law would be able to fix it after she got off work, so she would not be in.
Also her cats are trying to kill each other once again. This is causing her to lose sleep, so she's having a pretty hard time of it right now.
Robert, sensing that this was the only time I'd have to talk to Cathy this week, promptly walked into the office where I was speaking to her and demanded attention. Today was one of his days off. Robert usually spends a total of five minutes in the office on his days off. Five minutes in forty eight hours. It is a tribute to Robert Vasquez that he would pick the only five minutes that I am likely to be in a private telephone conversation within those forty eight hours to come in and ruin it. The man is uncanny.
Uncanny.
By the time Robert, with some sprinkling of mercy, departed , and I got back to Cathy, she said, "Well, I have to go now. I do want to be there when you take your cake. Try and save me a seat. Bye." Click.
I did tell her that I would miss her tonight. She didn't respond.
Oh, I don't know. Every time I think about her now, I get tired.
I spent most of the morning writing. Near 1:00 I went upstairs to my room and changed into my swim trunks. On my way to the basement the elevator stopped at the first floor and Roger Shriver, one of our janitors, and Kevin Rockoff entered. I felt a little silly standing there in nothing but my trunks. Neither of them made any comments though. Instead, Kevin looked at me and calmly told me that our V.C.R. had been stolen again.
"What?!"
"It's missing. And Gene Mance had Schimmele watch the desk for him while he took off carrying a big box."
This is the story. Mance, my daytime desk man, asked Jerry to sit at the desk for him (not an uncommon practice), while unbeknownst to Jerry, he used the V.C.R. key to unlock the V.C.R. box protecting the V.C.R. from theft, and disconnected it from the wall plug and T.V. Curtis Carter walked in on him while he was doing this, but didn't think anything of it, Mance being a desk man and all, a position of some authority and responsibility. Curtis had been looking for me, and continued his search. Meanwhile, Mance locked the box back up, returned the key, then went to the kitchen and and asked our newest cook, Keith Davis, if there were any boxes around. Keith told him to look outside in the alley, which Mance did. He found a suitable container, went back to the T.V. room, slid the V.C.R. out from the back of the wooden box, placed it in the box he had found in the alley, found a pillow and placed that on top of the box with the V.C.R. in it, took it and walked right past a smiling and affable Schimmele, out of the residence, disappearing down Fair Oaks Blvd.
Curtis saw him leave, and thinking something may be up he checked the V.C.R. box and found it empty.
When I returned to the desk (after putting my clothes back on) I checked out the situation (Schimmele was sitting in a daze, muttering, "I let him walk right past me... I let him walk right past me") and tried to call my supervisor, Dr. Ed Reitz. Ed wasn't around, so I left word to have him call me as soon as he returned. I called Ernie Sens and told him what happened, and that we'd need a new V.C.R. and desk man. After he finished chuckling he let me know that shouldn't be a problem.
Soon Ed called, and I told him what happened. He instructed me to call the police and file a report. I called the police and they said they would send someone over. Kevin and I checked Mance's locker. It was packed full.
The whole thing didn't make much sense. Mance's clothes alone seemed to be worth more than what he would get for the V.C.R. Nothing else made any sense either. This guy didn't seem to care at all about covering his tracks, and was seen fooling around with the stolen item just before it was stolen. He left his work station one hour before his shift was due to end, walking casually down the street in full view of at least a dozen Salvation Army personnel while carrying a suspicious looking large box with a pillow on top!
The police came. The same cop who was here when Noah was stolen. We told him what happened and showed him Mance's picture from our files. The policeman took some notes and left.
Nothing more to do about it. Ken Hockett had expressed a desire to come to the desk and seemed like a good candidate. I asked Ernie about it, and he agreed. End of case.
I read from the "Writer's Handbook" in the afternoon, and got things ready for chapel.
At chapel, I was to read the responsive scripture. I had practiced the section earlier and was having a bit of trouble pronouncing the word "propitiation." A ridicules word. For the first time I sat with Clarence Orion, Ed Reitz, Frank Corona, and Ron Collins, behind the podium facing the congregation.
I felt kinda silly up there.
I managed the responsive reading quite well, and after the service I set up the chapel's anti-room for Barbara's new Wednesday night relapse prevention workshop. Then I went downstairs to my semi private bathroom and smoked an unauthorized cigarette (I started smoking again at about eight o'clock last night).
As I entered the elevator to return to the desk my name was called over the loud speaker.
"Richard Joyce to the front desk immediately! Richard Joyce to the front desk immediately!" is what it said.
As the elevator door opened I saw Mr. Mance standing by the desk, still donned in his dress white shirt and black trousers (desk apparel). His tie was undone. I approached the desk wearing a bland expression, and Rockoff explained that Gene had come for his personal possessions.
"Okay," I said. "I'll go get them."
I took the elevator to the basement. In the baggage room I placed Gene's clothes into a wheeled bin, but hesitated before bringing them up. Ed Reitz had disappeared somewhere in his van right after chapel, but was expected back within twenty minutes. I returned to the desk, found Mance outside smoking a cigarette with the man who had driven him here, and told him he'd have to wait until Ed got back before I could release his belongings. I walked away before he could say anything. I didn't feel like listening to any of his bullshit and arguing with him. Gene is an older black man with an ugly temperament (he'd been forced on us at the desk by the "Powers That Be and Don't Know Any Better"). I'd seen him go off on Columbus Davis a week ago for no reason, and just didn't want to deal with any violent crap. Not if I could help it.
I went to my office and debated whether or not to call the police again. Gene made up my mind for me by coming in and saying, "I don't know what all this waiting's about, Rick, but I gotta ride, and he's gotta... oh, here's Ed now." He'd seen Ed drive up through my office window. Mance went out to meet him.
I was thinking to myself that this guy must either have a tremendous amount of nerve to come back here and demand his clothes when he and I both knew he ripped off the V.C.R., or was just immensely stupid, severely demon possessed, desperate, or all of the above. Any of which could also make him dangerous.
I called the police. They told me someone would be out right away. Mance was looking at me through the window as I talked to them. He didn't look too happy.
He came back to my office with Ed. Ed said, "This man wants to pick up his clothes. Do we have them?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Okay," Ed said. "Give them to him."
"Alright."
As I passed Gene he asked me who had packed his stuff. I told him Rockoff had. Gene seemed satisfied (everyone trusts Rockoff for some reason, probably that baby face of his, and that genuine niceness I've mentioned. Interestingly enough, Kevin's ex wife called his fiance today, all the way from New York. She was trying to cause a little trouble. She told Rockoff's new love that she (his ex) was currently pregnant with Kevin's baby, which was a rather peculiar thing for her to say considering Kevin's been right here with me for at least the last eleven months), but still grumbled, "Everything better be there too."
I went back to the basement. Ed followed me a minute later and I told him I had called the police. He approved, then left. I waited ten minutes, then took Mance's stuff up to the lobby.
The police were there. Ed, Mance, and a lovely short policewoman were just going into a counseling room as I wheeled up with the clothes.
"So all my stuff is here?" Mance asked. I nodded yes.
While the situation was being discussed in the counseling room, Gene's friend took his clothes and put them in his car. After he finished, and much to my horror, he drove off! I immediately worried about the center's legal position, and Mance's reaction when he found out I had let someone else take his clothes without his permission. I did not believe the police could arrest Gene without catching him in possession of the stolen V.C.R., and he would be wanting his clothes.
I needn't have worried. After ten minutes a handcuffed Gene Mance came out on the arm of the lovely police lady, followed by Dr. Ed Reitz. As Mance passed, Kevin and I let him know that his buddy had taken his things. He seemed happy about that, so everything was cool.
The police promptly took him away.
Ed told me that while the three of them were talking the word came over the officer's radio that Gene had four outstanding warrants out on him, hence the arrest. Three for theft, one for assault on a police officer.
End of story.
I don't know if I wish this guy well. He seemed to be basically a mean and selfish individual, and I just don't understand men like that.
Women either.
Wanting to get out of the residence for a while I drove some of the guys to an outside A.A. meeting at the Woman's Club in South Pasadena. I had attended a couple of meetings at the Woman's Club, but had never driven there. After taking a wrong turn and innately driving through some mountainous back roads for fifteen minutes (with eight or nine men each shouting different and wrong directions to me, some intentionally just because they liked the ride), we found the club, and I dropped them off.
Back at the residence, I talked to Cathy's answering machine for awhile. I asked it how it was doing, and I told it to let Cathy know that Barbara would give her a ride Friday night if she needed one.
Back at the Woman's Club to pick up my charges, a man walked up to my driver's window and began staring at me. Usually I would find this rather annoying, as I did this time... at first.
Dennis Smith looked at me with a great big smile on his big face. I rolled down the window and we shook hands. He was still at the Grandview recovery home, and I am still at the Salvation Army. I told him about getting my cake on Friday, and he congratulated me.
"Wow! This is great," I said. "You've popped up just in time to make the end of the book."
He laughed. "You're still writing it?"
"Sure. It ends Friday night."
"Can I read it then?"
"No. After I put it through the word processor, then you can read it. Maybe I can still help you to get laid."
We said goodbye and I drove off. He looked good, and it was good to see him.



