Time to vote and... "Let us express our complete and unqualified contempt for the city’s system of ranked choice voting and taxpayer financing of campaigns."

I think I've already made my position clear on the most important elective office in today's ballot in The City. As it turns out, there are some other elective posts and propositions on the ballot.  Here are the Chron Endorsements:

Dear San Francisco, It's not our fault we have an incompetent buffoon for Sheriff. 62% of us voted against Mirkarimi. Blame Ranked Choice Voting. In the name of all that is good and holy, let's fix this. - Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Apparently there are people who are still intending to support our incompetent, unqualified, national embarrassment of a Sheriff (I mean, people beside his wife Eliana). No... really... I have it on good authority that there are people who are going to vote for him. I know. Weird. 

As a public service, I have curated a representative sample of articles and commentary culled during Mirkarimi's tenure as San Francisco Sheriff:

Ten reasons San Franciscans should support the Baltimore Ravens in the Superbowl

We interrupt this political blog to bring you some perspective on today's game.

Full Disclosure: I've lived in San Francisco for 30 years. However, as I originally hail from Chicago,  Da Bears, Cubs, Bulls, and Blackhawks will always command my sporting loyalties.  Still, I have made a sincere effort to get behind the local teams as my second choice. They've not made it easy.

Look -  I am enormously grateful to the Niners for knocking the Green Bay Packers out of the playoffs. After the Packers lay down against the Vikings to keep the Bears out of the playoffs, watching Green Bay go to the Superbowl would have been too painful to bear. Since then, I have enthusiastically cheered the Niners throughout the playoffs. But the Superbowl  is another matter. There is a very good case for my fellow City citizens to follow my lead and pull for a Ravens win.

Here the top ten reasons why every San Franciscan should reconsider their support for the Niners:

Earth Hour in San Francisco

San Francisco at 8:15 PM, fifteen minute before Earth Hour.

Tonight San Francisco observed "Earth Hour", an international celebration of freezing in the dark. Or something. During the hour of 8:30 - 9:30 PM local time, people all over the world turned off unnecessary lights. Then, at 9:31 PM, people all over the world turned all their unnecessary lights back on.

San Francisco Values - Alleged Wife Battering County Sheriff Edition

This mug shot is our new Sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi. He was elected Sheriff in the last election and sworn in on Monday. Friday he was arrested for "domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness" over a recent incident involving his wife, the Venezuelan telenovella actress Eliana Lopez:

Ranked-choice Voting: Epic Fail in Oakland.

Mayor Quan releases dove at religious conference.
The dove was reportedly killed shortly thereafter, struck by a wayward bullet
while flying over the Occupy Oakland encampment.

One year ago, Jean Quan was elected mayor of Oakland. She never led in any poll at any time during the campaign. She always trailed front-runner Don Perata in every minute of the campaign from beginning to end.

On election day, 36% percent of Oakland voters said they wanted Don Perata as their mayor. Only 24% of Oakland voters said Jean Quan was their first choice to be mayor. In prior years, a runoff election would have followed and voters would have chosen between Perata and Quan in a head to head runoff election. Not this year. This was Oakland's first Ranked-choice Voting election for Mayor. The other candidates on the ballot were eliminated and the second and third choice votes on their ballots were added to Quan and Perata's totals. Jean Quan became mayor. Oakland saved the cost of conducting a runoff election.

Meanwhile, in the People's Republic of San Francisco...

... over 2/3 of our citizenry did not bother to vote in Tuesday's election for Mayor, Sheriff, and District Attorney. Of those who did vote, many did not understand the "Instant Runoff" Ranked Choice Voting used for the first time in the mayoral race.

Before we get to the results, your loyal blogger wishes it to be known that there was something good to come out of this election season. Specifically, the best thing to come out of this election season was rediscovering The Argonaut by way of their current election edition (the image at the top of this post is from the front page of their latest edition).

