Mendocino County Today: April 19, 2013

IT WAS EXACTLY ten on a recent Wednesday morning. I was on the south side of California Street waiting to board the 44, which would carry me across the park to the N Judah line. The N stops directly in front of my destination, the ballpark. I heard a man yelling just as I saw him nearly collide with two little Chinese kids, a girl about ten holding the hand of a small boy of 6 or 7, her brother presumably. The screaming tableau was playing out in front of the liquor store at at 6th and California. For an awful instant I thought the man, clearly deranged, was attacking them. “How do you like it?” he screamed at nobody in particular, as the little girl and her tiny brother swerved around him without so much as an upward glance at the ultimate boogeyman who'd loomed up before them. The two of them walked purposefully on as if the crazy man was simply another neighborhood obstacle. The crazy man was still screaming “How do you like it?” when he charged across California at us, a half-dozen senior citizens, mostly Asian except for me, supplemented by a tiny old lady, a very old lady, bent nearly in half from ancient scoleosis. I'd noticed the crazy guy had looked both ways before he'd made his first shrieking plunge across California, so he wasn't quite as unhinged as he seemed to be. When the publicly insane are all the way gone, they run straight into the traffic without a look. We've all seen that. On his first run he hadn't even come up over the curb before he'd run back across the street where he pointed an accusing fingers at us and screamed “How do you like it?” He looked up and down the street preparing for a second run, seemly more focused on us as his target. I angled my unintimidating bulk so he would have to get past me if mayhem was his intent. As the largest person present by a hundred pounds, all I wanted to do was make it to the ball game without grappling with a street psycho. Again taking a prudent look in both directions up and down busy California, he again dashed across the street to within a couple of feet of me to scream, “How do you like it?” He was dragging a blanket, his shirt was ripped, his gray trousers, which looked like suit pants, were stained and dirty, his dress shoes untied. Assessing the guy, I'd say he was 35 maybe 6'2". He had good teeth and generally appeared, through his grimy dishevelment, like someone had put a lot of time and money into raising this suburban Josh or Jason. “Relax,” I said, “we don't like it either.” He stared at me, considering my idiot conciliation. The bus rolled up, and he ran back across the street, dragging his blanket. “Better call the cops,” I said to the old lady, who peered up at me from her bent back. “I already did,” she said. Across the street, the crazy guy was still yelling, “How do you like it?” There are so many of them now that we've gotten used to them, hardened to the public fact that people can suffer like this without even the possibility of public succor. That little girl and her brother were already used to this terrible fact of modern life.

AFTER BALL GAMES, the N is jammed but quickly unjams at the Embarcadero stop as all the East Bay people get off to catch BART back across the Bay. That day, after the N had unjammed, a black street guy was spread across two seats, him in layers of clothes and a garbage bag next to him with whatever was in it. A Chinese woman of about 50 gets on at Powell. She points at the guy taking up two seats. “I sit there, preeze.” He looked back at her, smiling like he didn't understand. Two black guys sitting opposite glared at the guy. The Chinese woman again said, “I sit there, preeze.” The street guy smiled at her. I rationalized not intervening because I was standing six or so feet away. But one of the black guys sitting opposite the street guy suddenly said to the bum, “Man, move your shit and let this lady sit down.” The bum immediately moved his stuff onto his lap, the lady sat down, and we all rode on in peace, the bum getting off at VanNess.

THE LAST LITTLE DRAMA of the day occurred as I and another older man boarded the 44 at 9th and Irving for the trip back across the park. A tweeker dude pushed past us and sprayed us with several — oh well, nevermind what he said. When's the last time you were creatively insulted by a stranger?

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ALEXANDER COCKBURN responding to a 911 conspiracy theorist calling in to C-SPAN during an interview he did in April of 2007:

I called you all nuts before, so I apologize to all you non-nuts out there. I now call you conspiracists. You are always very mad at me for calling you nuts. I got a thousand e-mails and letters, all of them more or less identical expressing anger and outrage and calling me various rude names. I don't see the argument about President Bush being whisked out of the classroom meaning very much. I actually thought it was to his credit that he didn't want to upset the children. This clip is always presented with the impression that he seems to be a moron or he shows a delay in moral reaction or whatever. My fundamental premise about 9/11, and you asked me one little question, I know there are 9,000 little questions that each person who believes in the 9/11 conspiracy or insider job stuff believes in. I just don't buy it. I think that the evidence we marshal through Manual Garcia on Counterpunch and others discredits the theory. But I don't want to get into that because we could spend the rest of C-SPAN's time and a thousand times more wrestling to and fro over the points in all these various arguments. My fundamental view is that 9/11 people tend to believe in the perfect plan. And you [the caller] seem to be implying that indeed there was a perfect bill of theater that was laid out carefully for purposes that I cannot quite fathom, in the same way that everything else worked exactly perfectly with clockwork precision. First of all, is it likely that Dick Cheney and George Bush sat down one day and said, We want to organize a pretext for a war on terror. A great idea! Let's have these people fly into the towers? And the subset of this is that they were done by remote control. And there are sub-subsets that it wasn't a plane that hit the Pentagon, even though many people saw the plane, it was a rocket because there is one picture which shows a hole. I can guarantee you that every conspiracist in the country now is kicking the television screen as I speak. But it seems to me that the idea that they would do this, this mad course, knowing that it would have shot off a rapid impeachment and the Republican Party would cease to exist… The conspiracy— when you add up the number of people that have to be involved is supposed to involve 10,000 people? 15,000 people? None of whom have been on their deathbed saying, I have something on my mind. I would like to say that I was part of the 9/11 conspiracy and I planted a demolition charge on the 85th floor of the World Trade Center. None of that has ever happened. You are meant to presuppose that the military — Mr. Griffin is the high priest of all of this nonsense (David Ray Griffin), he is billed as a theologian as if that is any particular credential for talking about 9/11. He says that between the time the plane disappeared from the FAA radar to the time that it hit the tower which was 8:44 I think, 8:11 to 8:44 or 8:06, I can't remember exactly…

In that time everything should have worked — unless there was a plot by clockwork precision, that suddenly the FAA would have immediately got onto NORAD, NORAD would have gotten to the base commanders, and a guy would not have been in Target trying to buy his wife some dog food, a new kind of dog food, and they would've rushed back and gotten into the plane, and shot up into the air, located the flight, whichever flight it was, and shot it down over Union City, New Jersey. I mean, give me a break! Any history of any event of this nature shows multiple foul-ups, multiple multiple foul-ups. Including the pilot who would ask, You want me to shoot down that plane right over the Hudson River? What are we talking about? The whole probability from the reason for doing it, to the mode of execution, to the analysis of data, to the reason for the collapse of the buildings — seems to me to nullify the conspiracy theory. I don't believe it. I think the evidence is against it. I think some of the people who are pushing it are indeed nutty. Other people are well-meaning but are misled by evidence, other people at some point cannot listen to any other point of view. We have published all these endless scientific inspections and when I offer them to people, or when Manuel Garcia does, or Jeffrey St. Clair does, I don't think they ever read it. They are already convinced. There is a strain in America that needs a plot, that three grand masons somehow… that needs — And the other thing is rather racist. They say, Arabs could not have done it. They say, Can this have been done by Arabs living in caves? That is saying that the only people who could do it are we — we must have done it to ourselves, that no one else is capable of doing it. That seems to me a rather racist conclusion.

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CRAWDAD NELSON WRITES: I understand how easy it is to want to do something violent to an unknown perpetrator; I also get how easy it is to decide who the perpetrator is by some sort of magical thinking and begin making invasion plans; I even understand the desire to sit in Virginia playing war with drones, while real people die somewhere else. Like anyone else, I feel empathy for the victims of the Boston bombing, and wish there was a satisfactory way to use that rather hopeless sense that we are all under attack by unknown but hotstile forces to build trust and confidence around the world. Sadly for all of us, I anticipate nothing of the kind. At least, there is no precedent for it. But, until someone can show who comitted the act, I'm withholding blame.