September 12 Thursday Day 366 1 year


Well... it appears that I have made it. That we have made it, dear readers.
One year... not a whole lot of time really. A whole world of time for me.
The day started early. Four thirty in the morning. I was making my first trip to pick up the morning's donuts at Tastee's and Honeyglaze. Richard Hendrickson navigated while I drove. It was fun. We listened to the news program they have on the radio while we drove. We heard about the police shooting a mentally disturbed (whatever that means) person nine times in the back, even while the man was lying face down on the ground.
The man died.
Such is life.
When we got back to the residence we each had breakfast (SOS), then went our respective ways. I went upstairs to my bathroom and brushed my teeth, I then walked across the hall to my room and put on a tie. At the desk, in my office, I began to write. I would continue to write, off and on, throughout the day and night, finally finishing up at around 10:00PM, before I went on my rounds and after I got back from the park.
At 3:15 in the afternoon, Red Shield 4 became available and I scooted over to USC General Hospital to pick up Roger Collins. I was very tired by this time, but still had the hardest part of the day before me.
It was Richard Bennet's night to go to Skid Row and talk to the people there, and he asked me if I would lead his substance abuse class in his absence. I backed off. I told him I would do it next month, and I will if he asks. I sat in on the A.A. panel for about half of it, listening to a young Jewish woman tell her tale of woe and terror involving the Bohemia of San Francisco.
Everyone has a tale of woe and terror. We need to listen to them.
Robert returned from his day off visit with his family in Upland just as the panel let out. Rockoff (the little scuzz) hurled himself into the parking lot so he could be the first to give him the news of the Mance affair, thereby robbing me of the chance of monitoring Robert's initial reaction. He and I talked about it in our office for awhile, among other things. I mentioned that I had one year of sobriety today, and he congratulated me. He told me how difficult it was for him his first year, a one day at a time type of theme, and I realized once again how hard and different it is for all of us.
After Robert and I finished talking I put on my jacket and told my new desk man, Ken Hackett, that I was going to check the trailer, and that I'd be back in a bit.
I slowly walked from the residence, east on Waverly, then north on Fair Oaks. I crossed the southwest corner of Fair Oaks and Del Mar to the northeast corner, which is the southeast corner of the Park, my destination. I choose a diagonal path across the length of the Park, passing the lawn bowling greens, up until I had walked almost to the opposite corner from the one I had entered. There was a picnic table there. I sat and lit a cigarette. I looked around the empty and dark block long expanse of trees and grass punctuated here and there with pools of light spilling from strategically located lamp posts located along the asphalt paths. There were a few people about. Some talking, hidden in shades of darkness, others behind me on Raymond Ave., walking up the paved sidewalk to the lights and noise of Colorado Blvd. Only one man walked as I did, almost aimlessly along the various walkways within the Park itself. He was taking his time, looking around.
Not much had changed in the Park since I had last sat here, since I had taken my last drink at this spot one year ago. There were now three picnic tables instead of two. That's about it. It still felt lonely and empty.
But I didn't feel that way. In the last year I'd come to at least like myself, this new person I've become. Or at least I have begun to know this new person, which drugs and alcohol had masked so well. I can learn to like him. I definitely feel like a participant in life now, rather than just a spectator. That I can make choices that really matter, that I can maybe help others like myself, while helping myself at the same time. That I can now be good to myself, and that I matter.
I've never felt that way before. It's a good feeling. I recommend it. It's a feeling I'd like to keep, and I can make the decision to do that now as well. I care about a lot of people now, all of the guys who have came to the center, all of the different counselors and staff, all of the men and women who have come and gone these last twelve months, and a lot of those people care about me, and that feels... real, real, nice.
The Green Hotel to the north of me, with its great parapets and lighted windows, still reminds me of a huge castle out of some fairy tale. What secrets it must hold.
I hope I have shared well most of mine.
And I wonder what the next year will bring.

Erin's a Star!

