To Kill a Moth

CHECKMATE: Health Impacts of Moth Eradication Madness

Here's some sobering reading from the Moms of Marin Against the Spray:

MOTHERS OF MARIN AGAINST THE SPRAY (MOMAS)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A. HEALTH IMPACTS & TESTING OF SPRAY CHEMICALS

The proposed chemicals have never been sprayed over densely populated area.
Numerous chemicals will be sprayed repeatedly throughout the Bay Area every 30-60 days by low-flying airplanes, over highly populated urban areas near water, for a period of 3-10 years.
The chemicals to be sprayed, which are contained in a formula called CheckMate, were designed to be applied only over unpopulated agricultural areas.
California’s consensus document on the health risk of the spray explicitly states that studies assume “aerial application over agricultural areas rather than aerial application over populated areas.” [Cal. Dept. Pesticide Regulation, Cal OEHHA Oct 31 2007 Consensus statement]

No tests have addressed long-term exposure of the chemicals on humans.
No tests have addressed the impact of breathing these chemicals over a long-term period by varied populations, including pregnant women, children and the elderly.
CheckMate and other similar formulations of pheromone pesticides have undergone only short-term testing on rats and rabbits.
The active ingredient, a synthetic pheromone, has not undergone long-term human toxicity testing. [Testimony of Philip Richard in County of Santa Cruz v CDFA, Superior Court of California, Santa Cruz County, Oct 31, 2007]

The spray contains hazardous chemicals.
The product label, which can be found on the manufacturer’s website (Suterra LLC of Bend, Oregon, www.suterra.com) states “Hazardous to Humans and Domestic Animals. Harmful if absorbed through the skin. Causes moderate eye irritation. Avoid contact with skin, eyes, or clothing. Harmful if inhaled. Avoid breathing vapor or spray mist.”
The State continues to focus on the alleged safety of the pheromones contained in CheckMate. However, the spray contains at least 8 other chemicals.
Material Data Sheets for several of these chemicals state:
“Substance may be toxic to blood, liver, central nervous system.”
”Toxic to lungs and mucous membranes.”
“Very hazardous in case of eye contact.”
“Hazardous in case of skin contact.”
”May cause cancer based on animal studies.”
“Harmful by inhalation.”
”Risk of serious damage to eyes.”
“Material is irritating to mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract.”
“May affect genetic material.”
“May cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects.”

A Bird and a Plane in the Sky

Link: A Bird and a Plane in the Sky.

They both can fly, but one burns fossil fuels and the other burns food.  One is capable of dropping pesticides on the entire San Francisco Bay Area, and the other capable of eating moths.  (Click the image to magnify.) For more on the topic of planned monthly aerial sprays of checkmate pesticide, visit:

www.stopthespray.org

Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger About Moth Anihilation

Here is a note I sent to the Governor of California and good friend of Stewart Resnick, a gazillionaire that donated $144K to his campaign, and owner of Suterra, the company that makes Checkmate, a pesticide that they both want to spray over most of the Bay Area, including our homes, playgrounds, schools, gardens, shopping malls, and parks.   

If you don't like monthly pesticide showers, I suggest you do the same.   Call him and/or send a note via this site:  http://gov.ca.gov/interact

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I just read your press release "Gov. Schwarzenegger Meets with Local Officials on Light Brown Apple Moth" and didn't find it very reassuring.  It sounds like your "six-pack" of tests is only short term, and doesn't explain much about your methodology or extent of testing, and who is doing the tests.   Where can we find more details?

As a father of two children and relative and friend of several who have suffered from cancer, alzheimer's, and autism, I have read too many press releases about other programs like this that were supposed to be safe, but are now highly correlated with long-term side effects due to prolonged exposure.   (Remember DDT and Malathion?)   I don't care about getting a sore throat and watery eyes the day after we get showered the first or second time, but monthly, for years?   The micro-capsules are considered particle pollution which is considered dangerous by the American Lung Association, and the "inert ingredients" don't appear to be on your list for testing.   Please clarify if I am wrong about this.   Kids have a different metabolism than us, put things in their mouths, and like to play in the places you spray.

And where is the believable evidence this moth is such a big threat that it requires total eradication?   It sounds like you are planning to spend more of our tax dollars on the eradication program than we could potentially lose by leaving it to natural predators and voluntary control programs.   And that is not even counting the potential collateral costs of health complications, tourism declines, real estate drops, and other side effects.

Do a few bad apples really warrant an all-out war on a moth, and more importantly, potential harm to millions of adults, kids, and pets? 

Why can't we change our mindset and become leaders in the organic farming evolution?  Organic food is becoming popular and commands higher prices, and farming methods are becoming more efficient.  We should be investing in the startups and projects that are innovating new methods to farm efficiently (use resources more intelligently while reducing waste), reduce the carbon footprint, and make better tasting food that is healthier for us all.   That could even help solve our healthcare crisis at the same time.   (Think of those economics...)

PS -
Hope to see a press release soon that is titled "Gov. Schwarzenegger Meets with 'Local Moms and Dads and their Kids' on Light Brown Apple Moth"

Come to the Bay Area for Your Monthly Pesticide Showers

Link: LBAM Petition: Stop the Spray, Demand Safe Alternatives to Aerial Pesticide Spraying!.

If you don't like the idea of airplanes flying over your house every month for several years showering you with pesticides, I'd suggest you visit Stop The Spray and sign their petition, write to Governor Shwarzahoweveryouspellit, call and email everybody you care about, and study up on the subject and do something about it.

The spray, Checkmate, targets the light brown apple moth, known affectionately as "LBAM", an enemy combatant that has no access to due process as the DHS, in voluntary cooperation with the USDA, the CDFA (California Dept. of Food and Agriculture), and the Governor of California, has been classified under terror threat level "A" for the actions of a few bad apples among their population that have been seen nibbling on leaves.

This terrorist moth is an "invasive species", like carrots, tomatoes, cows, and most of the food and animals grown commercially in California. The difference is, it is only located in San Francisco, Marin, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. And before it gets to Atherton, Hillsborough, Sacramento, and our central valley farms, we need to eradicate it completely.

The CDFA argues the pesticide is not a pesticide, but more like a cologne that makes the male moths get confused and mate with everything that gets sprayed with it. It hasn't been tested for long term health effects and special effects on children and others who like to eat dirt and frolic in gardens and playgrounds after the showers. But, don't worry, they assure us it is much safer than DDT and Malathion and the other solutions of the past that were also supposed to be good for us. Just because the American Lung Association is worried about the particulate matter getting lodged in your deep lung tissue doesn't mean you should worry.

And don't believe any of the conspiracy theories. It is only a coincidence that Stewart Resnick donated $144K to Arnold's campaign, and just happens to be the owner of Suterra, the company making the Checkmate spray that will be bought with our millions of tax dollars.

Sure, Arnold said on August 31, 2003 "Any of those kinds of real big, powerful special interests, if you take money from them, you owe them something.” But he was talking about the other politicians at the time...

Ministry of Truth

Keith Olbermann just questioned the prophet, Donald Rumsfeld.   He has since taken on some other tough subjects like Habeus Corpus, while the rest of the Ministry of Truth keeps feeding us with more on drunk celebrity debutantes, car chases, anthrax scares, and Elvis sightings.

A key take-away from this was his quoting of Eward R. Murrow: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

Evolution Devolution

The press is telling us today that kids in Kansas can now cast critical doubt in class with the new curriculum that collectively mandates the teaching of intelligent design. 

According to this MTV article, "CRITICS of evolution have won a major victory in the US with the Kansas education board approving a school curriculum that casts doubt on Darwin's theory."   I'm glad to hear that doubt can be cast on any theory, but wonder why it has to be mandated.   Why can't debate just be a natural part of the evolution of our school systems? 

InTeLLigunt dEzinE holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.   My question then is - who designed the higher power?  How did this higher power evolve?  Let's talk about that in class too.

Daylight Savings Time Gets a Promotion

Capitol Hill just passed their energy bill.  If you have a conservation conversation with Prezident Shrub about it, he'd tell you that he cares so much about conservation that he made sure to extend our daylight savings time an extra few days each year so we can all save an extra 100 thousand barrels of oil a day for those extra days of extra daylight...

Americans for Energy Independence

Link: Americans for Energy Independence.  Feel the math on this page that I hereby linketh to.  It is full of stats that will make your head spin.   For example, add these few items up:

1. US oil demand is 20 million barrels per day, 75% is imported. 

2. Saudi Arabia supplies nearly 15% of US imports.

3. Iraq has two of the top ten oil fields in the world at Rumaila and Kirkuk. Iran has three of the top ten.

What does that spell?

eXXpose eXXon

Join the revolution and inspire ExxonMobil to invest some of its $25 billion in profits into alternative energy.  According to the whiney environmentalists who are just plain jealous they aren't making as much money as them:  "ExxonMobil is trying to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling and sabotaging efforts to slow global warming.  Despite making a record $25 billion profit last year, the company is still shirking paying the money it owes fishermen and other Alaskans hurt by the Exxon Valdez spill 16 years ago and refusing to put its huge profits to good use developing clean, renewable energy."
 
They don't have much incentive to change their ways given the way the economy has been treating them lately, but if we all stop buying their toxic gas, they might start to get the message.  I recommend adding a carrot to your message, and tell them nicely that when they start to clean up their act, you'll not only buy their products again, but also invest in their company and maybe even send in your resume in hopes of getting a job there.  Click on the link above to join the revolution and let them know how much you care.

Democracy Bugs

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked. 
I don't want to cry wolf, but I think it is worth verifying.  If President Weed really won this election, then I guess he deserves his "mandate" to do whatever the heck he wants to the planet, but if there were bugs in the new high-tech gadgets we use to count votes, then we all need to stop, take a deep breath, and commit ourselves to fixing the bugs. 

If we plan to spread democracy and freedom around the world, then it would help if the countries we are trying to save have some confidence in the system we apply here at home.  Saddam had an election once and won 99.9% of the vote, but we all know how many candidates were on the ballot, and what happened to the 0.1% who dared to not cast their vote for the obvious choice.  Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin once said "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."  I never believed much in polls, but find it funny that Weed took so many states where the exit polls indicated otherwise.  It also bothers me that the machine jammed when I inserted my own ballot.  Machines have bugs, and without paper audit trails on some of them, how can we ever verify?

All the more reason to vote with our purchases to make the changes we want.  More on that in my "Putting Money in Our Mouths" post.

To read more, check out the post by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  And to do something about it, send a note to the powers that be via this form.

Decision 2004 - Weed

Decision 2004 - Bush: 'One Country, One Constitution, One Future' 
He has a mandate now.  Before, he was on good behavior.  Beam me up, Scotty...

Vote for the Republic

Warblogging.com: Vote for the Republic
I just read this inspiring article by George Paine suggesting we vote for the Republic founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The version I learned about in my history class. Not the one founded on the principles of pre-emptive war, Guantanamo Bay, and the pursuit of suspected evil-doers. I encourage you to read it before you vote...

Bin Laden Crawls Out of his Foxhole

Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech New poll. Will the Bushmen catch Usama before the elections?

Bush by Numbers: Four Years of Double Standards

Bush by Numbers: Four Years of Double Standards Let your fingers do the walking and the numbers do the talking. Click on this one to see a collection of interesting numbers... If you can find evidence to the contrary, please comment.

War Profiteers Card Deck

War Profiteers Card Deck
Order your deck today... Pictures of all the good evil-doers that are fighting the bad evil-doers, and making a killing at it. Includes oil & gas companies, US government officials, military and defense contractors, and heads of industry, finance, media, policy and hype. Profits from the War Profiteers Card Deck sales profit the Ruckus Society, a bunch of liberal weenies that believe actions speak louder than words, even when using megaphones.

Blogs not Bombs

I just stumbled upon this Weblog of an Iraqi in Iraq attempting to tell us folks here in blissland USA what his perspective on things are from there. It's hard to know from the regurgitated press releases we get here 10K miles away what really is going on.

Most of us remember the day that the Saddam Statue was toppled, and how joyous the crowd of a few dozen Iraqis were that the statue fell over, and we've believed ever since that the majority of Iraqis think we are there liberating them from tyranny, war, and terrorism. I know that most of us Americans, myself included, would like this to be the case, and may even believe it to be the case, and who knows, maybe it IS the case, but maybe we should tune in a little more closely to what the people of Iraq are saying. Listen to Abu Khaleel, even for a few minutes.

If we truly believe in the dream of democracy, why don't we listen to a few other voices, even if they see things from a different angle or live far away in one of our colonies? We can complain about them not appreciating our kind gestures of liberation, but how many of us have taken a course in Iraqi history before? His blog is just one of many popping up. If democracy is to take hold in Iraq, I hope it will be be the result of more blogs and less bombs.

Try turning off the TV and Googling "Iraqi Blogs in Iraq" for a while. If Google offers too many choices, try "Voices from Iraq".

The Debates: Round Two

Calling the "debates" between our two presidential candidates a "debate" is debatable. It appears that President Shrub's coaches coached him well before this one. The transcripts of the town hall showdown can be found in their purest of form on C-Span. I copied the closing remarks of President Shrub here for your reading pleasure, and ask you to pick a line or two and try to guess what he was actually thinking when he said these things:

"Thank you all very much. It's been enjoyable.

The great contest for the presidency is about the future, who can lead, who can get things done.

We've been through a lot together as a country -- been through a recession, corporate scandals, war..."

Fact-Checking the Facts

While watching Dick and John chit chat on TV last night, they both threw out a lot of "facts". When Cheney defended his Halliburton connections, he recommended we go check the facts at fActCheCk.COM, which I did, only to find what he really meant was FaCtCheCk.ORG. He may end up regretting that. Go see for yourself why...

Putting Money in Our Mouths

It's all a big bunch of math. Who votes for who added up in each state by the various malfunctioning machines and methods. The higher count gets x number of electoral votes for that state. Then add all that up for the 52 cards in the deck. It all adds up to some number that should determine what kind of planet our children and grand-children will inherit. On the other hand, it probably doesn't matter much anyway, because all this presidential indecision 2004 is all just a big red herring dropped down a gully, getting us all looking anywhere but up or forward.

One candidate promises the victorious spreading of democracy around the world, like Skippy creamy peanut butter spread across some big slice of Wonderbread. The other promises to clean our air. One promises that learning is become the basics for education. The other promises to dig up the funding to inspire teachers to teach. One promises winning the War on Terrorism. The other promises to make new friends in the world. One promises to cut taxes. The other promises to not raise taxes, at least not for the majority of voters - those suburban fast-food-eating SUV-driving mall-shopping TV-watching middle class bunch of people.

One thing they both promise is to create more jobs. Not sure where they are going to get the magic wand to make it all happen. One could argue that hurricanes create jobs. Look at all the people who will be busy building buildings and fixing freeways in Florida once the storms pass. One could argue that terrorists create jobs too. Look at all the new security jobs being created. Cancer creates jobs too. The more people with cancer, the more jobs for doctors, nurses, insurance companies, medical equipment companies, and pharmaceutical salespeople...

ABCNEWS.com : Polls Mixed on Kerry's Convention Bounce

ABCNEWS.com : Polls Mixed on Kerry's Convention Bounce
Polls, polls, polls. Polls of polite people pursued by prepaid pollsters out to prove the points of their "independent" payees. I've only been polled once in my entire lifetime, and it was a survey of beer drinking habits, and my wife answered the phone and told them I prefer "mini-briers" when given a choice. I imagine there must be a subset of people who like to answer phone calls and do polls, but others of us have better things to do, like eat dinner with our families. I took a statistical analysis class at the U and was taught about margin of error, but still believe that all polls are just polls of people who are willing to do polls, whether they are paid or not to do them. The horse race goes on...

Poetic Nonsense

I get a funny paranoid conspiracy theorist feeling once in a great while that the Bush Administration and their puppeteers are plotting some fear-inducing campaign to get us even more scared of our own shadows. Then, if the elections need a convenient postponement, they'll run us up to code orange across the country and code red in select locations, then give the piper a wink for another 911, so they can turn right around and justify dropping one or our own WMDs on some hole in the ground in Iran or Cuba or some other evil country. Then watch their poll ratings go back up again. Then have the election - with Diebold's paper-trailess voting machines...