RANDY TINKERMAN, EXILE IN GERMANY, VISIONEERS QUEST

Time to Wake This Blog Again

2008-09-22T23:12:00.002+02:00

HOW YOU GET OIL

The Crazy Horse was writing a screenplay about the shipyards in San Francisco, so he took a job there. Among other things, he had to work refitting an oil tanker. What occurs below the fold comes straight from the unpublished real-time novel on which he was experimenting at the time. He didn't know what blogs were, though the novel might have made a fine blog of those delirious dot.com days. At least he knew something about windpower, and this evidence of what windpower was trying to replace.
Here's the part about seeing the reality about oil: beyond intellect, beyond politics, beyond power and insanity. This is how it gets to your tank.

Friday night. A fucking Friday night, a fucking foreboding Friday night. Foreman says be ready, we're going into some foul shit. Cover up, this is a real slop tank. Me already anxious about going into this tank, on a fucking Friday night when everyone in dot.com creation's getting ready to celebrate the next million.
And me going in a tank even the foreman's got forebodings?

The staging pile's already on deck, we've been clambering over main deck pipes for hours bringing the staging, and even the open hatch propped by the pile looks ominous. Me, renewable energy champion for decades, standing on the deck of an oil tanker, surrounded by pipelines like some oil field labyrinth, preparing myself to submerge into some tank eye ain't even seen yet, but i can tell from the look on the foreman's face, we're in for some shit. The huge, ear-splitting fan's pumping down the next hatch four meters away, humming drummers at the gates of hell. Somehow eye already know, this is why i'm here.
But me got five weeks of getting the job done, me ready for anything.

Check tools hanging off me waist, climb over the hatch lip, swing my legs into the abyss, can't see a damn thing beneath the hatch, just some black singularity from which no light escapes, feel around for the first step, there, solid, second step, grip the hatch edge, duck my hardhat, descend, i'm in. Nostrils slapped awake by the invasion of crude, first hints of nausea gurgling from somewhere below my suddenly heaving chest. Few more steps, eyes, such as they are, adjust, another step down, beloved steel-toes, protectors of me feet, me strong but hurting feet, carried me fifty years this far, boots sliding on the steel rung, what the fuck is that shit? Peer down, ugh, that's fucking sludge on the ladder's rungs, my boots are sliding. Search for the safety rail, where the fuck's the safety rail, perhaps it was forgotten in the haste to build another oil tanker. Eyes search deeper into the hold, me trying to get my bearings, looking four stories down, it's all black, the black that sucks up all light, everywhere i look it's black with oil sludge, hard steel angles cushioned by Squish sludge layer of black tar, as far as the eye can see, limited by sharp shafts of blinding light from the few spotlights lighting our way, and bordered by acres of pitch black pitch, hiding who knows what. jeesus keerist all monopoly, this is a fucking oil tank, this is the crude oil bunker, how could i have not figured this shit out.

No time to figure nothing, my breathing becomes more labored with every descending step. Gloved hands sliding along the ladder rails, can't believe my stuck gloves already full of tar, or sludge, or whatever foul shit called from the depths of hell this hold holds.
Ain't they supposed to clean this shit out before we work?
Keep descending, finally hit the first level. Boots sliding on the slick sludge on steel, foul, grab a rung for a handhold and my gloves are black, and sticky, and fetid, eye can't even look at them for that increases the stench. Peering below to my two partners, of course Tick's the first one down, both on the hold bottom, slipping in the muck. Chrome Carl falls on his ass, into an inch of sludge, even he's cursing more than i've ever heard in my life. Me try to find a spot on the landing with firm footing, not a fucking chance, every square inch of surface, even underneath, is mired in half-inch thick sludge, sludge with an evil mind of its own, grabbing you and sucking you down into its filth, every hand hold where you search for purchase just a slick trick delusion of something solid, gloves sliding along the rail, nostrils almost closed to keep out the fetid invasion, me just won't breath while i'm down here.
Look around, nausea overwhelming the disgust, trying to get my bearings. Struck hard by the chilling hypocrisy of the safety meeting. They hand out cute little decals for your hardhat or locker, safety decals, then send you down into the depths of hell for $15 bucks an hour, dosing you with government approved doses of crude oil death. And there ain't no safety cage, no rail on the ladders. And there's only one rail about waist high on a steel ledge thirty feet above your death, one thin landing rail, and there's not one inch of stable footing, and everywhere you grab you either stick to or slide off. Dangling participles of death.

Takes moments that never end before the crew's ready up top to send down the first piece of staging. Me in the middle of it's descent, have to guide it, no, lever it past the landing and out into the black hole, guide it down the hold, to the waiting shipwrights below. First piece comes down, get out of the way Randy, hey slow it down up there, cocksuckers, grab the staging rail, try to lever it over the side rail, one boot slips off the landing, into the deck hole twelve yards below, where the ladder continues its descent, grab for the rail with my stomach, saves my ass, maneuver the fuckin' steel, send it down, first one done, and i'm still alive. Piece after piece, now even the ropes are fucking sticky with tar, me sweating like pig wrapped in rubber, can't wipe the sweat off my face, can't touch a fucking living part of my being, can't wipe the fog off the safety glasses, AND CAN'T FUCKING BREATHE!

Just to hug my son once more.
Tick's yelling from below, but between the roar of the fan and the clanging echoes, i can't make out a fucking sound except i know he's screaming. What? Can't hear you. What? Me yelling i can't hear you so many times i can't hear myself.
Hits me like a staging plank falling from the last vestige of the world out that tiny hatch twenty feet above my head. Right at this moment, Tha's going on stage for the press preview of her first performance in San Francisco since she's been back.
Me can't tell the anger rippling through my system from the growing nausea.

She's on stage, this talented wonder who captured my heart, freely given, who gave me hope that eye was worth something, who excited me in every way a man can be excited, and then topped that (Remember the Paris story? GVI), who counted on me for strength to support her actress insecurity, she said eye believed in her more than anyone in the world, who i brought to Sundance to introduce to the Indie film world, she's on stage right now, she won't talk to me, but she made sure i knew her schedule, she's walking on stage, and i'm mired in a fucking slop tank where i can't see nothing but crude oil sludge, can't breath nothing but crude oil fumes, can't touch nothing but tar, crude, sucked from the bowels of the earth tar, coating every warm fragile cell in my being, being in hell, oil slick hell, coal tar hell, can i die from this hell, what's he yelling hell.

More staging descends, more sweat mixes with the carbon diarrhea, now there's even tears fogging my safety glasses, better cut that shit out right now, if i want to see to keep from dying, steel myself, starting to sway from the power of this moment, decades of struggling to get you to embrace the sun, and here i'm locked away from all life, away from everything soft and gentle, here i'm locked in the tank that you sent your kids to the desert to fight for, here i'm locked away somewhere only polite people would call purgatory, this is a fucking crude oil hold on a crude oil tanker bringing fucking crude oil to america to fucking burn as if we had the right to suicide by poison fire.

Twenty five years of renewable energy activism, of crafting legislation, of starting companies, of doing deals, of getting projects built, of making clean power from the sun and wind, and here i am sucked into the steel belly of the beast, building staging so the pipefitters can come down here in hell to maintain the valves needed to pump your poison fucking carbon blood.
You sent me here, Reader.

Tha Oner, can't you feel me at all? Why this, how this, what could possibly be worth putting my fucking lungs on the line, life on the line, to be in black hold tar goo devil's come sludge crude tanker world that i've spent my entire life fighting to end? Can't bear the remembrances of soft organic oils poured over her rich pulsing breasts, skin sliding with the joy of sliding into each other, slithering loving memories clashing against the foul slippery dank of this tank. This tank is everything wrong with modern civilization, everything missing from intelligence in the species, everything gone from the heart, everything lost to the ages, everything poison to the soul, everything hurtful to the skin of the planet, hurtful to the air that brings the breath of life, the water that washes us clean, everything hurtful to each new generation, every violence committed to anyone, any power grab to make up for no orgasms, every slimy attempt at asserting the power of the material world over the soft strength of seed, every drop of the fossil history of our earth, burned in a few foul generations so you can continue to hide from your own godhood, sleepwalking, surrounded by your oil burning treasures.

