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Montebello E-News

 July 31, 2010

"Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption."  John Stuart Mill

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."  Albert Einstein

Do we refrain from using our brain because we are afraid of ridicule? 

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A Montebello maven. Denise Hagopian, owner of Heavenly Choice in Montebello, has been invited to Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, in early August for the Betty Boop Festival and opening of the Grim Natwick Animation Museum. Denise is to speak on an assortment of subjects: “History of Early Animators”, “The Fleischer Family”, “The Hayes Act and Censorship in Films”, “Vintage 1930 Japanese Betty” and “Documenting Your Collection for Your Estate”. This last one drew my interest. I wonder whether a Montebello organization should invite her to give a talk. For more information, you can call Denise at 323.728.2728.

A different kind of event in city park. Concerts with worship, Sundays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the city-park band shell. August 8, 15, 22, 29. Sponsored by Montebello faith-based organizations. For more information, 323.887.4540.

For what will our grandchildren be paying in fifty years because of decisions which we made now? Would future Americans be paying for our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan? The U.S. government and other donors need to provide $30 million a year for a decade to clean up areas still contaminated by chemical components of Agent Orange and treat individuals with health concerns related to exposure, according to an assessment by a joint group of U.S. and Vietnamese politicians and scientists. U.S. forces dumped Agent Orange and other herbicides on a quarter of former South Vietnam's territory between 1962 and 1971, destroying 5 million acres of forest. Dioxin exposure has been tied to many health issues including cancer and birth defects. As abstracted in UN Wire, June 17, 2010, from a report in The Toronto Star/The Associated Press, June 16, 2010.

How big is the problem of lobbyist influence? Long before BP's Deepwater Horizon well began belching oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP and the rest of the energy industry had turned loose a gusher of cash in Washington. What did they spend, and what were they trying to buy? That's the subject of our forthcoming "Legislating Under the Influence" report – the next in our hard-hitting series that shines a spotlight on special interest influence. ... From an e-newsletter of Common Cause, June 24, 2010.

Not a good thing, but, rather, a necessary thing. Half of all trips in the United States are three miles or less, yet less than 2 percent are made by bicycle and the vast majority (72 percent) are made in cars. In stark contrast, many European cities with vigorous bike-centered initiatives boast cycling rates greater than 20 percent, bringing benefits for cities and cyclists alike. A new article in the final issue of World Watch magazine reveals that the fault line between cycling and non-cycling areas is created not by industrialization, but by a suite of robust transportation policies. From the e-newsletter of Worldwatch Institute, June 17, 2010.

Choose your words carefully. ... Any increase in the public's ambivalence toward global warming poses yet another obstacle in the push for climate progress. However, pessimistic outlooks may need to be reevaluated in light of a new public opinion study released at a Congressional briefing last week. The hot-off-the press results from Jon Krosnick, a professor at Stanford University, pointed out inherent structural flaws in national climate and energy polls such as those conducted by Pew and Gallup, and indicated that, in fact, "huge majorities" of Americans believe that the planet is indeed warming due to anthropogenic activities. An even larger majority strongly supports government regulation to fight this problem. ...  These figures are indicative of a large majority and show a drastic improvement from the statistics put forth by Pew and Gallup. But what makes Krosnick's polling data any more accurate than these other polls? Krosnick believes that the differences are a matter of survey design: that the surveys of Pew, Gallup, and many other opinion polls suffer from sloppy question structure, which can promote an unconscious bias and disproportionately skew the polling results. ...  From Worldwatch Institute, June 16, 2010.

Should buffets be mandatory in American restaurants? In an op-ed published in USA Today, Worldwatch’s Danielle Nierenberg and Abby Massey describe how the United States and sub-Saharan Africa both waste enormous amounts of food. In the U.S., food is often purchased in excess and then thrown away, while in many parts of Africa food rots in fields or in storage before it ever reaches consumers. But there are ways to prevent food waste and the impact it has on the environment—including buying less food, composting food scraps, and developing better storage systems, such as the PICS bag that protects cowpeas from pests in Niger. From the e-newsletter of Worldwatch Institute, June 17, 2010.

Why care about wasted food? The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO), in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), recently released the annual Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019. The report projects that from 2010-2019, oil and dairy prices will almost double, while wheat and coarse grain prices will increase by 15 to 40 percent more than they were between 1997 and 2006. Rising food prices will only make it harder to feed the more than 1 billion people who are hungry in the world. But innovations that focus on women, improve access to markets, and preserve natural resources, among many others, will be vital in creating a food secure future. From the e-newsletter of Worldwatch Institute, June 17, 2010.

An example of why we have checks and balances in the Federal government. ... Washington D.C. - Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously in Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder that a lawful permanent resident who is convicted of minor drug possession offenses does not warrant classification as having been convicted of an "aggravated felony." As a result, the Court held that Mr. Carachuri-Rosendo cannot be deported without an opportunity to make a case for why he should be allowed to remain in the United States. Many individuals like Mr. Carachuri-Rosendo, who had two misdemeanor convictions in the criminal court system, then face a separate set of rules under the federal immigration court system. The government had urged the Court to adopt a rule which would allow the immigration authorities to reclassify a misdemeanor conviction as an aggravated felony, which would subject even a lawful permanent resident to mandatory deportation. The Supreme Court found the folly in this approach and notes in its decision, "It is quite unlikely that the 'conduct' that gave rise to Carachuri-Rosendo's conviction would have been punished as a felony in federal court." Applying a common sense approach, the court found that Carachuri-Rosendo's "petty simple possession offense is not typically thought of as an 'aggravated felony.'" Before 1996, only the most serious criminal convictions could be defined as aggravated felonies. In 1996, Congress expanded the definition of aggravated felonies - lengthening the list of crimes that could trigger deportation for an immigrant, including even minor crimes where the person did not serve any jail time. "The Supreme Court's decision restores a level of measure and rationality to immigration policies that often are unnecessarily strict and unforgiving," said Beth Werlin of the American Immigration Council's Legal Action Center. "The decision is an important step toward addressing some of the absurdities of the immigration laws passed in 1996 that treat a shoplifter and a murderer in the same manner. Those laws have largely taken away the ability of immigration judges to look at the facts of a case and determine if the punishment fits the crime," said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council. In far too many cases, immigration judges still lack discretion. Congress now should follow the Supreme Court's lead and restore immigration judges' discretion to take into account the individual circumstances of each case before taking the drastic measure of ordering a person deported. “Supreme Court Injects Reason into Immigration Felony Definition”, American Immigration Council, June 15, 2010.

But are checks and balances enough? For the large number of Americans who do not regularly seek or state credible information via online media, we have too few outlets to seek or state.  If mergers occur, the situation becomes worse.  "60 years ago in United States v. The Associated Press the Supreme Court found that the [1st] amendment supported aggressive anti-trust enforcement," he [US Senator Al Franken] continued. “If Comcast and NBC merge, I worry that AT&T and Verizon are going to decide that, well, they have to buy ABC, CBS to compete. And that will mean there will be less independent programming, fewer voices, and a smaller marketplace of ideas. That’s a First Amendment problem. It’s also an anti-trust problem.” ...  From The Consumerist, July 2, 2010.

When we dare to think outside the box. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), wind, solar, and biomass facilities comprise only a little more than two percent of the nation’s electricity. But renewable energy production is anticipated to increase by 70 percent or more by 2030. Finding affordable land in areas with the resources to support new renewable energy plants is the biggest challenge. Now, as part of the EPA’s RE-Powering America’s program, the agency is taking a multi-level approach to cleaning up and developing contaminated land, such as polluted former industrial properties, or “brownfields,” for the development of wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy facilities. In addition to brownfields, the EPA has identified close to 15 million acres of Superfund sites, abandoned mines, and federal facilities, all of which are among the county’s most contaminated lands. Yet many of these properties are located in areas with enormous potential for renewable energy facilities. ... http://blog.cleantechies.com/2010/06/08/epa-contaminated-land-ideal-renewable-energy-projects/
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...&utm_source=YMLP+Newsletter&utm_term=EPA+Finds+Contaminated+Land+Id... 

Too much time on my hands. I found this in an online forum: I probably shouldn't be allowed to participate in this discussion because I only have a High School education and that was 36 years ago. I believe as long as academia continues to pump out automatons that are focused on how to make money and get their share of the goods, rather than how to make the world a better place, we will continue to have a business climate that is effectively and efficiently sending humanity to its doom. Let's not confuse passion with heart or conscience with contribution, let's not confuse education with expertise, and let's not separate resources from suffering and waste. The majority of our economy or GDP really comes down to resource waste... The economy we depend on is killing us and the planet... yet we still educate our children to fit in and make the economic engine work for themselves. When children, young adults and adults learn either, by accident our through introspection to discern and think for themselves they choke on the hypocrisy, and lunacy of the economic engine we have created and there is no closing the window of passionate understanding and vision. We must teach children and adults to think and to act with their hearts and to realize that this pale blue dot in space called Earth is our only home and all that we know happened right here. We need an economy based on providing nutritional, fresh food rather than tasty poison, on manufacturing of helpful, useful products that do not plunder and enslave, and we need to empower the mindset to help rather than ignore our fellow creatures of this planet. We need a revolution in academia where value of life is more important than value of money or money making. Thirty percent of 9th graders across the country drop out of school. Ask your selves why? People say our education system seems to have lost its passion for making the world a better place and because of diminishing resources it has lost its expertise to inspire children to make a contribution for the benefit of all species of life on this pale blue dot... http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/business-building/it-doesnt-take-an-mba-or-does-it?utm_
source=Social+Edge+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a281aae333-Newsletter_Commercial_
Behavior6_8_2010&utm_medium=email 

Why was this not done in the first place? I do not have all the details, so I do not want to venture a conclusion, but I wonder whether the aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip was not meant to provoke Israel. The United Nations will complete delivery of aid supplies to the Gaza Strip seized by Israel in international waters on May 31 as part of a raid on a flotilla of aid ships.  Medicine, food and clothing contained in the diverted shipment will be distributed shortly, UN officials said. ... As abstracted in UN Wire, June 16, 2010, from a report in Bloomberg Businessweek, June 15, 2010.

A problem in paradise. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [the health-care reform which President Obama got through Congress this year] is supposed to make health care affordable, primarily by subsidizing private insurance plans. It begins immediately by offering small businesses a credit worth up to 35 percent of premium costs. With Blue Shield of California increasing rates by as much as 58 to 75 percent, how is the small business owner going to find relief when the insurer takes the full subsidy and charges what amounts to another 23 to 40 percent surcharge? ... Excerpted from an e-newsletter by Don McCanne, M.D., June 14, 2010.

If this does not chafe your hide, nothing will. New AMA Health Insurer Report Card Finds Need For More Accuracy. The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced that one in five medical claims are processed inaccurately by health insurers, according to the AMA’s third annual check-up of the nation’s commercial health insurers and the systems they use to manage and pay claims. This was the key finding of the AMA’s 2010 National Health Insurer Report Card. The AMA estimates that $777.6 million in unnecessary administrative cost could be saved if the health insurance industry improves claims processing accuracy by one percent. Increasing the health insurance industry’s accuracy rating to 100 percent would save up to $15.5 billion annually that could be better used to enhance patient care and help reduce overall health care costs.  http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2010-report-card.shtml  From an e-newsletter by Don McCanne, M.D., June 15, 2010.

Does this give a possible alternative solution to people? Dr. Rob Stone led a group of shareholders at WellPoint's annual meeting in Indianapolis on May 18 who presented a resolution calling on the company to return to its nonprofit roots. Citing some of the giant insurer's most egregious practices, he and others in Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan received extensive media coverage and, they later learned, over 30 million share votes (9.4 percent) in support of their proposal, advancing it to the next phase. A spirited and well-attended rally took place the same day with Dr. Quentin Young (who writes in The Huffington Post about his participation here) and Wendell Potter, among others, followed by an impressive strategy meeting of some 50 regional activists. If you'd like to stay in the loop about shareholder resolutions, possible divestment campaigns and related issues, you can join a Google Group for this purpose here. ... From the June 11, 2010, e-newsletter of Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org.

Things are getting ever more interesting. Noting the Obama administration's new health law falls short of providing affordable care to all U.S. residents, the national convention of the League of Women Voters passed a resolution Monday [June 14, 2010] calling on the group's board to "advocate strongly" for "an improved Medicare for all." The convention's 600 delegates, meeting in Atlanta on the group's 90th anniversary, voted more than 2 to 1 in support of the measure. In the run-up to the national meeting, nearly identical resolutions were adopted by more than 50 local chapters and 11 state organizations of the League, which claims more than 150,000 members nationwide. ... From a news release of Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org, June 16, 2010.

More stretch exercises, please. Men and women who are shorter than average are more prone to cardiovascular and heart problems, and 50% more likely to die from heart disease than taller people, a report shows. Researchers combined data from 52 earlier studies involving more than 3 million people to examine the existence of a connection between stature and heart-health issues. As abstracted in UN Wire, June 9, 2010, from a report by Google/Agence France-Presse, June 8, 2010.

What do you think that he would say? Congressman “Buck” McKeon, a California Republican, held a “tele-town hall” in June. That caught my attention and this message was e-mailed him: Dear Congressman McKeon: It is good that you connect with the public in a new way. Several months ago, there was a tele-town hall hosted by Common Cause, with one of your colleagues, Congressman John Larson of Connecticut, as the guest. This writer wrote in a comment which was read on the air, namely, that in 1789 there were 150 Members, each representing 27,000 constituents, and now there were 435 Members, each of whom represented 690,000 constituents. When that imbalance is effectively addressed, we will have less concern over salient issues like spending, immigration and health care. Your colleague said that the imbalance should be addressed, but had no proposal. How do you propose to effectively address that imbalance? The operative word is "effectively", as campaigns, initiatives surge and recede like the waves on a shore. (It is not necessary to increase the number of Members. Americans could be voluntarily and continually engaged in meaningful roles to make government more responsive, but they have not been asked to do so. By "meaningful roles" I do not mean campaign donations and letter-writing.) Thank you. Van Ajemian, JD

Those annoying unforeseen consequences. Deforestation in the Amazon not only contributes to climate change but can trigger malaria epidemics, U.S. researchers warn in a report published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Cleared areas provide additional habitat for mosquitoes, the main vectors for the spread of malaria, the report warns. As abstracted in UN Wire, June 17, 2010, as reported by AlertNet.org/Reuters, June 17, 2010.

Give them a home where they can roam. While not a perfect solution, would giving the Taliban a province of their own do less harm than trying to accommodate them nationally?  Afghan President Hamid Karzai's plan to offer amnesty to the Taliban in exchange for an end to their insurgency poses a direct danger to women and the meager gains in women's rights over the past decade, says Massouda Jalal, former Cabinet minister and presidential candidate. "Their engagement will be bad news to our values and to the women of Afghanistan, so I hope it doesn't happen. We need to depowerment of the Taliban and extremism," Jalal says. As abstracted in UN Wire, June 9, 2010, from a report by The Toronto Star, June 8, 2010.

The UN as corruptible as the US? Japan has been doling out bribes of cash, paid travel and prostitutes to representatives of smaller countries as part of its campaign to secure votes at the International Whaling Commission, according to an investigation by London's Sunday Times. Japan would like to see the end to a 24-year moratorium on commercial whale hunting at a IWC meeting this month. As abstracted in UN Wire, June 14, 2010, from a report in the Sunday Times (London), June 13, 2010.

About ten days ago, the US Secretary of Agriculture fired an employee because the employee ostensibly made a racial remark. The Secretary then withdrew his order when it was learned that the video of the employee's racial remark did not give the context of the remark. Within the context, the employee said nothing offensive. How often we rush to judgment. Remember Walter Lippman's statement, "The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class."

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter, and for submitting stories to “Montebello Memories” at the Web site.