The Argonaut is a San Francisco institution the dates back in various incarnations to 1877. As near as I can tell, it is published whenever they damn well feel like it. The preface to their election recommendations in this edition is a pitch perfect articulation of my loathing for this election. I can't say it better, so I won't try:

"... let us express our complete and unqualified contempt for the city’s system of ranked choice voting and taxpayer financing of campaigns – to the current (already spent and still climbing to the highest mountain peak) whistle of over 14 million dollars of taxpayer financial underwriting by a bone-broke city of candidates campaigns. Many of them had no business running in the first place – but the city’s idiotic law makes it impossible for them to drop out of the rat race because if they do the practical thing and drop out of a race they know they have no chance of winning, the prudent candidate is has to pay the city back for the taxpayer money received, which most of them can’t afford to do. But if they wait and stay in the race and go ahead and lose as everyone in town including the candidate him (or her) self knows they will. Just how stupid is that? Very."

Exactly. As noted here before, between the Ranked Choice Voting and public funding of candidates, this election was pregnant with disaster. We have no one to blame but ourlselves. As long as we continue to elect these clowns to the Board of Supervisors, we deserve the unconscionable idiocy and incompetent governance we get in return.

And now for something completely local - 16 Candidates

As a direct consequence of our new public financing rules for the mayoral race in San Francisco, we now have a cavalry charge of 16 candidates running for mayor. C.W. Nevius explains:

"It would be safe to say that many San Franciscans don't understand public financing...

Raise $25,000 and you get $50,000. Scare up $100,000 and you get a 4 to 1 match for $400,000. No wonder there are 16 candidates for mayor. It's political happy hour... this is a poor use of public funds. This is the first mayoral race with public financing and voters are learning that it allows candidates to get easy money and, in some cases, to waste it.

The weird catch-22 of San Francisco's system is that once the money is spent, a candidate can't drop out of the race unless he or she pays it back. The problem is that a 2007 change in the law made it possible to start pulling in the money nine months before the election. By the time August rolls around, candidates may be hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole and can't afford to quit."

So we have candidates who are only in the race because we the citizens of SF are paying them to run for mayor with our money. And the peculiarities of our public finance rules mandate they stay in the race in order to continue to suckle at The City's bountiful teat. But this is all fine because - you know - we in SF have a lot of extra money lying around to finance any candidate who wants to run for mayor. Why would we not want to spend $9 million of our tax dollars for the privilege of sorting through sixteen mayoral candidates? I sure can't think of anything better to do with that money.

As Ron Popeil might say - "But that's not all!" At no extra charge we will now throw all sixteen candidates into the mix-master of our first ranked voting / instant runoff election for mayor. On November 8th, all San Francisco voters will cast three votes for mayor in rank order of preference. "Rank" being the operative word in that sentence. Rich Deleon ruminates about the election and The City's progressive future in Sunday's SF Chronicle Insight:

San Francisco Values - Hamburger Edition

Our hometown supervisors have yet again set up The City for national ridicule and general hilarity, this time with the ban on Macdonald's Happy Meal toys. I guess it is a good thing that in these trying times we can offer ourselves up to the rest of the nation as civic clowns to help lighten the national mood.

I do understand that - in the most liberal major city with the most liberal governing body in the country - it is impossible to resist the temptation to succumb to their core belief that no one is capable of making any decisions for themselves or their family without their benevolent dictates gently guiding forcing us in the right direction. But... when even the Daily Show is pointing and laughing at us - you'd think our Supes might get a clue.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
San Francisco's Happy Meal Ban
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

That is SF Supervisor Eric Mar being made to look particularly stupid by Daily Show comedian Asaif Mandvi. It's not like that is particularly difficult thing to do with our Board of Supes, but Asaif did it with an extra helping of much deserved derision.