God Damn It Randy, Get Down Here I Can't Breathe!!
Tick's cries finally break through the sludge.
Get your ass up if you can't breathe.
Come down and take my place, i can't breathe.
Get your ass up if you can't breathe.
Get down here, take my place i can't breathe.
If you can't breathe, get your ass up. Eye ain't coming down. Get up here now.
More pieces of staging, and me feel like hurling them through the hull. Didn't they show Tick that stupid, life-saving, training video?
It's really bad, i can't breathe.
Then get your fucking ass up here, i ain't saying it again, GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THE HOLD NOW.
What the fuck's going on down there?, chirps the foreman.
My skull screams death you idiot, but my voice screams Tick can't breathe.
Here's the last piece, stow it then get up here.
Deal. Last piece Tick.
What?
Clang echoes forever as the last rail hits.
Get your fucking ass up top now.
Ohhh, OK.
Me already trying to breathe too soon, before i've finished climbing, and me flop like whale over the hatch rail, gasping.
Again, shipyard air never was as fresh. Gasping. Shaking. Soaked.
Slimy. Get those gloves off. Shed the slicker. Don't touch anything.
Break time, wander off to the bow staring at Frisco's effervescent city lights.
For you, motherfuckers, for you.
Hell ain't fiery, hell's a sludge tank, full of leftover oil for the dinner of your materialism. Suck my cock, Reader, bound and gagging, you know not what you...
Catch my breath. The godhead pours into me.
The Light illuminates, the tar sludge poison is dead.
From this moment on, when i speak of the need to move immediately to the soft energy path of the sun, my words will contain the full power of knowing whereof i speak. I've been there, eye am here, in the fetid hold of your society's fuel, dark and poison, foul, death, and not worth the lives you sacrifice for your fucking SUV's.
Back to the crew, splayed exhausted amidst the death tanker's Gordian knotted death pipes, we're all getting ready to go to the depths of the slop tank and build staging. Silent stare into foreman's eyes.
You know, boss, i don't think i can go down there again.
In the tank, or home.
Heart lifting, home. Sorry, boss, home it is. Me tell him truth. Saying, what you guys don't know is i've spent my whole conscious life fighting to bring a renewable energy future into reality, for everybody, and it just don't seem right to go down there. i know i can't ever work with you guys again, for there's no way i can choose not to share the whole job, can't expect you to cover my ass if i won't cover yours.
Eye can tell by the foreman's eyes he understands exactly, viscerally, where i come from. But he says, you're done.
Me so glad to be done. My heart, still pounding in my chest, my lungs, still throbbing in my chest, begin to calm, knowing me going home.
My last look at the guys.
Me proud, aware that it goeth before a fall, but me so damn proud.
DRYDOCK, I GOT THE STORY!

Shuffle off over the pipes, along the deck, across the gangway i built, lungs heaving, along the east wingwall, staring at the tanker berthed in this steel womb, blankly staring, not fully comprehending what's occurring here, down the drydock stairs, course upon course, jump to the dock, turn and fix my last look at Drydock One, power building inside, the godhead's strong, i'm an arrogant fuck but i'm right, and what's more, i'm going home, no more poison, no more life on the line, no more romantic brushes with death. Last shuffle along the quay, steel-toes strangely light, heart lifting with every step, me going home. Last climb up the shipwright stairs. Won't be making this climb again. Open the locker, and slowly, slowly, take off my oil-encrusted gear, tar stench and thick slime. Don't touch anything.
Me going home. I got the story. Oil kills, and Eye know why.

The First Image I've Ever Uploaded

2007-02-22T00:37:00.000+01:00

Shout Out! to the native artist, BunkHaus. You Rule Skin!

In Love with the Lusty Wind

2007-02-07T10:14:00.000+01:00

Here's the link to an interview with me on the Truthout site:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107S.shtml

Technorati claim

2007-01-30T13:59:00.000+01:00

Technorati Profile

Homage to My Mentor, Woody Stoddard

2007-01-29T13:02:00.000+01:00

One of the most respected pioneers from the world of windpower, Dr. Forrest “Woody” Stoddard, passed away this weekend. Woody's decades of work in the design and testing of modern wind turbines not only has long-lasting effects on the evolution of modern windmills, but his influence on the legion of today's top engineers is unparalled.

I'll tell a story or two about my bro below, trying to cut through the sadness. But first, here's what the industry association had to say about him last week:

U.S. WIND ENERGY INDUSTRY HONORS FORREST (WOODY) STODDARD WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Visionary Engineer, Teacher Pioneered Wind Turbine Design,
Continues to Mentor Many in Industry

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) today awarded its annual Wind Energy Lifetime Achievement Award to Forrest (Woody) Stoddard, a visionary wind energy leader, teacher, and pioneer. This award is presented in recognition of years of outstanding industry leadership and support.

“The U.S. wind energy industry is proud to present this award to a passionate, inspiring expert to whom we owe so much: Woody Stoddard,” said AWEA Executive Randall Swisher. “In addition to his many engineering achievements, Woody nurtured talent and instilled enthusiasm for wind energy technology in students and colleagues alike.”

Dr. Stoddard was the lead developer of the 25kW Windfurnace at the University of Massachusetts in the mid 1970s. It was the largest operating wind turbine at the time. During the project Stoddard became the mentor of many engineers who graduated from the UMass renewable energy program and who eventually filled the growing ranks of the industry. The WindFurnace itself laid the engineering groundwork for the commercial wind turbines later deployed by US Windpower (which later became Kenetech Windpower) in California.

“Stoddard helped lay a foundation of design tools at a time when the nascent wind energy industry barely had any at all, and his PhD thesis from the mid-70s remains the state of the art of wind turbine dynamic analysis,” said AWEA Board Member and fellow engineer Brian McNiff. “Since that time, he has been a strong, principled voice promoting wind energy development and research, and a major contributor to wind energy’s success.”
.....
“What Woody did for us, we American engineers of all disciplines who made our careers in wind, is believe in us, making us feel we were part of something good, something useful, and a hopeful future,” said Walter Sass, founder of Second Wind, Inc., with whom Stoddard worked on a project testing turbines. “He made us feel we were -- and are -- part of wind power.”

Dr. Stoddard will be presented with the award at a ceremony in Cambridge, Mass. on January 26.

xxxxx

Alas, Woody wanted to go, and passed away before the award was given. I first met Woody while visiting the Toward Tomorrow Fair in Amherst, MA, near where the windpower mafia was born under the tutelage of Prof. Bill Heronemus and his engineering program at Umass. Woody said he needed some hands to help pour the nacelle for the Wind Furnace turbine, so I came, having already met Heronemus the year before. That turbine, under Woody's lead, was the first to incorporate some of the principles still defining modern turbines.

The Captain (Heronemus), Woody and some top students went on to form US Windpower Associates... the nucleus for what became america's first large turbine manufacturer US Windpower. (Newly elected Congressman Jerry McNerney worked many years on the engineering side of this firm, giving him the energy background we so need in Congress.)

In a classical scene recounted in the book about our pioneering exploits, Reaping the Wind (Peter Asmus, Island Press, 2001), Woody tried to convince the Board that the first test turbine wasn't ready to fly. He was overruled, the Board came to watch to startup, and the turbine pitched a blade across the highway.

Woody was unceremoniously fired (not right away), probably the most bitter pill in his career. I went to San Francisco to help midwife the birth of the modern industry. In 1980 or 1981, Woody and I snuck out into an Altamont Pass field where the crates holding the first six USW 56-50 turbines were waiting erection. Woody kept circling the crates, so I thought, hell, and opened one.

Woody asked me to just look, and tell him what I saw using my “feelings.” (I'd barely been through a year of university before taking another direction, and here the top designer in the industry is asking me for my opinion. Through the decades he often trusted my intuition, as i trusted his experience.) “Spindly,” i said, “like a spider. Ain't enough steel.” He laughed and told me i got it right, then explained why.

Several hundred of these turbines were installed in the first few months. But the project was shut down before barely commencing, because it was too dangerous for the crews to be out in the field with the turbines self-destructing in the Altamont winds.

