A Murder of Crows

The way that America houses people has created more than an economic bubble, it has it has created a crisis for the urban and suburban wildlife that depend on native plants and a healthy ecosystem for sustainance.

The SOP for developers here (Kirkland WA) is to scrape the nutrient poor glaciel till into to little landing pads for oversized homes that peer into their neighbors bathrooms and dining rooms.
There are supposed to be restrictions on tree removal but I have yet to see them enforced. The mandate that requires developers to preserve 25% of "heritage trees" is more than esthetic. It rains in the Pacific Northwest and trees suck up soil moisture, preventing flooding and help to pin down the thin, acidic soils.

The development next door is symptomatic of the greed and ignorance that drives business today. The land once held a healthy grove of fir and cedar that housed a crow rookery among other things. Walking into the grove in spring would excite the rath of crow parents and send them noisily circling above your head. It was lively, interesting and comforting to know that they could thrive without any help from us
Besides controlling runoff, the trees absorbed pollutents from a nearby freeway and provided solace to the soul.

The land was originally a homestead and was occupied by generations of the same family. Many generations of people and many generations of crows grew together on this land.

All but three of the trees in the little forest were murdered. Others were in the way of a "house footprint". Still more succumbed when workers ran heavy machinery over their root systems, damaging them beyond recovery. The crows vanished.

Now the crows are back with a vengence; dozens and dozens of them. They fly in every afternoon to forage in the wheat straw the builders have spread on the raw earth to help absorb the run off and keep the "weeds" (wild flowers and berries) from returning. Because they are intelligent birds, they play.

These crows are not pokey little blackbirds, they are formidable. They are the jumbo sized, raucous birds of the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps they are just grabbing a quick snack, exploiting all the food sources in their increasingly restricted environment. Perhaps there is no real significance to their return, but I don't think so.

I like to think they are re-asserting their ownership of the land. They are reminding us that there are higher laws than the laws of profit and ownership. That when push comes to shove, natural law trumps everything.

I look forward to see them perched amid the spindly, nursery grown cherry blossoms this spring like an omen. I like to think about them crowing and crapping while the realtors try and separate their clients from obscene amounts of money in exchange for their shoddy merchandise. I look forward to their daily return like an uncomfortable thought to a troubled conscience.

Carol DW

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It's close to the winter solstice now and the days are disappointingly short. The air is chill and here in the Northwest we tend hibernate like grouchy old bears. It's a good time to think about the summer past and recall the warmth of the sun.

It seems like only yesterday that I took an airplaine to the "State of Enchantment" drove three hundred miles to an undisclosed location, stuggled up huge rock formation and watched the an almost full moon rise over the the canyons.

We were perched on a pinnacle that was part of a rock ridge that stretched for 100 miles between Utah and Arizona. The ribs of the earth.

On one side of this rocky throne, the sun was sinking slowly, painting the sky and land with lurid, unimaginable color. At the same moment and directly opposite, a pale moon began floating up through the pastel colors of the reflected sunset.

The company was more than congenial. The wine and the food tasted marvelous after the climb. Nothing moved on the land to disturb our homage to the dying day. The silence was palpable.

Such silence that is unknown in an urban landscape. It is a deeply moving experience. Even the wind stopped. If you listened carefully, you could hear the earth breath.