The local fishwrap transcribes the funniest bit:

"But the most brutal part comes when Mar explains that his 10-year-old daughter, Jade, doesn't like fast food anymore after watching the documentary "Super Size Me" with him. Those opposed to the to ban maintain it's up to parents, not McDonalds, to ensure their kids learn healthy habits.

Mandvi: "So she learned from her parents?"

Mar: "That's a large part of it."

Mandvi: (staring in wide-eyed disbelief) "Would it be hard to pass a law to force Netflix to send 'Super Size Me' to every parent in San Francisco?"

Mar: "We can't force Netflix, a private company, to do something like that."

Mandvi: "Are you serious right now?"

Mar: "We have no power to force Netflix or a private company like that to change a business practice."

Mandvi: "So on one hand, you're like, 'We can't do that' but on the other hand, you are doing that."

Mar, looking very tired, shakes his head, stumbles over one of the progressive supervisor's favorite words, equitability, and mercifully the interview ends. Oy."

The good news is that four of our Supes have termed out and will be leaving office this week. The bad news is that Eric Mar is not among them.

Reason TV also took note:


The Taiwanese news animators have apparently fallen behind the cultural curve on this story. I am looking at you NextMedia.

Live Blogging Ron Paul Rally in San Francisco - maybe

I made a contribution to Ron Paul's campaign in 2007 during the ground breaking Fuy Fawkes "money bomb" and have been on his e-mail and phone list ever since. They notified me that he will be in town for a rally today. Looks like it is intended to support Republican John Dennis' quixotic campaign to unseat Nancy Pelosi. Talk about tilting at windmills. Ralph Nader's 2008 Green Party V.P. running mate Matt Gonzalez is also scheduled to appear. Anyway, I think I will make my way down to the Civic Center this afternoon to check it out. Depending on what I find, and subject to the limits of technology and bandwidth, I may do some live blogging on My Other Blog, and then will update a summary here later. Maybe.

UPDATE:
Let's just say my live blog effort met with limited success. I'll include a couple of pics from the rally here, the rest are on the other blog. This examiner story matched my observations. Robert Taylor posted a few pics and a report on his blog, including one of your loyal blogger wandering around with head down immersed in his own live blogging efforts.

Gonzales, Dennis and Paul

Support Prop 19 - Marijuana prohibition hypocrisy is an expensive indulgence Californians can no longer afford.

Ripped from Tom Meyer

Joseph McNamara, former San Jose Police Chief, makes the case the for Prop 19 in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle:

"I've seen the prohibition's terrible impact at close range. Like an increasing number of law enforcers, I have learned that most bad things about marijuana - especially the violence made inevitable by an obscenely profitable black market - are caused by the prohibition, not by the plant...

Experience and research show that the United States has among the world's harshest marijuana laws, yet our consumption rate leads the world and is twice that of the Netherlands, where cannabis sales to adults have been allowed for decades. Prohibition doesn't keep marijuana away from young people...

No one can dispute that marijuana already is widely available. At least 1 in 10 Californians consumed it in the past year, despite expensive government efforts. The November ballot's Proposition 19: The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 acknowledges this reality and enables us to manage the cannabis market. Furthermore, taxing legal cannabis sales will provide steady funding for local governments that may help avoid layoffs of police and teachers...

When we stop wasting resources on processing hundreds of thousands of low-level possession cases, we'll be able to focus on keeping impaired drivers off the road, to concentrate on violent crime and on making people feel they and their children are safe from random gang and drug-related shootings. At work, employers will retain their rights to fire employees whose drug or alcohol use affects their productivity...

That perhaps brings up the most significant and least considered cost of criminalizing marijuana - turning people into criminals for behavior of which we disapprove, even though it doesn't take others' property or endanger their safety. It is worth remembering that our last three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, would have been stigmatized for life and never would have become presidents if they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been busted for pot during their reckless youthful days. Countless other Americans weren't so lucky. California voters have an opportunity in November to return reason to our state by decriminalizing adult use of marijuana."