The financial people in the company had overruled the engineers, a problem we would find time and again throughout the industry. Woody continually railed about the effect on the industry of decisions such as these. But a deep and lasting friendship, already growing, was cemented that day in the field.

Woody and I drove through Denmark together researching the state of the art of the industry, early 80's. We visited many of the companies and installations. Perhaps i'll write my recollections of that amazing trip sometime. Just the high points now. Touring Riso National Laboratory with him was an honor.

The conversations with him and industry leaders, including Helge Petersen, Per Lundsager, and a host of top young engineers (we were all young then, except Helge, who's still with us), set ideas in motion that had an effect on the industry's growth. and Erik Grove-Nielsen's hospitality was tops. They were still in contact up to the end, and according to Woody's last email to me, the continuing respect for Erik was an important part of his wind world-view.

Over the next decades, Woody was not only my closest colleague, he earned my deepest friendship in the industry. He was constantly hovering over my left shoulder, helping me understand the complex dynamics of modern wind turbines. He and The Captain were my mentors, helping to guide my career. (The Captain once called me “a loose cannon on deck.”)

He slept on my couch, and i his. We climbed towers together, and i always learned something new. Hell, Woody was special, and not just because he went to high school with Soft Path Energy expert Amory Lovins. His latest poster paper for an AWEA conference a few years ago showed he's still thinking outside the box. He and Heronemus made the case that arrays of smaller turbines may be more efficient than the modern super rotors.

Sure, i just lost a friend i'll never stop missing. But the industry has lost its most expert cantakerous voice. We will miss his perspective, and his deep and inate understanding. I know i'll still be hearing his voice in my head, helping me keep my eyes on the prize.

We still have a long hard road to travel to bring windpower to its proper place in amurka's energy mix.

Love and Respect, Woody. Onward.

BRILLIANT ALLAWI BLUEPRINT FOR PEACE IN IRAQ

2007-01-05T13:40:00.000+01:00

(NOTE: The author of the Blueprint for Peace is not the CIA trained former Prime Minister Iyad (Ayad) Allawi.)

Published today in the Independent (UK), former Iraqi Defense Minister Ali Allawi's coherent plan begins by finally stating the obvious:

“The Iraqi state that was formed in the aftermath of the First World War has come to an end. Its successor state is struggling to be born in an environment of crises and chaos. The collapse of the entire order in the Middle East now threatens as the Iraq imbroglio unleashes forces in the area that have been gathering in virulence over the past decades.

It took the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the mismanagement of the country by both the Coalition Provisional Administration and subsequent Iraqi governments, to bring matters to this dire situation.

What was supposed to be a straightforward process of overthrowing a dictatorship and replacing it with a liberal-leaning and secular democracy under the benign tutelage of the United States, has instead turned into an existential battle for identity, power and legitimacy that is affecting not only Iraq, but the entire tottering state system in the Middle East.”

Allawi intelligently recognizes that the chaos in Iraq is actually the chaos in the entire Middle East, whose weak foundations have been shattered by the illegal invasion orchestrated by the Madman President. Bush's vision of securing amurkan energy while bringing on the Rapture is clinically insane, as is the large portion of amurka who nearly choked on this pretzeline logic.

But Allawi has opened the gates of rational policy analysis, and while this Plan is only an opening to the debate, it is the first intelligent discussion i have seen. While the key players will surely debate the specifics, i have seen no finer foundation on which to debate the solution to the chaos that is what amurka brought to the land of the sand and the home of the oil.

As Allawi so clearly states, the nearly one hundred year “system, carved out of the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire” was held together by “foreign occupation, outside meddling, brutal dictatorships, and minority rule.” It is indeed this underlying horror unleashed by the PNAC fantasy.

Allawi then details the situation on the ground with a precision perhaps found only within the erudite halls of scholarly Mid-East policy analysts, but which nevertheless rings clearly with the power of insight. The upshot of his analysis, however, is chilling. The region will explode in a crossfire of religious, tribal, economic and political violence crossing all the borders of the Mid-East, including Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran.

He predicts that with a Shia ascendency in Iraq will come an equal and opposite repression in the lands where Shia remain minorities, similar to the “pattern that accompanied the Saudi-led campaign to contain the Iranian revolution of the 1980s.”

There is far more detail in the original, which deserve to understood and debated. But far more important is the precision with which Allawi Blueprints the steps and framework necessary to provide a path out of the miasma. I await the verdict of wise men like Robert Fisk on the Plan, but the detail in Allawi's vision is a true opportunity to end the madness.

Allawi's solution begins:

“It requires genuine vision and statesmanship to pull the Middle East from its death spiral. The elements of a possible solution are there if the will exists to postulate an alternative to the politics of fear, bigotry and hatred.

The first step must be the recognition that the solution to the Iraq crisis must be generated first internally, and then, importantly, at the regional level. The two are linked and the successful resolution of one would lead to the other.

No foreign power, no matter how benevolent, should be allowed to dictate the terms of a possible historic and stable settlement in the Middle East. No other region of the world would tolerate such a wanton interference in its affairs.”

Bush's mad vision is over. Announced only after the Democrats have formally retaken Congress, Allawi uses diplomatic-speak to drive a stake into the heart of the Bush Doctrine. He acknowledges legitimate amurkan interests in the region, “but the future of the area should not be held hostage to their designs and exclusive interests.”

His major points must be examined in detail, and fleshed out out over months and years of regional negotiation, which process alone will change the region. Summarizing, all the forces unleashed by the invasion must be taken into account, while the forces must accept limits as well. Shia and Kurd will have their day, but only if they accept limits. Sunni must be assured that they will not be marginalized; behind all of this is a serious program of revenue-sharing.

And finally, as continuing chaos will inexorably spill over Iraq's border, there must be a regional administration of the entire process. Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the other at-risk states will have to join in a regional administration of the process, without which they will remain threatened.

Initially the soution would become a decentralized Iraqi state supported in power and resources, focused upon the equitable sharing of oil revenue, enforced in a form of federalism. Then comes the zinger:

“The second essential outcome would be a treaty that would establish a confederation or constellation of states of the Middle East, initially including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The main aim of the confederation would be to establish a number of conventions and supra-regional bodies that would have the effect of acting as guarantors of civil, minority and community rights.”

From this beginning, there is always the possibility for the evolution of something approaching the European Union for the Middle East. This is perhaps the most visionary part of Allawi's plan. In fact, he details how this could evolve, and why it is indeed necessary.

He admits to one of the two elephants in the room. Allawi does not believe the US can be ignored in this process just because it has so catastrophically failed to date, admitting amurka “is still the most powerful actor.” But he does politely stick the knife in Bush's insanity, stating, “ Whatever project (the US) had for Iraq has vanished, a victim of inappropriate or incoherent policies, and the violent upending of Iraq's power structures.”

Allawi does not, however, address the other elephant in the room, the Palestine-Israel madness. When the regional proposals address this issue, then there could well be real progress in the Middle East. But check out the Allawi proposals in detail, and see if you don't agree it's the most heartening news to come out of the miasma since Murtha opened the door for the intrusion of reality.

ONE FINAL IMPRESSION:

That Allawi has beaten Bush to the punch, publishing his Blueprint for Peace before Bush announces his surgescalation, is not to be lost upon the faint-hearted amurkan pundits pundicrying about the change in Congress, Bush's new program, his WSJ editorial, and the rest of the Rovian timetable. Whatever is really behind the Plan, Allawi simply changed the rules of Rove's media game before Rove knew what hit him. Imagine this plan circulating throughout the world, and then Bush announces a new version of more death and "willful ignorance?"

At the very least, Allawi has introduced to the debate a concrete plan to get the occupiers out of Iraq, or as we say, to bring the troops home.

(Ed. note: this is an unedited post, posted in haste because of the importance of Allawi's proposals in changing the terms of the debate. It will likely be rewritten to allow for more detailed analysis.

Let's Sneak This In While the Media's Watching the Dems Getting Sworn In

2007-01-04T20:50:00.000+01:00

NY Daily News reports:

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.
The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.
That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

xxxxx

What comes next, sniffing my underwear?

So now does anyone have any questions about why i decided to use title profanity in the previous post, breaking blogger tradition, in my reasoned analysis of Bush's editorial yesterday?