It was an eternal moment, unsurpassed in its beauty and simplicity.
Carol DW

Time Out

During the past two months the deterioration of America has accelerated alarmingly. It's
It's almost impossible to keep up. It seems a dark cloud has settled permanently over the land.
The stock market is tanking, the dollar is in the toilet, the booming housing market is going bust, people are losing their homes in record numbers and the lending industry is on life support.
There is blowback from imperialistic meddling in Pakistan and Afghanistan and ongoing genocide the Palestinian terrorities, Darfur and Iraq. Cheney, the cowardly draft dodger is tampering with intelligence again and shaking his arthritic fist at Iran; a country that hasn't attacked anyone in 250 years. There just isn't much good news.
Most alarming are the increasingly bold incursions into into Constitutionally protected areas of American life. Americans are now in the unenviable position of being in danger from their own government.
Naomi Wolf's timely new book "The End of America" is guaranteed to send chills down your spine. The parallels between Germany's descent into facism and what is happening right here, right now, are unmistakeable. In the last week, I have heard two legislators express fear and concern over the state of the state.
Rather than oppose the unthinkable, the alleged opposition political Party are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. There is no end in sight.
As Charlie Reese aptly commented, the presidential candidates seem to be unapologetically running for dictator.
All the traditional ways that Americans have been able to exercise power have proven ineffective. The arrogance of our elected representatives is palpable. What seems to be left is civil disobedience, open rebellion or acquiescence.
It isn't a pretty picture.
Time to take a step back and rethink the duties of citizenship.
Carol DW

Tell Your Children What?

I almost fell off the sofa last evening when my television advised me to tell my children not to have sex before marriage. The sixties never happened?
I assume I was not the only one who found this offensive. What I tell my children is none of the goverment's damn business. IF I wanted advice, the pervs, cheats and liars who made this message possible would be my last choice.
Their inability to make a satisfactory adjustment to adult sexuality has been plastered all over the media for the last seven years. What was Jeff Gannon doing at the White House on all those late night visits? From chatting up underage pages to soliciting in the mens room, the penis police (or should that be vagina police?)should be in therapy, not handing out bad advice.
If this intrusive messaging is aimed at decreasing teen pregnancy and STDs, the goal post is in the other direction. Sex education and available birth control is much more effective. Does anyone believe that the hard drinking twins whose parents are in the White House are virgins or their husbands to be?
Instead of using scarce tax dollars to stick their long noses in our private business, the Bushies should be spending the money on making sure that all the kids they pretend to care about have decent health care.
Carol DW

Pigs and Motorcycles

It was a "piggie" thing to do to invade Iraq and steal their oil. It's far worse to call mass murder a "surge" and to discuss whether or not it's "working". It made the man on the motorcyle really mad. He knocked that pig down.
It should make Americans really mad that bush and cheney are trying to santize their crimes by changing the words. Mad enough to take action.
Paul Craig Roberts has some words for the Bush administration.
He calls them "the greatest combinaton of idiocy and evil in human history". They are planning "another illegal attack on a Muslim country without assessing the consequences.....Before they fall they will bring more sorrow to the world and more shame to America".
Carol DW

Inslee Responds

My post on Jay Inslee's whereabouts found its way to a popular
impeachment website, "After Downing Street".
The comments indicated that Inslee's constituents are none too happy with his performance.
Quick as wink I received an email from Patrick Hogan, Inslee's Special Assistant, complaining that I said Inslee wasn't having anymore town meetings. He must have been pretty excited because if he'd calmed down and read the article, he would have noticed that I said "he was home for a month and his office said there were no plans".
Well, now there are.
Mr. Hogan promised that sometime and somewhere in September, there will be a town meeting. He apologized for the 'miscommunication".
Hmmm. I don't think there was any miscommunication. Inslee wasn't planning any meetings and now he is. Responding to the concerns of your constituents is good thing. No need to hide it with a lot of beltway mumbo jumbo..
He didn't give a position on any of the issues I was unhappy about. That would have been nice.
It reminds me of the guy who was accused of murdering a man and a dog. He claims he's innocent and to prove it he produces the dog.
Come on, Jay.
Dump the Gonzales distraction and sign on to HRes 333. Dumping Dirty Dick will save a lot of lives. Impeaching Gonzales won't change a thing. The terrible twosome in the White House will just nominate someone worse.
Since you brought up the subject of impeachment, why not draw up articles of impeachment against the criminal and chief? Letting him get away with murder is a bad example for the children.
Carol DW