Last week I was calmly sitting in the office of my new case manager, Robert, minding my own business and having a chat, when he said this to me: "Erin's in a commercial."
I said this: "What?! My Erin?!"
"Err... Erin... ah..."
"Erin _ _ _."
"Yes."
"In a commercial? Really?"
"Yes. Wanta see it?"
"Of course."
And he showed it to me.
He was right, it was my lovely ex-case manager in a commercial for some hair product for Dove, the famous soap maker. Who knew that they made other stuff? I certainly didn't.
But they do! They make all kinds of things. They make antiperspirants/deodorants, body washes, beauty bars, lotions/moisturizers, hair care, and facial care products.
Dove is primarily made from synthetic surfactants, soaps derived vegetable oils from palm kernel) and salts of animal fats (tallow). In some countries, but not the United Kingdom, Dove is derived from tallow (like many soaps) and for this reason it is not considered vegan, unlike vegetable oil based soaps. Dove is formulated to be pH neutral, a pH that is usually between 6.5 and 7.5.
How interesting.
But here's the thing. Dove is owned by a foreign company called Unilever (Unilever is the world's leading margarine manufacturer), which is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.
Wikipedia tells us: "Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. This arrangement is similar to those of Reed Elsevier and Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structures. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael Treschow while Paul Polman is Group Chief Executive.
Unilever's main international competitors include Nestlé and Procter & Gamble. They also face competition in local markets or product ranges from companies such as Grupo Bimbo (Grupo Bimbo?), Beiersdorf, ConAgra, Danone, General Mills, Henkel, Mars, Inc., Pepsico, Reckitt Benckiser and S. C. Johnson & Son.
Unilever owns more than 400 brands as a result of acquisitions, however, the company focuses on what are called the "billion-dollar brands", 13 brands, each of which achieve annual sales in excess of €1 billion. Unilever's top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales. The brands fall almost entirely into two categories: Food and Beverages, and Home and Personal Care."
They include: Aviance (cosmetics), Axe/Lynx (male grooming products), Ben & Jerry's (that's right. The foreign devils own our damn ice cream!), Blue Band (the first company to commercially produce margarine in 1878), Dove of course, Flora/Becel (more margarine), Heartbrand (more ice cream), Hellmann's (mayonnaise. Erin if you read this... I could use a jar), Knorr (dehydrated soup mixes and condiments), Lipton (uhhh... tea), Lux (soap), Omo/Surf (detergent), Rexona/Sure (deodorant), Wish-Bone (a Y-shaped bone found in birds), Sunsilk (hair care products), and of course TIGI (premium hair care for premium hair).
So Erin's sold out to the Jikky/Dyke-Jumpers. In all fairness she may not have been aware that she had abandoned her American roots as those Sassenach/Kaaskops do a real good job of hiding behind their brand names, which we consumers always tend to think are of good old U.S. of A. stock. I don't know. I haven't discussed this aspect with her. But those Pome/Lowlanders are sneaky bastards.
Alright, enough of this nonsense. I asked Robert for the URL address for Erin's commercial and he said he would Email it to me. Which he did. I saw him do it. When I returned to my box it was there waiting for me. Now I can watch it whenever I want. I showed it to all of my neighbors who were very impressed, although some of them didn't even know Erin. In my opinion Erin made the commercial work displaying just the right amount surprised incredulity and sympathy toward her friends hair dilemma. I've seen that expression directed toward myself many times on bad hair days (Erin has an unnatural fascination with my eyebrows for some reason. I don't know why).
So next will come more commercials, then the inevitable soap opera or two, guest appearances on prime time sit-coms and hour long dramas. Her own show. Movies, leading roles, the Academy Awards, a star on The Walk of Fame and hand prints at Graumans (she assures me that as she slips her hands in the cement she will think of me). It's her destiny, why fight it?
I Emailed Erin and congratulated her. I told her I once made a commercial for non-fat lard, but it didn't work out.
Her commercial is now making it's rounds on the various networks as commercials are want to do.
Oh yes, here it is. Erin's the pretty one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU1iAd2z8M0
I invite you dear readers to wander through the site and get yourself some free nourishing oil (Control up to 100% frizz for 24-hour shine with Dove® Nourishing Oil Care Leave-In Smoothing Cream, featuring Weightless Nutri-Oils.**), and enter the contest. Maybe you to can be in a commercial.
For the time being Erin still works for us here at SRHT. I saw her just last Friday at the Dish Depot. But it won't be long until she abandons us altogether for the bright lights of Hollywood.
And quite frankly I wish her all the best if that's what she wants to do. Seriously I think she has a unique, beautiful look, and she's very smart and talented (I know. I directed her once in a play). I know she will do well in whatever she does.
Good luck Erin... or umm... break a leg!

Revolution 4

Revolution


Spain








Erin?!




"We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboRijhWFDU

The people were fed up. They'd finally had enough. They were tired of their politicians not listening to them, not representing them, in league with special interests rather than the people who put them into office. They were sick of of the high rates of unemployment, cuts in much needed social programs, corruption in government, the two party system that really didn't offer any choices, banks and bankers, capitalism, and they called for basic rights; the right to good and affordable health care, education, the right to work and own a home.
They were tired of their so called representative democracy which was actually a klepto-plutocracy.
So they organized through the social networks and then took to the streets in 58 cities. The above motto was used on the first day, which was May 15th of this year, and would continue throughout August. It has been estimated that between 6.5 and 8 million Spaniards have participated in the protests. It has been referred to as the "15-M Movement," or the Spanish revolution. A massive non-violent display of a common displeasure throughout the Spanish middle class society. They threatened not to vote in the upcoming elections. Police monitored the situation closely, sometimes intervening and making arrests. The response from the established political parties was mixed, some sympathized, others did not. Some didn't understand what the protest was about. Former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González compared the protests, which he considered "an extraordinarily important phenomenon," with those staged in Arab countries recently, pointing out that "in the Arab world they are demanding the right to vote while here they are saying that voting is pointless."
The results of the movement remain unclear. At least now the Spanish government knows that it's people are watching, and watching closely, and are not asleep or anesthetized.