For all practical purposes (except taxation and regulation) marijuana is already a de factco legal intoxicant in this state. It is also the biggest cash crop in the state. Decades and billions wasted on criminal enforcement has done exactly nothing to reduce or restrict it's use. More decades and billions spent on criminal enforcement will do exactly nothing except to waste more resources that are better spent elsewhere.

Yes, legalization will bring some problems. They are social and health problems, not criminal problems. They are manageable. Tax the weed and put programs in place to deal with social and health issues. Save our enforcement, judicial, and penal resources for dealing with real criminals.

Let's try something new in California.

Let's treat this issue honestly and like adults.

Let's treat one another like adults who can be trusted to be responsible for our own lives, as long as we do not harm one another.

Let's pass Prop 19.

Divided and Balanced.™
Now that is fair.

Wild salmon or subsidized cotton and rice? Choose wisely.

Our Northern California February rain will continue for at least another week, the state government finally passed a budget, and the winter steelhead and salmon runs are underway. The common thread to these stories, is the future of the salmon fishery in California hangs in the balance.

DWSUWF has posted stories before about the plight of our state salmonids. Last year, the California salmon fishery was closed for the first time in history, a "canary in the coal mine" indicator if there ever was one. In the fall, a comprehensive California Trout sponsored study documented as many as 20 species of California trout, steelhead, and salmon with a poor prognosis for survival. Time for an update.

Last week the Chronicle reported more bad news:

"A record-low number of chinook salmon returned to rivers in California's Central Valley last year, indicating that severe restrictions on salmon fishing are likely again this year, federal regulators said.The Pacific Fishery Management Council reported this week that 66,264 natural and hatchery chinook or "king" salmon adults were estimated to have returned to the Sacramento River basin in 2008 to spawn, the lowest estimate on record."

Chron Outdoors writer Tom Steinstra nets it out:

"The story this past week that reported the lowest number of salmon in history to swim from the ocean, through the bay and to the Sacramento River has several shocking sub plots. It's now likely that all salmon fishing will be shut down again this year off the Bay Area coast. Killer whales, or orcas, could face a population crash because their primary diet is salmon and they could have difficulty finding other food. Now get this, from the fine print inside a report by the National Marine Fisheries Service: Of the salmon that spawn or are released from hatcheries in the Sacramento River downstream of Redding, only 20 percent make it to the Delta because of water projects. Of that 20 percent that make it to the Delta, 60 percent die because of more water projects. So for the juvenile salmon that start their journey in Northern California, only 8 percent make it to the Bay to head out to the ocean. The best suggestion is tell L.A. and other water grabbers to shut off their California Aqueduct faucet and build several desalination plants."

The Sacramento Bee expands on the political significance of the Orca angle:

"Rea's agency is assessing the effect of California water operations on four protected species: winter- and spring-run salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon. A key focus of the report is to minimize threats to these species caused by water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub for 60 percent of California's freshwater supplies.Several observers said the link between salmon and the charismatic orca is certain to elevate California's water conflicts in the public mind. Though last year was historically bad for California fish and water supplies, restoration of the state's Delta and rivers has yet to grab the public's imagination like environmental problems in Florida's Everglades or the Brazilian rain forest. Much of the debate over the Delta has focused on the tiny Delta smelt, a threatened species few people have seen.The orca could change the game."

There is a clear political appetite to distribute the blame for the collapse of the Salmon fishery across a variety of potential causes, including global warming, increased predation from non-native species, changing ocean currents, diseases spread from farmed salmon, municipal pollution in the Delta, or whatever. It is all bullshit. There is exactly one primary reason for the spectacular nosedive of the salmon population over the last few years (as well as the delta smelt and striped bass). The immediate cause of the Sacramento salmon run collapse is water diversion out of the Delta from Northern California to Southern California and agricultural interests. Over a longer term, we can point to decades of water mismanagement by the state and federal government.