Global Climate Instability

The term "global warming" doesn't quite describe what is happening to the weather locally. While some places are experiencing unprecidented heat, in other places folks are shivering.
In Paraguay, the weather has been hovering around freezing for nearly a month. Most people in Paraguay do not have central heating. While Paraguayans may experience the occasional chilly day in winter when the wind is from the south, this is unprecedented. Their flora is much like the Amazonian basin. It isn't able to tolerate long periods of cold.
In the Seattle area, our winter temperatures are milder but winter weather extends far into spring. We have had only a handful of warm days this summer. Late July and August have been unusually chilly. I had to turn on the heat yesterday.
Native Washingtonians are inured to gray chilly days. About half of us are from somewhere else and we find it hard to bear. We don't think plunging into a chilly water or camping in a downpour is really recreation.
Everywhere, storms are becoming more freqent and more violent. Expect this to get worse. All weather is caused by an exchange of heat.
CarolDW

Is Jay Inslee Hiding?

Rep. Inslee, Democratic representative for first legislative district in Washington State, used to pride himself on staying in touch with his constitutuents. His neighborhood "coffees" were always lively and well attended.
He's home for a month and his office says there are no plans for Inslee to rub shoulders with his constsituents.
Perhaps it's David Lindoff's exposure of his complicity in trying to undermine a powerful impeachment movement. Perhaps it's the delegation of loyal Democrats and PCO's that visited his office and told him they would NOT support him or the Democratic Party if impeachment isn't put firmly back on the table.
Perhaps he doesn't want to answer the questions his contituents must have about why he thinks Gonzales's law breaking is worse than Bush's or Cheney's. No one has died as result of Gonzales's machinations. The reasons he gives for taking action against Gonzales go double and triple for Cheney and his accolyte.
Perhaps he doesn't want to explain why he didn't really file Articles of Impeachment against Gonzales. He filed a request for an investigation, a shameless ploy to undermine serious impeachment efforts.
According to Roger Goodman, Inslee wants to be Governor of the State of Washington. I don't think sucking up to the isolated and misguided Democratic establishment is a recipee for success, do you?
CarolDW

I Think I Smell a Rat

The Democrats smell like losers. They have picked up the stench of the GOP with their cowardly kow-towing.
Check out Glen Greenwald's take on the latest Demcratic debacle; granting our criminal and chief even more power to abuse.
According to Robert Parry (consortiumnews.com) Bush's illegal, unconstitutional spying programs are not aimed at preventing terrorism, they are aimed at spying on innocent Americans and political opponents.
The Democrats are the most pathetic excuse for a political party on the planet.
OOOOooo the GOP are going to call us names unless we suspend the Constitution and fund their illegal, genocidal wars.
CarolDW

Pair o' Dox

Alberto "G" is for it. When Phil Spector attacks, you know he's being "Rumsfelded". While firing attorney's for being honest is a questionable practice, no one died.
bush, cheney and rove on the other hand have committed heinous crimes, international and domestic and raised abuse of power to new levels. They are rewarded by being allowed to continue as they have begun.
As the Democrats circle the bait, they are hoping we won't notice the real crooks still have a stranglehold on government.

Enough All Ready

The only news I want to read about the Bush administration is that it was run out of town on a rail.

Enough all ready of using every function of government for personal gain. Enough of the rape of justice. Enough war, enough of fomenting discord and enough of undermining other people's governments.

Enough of endless graft, corruption and lying.

Enough of turning the other cheek.

Impeach.

Carol DW

Historical Evidence

This evening The History Channel gave it's credibility a knock out punch by airing some of the most fact challenged and deplorable war mongering since the run up to the Iraq debacle. The title? "Iran, the Next Iraq?"

I could only stomach a few minutes of the chest thumping, fear mongering. We all know the format. Iran bad. America good. Iran wants to eat America. We the dysfunctional paranoics in the White House and Pentagon will save you. Write the History Channel here to demand they pull the program. Tell them that those who don't learn the lessons of history should not be allowed to repeat them.

