Category: Uncategorized

My earliest musical memories go back to the water song by the Sons of the Pioneers. Water. Cool water.

But a recent government report warns that water may become more scarce faster than we can adjust.

Studies of tree rings suggest that North America has suffered periods of mega-droughts that have lasted more than a few decades. And that was before the prospect of global warming intensified the risks. Here are some excepts from Chapter 3.

Hydroclimatic changes are likely to affect all regions in the United States. Semi-arid regions of the Southwest are projected to dry further, and model results suggest that the transition may already be underway (Hoerling and Kumar, 2003; Seager et al., 2007d).

The drying in the Southwest is a matter of great concern because water resources in this region are already stretched, new development of resources will be extremely difficult, and the population (and thus demand for water) continues to grow rapidly (see Fig. 3.1). This situation raises the politically charged issue of whether the allocation of around 90% of the region’s water to agriculture is sustainable and consistent with the course of regional development.

Mexico is also expected to dry in the near future, turning this feature of hydroclimatic change into an international and cross-border issue with potential impacts on migration and social stability. (p. 148)

The serious hydrological changes and impacts known to have occurred in both historic and prehistoric times over North America reflect large-scale changes in the climate system that can develop in a matter of years and, in the case of the more severe past megadroughts, persist for decades. Such hydrological changes fit the definition of abrupt change because they occur faster than the time scales needed for human and natural systems to adapt, leading to substantial disruptions in those systems. (p.150)

In the Southwest, for example, the models project a permanent drying by the mid-21st century that reaches the level of aridity seen in historical droughts, and a quarter of the projections may reach this level of aridity much earlier. It is not unreasonable to think that, given the complexities involved, the strategies to deal with declining water resources in the region will take many years to develop and implement. If hardships are to be minimized, it is time to begin planning to deal with the potential hydroclimatic changes described here. (p. 151)

However significant enhanced solar forcing has been in producing past megadroughts, the level of current and future radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases is very likely to be of much greater significance. It is thus disquieting to consider the possibility that drought-inducing La Niña-like conditions may become more frequent and persistent in the future as greenhouse warming increases.

We have no firm evidence that this is happening now, even with the serious drought that has gripped the West since about 1998. Yet, a large number of climate models suggest that future subtropical drying is a virtual certainty as the world warms and, if they are correct, indicate that it may have already begun. The degree to which this is true is another pressing scientific question that must be answered if we are to know how to respond and adapt to future changes in hydroclimatic variability. (p. 210)

See the final report on “Abrupt Climate Change” issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

Update: when I called the Gov’s office at 2:28 pm the receptionist said that “the Federal District Court has issued a stay”–gm

Reposted from OpEdNews. Get more info and link to contact the Governor at: savejeffwood.com–gm

TODAY, JEFF WOOD will take his place beside my mentally ill brother, who is no. 26 on the home page of this prisoner genocide website:

geocities.com/prisonmurder

On August 21, Texas is poised to do the unthinkable: execute a mentally ill young man who the state knows killed no one. In fact, Jeff is facing execution for a murder that he was not even present to witness. He was found guilty of a murder committed by David Reneau. David killed Kriss Keeran while robbing a Texaco convenience store in Kerrville, Texas.

It happened on January 2, 1992, when Jeff was 22 years old, a mentally challenged young man. It is sad that mental patients and people with learning disabilities like Jeff are often easily led like little children. Jeff was abused during his early childhood, leaving him with a submissive personality. How hard was it for Daniel Reneau to get Jeff to accompany him to a robbery?

Wood’s defense attorneys stated in a clemency brief early this month, “Reneau — the only person inside the store and who carried a weapon — alone made the decision to take Keeran’s life. Mr. Wood was outside the store in his brother’s truck.” Daniel Reneau carried a gun that Jeff never knew he had and committed a murder that Jeff didn’t see occur.

Although Daniel Reneau has already been executed for murdering Keeran, today Jeff will also be executed. Initially, Jeff was found not mentally fit to stand trial. He was admitted into a mental hospital and a couple of weeks later was found ‘trial ready’. But one could argue whether Jeff was really competent at his trial, considering the way he tied his lawyers’ hands as they tried to defend him.

“Bowing to Mr. Wood’s emotional and irrational insistence, Mr. Wood’s appointed lawyers declined to cross-examine any witnesses or present any evidence on Mr. Wood’s behalf,” his appeals attorneys argue. “Mr. Wood’s trial attorneys called Mr. Wood’s actions a ‘gesture of suicide.’” (Quote source: Alternet )

I received a message a couple of days ago from a man who identified himself as Daniel Reneau’s brother, Ben Reneau. He implored us to save Jeff, saying Jeff’s execution is wrong. He expressed regret that his brother, Daniel Reneau, did not make a statement to clear Jeff of the murder.

