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room for improvement

excerpt from email last fall: "we reserve the right not to publish those letters deemed vile or scurrilous"

scur·ri·lous
Function: adjective
1 a : using or given to coarse language b : being vulgar and evil
2 : containing obscenities, abuse, or slander

In The Union last Thursday, Ms. McGuire's Americans Battling Eco-terrorists ("...the internal economic war against Americans is still raging in the courts and other places...")- with two sentences about what you and I would consider eco-terrorism, all the rest was on legal attempts to restrict logging. (Update: MMG likely somewhat innocent, copy editor likely somewhat guilty)

Actually in some ways it's a comfort & makes me feel at home, if I wasn't being told that lefties are terrorists (and, it can be inferred, not Americans) how would I know for sure that I was in Nevada County? but then there was last month's anti-guncontrolactivist letter which is a little too ugly to excerpt from.

Hey paper people, if there's been a change in policy, please be explicit about it.


posted by Anna at 8:44 PM

 

Baghdad and blogdom

Ottawa Citizen article by David Warren opining that Salam Pax is "playing Americans for fools":

One of his constantly repeated warnings is that the U.S. occupiers are fools if they do not take all those talented former-Baathist officials in from the cold, and put them back in business; that "al-Chalabi's de-Baathification plans don't solve any problems."

I'm inferring that Warren had particular trouble with this section of SP's blog:

There are of course unforgivable atrocities committed by a number of Ba’athists but there is no need to get every single Iraqi who was one into house arrest. That would mean we would have no teachers in schools, no professors in universities and everybody who worked in a state company will be made to quit his job.

and this

A friend was telling me when the bus came to take him to his work place one of them turned around to one of the Ba’athists who worked there telling him that if he is coming in the bus he will have shoes thrown at him and kicked out of it, there were other Ba’ath party members on the bus but everybody knows who was the bad apple.

thinking it means S.P. is a Baathist apologist. It seems to me SP is making a reasonable argument. And it's not exactly powerful apologism either. (but read the article yourself)

Personally I find Salam Pax's perspective much more believable than Santa Claus or immaculate conception or statements from G.W. Bush.

of course, I was the one that thought SARS would be here forthwith, and that a little Baghdad looting is to be expected, nothing to get all excited about...so adjust the weblog credibility meter accordingly.

What is sad is that regardless of the sincerity of S.P., [I predict] we're going to be inundated with fake weblogs when the next conflict rolls around. A large and growing community of people who have no ax to grind or product to shill for, and who tend to believe each other, is just too tempting a target for the spin- and product-mongerers. these are the glory days for blogging but they will not last, the immune system will prove sadly inadequate to deal with mass invasion - just as a large software company (sorry, can't find link) once paid people to pose as just-plain-folks (who happened to love the product) in Usenet newsgroups, so too the fake blogs will infiltrate and overwhelm. Popularity goeth before the fall.

to look at weblogs from a marketer's point of view, take Deborah Branscum out of context:

Oh those wacky advertisers! They just won't be happy until they've pissed in every pond and then wonder, in astonishment, why there's no clean water to drink. Or, as they'll most likely put it, "How can we rise above the clutter of competing messages?"

Salam Pax addendum - via Kausfiles, here's a much better defense.


posted by Anna at 7:23 PM

 

great news from Baghdad

via Making Light via StoutDemBlog, Library's volumes safely hidden:

Contrary to widespread belief, the antique books of Iraq's National Library were not stolen by thieves last month but were removed for safe keeping by self-appointed guardians of Iraq's cultural heritage...

posted by Anna at 7:10 PM

 

A monologue about the forest

In Sac Bee letters to editor today, NC residents Barbara and Alan reacting to
Tom Knudson's account of Bill Libby's account of reception of Libby's talk at the Conversation about the Forest symposium we had up here last year. Personal connection of sorts - the first college class I ever took was from Dr. Libby, an excellent teacher then and now, challenges you, is provocative, makes you think.