A week ago today, the 17th of September, as many as 3,000 to 5,000 American protesters came to the financial district of Manhattan. They carried signs stating "JUST BECAUSE WE CAN'T SEE IT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT HAPPENING" and "WALL STREET IS OUR STREET." Some wore Guy Fawkes masks, pounded drums, chanted slogans, and they all stood up to the financial powerhouses of Wall Street that they blamed for the miserable state of the nation's economy and their poor positions within it. They vowed to "Occupy Wall Street" and to "bring justice to the bankers", but the New York police thwarted their efforts, locking down the symbolic street with barricades and checkpoints, more than 40 police cars and 80 police officers in attendance.
This movement called itself "#OCCUPYWALLSTREET." I don't know why. It was indeed inspired by the mostly peaceful demonstrations in Spain, a call from the anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet), and I would believe the general air of rebellion currently on display in the Middle East. But in the end it was the people themselves who orchestrated and made it happen.
The hidden, cellular, Internet organization "Anonymous," became involved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6jdkpQjueo
Their video communique endorsing the action garnered 100,000 views and a warning from the Department of Homeland Security to the nation's bankers. When, in August, the indignados "indignant ones" of Spain sent word that they would be holding a solidarity event in Madrid's financial district, activists in Milan, Valencia, London, Lisbon, Athens, San Francisco, Madison, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Israel and beyond vowed to do the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn18DdJX-IM
They had no permit to assemble, but what were the police to do? Break them up with tasers? Shoot rubber bullets and microwave sonic weapons into the crowds. That wouldn't look all that great on the six o'clock news, now would it?
Why no Rick, it wouldn't.
Besides, billionaire capitalist Mayor Bloomberg seemed to be sympathetic to the cause, issuing an aire of tolerance toward the demonstrators... as long as they behaved themselves that is.
Three hundred people rolled out sleeping bags and stayed the night. The ranks swelled again in the morning. $2,800 worth of pizza was supplied from a local pizzeria, hot chocolate and blankets, all paid for and delivered by supporters in New York City and across the country. Leaders stated, "we're digging in for a long-term occupation."
And they've been there ever since. A few arrests have been made by frustrated police. Drawing on the sidewalks with chalk at the time becoming a major offense it seems. An obscure law from 1845 prohibiting more than two people in a crowd from wearing masks was invoked. All very unruly indeed.
Last Wednesday 11 supporters in Seattle were arrested:
"175 people gathered at Chase headquarters in downtown Seattle. They shut us out of the headquarters so we took the CEOs of Chase, Wells Fargo, and BofA to trial in the streets. We overtook the intersection of 3rd and University for 45 mins and the crowd found the CEOs guilty of crimes against the people of Washington. 11 people were arrested, and are currently being processed."
Why?
“We are struggling with less and less, while the big banks profit more and more. The big banks have done nothing but dodge taxes, throw people out of their homes and choke small business, all the while draining our wealth to pad their bottom line. It’s time for JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo to pay US back,” said George Goehl, Executive Director of National People’s Action, an organizational member of The New Bottom Line. “We are fighting to build an economy that works for all of us. Our bottom line means good jobs, healthy communities, and a government that fights for everyday people.”
I am happy to see this trickle, this gentle murmuring, as the slumbering giant of the American middle class rouses itself out of lethargy. The Bush recession has lasted three years now (as we enter the second "dip" in our double dip). Unemployment hovers near 10% with more than 25 million Americans either unemployed or underemployed, the average duration of joblessness standing at record highs, while corporations hoard trillions in cash while refusing to hire, despite Republican claims that lower corporate taxes will provide jobs from these "job providers." 46 million Americans... over 15% of the population are now living in poverty. Millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure and millions more are expected to face foreclosure in the next few years by the very institutions surrounding the Wall Street protesters. Middle class consumers are in deep debt. Wages have been flat for decades while the top 2% of earners income has soared exponentially. The concentration of wealth and income today is greater than at any time since 1928.
"CEOs, the biggest corporations, and the wealthy are taking too much from our country and I think it's time for us to take back," said one activist who joined the protests last Saturday. Jason Ahmadi, who travelled in from Oakland, California explained that "a lot of us feel there is a large crisis in our economy and a lot of it is caused by the folks who do business here." Bill Steyerd, a Vietnam veteran from Queens, said "it's a worthy cause because people on Wall Street are blood-sucking warmongers".
Solutions?
Placing a tax on stock, bond, derivative and every other financial transaction, similar to our local sales taxes. Reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, designed to control speculation, thereby helping to insure another financial crisis does not rock the country. Enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act and break up the banks and financial institutions that "are too big to fail." (it is reassuring to note that the Moody's Investors Service lowered debt ratings for Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo on Wednesday, saying the US government is less likely to bail out large lenders in the future, thereby depriving them of a proven insurance against their own malfeasance. Why is the government less likely to bail these morons out again? Because of people like the Wall Street protesters, and the rest of the American people who will not stand for it) The Justice Department needs to get off its hands and prosecute those responsible for the last financial crisis (and for that matter, the war criminals, some self admitted (Dick Cheney) of the Bush administration, including Bush). And a very close look at our country's inexplicable desire for so-called "Free Trade." We don't need free trade. We need fair trade, that won't suck all of our jobs overseas.
So it would seem that these strident and fed up protesters have a legitimate and valid argument and reason to carry on their protest. And one would think that a goodly majority of Americans who have been affected by the greedy policies of Wall Street would notice and take to the streets in numbers heretofore unseen.
And perhaps they would if only they knew about it.
Despite the main stream media's fascination with everything Tea Partyish (they seem to salivate at every opportunity to cover anything having to do with them, even gatherings of as many as 24 of their members), there seems to be little inclination in the corporate controlled media reporting on demonstrators demonstrating against fellow corporations (here's another for the solution list: break up the corporate media giants).
The organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) reports:
The anti-corporate protests have been lightly covered in the hometown New York Times: One piece (9/18/11) largely about how the police blocked access to Wall Street, and one photo (9/22/11) with the caption "Wall Street Protest Whirls On."
The protests have been treated with brief mentions on CNN, like this one from host Wolf Blitzer (9/19/11): "Protests here in New York on Wall Street entering a third day. Should New Yorkers be worried at all about what's going on?"
From the ABC, CBS and NBC network news, we could find nothing at all in the Nexis news database. On the PBS NewsHour (9/19/11), the protests got a brief reference, tacked on to the end of the stock market report: "Away from the trading floor, some 200 protesters marched for a third day, charging the financial system favors corporations. At least six people were arrested."
Some voices in the media have noted the lack of coverage. On the Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, 9/19/11), Michael Moore said, "People are down on Wall Street right now, holding a sit-in and a camp-in down there--virtually no news about this protest."
At the top of his Current TV show (9/21/11), Keith Olberman said: "So five days of clogging downtown Manhattan, protesting corporate control of the economy, and you haven't heard a word about it on the news?"
He later remarked, "If that's a Tea Party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke...it's the lead story on every network newscast."
Indeed, my friend, Keith. Indeed.
FAIR ends their report with this bit of advise:
"The answer to the problem of non-coverage would seem to be simple: If the people occupying Wall Street want more media attention, they should just call themselves Tea Party activists."
Indeed, my friend FAIR. Indeed.
And the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET protest continues. I hope this is a beginning of a national movement of intolerance toward their own exploitation. A non-violent movement, involving not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands... maybe more. At least from all who have been adversely affected by the greed and straight out theft of the wealth of the middle class that has been going on for years. That's what I hope. That's what I believe is the only thing these... people... will understand, the only thing our own government will understand.
What was the saying so prominent in that movie that popularized all of those Guy Fawkes masks... "V for Vendetta?"
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people" (a paraphrase of John Basil Barnhill "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty").
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzjrIk05YyU
Wall Street should be afraid as well.

Chicken Little

UARS




Space Junk in Orbit


Skylab


Mir


Lottie Williams & her Space Crap

Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out.
"Help! Help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king!"
So she ran in great fright to tell the king. Along the way she met Henny Penny.
"Where are you going, Chicken Little?"
"Oh, help! The sky is falling!"
"How do you know?"
"I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
"This is terrible, just terrible! We'd better hurry up."
So they both ran away as fast as they could.