Further, it was written in the spur of the moment upon first reading Bush's arrogant propaganda. Normally i try not to give Bush the dignity of a response, but my reaction was explosive. It was also a reaction to watching Keith Olberman trying not to explode in his unbelievable "sacrifice" piece.

Later i discovered global blogger Jerome a Paris had done the same, without the profanity. Even later i learned that most political blogs frown or worse on profanity, wanting to look professional. Somewhere, Henry Miller is turning over in his grave. Go below and read.

WELL SIR, YOU'RE ACTUALLY FULL OF SHIT, YOU LYIN' BASTARD

2007-01-03T20:35:00.000+01:00

I wanted to see my thoughtful and reasoned response to the ShiekSucker's Wall Street Journal eiditorial (not a typo) published in the paper, or at least on the net version. But after short and careful deliberation, eye decidered that the Journal's polite request:
“If I am outside the U.S., by submitting this response, I consent to the transfer of my name, e-mail address, city and country to the U.S. for the purpose of processing or posting my response.”
to be beyond the call of duty in a time of total surveillance. Thus, Sir, i'm forced to respond here in greater downtown Blogistan, the last remaining remnant of the America i was taught in grade school, where the beacon of freedom and liberty based upon the rule of law shone around the globe.

So Sir, you can't have my email address any more than you already do. But i did notice the eiditorial was published at 12:01 AM, which means you're obviously working harder than usual. Or else you can't sleep anymore, as the reality of the horror you perpetrated in our names is privately sinking into the morass of darkness you call your brain. Either way, i'm impressed. Too bad they don't have brush around the West Wing.

After six years of pResidential drivel (nearly ¾ of your term , to use your brilliant time passage calculation), you should realize that such transparent CaCa as your staff had published in the WaPo doesn't really pass the “smell test” anymore. In the interests of bipartisan clarity, i'd like to respond directly to some of your staff's most brilliantly crafted propaganda, thinking that sunlight is generally good for illuminating what eye like to call “thinking within the septic tank.”

“I believe when america is willing to use her influence abroad, the american people are safer and the world is more secure.” If you once choked on a pretzel, how did you survive having to swallow the piece of your silvery tongue you bit off when your staff handed you that one? Did you see, Sir, that Keith Olberman, a highly trained professional broadcast journalist, can barely contain his anger at the shit you spew.? Sir! Attention please!

Did you not see the global polls which put you ahead of Bin Laden and the nuke of Pyongyang (say it outloud, just rolls off the tongue if you don't bite it) as the most dangerous man on the planet? Since when are unprovoked preemptive shock and wars considered “influence?” Or is it influence to render people to black hole airports that do not exist in countries whose respect for the laws of democracy more mirror caveman times? (All respect to my friends at Pixar and ILM, i didn't mean to put rendering into that light... but these are tough times.) Didn't you often say "We don't torture." Then what was it that scared the shit out of the civilized peoples of the world, the sound of the gloves coming off?

Sorry, Keith, i can't keep calling him Sir. How about, Sack of Shit Sir, or if we can't directly call him a liar, can we call him Fabricationman, Sir? (in honor of the Spiderman and the superheroes of Marvel comics who called Bush's bluff today).

Influence? The unilateral sacking of the United Nations? The backing of the might of Poland and Costa Rica in the coalition of the killing? Or by influence did you mean, Sir Sack, that you alone are the Al Qaida recruitement poster boy, arguably the one greatest success your term as despot can highlight. Or don't you read your intelligence agency's reports if they come in after bed time?

“I believe wealth does not come from government.” Ahhh, 'scuse me, Sir Sack, but when was the last time you had lunch with a Halliburton stockholder, or any owner in the of the many companies ripping off the Treasury to build Iraqi power stations or schools or sewage facilities, not to mention replenishing the ammunition with which you brought purple-fingered democracy to the people being choked purple.

Have you forgotten that it was a local government which paid for your baseball stadium? Or were you referring to the billions in uncollected or cheated oil and gas royalties you've parceled out?

“I believe government that is closest to the people is the most accountable.” Wow, now i understand why you wanted to see my emails and monitor my phones. I get it, Sir Sack. But you really, as the guy who gutted more than two hundred years of checked and balanced democracy, you really don't get the chance to use the word accountability if you don't want people to revert to stoning you.

“When our nation was attacked, Republicans and Democrats (who you yourself and all your staff coerced with the most egregious and professional of lies and deceit) came together and passed the Patriot Act (which single-handedly caused Tom Paine to puke in his grave, and he's dead), and reform our intelligence agencies” to report the truth as we had wished them to see and report it. Wow, Sir Sack, black is white, war is peace.

“Yet we must always remember that when a people are hurting, they need a caring person, not a government bureaucracy.” I very much respect you when you put your talents in your mouth, Sir Sack, for Eye too, deep down, believe Brownie, who did a great job, was a caring person, at least for racehorses, and FEMA sure showed us not to trust a federal shitshack, strike that, bureaucracy, if people are hurting. And yes, Sir Sack, they still are.

When you start talking about Iraq, that “we will help provide the breathing space for this young government to meet its respnsibilities,” Sir Sack, i wonder why you don't seem to care about the “breathing space” of our young soldiers who have their lungs outxploded. Dying for an Iraq you created out of simple shock and awe. It's not the Iraqi's responsibility, Sir Sack, it's yours.

In fact you make me so sick eye can't go on. Your every sentence is a lie, carefully crafted to hide the black void which is your soul. You say “Our Founders believed in the wisdom of the american people to choose their leaders,” so why did you send Jim Baker to take Florida hostage to your pet court? (And why didn't you listen to him when he told you you were full of shit?)

Perhaps, i'll get to comment on your “discussion” of the economy, where the hubris of your lies crosses into the ridiculousness of 1970's Saturday Night Live parody. If you hadn't already destroyed america's financial base, it would be ridiculous. Watchin' what the Chinese and Japanese have been up to moving slowly to the Euro since last February? Notice that last month Dubai decided to move 8% of its US assets to Euros?

So you should probably consider this, Sir Sack. The return of Congress to the people is only the first step, and if i were you, i'd not be thinking about bipartisanship right now, i'd be thinking about safe house countries like Paraguay and war crimes protection programs where the extradition treaty doesn't cover “political charges.”

Bonin' up on your Spanish, Sir Sack? Ready to be questioned by Jack Murtha, John Conyers, or Henry Waxman? Do you or the staff you rode in one truly believe you could pull these lies over the eyes of an awakening and fired up American people?

The Revenge of Gaia Redux

2006-12-21T00:46:00.000+01:00

The Gaia hypothesis, which posits that the systems of the earth are conscious, and interconnected, struck a strong chord within the mind of the Global Village Idiot. Was that the late 70's, or later, i don't remember. But i do remember that James Lovelock's name was forever struck in my brain. As was Gaia, which my native families have always called, since time immemorial, Mother Earth. (Perhaps Lovelock had done a bit of reading of native thought?)

Now he's saying that without a huge reversal, the majority of the earth's population will not make it to the next century. Global warming being the method of Gaia's revenge, not that Gaia made global warming, but that the human civilization fucked up a bit, and the system will take it's revenge according to natural law.

I think it goes something like this: If you fuck with my cycles, just like the vast majority of all fish in the North See are now feminine from too many leaking estrogen chemicals, then Mama Earth has no choice but to react.

Another version says the physics are simple; too much heat in, then too many changes to the existing (finely tuned) infrastructure. For a few billion years there was a natural balance of the heat in/heat out structure, of course with local variations; now we have a few new external factors altering the classic equation... leading to Lovelock's Revenge theory.

There's something strange which seems to be the same science but which Lovelock, despite his excellent scientific credentials and supranormal ability to see what Indians have known for centuries, seems to have overlooked. And that is simply defined by his answer: we must agressively develop nuclear power.

If i were a scientist of Lovelock's caliber, i would simply ask him to objectively examine the entire cycle of nuclear costs, including from the beginning of mining through the entire fuel and construction and waste and water cooling and storage and decommissioning cycle, and add to that the entire economic calculation of protecting the waste for how many tens of thousands of years from a civilization which has yet shown little ability to make a peaceful decade, and if he can then show that the costs and risks are worth it....