His talk was based on a deliberate misprision of "sustainability" (as how we could manipulate supply to sustain the existing demand) - so he could point out that California's demand for lumber is so great that you'd pretty much have to turn the entire Sierra into tree farms to meet it (and in future even that wouldn't be enough), and that protecting trees here just shifts the cutting elsewhere, to potentially more fragile environments.

What's lousy about the situation, and I think is in large part what drove the audience up the wall, is that it's just plain not a problem that we as consumers can solve - I can go live in a rebar teepee clad with Hefty bags and preach until I'm blue in the face, but the hordes of Home Despot customers are just going to keep on buying, there's no way they're going to be converted to Living The Simple Life, or as was brought out at the symposium, no civilization in history has ever voluntarily reduced its standard of living. There are empirical laws that apply to group behavior, and no amount of individual effort is going to repeal them.

So - an analogy - we the audience were in effect being told "no matter what you do, somebody's kids are gonna be sacrificed, and if you protect yours, then you're causing the death of someone else's (who are cuter, smarter, make a more important contribution to society, host more endangered species etc). And the negative audience reaction was to being told that, whatever we do, we have child blood on our hands - we'd prefer that kids not be sacrificed, but the sad fact is that the sacrificing is a problem that we can only worsen (by using child labor to build our homes), not prevent (by getting everyone to reduce child labor).

And we have to face it, as individuals with too many square feet we are part of the problem. We just aren't enough of it that our actions can solve it.

posted by Anna at 10:53 PM

 

The Matrix (review, semi-spoilers)

It's now showing at Sierra Cinemas. If you love interminable choreographed fight scenes set to disco-style music-by-the-pound you'll find it very much worth your while. And it is no mean feat, that they were able to simultaneously give it a contrived-as-all-hell conventional happy ending and an unsatisfying-as-all-hell no ending whatsoever.

My favorite character is Agent Smith, when he gets to talk.

Dark City was much better.

posted by Anna at 10:12 PM

 

the blogging neighborhood

I know of 3 other I-think-still-active Nevada County weblogs - 2 by high school students, 1 by a guy who's much more personable in person than on blog (based on very limited exposure to the latter)

Yubanet's weblogs page has a link to one; for the rest, if you search Google for "nevada county" and "weblog" you'll run across them.
(5/23: or used to - just tried it, and none of them come up...)

posted by Anna at 10:03 PM

 

places to go and things to do

That Woody Woodpecker sure gets around. He was sighted in Wash. DC a week ago Tuesday, and by Sunday was out here on the Cascade Ditch trail, beating a snag into submission.

For shy birds they're awfully brazen.

posted by Anna at 10:00 PM

 

apropos of many things

from Harley Sorenson in SF Chronicle -

Growing old, as I've managed to do in recent years, has its advantages and disadvantages. The big disadvantage is the obvious one: Your body starts to fall apart.

The big advantage is that years of observation and experience teaches you things you didn't know before, so when the carnival barker invites you to pay to see the two-headed woman, you wonder not if there's a two-headed woman inside the tent but rather how they plan to cheat you.

posted by Anna at 10:19 PM

 

misc Indian gaming links

local and otherwise. Not terribly pointed, mainly wanted to collect them in one place to supplement yesterday's batch. I don't know any more than you do.

Time magazine Dec 2002 articles on Indian gaming:

• Dec 16 2002 cover, with links to all
  
• Wheel of Misfortune (sorry, $$ required)

  Casinos were supposed to make Indian tribes self-sufficient. So why are the white backers of Indian gambling raking in millions while many tribes continue to struggle in poverty?

• Playing the Political Slots - How Indian casino interests have learned the art of buying influence in Washington (summary)

Local, in more or less chronological order:

Dec 2002, Don Herrman letter re Indian gaming:

...Recently a lawyer representing a tribe that had been most generous to a state politician floated the idea that this sovereign nation need not comply with the rules of disclosure of the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)...Just as in illegal drug trafficking, the immensity of the cash generated by the gambling industry virtually assures the corruption of those who brush up against it, including, too often, our governing leaders...