The famous story of Chicken Little is a cautionary tale. It warns us not to get too excited about things that may at first scare us so much that we harm ourselves, but later turn out to be benign. The above fable ends with Chicken Little and her friends getting suckered into a fox's den and then eaten, which is much worse than having an acorn fall on her head.
Of course if there is ample evidence that a catastrophe is truly looming then it would be entirely appropriate to act out in a manner that is beneficial to oneself and others. Calmly.
I'm reminded of the old saying: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you."
Sometime this afternoon, between noon and 6:00PM EST, a bit of the sky will really rain down upon us... about 26 large pieces of a satellite that ran out of gas in 2005, some weighing over 300 pounds. The debris will stretch along a 500-mile path, but the thing is, we're not quite sure where that 500-mile stretch will be.
The 6.5 ton (about the size of a city bus) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was launched on September 12th, 1991 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was intended to study the Earth's atmosphere for three years, especially ozone and the chemical compounds found in the ozone layer which protects the planet from about 97 to 99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth. As a matter of fact life on Earth could probably not exist without this protective layer (animal and plant life at least), that is why man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and bromofluorocarbons used in aerosols sprays, refrigeration, and industrial cleaning were phased out during the 1980s and 90s (I wonder how easy it would be to do so now with the Tea Baggers in power and so many Republican climate change deniers).
UARS also measures winds and temperatures in the stratosphere as well as the energy input from the Sun.
After UARS initial three year run many of its ten instruments were still functioning and continued to relay data. Indeed six of them were still working this month as the satellite's orbit decayed as a result of it running out of fuel in 2005. Essentially at this time, UARS is completely out of control and tumbling back into our atmosphere at approximately 18,000 MPH (UARS circles the Earth about once every 96 minutes).
Fortunately, as the satellite delves deeper into the Earth's atmosphere it will burn up through friction with that atmosphere... most of it... except for those 26 pieces which are too big to burn completely. They will slow down considerably though, and those pieces are not expected to land anywhere within the United States.
But we don't know where they will land exactly due to the fact that as UARS hits the atmosphere it will change it's trajectory because it is uncontrolled, similar to a stone skipping across the surface of a pond when thrown, it's orbit will change somewhat (as will the atmosphere itself, due to fluctuations of the solar outflow interacting with the atmosphere), making predictions of where it will finally land impossible at this time.
Here's a short video of UARS as it began to interact with the atmosphere last, week taken by amateur astronomer Thierry Legault:
http://www.space.com/13022-amateur-photographs-doomed-satellite.html
Some people are rather worried about this whole thing, large chunks of hot metal falling from the sky possibly creating all kinds of havoc and damage. Radio host Bill Press concluded his program yesterday morning with commentary concerning the falling satellite. He was worried the debris might land on people and hurt them.
Most people are not too worried however. There is a whole lot of man made crap up there in orbit that falls back to Earth every once in a while. Space Junk or Space Debris (or Space Crap as I like to call it) it's called, which are objects in orbit around the Earth that we sent up there but no longer serve any useful purpose, in fact they're often a hazard to newer operational spacecraft like the International Space Station, which needs to move it's position in space whenever a monitored piece of space crap comes near, which may impact with it at high velocities. It doesn't matter really how big it is, the space crap's velocity relative to the ISS is what matters.
Space crap consists of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion and collision fragments. There's a picture of all of the space crap circling the Earth at about 18,000 MPH above. Someone should really go up there and clean that crap up.
Big things have fell down on us before without causing too many problems, some a lot bigger that UARS. The American Skylab space station fell to back Earth in July 1979. It weighed about 100 tons and was big as a house... literally. Bits of it fell in Western Australia (and the Indian Ocean), but no one was injured. However local authorities did fine NASA $400 for littering (the asshats at NASA never paid).
The Russian space station Mir fell back to us in 2001. It weighed 135 tons, but fell into the South Pacific Ocean and didn't hit anything but a bunch of fish. Considering two-thirds of the planet's surface is covered by water, the odds are in favor that anything falling down from the sky will land in it.
In 2003 pieces of the shuttle Columbia, which had exploded upon reentry, rained down on parts of Texas and Louisiana and didn't hit anybody. In fact there's only been one recorded instance of a piece of space crap returning to Earth and hitting someone... and it happened in Oklahoma.
In 1997 Lottie Williams was walking along through a park in Tulsa, minding her own business, when she saw a flash of light in the sky. She thought it was a meteor. A little while later she was struck on the shoulder by a piece of metal thought to come from a disintegrating rocket (picture above).
NASA confirmed that the timing and location of the incident were consistent with the re-entry and breakup of a second-stage Delta rocket that fell to Earth after orbiting for several months. The main wreckage was recovered a couple of hundred miles away in Texas.
Amazingly Lottie was not hurt. She was struck a glancing blow, and the debris was relatively light and probably traveling at a low velocity. It was also subject to wind currents, which mitigated the impact even further.
She was very lucky. I once saw a dramatization of an actual meteorite shooting right through a guy and killing him instantly on "1000 Ways to Die."
Then of course there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMlq5IJ265M&feature=player_embedded
NASA has calculated a 1-in-3,200 chance of anyone on Earth being hurt by its satellite’s return to Earth.
And the odds of any one particular person being hit are much lower, about one in 21 trillion.
However if a piece of UARS does happen to land near you, dear readers, you're instructed not to touch it, and go find a policeman or something and have them take over.
I'm told that if you try to steal a piece of UARS, and cart it off home with you, it's against the law, and the NASA cops will come and get you.
Freaking NASA cops! They're everywhere.

Addendum: "NASA's decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California said the satellite entered the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of the United States. The precise re-entry time and location of any debris impacts are still being determined. NASA is not aware of any reports of injury or property damage.

Justice in Georgia

Robert Clark


Troy Davis

"Once prosecutors have somebody, they hate like hell to let go.When somebody they've convicted years before asks to go back and check the evidence for DNA, you would think, if they were neutral parties interested in justice, they'd say great, if the guy was guilty, we'll have proved it twice; if not, let's get him out and find the right person. But they don't. They fight tooth and nail to prevent the tests from taking place." -Larry Beinhart, from "Salvation Boulevard."