Blogger Pundita gets it right:

"After decades of California's inadequate water policies and studiously short-sighted hydropolitics (the politics of water and water resources) the only hope left this year is ample rain and snow. If the miracle doesn't materialize in a year expected to be dry, there's just simply not enough water to meet projected demands... I do not want to hear that California's water crisis is the result of global warming. It's the result of human nature compounded by stupidity. And three guesses who'll have to pick up the tab for rescuing Californians from that much stupidity."

Pundita also cross-posted an excellent analysis by Procrustes blogging at RBO with a detailed overview of the continuing California water wars and the political ground being staked out on every side:

"Bottom line? In addition to current drought conditions, decrepit infrastructure, invasive species, and the water quality itself at risk, that is? Reduced water deliveries and negative “economic impact” to the SWP and U.S.-operated CVP. M-O-N-E-Y."

Procrustes references a 2005 SF Chronicle article that points to the root of the crisis using the Westlands Water District as an example:

"Now, Westlands and other districts are successfully renewing their long-term contracts at current levels and at prices far below those paid by the state’s growing cities, despite protests that pumping large volumes of water south is killing Northern California’s fisheries. Westlands is singled out for particular criticism because of its size and the amount of water it receives, but also because the irrigation of its fields produces toxic drain water, threatening state waterways. Some critics say much of its acreage should be taken out of production.S o far, about 200 contracts have been approved, and 80 more are pending, including Westlands’. About 6 million acre feet of annual water deliveries is at stake. Farmers who get federal water are generally charged a fraction of the free-market rate."

David Zetland at Aguanomics puts this agricultural water use in perspective while quoting an analysis by Lloyd Carter:

"In a typical year the California agricultural industry uses about 34 million acre-feet of water or more than 80% of the developed water consumed by urban and agricultural users in the state. Between 30% and 50% of that water is used to grow four low value, water-intensive crops: cotton, rice, alfalfa and irrigated pasture. Those four low value, water-intensive crops contributed about $2.5 billion to California's economy in 2005. All of California agricultural production was about $32 billion in 2005. Gross state product in 2005 was about $1.62 trillion. Thus, the contribution of all agriculture to the state's economy was just under 2% of gross state product (1.975 %)and the contribution of cotton, rice, alfalfa and irrigated pasture was an infinitesimal 0.15 of 1% (fifteen one-hundredths of one percent). Westlands claims an annual gross in excess of a billion dollars which would be considerably less if all the public subsidies were factored in (cheap water, power subsidies, crop subsidies, interest free construction loan). Westlands is not even a blip on the state economy's radar screen, only about three percent of California's farm gross and a tiny, tiny fraction of one percent of the state's whole economy."

All insightful posts and highly recommended. These bloggers are now on my 'roll.

In California there is more money in agriculture that there is in fish. Where there is money, there is politics and pandering politicians. As the drought loomed last summer, a bipartisan alliance between Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein began stumping for a massive new peripheral canal and dam project to divert more Delta water. With the signing of the budget agreement and Feinstein on board, the project may again be moving to the front burner. Maybe it will even qualify for Obama stimulus infrastructure funding. Bipartisanship is overrated.

The current rainfall may (or may not) ease the water supplies and hardship sufficiently that a cease-fire in the California water wars can be maintained this year. But the underlying equation will not change. There is simply not enough water in the north for both a healthy salmon watershed, a cheap subsidized water supply for expanding valley agricultural interests, and an increasingly thirsty Los Angeles/San Diego metro area. Something has got to give. A choice must be made.

Speaking for myself, I'd rather have more wild salmon in California, than artificially cheap subsidized rice, cotton, and vegetables. But that is just me.

This problem was created by government and politicians, and can only be undone by those selfsame politicians. If you agree, encourage your representatives to do the right thing by signing a letter and petition at Water for Fish.