....well then i would give him much more credibility and still show him that windpower, as the first mature part of the solar equation which we must follow, is even more cost effective. I would also report to him that in my direct conversations with Mother Earth, she said she likes the name Gaia, and will always honor the earthling who coined her favority mundane name...

....but she wishes he would dig a bit deeper, because she feels better nurturing a planetary ecology based upon the same sources upon which life is built. While eye can't speak for her, it seems she was talking about solar energy, without which there is no life here. Winds are solar heat differential caused, i've learned from the climatological types, and windpower is only the most mature of all the solar technologies, my speciality. Methinks she was talking about that.

Hey... Heya heya Heh! When my momma speaks, her being a few billion years older als mich, i like to listen... and the guy who named her ought to listen as well. After all, it's Solstice Evening, and the entire Gaian World is revelling in the ancient holy ceremony. The most holy death and rebirth cycle without which there is no Gaia.

And You Thought You Knew Chaos

2006-12-20T01:04:00.000+01:00

The catastrophe is worsening, and the limits of debate and potential solutions are held hostage to reality, which says the amurkan system is so broke that it must implode before it can begin to get healthy. Before this implosion can happen, however, amurka is highly likely to take down the rest of the world.

That's the thesis. What's the backstory? (Please remember i don't give cites here because one can't think for hirself without doing the research one's self.)

bush wants to increase the size of the military to fight the long war against the infidels.

The Joint chiefs of staph infections say we can't surge in Iraq without a mission with goals which can be monitored, and a plan to increase the broken military so it can surge.

Leaks from the military point to the Seymour Hersh scenario, itself an important hypothesis forgotten within the current blather, where the military is exploring ways to ramp up the confrontation with Iran. (if i'm the war president, i need a new war, the old one sucks.)

The recommendations from the Iraq Slow Learners Group have already been forgotten in the ensuing media bleat following the so-called administration's revelation of new talking points.

some dems are already beginning to go along with the increase. This of course means that the slim majority is also just a talking point.

The will of the people as expressed on “election” day in November (was it so long ago?) seems to have little to do with the discussion.

For those in power, Iraq is not a quagmire, it's just a bit nasty, but the game plan is working perfectly, because we still sit on the oil to sell or hold as we choose.

Simple. So what's the upshot?

Don't worry, american democracy, we're doing this for your security. (Trans: fuck you amurka, you can thank us later, though we won't be listening even then, except to accept your public accolades for continued driveability.)

So we have a “situation” where the amurkan public has decidered that Iraq is enough, bring the boys home. But they didn't think it through far enough. There's a real reason why the “government” of the us is not listening to the people who pay its bills. Because they're not interested in what you think.

The political process in amurka, and the blogs and media and commenters, like to belive that the democrats made inroads against the coup d'etat in the last election. Please tell me what it means if the Dems pass laws defunding Iraq, and they're vetoed, and the coup decides to further provoke another Gulf of Tonkin with Iran?

Flash Cut Wide View: the courts and even the Supremes are packed (and even Diana Ross at the end couldn't forget the power of the Supremes and Motown) so who you gonna sue? Who among you still believe that our Constitution will save us? An undermined constitution is no protection against such willful and planned malevolence.

So, the amurkans have voted enough is indeed enough, and the coup has decided that enough is enough... but the enoughs are different by an order of magnitude.

The people decided this shit can't go on. The coup has decided this shit can't go on at this low level, and is currently ramping up to make more shit. To which eye infer, the people don't matter, controlling the black goo does. And if we can save the black goo in Iraq by going after the black poison goo in Iran, then so be it.

And the dems will do what? And the people will do what? When was the last time you saw an article about Cindy Sheehan that wasn't a negative, about her being arrested? Do you really think Fitz nailing Libby is going to stop this world degradation?

We don't want no war, and the response is escalation, reversing the Vietnam syndrome. (There, the advisors weren't enough, we needed frontline troops. Here, the frontline troops aren't enough, we need more advisors to the world famous defenders of freedom Iraqi troops and policemensa.)

Excuse me, but am i blind?

The same people who refused to provide to their employers the “notes” from the chainey energy consortium are going to listen to Mr. Waxman's subpoenas? The same court which enabled the coup, recently repacked, is going to rule against the powers of the enabler in chief?

This coming explosion will destabilize everything, and for those of you who can really understand english, everything means at minimum quite a lot.

Inpeachment is off the table she said. What seems to be on the table is nukular conflagration.

So i come back to the idea that the system is so broken we have to stop funding it. Isn't that a positive goal?

Short Repost 'Cuz You Mighta Missed It

2006-12-14T16:38:00.000+01:00

Last thought before elections (NOT!): Don't be AFRAID of martial law, but prepare yourselves for the advent of... THE SUSHI POLICE!

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1953687.ece

What's our world cumming on without cucumber tempura? Or SlicedTooThickFish?

By the way, here's a littlebittyitty about the new world tour drinking show that debuts on some British teevee channel tomorrow:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_and_drink/features/article1949427.ece

and you thought IWASDRUNK?

Global GeoPolitics Worsening

2006-12-14T00:36:00.000+01:00

The Coup d'Etat is tightening the reins, circling the wagons, defiling the electorate. Despite the overwhelming voice of the November elections, the 4th Reich's famous deciderer has decided to escalate. Time to increase the troops strength, because we can't leave without controlling the oil. Bush is not crazy (perhaps psychologically as so many columnists and bloggers intimidate) but his policy fits exactly with what he wishes to achieve. Smacks of a dark evil brilliance to me.

This is about oil, the black tar scum which has poisoned our civilization, and the addictive need to control it. That's exactly why, despite ongoing horror for the Iraqis, despite overwhelming repudiation at the papertrail-less machines and more recently in the polls, despite the cover provided by the brahmin Iraq Slow-Learners Group, despite the deterioration of even reality as we know it...

the Greatest Nation on the Face of the Earth, under God, without orgasm, will wreak further havoc in order to fan the apocalyptical flames of the MidEast exploding.

All for the black poison tar goo which enslaves us.

And when i think of how easy it is to make all our power from the same sun which gave us life, from the same winds which give our breath freshness, i can only cry...

and speak out! Wake up america. It's not about Rahm Emmanuel being not progressive enough, even if he's a shit. it's about stopping the madness which threatens to engulf the world far beyond San Frandisco and beltway faith-based immigration experts, far beyond the narrow confines of the Chamber of Teufelish commerce between Hillary's thighs, far beyond the Machiavellian world of Carlyle investing in both the US and Chinese weapons industries.

it's about all the soft seed of life which will be destroyed by the quest to secure our addiction. I've said this so often it hurts (though i never say it exactly the same) but i'll say it here again... the physics are simple.

Energy on earth is a closed system. Balance is solar energy in, work/heat out. Civilization's energy system is even more closed. it doesn't matter if you're Augusto Pinochet or Timothy Leary, Barbara Crowley Bush or Xeni Jardin, if you want toast in the morning you plug in the toaster... to a centralized energy system the vast majority of which is poison.

As the ultimate foundation of civilization, an energy system defines the civilization. Power a civilization from poison, the civilization is inherently poison. Power it from the source of life itself, civilization breathes in freedom and contentment, as the higher intelligence planned.

And for oil, the black tar goo which is the legacy of tens of millions of lifebreath years on earth, our inheritance, for medicines and feedstocks, this oil we burn and squander in an eyelash blink of history.

Look to the sun and winds, people, for rome is burning under the 24/7 self-conflagurating watchful media eye, and our limbs are stuck to the black tar goo that's pulling us down.

Congress Extends Windpower Credit

2006-12-14T00:07:00.000+01:00

(Ed. note: We have tried to get the Global Village Idiot to write conventional, insightful energy analyses, including his three decade background at executive levels of the windpower industry. We have nothing against his wannabe-Miller-Joycean rants, but we always felt he should let readers know his serious expertise and experience in matters windkraft. He has resisted this with unearthly strength, thus we are surprised to find the following post in our inbox. And you should take advantage, for we don't know when this insight might appear again.)

The congress of the united states of america, in all its infinite wisdom, has extended a series of renewable energy funding mechanisms. The Production Tax Credit for windpower, currently at $19/MWH for windpower, has been extended to 2008. The upshot of this for windpower business is significant.