For one reason or another I've been caught up in repeat episodes of the crime drama/comedy "NCIS" lately. NCIS of course stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, an organization I may or may not have had some personal experience with due to some recruitment issues after I joined the navy in 1978. The real NCIS investigates the crimes of rape, child physical and sexual abuse, burglary and robbery, theft of government and personal property, and homicide (NCIS also has responsibility for investigating any non-combat death involving a naval service member where the cause of death cannot be medically attributable to disease or natural causes). The television show, at least for the episodes I've watched in the last few weeks, mainly deals with homicide, because there's nothing like a good murder to keep viewers interested.
The show stars former Bruins quarterback, Mark Harmen (we both attended Pierce College in Woodland Hills... small world), Michael Weatherly, the lovely Pauley Perrette, Sasha Alexander, and after the second season, the Chilean-American actress Cote de Pablo, who plays an Israeli. It also stars Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin himself (from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."), Scottish actor David McCallum. The show has been renewed for a ninth season and has been voted the most popular television program for 2010 (Harris Poll).
The reason I gravitated toward this series is that though it does primarily deal with murder, death, crime, and forensic science as plot devices, it has a pronounced sense of humor. And I shouldn't have been surprised that it did considering it was created by Donald Bellisario, who as it happens, also created another of my favorite Crime Drama/Comedies, "Magnum P.I." from back in the 80s. I find "NCIS," much more entertaining than the often cold and somber "Law and Order," series and it's spin offs (I don't spend a whole lot of time watching these shows... only when I'm depressed and can't find anything else on).
On "NCIS," the wonderful actress, writer, singer, civil rights activist, and bartender, Pauley Perrette plays the forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (I call her Abbs), and she's taught me all about the importance of forensic science (stuff that Jack Klugman from "Quincy, M.E." didn't know about back in 1980) like DNA profiling.
On June 30th of 1981 a woman was abducted from the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken store in East Atlanta Georgia. She was taken to secluded locations in Cobb County where she was beaten and raped three times. She was left bound and naked while her abductor drove away in her car, managing to partially untie herself and get the attention of a passing motorist, who notified the police, who took her to a hospital where she submitted specimens in a Rape Kit.
The victim described her attacker as a black male, medium complexion, thin face, high afro hair style (1981), about 5'7", and about 120-125 pounds.
About a week later she saw her car being parked at an apartment complex, she called the police who eventually came up with the name Robert Clark as the driver of her car. Clark was about 6'2", thin, and 21 years old at the time.
Later that month Clark was arrested for auto theft. As he didn't match the rape victim's description the police didn't immediately consider him a suspect. He became a suspect after lying to investigators about how he obtained the victim's car. Later he told the police he got it from a friend he was trying to protect.
Days after her attack the police showed her mug shots of potential attackers, at which time she chose someone other than Clark. Two days after Clark was arrested the police showed her a photographic array that contained Clark’s picture. She chose that picture as someone that looked very much like the perpetrator. Two days after that, on August 27th, she identified Clark from a live lineup. Clark was the only person in the lineup whose photograph was in the photographic array.
Clark went to trial before a jury and was convicted on May 26, 1982, and sentenced to life in prison. The victim testified that there was no doubt in her mind that Clark was the assailant. Keep in mind dear readers, this was a rape victim who was attacked, raped, three times by her attacker. I understand the trauma that was inflicted upon her at the time, and the fright, but if there was ever a case for a positive and true "eye witness identification," this must have been it.
Prosecutors presented serological evidence. No ABO typing (matching of blood types) could be performed, however, because some of the vaginal swabs from the rape kit had been lost prior to trial. The remaining slides did not contain enough material for successful typing.
Clark went to prison. He maintained his innocence and tried to obtain postconviction DNA testing in the late 1990s as the procedure became widely available, and indeed used by law enforcement to gain convictions. In July 2005, the vaginal slide evidence was sent to Serological Research Institute (SERI) in California. The results showed that Robert Clark could not have contributed the sperm found on the vaginal slide. The Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/), which had taken up Clark's case, immediately requested that the District Attorney’s Office conduct a search in CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) and the state convicted offender DNA databases. The profile obtained from the vaginal slide was consistent with the profile of a Tony Arnold, the friend Clark had tried to protect. Arnold was already in prison serving time for a 2003 cruelty to children conviction.
After 24 years in prison, on December 8, 2005, Robert Clark regained his freedom after proving his innocence. He became the fifth person in Georgia to be exonerated by postconviction DNA testing. All of these cases involved mistaken eyewitness identification.
I bring up this case to illustrate the point that our famous justice system in this county is flawed, and that innocent people do go to jail, to prison, or are sent to their death for crimes they were innocent of. In the case of the death penalty the punishment administered is somewhat irreversible. Once you're dead you tend to remain in that unfortunate condition. That fact coupled with the sure knowledge that our criminal court system is fundamentally flawed is a good case to discontinue capital punishment. It's also more expensive than keeping a criminal locked up for life (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29552692/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/execute-or-not-question-cost/#.Tnp91uxUU8I). And I say fundamentally flawed due to the political incentives to convict suspects. law enforcement and district attorneys have vested interests in achieving high conviction rates. Elections are won being "tough on crime." Once a suspect is charged, especially with a major crime such as rape or murder, the authorities have a lot to gain in getting convictions, no matter whether the suspect is actually guilty of the crime or not.
Please bear with me readers. Here are some interesting statistics provided by the Innocence Project:

There have been 273 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States.

The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Exonerations have been won in 34 states.

17 of the 273 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.

The average length of time served by exonerees is 13 years. The total number of years served is approximately 3,524.

Eyewitness misidentification testimony was a factor in 75 percent of post-conviction DNA exoneration cases in the U.S., making it the leading cause of these wrongful convictions. At least 40 percent of these eyewitness identifications involved a cross racial identification (race data is currently only available on the victim, not for non-victim eyewitnesses). Studies have shown that people are less able to recognize faces of a different race than their own. These suggested reforms are embraced by leading criminal justice organizations and have been adopted in the states of New Jersey and North Carolina, large cities like Minneapolis and Seattle, and many smaller jurisdictions.

