Report has 'smoking gun' on climate

AP science writer Seth Borenstein has a story out today about a report that is a 'smoking gun' on climate.

"The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist and study co-author, went even further: "This isn't a smoking gun; climate is a batallion of intergalactic smoking missiles."

This is why I banned a wing nut called Caniac over at Questions for Christians. At first I let him spew his anti-science bullshit, but as it went on and got worse (he said he was sure I was the devil), I realized that he was so far out there that reason couldn't reach him. At that point, what's the point. Just a waste of time to read what he has to say, and an even bigger waste of time to try to convince him that what he and his oil company sponsored friends that not only are the wrong, but their continued denials of the problem are criminal.

Richard Montoya at Sundance Screenwriters Workshop

Got the new Culture Clash newsletter today. This bit of excellent news stood out:

Richard is currently at the Sundance Screenwriters workshop working on the film version of his play.

That would be last season's hit at the Mark Taper Forum, Water and Power. I told Richard at the time that it would make a great movie. The themes are universal, and the geo-specific references to LA and So Cal are explained gracefully or are obvious in context. He said he was going to try to get into the Sundance Workshop, and I congratulate him for his success. It will be a terrific film.

Culture Clash's first hit play at the Mark Taper Forum was Chavez Ravine, the story of the immigrant community that once existed on the site that is now Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Eat the Document out in paperback

My sister-in-law, Dana Spiotta, saw her second novel, Eat the Document, nominated for a National Book Award last year. It's now out in paperback. While updating her site, I poked around the net to see other mentions of her, and came upon this interview in Believer Magazine in which she said this:

Of course, ’70s American extremism really has nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism. Even tactically. If you’re a suicide bomber out to kill as many people as possible, it’s a lot different than the Weather Underground setting off a bomb in an empty office building. Not to say that it isn’t incredibly dangerous and irresponsible to do these things.

Certainly it’s harder than ever to engage the idea of revolutionary violence, even if the intention is only property damage. It’s hard to make it legible. But I always think the novelist should go to the culture’s dark places and poke around. Pose a lot of hard questions. Tell me it’s forbidden, unthinkable, and that’s where I want to go. Because the chances are it’s complicated, and the complications are meaningful. One of the things I was contemplating in Eat the Document-and I wasn’t trying to come down on one side or another-is that violence, even property damage that isn’t supposed to include human damage, really does have a profound cost on the perpetrators. One of the tragic aspects is that people were drawn to act out of desperation or naiveté, people who in many cases were trying to do good and then ending up in a very different place than where they expected to be. When I was doing the book, I thought, What would it be like to think about it, years later, after the fact? And surely you must. You know, you can imagine that if Katherine Ann Power lived in a different time her life might have been different. She might have made some different decisions if things didn’t line up the way they did.

Check it out. And buy the book.

The Army's New Recruiting Tactic

Seems the army is either more desperate than we thought, or they just can't help making horrific mistakes:

Army urged dead soldiers to re-enlist

WASHINGTON - The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

I wonder when the recruiters will show up outside here at the Mark Taper Forum to tap into the teenage deluge coming to see 13.

3000

3000. That's a lot of people. But the Iraqi dead number in the hundreds of thousands, too unimportant to the Pentagon, or any other US government agency, to actually count. And now comes an escalation, almost as if Bush was trying to screw McCain again, who probably thought no one would take his McCain Escalation Doctrine seriously.

Of course, with every day that goes by, we are no closer to a political solution, which is what Iraq needs. And with each passing day, the insurgents get better at killing our soldiers. Our sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. For what? Please, all you wing nuts who read this (and I know you're out there), I'd really like to hear your explanation of the Noble Cause we're there for.

Like I said to the idiot drummer on Like Jazz here at the Taper, Saddam was no threat. And occupying that country is going to ruin ours. Estimates of a TRILLION DOLLARS are starting to seem moderate when thinking about the long term costs of this fiasco. And these die hard Bush lovers are probably sticking to their story. Fight them there or they'll follow us home, blah, blah, blah.

I dream of confronting Bush lovers. I am downright hostile to them now. And I used to be a happy guy, during the Clinton years. I find myself seriously pissed off almost all the time now. I see a Bush bumper sticker on a car and I have to get next to them to flip them off. I don't want to be like that, but GODDAMNIT, 3000 Americans have died over there to make us LESS SAFE.

