Day Two: Part Two -- Electoral Reform

The Australian, Pete, and I also talked about the difference between the American electoral system and the Australian system. He said that in Australia all elections are compulsory -- if you do not vote, you are fined. Candidate elections are also ranked. If 16 people are running for president, you can rank each candidate in order of preference. San Francisco now has a similar system -- called ranked-choice voting or instant run-off voting -- but San Franciscans can only rank up to three candidates because the voting machines are not yet capable of processing more than three rankings. In Australia, technology is not a problem because, according to Pete, everyone votes manually and ballots are tallied by hand. If we had had ranked-choice voting, manual voting, and hand-counted ballots in 2000, Al Gore would have become the president, as many supporters of Ralph Nader would have ranked Gore second.

Day Two: Part Two -- The Colorado River

The California Zephyr travels along the Colorado River for more than 230 miles, and it passes through 18 canyons. During the summer, passengers see many groups of people rafting down the river. One winter when I took this train, I saw eight bald eagles perched in barren trees, looking for fish below. This time, we saw white pelicans and mule deer.

Day Two: Part One -- Health Care

I met a man from Australia, "Pete," in the observation car. We both had our cameras aimed at the dry, lifeless hills outside. We got to talking about the Australian health care system versus the American system, and the Australian electoral system versus the American system. Though he spent about $400 annually on private health insurance, he had recently gone to a public hospital for heart surgery. He was very pleased with his treatment, but said he maintained the private insurance plan for eye glasses and dental treatment. He said that for Australians with pre-existing conditions, they were required to wait a year before the could enroll in a private plan. Unlike the American system. After getting two months worth of Kaiser covered through my job this past year, Kaiser would not let me re-enroll through an individual plan because I have a mild pre-existing condition: TMJ disorder. I am now uninsured and am likely to remain so until I start work again, as I cannot afford COBRA. Think that's right? I sure don't, but our laws permit our health care providers to get away with decisions such as this. I have written to Kaiser and told them I think their decision is unconstitutional.

Day Two: Part One -- War Criminals

I'm making a list of people whom I think could be charged for war crimes on the inside cover of The Dark Side. I'm starting with the obvious ones: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld. Then we add the less well-known people: David Addington, counsel to the vice president, and John Yoo, formerly deputy chief in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. But the list goes on -- right now, I have jotted down the names of about 30 people who participated in the formulation of policies that gave direct or implicit license to torture.

Day Two: Part One -- War Crimes

On July 23, I woke up outside Provo, Utah. At this point, we began to encounter scenery that I could imagine Georgia O'Keefe painting.

During the trip, I alternated between taking in the scenery and reading. My book? The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer, staff writer for the New Yorker. In this book, Mayer details the story of how the Bush administration came to redefine torture and embrace techniques such as sleep deprivation and water boarding as legitimate means for extracting intelligence from detainees suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization that organized the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Day Two: Part One -- We Are Behind Schedule

Utah

Pamela had started her travels on a bus in Fresno and boarded the train in Reno. By this time, the train was around two hours behind schedule. Amtrak leases track usage from the freight companies that actually own the tracks -- thus freight trains take priority over Amtrak. Pamela's husband is a model train buff and an amateur astronomer. I thought he would be a natural person to lobby Congress -- with his friends -- to increase funding for Amtrak and possibly expand the system, including the laying of new tracks owned by Amtrak. Pamela said no, that her husband and his friends just play with model trains, they don't actually ride on real trains.

Day One: Part One -- I meet "Pamela"

Utah

The train departed Emeryville at about 8:20 a.m. Late in the afternoon or early evening we pulled into Reno. A woman named "Pamela," who was on her way to visit her daughters in Denver, sat down next to me. The first night fell by about the time the train reached Elko, Nevada. I slept some and then awoke the next morning near Provo, Utah. We were both mesmerized by the striped mountains and low gray, wind and water carved hills that we passed.