Divided and Balanced.™
Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: Salmon, conservation, California, San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Of salmon and trout and canaries in a coal mine

Just in case anyone is not familiar with the meaning of the phrase "like a canary in a coal mine" this is it:

"Early coal mines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the canary in a coal mine kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary in a coal mine signaled an immediate evacuation."

I bring this up because wild Salmonids (trout and salmon) are often referred to as the canaries in the environmental and watershed "coal mine". They require cold clean fast flowing water. They are hypersensitive to pollution, water flow, silt, and water temperature. If conditions are changed due to the effect of logging near streams, or rivers being dammed and providing insufficient flow, or wildlife management policies that permit overfishing, the trout and salmon die. It is that simple.

Some examples of how this metaphor has been used in articles and books:

"Like the canary in the coal mine, the wild Atlantic salmon is a biological indicator that signals loss in water quality." -Atlantic Salmon Federation

"How can salmon and trout be used as quick-action environmental monitors, the piscine equivalent of the canary in the coal mine?" - Canada Genome - Toronto Star

"Brook trout are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to water quality," said Gary Berti, Trout Unlimited's Eastern Brook Trout Campaign Coordinator. "The presence of brook trout in a watershed indicates that water quality is excellent. Declining brook trout populations can provide an early warning that the health of an entire stream, lake or river is at risk." - Trout Unlimited

The abundance and health of the fish themselves remain in most cases the best integrated measure of the ecosystems that salmon traverse and inhabit. Salmon are often likened to the canary in the coalmine..." -Pacific Salmon & Their Ecosystems

These quotes are from older articles that were simply making the point that Salmon and Trout populations are an early warning system for our water quality, watershed and wildlife management policy.

Canaries in the Pacific Watershed
Last week, we got a more timely report. The canary is dead. And we now know we have a real environmental problem in the ecology of the river system 'coal mine":

Is Calif. salmon fishery finished?
SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 (UPI) -- The one-year ban on fishing for Chinook salmon could kill the commercial salmon fishery in California, officials said. The number of boats has dropped from 4,000 to 400 in 15 years, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

End of coast's 150-year-old fishery looms
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, April 12, 2008
The ban on all commercial and sport fishing for chinook salmon in California and most of Oregon this year could be the beginning of the end for a whole way of life. Commercial fishing is an industry that is deep in the heart of life along California's 1,000-mile coast, where fishing ports from Crescent City to Morro Bay have supported generations of fishing families. Now, for the first time since commercial fishing began on the West Coast more than 150 years ago during the Gold Rush era, no boats will be permitted to put to sea to fish for chinook, the fabled king salmon that is the mainstay of the commercial fishery.

The question goes begging. What happened to the salmon? There are many theories, and scientists are, as yet, unwilling to state that they know the reason. I won't pretend to have a definitive answer, but I do have an informed opinion.

It starts with an administration that has an ideological agenda to prioritize political and economic interests over wildlife:

"Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in. First Cheney looked for a way around the law, aides said. Next he set in motion a process to challenge the science protecting the fish, according to a former Oregon congressman who lobbied for the farmers. Because of Cheney's intervention, the government reversed itself and let the water flow in time to save the 2002 growing season, declaring that there was no threat to the fish. What followed was the largest fish kill the West had ever seen, with tens of thousands of salmon rotting on the banks of the Klamath River. Characteristically, Cheney left no tracks. The Klamath case is one of many in which the vice president took on a decisive role to undercut long-standing environmental regulations for the benefit of business. By combining unwavering ideological positions -- such as the priority of economic interests over protected fish -- with a deep practical knowledge of the federal bureaucracy, Cheney has made an indelible mark on the administration's approach to everything from air and water quality to the preservation of national parks and forests. " - Washington Post -June 2007

Then the administration cooks the science to further their ideological objectives:

"The Bush administration has now found a novel way around these inconveniences: a new policy on counting fish. Its practical effect would be to eliminate the distinction between wild salmon and hatchery salmon, which can be churned out by the millions. This sleight of hand would instantly make wild salmon populations look healthier than they actually are, giving the government a green light to lift legal protections for more than two dozen endangered salmon species as well as the restrictions on commerce that developers and other members of President Bush's constituency find so annoying. Policy makers at the National Marine Fisheries Service say they are merely obeying a federal judge who was unhappy with the way the government distinguished between wild and hatchery fish. But in drawing up the new policy, the service ignored the scientists who urged that the protections remain in place. It relied instead on a Washington-based political team whose key player was Mark Rutzick, a former timber industry lawyer. Such a step may be good politics for the Bush administration. But it is bad science and bad news for wild salmon."- New York Times - May 2004

This results in the removal of "endangered" status for wild salmon runs, and permits the wholesale diversion of water from the Klamath and Sacramento Delta Salmon habitat to agricultural interests.

"Although Sacramento River chinook salmon suffer from an array of problems, the most significant are the massive export of water from the California Delta by the state and federal pumps and declining water quality. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his corporate agribusiness and developer buddies are pushing for a peripheral canal and more dams that would allow the projects to export even more water in an estuary whose fisheries are already crashing. On the Sacramento, where the salmon collapse is the immediate cause of the fishery closure, state and federal government water managers diverted and pumped an all-time record high of 6.4 million acre feet of water from the delta in 2005, the same year juvenile salmon that would have returned as adults in 2007 were attempting to migrate through the delta and out to sea, according to Earthjustice. "What's happened is no surprise given the massive water diversions from the Sacramento San Francisco Bay delta and the failure to address toxic discharges into this estuary, an ecosystem critical to the survival of the salmon run that drives our west coast fishery," emphasized Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). "It's obvious that we've got to go to work to both save fishermen and fix the delta to bring back our fishery." - Dan Bacher - Truthout - April 11, 2008

And so, the canaries die. The message is clear, when the canaries die, the mine water is not safe.

Canaries in the Wisconsin Watershed
On a more local scale, HDW at HDW Mobile Blog has been waging a campaign to prevent politics and bad science from overriding Wisconsin protections for wild trout in the Prairie River Watershed. As per the example of the West Coast Salmon, to nip the problem in the bud is to head off damaging politics based on bad science early. In an excellent series has been enumerating the top reasons for all who are concerned about maintaining the health of the wild trout "canary in the cold mine" in Central Wisconsin:

Reason # 1 - because it is the right thing to do

"On April 14 in every county in Wisconsin the unique Conservation Congress spring hearings will be held. A disgruntled "retired" fisheries manager has been waging a personal war against the enlightened Wisconsin inland trout coldwater fisheries regulations. He has found a like minded group group of the kill more small trout contingent and managed to put to vote the regulations protecting five miles of the prime rearing habitat for native trout in Central Wisconsin's Prairie River. All Wisconsin citizens are eligible to vote by showing up at the hearings held in every county. The citizens of the surrounding states of Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, which are generally referred to as Greater Wisconsin, are also eligible to vote on this advisory question. Vote yes on question 36."

This post may be too late to help HDW in this effort, as the vote is tonight in every county of Wisconsin. If you can, get there and vote, and make your voice heard. Locations for hearings can be found here.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: Salmon, Brook Trout, California, San Francisco, Wisconsin, Pacific

Olympic torch protest postscript: Good call Mr. Mayor

Some think the coverage of the Olympic Torch relay in San Francisco yesterday did not merit the media frenzy it received. They would be correct.



If Wolf Blitzer thinks this was the biggest story of the day, who am I, a mere blogger, to disagree? So I was forced to declare a "Yossarian" on the story. Paraphrasing the Yossarian Principle from Joseph Heller's Catch 22 - "What if everyone was covering about the San Francisco protest of the Olympic Torch relay?" I can only respond as did Bomber Pilot John Yossarian: "Then I'd be a damn fool not to".