Dec. 2002, Casino gaming gets mixed signals

The Nevada County supervisors backed off a resolution opposing Indian gaming casinos Tuesday. The Nevada City City Council flatly rejected it the night before.
All City Council members spoke and voted against the resolution, some calling it discriminatory.
...Don Ryberg, tribal chairman of the Tsi-Akim Maidu, Nevada County's native people, voiced his opposition.
"I'm opposing this resolution because it smacks of racism, prejudice and all the stuff that goes with it," Ryberg said.
...In January 2001, Nevada County supervisors passed a resolution to recognize the Tsi-Akim Maidu tribe and support its pursuit of federal recognition.
While Ryberg thanked the supervisors for their recognition and support, he stressed that the Maidu tribe doesn't want Indian gaming.
"I've said that repeatedly over and over and that's how this tribe believes," Ryberg said.
Once the Maidus' gain federal recognition, "no other tribe can come on our turf, so to speak, and build casinos," Ryberg added.
Maidu tribal member Louella Giordano said backers of the resolution were jumping the gun.
"We are not a federally recognized tribe," Giordano said. "These people are acting like a casino's going up across the street next week."
The Maidu tribal council is against Indian gaming, Giordano added.

Jan 2003, Supervisors oppose Nevada-style gaming:

The board unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday opposing Nevada-style gaming. The resolution also supports a renegotiation of the California Tribal-State Compact regarding casinos on Indian lands.
...
Eileen Moon, vice chair of the Tsi-Akim clan of the Maidu tribe, [said] the Maidu tribe is against gaming and is not considering any casinos here...

Feb 2003, Locals to meet with lawmakers about Indian casinos:

Nevada County Supervisor Peter Van Zant last month wrote the governor a letter expressing concern about the "rapid expansion" of Indian casinos and resorts. A local worry, he said, is how a casino would affect land-use planning.
While he knew of no plans for a casino in Nevada County, Van Zant noted the county is within jurisdiction of the United Auburn Indian Community.
"There's some hoops they'd have to jump and other legalities, but if they meet those legalities, they've got every right to go ahead (and build) a casino," he said.
The UAIC's lawyer, Howard Dickstein, couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

Feb 2003, Rocklin casino to open this summer:

The U. S. Department of the Interior took the tribe's 49-acre site in trust last year and the tribe's Las Vegas-based management partner, Station Casinos, will run the operation that will include five restaurants and parking for 3,000 cars.

Mar 2003, Union editorial (executive summary: local casino would NOT be good for the community)

posted by Anna at 9:58 PM

 

never underestimate the power of money

(nothing new has happened locally, but there's new nonlocal news for context...)

Account of a proposal by one tribe to build a casino on top of an Indian burial ground

Casino on clinic site:

Plans by an Indian tribe near San Diego to construct a casino on the site of a health care clinic would be blocked for two years, under terms of a bill passed Tuesday by the House of Representatives
...

Cayuga Indian Nation: (from NY Times May 10)

For years, the Cayugas wanted no part of gambling fever. As the Senecas, the Oneidas and the Mohawks began earning millions from casinos, the Cayugas held to the old rules of consensus and unanimity. If even one of the five clan mothers opposed it, it could not happen.
...[Cayuga] tribal leaders felt that gambling was contrary to the spiritual tradition of the nation.

But in a reversal that has angered some tribe members and puzzled others, the views of at least some members have changed. And [in April 2003], the Cayugas signed an agreement with a casino promoter, Empire Resorts (formerly Alpha Hospitality), to sponsor a $500 million casino in the Catskills...

Coast Miwoks of Northern Calif.:

• CNN, July 2000:

  The Miwok Indians of coastal Northern California are fighting for official tribal recognition to regain federal benefits and to help restore cultural traditions.
  ...
  While the group is seeking federal recognition, unlike many other tribes, they have promised no casinos and no gambling.
  
  "I think the anti-gaming clause shows, 'Hey, these Indians aren't doing this for the money,'" said [tribal chairman] Sarris.
  