So, WTF? We kicked the Republicans out of congress, a clear signal from the American people that we want out, and Bush, his brain, and his backbone are going to send in more troops. They don't give a shit about what anyone thinks. They want stability so the can divy up the the Iraqi oil, privatize the whole thing, and get in there for the long run profits.

It's sickening. And it's certainly impeachable.

Little Do They Know

I'm sitting here during a rehersal of the new musical "13" for which I'm doing the projection. The show is about a Jewish kid from New York who moves to Indiana (where he attends Dan Quail Jr. High) and tries to fit in with the cool kids. It's cute, I guess, to 13 year olds. It has it's moments, and a few good songs. Talented kids. Still giving me a headache.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, three more US soldiers died today, taking the total to 2993. As I read the story about these men, Marines who died in battle in Anbar province, I wonder how much these 13 year olds actually think about their future in a world with more terrorists, thanks to George Bush's historic blunder. I wonder if, in 5 years, when these kids turn 18, we will still be reporting on US deaths in Iraq. I wonder how many Iraqi 13 year olds now will even be around in 5 years.

As I walk to the bathroom here in the Mark Taper Forum, I have to pass the boy's dressing rooms. They are, much like my 12 year old boy, slobs. Of course, here, they have a maid. I wonder how many Iraqi kids have maids. I wonder how many US soldiers who have died over there have ever had maids. When Saddam hangs in Iraq, he may be the last person in Iraq who ever had a maid.

But I digress. Whether you're a slob, rich, snob, or a bitch, it's a free world. Kids are free to think about whatever they want. I just wonder how many of these kids even know how many US soldiers have died in Iraq.

I wonder if they think about it at all. Here they are about to be stars. Their futures are as bright as these vari-lights that keep shining in my eyes when they baly-hoo. I doubt if Iraq, soldiers, Iraqi kids, terrorism, George Bush, or even political philosophy has even dawned on them yet.

Maybe they should live it up while they can. Who knows what kind of fucked up world the Republican party is going to leave them. This might be the best time of their lives.

TomPaine.com - A Parable For Our Times

My friend Jon Cupp would have liked this essay by Bill Moyers:

"Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow’s analysis sums it up well: What it’s all about, he simply said, is "the redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.'"

Jonathan Cupp, my friend and union brother

My good friend, co-worker, and union brother Jonathan Cupp died yesterday. This is from KGMB:

"On the Big Island, visitors ventured into the treacherous surf at Kehena Beach just a day after a California man drowned there. A witness said 45-year-old Jonathan Cupp was swimming dangerously close to the rocks.

'The waves being very choppy kind of smashed him into the rocks, which obviously knocked him a little bit unconscious, and within moments he was swept out to sea with the current,' said Australian visitor Scott Reidy.

Reidy said several people grabbed their boogie boards and paddled into the pounding surf to help. A fire department helicopter picked up the victim. Cupp died at Hilo Hospital. Reidy said there were no lifeguards or warning signs at the black sand beach.

'I felt powerless. Part of me wanted to jump in and help him, but I knew in the back of my mind if I did something like that then I also would be the one that drowned,' he said."

Jonathan was also one of my political friends. We shared a passion for progressive politics. He was dismayed by the Bush administration. We talked politics often. He was intelligent. He was also kind and polite, something he tried to get me to work on. He said more than once that he admired my outspokeness as much as I admired his humility.

We were working together the day before he left for his big island condo, where he was on vacation for 3 weeks. He lamented leaving when there was work, and I told him not to worry about it, there would be plenty of work when he got back (with award season coming). We got a postcard, and then a Christmas card from him, which he sent here to the Taper. I have put them on my wall, where they will stay until the remodeling. After that, we'll find a new wall.

In production for the new musical "13"

It's massive, loud, young, energetic, and tweeny. It's 13:

"Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown has composed the songs for this new musical comedy – smart, magnetic, and upbeat -- sure to speak to and captivate current, former, and soon to be teens."

Well, judging by the way my kids love Rent, they'll probably love this too. While my 17 year old might be a little old for this, she'll probably love it as a nostalgic look back at her middle school worries about who's cool and who's not. My twelve year old boy, on the other hand, is right in the middle of the themes in this play, and I'm sure he'll enjoy it.

For more about this play, you can read Jason Robert Brown's blog.

Class Struggle - American workers have a chance to be heard

In his Wall Street Journal Opinion piece, Class Struggle, today, The Senator Elect from Virginia, Jim Webb, gives American workers a chance to be heard. Anyone saying he's a conservative should read this. Here's a taste:

"In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth. At the same time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.

Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs have collapsed in the wake of corporate 'reorganization.' And workers' ability to negotiate their futures has been eviscerated by the twin threats of modern corporate America: If they complain too loudly, their jobs might either be outsourced overseas or given to illegal immigrants."

Yeah. Read the piece. And then come comment about how conservative Jim Webb is.

Monster of the Milky Way

NOVA | Monster of the Milky Way | PBS
While we're watching this incredible show about black holes, one of the astronomers talking about galactic cannibalism says the big galaxies (which at their centers have super massive black holes) eat the little ones. And my wife Robin says, "So, black holes are like Wal Mart." Yes, I kissed her for that one.

A fun thing to watch as the American Public sent this country back into reality yesterday.

Daily Kos: Institutional Lies, Bought And Paid For

Hunter, over at dKOS, is one of my favorite bloggers. This is worth reading.

Daily Kos: Institutional Lies, Bought And Paid For
"Whether it was intentional lying, or whether or not they were simply so utterly incompetent as to believe every single one of these things to their core, hardly even matters, at this point. Either way, the conservative 'thinkers' attaching 'facts' and 'strategies' and 'predictions' to their grand, abstract ideas of American hegemony turned out to be spectacular failures in every single particular. It's not even that they turned in their political science project to the teacher and got an 'F' -- they turned in their political science project to the teacher, and it killed several hundred thousand people. A mere friggin' 'oops' or demerit mark won't cut it, for something like that."

A Guide to Republicans Running for Office

Here's a really simple guide to various Republicans running for office around the country. There's a theme to these people. Follow the links and see if you can figure out what they all have in common.

-AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

In California, the poor pay more

A friend of mine who claims to be a Democrat recently sent this crap out to our union list:

A Tax Lesson

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule...

Blah, blah, blah... Here's my response:

Of course, one of the biggest reasons the middle class is getting squeezed is because middle class red-necks vote for Republicans who preach low taxes, and then they give Paris Hilton millions in tax breaks. Under Republican Rule, the rich get richer, and the middle class and poor pay more. How about we elect people who give a damn about the middle class for a change? How about we make sure people who work make more than the poverty level, get health care and a college education for his Children. Even under the liberal Republican Arnold, the middle class has gotten screwed with higher fees, tuition, and all kinds of other things we need and deserve because we make this country work. Meanwhile, in percent of income, Arnold pays less than a minimum wage earner in taxes.

Check out this telling graphic about tax rates in California.

See, on your little list here, I don't see

Tax his inheritence
Tax his portfolio
Tax his yacht
Tax his Bently
Tax his offshore corporation
Tax his oil profits
Tax his outsourcing
Tax his Chinese factory

or

stop his corporate welfare

Besides, if we don't tax wealth at least at the same rate as we tax work (which we currently don't), how the hell else do you propose we pay for George W. Bush's Trillions of dollars in debt? Oh, well, no worries. All you people without kids don't have to worry that your offspring will be paying the George W. Bush War tax for decades to come.

Will Bob Dylan Cross Our Picket Line?

All along the sidewalk... "Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

Yeah, right, Bob. If he does cross the picket line at the LA Forum, like Madonna, Pearl Jam, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers did, hopefully he will at least acknowledge the hundreds of workers picketing on the sidewalk, like Eddie Vedder did. Maybe if he hears from enough of us: Write Bob Dylan and ask him to at least acknowledge the picketing workers.

The National Book Foundation

The National Book Foundation has named my sister-in-law, Dana Spiotta, a 2006 National Book Award Finalist for her novel, Eat the Document. Congratualations, Dana.

Big Bear rentals Big Bear cabins Big Bear cabin rentals California

It's that time again! Time to start planning your ski trip. We suggest you check out the links from this Big Bear cabin rental site. You'll find all kinds of Big Bear California rentals, from condos to cabins. This site also has listings for family vacation rentals all over the world, including other southern California ski resorts. There's also a section for winter posters like ski posters, and a free skiing and winter desktop wallpaper pictures section where you can download free backgrounds of winter scenes from Southern California ski resorts.

Drug Abuse Intervention Addiction Treatment Videos

An old search engine optimization client of mine, Diane Colello, of Reelizations Media, contacted me recently to say she'd finally had her web site redesigned and needed to have it optimized again. I took a look at the tangled web of PHP her designer had created, contacted my programmer friend Jeff, and we agreed to tackle the job.