Amtrak Across America

In the Beginning ...
On Tuesday, July 22, I began a train trip across the country to see family in New England. My travels started in San Francisco at about 6:15 a.m. when I boarded the Number 2 Clement Street bus to the Ferry Building.

At the Ferry Building, I got on an Amtrak bus to take me and other travelers across the San Francisco Bay to Emeryville, where I got on the California Zephyr. The California Zephyr parallels Route 80 from the Bay Area -- traversing the Sierra Nevada, passing alongside Donner Lake, and stopping in Reno -- until Salt Lake City. At Salt Lake City, the train veers south and eventually catches up with the Colorado River. It travels along the Colorado for over 23o miles through numerous canyons, and lush valleys. It makes a stop in Denver and then continues on to Lincoln, Nebraska, and eventually Chicago. In Chicago, I was supposed to change trains -- but I never got there.

I started taking pictures and documenting the trip extensively in Utah -- but my first photograph is this one, of the interior of the #2 Clement.

High Parking Prices Ad to the Beauty of Public Transportation

Forest Hill Station, San Francisco, California
http://fogblog.tumblr.com/post/42625966/forrest-hill-station

Castro Street Station, San Francisco, California
http://fogblog.tumblr.com/post/42626237/castro

Shortage at the Pump
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15four.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Bumper prices charged for parking
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11739731&fsrc=nwl

Consumers and Businesses Must Brace Themselves for Higher Parking Rates
http://www.colliers.com/Markets/USA/News/2007ParkingRelease

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, of Oregon's 3rd congressional district, introduces progressive legislation to confront energy and climate change realities: H.R. 6495 -- Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act of 2008
http://blumenauer.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1339&Itemid=175

Drawdown: (n) stealing resources from the future

Forests to fall for food and fuel
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7503304.stm

Bush to Lift Offshore Oil Drilling Ban
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10358/

Above, the BBC and Agence France Presse are reporting on the concept of "drawdown, the process of stealing resources from future generations." For a more detailed analysis of current human behavior in regard to natural resources and the future of humanity and the planet, see Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, by William R. Catton, Jr., 1982, University of Illinois Press.

In this book, Catton defines for us several concepts:

1) carrying capacity: (n) maximum permanently supportable load
2) cornucopian myth: (n) euphoric belief in limitless resources
3) drawdown: (n) stealing resources from the future
4) cargoism: (n) delusion that technology will always save us, and ...
5) overshoot: (n) growth beyond an area's carrying capacity, leading to ...
6) crash: species die-off

Read this book and get engaged in another concept, presented to us by Richard Heinberg in Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, 2004, New Society Publishers. In this book, the sequel to Heinberg's book, The Party's Over, Heinberg encourages us to participate in orderly and democratic ways of preparing for a world with less of everything.

Join Us for the First Online Live Broadcast of Car Free Talk

Monday, July 14, at 7 p.m.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/car-free-talk

Guest: Marie Harrison of Green Action
Topic: Plans to regulate engine idling in the southeast sector of San Francisco

A Chilean goddess descends to the underground (i.e., the subway)

Chile’s Subway Goddess: An inducement to get people to ditch their cars and use public transportation.
http://fogblog.tumblr.com/post/42019883/chiles-subway-goddess-an-inducement-to-get

From the bikescape podcast (http://bikescape.blogspot.com/):
James Kunstler on the Colbert Report
http://bikescape.blogspot.com/2008/05/jim-kunstler-on-colbert-report.html

Towards Car-free Cities Keynote Speech: Gil Penalosa
http://bikescape.blogspot.com/2008/06/towards-car-free-cities-keynote-speech.html

Cycling opens up civil society in Brazil
http://bikescape.blogspot.com/2008/07/cycling-opens-up-civil-society-in.html

We struggle with rising gas prices

Speier seeks national speed limit to save gas
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/07/11/MNNP11N0G7.DTL

Ways to boost fuel economy
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/07/11/MNNP11NABF.DTL
This list neglects the most obvious way to boost fuel economy: if you can't stop driving, then minimize the amount you drive as much possible by taking public transportation, walking, and biking.