The US has been plagued by horrendous boom and bust cycles dependent upon the federal whims, such that the industry could not commit to long term manufacturing facilities, for example, without which further cost-cutting was impossible. Some manufacturers took the risk, others prudently avoided same.

Now the foundation has been set, with the industry stable since the end of 2004. The extension to 2008 means that companies can begin to invest prudently in long term facilities. Investment can begin to flow in more orderly fashion, and project development can begin to take economies of scale.

Further, and more surprising, this will place the US market firmly at the head of the global expansion. It is now very possible that the US will overtake Germany by 2008 with the highest installed capacity. Such expansion will also allow more US investment into US firms entering into the global markets, where they are a decided disadvantage.

Finally, this is evidence of the strength of bipartisan support for windpower in the Congress. That should allow for either strong support of a further long term extension of the PTC, likely for the last time, or a supplanting measure such as a Renewable Portfolio Standard with teeth

As one who has led off some of his global speeches blatantly criticizing american energy policy, stating that america produced in 25 years less than half what Germany produced in 12 years, despite the difference in per capita energy consumption, i'm pleasantly shocked. America is far behind the windpower technology curve, but perhaps they can now join the global industrial community which will force the acceleration to renewables far faster than before... if still not fast enough.

Coming Soon: The Rahm Emmanuel FDL Memorial Blog

2006-12-13T03:19:00.000+01:00

Thankfully, i was right to wait for my post election comments, for i've learned a lot. And soon, if you can wait, we'll discuss the attacks on Rahmen Noodle Hussein Immamuel, who seems to be getting dissed just because he's a shit. I'll discuss how despite his being a shit (Can you say Shi'ite on the net?) he's worthy of triangulation.

But before i do, i want to answer Oklahoma Kiddo, who asked: "What makes Hillary run?"

I can only say, if she ate too many loose avocadoes, no, false, it's the powerful thighs and elephant calves.

I don't want her, nor do i want Emmanuel. But why are we eating our own?

Thankfully, i'm not ready to post the real answer. But i will soon give you all my background on why i really am a wind energy expert. It will be sooner than a friedman i promise.

Is Blogging Optimal?

2006-11-27T23:16:00.000+01:00

A Disconcerting Thought

tonight i posted on FDL the new secret releases from the Politburo files on Gorby's discussions about how to leave the fiasco in Afghanistan. The response had more to do with some silicon babe's divorce from Kid Rock, whoever he is, not that i don't listen in my head to what Miles Davis would have done with hiphop.

There was no response, which makes me question the entire understanding of americans during the Goebbels era of 24/7 very professional propaganda. I posted examples of the highest level discussions of Soviet meetings about how to leave Afghanistan, which obviouly has great meaning to american discussions today, given the Carlyle Report coming soon. And the response was pathetic. Witty puns about nothing that would survive by tomorrow, but worse no real discussion.

I remember the WELL days, when the first virtual community in the world was established. It was not top down, anyone could begin a thread and if, if, there were takes the thread would survive. But in these days we have top-down blogging, where even if Jane Hamsher isn't in the complete right direction, where she normally is, it's still top down.

Blogging is good for the world, we've seen that in countless ways, but to call blogging a community is, is... can i say it digitally?... False.

Community is not top-down. I believe, and who am i to believe anything much less post it on the net where no one will read it unless i resort to programmed search bombing, that the model of the WELL is so vital, and so necessary, that we need to rediscover the WELL in all its attributes. Especially in these critical times.

Is there anyone out there who wishes to discuss this key point? I would love it if all my old WELL friends and enemies would come and comment and link. That would be the beginning wouldn't it?

Kudos to YouTube?

2006-11-19T23:51:00.000+01:00

Of course i should give my post-election thoughts, and i do have them, but i'm waiting. Waiting because we really have to distance ourselves from election rhetoric before there is something valuable to say. HuffPost will say it all anyway. There are some very serious threads which are not explored after this stunning turnaround in america, but one thing we can say is Gott Sei Fuckin Dank!... that John Conyers will chair Judiciary.

So forget the (coming) commentary on the beginning of a return to good ol' checks and balances, tonight we're going to post about... YouTube!

First yoiu have to understand that i've been in the digital wilderness for five years. Only after 8 months here in Deutschland did i have a computer, and this laptorp was even then years old. It had a system called windows, with which i was totally wrongified. Later i got a dial-up 56k connection paid by the hour, about as stone age as one could get. So i lost track of modern civilization.

Then a few months ago greater downtown Remscheid received DSL, one of the last places in the urban world. Then i bought an Apple, Macbook intel Pro, which together with DSL escaped me from the Stone Age and made me remember my Sanfrisco netroots... which was hard to take, as my last years in SF were the railing years of my novel against the insanity of the internet boom and the monetary destruction of my beloved city.

But it meant a return to THENET in all the forms which i had previously been unaware, as it evolves so QUICKLY.

When i find videos from Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock, when i can see not only all the tributes to Gram Parsons but even some rare old videos, when i can “favorite” Richard Manuel singing “Georgia” only a month before the Last Waltz, when i can even find DJ s Mark Farina and Derek Carter live (i remember the time at the Park City Sundance fest when i brought Mark to a private party where Derek was playing... it was the first time they had seen each other in years... and the resluting musical chaos was about as high as one can get)... and i even saw my estranged son live in some dive...

Kudos internet. (Not kudos youtube, as there are more and better, but still i'm thrilled that i can do this after all these years in the wilderness.) the model is good. And my new laptop is getting loaded.

It's just another technology which at its best can bring the people of the world closer together if the powers don't kill it.

Since no one reads this blog, i can say for now: Hey Woody, what's up? Are you going to fight to be OK? Much love and respect to one of the fathers of windpower aerodynamics.

An FDL Post about Jerry McNerney's Win

2006-11-19T23:18:00.000+01:00

I might end up saying a few things here at FDL, but there's one thing which absolutely must be said, right at the top. Whoever, and i mean that plural, is responsible for getting Jerry McNerney on the roadmap to congress deserves more than a few kudos.

Let me 'splain. I've been fighting for renewable energy for more than three decades. All the current arguments about about the pluses of renewables, like energy security, boost local economies, stop expensive pollution, eliminating international hot spots based on control of resources, not to mention the problem of calculating the present value of 20,000 years of nuclear waste storage (we don't even bring up depleted uranium weapons) were actually made way back when the first renewable wave broke.

In the course of those three decades, i realized that actually producing clean kwh's was far more important than all the public posturing, so i went and co-developed the world's first utility-scale windplant. Yet, i could never ignore politics, because the tax and financing measures upon which we built our industry only came through effective use of political capital.

Fate or synchronicity gave me two invites to the reagan White House to argue energy policy. Though i never gave a dime. Actually, i didn't argue, i threatened. Those were the days of heady deregulation, while at the same time the rayguns were threatening the solar tax credit. (From which we built the foundation of renewable technologies.) i simply met with Danny Boggs (of the Louisiana oil'n'gas Boggs) and threatened to go public with the administration's unwillingness to move to energy deregulation while spewing so much other deregulation around the country.

Because i was a reasonably public face for windpower in California, they stopped their attack on the solar credit, and let it die at its appointed time, something the industry association had not been able to achieve. But the same fookin arguments from those days are still being fought two decades later!

I watched in horror as america started oil wars, let kennyboy and chainey pour over iraqmaps out of public view, while the world warmed in the not nice kind of way.

Over those three decades, we had supporters in congress, but mostly in theory only. Suddenly the landscape has changed. I have nothing against lawyers that can't be worked out with fists, but suddenly there is an engineer in congress. A Windpower Engineer.

Jerry and i come from the Altamont Pass, the world's first wind development area. I've known and worked with him a bit for two decades. Seems to me america will soon come to respect the development of a coherent energy policy for the first time, which will stop plunging the world into chaos. (Was i subtle enough?)

And the center of this rapidly developing energy policy turnaround will be centered in two offices in DC. One, a rookie congressman who understands exactly what's at stake down to the gearbox bolt torgueing... and the other, a neighbor congresswoman who will soon answer to the name Madame Speaker, who knows the renewable advantage since she watched us make it happen near her home.