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ON APRIL 1 1, 2013 Anderson Valley Resident Deputies Craig Walker and Luis Espinoza initiated a fraud investigation after receiving complaints that a Navarro resident, Elle Marteeny, 34, of Navarro, passed fraudulent checks at several businesses in Mendocino County. The investigation quickly expanded after deputies learned Marteeny also allegedly diverted assets belonging to her boyfriend's ill father, Richard Bloyd, 71, of Navarro. During the course of the investigation, deputies determined Marteeny used Bloyd's identity to obtain credit and checking accounts in his name, all without his knowledge and consent. Bloyd was hospitalized in January, 2013. Instead of taking care of Bloyd's legitimate expenses, Marteeny diverted funds for personal benefit. On Tuesday, April 16, 2013, Deputies Walker and Espinoza served a search warrant at the residence Marteeny shares with her boyfriend and Richard Bloyd. Deputies were assisted by personnel from the California Highway Patrol and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Inside the residence, deputies found documents indicating Marteeny forged Richard Bloyd's name on multiple checks and opened several credit card accounts in his name. Marteeny is believed to have accumulated upwards of $20,000 in debt in Bloyd's name over an approximately one-year period. Based on the investigation, deputies arrested Marteeny for Elder Financial Abuse, Identity Theft, Commiting an Offense while on Own Recognizance, and she was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was booked and held in lieu of $50,000 bail. Persons with information on this matter are encouraged to contact Deputy Walker at 707-463-4086. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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PERV SWEEP: On April 15th and 16th 2013, the Mendocino County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force, (comprised of law enforcement officers from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Ukiah Police Department, Mendocino County Probation Department, California State Parole, and Napa County Sheriff's Department), conducted a two day operation focused on sex registrant compliance checks throughout Ukiah, Willits and the surrounding unincorporated areas of Mendocino County. The sweep conducted by SAFE was carried out as part of an intermittent series of operations to enforce registration, residential and parole requirements of registered sex offenders in the county of Mendocino. The operation verified 87 registered sex offender addresses and found four were out of compliance with their registration requirements. Out of the 87 registrants, six are transients and one is a “Sexually Violent Predator.” There are 45 registered sex offenders within the city limits of Ukiah and 15 within the Willits city limits. There are a total of 297 registered sex offenders in Mendocino County (including the cities). The Megan's Law website (www.meganslaw.ca.gov) allows citizens to search for registered sex offenders by geographic location and by name. Anyone with information regarding out of compliance sex registrants is urged to contact their local law enforcement agency. During the two day operation the following persons were arrested. (Not all of those by arrested by the SAFE Task Force during the two day sweep is a registered sex offender). Ryan Wade was arrested for 1203.2 PC-violation of probation. Kyle Hunter was arrested for 3056 PC-violation of parole. Billy Eaton was arrested for 3056 PC-violation of parole. Pablo Mora was arrested for 2 local warrants (290.018-failure to register and 1203.2 PC-violation of probation). Matthew Zuffinetti was arrested for 30605 PC-possession of an assault rifle, 25400(a)(1) PC-loaded firearm in a vehicle, 23310 PC-large capacity magazine, 11360(a) HS-sale/transport marijuana. Steven Munson was arrested for 11550(a) HS-under the influence of methamphetamine. Richard Collins was arrested for 11351 HS-possession for sale of a controlled substance, 11377(a) HS-possession of methamphetamine and 3056 PC-violation of parole. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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OBAMA’S SYRIA HORROR

By Saul Landau

President Obama has fueled Syria’s civil war flames and lied to Congress about his “modest” role in that conflict. Between 2002 and 2007, I visited Syria four times. I drove through the fertile valleys that parallel the Mediterranean coast, and to the Golan Heights’ barbed-wired border with Israel.

Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Christians and even Jews reassured me: Assad’s government encouraged free religion but had not practiced democratic politics. During the Arab Spring his failure to reform got his government into trouble. Instead of dialoguing with Syrian protestors, he tried to cover the holes of his authoritarian government’s façade. Then Saudi Arabia and Qatar, not models of democracy, supplied money and arms, and foreign troops into Syria to intensify the conflict. Washington and Western Europe, with their oily regional partners, began fueling a war that has taken 70,000 Syrian lives, and left one million plus refugees.

Obama assured Congress that Washington only supplied minimal non-lethal aid to the “Free Syrian Army,” while simultaneously ordering the CIA to supervise large weapons shipments to the rebels, including some who were sworn enemies of the West with extremist Islamic perspectives. Photos and horror stories show ruins where homes and public buildings once stood, dramatize famine where restaurants and markets once offered abundant food. Why has Obama directed this death march in which Washington “helps” rebels allied to right wing Islam? These are sectors that, should they prevail in the war, could and would turn these weapons against the very governments that supply them.

The New York Times revealed Obama’s lies about the U.S. role in this war, and, about Washington’s level of participation. U.S. efforts have far exceeded what the President has admitted. The CIA has funneled and distributed large weapons shipments to the rebels – more than 3,500 tons worth to date – from Jordan and Turkey, while Obama claimed it as “non-lethal” military aid. (C. J.Chivers and Eic Schmitt, NY Times March 24, 2013)

“The C.I.A. role in facilitating the [weapons] shipments… gave the United States a degree of influence over the process [of weapon distribution]…American officials have confirmed that senior White House officials were regularly briefed on the [weapons] shipments.”(Chivers and Schmitt)

Obama supervised arms supplies to the Al Nusra Front, the Syrian rebels’ most effective fighting force, with links to Islamic terrorist groups.

Witnesses in northwest Syria testify that some rebels have used those weapons to ethnically cleanse, (slaughter) Alawite and Christian villages. (Patrick J. McDonnell and Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2013)

Obama’s opposition to peace talks with the Assad government, from which he demands surrender, raises a question. Why demand as a “precondition” for negotiations the ouster of Syria’s government?