Now she has one smokin' site, full of optimized information about her many drug abuse treatment addiction education videos. If you know any alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation counselors, life skills coaches, clinical directors, therapists, social workers, or psychologists who deal with addiction treatment, please tell them about Reelizations.com!

Water and Power

If you're in LA right now, you need to head downtown to the Mark Taper Forum and see Water and Power, the new play by Richard Montoya and Culture Clash. This is one play I would pay to see. I love dark comedies (Harold and Maude is my favorite movie), and it doesn't get much darker than this. Tragic comedies for me find more truth in the human condition and spirit than any drama ever could. For me, laughter is the window to the soul.

In Water and Power (for a great story about the making of the play, see this LA Weekly article), the window is shattered with a big brick that fell off the facade of a cheap hotel, and it exposes a big hole in the soul of Los Angeles. From LAPD to Latino Gangs, from powerful Brentwood based developers to the Mayor's office, Montoya opens the can of worms that is modern LA, and sprays the worms all over the audience. And these are sticky worms. This is my fifth day working the show, and I've found little pieces of this play popping into my brain whenever I hear something in the news that relates. Not many plays have ever done that for me.

At its heart, though, this play is about people. The humanity of the two brothers, their love for each other underneath the machismo of political power and street cred, spurt to the surface like blood from a severed artery. And the dark ugly side of power is exposed like the bunions on bare feet.

Things are funniest when they tap into what is true. Truth being such a pliable thing in today's world, it's even funnier when someone taps into it. When the two brothers in this play try to work their way out of the horrible pile of shit they're in, a work of art emerges that goes to the heart of what Alexander Pope meant when he said, in so many words, that true art is what's often thought but never so well expressed.

Faithful Central Bible Church

I would like to personally thank Erin Aubrey Kaplan for her latest article, What would Jesus negotiate?, about "the picket people," my union brothers, at the LA Forum in Inglewood. As our picket of the LA Forum (where we're locked out) continues, stories like this one in the LA Times are very valuable. We appreciate the chance to actually get our message out to the community, especially members of the Faithful Central Bible Church.

Talked to Lawrence Fishburn Backstage at the Taper

Lawrence Fishburn is onstage at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where he's doing the play Without Walls. When he came into the building today, he said hi as he went by the coffee machine, and I said hi and said I'm a big fan but I just had one question.

He stopped on the first stair and said, "Sure, what?"

I said, "What was it like being there with Stephen Colbert ripping Bush?"

He looked bewildered. I'm sure he's a busy man and that was a few weeks ago. His assistant said, "The Correspondent's Dinner" to remind him.

That big Lawrence Fishburn smile spread over his face and he said, "Man, it was great. Those people had no idea what was going on."

Just as I thought. Washington too wrapped up in itself to realize when they were being made fun of. I said, "Well, you looked like you were enjoying it in the cutaway to you."

He said he thought it was fantastic, and said, "Those people don't have a clue."

So, there you have it from someone who was there. The beltway crowd was completely blindsided by Colbert. No clue. This fact is further proven by the fact that Tom DeLay's people thought Colbert was a real conservative who ripped Robert Greenwald a new one.

My Union Is Locked out of the LA Forum

When the Lakers were winning all those Championships, I think they called it "Showtime." Well, the shows in the Laker's House, the Inglewood Forum (AKA the Great Western Forum), were done by IATSE Local 33. I did several shows there, including Gloria Estefan. We were the stagehands in that building from the day it was built until this past April 10, when Local 33 was locked out by SMG and the Faithful Central Bible Church, the management group and owners of the LA Forum.

Now, Madonna is crossing our picket line. We're having a massive rally down there for her show Sunday, the 21st. We're asking people going to the show to please refrain from buying concessions as a show of support. And we're hoping Madonna might have something to say, too.

To find out more you can do to help us, check out this page about the lockout of IATSE employees from the LA Forum.

Erin Aubry Kaplan: Labor vs. the Lakers' old lair - Los Angeles Times

"I HAVE A DAILY ambition of taking an hourlong walk around the Forum in Inglewood. I don't realize that goal every day, but I have managed to fulfill a few others in the process, including staving off weight gain and literally keeping an eye on signs of life (or decay) in my fair city.

Usually my walk is a reaffirmation of small-town stability and continuity that counters a sense of urban decline; from day to day, not much changes around the Forum. That lack of change, while frustrating in one sense, is also comforting. I was jolted out of that comfort a couple of weeks ago. Turning the corner at 90th Street, I came upon a knot of picketers outside the Forum."

As Kaplan's article goes on to say, the picketers were from my stagecraft union, IATSE Local 33. We're there because, contrary to the SMG position, we were locked out of a venue where we have been since it was built. I would like to personally thank Erin Aubry Kaplan for this article, which does a very good job of pointing out the ironies of this situation, namely that the Faithful Central Bible Church, the owners of the LA Forum, are in a very labor friendly neighborhood, and are bussing in scabs to replace the union workers there. Very awkward. You can see for yourself in the pictures on the downloadable fliers at our union's web page about this action.

We also have pictures of Madonna crossing our picket line, which we found very disappointing. We hope that people will help us by finding out more at our web page, and telling friends, co-workers, and other union members. Please post our fliers at your job and your church. Follow the links on our site to Fax or email a letter to the Church. We appreciate any help we can get.

Tom Gilroy: Bush's Trojan Christ

It used to be that Christians were known to all by their good deeds, but after almost four decades of the GOP's cleaving the populace into warring sects to be manipulated at the polls, 'being Christian' is no longer defined by doing good deeds, it's defined by an arrogant mission to tell others how they must live---who they can marry, who they can adopt, what they can say in public, what they must teach in schools---all the way down to what kind of medicine they should have access to.

Seems like there are some really angry people out there. After having it out with a Bush voter today about the effects of FAUX news brainwashing on American voters, I read this. I'd like to be able to strap the guy down, Clockwork Orange style, with his eye lids pried open, and have Tom Gilroy read this to him for about two weeks. But that would be torture. And I'm against that.

And of course there's Tom Delay, the great born-again purveyor of moral rectitude, the man with his hand in so many tills even Texas republicans had to cut him loose. The President salutes him as a great patriot who 'served his country well' and the Rove-minions repeat ad nauseum, 'the Dems don't have their poster-boy for corruption to kick around anymore.' What does that mean, exactly? Did he do it, or not? If he's innocent, then how could he possible be a poster-boy for corruption? And if he's guilty, why is the president saluting his patriotism? And if he's a thief and a liar, what are we to think of his relentless touting of Christian values? Doesn't that mean he's a hypocrite, and that Christian values, in a political sense, are meaningless?

Read the whole thing. Then head over to my wife's site, Questions for Christians, and vent.

Illegal Immigration

I'm so sick of the over generalization that liberals are pro-illegal.

I'm pro legal immigration. The way my Slovakian great-grandparents did it. Through the name shortening process at Ellis Island.

Listen to Big Ed on Air America.

Plenty of liberal American workers like me are very upset at the effects of illegal immigration. Besides the costs, there is the downward pressure on wages, and the fact that big companies that hire these illegals do so without legal ramifications. It allows them to lower wages, bust unions, and reap bigger profits for fat-cat CEOs.

And in case you weren't paying attention, that's Bush's base.

So all you people who have voted Republican for whatever reason, maybe you thought you'd get rich someday and you want those big tax cuts if you do, or maybe you believed the FAUX news morphing of Ossama Bin Forgotten into Saddam Hussein (who 85% of troops in Iraq still think attacked us on 9-11), but you better stop voting against your interests. The Republican party has been taken over by idiots who believe anything Sean Hannity says, Christian Zionist zealots who want to bring on the Rapture, and Big Business sleaze bags like the CEO of Exxon Mobile, who's retirement package is going to pay him $150,000 per DAY.

There are plenty of fiscal conservative Democrats who will not raise taxes on the middle class, who will fight not just to keep unions, but to empower them, and who will ENFORCE the laws we already have to stop corporations from hiring illegals. Unless you do that, you will never stop them from coming. Who can blame them. The ruling class and the Catholic church (c'mon, telling one of the poorest, overpopulated countries not to use birth control, what does that do for immigration numbers?) do nothing for them in Mexico. US agribusiness has ruined the small rural farmer in Mexico, as they have here. We need a comprehensive plan that includes refusal to extend trade agreements like NAFTA unless Mexico does something to stop the waves of people coming here, especially the criminals and gangs.

From a what-can-I-do perspective, purchase fair trade products from Mexico, like the shade-grown organic coffee that we buy at Trader Joe's. This kind of voting with your dollars creates sustainable jobs in Mexico, resulting in less illegal immigration.