Closing on Broadway: Two Traffic Lanes
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/nyregion/11broadway.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Excerpt:

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: July 11, 2008

In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is creating a public esplanade along a portion of one of its most prominent streets, Broadway in Midtown, setting aside the east side of the roadway for a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters.

Suburbs feeling the pinch
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN3047989020080710

Excerpt:
By Helen Chernikoff

NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Ever since the rise of the automobile in the 1950s, the American Dream has featured a home in the suburbs and two cars in the garage. ...

Aimee Allison interviews a proponent and an opponent of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plans for Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California on Friday, July 11, 2008
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=27275

Making the Shift: Denser Suburbs and Greener Burners?

Burning Blog: The Streets of Black Rock City
http://blog.burningman.com/?p=2008
Excerpt:
For richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, the romance of the road is a quintessential American dream. For Americans, cars have always represented independence, self-expression and the mythos of mobility. And yet, like any love affair, relationships with cars are fickle and results are mixed. The story of the American car industry, an oddly expressive combination of heavy manufacturing and show business, has always been a narrative of boom and bust.

Cities stalling bill that would change state growth rules
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/352142.html
Excerpt:
SB 375, which has passed the Senate, recognizes the
forces driving spread-out development. Cheap farmland
and access to state highway funds prompt developers to
build on the distant periphery of cities. People who
move there end up commuting long distances, adding to
vehicle emissions and freeway congestion, which the
state then must try to correct.

At the same time, developers trying to build housing
within cities often face lawsuits under the California
Environmental Quality Act. Such litigation, or the
threat of it, tips the scales further in favor of
leapfrog subdivisions and strip malls.

To alter this pattern, Steinberg's bill would require
each metropolitan region to adopt a "sustainable
community strategy" to limit emissions of greenhouse
gases. The Air Resources Board then would provide each
region with targets for reducing emissions.

Berkeley rapid bus plan faces uphill battle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/07/BAGR11JS8U.DTL
Excerpt:
Berkeley may be among the greenest cities in the nation, but it's also home to a budding backlash against public transit.

Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/05/AR2008070500564.html
Excerpt:
The District is escalating what some suburban commuters are calling its war against workers who drive into the city. The city has changed parts of Constitution Avenue NE from a reversible commuter artery back to a quiet side street and is considering removing the reversible lane on 16th Street NW, a key commuting route from Montgomery County.

Effect of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8893/01-14-GasolinePrices.pdf

These Problems Are the Tip of the Iceberg ...

As Gas Prices Soar, Elderly Face Cuts in Aid http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/05elderly.html?fta=y

At $100 for a Tank of Gas, Some Choke on 'Fill It'
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06tank.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Off the Charts: Gas Was Once a Bigger Expense
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/business/05chart.html?fta=y

For Nascar Fans, High Price of Gas Not Only Catalyst for Cutting Back Travel
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/sports/othersports/03autos.html?fta=y

Suburbia's not dead yet
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-kotkin6-2008jul06,0,7894262.story?track=ntothtml

Questions for Robert Reich: Short-Straw Economics
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy

More on Proposition 10 and High Gas Prices

Sweet Melissa, a brilliantly funny Georgian transplant, weighs in on statewide November 2008 California ballot measures, including Proposition 10. She takes no position for or against, just gives an analysis and suggests some slogans:

Let the Names Begin! Part Two
http://sweetmelissa.typepad.com/sweet_melissa/2008/07/let-the-names-b.html

Local, unnamed, public transportation and bicycle advocate responds to question in an email thread about his/her earlier posting in opposition to Proposition 10, which we have already posted below, but will post again here:

Proposition 10, the Greenwashing of Elitist Car Dependence.