  The clause did get the attention of Congress, and the House approved restoration of the Miwok's tribal status.

  
  
• April 2003:
  

  A Sonoma County Indian tribe announced plans Wednesday to build a casino near Sears Point, and local officials acknowledged they could be helpless to stop the project.
  ...
  The Graton Rancheria, a Coast Miwok group restored to federal tribal status in late 2000, had repeatedly said it had no plans for gaming.
  ...[Barbara] Boxer's help was crucial in pushing through the legislation that restored tribal status to the Coast Miwoks. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, sought to prohibit gambling when the tribe was restored, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs objected, saying it could set a precedent that would lead to restrictions on all tribes that go before Congress.
  
  At the time, Boxer said she had no worries that a casino might sprout on Coast Miwok land. "I just don't see it as an issue. I never did," she said then.

  
  
• May 2003:

  Marin County Supervisors fired the opening volley Tuesday in an attempt to thwart plans to build a casino in Novato’s backyard.
  Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution opposing plans by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (ie Coast Miwoks) to build what 5th District Supervisor Cynthia Murray calls a "mega-casino" ...
  The gambling house would be the largest state gaming officials allow, Murray said.
  ..."We are not the first community confronting this," Kinsey said. "To date, no community has been able to prevent a casino once a tribe starts that course. El Dorado County has spent $300,000 and haven’t made a dent in the issue for their community."

  
  

Grass Valley:

• Chapa-De Indian health clinic, on plans for the remaining 5 acres of the 12 acre site of proposed medical clinic:
  

  ...five acres [of the 12 acre clinic site] are shown vacant on the preliminary maps, and that alone has rattled Grass Valley Planning Commission Chairwoman Lisa Swarthout..
  ..."That leads me to believe that you have future (planned) developments," she said. The Planning Commission could require more details for the vacant land, she warned
  
  Chapa-De representatives claimed there are no distinct plans for the five acres. "We just don't know," said architect Elaine Lieske.
  ...
  Under federal law, Chapa-De cannot build a casino, in part because the land is not tribal land and was purchased after 1988, she said.
  
  "This cannot be a gaming facility," Ervin stressed. "It never will be. We're here to provide health care to the community."
  
  Under federal law, casinos can be only be built on land held in trust by the federal government on behalf of a federally recognized tribe. Lands acquired after 1988 are ineligible unless the tribe's federal status is new or has been restored, and the governor and U.S. Department of the Interior agree that gambling will not negatively impact the community.

  
  
  
• Dr. Sara Richey, Feb 2003:

  I did not think there was any plan for a casino, however... Since the governing tribe of the clinic is a gaming tribe, their attorneys are gaming attorneys, and the clinic director is a gaming tribal leader, I don't think it is unwise to spell out in advance that a casino would not be welcome on that property...

posted by Anna at 9:38 PM

 

thinking (or at least linking) globally

I don't have anything useful to say about the big stuff - like

• the media's curious near-silence on Katrina Leung (the longtime spy for China/paramour of investigator of Clinton Asian campaign finance scandal) also being a Republican fundraiser for (primarily) Calif. state candidates
  
• the looting of the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center in Iraq ("By the time U.S. troops arrived in early April, armed guards were holding off looters - but the Americans only disarmed the guards...'I saw empty uranium-oxide barrels lying around, and children playing with them,' says Fadil Mohsen Abed, head of the medical-isotopes department...")
  
• Bill Bennett's gambling and media coverage thereof

- for these sorts of stories you should be reading Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall is way sharp.

In brief though - re top story in SF Chronicle today on Bush's plans to revitalize our nuclear weapons industry - this is unfortunately consistent with the analysis of his thought patterns as being characteristic of a former alcoholic, now "dry drunk" - who's now addicted to power and conquest, and the prediction (seen recently, forget where) that, for this reason, Iraq may be just the beginning.

(and see Dan Gillmor on media lack-of-coverage of Bush's AWOL military past here).

posted by Anna at 8:41 PM