Earthquake

When I told my ex back in 1993 that I was moving to San Francisco, the reaction I got was one of surprise. "You're afraid of earthquakes," it was pointed out to me.

It's true. And every time I feel one, I get a little scared. I've never been through a big one, but tonight's 5.6 quake lasted a bit longer than the ones I've felt up to now. This was the highest magnitude quake I've ever experienced. I got up from my computer chair during the quake, wandered aimlessly, not sure what to do. Then when it was over after 10-15 seconds, I went back to my computer and looked it up on the USGS web site to find out the magnitude and epicenter.

Another reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton

KALW broadcasts the daily commentaries of progressive activist Jim Hightower. This morning's commentary discussed yet another example of the corruption that is rife in the American political process--one that affects both major parties. Like many leading Democratic Party politicians, the Clintons have a long history of cozy associations with corporate donors, so this should come as no surprise; but it does provide an example of why I will not be supporting Hillary Clinton for President. Here is the commentary:

Surely you don’t think that campaign donations from wealthy interests are intended to buy favors from our lawmakers – do you?

Me either. For example, the fact that a New York billionaire and his family have donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer has absolutely nothing to do with the coincidental fact that the two senators have siphoned a million of our tax dollars into his rock and roll tourist development being built near Woodstock, New York. How do I know this was not a quid pro quo? Because Sen. Clinton’s spokesman told us so: “One thing had nothing to do with the other,” he said.

Alan Gerry, a former cable television mogul, is the developer of the Woodstock project. He, too, has come forward to assure us that his donations to Clinton and Schumer are unrelated – totally unrelated – to the million dollars in federal tax funds he received. Making political contributions, explains Gerry, is not about gaining favors, but merely is “something we think a good citizen should do.”

I’m sure you agree with that, don’t you?

Yet, some busybodies will try to make a fuss about the timing of this money exchange. Yes, it’s true that the senators funneled our tax dollars into Gerry’s project on June 21. And, yes, it's true that the Gerry family donated $20,000 to Schumer only five days later, then donated $9,200 to Clinton four more days later. But, picky-picky! It’s not like Gerry sent a note with his donations, saying, “Thanks a million – here’s my bribe money.” How can people be so cynical when it’s obvious that Gerry was simply feeling civic-minded after learning that his two senators had behaved in such a statesmanlike manner? He was just expressing his love for America – and nothing says “love” like cash.

Really, people, you just have to learn to trust our system of government.

“Timing of gift stirs ‘earmark’ debate,” USA Today, October 17, 2007

Pearls Before Swine: Meeshunn Akkomplished

Welcome to America.

I normally don't read Leah Garchik's gossip column in the San Francisco Chronicle, but this item caught my eye while I was doing the Sudoku:

The Arab Film Festival opened at the Clay Theatre on Thursday with a showing of "Making Of," a movie about a young man lured by Islamic terrorists, whom he rejects in the end. Its star, Tunisian actor Lotfi Abdelli, was an invited guest, his visa having been obtained by festival officials with the help of Nancy Pelosi's office.

But upon arriving at San Francisco Airport, Abdelli was detained by security officials for 41/2 hours. They peppered him with repeated questions, took his cell phone, asked him to identify every person in its directory, to translate every note in Arabic on the device and asked him "all the time, the same question: Why am I here? ... About people I know, people I don't know." Abdelli was carrying a DVD of his movie, which they watched and concluded "my film is glorifying terrorists. I said, 'No, my film is against this.' " (Ironically, Bashir Anastas, festival executive director, has received complaints from community members who thought the film too critical of Muslims.)

The interrogators "left, they came back. They were very polite," said Abdelli, but the questions went on. A filmmaker traveling companion, let through immediately, waited for him, along with board president Kathy Kenny. Abdelli had no chance to call for help. "They asked me all the time the questions, I was a little bit lost." Kenny described him emerging from the ordeal as "traumatized and humiliated."

To his interrogators, said Abdelli, "Artist or not, you are Arabic, you are young, you have potential." The festival (www.aff.org) continues at the Roxie until Thursday, and then at the California Theatre in Berkeley through Sunday.

Letter in today's NY Times Magazine

I agree with this letter that appeared in today's NY Times Magazine:

What Americans have in mind when they want other countries to be “democratic like we are” is our political system, in which voters get to choose between two corporatized parties, financed by the same moneyed interests that agree on major issues, while elections focus on lesser issues, personalities and smears (Noah Feldman, Oct. 7). Policy options and citizen involvement are minimal. Candidates who stray beyond conventional rhetoric or propose more than cosmetic reforms are quickly relegated to the “extremes.” Voters are obliged to pick the lesser evil and so end up with more evil no matter who wins.