Since the biggest story in the world Tuesday was taking place in my backyard, I had no choice but to venture out from behind my keyboard into that space I like to call "outside". Armed only with a TREO 700P, I attended and live blogged a portion of the torch route on a supplemental team blog we set up for the purpose. I walked the "route not taken" from Justin Herman Plaza to the planned start at the ball park and back again when it became clear the torch was heading another way.

"It was an Olympic-sized fake-out, and by the end of the day, instead of the violent clashes that some had feared, the Beijing Olympic torch run left only thousands of frustrated protesters on one end of San Francisco and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other. The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route at the last minute was right. But on Wednesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials said that once they got a good look mid-morning at the chanting, surging, flag-waving crowds along the torch's advertised route, they felt they had no choice."

Alan Steward Carl blogging at Donklephant characterized the decision to secretly divert the Olympic Torch relay route as "cowardice". I disagree.

I expected a carnival atmosphere, the kind of protest "circus" that only San Francisco can stage, and I was not disappointed. The biggest surprise for me was the split within the San Francisco Chinese-American community. There was a lot of emotion on display including heated arguments in the streets and we even witnessed a fist fight. I guess I assumed this was a one sided argument (Pro-Tibet), and had no idea about the depth of the division that exists in the community. It was almost as bad as between Obamites and Clintonistas. There were big crowds along the route lined with activists intent on stopping the run and there was a real potential for people to get hurt - including the torch bearers.

Net net - Mayor Gavin Newsom pulled this off brilliantly. The torch run in Paris was a wake-up call. In San Francisco, they got the message. No one was hurt, there were minimal arrests, the Chinese got a completed face saving ceremony and photo op, while much of the city was turned over to protesters. They, in turn, were permitted to vent their collective and variegated spleens with the media attention they craved for their respective causes. Entertainment was provided by the City and Olympic committee. Fun was had by all.

The oppression of Tibet by China is a deadly serious issue.

The San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay protest was not.

I am glad it stayed that way.

Well played Mr. Mayor.

x-posted at Donklephant.
UPDATED: 11-April-08 - Added Video and links.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: Gavin Newsom, Olympic Torch, San Francisco, protest, live blog, Tibet, China

Visitor 10,000 arrives with norovirus

Nine months into this little project, and we enjoyed our 10,000th visitor today. While we are not setting the blogosphere on fire, it is nevertheless a milestone worth noting. Mr. /Ms. 10,000 is apparently a disgruntled New Orleans Saints fan, who followed back a salt-in-the-wound comment I left on Craig Giesecke's post at the Metroblogging New Orleans site this morning, and arrived on our "Crown their ass" post for a short visit. I don't know why I leave comments like that. Blame it on Bush. Reggie Bush. Our visitor's ISP is shielded from sitemeter, so I don't know much more about him/her, except to recommend that he/she upgrade their browser (IE 6).

While I am off-topic, this is the view from my terrace -

You are looking at the QE2 which arrived in San Francisco this morning. The QE2 is in the midst of an around the world cruise. Almost 20% of the passengers have contracted a norovirus since embarking on her voyage from New York. As we speak, these rich pukes are spreading their norovirus contaminated tourist dollars all over our fair city. I think I will just stay indoors and watch c-span for a couple of days. Fortunately I still have duct tape and plastic sheeting as recommended by the Department of Homeland Security to protect against exactly this type of biological attack.

Plague Ship.

UPDATE: January 25, 2007
The City was saved when the plague ship slipped out of San Francisco Bay under the cover of darkness at 10:30 last night - seen here steaming in front of Alcatraz (sorry about the picture quality - best I cound do with my camera).


Hawaii, you are the next port of call for this doomed ship and its cargo of diseased passengers and crew. I recommend a high seas interdiction. If that fails, mine the harbor. Good luck.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags:Chicago Bears, San Francisco, Divided Government, QE2, norovirus, Hawaii, Bush, New Orleans.