As I write this the deadline to execute Troy Davis for the 1989 murder of off duty police officer Mark MacPhail, near a Savannah, Georgia Burger King (apparently fast food restaurants attract criminal activity) has passed. The state is apparently awaiting word from the Supreme Court of the United States on whether to stay the execution entirely... or not.
Throughout the years Mr. Davis, like Mr. Clark, has maintained his innocence, however there is no physical evidence whatsoever that links Davis to the crime. He was convicted on the eyewitness testimony of 9 people. Some witnesses claimed that Davis confessed to them. A man named Sylvester Redd Coles was the first to identify to police Davis as MacPhail's killer (he was shot in the chest and face with a .38-caliber gun). Davis was indicted for murder and some other charges. The district attorney sought the death penalty, and on August 28, 1991, the jury, composed of seven blacks and five whites, found Davis guilty on one count of murder and the other offenses. Two days later the jury recommended the death penalty and Davis was sentenced to death.
Subsequently, problems with the state's case has surfaced, like 7 of the 9 eyewitnesses recanting their testimony. Also malfeasance committed by law enforcement has been documented (the Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses). And let's not forget there was no physical evidence whatsoever linking Davis to the crime. None.
Mr. Davis has been scheduled to die four times, the last being yesterday evening. A tremendous amount of public support for Davis's cause has manifested itself throughout the years, with nearly 700,000 people petitioning the Georgia parole board. Global figures like Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter, and even death-penalty supporters such as former Congressman Bob Barr, all urged the parole board to either commute his sentence or give him a new trial, and in this case I would tend to agree. The state loses nothing in commuting Davis's sentence to life in prison, if it does not grant him a new trial.
However, the Georgia parole board turned him down a few days ago, as did the state Supreme Court. It would seem Georgia is hell bent on executing this man no matter what.
"If a case like this doesn't result in clemency, which is a discretionary process that calls a halt to an execution based on doubt surrounding the integrity of the verdict, then it suggests that clemency as a traditional fail-safe is not adequate," says James Acker, a criminologist at SUNY-Albany. "The Davis case raises doubts about the discretionary clemency process and ultimately raises doubts about whether the legal system can tolerate this potential error in allowing a person to be executed.
I really think that the decision made in Georgia puts the assumption that executive clemency is a fail-safe in so much doubt that it ought to stimulate the legal system ... to revise, reform, revisit the formal legal process that results in convictions and allows sentences of death," says Mr. Acker. "In this case, the clemency process has failed."
What this means is that despite overwhelming evidence that the case against Troy Davis is exceptionally flawed, the review process, for whatever reason, has failed, and that perhaps it is time for a structural change in the criminal justice system itself.
As I mentioned before, crime, and changes to a system that gains convictions of accused criminals, is a political staple. The public, whipped into a frenzy by candidates (who in turn are whipped into a frenzy by the voting public) and common opinion, and the media, lust for swift justice for those accused of crimes, especially major crimes such as murder. It is an interesting, troubling, and horrifying indictment on our national psyche that during a recent debate between Republican presidential candidates, the attending audience broke out in applause at the mention of Texas Governor Rick Perry's record amount of state executions under his watch (of which a few are controversial themselves, the killing of innocent men being indicated). These Republican attendees, so called Christians, and "pro-lifers," tend to thirst for make belive vengeance at the drop of a hat. They remind me of the citizens of Rome gathered at the Coliseum to watch the bloodbath below.
As I write this Troy Davis is still alive due to the mercies of the State of Georgia who has every legal right to execute him once 7:00PM EST passed (it's now almost 9:30). It seems they are waiting for word from the US Supreme Court, which is expected tonight. By the time I post this sometime after midnight that decision most likely will have come down and Davis will either be dead or alive. We shall see.
Later today Troy presented the following statement... perhaps his last:
"The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath."

Troy Davis died by lethal injection at 11:08PM EST, September 21, 2011.

Amnesty International's "Not In My Name" pledge:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/site/c.6oJCLQPAJiJUG/b.7741827/k.62FF/Not_in_my_Name_Pledge/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=7741827&en=dmIPI6PPJcIYLgOSLbKULiM9LvL9KmN4LtI9LqNaIAK&msource=W1109EADP05&tr=y&auid=9542574

Tar and Sand

Tar & Sand


Ms Daryl Being Arrested


La Brea Tar Pits


Big Canadian Tar Pits

Yesterday morning I saw on the television machine videos of that long time actress and troublemaker, Daryl Hannah, getting arrested Tuesday in front of the White House, where the President lives.
I have no idea if Barack was watching when it happened. His Press Secretary, Jay Carney wouldn't say.
You may remember Ms Hannah from films such as "Blade Runner," "Splash," "Roxanne," "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," and the "Kill Bill" movies.
She wasn't littering, or trying to sneak inside, or anything like that. She was there with about 100 people protesting an extension of an oil pipeline that if Barack approves it, will traverse the entire country, from Alberta Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico.
It's called the Keystone XL pipeline.
Here's a video of her getting arrested and spewing her job killing, environment loving propaganda:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/31/daryl-hannah-arrested-for-protesting-in-front-of-white-house/
This isn't the first time she's been in trouble with the law. In 2006 she chained herself to a freaking walnut tree for three freaking weeks to protest the eviction of farmers from farmland in South Central Los Angeles (where the hell is farmland in South Central Los Angeles?!), and to protest mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia.
"We stand here today to just say no to slavery, to just say no to tar sands, oil and no to the Keystone pipeline." Hannah also added that she hoped President Obama would stand up to lobbyists.
The U.S. Park Police came by and asked politely for the protesters to leave. Ms Hannah, and about a dozen others of her ilk remained seated, so they threw her in the old hoosegow. She got out soon enough on $100 bail.
This was the 10th day of a two week planned "sit-in" protest over this pipeline. How silly. According to "Tar Sands Action. org" these people began acting up on August 20th, and will continue to do so until Friday, September 3rd. Yesterday, 111 people showed up in front of the White House. If they're all arrested the total will be 706 so far, making this the largest civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement, and the largest civil disobedience for the environmental movement in a generation.
No wonder our prison systems are overcrowded.
Daryl being a big movie star and all, got on the T.V. news programs, or at least she was on MSNBC yesterday morning, all proud of herself, talking about why she was so unruly.
It all has to do with tar... sandy tar with oil in it... and carbon dioxide.
Tar sands, or oil sands, or bituminous sands, are naturally occurring deposits of a form of petroleum. The petroleum in this case is a dense viscous (thick) substance known as bitumen, which is mixed in with sand, clay, and water. Bitumen is a term used for natural deposits of oil "tar" - such as at the La Brea Tar Pits (picture above).
There are great big deposits of oil in sand in Canada and Venezuela. Canada, as you may know, dear readers, is relatively close to the United States, which wants that oil. Or at least the U.S. wants to process it.
Normally oil is produced by drilling holes in the ground and sucking up the oil that's down there. It's getting more and more expensive to do that because the oil is running out. Our government, the oil industry, and the Republicans refuse to admit that though, and insist on drilling for more of it (remember the 2008 Republican cry, "Drill baby, drill"? I do). They don't care where we drill for it, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (which President Bush supported and President Obama is against) to the Everglades, where presidential candidate Michelle Bachman wants to drill... if it doesn't hurt the environment too much she says. Hell they'll drill in your freaking living room if they think there's oil underneath the sofa.
But as I said, that kind of oil is getting harder and more expensive to produce.
There's all of this oil in the sand in Canada though, the largest deposit being in Alberta, which is called the Athabasca tar sands, and there are two other smaller bodies known as the Peace River and Cold Lake deposits. Together, these deposits cover about 54,000 square miles, or an area approximately the size of Florida. There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves there. That's second to Saudi Arabia's 260 billion but it's only what companies can get with today's technology. The estimate of how many more barrels of oil are buried deeper underground is even bigger.
"We know there's much, much more there. The total estimates could be two trillion or even higher," says Clive Mather, Shell's Canada chief. "This is a very, very big resource."
The mined rock and dirt is hauled to a massive facility that upgrades the material and converts the otherwise almost unusable bitumen into synthetic crude oil for shipment to refineries in Canada and the United States.
The proposed pipeline would run from the oil sands of Alberta through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. An existing Keystone pipeline brings 591,000 barrels of crude from the oil sands to refineries in Oklahoma and Illinois, which became operational in June of last year. What Daryl and everybody is so excited about is the extension from Oklahoma to Texas... well they're excited about the whole thing really.
House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman (the "Mustache of Justice") urged the State Department to block Keystone XL (the pipeline), saying in a letter to the State Department that "this pipeline is a multi-billion dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available." 50 other members of Congress spoke against it as well. What's going on?
One concern is that the pipeline could pollute air and water supplies and harm migratory birds and other wildlife. It will cross the Sandhills in Nebraska, the large wetland ecosystem, and the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world.
The Ogallala Aquifer crosses eight states and provides drinking water for over two million people. It also supports $20 billion in agriculture. A lot of people are concerned that a pipeline leak would be... disadvantageous to those who drink water... and the mid-western economy in the U.S.
But why would a new pipeline leak? How silly. Portions of it will cross an active seismic zone that had a 4.3 magnitude earthquake as recently as 2002, but what the hell, we need that oil. A 4.3 isn't that bad anyway. Look at all of that damage caused by last week's 5.8:

Opponents to the pipeline point out tar sand oil is is more acidic, thick, and sulfuric than conventional crude oil; is up to 70 times more viscous than conventional crudes; and contains 20 to 50 times higher concentrations of acid than conventional crudes, and five to ten times as much sulfur, and that "the additional sulfur can lead to the weakening or embrittlement of pipelines."
Others say that the pipeline will undermine America's clean energy future and increase its dependence of oil sands fuels.
Last Friday, the U.S. State Department gave it's okay to the pipeline saying it wouldn't pose a significant threat to U.S. resources along the pipeline corridor. That was a major indicator of how the President might decide the issue, opponents of the pipeline argued. They got all upset about that.
The liberal media too. That above action got the Obama administration the Bronze award on Keith Olbermann's Worst Person's List for August 29th.
There is also a problem with carbon dioxide, you know, that green house gas that Bachman and other Republicans always say is so "harmless." It seems that the production and refining of oil sands emit more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases than production of other types of oil. That means more greenhouse gases allowed into the Earth's fragile atmosphere, which is already affected adversely by all of the other greenhouse gases we've been dumping into it since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, all of which increases climate change and global warming, evidenced by extreme weather events like hurricane Irene, drought, and floods, etc..
Exxon doesn't seem too worried about it though. You may have seen the commercials they've been running recently. I don't know how you could avoid them really, they're on so frequently. Here's one right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEHzyF-L4XA
It's interesting to note that the engineer speaking in that commercial is also the Global Recruiting Coordinator for Exxon Mobil's Fuels Marketing organization. In other words a propagandist.
He's also a pretty good organ and footbass player, as can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-76b74-HE
The progressive blog ThinkProgress, has seen that commercial too, and they say this about it:
“'Two Of The Most Important Challenges': Exxon deliberately ignores mention of the third related challenge that tar sands development affects: global warming. The Kearl tar sands mine contains over 5.5 billion barrels worth of bitumen — the tarry substance that gets processed into synthetic crude through an energy-intensive and ecologically destructive process. Even if the processing of the bitumen didn’t produce huge amounts of greenhouse pollution, using oil from the Kearl project would emit about 2 billion tons of greenhouse pollution. There will be no 'energy security and economic growth' in a world ravaged by rapid climate change.
'Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs': The industry study that claims there will be massive job creation from tar sands development — mostly in Canada — admits that 82 percent of the jobs 'created' aren’t actually in tar sands production. The oil and gas industry is one of the worst sectors for investment in job creation — green sectors create four times as many jobs with the same investment.
'Same Emissions As Many Other Oils': Kearl is expected to produce 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to 800,000 passenger vehicles. ExxonMobil is optimistic that experimental technology will reduce greenhouse pollution from oil derived from the Kearl tar sands by about 6 percent (a 25 percent reduction of production-related emissions, which are about 25 percent of total emissions, including combustion). Even with advanced technology, the tar-sands oil production will always be more polluting than conventional oil production.
Each year, the cost to civilization of each added ton of carbon dioxide increases. Exploiting the Canadian tar sands to fuel ExxonMobil’s profits would be suicidal... This is why thousands of people are heading to the White House to stage a mass protest to convince President Obama not to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline."
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/12/293958/exxon-promotes-canadian-tar-sands-good-for-our-countrys-energy-security-if-you-ignore-global-warming/
All of this concern over the pipeline and it's effects on the environment have prompted Dr. James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and is NASA's leading climatologist, to state: "We have a planetary emergency.” He argued that if humans continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, 20-40 percent of species on the planet will become extinct by the end of the century. He said if we go ahead and begin tapping these unconventional energy sources, of which the tar sands are the biggest example, it is "essentially game over for the climate."
Game over. Sounds like something out of one of those "Saw" movies.
And as in those movies, it sounds fairly permanent and irreversible.
The Republicans in Congress are very worried about our children. Exceptionally worried. They insist that we are paying for current programs like health care reform with borrowed money that our kids will be forced to spend their entire lives having to pay for. They say it over and over again. I wish they would have been as concerned when Bush was in office, you know when Bush turned that budget surplus into the beginnings of the deficit we now face. They didn't seem as concerned about all of our children then as they do now for some reason.
They don't seem all that concerned for them as far as the environment, and what kind of planet we leave for them either, as they're all for the expansion of this pipeline, and the continuation of our reliance on fossil fuels. They pick and choose their concern it seems.
“Fossil fuels are finite,” Dr. Hansen stated. “We’ll have to move to clean energy at some point so we may as well do it before we burn all the fossil fuels and ruin the future of our children.”
Dr Hansen, one of the earliest authoritative figures warning of the dangers of climate change, then sat with fellow protestors at the White House, and was summarily arrested.
Ms Hannah was asked on the morning news show isn't it inevitable that the country needs these new energy sources, and if they can be harvested safely and efficiently, why not? After all the State Department's environmental impact reports points out that while "spills are likely to occur during operation," it insists the they will not cause significant harm to the surrounding environments.
Daryl replied that since the operation began in June 2010, 12 oil spills have occurred, one of which was 21,000 gallons.
That doesn't sound too safe to me... especially with all of our drinking water so nearby.
She also said that most of the oil wasn't even destined for use in the U.S. It would be refined in Texas and then shipped overseas for other countries to use.
WTF?!
In this matter the decision is the Presidents alone. He can either approve the pipeline's extension, or not approve it. Congress is powerless to interfere in either case.
I think lovely Daryl has convinced me. Let's hope the president continues the policy he has initiated in the Arctic Refuge, and sustains a victory for our children and the very planet itself.
After all... he has kids too.