There is absolutely no one with a an ounce of wit that thinks Iran is a real danger to America.
Bush, on the other hand, has named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil, stationed an Armada off their coast, threatened and propagandized (the logical source of this despicable film is the White House)and has failed to respond to any of Iran's efforts to work out a peaceful resolution. If they are developing nuclear weapons, (there is no evidence that they are), who could blame them?

I'm worried about the Bush boy trying to get his limp dick up by killing a bunch more brown people in Iran while wasting what remains of our once perfectly good army. What I read is not encouraging. An attack on Iran could end up in a nuclear confrontation with China or Russia. According to Sy Hersh, what they plan is a repeat of Iraq which is 0-2. (Israel's failed invasion of Lebanon was modeled on Iraq right down to the lack of flack jackets for the troops.) Also according to Hersh, the war pimps are short a full deck and believe that their blood soaked mess in Iraq is a thumping success.

In case you have any doubt that even Bush wouldn't be as foolhardy as to bring us to the brink of mutual destruction, check out this account of Bush's recent behavior. He's mad as a hatter.

carol

Caveat Emptor

The beautiful trees, the kennel with spacious lawns and the poorly maintained rentals next door are being replaced by 24 new cheek by jowel homes starting at just $750,000.
Paying three quarter of a million dollars for a place to hang your hat to me seems like madness. There is no view or city beat that might justify the price. Having watched this project stagger into its third year of waste and mismanagement, I conclude that developers in the still hot Seattle market have no incentive to be fiscally responsible or to give buyers value for their money.
Major bucks were spent on elaborate site preparation, cherry trees, sod(they killed or removed all the native vegetation) and fake gas lite lamposts. A small park sits atop a large drainage reservoir they constructed.
They cut corners on the sidewalks required by the city by hiring non union labor from south of the border. Those sidewalks are all ready crumbling because they used the wrong kind of cement.
Within the last three days, a half a dozen foundations have sprouted out of the mud also using Mexican labor. I was shocked to the poor quality of the work. The cement wasn't smoothed properly and the rebar was stuck in any old way. This is what is holding up your 3/4 of a million dollar castle.
It's not that Mexican workers can't do a good job. I have seen houses built by Mexicans in the American Southwest that are works of art. They were working using indiginous materials and techniques. Greedy developers are too busy exploiting the cheap labor pool they represent to even bother to train them or to care about the outcome when they don't.
In the Washington State legislature, the Speaker of the House held a buyer's rights bill hostage until the legislature adjourned. The most powerful lobbying group in WA state is the building industry. He and his family enjoyed a nice vacation as a gift from fellow legislators for doing such a great job.

To Do List

Read David Sirota's reports on the Democrat's shoddy imitation of the GOP screwing American workers.
Write Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Jay Inslee and tell them NOT to vote for this trade deal on pain of excommunication.
Write Charlie Wrangel and tell him its his last term in congress.
Write Rahm Emmanuel and tell him you are going to donate to Green Party until he resigns any and all leadership positions.
Thank the handful of brave Senators who are standing against this damaging legislation.
Give money to the labor, environmental, and human rights groups that oppose this legislation.
Pray to whatever Gods you are in communication with to curse the Democrats for not stopping the senseless bloodshed in Iraq, restraining Bush from attacking Iran and putting the whole Bush mafia in jail.
Pat yourself on the back for being all the citizen you can be.
Plan vacation. Watching your country go down the tubes is exhausting. You need a break.
carol

A couple of questions

this blog is a personal effort to ask the right questions.

i don't like capital letters. why should one word be more important than another? language is clearly a cooperative, symbolic form.

why do thinking people follow the lead of the right wing spinmiesters?
why are they discussing winning a war that is clearly a crime against humanity.
how does one win a war like that? what could the mission possibly be?
how can "supporting the troops" get translated into turning them into war criminals?
how can leaving america defenseless possibly be interpreted as "protecting america?

why does a cold drizzle begin every time I pack away my sweaters and take the down quilt off my bed. nine months of cold and rain should be enough of a sacrifice to mollify the most demanding of storm Gods.
what do they want?
carol