There is a thriving business of interchangeable corporate and government political operatives working to reproduce this system in other lands. Their obvious aim is not to spread actual democracy but to earn their money by setting up compatible, and therefore more easily dominated, outposts of the American empire. The rest of the world got wise to this a long time ago.

Pete Karman

New Haven

Nostalgia trip

While driving home home tonight, I tuned to KFRC on the car radio, and there I heard Casey Kasem announcing that Spanish Harlem by Aretha Franklin had dropped to number 21 "this week" on the Billboard charts. I was listening to an entire broadcast of American Top 40 from 1971--even the jingles. It was like I was back in seventh grade all over again, except without the zits and the social awkwardness.

For an aging fogy like myself, this is a pure nostalgia trip. Back when I was a kid, my local home town radio station began playing "American Top 40" on Sundays the same year that the show was syndicated, in 1970; and I used to listen to it fairly regularly, on my AM clock radio, in the years that immediately followed. Listening to the rebroadcast of an old show tonight--oh my God, even a song by the Partridge Family I probably haven't heard in 36 years, called "I Woke Up In Love This Morning"--really takes me back.

I can't tell from KFRC's web site if this is a regularly scheduled syndicated program for their Saturday night schedule, but that seems like a reasonable inference.

As I write this, they are now playing "Every Picture Tells a Story" by Rod Stewart--the title track of what Casey Kasem said was the number one album in the country at the time of the broadcast.

La Terre Meurt

La terre meurt

Les océans sont des poubelles
Et les fronts de mer sont souillés
Des Tchernobyls en ribambelle
Voient naître des foetus mort-nés
Dans cinquante ans, qu'allons-nous faire
De ces millions de détritus ?
Et ces déchets du nucléaire
Dont les pays ne veulent plus

Sous nos pieds, la terre promise
Patrimoine de nos enfants
Petit à petit, agonise
Nul ne s'en soucie
Et pourtant des espèces devenues rares
Sont en voie de disparition
Et la laideur chante victoire
Sous le plastique et le béton

La terre meurt
L'homme s'en fout
Il vit sa vie
Un point c'est tout
Il met à son gré, à son goût
Le monde sens dessus dessous
La Terre meurt
Où allons-nous ?

Dans la finance et les affaires
Le pétrole est le maître mot
Il mène à tout, même à la guerre
Et nul ne s'inquiète de l'eau
Où en sont la flore et la faune
Et qu'advient-il du firmament
Privé de la couche d'ozone
Gardien de l'environnement

Sous le ciel, le sol se révolte
Car l'homme trompe la nature
Quand il trafique les récoltes
Il hypothèque son futur
Sous le soleil, les forêts brûlent
Et l'on gave les champs d'engrais
Dans la boulimie majuscule
Du rendement et du progrès

La Terre meurt
L'homme s'en fout
Il vit sa vie
Un point c'est tout
Il met à son gré, à son goût
Le monde sens dessus dessous
La Terre meurt
Où allons-nous ?

Il est temps de prendre conscience
Que l'homme ne respecte rien
Il se fiche de l'existence
Des baleines et des dauphins
L'éléphant meurt pour son ivoire
La bête rare pour sa peau
Et dans les grandes marées noires
Le mazout englue les oiseaux

La société consommatrice
Avance impunément ses pions
Tandis que les arbres pourrissent
Dans les villes et leurs environs
La sècheresse se déchaîne
Effaçant tout signe de vie
Et certaines races humaines
Crèvent d'abandon et d'oubli

La Terre meurt
L'homme s'en fout
Il vit sa vie
Un point c'est tout
Il met à son gré, à son goût
Le monde sens dessus dessous
La Terre meurt
Où allons-nous ?

La Terre meurt
Réveillons-nous

Ahimsa Sumchai

Ahimsa Sumchai appears to be the most progressive candidate running against Gavin Newsom in the election for San Francisco mayor. It is a crowded field and she has gotten little attention in the mainstream press (the Chronicle has almost entirely ignored her). The list of endorsements on her web page include the Peace and Freedom Party, the Green Party, and Cindy Sheehan. Not bad. The Bay Guardian is also listed as an endorser, although in actuality the paper issued a joint endorsement of three candidates, including her.

A Manatee

From the SFGate web site: