Los Angeles water shortage: is it necessary

I'm angry and this article shows it.

Los Angeles is currently under some very strict water rationing controls because of severe drought conditions resulting from low rain fall totals over the last several years. At least that is what City Hall is telling us.

Uh-huh…

In addition several months ago Los Angeles experienced a series of water main breaks at such an alarming rate that it raised enough concern to look into possible causes. At the time the question was raised on whether the current DWP water restrictions could have anything to do with so many serious breaks and subsequent water damage to the community. The head of the Department of Water and Power at the time David Nahai stated that such a notion was “absolute nonsense.” A report released today April 14, 2010, shows that is exactly what happened. Mercury.com http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14880218?nclick_check=1
reported “pressure fluctuated in the city's 7,200-mile water system, straining aging and corroded cast iron pipes until they burst,” commented “University of Southern California civil engineering professor Jean-Pierre Bardet, who led the team of scientists and private-sector analysts.” We’ve lost billions of gallons of water in the process and have spent millions of dollars fixing the problem.
Who’s fault is that? Did we even need water rationing?

Although rain fall totals were slightly under normal over the 2008-2009 season there was no reason to impose water restrictions. Charles Fisk, a meteorologist at Point Magu Naval airbase in Ventura County shows on his website http://home.att.net/~station_climo/ that most of our rainfall during the 2008-2009 season occurred by the middle of February and was by that time less than an inch under normal. Over the previous three rainy seasons we had one the previous season that was like this past year, one poor enough that it did warrant drought conditions, and one that recorded the second highest rainfall in the history of the city since they began recording those kinds of statistics back in 1877. http://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we13.htm

If we take the previous several years of rainfall and compare that with the last time we had real drought conditions during the 1990s it is clear that much higher rainfall totals currently than the last time have led to the same institutionalized rationing. In the 1980s Los Angeles experienced six out of seven years of drought. The one year that rainfall was above normal was only two inches above. Finally in May of 1990 Mayor Tom Bradley called for water rationing in an attempt to conserve what was by then precious water sources. This was after six years of lower rainfall totals. Water reservoir totals were way down. It was justified then, it isn’t justified now.

The fact that we are experiencing so many breaks has to make some people wonder. I am not an expert on these matters, but you don’t need to be to understand a possible correlation with a review of some of the standard data available on the Internet. Confirming that we really didn’t have rainfall totals over the previous several years to call for drought conditions and therefore install mandatory water rationing a year ago , is definitely suspicious. A desperate set of politicians from the Mayor in collusion with the Department of Water and Power and the City Council have secretly and nefariously imposed water restrictions on a major metropolitan community that did not need it.
As of November 2, 2009 44 serious pipe bursts had occurred in the Los Angeles water system. The result of the Mayor and the City Council decisions has cost the city billions in resources and dollars—dollars the city of Los Angles cannot afford to lose.
Why would they do this?
The level of deceit and dishonesty in this matter is beyond comprehension. In my opinion the city leaders instituted this program of rationing to be able to set up a revenue base from violations that would help in their current budget problems. That is inexcusable. And, if that is not the reason, then they should be made to tell us the reason. The Mayor, his council and all those connected with this sham should be investigated. Elected politicians should be recalled, appointed bureaucrats should be fired without their severance or pensions for their civil service.
By the way, David Nahai is no longer the head of the LADWP, probably seeing the writing on the wall he resigned last fall, to take some other international water running job. That should not save him. He should be penalized through his pension the same as every one else, no matter where he is now.
We don’t have to take this from these guys. They work for us. They answer to us. And, our answer to this incident should be, Your fired, get out!

The Parting of the Red Sea

Thanks to a very passionate letter by Jon Voight urging liberal Jews to stand up for themselves I was inspired to write the following piece. Now that it is written I don't know why I waited so long to do it.

As a conservative Jew I have been trying to figure out for a long time why the Jewish Left continues to serve in great numbers in the Democratic Party. I use to think that it was foolish for these Jews to place such high value on liberal causes since they long ago stopped having any advantage to our people. I left the Democratic Party myself in the 80s, disgusted by the reluctance of liberal Jews to speak out on their own behalf while the rest of the Democratic Party honed its Palestinian platform and condemned Israel for defending itself.

Until recently Jewish participation in the party was more or less irresponsible. Now, in a post 9-11 world that stubbornness to see only a moral equivalence in the Middle East conflict and not condone the right of Jews to defend themselves against a murderous enemy, has become more dangerous than foolhardy. Politics has changed and our interests in the 21st century reside on a different political plane than it did for our fathers and grandfathers. Old enemies have become friends and long standing political allies have become our enemies. Left wing Jews need to calculate the difference, swallow hard and make the move to insure our own survival.

As the Democratic Party moves further away from protecting Jewish rights whether here or in Israel, the Jews in that movement do little to counter the growing hostility. Left unchecked at the beginning of the 21st century, it’s as though the Left has finally uncovered its European anti-Semitic roots and is reveling in it. With Israel as a focus, Left wing Jews have largely ignored these signs. it is disturbing that they think as long as they leave their Jewish concerns at the door they will continue to be accepted as part of the perceived great liberal democracy experiment of 20th century America.

Jews who are troubled by what they see in their own camp on the Left remain silent. One of the professions where this problem is so prevalent and so influential is in the University. Scholars are respected, esteemed, almost anointed with the task of giving us the proper view of looking at the world around us. We count on them to get it right. For decades that institution has been overwhelmed with Left wing thinking and published positions. Liberal Jewish professors are afraid to say anything to their colleagues who talk of a weakened Israel as the first step to forcing that country into oblivion as the only means for peace. They eat lunch, socialize and have to work with these people every day. It is easier to remain silent than to defend Jews whenever or where ever they are being maligned. The fear of being ostracized as a scholar is so strong that they will allow their own people to be characterized as evil no different than the blood libels in Europe centuries ago. Their silence is despicable.

At present too many Jews are repulsed and slightly confused by right wing thinking, the Republican Party, conservative support for Israel, and the non Jewish right’s standing with the Jewish people’s struggle against Islamic terror, juxtaposed by their own political allies on the left who seem exactly the opposite. Consider this: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, former President Bush and Sara Palin are four of the most despised people on the democratic heavily Jewish left. All four of these individuals are conservative, ideologues for the Republican platform, and are also staunch supporters of the state of Israel and condemn without question Hamas terror. I defy you to name even one American non Jewish leftist who will categorically support Israel and unequivocally condemn terrorism against innocent Jews. You can’t. You can’t because I don’t think there is one leftist thinker or politician in this country today who will do that. Some pay lip service to it but none will unequivocally state it.

What must be so confusing to Jews on the left is that while their own non Jewish allies are moving increasingly to accept and advocate terror as a means of resistance against Israel and re-establishing old anti-Semitic canards reflecting “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the two most hated institutions on the left, the political Right, and the Christian Church are moving in the opposite direction with an intolerance toward anti-Semitism and recognition of the Jewish struggle to survive in Israel.

There is no ambiguity on the right of center in American politics. Its purpose concerning the Middle East is clear. Israel has a right to expect to remain free and is obligated to defend itself against any entity that seeks to undermine that freedom. Israel might just be our most important ally in the war on terror. Most right wing thinkers hold that opinion and realize that Israel is on the front line of this fight and we need to support its actions in protecting itself and its citizens.

The other most feared icon of the Jewish Left, the Church, has moved continually and directly to an acceptance of Jewish life as equals. Both the Catholic Church and non Catholic Christians have over the last 50-60 years changed their attitude 180 degrees concerning Jews and their relationship to Christians. The Jewish State and other Jewish causes are at the forefront of their political demands. It is in fact, the 70 million strong Christian evangelical movement in this country which has single handedly backed American support for Israel. The Christian community, the very backbone of America , has taken it upon itself to make sure that Israel remains safe with American power.

The Left insists that it is the “right wing” Jewish lobby which creates America’s seemingly unbreakable ties with the Jewish State. But logic dictates that cannot be true. Jews are not numerous enough to influence anything concerning Israel. The Left argues that Jewish money behind AIPAC, twists the arms of congress people to vote in favor of Israel on any number of issues. In fact, money used for that purpose plays a much smaller role than the religious Christian constituency that stands behind their representatives and insists that Israel receives our help. Left wing Jews must find it in their hearts to accept what is true. Christianity might have been our enemy in the past but that is not the case anymore. We have a powerful ally in those groups. We all should accept their apologies for passed transgressions and join them in their campaign to insure Israel stays strong. They deserve our loyalty and our thanks.

It is not the Left that holds the secret to our success anymore, it is the Right. We can no longer count on the strategy and political legacy of our fathers and grandfathers. The time has come to leave that part of our heritage behind. As hard it is may seem liberal Jews need to take a deep breadth, open their eyes wide and recognize who our enemies and friends really are. We need to join with those who will stand with us in our hour of need, who will be there to back us up as we move further into an uncertain future.

We Jews need to reassess our own political history. Ask yourself this question. Do we want to continue to snuggle up to those who will destroy us? The Left in the 21st century is no different than the right in the 20th. Left unchecked it will continue to move toward more vicious attacks on Israel, on Jews, on the Jewish religion and on all of us. We need to put our faith in those who have proven that they are our friends and allies in all matters political. Not to do this will continue to choke our culture, intimidate us to see Israel at fault, and tempt us with universal acceptance if we just leave that Jewish/Zionist world behind. No longer can Jews protect themselves as our fathers did by siding with the left of center philosophy. Our future and our safety has shifted to the right and we need to recognize and embrace it.

The Red Sea has been parted; all we have to do is cross it.

The Problem with Hybrid Cars

The love affair with hybrid cars because they are so economical and use so much less gas is not a cure all for our energy problems. In fact, if we become lulled into believing that it is we could be spelling our own doom. I wrote this after the "New" General Motors announced they have broken through with an engine that will get literally hundreds of miles to a gallon of gas. Written August 2009.

General motors leaked recently that the Chevrolet Volt will spearhead their new line of cars in 2010. Rising up from the ashes like a Phoenix, the leaner, meaner General Motors has taken a cue from the Obama administration putting its hopes of success in green technology. The Chevy Volt, an experimental model for many years has been dusted off, reengineered and is now ready for mass production. Bragging that it will leave Toyota’s Prius behind and will produce an unbelievable 230 miles to a gallon of gas, it will cost around $40,000. Well, even with that price tag getting 230 miles to a gallon, the car will pay for itself in no time. This has to be good news.

Has the technology finally come to a point where we can start to wean ourselves off foreign oil? I mean after all, if Americans can actually build cars that will now give hundreds of miles to a gallon of gas our troubles are over. Happy days are here again. But, let’s look at this a little closer. What happens three, five, ten, twelve years down the road when virtually 90% or more of the cars on the road are getting at least 100 to 200 miles to a gallon of gas?

When we start to buy less crude, the oil producers will be forced to adjust. If they continue to pump at the present volume the price will fall. If they pump less volume to keep pace with the new demands their revenues will still fall. Under this new reality how will countries like Iran be able to maintain their present growth in their weapons procurement program, including nuclear? My guess is that new prices will have to be set for the volume they are pumping. The alternative is to return to second class status, one that is not threatening, cannot destroy Israel or finance terror against Americans around the world. And, it’s not just Iran. Our so called friends in the region will face the same problem. Saudi Arabia is not going to allow its country to turn back into the sand dune it was in the 1950s. The gulf states will do everything they can to retain the wealth they have accumulated during the last three or four decades.

If the world reduces its need for their oil they will adjust both volume and price to meet present geo economic conditions. In other words they are going to raise the price commensurate with cars getting 200 miles to a gallon of gas. We have a history of this strategy. Past fuel efficiency programs have not produced lower prices at the pump. The oil producers historically responded by controlling the volume and thereby raised the demand to keep the price high. We are paying more now in 2009 and using less gas than in 1970 and with this coming spike in technology it will only get worse, much worse.

Hybrid technology creates a potentially explosive problem for us and our oil consuming allies. In five to ten years time we could be looking at $500 a barrel for crude. Cars will require smaller gas tanks because we will not be able to afford to fill them up. But since they get over 200 miles to a gallon they will still be able to travel more than a thousand miles on a single tank of gas even though gas tanks will only hold four or five gallons . Hybrid technology will not solve our problem of lowering prices at the pump and using less fuel to go farther.

We need another approach. Here’s an idea. Let’s take the Kennedy inspiration about going to the moon and develop an entirely new technology not dependent on fossil fuels at all. I don’t know how long that will take, but for the sake of argument let’s say Obama really gets with the Kennedy spirit and sets the goal that by the close of the next decade, before 2020 we will have something in place that will take us off foreign crude for good. Americans have lots of ideas about alternative forms of energy, we hear about them everyday, fusion technology, liquid hydrogen, and all kinds of schemes to convert water to gasoline. All right maybe some of these are hair brain but among the American entrepreneurial spirit is a new technology waiting to supplant a crude based world. The automobile, incandescent light, radio, T.V. computers, motion pictures, penicillin, vaccines for some of our most dreadful diseases, and within 66 years of the invention of flight putting a man on the moon are all American inventions. If you had said to the average person in 1900 that within a few decades people will be flying as their most common form of traveling long distances you would have been laughed at. There is no reason why we cannot find an alternative for fossil fuels, and in a reasonable period of time.

Think of it. No more dependence on foreign oil. We won’t need their stinking oil. Without the money to finance it, Muslim terror will cease to exist. They can hate us but if they can’t reach us they can’t hurt us. Europe will no longer be looking down the barrel of ultimate destruction from a nuclear Iran. Israel will become safe for the first time in its history. Maybe without this growing emergence of Muslim power peace will be attainable between Jews and Arabs. We can stop the flow of economic power from the west going to our enemies, and potential enemies. With a cheaper, cleaner, more efficient fuel we will regain our industrial strength because it will be more economical to produce our industry here rather than China or other overseas ports. And that will mean jobs and lots of them.

We live in a dangerous time and we might not have ten or eleven years to work on a new technology to bring us out of this decline. We have enemies in the world that relish our decline and do not want to see a re emergence of American power. Therefore, we should not wait to reach our goal to end this exchange of economic power from us to the Middle East. In addition to launching the search for an alternative to a crude driven economy, I suggest we immediately reopen our oil industry here in the southwest United States as a part time measure to regain the edge we had after World War II. Rebuild those oil wells across Texas, California and Alaska and wherever else modern oil drilling technology can take us. Let the wildcatters loose on the North American continent. Pump as much oil as we possibly can. That will drive down the price and stop dead in its tracks the rising power of oil rich states. Those who remember when gasoline was .40 a gallon, it can be again through the next decade. Reopening the domestic oil industry would create jobs, real jobs that people can once again feel good about themselves. The Obama administration would all but insure itself a second four years. It’s just a win, win, win situation for everyone concerned, except our enemies.

But, that is not to be. Both Obama and General Motors are toasting each other on their somewhat instant success. The Chevrolet volt gets 230 miles to a gallon of gas and the existence of America remains uncertain for the future.

Democracy in the Crosshairs

The recent spate of poor sportsmanship on the part of the gay agenda and the politicians that support them in the view of overturning the passage of Proposition 8 cannot stand. The following is a thought piece exposing the radical Left in California politics and their attack on American democracy.

Since the passage of prop 8 a number of prominent California politicians have called for the California supreme court to overturn the voters at the ballot box and rule Prop 8 unconstitutional and re install gay marriage as legal in the State of California. The issue here is no longer about whether you support the right of gay people to marry or not. This has gone way beyond that. The issue now is the protection of our democracy.

Governor Arnold Swarzenegger, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Attorney General Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa among others have supported this call. These politicians argue that how can we accept the will of the people if the will of the people is wrong. The only problem is who is deciding who’s right and who’s wrong. That is why we have elections to make these decisions. But, apparently some of our most prominent and powerful politicians think otherwise. This subverts the whole meaning of democracy, and dangerously puts us on a road toward totalitarianism. Have California’s leaders lost their minds? I would argue that a democracy only works if the will of the people can be supported.

It should be remembered that this has already happened once. In 2000 the voters voted by a huge margin the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. The California State Supreme Court then overturned the will of the people and ruled Prop 22 unconstitutional. Now the voters have once again spoken and these activist judges want to do the same thing again. And, the same court, back by a minority constituency and these influential sympathetic politicians are planning to stretch our liberty beyond acceptable limits. Yaroslovsky, Newsome and the rest are saying that the voters of California are not entitled to decide their own fate.

It is not as if they don’t know what they are doing either. They bring historical perspectives to the argument trying to convinced constituents that there is nothing to fear from subverting a democratic majority vote. If they truly believe gay marriage is a civil right and not and not necessarily a social acceptance, then they should support an initiative to put the issue on the next ballot. That would support the democratic process, and once again support the will of the people, at the proper place, the ballot box. If democratic forces do not stand up to this insidious aversion to our freedom, we will lose little by little that which makes us the greatest experiment in individual liberty the world has ever known.

What will be next, the right to be able to practice only “some” religions? The Mormon people might have a thing or two to say about that one. The right to express yourself as long as it doesn’t oppose the prevailing left wing view, like taking your life in your hands because you are an outspoken religious Jew or Christian in West Hollywood? How about speaking against acts of lewdness during the annual gay pride parades in the various cities across the United States? Is this the world that you want to create? Where will all this lead us?

In 1933, a minority government subverted the will of the people in Germany and this led the world into one of the darkest moments in the history of Western civilization. I doubt that our venerable California politicians would support what the Nazis did during the 1930s and 1940s however, there are some striking similarities between the actions of both groups. The manhandling, vandalism and violent acts perpetrated by those who can’t accept defeat, the gay agenda and their supporters, smacks of brown shirts rampaging down the streets of Berlin busting windows and rousting innocent defenseless Jews. The Nazis started off as a small splinter group of the German Freecorp after World War I and it took many years of agitation before they gained national prominence. The rise of Hitler, and National Socialism eventually catapulted them into the position of removing all opposition and taking their revolution beyond their borders.

Mayor Villaraigosa and the rest of the California political left wing cabal would serve the people much better if they would use their position to quell some of this growing tidal wave of hatred.

In 1917 with the overthrow of the Kaiser the Russian people opted for a democratic form of government to lead them out of the war with Germany and to a brighter future. However, plagued by constant agitating violent and committed Marxist minority, with tactics not that much different than we have seen in the days and weeks since the passage of Prop 8, the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky failed within six months time. What replaced it were 75 years of totalitarianism and the murder of millions of innocent people and the enslavement of millions and millions of others. The Communists did not start out with that kind of power in Russia. They began many years before as a handful of idealists who pictured a “workers paradise” by overthrowing the Russian czarist system.

Granted these are extreme measures that come at the end of the fight rather than at the beginning as the Prop 8 anger has shown us. But, that is what we have to look forward to if we allow this crowd to continue this fascist attack on the democratic process. The writing is on the wall people. No matter how they sugar coat it, we now have elected officials calling for the end of democracy and the beginning of elitist rule, by insisting that the will of the people sometimes needs to be subverted in order to get what “they” think is right.

If politicians think that the people are not smart enough to make informed decisions at the ballot box then those politicians need to be removed from power. What they should be doing, they are not. They should be educating the people better on these issues. They should be doing a better job at legislating laws that protect us in the first place. And, they should be taking stock in themselves because they are failing on these first two counts so miserably. I repeat. Remove them because our democracy is at stake if we don’t. All who love liberty and want to stand up for the ideals that this country and all other democratic countries need to petition their leaders not to take the road of aberrant politicians.

To the gay agenda that supports these politicians I can only say the following. This is not the way to freedom. This will only bring disaster upon our lives and the lives of our children. Stop vandalizing Morman Temples. As long as freedom of religion is still a right in this country, allow those religions to practice without harassment. Stop manhandling little old ladies who cannot poke you in the nose when you push them around because…well…because they are little old ladies. That is so cowardly. And you need to halt this ugly dirty business of taking us back to the time of Macarthyism, blackballing pro prop 8 people out of Hollywood. These actions put a really ugly tinge on your organizations.

Will the opposition to the passage of Prop 8 drop this fascist identity and begin to use the system as the system is designed, or will we just have anarchy in the streets? I don’t know maybe Thomas Hobbs was right. Maybe life is meant to be “nasty, brutish and short.” That is, if these politicians and their supporters have anything to say about it.