The truth is that a statement from Daniel probably would not matter to Texas, as the state acknowledges that Jeff actually killed no one. Jeff was sentenced to die under the Law of Parties, which makes all parties to a crime equally guilty of the crime. Perhaps they are like the people in this satire and believe it is simply time for Texas to have another execution, because executions are fun for some folks:

Texas Pardons and Parole Board decided not to grant clemency. The fate of this condemned mental patient is now up to Governor Rick Perry. August 21 is a sad day for justice if Jeff Wood is executed.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
P.O. Box 7222, Atlanta, GA 30357

The combination of racism and warmongering are perfectly encapsulated in “gook,” a racist term formed during numerous U.S. wars, from the invasion of the Philippines (1898-1902) to the occupation of Haiti in 1920, to the Korean and Vietnam Wars. John McCain used this anti-Asian slur freely and casually until he was forced to for fear of sabotaging his own presidential ambitions.

The portrait of John McCain painted in “Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters” is far more disturbing than any racial epithet. A central thesis of Gook: war fertilizes racism, and racism justifies wars and the killing of civilians. This dynamic thrives within the most dangerous leaders of the world. Is John McCain one of them?

Irwin A. Tang holds an M.A. in Asian Studies. He is the co-author of Asian Texans and When Invisible Children Sing.

Attorney wants to know how the agents knew that his client was in court-ordered mediation

by Greg Moses

An asylum seeker from Kosovo has been taken to Haskell Prison where federal officials continue efforts to deport him despite a pending civil suit that might contribute to his winning legal residency in the USA. Bujar Osmani was arrested Tuesday morning at an attorney’s office while he was attempting to mediate a scheduled lawsuit against two people who represented him in his failed asylum claim.

Mr. Osmani says that he fled Kosovo in 2004 after a family home was set fire during an ethnic riot. He entered the USA through Mexico and applied for asylum in Dallas. (See more background in a story below).

Mr. Osmani is suing two people who he says took thousands of dollars to represent him, but who instead, he alleges, defrauded him of his cash and his opportunity to win asylum.

If the pending court case is successful, Mr. Osmani would be able to demonstrate that he was a victim of fraud by the persons who purported to represent him. But federal officials this week have said that Mr. Osmani can pursue his legal rights by sending depositions from Kosovo instead of appearing in court in his own behalf.

Meanwhile, Mr. Osmani’s attorney questions the manner and motivation of the arrest.

“When they arrested Bujar, they did not even let him tell his attorney or the mediator that he was leaving,” wrote attorney John Wheat Gibson in an email to federal officials, copied to the Texas Civil Rights Review. ” We found out after he had been missing for half an hour and we could not find him.”

“A secretary told us she had seen two men take him away. The arresting officers did not allow Bujar to make any arrangements for his car, which is still in the mediator’s parking lot, if it has not been towed. The interpreter and I had to make special arrangements to get back to our offices.”

“I do not understand why BICE (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents would go out of their way to protect [the defendants in Mr. Osmani’s lawsuit] . . .,” said Gibson. “I would be very interested to know who made the decision to . . . arrest Bujar at the time and place and in the manner in which he was arrested.”

Attorney Gibson says his client is willing to accept any terms of supervision that the Department of Homeland Security may offer in order to continue his civil appeals.

Meanwhile, Haskell prison remains a 3 1/2 hour drive from Dallas, meaning that any lawyer-client conference will cost a day’s time.

“Unfortunately, the expense of taking Bujar’s deposition at the prison is prohibitive,” says Gibson, “especially because he cannot speak English.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur for Rights of Migrants Jorge Bustamante complained in a recent report that immigrants in the USA are “often transferred to remote detention facilities, which interferes substantially with access to counsel.”

As an immigrant prisoner, Mr. Osmani is caught up in a historic detention binge that often involves privately run prisons such as the Rolling Plains Regional Prison in Haskell, Texas, a 548-bed medium security prison that is managed by the Emerald Companies of Louisiana.

“In 1996,” reported Bustamante, “the Immigration and Naturalization Service had a daily detention capacity of 8,279 beds. By 2006, that had increased to 27,500 with plans for future expansion. At an average cost of US$ 95 per person per day, immigration detention costs the United States Government US$ 1.2 billion per year.”

“On average, there are over 25,000 migrants detained by immigration officials on any given
day,” reported Bustamante. “The conditions and terms of their detention are often prison-like: freedom of movement is restricted and detainees wear prison uniforms and are kept in a punitive setting.”

“In sum,” warned Rapporteur Bustamante, “in the current context the United States detention and deportation system for migrants lacks the kinds of safeguards that prevent certain deportation decisions and the detention of certain immigrants from being arbitrary within the meaning of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the United States has signed and ratified.”

Attorney Gibson agrees that the treatment of Mr. Osmani is at least arbitrary.

“DHS has unlimited discretion to decide whom to arrest and whom to leave alone, and whom to release on orders of supervision and whom to detain and deport,” said Gibson.

“I hope you will reconsider releasing Bujar on an order of supervision until his suit against [the defendants] is finished,” pleads Gibson. “Since the EOIR [Executive Office of Immigration Review] and the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] are totally unwilling to move against thieves and imposters . . . I would hope they at least could refrain from collaborating to prevent civil suits against them. There will be plenty of time to deal with Bujar’s immigration case after his lawsuit is over. Please release Bujar on an order of supervision.”