Over the last decade, Assad’s government delivered to Washington intelligence warnings about planned terrorist attacks aimed at U.S. targets. These tips, confirmed by then U.S. Ambassador Theodore Kattouf to former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, a Democrat from South Dakota, and myself (2003), helped save U.S. lives and property. A former Syrian ambassador to Washington complained of the U.S.’ lack of positive response to them, as in “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Obama chose his own candidate to represent the “National Coalition of Syrian Revolution” by naming as Syria’s non-elected prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, a Syrian American and a U.S. citizen, who lived most of his previous 30 years in the U.S.

Moaz al-Khatib, previous National Coalition of Syrian Revolution head, had resigned to protest Obama’s opposition to peace negotiations with Assad. So, “Obama made a U.S. citizen the opposition group’s Prime Minister and instructed him not to talk with the Assad government as if ignoring the millions who remain in Syria and have become witnesses to their country’s destruction because outsiders have banned negotiations that might settle the conflict.” (Martin ChulovThe Guardian, 24 March 2013)

Obama also pressured the Arab League, mostly undemocratic governments loyal to Washington, to authorize the non-elected National Coalition of Syrian Revolution as Syria’s government. The rebels’ seat in the Arab league implies that the U.S. wants “regime change,” no matter how many people die, or the acrimonious odor of existing political alternatives.

Russia called the Arab League’s decision “… an open encouragement of the [rebel] forces which, unfortunately, continue to bet on a military solution in Syria, not looking at multiplying day by day the pain and suffering of the Syrians…” Moscow wants a political settlement, not destructive military scenarios. (Shamus Cooke)

Obama’s increased weapons trafficking. “…Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed Syria's Foreign Minister's offer of [peace] talks and instead began a nine-nation tour of European and Arab capitals [to help organize support for the Syrian rebels].” (Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman, February 25, 2013, Reuters)

Obama cannot dictate the outcome of Syria’s war because he doesn’t have popular support to send in U.S. forces. He will, however, decide when peace talks can begin and under what conditions.

After two years, Assad’s Air Force still attacks rebel posts. Assad obviously retains significant support inside the country, which mainstream media ignores.

Obama feigned outraged when the media reported chemical weapons use in Syria. Did he forget the tons of Agent Orange U.S. planes dropped on Vietnam, when he warned Assad against even thinking of using chemical weapons? Syria had actually accused the rebels of using the chemicals, which Washington dismissed without investigating. Syrian rebels, however, admitted they had used chemical weapons to kill 16 Syrian government soldiers and 10 civilians. The rebels then claimed the government had accidentally bombed themselves with those chemicals. Obama has not responded to claims of rebel atrocities against the Syrian population.

Why should Washington get so invested in the Syrian war? To weaken Iran, Syria’s ally, and strengthen NATO’s sordid Middle East partners?

In his quest to overthrow the Assad government, Obama has focused exclusively on the strategy “to weaken Iran’s strategic position, and incite a movement to spark the Islamic Republic’s overthrow.”

In 2004, Saul Landau produced “Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place,” on DVD from roundworldproductions.com.

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LUKAS NELSON AND PROMISE OF THE REAL returns to Ukiah — back By Ultra-Popular Demand:

On Saturday, May 4, celebrated rock and roll band Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real will be performing at the Ukiah Brewing Company. POTR's high-energy band lives up to their name, providing "real" rock'n roll to a rapidly growing and devoted fan base. Lukas Nelson, Anthony LoGerfo, Corey McCormick and Tato Melgar have been delivering their "promise" for the past four years, touring almost continuously, performing at Farm Aid, the Bridge School Benefit, hundreds of small clubs throughout the country and appearing on the Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman shows. This show is their third benefit concert for Mendocino Access Television, Inland Mendocino's only public access television station providing community content, broadcast of government meetings and more. Don't miss this opportunity to see the band up close in what may be their only 2013 Mendocino County performance. Tickets are available available at Dig! Music, 362 N. State St. or through Brown Paper Tickets-http://www.brownpapertickets.com. The show starts at 9:30pm and will sell out. For more information phone (707) 391-3254

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THE BIG MENDOCINO COLLEGE SPRING PLANT SALE is Friday, May 3rd from 9-5 and Saturday May4th from 9-3. We have all sorts of Heirloom veggies, over 24 varieties of tomatoes. Also lots of Ca. natives and hard to find perennials. The Ceramics club and Art club will also be selling their wares. If anyone wants more info they can call me at 468-3148 (ag dept). Proceeds go to suppiort the Mendocino College Ag Program. —Kim Lyly