A long screed post, perhaps not permitted here. But i thought it valuable to give some detail, as to why what BlueAmerica and the crew here did to kick Jerry up a level is so important. You can't imagine, if i ever return to the US, what it will mean to me that i have someone to talk to on the hill, if we want to be serious about stopping the carbon poison and returning to a sustainable world.

And you guys helped make it happen, for sure more than i understand. I am so fookin grateful. Let's not stop here.

Know-it-all Kid meets Gore Vidal

2006-11-19T23:10:00.000+01:00

Bush names Lee Raymond, former CEO of ExxonMobil and current head of the industry lobbying group National Petroleum Council, to chair a report on clean fuel for america.

Well who did you expect? Amory Lovins?

Another thought: What is the difference between a negative ad and telling the truth. Some of the ads i've seen called negative are only ads which tell the truth about for example the corruption of the incumbent. Is that negative?

Xxxxxx

In the early sixties, Gore Vidal was running for Congress in an upstate district in NY. My mother was heading one of his fundraising committees and this imposing intellectual giant came to our home for dinner. As a snot-nosed know-it-all kid, i got the wake-up call of my life, realizing i must learn much more about our civilization.

More than forty years later, i'm watching this election from my home in Germany, where i have gained some insight into the 3rd Reich and how the citizens here have become the most sustainable industrial economy in the world. And i thank Truthdig for letting Vidal inject his searing perspective into the mass consciousness, especially at this critical junction.

It's apparent from here that the coup d'etat is working, the body of evidence mounts daily as the horror of the mounting bodies in Iraq is hidden from view. That this man can remain so erudite about the mounting horror of stolen democracy, as he exhorts us to finally fight back, is an honor to behold.

There is little in western civilization which corresponds to the concept of "Elders" as in Native culture, but Gore Vidal is a shining example of an elder we should heed.

Would that we all could find within us both a bit of the wisdom, and the courage that this man's life represents. GOTV, and if it's stolen again, be prepared to take back america and stop this cabal.

Windpower in Congress!!!

2006-11-08T14:00:00.000+01:00

A windpower colleague of mine from the Altamont Pass windplant in California has defeated the corrupt chair of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombot. Jerry McNerney, a netroots candidate finally backed by the dccc, is a windpower engineer in a House with subpoena power. We're dreaming of seeing the secret Cheney task force papers where he and Kennyboy divide up Iraq long before 9/11.

And we'll begin to shape an energy policy which may allow america to rejoin the world community.

Wahlkampf (Choicefight) Results 1.0

2006-11-08T02:18:00.000+01:00

Already after 2AM here in Deutschland, and i'm getting caught up in the BlueBlogger universe, focusing on Firedoglake. 1st returns are beginning, but from somewhere on Huffpost there's a link to a YouTube video which shows that the White House changed the acclaimed Mission Accomplished video so the Mission Accomplished sign is no longer visible above the Resident's head.

Such manipulation could well be interpreted to mean that they admit the mission is no longer accomplished. But it's also evidence that they are very sophisticated in media manipulation. Not that we didn't already know that, but here we see attention to detail which can only point out their adherence to the Goebbels playbook.

In any case if i can get two hours of sleep now, i'll wake at 4 or 5 and we shoiuld have the real fireworks by then.

REPORT: Borat Finds WMD

2006-11-07T00:38:00.000+01:00

~Khazachstan Save World to Be

We digging since three years Iraq. Not simple with only shovel. Then comes first metal strike! We think, metal riches. Wrong, for jewdiggers say only icebergtip. Deeper must.

So we deeper. Come then smell. Fire all jewdiggers (nose too big) and get real KhazachsDkossacks. They strong and find clue, P Anderson glowing silicon. Now hot getting. Gypsies suck sweat off so we go deeper. Find prayer from Saddam thanking Allah for safe hiding. But not safe! We Khazachs! Spell? More work sweat, gypsies suck not so good.

Under Saddam prayer many schekels WMD. Kazaschstan over all!! We find burined woomed, send quick to santoroom, he glad. Big CHEESE for us, little ones. Many money comes now.

But no Anderson. That must come more. Kakazachs love the Lovely Lieberman who lies but gut digs.

Beware the Sushi Police

2006-11-04T15:28:00.000+01:00

Last thrusday i was captured by aliens, brought to some kind of theater ship, and was forced to watch what i can only call some form of 3D multi-media reality show about the various potential futures for the planet. My captors claimed they were so angry at the earthlings for abusing the gift of life they had already done some form of hyper-dimensional intervention, which seemed to include accel-aerating the forces of instant karma.

What american apologies to Iraq had to do with the 20,000 year old nukular waste storage facility at Chernobyl was beyond my understantion. Suffice tosay my attention was awked, leeringly. Hear and there are some things which have i learned.
(there is no campaign finance reform other than campaign finance elimination, and without that american democracy cannot be reborn. And do you actually think even the dems are going to bring you that? Hillary Clinton on eliminating money from politics? It's far too sensible to have taxes pay for all campaigns, with no other backing possible except public discourse. Don't get me wrong, i trust, no, have placed the survival of my dna in rupert Murdoch, but something inside tells me there's another way to rebuild the forum.)

I blocked out the part about bushie sucking the cock of a giant Saudi oil sheik, who came in a black tar poison orgasmus which drowned the world.

The sound of the coral reefs dying nearly killed me, but i'm strong. The Norwegian glaciers reaching the German coast while the earth burned hurt, because i used to live in germany and i didn't like to think of no speed limits on an Autobahn tunneling through the ice.

I must admit seeing Manhattan unter Wasser kindofwaslike satisfying, not that i have anything against searing financial agents and their bilk. People who aren't on Wall Street make too much of Wall Street anyway, so shut up and take your medicine when we tell you.

Speaking of medicine, is it true Jesus was a crystal meth freak? Don't get me started, Jesus wouldn't blow some Saudi sheik. Sheik and Beik Haggardly.

The suffering of the chinese people when their economy lost 14% value after pulling only 37.9% of their holdings from the US dollar was sad, but watching the american dollar bitchslap it's own people because they didn't have any more o' them dollars was heartwrentching in a heart wrenching sort of way, though i couldn't stop laughing because i'm so timewarped.

Then there was the Cheese Crisis, which i won't even go into, except to hint at wormholes at Cern in Switzerland, which in Deutschland is called Der Schweiz.

Some of us were debilitated and did nothing, while others were not debilitated and did something, though i can't retail what, being defibrillated.

I was shocked to learn it got so bad that even the dolphins attacked people on the coasts, but what technology they used to capture Cansas Sity cannot be defudged. Found meself rooting for them in a non-perverse kind of way, i mean sometimes even me can't wrap meself around the notion of huymanity as good and worf protecting. Ifyaknowhaati mean.

Bye the bye, the aliens made killer chile, and the Teqkilla was to die for, which i did over and over, getting better each time like they do in Thibet without the Tequilla.

What's the name again of that radio guy with the expanding bellyverse whoo i wanted to punch with my overly strong fists one hundred times? But he's not the one who i used to sit with at the SpaceTime Cafe Trieste in SanFrandisco who used to be Michael Weiner before he was Michael Savage when herbal medicine was more important than Verbal Assault. Or was i confusing me with someone else? Hardly Matters.

WAITAMINUTE. Of Course It Matters. Who am i confusing me with?

Believe me, the cheese CRISIS had a large, round effect on my brain drain. Subjunctively.

I turned down Young Man Kang as a MySpace friend yesterday, despite his overarching talent as a film hyphenate, seriously, he's the first multibrilliant person i've ever turned down from MySpace, not that anyone ever asks, and they don't. Which has not of course anything to do with the alien abduction theme and what i learned from it, or was it adduction, haven't been to the gym in over a week.

Who wrote the song I gave My Love a Kerry, It Had No bone?

Where was i, should i post this for my reader and go einkaufing (in buying for american't illiterates) or should i stay and dwarf more? Looks like i'm already gone.

Last thought before elections (NOT!): Don't be AFRAID of martial law, but prepare yourselves for the advent of... THE SUSHI POLICE!

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1953687.ece

What's our world cumming on without cucumber tempura? Or SlicedTooThickFish?