Prop 10 would authorize the state to issue $5 billion in bonds --
borrowing money from investors (and paying back with interest from
general fund revenues that pay for schools, health, public transit,
etc.) mostly to subsidize purchasers of high fuel economy and
alternative fuel vehicles (in payments from $2,000 to $50,000 per
car), $1 billion in incentives for research, development and
production of renewable energy technology (easily fundable through the
regular budget process); $550 million in incentives for research and
development of alternative fuel vehicle technology (also easily
fundable through the regular budget process); $250 million in
incentives for purchase of renewable energy technology (also easily
fundable through the regular budget process); $25 million for each of
eight cities to educate their public about these technologies ($25
million!? WTF), and $150 million to colleges to train students in
these technologies.

Borrowing from future revenues to subsidize private car purchases is
bullshit greenwashing, wrong-headed environmentalism, and the Green
Party should be strongly against it.

And here's a clarifying question:

Sorry if this is a question I should already know the answer to - but why specifically do you object to this?

And the response:

Because subsidizing the purchase of automobiles with future general fund money is incredibly regressive. $5 billion on transit would go much further to reduce vehicle emissions than $5 billion helping rich people buy cleaner cars. In fact, the money to pay back the bonds, plus interest to rich investors, will come from future public transit operating funds, among other sources.

We should issue bonds to fund big capital projects which we cannot pay for out of our regular budget ... You definitely don't issue bonds to pay for education or relatively small grants for incentives. Very regressive. Please vote 'no' on this. We need that $5 billion for real environmental improvements, not this fake thing that must have been put together by energy and car companies.

Meantime, for all of you Fourth of July travelers:

Gas prices hit another high for holiday weekend
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080704/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_prices

A Veritable Tsunami of News Related to Transportation, Climate Change and High Oil Prices

The Battle for San Francisco
http://bikescape.blogspot.com/2008/07/battle-for-san-francisco.html

The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
http://fastlane.dot.gov/

Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices Cut Congestion
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/nyregion/03congest.html

The N-Judah Chronicles: Special Edition on the Woes of Muni on July 3, 2008 ...
http://www.njudahchronicles.com/2008/07/wow_todays_commute_just_plain_sucked.html

The Boys and the Subway
http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/

Bicycle Campaign Gears Up for Campaign Cycle
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002909986

Think Again: Drilling Deep to Mislead on Oil Prices
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/drilling_deep.html

John McCain, His Big Oil Lobbyists, and His Big Oil Policies
http://mccainsource.com/corruption?id=0014

$4 Billion Among Friends
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/27/mccain-petroleum/

Exxon Mobil Profit Sets Record Again
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/business/01cnd-exxon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

John McCain's Record on Energy and Global Warming
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/mccain_gw_record.html

“Weather Reports Are Missing the Story”
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/6/19/amy_goodmans_new_column_weather_reports_are_missing_the_story

Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/3/groundbreaking_lawsuit_accuses_big_oil_of

“Global Disruption” More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not “Global Warming”–Leading Scientist John Holdren
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/3/global_disruption_more_accurately_describes_climate

SUVs speeding to the birds

Speeders to pay for police chases
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7482934.stm

SUV sales go to the birds:

Car Sales at 10-Year Low
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/07/02/business/02auto.inline2.ready.html

The carfree challenge
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6649&volume_id=317&issue_id=385&volume_num=42&issue_num=40

And Proposition 10, which will appear on the November, 2008 California ballot. One San Francisco transportation activist is warning against supporting it:

Proposition 10, the greenwashing of elitist car dependence

"Prop 10 would authorize the state to issue $5 billion in bonds --
borrowing money from investors (and paying back with interest from
general fund revenues that pay for schools, health, public transit,
etc.) mostly to subsidize purchasers of high fuel economy and
alternative fuel vehicles (in payments from $2,000 to $50,000 per
car), $1 billion in incentives for research, development and
production of renewable energy technology (easily fundable through the
regular budget process); $550 million in incentives for research and
development of alternative fuel vehicle technology (also easily
fundable through the regular budget process); $250 million in
incentives for purchase of renewable energy technology (also easily
fundable through the regular budget process); $25 million for each of
eight cities to educate their public about these technologies ..., and $150 million to colleges to train students in these technologies.

"Borrowing from future revenues to subsidize private car purchases is
... greenwashing, [and] wrong-headed environmentalism ..."