By the way, here's a littlebittyditty about the new world tour drinking show that debuts on some British teevee channel tomorrow:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_and_drink/features/article1949427.ece

and you thought IWASDRUNK?

america, rethuglican style, imploding? A SUSTAINABLE ANSWER

2006-11-03T20:55:00.000+01:00

i could write about the years of shaking my head in horror at all that's gone on in america, the descent from two hundred years of relatively crooked politics into the mudslinging, illegal shit over the past decades, to the horror of the Bush coup d'etat. But this election cycle, especially from the perspective of seeing it all from Europe, has my head spinning at the level of horrendous shit which shows up every ten minutes on the internets.

Sure i'm thrilled the laws of instant karma are working overtime, the implosion of those controlling congress and the rapture-based sects is a hopeful sign. With all their down on their knees to global business, i've never been much of a dem, but in what passes for a political system in america the only reality right now is to at least have a return to checks and balances. We can fast-forward to the progressive agenda after we've taken that step. We've got to get John Conyers heading Juidiciary, simple as that.

But what to make of the increasing reports that the voting macacachines have already been hacked, and all the trap doors remain open? One blogger even asked Joe Wilson at a campaign event if he believed these guys would stoop to martial law or some such (not to mention staging a terrorist attack or a Tonkin Iran event.) Is there hope that the will of the people will actually be followed, or is america too far gone?

(total funds for mid-term '06, 527 groups inclusive are even more than 2004, i mean the level at which politics is merely an exercise in obscene funding. it could never happen in Germany, where campaigns have tight regulations which keep electioneering nearly civil.)

Even if the dems take both houses, america has a long, long way to go to save the democracy. From Europe, it's looks like we're watching a replay of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, only 24x speed. Will Bosnia or Kazachstan send election monitors to see if blacks and immigrants really have to face 8 hr lines, while rethuglican districts have limo ride-sharing and pre-reserved places at the diebold table?

Don't get me wrong, any nation which can produce Hank Williams and Tupac Shakur might have some heart left. I was going to make a Paris Hilton joke, but then i realized what i really wanted to do was pound rush limbag's expanding stomach with my strong fists about a hundred times, then have a serious civil debate about torture.

america is already the laughing stock of the entire world, and unless you've spent serious time abroad you don't see how strong the mistrust, the fear, the open-mouthed incredulity. Yes you can, you know from yesterday's survey that Bush is between Osama and Kim Il-Fit as the second most dangerous man on the planet

What i search for is the american Gandhi. ich denke i have a clue. All of the issues regarding how to fix the country have to have a foundation on a complete transformation of the basis of the economy. the pundits can talk about the housing bubble all they want, but the heart of any economy is energy cost. When one includes the military costs of securing energy pipelines, not to mention controlling energy sources, one sees that energy costs are indeed the foundation of the economy. america's economy is based upon global control of a poison energy source. ipso facto, it makes for a poison society. switch to healthy renewable energy, and the entire society is changed.

suddenly, the foundation of society is no longer poison.

Europe and Japan are already far ahead in all the technologies which comprise a sustainable future for us. the governments have already embarked on a far-thinking program of being technological leaders throughout the world. Perhaps an Apollo program of renewable energy in the US could retake the lead, but what the fuck, why not just join the other leading countries in giving our civilization a chance?

A completely sustainable economy is the only foundation by which this civilization can begin to heal the wounds of the sickness that's destroyed democracy.

Phil Ochs is singing "A Small Circle of Friends" at this moment. So obvious, the truth of the sixties, not the media version, in combination with all the technical savvy we've learned during the birth of the information age is perhaps enough to get the ball rolling.

Would any of my readers (if there was one) be able to calculate just how many american jobs would be created just to truck tower sections for all the windmills which should be built in the next decades? That doesn't include all the jobs from making the turbines, or financing the deals, developing the projects or retorqueing the gearbox bolts. and that's just windpower! (We're not even talking about the jobs created in all the other countries of the world)

You see where i'm going. There is an issue which should be the salvation of a sick america. It contains the answers, it contains the hope and dreams, and it's no longer a vision... it's the only reality left.

How else will the american economy reconcile itself with the native peoples who understood how to live in harmony here? (That's because Dylan's singing "Drunken Ira Hayes" while i remember all my indian friends who are opening the American Indian Film Fest in San Frandisco tonite.)

Jesus H christ, Beck and Emmylou Harris are singing Gram Parsons trying to keep out the lord's burning flame, i better go get a glass of red whine.

ELECTION THOUGHTS

2006-11-01T19:11:00.001+01:00

Boot Liquor (SomaFM netradio) spilling from the thin plastic Harmon Kardon towers on either side of my MacbookProscreen, a hillbilly version of Gram Parson's In My Hour of Darkness playing, one of my favorite songs. (from thousands) Imagining drunken cowboy music coming from South a Market San Francisco, home to some wild intergalactic cowboys. The city's not known for its cowtippers. But cowboy music makes me think about my long lost land.

i'm not in my SF home where i spent 22 years, my laptop is connected from a small city outside of Cologne Germany... Remscheid. I've spent hundreds of hours reading as many progressive blogs as i can, trying to figure out what will happen in the election, but i can't believe what the country looks like from this perspective. Political system beyond fixing, intelligence quotients at all time lows, rapture-based reality intruding everywhere, economy soon to be bankrupt (think about it), a dinosaur energy policy blind to what everyone already knows, free press destroyed, and the worst mud-slinging most expensive political ad buys ever.

Here in Europe there are still checks and balances, and a comparatively free press. And a vibrant culture, with a foundation trying to build a real sustainable future. america looks like a cancer rapidly metastizing?, with the system so broke it certainly can't be fixed by democrats controlling congress. (Five Blind Boys of Alabama singing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun.) But here i am hoping the fuckin dems will win both houses.

It's essential that Nancy Pelosi, who in San francisco i knew well enough to respect her hard compromises (but not how she set up the Presidio), be speaker; the first step, so we can get the impeachment process and treason trials going. Not that all the dems want that, but if america wants to regain respect in the world, of which it currently has little, it's going to have to cross that line. Yes, to save democracy in america, it must first be set in deep conflict, with punishment for the abuse of power to set a new moral tone.

I always wonder how people can go about their daily lives in america, with the unbelievably nasty violence carried out in their name, with the utter destruction of a nation (again) on it's hands, with so much killing, with the looting of the nation's treasury, with the replacement of science by rapture-based feeling. i don't know if the votes will be counted right, but if there was ever a time in my life where a single election counted so much, it's now.

I don't understand why the intersections of every city are not clogged with protesters every day, given the level of the shit Bush perpetrates on the entire earth. But now, get out and fuckin try to save this "democracy." We can deal with Rupert Murdoch, hillary clinton and rahm whatever later.

One more thing, as Commander Cody sings Lost in the Ozone Again. It's clear to me that my experience of living at the highest visionary end of the sixties, with direct experience of what really happened and what it meant, means i just might have some skill in bringing vision back when it's needed so much. There's a few decades of high level sustainable energy business in the intervening years, which helped build perspective to the tumultuous '60's. It's time , as the Derailers sing I Love Me Some Elvis, for the visionary elders to reclaim their space.

Beginning Bloggerhood Under Construction

2005-12-06T19:14:00.000+01:00

Randy Tinkerman, California windpower pioneer, screenwriter, and self-styled Global Village Idiot has been secreted incommunicado in deepest Deutschland for four years, in self-imposed exile from beloved San Francisco and the black oil tar horror that has become america. But I have chosen this day, Nikolaus Tag, to begin to emerge from the shadows. It was four years ago this day that i landed in Remscheid for a short visit, and stayed pursuing the dream of a renewable energy future.

A man willing to follow his vision, nearly the same story played out almost thirty years ago as i uprooted myself to San Francisco with just a dream, later playing a major role in the development of the world's first utility scale windplant parked in California's Altamont Pass.

I don't know how i've survived all the changes, and how i've kept my spirit alive through some of the darkest days of my life. But it's time to write my way back into the world, often using the character i created for my first novel, Global Village Idiot. Here i'll comment on all i see and understand from deep in "Old Europe." Please stay tuned, you won't believe the ride.